Tuesday, June 24, 2008
June 22, 2008
After a late start due to a late night the night before at Sandra and Doron's Red Door Studio (3am to be precise), I loaded up the visiting relatives and we made our way down to the Boat. Doron and Sandra met us at the boat, but when Sandra realized that Lynne had stayed home to prepare dinner for a dinner party with Helmut Relinger and Catherine McCarthy, she decided to take a pass on sailing. I think the late night the night before may have played a part in her decision. We finally go out on the water at about 1230. I wanted to get out to the Bay so that we could show our guests the City and Alcatraz, so we motored up to the Bay. We stopped off at Jack London Square for some fuel - 12.4 gallons for $74. I am glad I do not have a gas guzzler. We sailed south towards Candlestick until we were about mid way between Alameda and San Francisco and then did two tacks to position ourselves for a direct shot under the Bay Bridge to Alcatraz. The wind was blowing at 13-20 knts until we got to the Bay Bridge. Then we hit a patch of no wind (a wind shadow from either the bridge or the City, or both, and had to motor a bit. As we approached Pier 23 we noticed that a boat about 1/2 mile ahead of us went from sitting straight up to heeling over about 35 degrees as it got into the slot. Doron and I immediately reefed the sail before we got into the heavy winds. But as we approached the slot we noticed the chop was piling up and the boats ahead of us were now banging around. We decided that our guests from out of town would not like to bash through the waves to get to Alcatraz so we instead put the boat on a broad reach for the end of Treasure Island. The wind was now at 20-25 knts, but Wildcat handled it just fine. Our guests did not even know that we were in weather that many other boaters try to avoid. All went well until we had to jibe at the end of Treasure Island to turn back to Alameda. Because the wind was so strong we decided to do a chicken jibe, but after we executed the turn and I tried to trim the sails, Doron, who was at the helm, told me that he had no helm control. Fortunately, the rudder was stalled. But it is an interesting phenomena with a Nonsuch, in high winds when you tack the boat you can stall the rudder and it is almost like you are hove to. I say almost, because we were still making way about 2-3 knts, but simply could not fall off the wind. We could have let the sail out all the way or turned up into irons, but since we were a bit close to shore I just turned on the engine to get the rudder out of the stall. We headed back to home on a typical run down the estuary and got back to the slip about 1800. As we went by Pete and Bethany's boat, Naniamo, we noticed that they were working on her. So after putting Wildcat to bed, we headed over to Naniamo to see what Pete and Bethany were up to. They had just come back in from a short sail and were giving her a good wash. I checked out Pete's new solar panels. He says that they fully power all the electrical while under way during the day and keep his batteries fully charged during the week when he is not using the boat. He is thinking about doing the Ba Ha Ha Ha in 2009 and is getting his boat ready for cruising. I am quite jealous about the additions to his boat and his plans as well.
June 15, 2008
After a late start due to a father's day barbecue at our house, I was able to get on the water at about 3:00pm. Lynne's brother Scott, his wife, Amy and her brother Jeff, and his wife, Nancy were out visiting and I was able to talk them into being my crew. Scott and Jeff did a great job taking off the sail cover and getting Wildcat ready to go. I did the rest of the pre-cruise, and in no time we were on the water. As soon as we got to Coast Guard Island I yanked the sail up and we were off, sailing up the estuary towards the Bay. The wind was at about 13-16 knts and at an angle that permitted me to tack up the estuary. After finally getting to Oakland Outer Harbor it was time to turn back to the slip. Fortunately, it was a run back in. We were able to relax and enjoy the setting sun. Everyone had a good time as usual and we were back at the slip about 8:00pm.
Monday, June 16, 2008
June 15, 2008 - Father's Day
What a better way to spend father's day than to go for a short sail after a barbecue at home. Lynne's brother, Scott and his wife, Amy and Amy's brother, Jeff and his wife, Nancy are out visiting us from Wisconsin. We started the day with a barbecue in which I cooked some baby back ribs and hamburgers, Lauren cooked the corn and dished out the slaw and potato salad and Lynne served dessert. After we had our fill of food, Amy, Nancy, Scott, Jeff and I went down to Wildcat for a sail. Unfortunately it was already 3pm, so we only had time enough to sail up the estuary to the Oakland outer harbor and back. The wind was blowing about 14-18 kts pretty much straight down the estuary so we had to beat our way up. Fortunately, a Nonsuch is an easy boat to tack, so the sail was still allot of fun. The nice thing about the wind direction is that the sail home was a broad reach to a run the whole way back. The entire 11 mile trip took about 4 hours. As usual a good time was had by all.
Tuesday, June 10, 2008
Thursday, June 5, 2008
Sailing the BVI
Lynne and I just returned from 10 days sailing the BVI with our good friends Pete Butler, Bethany Smith and Doron and Sandra Paz. We learned a number of important things about the BVI. 1. Get to the key snorkeling locations early (before 9 am) if you hope to get a park mooring. 2. After a short afternoon sail you will end up at your next bar (the kind that serves alcohol, not the one made of sand, unless of course you are a poor navigator). 3. Everyone sailing the BVI is in a party mood and the partying goes on until the wee hours.
Really - sailing the BVI is like a progressive dinner party, without the dinner, where you sail from bar to bar - and each bar is only about, on average, an hour or two away from each other. Very little sailing and a lot of cocktails.
Our longest two sailing days were from Virgin Gorda to Anegada (12 miles) and from Anegada to Jost Van Dyke (23 miles). Neither was very taxing. Our biggest problem is that we were on a 42 ft Lagoon Hybrid and the power to the electric engines was not very reliable. As a result, we had to sail a lot more than most other boats. When we returned to the charter company and told them how poorly the power system worked they asked why we did not give them a call. We noted that the boat, after all, was a sail boat so we simply put up the sails and eventually got to were we wanted to go. They seemed surprised by that answer. I guess most people sailing the BVI rely more heavily on the iron sail.
I will be posting pictures of the trip shortly.
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