Santa Barbara April 21st '05

For the photo album go to: South Pacific

Yesterday a buyer came out of the woodwork for the truck. This was the anchor that kept me from a definite departure for the long haul to the Marquesas. I still have to do some provisioning and am awaiting a courier shipment from Lisa. Right now I am shooting for this Saturday or after mass on Sunday. The weather forecast will have a bearing on this as well.

I left Monterey on Sunday noon the 10th of April. It had been stormy the previous days and on Tuesday another front was moving in. That Sunday morning it was very pleasant and calm and a warm sunny day. But the moment I turned south out of Monterey Bay the winds started howling again. Fortunately, this time, from the right direction. The new Monitor wind vane was working well. But I still had to do some finer tuning of it and learning it's ranges. As it turned out, when I wrote the previous episode, the Navik vane had taken a more severe trashing than I realized. The trim tab had completely broken off from the paddle. Snapped from it's three attachment points. The Monitor looks like it is nearly indestructible. I should have had my foulies on when I did my first headsail changes. I had thrown my old sea boots away in Monterey and then was unable to find my size anywhere. And I only have the one pair of boat shoes and a pair of sandals. I went through about 10 sets of socks and chills and ended up with a good cold.  It blew again somewhere 25 and 40 knots, steady. I was surfing with the knot meter pegged at 10 knots with just the reefed 90% jib, no main. I took a couple of hits of green water in the cockpit. This is not my idea of fun. At sunrise on Monday morning there was a spectacular view of a multi stage rocket launch from Vandenberg Air Force base. One small consolation in these wind and wave conditions you don't need to worry much about fishing and tow boats. They apparently have a better forecast or smoke signal system than the 15 to 25 knots in my predictions. But there were enough freighters to keep me on guard.

I arrived at Point Conception at daybreak. Brenda was leaving that morning for her long planned trip from Santa Barbara to her roots in Louisiana. I missed her by two hours.     I had looked forward to spend time with her. Her house is just three blocks from the harbor. But with all the delays in Alameda and Monterey that was not to be. I picked up my truck that I had left in Santa Barbara on Easter Monday and then had taken the Amtrak back to Monterey. I stayed with Brenda then from Good Friday. The potential buyer for the truck decided not to buy it after all. This was my main mission in the last week. Autotrader, Santa Barbara NewspressCraigsList  etc. In the end a dock neighbor here in the marina happened to just be looking for this ticket.

Yesterday another boat left from here for the Marquesas. A steel 36 footer "Oceanus" with Dorotea and Jim Manzari. She is Swiss and Jim, American,they worked in Switzerland for the last 20 years. They came to the Northwest by an interesting route. The boat was built in Germany and then brought up the Rhine to Basel. Then they went through the French canals through the Med across the south Atlantic into the Caribbean, up the Mississippi to Lake Superior and then trucked the boat from Thunderbay to Vancouver, B.C. They did not have short wave radio. I expect to be checking in with the "Coconut Breakfast Cruisers Net" on 12365 KHZ at 1330 UTC.

The weather here is warmer than in Monterey and this is the longest period, over a week, of not having seen rain. I have kept busy working down a list of items to fix or improve. And I would not have been able to leave any earlier if I had sold the truck sooner. I also managed to close commission sales on a couple wood products containers in the last week and have a couple other quotes pending. Santa Barbara has some very nice markets for food I'd like to have aboard. One store has a great assortment of bulk beans, rice and the first place I have found for bulk couscous. There are two Trader Joes. Asian food is not as easy to find as in the Bay area. I have been cooking practically all my meals on board, this is a challenge with the great eateries in this town.

I have made a small slide show with 14 pictures taken in the last month in Monterey and Santa Barbara. Just before I left I invested in Adobe Photoshop 2; among them are several of the train trip from Santa Barbara to Salinas. The country side is just gorgeous this Spring with all the wild flowers. I have never seen the Oak trees in this much lighter shade of green. Santa Barbara was home for Joan and I when we returned from Vietnam in 1963 and it is very appropriate to return from here for my scheduled stop this winter. Yesterday I had a visit on the boat from Sjoerd Koppert, who has a sound studio in Montecito. A couple of years I discovered him here. His mother and ours were in the same concentration camps during the 2nd world war. He brought a copy of a picture of a 1947 reunion his and our mother attended. I have inserted this on my web site at www.cometosea.us/albums/thewar.htm  Earlier this month my twin brother, Jan, attended a 60th anniversary celebration of the liberation by the Russians of one of the camps, Ravensbrueckwhich is located near Berlin. This coming April 27th will be the 60th anniversary when Sjoerd's and our mother left the gates of Dachau on a death march which, thank God, was intercepted by the approaching US Army.

The next slide show should have white beaches and coral lagoons of the South Pacific in them. I count on this leg taking anywhere from 4 to 6 weeks, depending on the time it takes to cross the doldrums, etc. While on this leg I expect to regularly give my position to Lisa by e-mail and I will ask her to forward any specific news to my address list.

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March 20 2002 Monterey, California

 

BAD FRIDAY March 18 '05

I am writing this in the airporter from Monterey to go back to Alameda to pick up the truck. I finally have a good prospective buyer. That will be my last hold up to set off for the departure from American shores. I am passing the dunes of Fort Ord where I had my first and last rifle range experience in 1961.  I attended Palm Sunday mass in the old Monterey Mission. But, I did not get to Monterey by choice. The plan was changed and therefore the title of this episode.

My first attempt to leave from Alameda for Santa Barbara was on Thursday the 10 th., when I finally had the single side band radio and modem working to be able to e-mail while on the high seas. I wanted to test the equipment on the San Francisco Bay and stayed the night near the Golden Gate bridge in Tiburon. I When backing into the slip at the Tiburon S.F.Y.C. my gear remained stuck in reverse and I broke part of the wind vane. I returned to Alameda for the repairs and set off on Wednesday the 16th for Santa Barbara. The weather forecasts were for Southwesterlies from 10 to 25 knots for the next three days. After which a low would fill in again. The predominant wind here is a Northwesterly. But since I was going South Easterly, I should be able to lay my destination in a hard beat without too much tacking. But it turned out that the wind direction and strength changed frequently. But always from the south. Lots of reefing and head sail changes. I tacked out westerly at night to stay out of the shipping lanes. I took short catnaps in between a scan of the area. I figured that I would be able to catch up from two nights of sleep deprivation. Once I am out further on my passages, I shall be able to sleep for longer periods. Fleetwood sailed well. It likes the double reef with a full 150% genoa. That brings the main under the running back stays and allows to keep both of them taut, beating in winds above 15 to 20 knots. The Navik wind vane worked well. On Friday morning I was W.S.W. of Morro Bay. The predictions were for Southerlies again up to 25 knots. But there was a swell warning for the coast of Santa Barbara. So I decided to head for Morro Bay, roughly half way between Monterey to the North and Santa Barbara, and wait out better arrival conditions in Santa Barbara. I could lay Morro Bay in one tack and should arrive before dark. The wind increased from around 10 knots in a rapid clip to close to 35 knots. When I had to finally abandon the double reefed main and reefed 90% jib to just the jib alone, I could no longer keep my direction for Morro Bay and I decided to return to Monterey. This is the only harbor North of Morro Bay for about a 100 mile stretch of the central California coast. l was obviously caught in conditions that were not at all predicted in the NOA forecasts. The wind kept building and I was steadily at 8 knots with just that little snot rag, at times surfing off the waves  with the knot meter pegged at it's 10 knot limit. By dark I jibed away from Point Sur, about 15 miles from Monterey. Now the waves were over 15 feet and contrary to the forecast which was for diminishing force by evening, the wind was now over 40 knots. And I was going too fast with the jib and I needed to spare the vane and the rudder from that kind of abuse. So I decided for bare poles. This slowed me down to 6 knots. But then the wind vane clutch kept popping out of gear. At first I kept popping it back but in the dark and the seas I had no way to make repairs to it. I said a prayer and swallowed my pride and called the coast guard. They sounded a bit surprised when I described the wind and wave conditions. But afterward they agreed that these were some of the worst conditions they had been in. The whole crew got seasick on the way in, which is an exception.               It took about three hours to reach me. I had to give my position regularly from my handheld GPS. The strobe light on the top of the mast helped to find me. Because from morning it had been a pelting rain and dark I had little benefit of my solar panel. I use an inverter to run the computer for my Nobeltec GPS chart system and it takes a healthy drain on the batteries. By the time I needed to communicate with the rescue vessel I had insufficient power. My engine would have not done me any good anyway even if I had been able to start it with enough battery power. I had figured that under better conditions I would hand crank start it in Monterey Bay. But the coast guard men did a fabulous job. With loud speaker and search lights they sent over, with messenger lines, a tow line and a drogue. The drogue weighed about 50 lbs and was extremely difficult to hoist out of the water. And I was dead tired from the ride and the lack of sleep. But it is amazing what you can muster under survival drive. This whole connecting procedure took at least an hour. They kept checking with me on my condition. I told them I was no spring chicken at 68 and very tired. I got seasick while awaiting their arrival and the boat jostling ahull. Fortunately, there was little concern for a lee shore since the wind was south easterly. It turned out that transferring one of their crew to help me out would be extremely hazardous, so I told them that I'd be fine. On the tow downwind it was of concern that I'd overrun the tow line surfing down the waves. The drogue was a big help. The waves were so high that I'd lose sight of the top of the rescue vessel's lights in the troughs. The steering was a challenge in trying to follow the tow. This was the most exerting part of it all. I could not use my hiking stick it was not strong enough to steer and this put me outside the dodger in pelting rain and frequent waves over the bow. And a very uncomfortable seat on the traveler track. And even under these conditions I started to fall asleep. I saw us going under imaginary bridges and at times the strong search light shining through the water droplets of the dodger screen had me in an eerie place. I took one good wave in the cockpit when I lost my concentration. We arrived at day break, yesterday, in Monterey.

The picture was taken while the gale was still building. I have been asked if I want to go on with the trip. And what if this happens in the middle of the ocean? I do want to go on. I learned that I cannot rely just on the weather forecast and that I should have tried the wind vane and the auto pilot under these type of winds in closer proximity. In the ocean I would have set my trysail and lay ahull and ride out the storm. But this close to traffic lanes and sleep deprived that was not an option. If I determine that the vane problem is a simple fix, I will keep it otherwise I will take Hans Bernwal of Scanmar's advice and invest in a stronger, but heavier, Monitor vane. And will consider a third battery.

I have by now picked up the truck and said goodbye to the Alameda Marina. I'll miss this place after hanging around for a month. I loved the ethnic and multi cultural melting pot of the area. Bob Van Popering, a marina acquaintance, became a great companion and help to me. The forecast for the next week is for continued southerlies. I'll wait for the usual weather to re-establish. Bring the dodge to a new owner. And spend the Easter weekend in Santa Barbara. I wish everyone a blessed Easter celebration. Keep up your prayers by now you'll be convinced that I need them. I promise not to abuse the privilege.

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February 17. 2005

ALAMEDA

"Fleetwood" arrived last night at the Nelson boat yard in Alameda.

The address is Nelson's Marine Inc, 1500 ferry Point Rd Bldg 167 Alameda Ca. 94501 phone 510-814-1858

We left Gig Harbor Thursday morning the 10th. The weather was excellent. But, after I realized how slow the load went uphill and some apprehensions on the long descents off the Siskiyous, I decided to turn off I-5 at Drain and followed 101 all the way to the San Francisco bay. The drive along the Oregon Coast was very pleasant. The winding roads in the redwoods and some formidable hills brought the white knuckles out. Last night in the rain and darkness it was a hairy drive down the narrow one lane 37E from Highway 101 to Vallejo and then the rush hour on the Eastbay freeways.  I was stopped in Fortuna California on Saturday morning for not having an oversize permit. Ignorance is bliss because apparently I got away without it in Washington and Oregon. I ended up back in the truck stop at Fortuna for the weekend. I managed to put the time to good use by doing work on the boat and the computer. Fortunately I had the help of a long time Redwood supplier in Julie Wright at Pacific Lumber Co., just down the road in Scotia to get the permit faxed back and forth from Sacramento. At 11 am, yesterday, I was back on the road legally.

But your prayers for my safety accompanied me. Please, keep them up!  The yard here is right on the old Naval Air Station and it is the point from where we embarked on the MTS "Core" for Vietnam in October 1961. So I will be retracing the beginning and the end of this journey.

I expect that I'll be here for the next 10 days or so. I'll do some bottom work while on the trailer and then move to a marina to adjust the rigging and make sure the radios and navigational equipment is up to snuff. And I expect to be down to a bicycle when the truck and trailer are sold here. I have had lots of calls on them.