October 17-19, 2008

This was a busy sailing weekend for me - another Type II CPM trip, this time as Jr. Navigator. For those of you unfamiliar with all of the jargon in the last sentence let me break it down for you. A CPM is a US Sailing class given by Club Nautique with the impressive full title of "Coastal Passage Making." The objective is to teach the students to be prepared to both navigate and skipper a sail boat in coastal waters. A Type II CPM is one where the boat is out in the ocean for the entire night - that's right we sail through the night and each take a shift at the helm and as crew (watch). Our skipper put together a good duty roster so we each were able to get some rest time during the evening as well. The Jr. Nav. is suppose to support and observe what the Navigator is doing and fill in if the Navigator needs some rest. The main responsibility of the Navigator is to maintain the ships log and to keep track of where our boat is, where it is heading and when it is likely to arrive. The Nav. must also keep track of other boats that are in our vicinity in order to avoid collision.

Our crew for this trip consisted of Bryan Hoadley, skipper, Terry Rodery, Navigator, Jim English and me as Jr. Nav, and Eric Charles as crew. We were lucky in that we had a good instructor, Dave Scott and a good boat Perriwinkle, a 41 ft 2006 Hunter. We left the dock about 1630 on Friday night and motored over to the Alameda estuary to run the measured mile to calibrate our ships log. Then we motored out to around Pier 39 before putting up the sails and motor sailing out the into the ocean. We zig-zagged out to the main shipping channel and then motored out along the north side of the shipping channel until we were past the San Francisco Bar (that is an area of shallow water and not a place to stop off and get a beer) and into deep water. Then we set a course for the Farallons. On the way there we were able to sail on occasion. Once we got to the Farallons and waived to the birds and sea lions we turned south to head for Half Moon Bay. The wind direction was not the best, so we did a few jibes until be got to the Western shipping channel, where we decided to motor through on a 90 degree angle. I went off shift and quickly went below to get some sleep.

When I woke up and came back to my duty station everything had changed. We were now sailing in the fog with 20 knot winds from the SW. We were about to enter the southern shipping channel and we learned from VTS (vessel traffic service) that there was a cargo ship coming up from the south and about to enter the shipping channel. That news resulted in a bit of angst. Our instructor, Dave, quickly asked the Navigator to determine how quickly we would pass through the shipping channel at our current speed and when would the incoming vessel reach our location. Based on the info provided, we cranked up the engine and began motor sailing so that our speed increased to almost 9 knots. Showing his greater experience, Dave then hailed VTS and reported our location and direction and that we were in fog with limited visibility. VTS gave us updated details about the inbound traffic, but more importantly, the inbound ship now knew we were out there as well. Long story short, the cargo ship passed to our aft and sounded a single horn as it passed us.

We eventually got into Half Moon Bay at 0730, quickly secured a place to anchor, and hit the bunks for a needed nap. We got up about 1115 and headed over to the dock to get a slip for the night. We then spent the afternoon doing close quarter maneuvers under power. A number of boats were down for the Pumpkin festival and there was a cocktail party at 1630 at one of the boats. Pete and Bethany were down in Nanaimo, and they came over to the cocktail party. We all went over to the HMB YC for a beer and then to Mezzaluna for dinner. We called it quits about 2130 since we had to get up at 0600 to head back to Alameda.

The next day was uneventful. We motored most of the way home until we got in the bay. Then we did some crew overboard drills and practice other skills before getting back to the slip around 1600.

After cleaning up the boat and doing the final check out, I headed over to Wildcat. I had to bring her over to KKMI in Richmond for a haul out. its about a 15 mile trip, which I did single handed. I got over there about 2000 in the dark. But all went well and Lynne drove over to pick me up and take me home.