In July 2009, I purchased a Santana 27 with the intention of fixing it up and sailing it to Hawaii, or someplace equally interesting. That didn’t end up happening as planned, but the story is still interesting. Here it is, as told in emails to my family:
Tue, Oct 27, 2009 at 1:23 PM
Family and friends,
I just finished a boat trip that is probably best described as idiotic. My friend Wes and I sailed my 27' sailboat from San Rafael to Marina del Rey from Oct 15th through October 22nd. Much of the trip was well offshore, ranging from about 25 miles to over 100 miles from the mainland.
This was intended to be the first leg of a trip to Hawaii. We stopped in LA due to an unseasonable hurricane in Baja and some minor damage to Sula in a gale rounding pt Conception. Although the hurricane itself was unlikely to hit the Pacific coast, remnants were likely to persist along the Baja coast for over a week, right when we needed to be passing through that area. Sula is now berthed in Marina del Rey awaiting the next leg. At this point, it appears that I will miss the Oct - mid-Nov window for sailing to Hawaii. Perhaps in the springtime -- or maybe change plans and make Puerto Vallarta the destination this winter.
Some of you asked for photos, and I have to apologize up front. My camera is not letting me download the photos -- I think it is still sea-sick, perhaps terminally so.
We spent seven days at sea, most of it roughly 100 miles offshore, sailing from the San Francisco Bay to Marina del Rey. We had six sunsets out of sight of the mainland!
Other than the simple beauty of the ocean, most of the highlights were the birds, fish and animals we saw. Perhaps the biggest highlight for me was having a Sperm Whale swim next to us for about an hour. I mean, RIGHT next to us, almost touching distance. I could feel the warmth of his spray. Was he protecting us? Threatening us? Just enjoying the the company? Looking for handouts? Curious about the sounds of human voices? Who knows. He didn't say.
At other times there were schools of Pacific White-sided and Common Dolphins that followed the boat for a while. We also saw Blue, Fin, Minke, Gray and Humpback whales.
We caught a 25 pound Albacore Tuna and had the best sushi of my life. We also caught a 6' Short-finned Mako Shark and a couple of Skipjacks.
The birds were great. Black-footed Albatrosses followed us every day. If you have never seen an albatross, the way they fly is marvelous. And they are huge -- 2-3 meter wingspan, depending on the species. They can use the wind off the waves to fly effortlessly into a 50 mph wind without flapping their wings -- and still make progress against the wind at 10-20 mph. They seem truly at home on the open ocean regardless of the weather.
We saw one very rare bird (a "mega-rarity" to use the birder's term), a Solander's Petrel, that would have been a first California record and a 2nd or 3rd Northern Hemisphere record if we could have gotten a photo. We also saw some other Cook's, Mottled and Hawaiian Petrels, Wilson's Storm-Petrel and a Manx Shearwater. All good birds.
All in all, there were a lot of cool experiences in the "plus" column. Meanwhile, in the "minus" column, we had a few scary moments. Getting out of the Golden Gate and through the shipping lanes to the open ocean was nerve-wracking because it was dark, foggy and crowded. I was also sea-sick for the first 36 hours at sea. We could hear the container ships all around us but couldn't see them. We crossed our fingers and hoped they could see us on their radar and moved as fast as we could. It is one thing to see container ships from land, but from a small boat they are terrifying. 200 meters long, 40 meters wide and traveling at around 20mph. if we were were struck by one, they would crush us and probably never even notice. They also produce enormous wakes, so they can sink you even if they don't hit you.
Coming into Marina del Rey was similar -- heavy fog at night. Slow and steady got the job done there, because we had the luxury of having no large ship traffic to worry about.
Rounding Point Arguello / Point Conception involved a couple of days of quite rough weather, including a particularly bad night of gale conditions. That area is famous, or rather notorious, for rough conditions, and it lived up to expectations. A small craft advisory was in effect for the entire duration of our passage through the area. Still, Sula and her windvane (which is a simple, mechanical auto-pilot) worked perfectly, even with waves that at times crashed over her. We were knocked down a couple of times -- meaning that the waves pushed us to approximately 90 degrees off vertical. The problem was that there were two 10-15' swells coming at us from different directions, so no matter which way we pointed, we were always leaving a beam exposed to the waves. We didn’t have a wind speed meter, but according to NOAA we saw gusts up to 60kts in 8-10' (max 15') cross-seas with 8sec period. That's unpleasant in a 27' boat. That kind of wind is fast enough to really disturb the surface of the water and cause waves to break -- and make the rigging howl.
The worst of the weather we encountered was one a very long night. Hearing Stacy's voice on the phone the next morning and telling her I was okay was hands down the best moment of the trip.
By the way, during that gale, Anna and Alex were incredibly helpful in getting me detailed short-term weather reports. They helped me make more informed decisions and to avoid areas with worse conditions. Thanks!
Pt Arguello inflicted some damage on Sula, including a badly damaged shroud (a cable supporting the mast) and some rips in the sail. We decided to call at Marina del Rey for repairs.
My traveling companion turned out to be unable to handle the helm. As a result, I was on my own in navigating and handling the boat and he helped by cooking. I spent 7 days at the helm, with no more than 2 hours of sleep at a time, typically more like 30 minutes. It isn't as bad as it sounds, and I got used to it pretty fast. Still next time it would be nice to have someone along who can share the helm. The good news is that I learned a lot very fast and now feel confident sailing Sula single-handedly.
I look forward to getting back out there. The basic concepts for sailing are very simple, and it is relatively easy to develop basic competence in a short period of time; but there are enough subtleties that developing mastery can take a good, long time. I felt that in the short time I was at sea I developed enough skill to sail Sula safely in conditions up to about those I encountered at Pt Conception (gale force), which is to say enough to handle conditions between here and Mexico and Hawaii outside of hurricanes and major winter storms. I also think that with some minor repairs that Sula is up to the job.
Anyway, that's the report so far. I'll keep you posted!
Dave
Here is a summary of the more interesting (to me) birds we saw. Birds that were
new for me for the county are in uppercase:
Marin: before our departure we had an ORCHARD ORIOLE at the RCA building on outer Point Reyes.
San Francisco: BLACK-FOOTED ALBATROSS, BULLER'S SHEARWATER, SOUTH POLAR SKUA
San Mateo: WILSON'S STORM-PETREL, BLACK STORM-PETREL
Monterey: Wilson's Storm-Petrel, Tufted Puffin, South Polar Skua
San Luis Obispo: COOK's PETREL, Mottled Petrel (Wes only, I missed it), Dark Pterodroma (probable Solander's), Dark-rumped Petrel sp (probable Hawaiian),
BULLER'S SHEARWATER, WILSON'S STORM-PETREL, BLACK STORM-PETREL, LEAST STORM-PETREL, SOUTH POLAR SKUA. Also a good number of unidentified Pterodromas.
Santa Barbara: Black-footed Albatross, LEAST STORM-PETREL, Cookilaria sp, CHESTNUT-COLLARED LONGSPUR, Xantus's Murrelet
Ventura: Black-footed Albatross, Horned Lark
Los Angeles: MANX SHEARWATER with a large group of Black-vented Shearwaters off PV. Upon our arrival, Wes found a Tennessee Warbler in the harbor at Marina del Rey.
The highlight of the trip was definitely the dark Pterodroma, which if our ID of Solander's Petrel is correct would be a first State record ... if we had been able to get photos. Anyway we had good looks and it was a cool bird.
In general, the numbers of birds observed were low. At times 3 or more hours passed with no bird sightings. The most productive area for Pterodromas was from Davidson Seamount, south along the Santa Lucia escarpment, across Arguello Canyon and to Rodriguez Seamount. In this stretch there were more Pterodromas than shearwaters by 2 to 1. Ironically, this area seems to get the least coverage by organized pelagic trips due to the near-certainty of seasickness-inducing conditions.
We saw Blue, Minke, Sperm and Humpback Whales, Common and Pacific White-sided Dolphins, Short-finned Mako Shark, Albacore Tuna, Skipjack and Sunfish. One Sperm Whale stayed right next to the boat for about an hour one night -- I mean almost touching distance. We encountered rough weather rounding Pt Conception.
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FromDavid Bell
subject Boat trip update
Hello! I'm down to 1 week before I set sail!! There is a lot going on, so I wanted to give a single update email.
We depart for Cabo and then Hawaii on Oct 8th. We expect to reach southern californian waters within the first few days, and reach Cabo about a week later. We will spend a couple of days reprovisioning in Cabo and then head to Hawaii.
In the last few weeks, some very good birds have been seen in the eastern Pacific near California, including Wandering Albatross, Short-tailed Albatross, Red-footed Booby, Masked Booby, Stejneger's Petrel, Cook's Petrel, Least Storm-Petrels. Most of the good birds have been relatively close to shore (10-40 miles offshore), so the current plan is to not stay out by the continental shelf as we originally intended, but to stay in closer and focus on seamounts and other underwater features closer to shore.
As you might expect, there is a lot that needs to happen before I leave. In fact, there is more to do than I have time for, so I'm in triage mode and just trying to focus on getting all of the safety-critical items done and not worrying so much about the creature comforts. Any help would be welcome!
The big items on my list are: 1) complete the installation of flotation to give the boat net positive bouyancy 1) (tied for 1st place): harnesses, tethers and jacklines to make sure we remain attached to the boat 2) install GPS/AIS and a ship-to-shore radio. (AIS is a safety system that transmits our location to other ships, especially big container ships. It also allows us to see them and gives us plenty of warning if we are on a collision course.) 3) rent a satellite phone for keeping in touch and emergencies. 4) reinforce the cockpit, the diesel tank and the stern 5) install windvane auto-helm 6) rebuild the kitchen countertop, get the water system working. 7) install a windscreen / dodger for the cockpit to provide some degree of protection from the weather while on watch 8) make sure I have all of the required safety equipment: flares, EPRIB, lifesling, medical supplies, horn, etc 9) replace my running rigging (ie most of the ropes that control the sails). Have spares on hand. 10) nice-to-have but not required: solar cell to provide backup to generator, fishing gear, bording ladder, drogue
The schedule is quite tight:
Oct 1 (Th): AM: kitchen counter, flotation, electrical PM: sail in bay Oct 2 (F): AM: cockpit support, build mounts for auto-helm PM: sail in bay Oct 3 and 4: spend weekend with P&N in Occidental (planned for a long time). Do homework, such as studying boat operating regulations for US, Mexico and international waters. Review list of required and recommended safety equipment. Oct 4 (Sun) PM: rigging Oct 5 (M) AM: PM: sail out of golden gate, weather permitting Oct 6 (T) AM: the guy sailing with me (Wes Fritz) will be joining me to help complete work from here on out. Radio/GPS/AIS PM: test bildge pump systems, re-install fresh water system. Oct 7 (W): AM/PM: Contingency time for whatever above did not get finished. Provisioning. Oct 8 (Th): AM: depart Oct 9 - 16: get to Southern California. Complete misc tasks once underway: make sure all cabinets and drawers latch; anti-slip on floor, tune auto-helm. Oct 17-24???: Cabo. Go through customs in Ensenada. Visit Isla Guadelupe and Rocas Alijos Oct 28-29 (timing uncertain) spend time in Cabo. Go for endemics: Cape Junco, Cape Pygmy Owl, Cape Robin, Cape Vireo, Band-tailed Pigeon, Acorn Woodpecker, etc. Oct 29 - Nov 15?? Sail to Hawaii
