Sunday, March 29, 2009
March 29, 2009
My son Andrew and I put our repaired sail back on Wildcat and then we took her for a sail up the estuary. We tacked up all the way to the bay and then come back on a run. Not much wind but we still had a good time.
Monday, March 2, 2009
February 27 - March 1, 2009 CPM Sail
Well this past weekend was my test for the Skipper position on my quest for a Coastal Passage-making Certificate through Club Nautique's Sailing School. We had a good crew consisting of Ken Kolburn - Navigator, Mark Dietrich - Jr. Nav., Mark Howard and Mike Ball - Crew. Arnstein Mustad was our instructor. He has a reputation for being a demanding instructor, so we did a very thorough pre-cruise to make sure that he had not sabataged the boat. We found some loose nuts in the engine well and reported them to him. He was impressed with our thoroughness, but said that he had not placed them there. He nevertheless double checked all of the systems in the engine well to see if he could find where they come from. He found nothing wrong, but we noted the find on our pre-cruise report.
We sailed out of Ballena Bay on Friday and got out to the south bay about 2100, having eaten dinner at the slip due to low tide. After calibrating the Log and Compass we headed over to Angel Island for a mooring ball. we finally got on the mooring shortly after midnight.
The next morning we got up at 8, with the intention of getting going about 0900. At 0900 a ranger came out to the boat and asked us for our $20 mooring fee (after giving us a lecture about trying to leave without paying the fee). We then ran a mile in Richardson Bay to check the log calibration again and were ready to head out the Golden Gate. Due to the expected weather conditions we headed south to Half Moon Bay. The winds were blowing from the east at about 15 -17 knots so we decided to take the Southern Channel near the Coast. This cut off a fair amount of time on our trip to HMB. We had fair winds until Colorado Reef, just north of Pillar Point, at which time the winds abated entirely and we had to motor in. We did some radar motoring drills on the way in. We then headed back out to do some more drills because the winds had picked back up. The winds got up to 20 knts and while I was at the helm the instructor decided to run a engine failure - limited visibility drill. So I had to sail in with only a jib up.
We took a slip for the night and went into town for dinner and drinks. Pillar Point has a few good watering holes near the harbor and we all had a good night out. I also ended up watching Slum dog Millionaire on one of the other boats that was in our CPM fleet.
The next morning we got under way at about 8 am. After doing a number of motoring drills in the marina, we headed back to San Francisco. The sail up the coast was uneventful. As we neared the San Francisco Buoy the winds became fickle and out of the east, making it hard to make good time back through the gate. As we neared the gate however, the winds picked up again from the south. We saw a whale just outside the gate, and steered clear of it. By the time we got through the Gate, the winds were up to 20 knts and we were shortening sails. By the time we got to Alcatraz the winds were a steady 25 with higher gusts. By the time we past Alcatraz winds were gusting over 30 and we had to shorten sails again. after tacking back towards the Bay Bridge, the winds were a steady 30 with gusts to 35, and again we shortened sails so by now we were sailing with the equivalent of a storm tri-sail and a storm jib. Eventually it became obvious that we were not going to make it back to Club Nautique by 1430 unless we sent under power. The wind waves in the Bay grew amazingly fast since the winds were from the south an there was a fairly long fetch for the waves to build. Even in a 49 foot boat we were crashing through the waves and generating a great deal of spray, which kept me quite wet at the helm. But we made good time and eventually got back to the slip at about 1430. After the post cruise, we were ready to call it a day at bout 1800.
Although I certainly made a few errors during the CPM, I guess on balance I was not a bad Skipper as our instructor saw fit to pass me. Now I just have to take the written test and sail my last CPM trip as the skipper of a tag boat.
We sailed out of Ballena Bay on Friday and got out to the south bay about 2100, having eaten dinner at the slip due to low tide. After calibrating the Log and Compass we headed over to Angel Island for a mooring ball. we finally got on the mooring shortly after midnight.
The next morning we got up at 8, with the intention of getting going about 0900. At 0900 a ranger came out to the boat and asked us for our $20 mooring fee (after giving us a lecture about trying to leave without paying the fee). We then ran a mile in Richardson Bay to check the log calibration again and were ready to head out the Golden Gate. Due to the expected weather conditions we headed south to Half Moon Bay. The winds were blowing from the east at about 15 -17 knots so we decided to take the Southern Channel near the Coast. This cut off a fair amount of time on our trip to HMB. We had fair winds until Colorado Reef, just north of Pillar Point, at which time the winds abated entirely and we had to motor in. We did some radar motoring drills on the way in. We then headed back out to do some more drills because the winds had picked back up. The winds got up to 20 knts and while I was at the helm the instructor decided to run a engine failure - limited visibility drill. So I had to sail in with only a jib up.
We took a slip for the night and went into town for dinner and drinks. Pillar Point has a few good watering holes near the harbor and we all had a good night out. I also ended up watching Slum dog Millionaire on one of the other boats that was in our CPM fleet.
The next morning we got under way at about 8 am. After doing a number of motoring drills in the marina, we headed back to San Francisco. The sail up the coast was uneventful. As we neared the San Francisco Buoy the winds became fickle and out of the east, making it hard to make good time back through the gate. As we neared the gate however, the winds picked up again from the south. We saw a whale just outside the gate, and steered clear of it. By the time we got through the Gate, the winds were up to 20 knts and we were shortening sails. By the time we got to Alcatraz the winds were a steady 25 with higher gusts. By the time we past Alcatraz winds were gusting over 30 and we had to shorten sails again. after tacking back towards the Bay Bridge, the winds were a steady 30 with gusts to 35, and again we shortened sails so by now we were sailing with the equivalent of a storm tri-sail and a storm jib. Eventually it became obvious that we were not going to make it back to Club Nautique by 1430 unless we sent under power. The wind waves in the Bay grew amazingly fast since the winds were from the south an there was a fairly long fetch for the waves to build. Even in a 49 foot boat we were crashing through the waves and generating a great deal of spray, which kept me quite wet at the helm. But we made good time and eventually got back to the slip at about 1430. After the post cruise, we were ready to call it a day at bout 1800.
Although I certainly made a few errors during the CPM, I guess on balance I was not a bad Skipper as our instructor saw fit to pass me. Now I just have to take the written test and sail my last CPM trip as the skipper of a tag boat.
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