Through The Gate

Arriving at the dock at 6:30am was the plan for the morning. I had all the gear I needed and was ready to meet Joli' Elle and her skipper. Joli' Elle is a Hallberg Rassy Rasmus 35, you can see what's she's all about here.  

  

  
After meeting the skipper, I stowed my gear and we prepared the boat in time for the outgoing tide. Navigating the San Francisco bay can be a bit tricky with all the water traffic, so we made a plan and shoved off for our adventure. With little wind to help our efforts we motored our way out of the bay. We passed some of the largest cargo ship freighters I have ever seen, had other larger sailboats pass us, ferry boats zig zagging in front and behind us, and some of the sailboats from the America's Cup came flying by us.

America's Cup Youth Challenge boats with San Francisco in the background. 

As we started to pass Alcatraz, fog crept up on us and turned into what some might call pea soup. Visibility came down to about a quarter mile, and you could only see boats drifting in and out of the fog like ghosts. At the speed that the shipping freighters move plus our boat speed, that would give us about one minute to get out of the way of oncoming traffic once we could visually see them. What I'm not telling you, is that Joli' Elle is equipped with radar. So for the most part those large and some smaller vessels can be detected miles out. There's only one hitch, as we approached the Golden Gate bridge all the radar would show was a solid line where the bridge was. Any oncoming traffic that might be crossing under the bridge would be obscured on radar by the bridge. Just to give you an idea of how foggy it was I took this video.

Using the our limited visual fix on the bridge, the fog horn indicating the location of the pier and radar. We passed under the the Golden Gate bridge with much relief and enjoyed the view of the towering bridge span high above us.

Once we were clear of the bridge, we headed out to the open waters of the Pacific Ocean. When I stood on top of the bridge span the day before the water below and wind the day before were a force to be reckoned with, but today there was little if any wind and the water was as calm as a pond as far as three miles out - go figure.

Next stop, Half Moon Bay

~J~

Let It Begin

Hey, look, a blog post without pictures. I know, your thinking I've gotten lazy, battery dead on the iPhone or maybe my camera fell overboard. Nothing could be further from the truth, this is what you might call a primer blog. The intro to a series of blogs that might not be quite up to my usual editing standards, written on more than a few hours of sleep, or possibly written with one too many of those rum punches that seem to be favored drink of sailors. 

Way back in May of this year, I was looking to expand my sailing experience on open water so I turned to the internet. There are forums where people needing other people to help them sail their boats to different parts of the world advertise for help. You can check out the forum that I used here. I responded to two different adds that fit not only my time frame that I thought I could pull off such a caper but were also on the West Coast of the Untied States.

The first one I replied to, read as follows:

I'm seeking a crew and skipper to help deliver this sailboat from long beach ca to Hawaii. I recently bought this sailboat and had been survey. The sailboat will be ready this July,current its getting remodel and upgrades. I'm from Honolulu Hawaii and like to take her home.
Info about myself I'm a Hawaiian native 32 years old married with 2 kids. Sailing experiences is very limited.
My offer is All provision will be provide, and return ticket back to the states.
I'm seeking 2-3 deckhands and 1 captain. I must have acaptain. I'm looking for easy going people that can teach me things about sailing. I have spent over $100 thousand getting this sailboat blue water ready.
Info about my sailboat:
1984 48' ocean going ketch (sailboat) Bruce Roberts
120 gallons of water and 200 gallons of diesel. It has aPerkins 1200 amps hours battery bank. Solar panels and 2wind turbines, new Riggs lines mass and paint top and bottom I have VHF radio, weatherfax, satelite phone, tv,internet and I have GPS systems navigation. I have a 40 GPH watermaker from ro cruiser and freezer, Garmin Ghp 20autopilot, has RADAR. The boat has a 8 men life raft, systems are mainly brand new.

The other add was not as exciting as going to Hawaii, but still fit my schedule and location.

Looking for crew (1 or 2), for the trip from Alameda Ca. to San Diego. Some sailing experience appreciated. The trip will be played safe with no "have to" dates on arrival. Hopefully 1 or 2 nights hold up for weather, especially around Pt. Conception. I cover all costs for the boat and birthing. You supply or pay for your own food and such. Startin the end of August with an arrival in SD somewhere around the middle of September.
Vessel is a well founded Hallberg Rassy 35 with radar, GPS, liferaft, EPIRBand hot running water. Who could ask for more...

My reply to the first add must have fallen on deaf ears, apparently there were lots of people who wanted to go to Hawaii, and my lack of sailing experience was no match for twenty and thirty years of experience that the other replies had under their belt. 

My reply to the second ad was answered the same day.  Followed shortly by a phone conversation verifying I was part of the crew.  This lead to dozens of e-mails detailing such things as what to bring, where to meet, itinerary, etc.   

As I write this post, I'm just days away from heading out into the Pacific Ocean for a week and a half with a person I have never met in person, a boat I have never been on and a ocean that I know little about.  

Stay tuned as we enter a series of blogs where I take you along on a 450 nautical mile adventure upon the open waters of the Pacific Ocean.

Let the adventure begin.

~J~

On The Hard!

Well, between the low water in the lake and the toxic blue green algae bloom, we pulled Orion's Wake from her slip today and she now sits in our driveway all tidy on her trailer.

Don't think for a minute that this is the end of the season for Orion's Wake, it's not. We now turn to the nomadic season where we leave our familiar waters and take advantage of this opportunity to venture into new waters, leaving behind the low water levels and toxic algae of our home waters.

All in all it's been a fun but short season on the lake. We sailed on Orion's Wake at least once a week, did three or four sleepovers on the lake and enjoyed every minute of it. It's probably a good thing we are pulling her out of the water, we have a couple issues to attend to that are best done on the hard. That's what they call it when your boat is stored out of the water.

For example, last time we slept out on the lake we went to turn on the anchor lite that lets others know where you are in the dark of night while anchored and it failed to produce any light. This light is located twenty five feet above the boats deck, at the tippy top of the mast.  So you can imagine that it's not just a quick fix where you pop a new light bulb in it and go. Along with that, Orion's Wake has a tendency to let a little water into one area of the bilge, this might not be as easy of a fix as putting in a new light bulb but I am anxious to take a peek and see where the water is finding it's way inside the boat.  This seems to be a common malady with sailboats. 

On a lighter note, there are some cosmetic buffing and waxing of the hull, and resealing of some deck hardware that we have been saving to do when we pulled Orion's Wake from the lake.  

I know, this sounds like a lot of work.  You should see my list of things I want to fix, change, or replace on Orion's Wake.  It seems to grow longer and longer every time I sail. I guess it can't be all fun in the sun and like any relationship you have to take care of your sailboat so she will take care of you.

~J~

Bound for the Sea

Go, Go, Go......

  

The Sea Trials Class that I just finished spanned three days and two nights. The whole class took place on the seventeen thousand pound sailboat named "Messenger".  She's a Pearson 39 and you can find her specs here. 

S/V Messenger

This class taught some of the more advanced aspects of sailing; we learned how to navigate a hundred miles of the Columbia River day and night, using paper charts, buoys and what are called range markers. During the day, the range markers look like two large signs with vertical stripes. When you line them up with each other, you knew you are in the main channel and safe from running aground.  And at night, lights attached to the top of the range markers safely guide your way.  

Range Marker Sketch

Avoiding the shallow areas and the shore were only the beginning of our worries. Dimly lit, massive, six hundred foot freighters carrying shipping containers passed us in the dark with an eerie silence.  Large dredging ships with their strangely lit decks blended in with the wood mills on the shore, making them almost impossible to detect. 

Luckily, we were also being trained in the finer points of marine radio communications. This came in handy at night when all we could see of the enormous freighters was the faint red light and a higher up faint white light.  Most of the time the conversations with the other ships went something like this.

Messenger "This is the sailing vessel Messenger heading out."  

Large Freighter "We see you sailing vessel Messenger, what is your intent?". 

Messenger "We plan on passing you on our port side."  

Large Freighter "Sounds good, you have a good night - see you on the port side"

After surviving the Columbia river, the next goal was to cross the river bar and head out to the Pacific Ocean. Depending on weather serverity, this part of the class is often omitted from the schedule. We had the perfect weather for the bar crossing. Slightly overcast, temperature in mid sixties, ebb tide and three to four foot seas. 

Me at the helm!

Heading further away from the mainland, the ocean provided perfect sailing weather with eight to ten foot rolling seas and twelve to fifteen knots of wind. The fun began as the bow of the boat would ride up to the crest of the wave, come down the other side and crash into the next wave. Well, that fun ride can only last so long, and within an hour the whole class was feeling the onset of sea sickness.  Using all the tricks to avoid a full bout of seasickness, another class mate and myself managed to keep our cookies to ourselves. The other two classmates weren't so fortunate. Each of them made multiple contributions overboard, which kept them from spending much time at the helm. 

I'll share with you a little secret I learned during this part of the class. Don't puke into the wind!

After spending five hours at sea, we headed back to the mouth of the river. When you sail you have to take your opportunities when they come and in this case that meant riding the incoming tide way up the river until it stopped and we docked around 4:30am. After a couple of winks of sleep, we navigated the same stretch of river we came down two days before, arriving back in Portland in the early evening.   

Sleep deprived and back on land, I can hardly wait to head out to sea again. 

~J~