Oct More

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We went into town today, in Cedros. Quite a bustling little town.

The sail to Turtle bay started off with light winds, but once we got out of the lee of Cedros Island we started really moving with winds that stayed between 10-15 knots, for the most part. We started encountering more and more sailboats from the Baja Ha Ha Rally as they were converging on Turtle Bay at the same time as us. At one point we had a neat dolphin encounter, as they surfed in the steep swell alongside the boat, and some of the other sailboats in close quarters.

On our second-to-last jibe, we had a near disaster, as Harry was securing the lazy running backstay. He inadvertently straddled the Genoa sheet, and as the Genoa came across the bow, and loaded up that sheet, it launched him into the air. Luckily, he stayed in a low-earth orbit, and splashed down safely on the deck. He helped finish the jibe, then excused himself to go below, and check his "equipment". He used a mirror, and declared the incident a near-miss. John later asked him if he had cracked the mirror during the examination. Everyone had a good laugh, and then Harry sheepishly mentioned, that he had indeed, cracked the mirror. Then, we really laughed--almost as much as when he told us the story of his portable, gas-powered stove mishap on his honeymoon sail!

When we got to turtle bay, there were already over 45 sailboats at anchor in the bay. Everyone seemed to be putting away the sails at the bay entrance, and motoring in from there. But John wanted us to practice sailing in to anchor. It was like a final exam on our tacking skills (thank goodness we didn't have to jibe in the bay!) as we avoided rocks, lobster trap floats, and anchored vessels, all with nearly 50 other boats watching.

We tacked several times, prepped the anchor, brought in the staysail, shortened, then completely furled the Genoa, dropped anchor, and doused the mainsail, all without starting the engine. After some of our clumsy jibes, earlier in the day, that had us feeling quite proud of ourselves.

We are now anchored at the south-eastern edge of the fleet. The anchorage seems to be expanding westward for the moment, rather than southward, so hopefully, we won't get surrounded tomorrow. However, there are over 100 more boats expected, so who knows where they will all go...

--Sailor Dave

Oct 31

We had a nice sail from San Benitos, yesterday. We left about 10am, and just outside the easternmost island, we spotted some whales--hundreds of yards off to starboard. We were engrossed with them, when a huge gray whale surface about half a boat-length to port. There seemed to be a mother and a calf, and possible third whale, to port. I'm assuming the one (or more) to starboard was a gray whale, since it didn't have any visible fins, either, and seemed to be light colored.

We had a great sail in fifteen knots of wind from San Benitos to the NW corner of Cedros, and then seemed to get involved with the effects of the Island on the wind. Cedros is a huge island, that is very high and rugged. The chart shows it to be almost four thousand feet high, and it rises steeply out of the water, especially on the western and northern sides.

The first effect we encountered was dead calm, at the NW tip of the island. The winds were coming from the NW, and seemed to pile up against the island. We had to motor a bit. Then, about the time we were directly north of the island, we got strong winds, as the NW wind seemed to be bending around the corner of the island. We sailed in twenty knots for a while. Then we seemed to get into the lee of the island, and the winds stopped again. We again had to motor a while. Then we motored into some very strong winds, that where funneling out of the valley between the to main peaks on the island. Winds went from just a few knots to 28 knots in just a minute or two. As we got away from the valley, winds died off again. We had to struggle along, from valley to valley, sometimes making it without the engine, and sometimes resorting to the "iron" wind, to get to the next windy spot.

We finally motored the last three miles into the port of Cedros. The town of Cedros is much larger than I expected. Looks like it could easily contain a few thousand people. It is a very quiet town. Port "security" came out to greet us a few hours after our arrival.

--Sailor Dave

Oct 29

I had a good night's sleep, and woke up just before sunrise. I decided to get up and enjoy it, instead of sleeping in, as I did yesterday. (Besides, I took a lot of flak for sleeping so much yesterday, so I wanted to be the first one up, today.)

It was a nice sunrise. We did some cleanup and maintenance around the boat. We took apart the main anchor windlass and greased it up, and changed the oil in it. It went pretty well, except that when we put it back together, things weren't going back where they came from. After a few hours more than expected, we finally got everything back together, and only had three extra parts! We later found a home for two of them, so I felt pretty good about it.

After lunch, John and I went out in the dinghy in search of the San Benitos elephant seals. We circled the smallest of the three islands that make up San Benitos, and saw a bunch of them. About 3/4 the way around the island, found a quiet cove, with tons (literally) of elephant seals, and sea lions.

John brought the dinghy within eight feet of the big ones, but the most entertaining part was when 20-30 of the young ones would swim out within about 10 feet of the dinghy, from the side area where they were hanging out. There heads would be all popped up like periscopes, as they checked us out. Finally, they would get too close, and then the huge momma seal would thrash through the water and bark at them, and they would all scurry back to their rocks and coves.

Then, they would start inching back towards the dinghy, and the cycle would begin again. I got some great movies and photos. When we got back to Western Grace, John had me take Cyndi, Marcus and Harry over to the same spot. We only got about half as close as John took me the first time--mainly because I'm a chicken, but also because Cyndi was quite uncomfortable being so close to the huge elephant seals, and the waves had also picked up a bit.

Then we dropped off Harry at the boat, and Cyndi, Marcus and I headed into the village. We were greeted by 3 children at the beach head, and I wanted to entertain them, so I fell out of the boat up to my neck as we beached the dinghy, and got the kids laughing. It was all on purpose... No really...

We talked to three men in a hut near the beach, and then were greeted by Hector, who spoke excellent English.

The kids, Alexandra, Jose Luis, and Daniel, took us on an excursion across the island to the north anchorage, where we got a close up encounter from the ground with half a dozen more elephant seals (Elefantes Marinos).

Tomorrow we leave for Cedros, the Island about 12 miles away, to the southwest. We did some quick analysis of the weather, and figure we will probably be at Turtle Bay at the same time as the 160 boats in the Baja Ha Ha Rally. That should be another interesting experience on the trip!

--Sailor Dave

Oct 28

It's been a quiet day today. I had to sleep in a bit, because I still had fog in my head from last night's watches. After breakfast, I did a little reading, and a few light chores around the boat (read the tanks, and helped clean up the deck and rails), and then started to settle in, when we spotted some dolphins. The seemed close, so I ran for the camera, and got some incredible movies. Sometimes the camera takes a long time to focus in on all the waves, and the shot is past by the time it decides it's focused, so I've resorted to movie mode for the action shots.

But back to the dolphin encounter. It wasn't as many dolphins as yesterday's encounter, but there were easily a hundred dolphins. What made this encounter better, was that they were all headed at us--from all directions. Dozens upon dozens of dolphins came straight at the boat, pulled up along the bow, and then swam into the glare of the morning sun, straight ahead of the boat. Pretty fun for all of us on board.

We decided to give the fish a day of rest, since I think after the fish tacos at lunch today, we are all a bit "fished" out for now. Marcus and Cyndi (I just learned how to spell her name correctly) are cooking spaghetti, and giving Joanne the evening off.

We are about 4-5 hours out from Isla San Benitos, and will have to anchor by radar in the dark. But at least we won't have to do night watches tonight.

--Sailor Dave

Oct 27

We caught another mackerel. Marcus cleaned it.

We had some excitement when a couple of small dolphins surfaced ten feet from the cockpit. Of course they were gone, before I could get a picture of them with my camera...

We were telling John about it, he was describing how dolphins are very intelligent, and are thus efficient hunters, and have a lot of time to be curious, and check us out. He was describing how they hunt by fanning out and cover a wide area, but stay in communication. Then when some of them locate a school of fish, they all converge on it in a mad rush. When they are in a frenzy like that, they usually aren't very curious.

Well, I hesitate to put it this way, because the coincidence is so improbable, but I have witnesses, and video to prove, so here goes...

Not 10 minutes later, I spot this line of chaos out near the horizon. There is a huge line of dolphins, literally hundreds of them, making a beeline across the bow, several hundred yards in front of us, and heading to starboard. The are making this mad rush, and there are times where twenty of them are jumping out of the water in the same camera frame, and there are several groups visible and jumping at the same time. It was really an incredible site, and it went on for several minutes. The line of dolphins jumping had to be about a quarter of a mile long.

I once saw more dolphins while crossing from Catalina Island back to San Pedro on the Sandollar, after a scuba diving trip, but it was in dozens of separate pods.

We flew the "kite" again, earlier today, when the winds were 4-8 knots. We had much better luck with the main down. It makes the gennaker much easier to control, without the disturbed wind of the main stirring it up.

Finally, the winds got too light, and the rolling motion of the swell picked up, and the gennaker was wallowing all over, so we decided to take it down, and patch up a few holes we had noticed while it was flying.

Just as we decided to take it down, Cindy noticed that we had another fish on the line. John was anxious to get the sail down, so we left the fish on the line, to tire it out a bit. Turned out to be a good idea, because those 2 foot long mackerels have a LOT of fight in them.

Since Marcus was up patching the sail, I decided to have a go at filleting the fish. What a mess! I didn't do a stellar job, and when John saw how much meat I had left on the fish, he suggested that it might still live, and that I had inflicted a mere "flesh wound" on it. Cindy insisted that it swam away, when I threw the carcas over the transom.

What can I say? I'm not used to actually CATCHING fish, let alone cutting them up...

Winds picked up a bit this afternoon, but settled down a bit again this evening.

John broiled some fish in the BBQ, and we had an afternoon snack of it (after Joanne's yummy cinamon rolls). I didn't think I would have room for dinner, but Joanne fixed some curry chicken that reminded me of my favorite restaurant, Thai Chili Garden, so I restrained myself, and only had two huge helpings.

We will have another all nighter as we head toward Isla San Benito, near Isla Cedros. We may make it by tomorrow evening, if the winds stay around 10 knots.

--Sailor Dave

Oct 26

Winds stayed too light to head out to Guadalupe Island, so we stayed in close to shore to pick up the sea/land breeze--from offshore during the day, from onshore at night. We headed to San Martin.

We heard whales blowing all thru the night, and nursed the boat along at speeds between 2-4 knots (probably with 1-2 knots help from the current).

This morning we had some excitement. Cindy put out the fishing lines as we started motoring toward San Martin Island. She popped out to check them right after breakfast, and started yelling that she had one. She did indeed. It was a big King Mackerel (as far as we can tell from the books). As she was finishing pulling it up, I asked her how she could tell there was a fish on there. She said that she just looked at the line, and saw something white on the end.

I looked at the other line. There was something white on the end. I reeled in the second fish. They were real fighters once we got them on board, and into a bucket. When John removed the hook from the first one, it really fought, and just made a mess spraying blood all over the back of the boat. He got some tequila, and poured it down it's mouth, and it calmed right down.

John cleaned the first one, and showed Marcus how to do it. Then Marcus cleaned (filleted) the second one. While he was doing that, another one hit on the second line ("la pluma", the "feather", which was one of the lures I bought on the waterfront in Ensenada, in the morning, just before we pulled out.

Harry and I had already gotten the gaff out, so I held the fish over the bucket on the line, and Harry whacked it several times, until it was senseless.

As Marcus was cleaning it, two others hit. But we got smart, and hung them by their tails over the transom, and Marcus bleed them out and then cleaned them. That limited the mess to the transom, where it could easily be washed off.

The last fish, was quite a character. As I was reeling him in, he put up quite a fight. At one point, he caught sight of the other lure, and started chasing it. It was a big effort to pull him away. His instinct to hunt was so strong, he couldn't help himself, even as he was being reeled in.

In the end, we decided to pull in the lines. We had several pounds of fillets, and I think everyone was done fighting (and cleaning) fish, at that point.

What excitement! Things settled down, and I was actually starting to get tired. At one point, John asked me to take the helm for a bit. Shortly, I spotted a huge dolphin fin. Then some more. But the motion was too slow. Then I saw one in closer. It was clearly a whale, so I raised the alarm. The dorsal fin was very vertical, though. John and Harry both said that sounded like Killer Whales, so we shut down the engine, put out some sails, and headed that way. Soon we were virtually surrounded by countless killer whales. There was certainly more than a dozen, and probably more than 20. There were several sub-pods, in multiple directions from the boat. About 10 or 15 minutes into the encounter, 3 or 4 of them came to "check us out", just as John had predicted. A small one swam under the boat, and surfaced immediately beside the boat. A few other medium-sized orcas surfaced just a few boat lengths away.

The whole Orca encounter must have lasted close to a half an hour. Amazing!

Later, we arrived at Isla San Martin. We investigated the small fishing village, but it seems to be abandoned. We dinghied around the point, and found some fishermen from the mainland, hunting abalone. We gave them some candy for their kids. Hopefully, some of it will survive the trip back to the mainland, and get to the kids.

Maybe we'll have a quiet evening, and a good night's sleep, with no anchor watch, and no night watches!

--Sailor Dave

Oct 25

Winds were light, all night long. It's not looking good for making Guadalupe Island. On one of Harry's visual scans from the cockpit, last night, he heard a whale blow, but couldn't see it. I came up into the cockpit, and we heard him blow about every 20-30 seconds for about ten times. It sounded like he was only about 20 yards from the boat, but in the clear, full-moon-light, we could easily see for about a hundred yards out, and we couldn't see him at all.

4:52PM
Light winds. But we had some fun. We were only going about 1.5 to 2 knots, so we trailed a line, and jumped off the bow, again. Harry went in this time, and even dove under the boat and cleared the seaweed we were trailing from the keel. The water was just as cold as yesterday, but we had an added dimension of excitement since there were a lot of jellyfish in the water. (Some really interesting looking ones, too!) Later, we put up the Genaker, and started getting about 3 knots, instead of one or two. It's a big blue sail, so we lowered the dinghy, and got some nice pictures of Western Grace flying the "kite".

Later, we noticed a few small rays jumping at the surface. Kind of strange behavior. John says he thinks it is some kind of mating ritual--maybe the female trying to get away from a few aggressive males?

At one point, an enormous whale surfaced a boat length and a half, directly in front of the boat, swimming in line, and ahead of us. This raised all kinds of commotion, and it surfaced several more times while circling us. We got some really good looks at it. It was a blue whale that was larger than the boat. I finally got my camera and got some good shots of it on its last blow, but was disappointed, because I then switched to movie mode, and was going to take a movie of its impressively long surface roll, but it was already done checking us out...

When it would dive, which it did twice during the several minute encounter, it left a huge slick on the surface of the water, about 20-40 feet long, and about 10 feet wide. Though we never saw it's tail flukes, it was clear that the upwelling and resultant slick were its "prop wash" as it dove.

Later, I saw what looked like a dorsal fin. I assumed it was debris, or a buoy, but then became convinced it was a fin. It didn't look like a dolphin. Then I noticed a tail fin. The tail fin was about 6 feet from the dorsal fin, so it must have been a pretty good sized shark. It was just lazily swimming along the surface soaking up the sun. It crossed our bow a couple of boat lengths ahead, and then seemed to notice us, and thrashed its tail, and disappeared.

Later, we saw two other blue whales, then a humpback, then two more blue whales. Six whales today, five of them the largest animal on earth!

--Sailor Dave

Oct 24

Things settled down a little bit while we were in Marina Ensenada. The winds were still pretty strong through the first day, but the winds were less. We got settled in a cleaned up pretty well, though.

In the evening, we went to a nice restaurant, and had a pleasant dinner. Service was a little slow, and they didn't have fish tacos for Marcus, nor iced tea without sugar for Harry, but other than that it was excellent. I had shrimp burritos and naranjada, and they were tasty.

The next day we went on an adventure to find a Laundromat. Marcus and Cindy made some excellent guacamole and a fine dinner. It was very thoughtful of them. They wouldn't even let Joanne fetch anything, or help with dishes.

This morning, we filled up the tanks, gave the boat a good washing, and prepared to head out. I even found some fishing lures to replace the two I have lost so far. I guess I'm going to have to check the lines more frequently!

After we got out of the bay, the winds died down. We decided to take John up on his offer of jumping off the front of the boat, and swimming back to a line trailing behind. Even with the boat going just 2-3 knots, it is quite exhilarating to jump off, and have to swim back, not to mention that the water was quite cold the first few times. Marcus and I did it three or four times, and Cindy even did it!

We've had to head south east, instead of southwest, toward Guadalupe Island, as intended, so unless the winds change to the northwest, as forecasted, we may have to alter the plan.

Nevertheless, it was a VERY pleasant sail today with the winds at two to five knots, and the sea as smooth as glass, at times.

We sighted some dolphins and sea lions, coming out of the bay, and a couple of sunfishes wallowing on the surface, at one point.

We've seen two cruise ships (Carnival) today, a handful of freighters, and some fishing boats.

--Sailor Dave

Oct 23

Hi all! Wow what a ride! 3 days of winds of 20-40 knots gusting over 40 quite a bit. A little like riding a roller coaster for 3 days and nights, with water. Sleeping is interesting, picture a bowl sloshing back and forth in a bed. Going to the bathroom is like trying to go in a jumpy house. Smaller bathrooms are better, as you can wedge yourself, as you hold on with one hand and lower and raise your pants with the other. Anywhere you go you must hold on.
Outside we have jacklines we clip into so if we go over we will still be connected to the boat. Mostly we use those at night. Night watch for us is 4-6pm 10-12am and 4-6am 4-6 is the worst!! We go to bed right after dinner, about 7pm so we can get enough sleep. Also day naps. Watch is check the radar every 20 min. and pop out of the hatch and scan front and back every 20 minutes (tethered to the jackslines). Also monitor channel 16 the emergency channel.
Last night we arrived Ensenada and anchored out. Captain said no night watches and we could sleep in, yahoo! About 2;30am heard crashing and captain yells, ALL HANDS ON DECK! I thought that was only in movies! A Fishing boat had crashed into us because he was dragging anchor. All excitement, pictures to document, only cosmetic damage because of steel boat. Back to bed. 6:30am I hear something slamming, 1, 2, 3 ok, one more time and I'm getting up to check. I pop out the hatch to see the sailboat that was next to us has also dragged anchor and is bashing against the fishing boat.
Soon a rescue operation ensued as we discovered the sailboat had no steerage. Well, we have a competent captain and an excellent, seasoned crew, so we saved the boat, and later in the afternoon pulled up anchor and got a slip for the next 2 days so we can relax for a bit before moving on to more secluded bays. So much for a quiet day in Ensenada! Tonight, LIBERTY. A night on the town with my posse; Marcus, Dave and Harry.

Much love to all, I have a 90 day visa in Mexico, so who knows when I'll return.

Cindy

Oct 22 part 2

Passing thru the Channel Islands, between San Nicolas and Catalina.

Wow, it was an exciting night. Had huge seas and winds over 40 knots. We've been jibing down the coast, keeping headings somewhere between southwest and due east for the most part. Boat speeds have been between 6 and 9 knots. We had to reef and unreef a few times last night. We were down to a small piece of the Genoa, and triple reefed main. The wind direction has been pretty good, for the most part, though.

We had some excitement during my watch with Harry last night. A big blip on the radar was coming directly at us about 30 knots. I went up into the cockpit (in the 15 foot swells and 30 knot apparent winds), and hung on to the dodger with both hands, looking in vain for ship that came within a mile. But then I realized that not only could I not see the ship, but I couldn't see any stars. We were socked in. We decided to keep the radar on full time for the rest of the watch.

We haven't seen much marine life since the weather got rough. I don't know if they are hiding out, or if it's just too hard to see them between all the waves. John finally spotted a couple of dolphins right beside the boat this morning.

Later, Joanne saw some kind of small boat heading upwind, this morning. She and John tried to get it to come up on radar, but it was lost in amongst the swell. It must not have a radar reflector. That's a bit of a scary thought.

John announced that it was shower day, but as we jibed out from behind the channel islands, this morning, the swell picked back up into the 10-15 foot range, and the rolling went back up to the E-Ride level. There was some debate about putting it off until later. I abstained from voting, but was willing to wait, if others could stand the smell. I think I'll go "freshen up" a bit before my afternoon watch comes up in a few hours.

--Stinky Da-..., I mean..., Sailor Dave

Oct 22

The PLAN, was to set anchor, and have a good night's rest. We could sleep-in in the morning, and then check in, do laundry, and maybe enjoy town a bit.

But the Santa Ana's had a different plan...

We set Western Grace's humongous 183 pound bruce anchor, and went to bed. The winds were howling, so I slept on and off. Finally, I got used to the creaks and moans, and went off to a sound sleep. At 2:30am I woke up to a handful of loud bangs, but dismissed them as more strange noises.

I came wide awake when I heard John saying, "He hit us four times." I dashed out on deck, to see a huge fishing boat, the Maria Veronica, just feet behind us. It had apparently swung loose from one of its two anchors, and banged down the side of Western Grace, with its stern rollers (for fishing nets?). It had gouged the paint on Western Grace on the starboard side 5 or 6 times. It then headed for the multimillion dollar yacht, Ronin (out of Georgetown). But the winds died down, and the remaining anchor seemed to bite, and the fishing boat swung around to the wind, just behind us.

We checked out the damage (I later took some pictures, in the daylight), and verified that our 183 pound anchor was holding, and that our GPS position hadn't changed, let the adrenalin wear off, and then settled back in to sleep.

Then at 6:30am, we woke up to alarming sounds again, and found that the nearby yacht, Destination Unknown, had dragged from several boat lengths out in front of us, and off to port, to way astern of us. He lay along the starboard side of the fishing boat, with his shrouds now tangled in the crane tackle from the Maria Veronica. Harry, the skipper of Destination Unknown, had gotten some fenders between him and the Maria Veronica, with only a few scrapes on the hull, but the crane tackle had already torn off the cockpit bimini frame from the port side of his boat.

After he got himself a little clear of the fishing boat, we were surprised that he didn't clear out. John found out that they didn't have any steerage, and had limped into harbor with only the autopilot to steer by.

John got the dingy out, and brought over a line to them, took out an anchor (on of the ones we hauled up from the bottom of Richardson harbor, at the beginning of the trip) at about 45 degrees to their starboard, so they could pull away from the fishing boat.

We had a literal Mexican-stand-off. Destination Unknown was pinned to the back of our boat, and couldn't really maneuver to get clear and re-anchor. Western Grace was hovering over the the Maria Veronica's anchor, and she couldn't move forward to pull out. John finally got some people from the fishing boat to come look at Western Grace's hull damage--some of the gouges about a quarter inch deep, an inch wide, and 5 or 6 inches long.

Someone from the marina noticed the commotion, and came out in a panga to investigate. John went with him to go look at a slip, and arranged for one--once we got free from the boat-anchor melee. Shortly after the marina guy dropped John off at Western Grace, again, he must have called the Federales, because they showed up shortly afterwards.

They were able to tow off Destination Unknown, and get her re-anchored, well clear of the other other boats. Someone from the marina seems to have enticed her in, for once we got back from the Immigration office, she was rafted up to the boat on the end of the dock next to us. John had trouble pulling out the little Danforth anchor he loaned to Destination Unknown, and we ended up having to use Western Grace to pull it out. Even that was a chore, and we finally winched it up, loaded with 20-30 pounds of good, firm mud. That's a pretty good "free" anchor.

The winds have eased up. We are all checked in, and we've hosed-off all the anchor mud and Santa Ana storm dust. Time to enjoy Ensenada!

--Sailor Dave

Oct 21

After passing through the Channel Islands, things settled down for a nice run, today. Last night, John had a little run-in with Warship 72 (we think it might have been an aircraft carrier). It was changing course, back and forth, in front of Western Grace, on John's watch, and he was trying to avoid them, but of course they are going 30 knots, and we are going 6 or 7. At one point, Warship 72 called John on the radio, and asked him, "what are your intentions?"
John replied, "I have been trying to avoid you for the past hour and a half."
Warship 72 then requested that we change course a little to starboard, but John replied that he was sailing about as deep on the wind as he could. Warship 72 came back after a brief delay, and then said that they would speed up, and get out of the way, and requested that we not get closer than 2 miles to them (as if we could stay out of their way...).
When we went out on deck, this morning, we noticed that it was covered with sand. Apparently, there was a dust storm, during the night, that had carried all the way out to sea. I hosed off the decks, but within few hours, they were covered again. The dust in the air was visible all around us. Perhaps it had something to do with the Santa Ana winds, we thought.
The day turned out to be quite beautiful. The large swell was settling down, and the winds eased a little. They were still strong, but not too strong--around 10-20. Turned out to be a great day for showers. Everyone took one. Too bad I had cheated, yesterday, and took one while I was being bounced around by the huge swells. During the pleasant weather, we saw two ocean sun fish, about 4-5 feet long. Harry initially thought they were sharks--and with their top fin sticking out of the water, I was convinced, as well. But then John realized they were sun fish. Later, we even saw a large pod of small (spinner?) dolphins.
Then in the early afternoon, as we got closer to land, we started picking up the strong Santa Ana winds that we had been hearing warnings about on the radio. We ended up beating straight into the wind for the rest of the day, as the winds gusted up into the mid thirties.
It seems like Marcus, Cindy, Harry and I are getting the hang of things on the boat. As things were still quite unsettled, this afternoon, John went down for a nap. We had to un-reef the sails, and then re-reef (even further), and John didn't even wake up. We had gale force apparent winds. About 6pm, we had to head straight into the wind to make the harbor, so we took down all sail and motored in for the last bit. The computer charts are out of date, and show us now anchored on Third street, in the tourist district of downtown Ensenada.
Coming into harbor should have been much easier than it was, but it was dark, and the Santa Ana winds were howling (in the 20's and 30's), and blasting sand into our eyes, as we looked for the channel markers coming into the harbor. Harry got the clever idea to wear his diving mask as goggles, and it worked quite well. I got mine out, and we may have looked silly, but it was way better than the optical sand blasting. I hope my mask isn't damaged!

Tomorrow we check in to Mexico!

--Sailor Dave

Oct 20

Western Grace is reaching fast, foam flying along the hull. 8 to 8.5 Kts Winds honking. Feels great with big displacement and the steady feel of a small ship. Reefed double main. Genoa Bikini size. Comfort rating: Superb.
getting South of the Channel islands. 213 NM to Ensanada.

Oct 19
Crew adjusting well. All stand watches and are very comfortable and knowledgeable.
Did lots of briefings, procedures and equipment checks.
Lost our first fishing lure, something really big... Cyndi and Marcus found sea legs today. Dolphins around.

Oct 18
Cyndi & Marcus made it onbaord around noon and within 20 min where under sail. Sailed away from the anchor in a light breeze.

Picked up a freshening breeze right outside the bay and by night fall where moving around 5 Kts. Since than we did not look back as the winds have increased to near gale NW. What a contrast with just a week ago when we are pounding into head seas now with it we are sometimes ,making 8kts in total comfort. Clear skies and a big Santa Anna expected. Seas big 14ft

Oct 18

Sounds like the grandchild was born late last night, and Mark and Cindy are due to arrive soon. We will then be departing Monterey, and heading out to sea in search of some strong, steady wind. Once out to sea, we expect to head directly for Ensenada.

The sail into Monterey was a beautiful respite from the ugly weather we had the first few days. We had occasional sunshine, and light winds--at times a little too light, and we motored a good portion of the way. We had a gentle swell that was sometimes in the 10 foot range, and it was just too hard on the sail, slapping them around when the wind was under 6 knots.

We have had a peaceful anchorage, just sheltered from the huge swell, and crashing waves, just a quarter mile down the beach from us.

We've had lots of encounters with sea lions, and sea otters while we've been anchored here. Last night we went into town for dinner. Harry had a steak, and I had some deliciously prepared salmon. It was supposedly the "catch of the day", but it was probably flown in from Alaska. Tasted good where ever it was from.

Today, the swell is forecast up to 15 feet, so it should be some fun sailing once we get out there.

Captain John says we won't enlist Mark and Cindy in the night watches tonight, to give them some time to settle in from their recent grandchild ordeal. Should be a fun, but long, night!

--Sailor Dave

Oct 17 1430

The reluctant grandchild saga continues. We still haven't connected with our last two crew members. Apparently, there is no baby, yet, even after two days of induced labor. As I write this, on the way to Monterey (from Santa Cruz, where we spent the night), the doctor said they would have to take the baby by Cesarean if it wasn't born by 5pm tonight. YIKES!

We had quite an interesting sail from Pillar Point to Santa Cruz. Lots of southerly winds, directly opposite from the normally agreeable winds from the NW. There was also a lot of rain and wind. We were down to a double-reefed main and staysail at one point. We slowed down to three or four knots, but it eased the angle of heel. That was when the wind was around 27 knots. 15 knots is perfect for this boat. 20 is a lot. 25 starts getting very uncomfortable for a newbie, like me.

We still had to tack our way down through the southerly wind, and in the wind and rain it was quite exhilarating.

We turned the radar on every once in a while, when visibility was bad, to see what was coming up. Apparently, no one else liked the weather. Other than some sort of a small cruise ship, there was not much out there.

Yesterday we saw two whales. One crossed in front of us less than a boat length away. I got some good video of him surfacing a handful of times, and then one big, last arch, and some tail flukes, and he was gone!

We had a few seals (or sea lions) visiting us throughout the day, yesterday, and this morning there were a couple of dolphins that swam around the boat just after sunrise. We've seen a couple more whales today, and something large, that surfaced right in front of the boat, but didn't seem to be a whale. John thought it might have been a manta ray.

There was a red tide in Santa Cruz, so we couldn't see much in the water. Maybe Monterey will be a bit better.

It has been quite exciting so far. I told John, during the bad weather last night, that if I had known it was going to be like this, I would have been willing to pay extra. It was really quite fun to be in some heavy weather in a sturdy boat like Western Grace.

Last night, we were late, coming into Santa Cruz, after fighting the contrary winds. So I got my fist night watch, just after sunset. As the clouds blocked out even the moon, and starlight, I looked forward to turning on the radar every half hour, and scanning for any targets. Nothing was there, other than the cruise ship, but it was fun to ensure that I hadn't missed anything in my visual scans, and to make all the various adjustments for sensitivity, waves, and rain on the display.

Once we hook up with the last two crew members, we will head directly for Ensenada, so I never know if this will be my last report for a while.

--Sailor Dave

Oct 17

We've just made our first port of call. Pillar Point, just south of San
Francisco Bay. We were looking to pick up the last few crew members, that
are waiting for their stubborn grandson to be born. The poor mother, they
induced today, but no luck yet. If they don't make it tomorrow, they may
have to meet the boat in Santa Cruz.

Today we had a fun and interesting start to the cruise. Harry and I were
bringing up the anchor, and we had an extra chain attached to it. Lots of
mud and effort later, we had 3 anchors, instead of one. Captain John was
quite excited!

Had a rough sail out of the bay, and down to pillar point. Wind was coming
from the SSW, which is unusual, and was quite strong 15-20 knots. 15 feels
just right in this boat, but 20 was a bit much, and we ended up reefing the
main and the genoa for a while, until it settled down for most of the trip
down the coast at 15 knots.

With the strange southerly wind, we had to tack our way down between the
coast and the shipping lanes. I put out a fishing line, but only caught some
seaweed. Never was much of a fisherman.

Tacking this big boat is quite the operation. Not only are the mainsail and
genoa huge, but there is a staysail to tack, and some running back stays
that have to be released on one side, and then rigged on the other side,
once the tack is complete. There's a lot of big rope to pull, and then crank
(for a long time) to get stuff trimmed after tacking.

It was overcast all day, and rained a bit a few times. We took some waves
over the bow a few times, but steering from the pilothouse is quite nice. I
got to take a "watch" for the second half of the trip. Watch consisted of
steering by hand until it started raining, and then taking a real watch,
sitting in the pilothouse, adjusting the autopilot every few minutes,
checking the GPS screen every now and then, and scanning the horizon for
other boats (just a few), along with watching out for the occasional fishing
buoys. I didn't hit anything other than a few pieces of bull kelp.

Other than getting a little light-headed in the anchorage on the first
night, I haven't had any sea-sickness--so far--knock, knock.

--Sailor Dave

Oct 16

Left pillar point around 0800 hrs. Used the main engine to get away from the dock and hoisted the sail right there and sailed out of the harbor under sail with a light SW breeze.

A stiff SSE breeze up to 20 kts gave us a good sail but progress to windward was slow. Sailed till 1700 hrs and than lost all winds as the low passed and left us in a choppy sea condition. Arrived at 2330 hrs under engine in Santa Cruz bay and took up anchorage East of the pier. Very rolly and very noisy from the Sealions barking. During the night things settled down and by this morning the rolling was nearly gone and the sea lion noise was twice as loud.

Oct 15

Left Sausalito. Actually trying to leave as we had 2 abandoned anchors with
chain hang on our big anchor when we hauled it onboard. So after working for a hour with the very muddy gear had two smaller anchors with about 100' of nice chain. Had a great sail to Pillar point and are now alongside washing clothes as they where covered under the mud. Still awaiting our last two crew members Cindy & Marcus who are awaiting the arrival of a new grandbaby. Hopefully tomorrow morning we may know

Oct 14

Hi everyone. I thought I'd give a brief report of my first day, while I've still got an internet connection.

The boat arrived late in Sausalito, after weathering a few severe Pacific storms. Main was severely torn up again after the crew had just repaired it in Coos Bay. They had trouble getting it down, when they got caught in a 50 knot blow.

After enjoying midday in Sausalito, Western Grace arrived about 2pm local time. I helped provisions, refill a propane tank, and get 1of 3 needed items from the large, but understocked, West Marine here in the nearby marina.

We are anchored in Richardson Bay. It is a pretty bay. Another crew member is to arrive today, and we will pick up a couple that is attending the birth of their Grandson, after we leave tomorrow, and pick them up in the next port down the coast.

On my first day, I got introduced to the layout of the boat, unpacked, went on the above mentioned provisioning run, and then got put to work (just like I had requested). After fixing a broken hot-water faucet knob in my cabin's bathroom (head), I learned how repair a badly torn main sail. I'm about a third of the way done, and expect to spend a good part of the day, today, on that.

I suspect I will learn more about the boat's operation once the whole crew is on board.

I had a touch of light-headedness during the night, but had some McCormick's ginger (thanks, Captain Diana!) and was fine. We'll see how I feel once we get out in some real swells...

Having lots of fun already, and we haven't even really started!

--Sailor Dave

Oct 14
Worked on several things at the time as we had a tough trip and a few things needed attention. Joanne doing laundry etc and cleaning up.
Around noon Harry our next crew member arrived with his wife Sue and son Derek. Sue took Joanne shopping and Derek and Harry helped get the boat ready. That's what it is all about meeting people every where and get the know them at a fast rate and make friends. Thanks guys for your help.

Oct 13
Arrived at 1300 at the Golden Gate. Always a grand sight and a sailors dream sailing under the Bridge. Moved on direct to Sausalito, Richardson Bay and anchored just outside the navigation channel.

Dave our new crew member was already waiting so picked him up right away. Within no time he was working with Rick to take the leech off the main.
Just got it done before his ride arrived.

Oct 13

Are still on schedule. We are 75 miles out and are running between 6.5 and 7 Kts with the motor idling at 1400 Rpm and the Genoa out in a light easterly.

This has by far been our worst trip for weather with virtual most of it in Gale force on the nose. Winter storms have come early this year. Even the Tuna fisherman are sitting holed up in all the ports along the coast dealing with the fall out of global warming? We did not see anyone out there except some big freighters and tug boats.

Most be a few boats stuck on there migration South. We hope the worst is over once we are in SF.

Yesterday had some excitement as the main engine slowed down, than quit. Discovered we had some water in the fuel. Sure we picked that up in Coos Bay as I scrubbed the fuel tanks before leaving Sidney. Was not a problem just switching over to our other system as we have two side by side.
Drained a few liters of water out of it.

Look forward to arriving at the Gate.

Oct 12

Yesterday had a reasonably day and even sailed a few hours but could not keep a good course as the winds where pushing us out to sea to much.

Last night however around Cape Mendocino things got rough. Very rough. Weather forecast was for SE 15 -25 but we got at least 40 Kts with a nasty steep sea.
Matter of fact a tough night as we got hammered by big seas. At the worst of it sounded like the hull was hit by a log a few times a minute.

Motion was violent and we had difficulty taking down the main. Just kept the staysail up to stabilize and kept heading out SSW to get most comfortable.

1000 Hrs things are letting up matter of fact wind is down to less than 10 Kts and seas are settling down. Still get thrown around and Joanne just got her fingers pinched trying to retrieve something out of the freezer and the lid flew down.
making 6 Kts and occasional taking a greeny over the deck but expect the next few hours to speed up as the seas lay down.

153 Nm to the Gate. ETA 1200 Saturday.

Oct 11

We are running 20 miles offshore and the weather is improving. Seas are still big but getting easier to take. Have a double reefed main and the Staysail up. Winds are SE 14 or so. This gives us a nice boost as we run well over 6 Kts. At day break will set more sail and if wind shift more we may be able to go on sail alone. For now need to get some miles behinds us as we are due in SF Saturday and would like to have some margin. The 2 days stop at Coos Bay need to be made up somewhat.

Another low is forecast to cross us but winds are a lot less than the last one and are now forecasted to be at the most 25 Kts. Just had a deck sweeper going by. Learned from this one, although we never been late we will allow more time next time for this trip. From SF on we have a lot more time and if the weather looks crappy will have time to enjoy an anchorage. Yippee nicer weather and warmer!!!. We have been cold a lot this Season despite global warming. For the West Coast that means global raining we think.

We had some left over lead shot from the ballast tanks and Ben Hendriks a friend and fellow sailor from Nanaimo put it up for sale. Got a good price for it, actual should have bought lead instead of the boat and would have made some money.

Our Mainsail flies great and the repair is only noticeable if you know it. Amazing what you can do with a needle and a dremel tool. As our sails are very heavy is it more than two ply forget about getting a needle through. We have discovered to drill a tiny hole with the Dremmel bit make a nice job as it melts the edges and actual is stronger than just making a hole with a needle.

While at the dock had a look at the GPS compass. It send us for a loop (actually a few) the last day before we got in and we hope it was a loose wire as it was intermittent working. It works fine now and the rudder corrections are only a fraction from when we use the magnetic compass input.

293 Miles to go.

Oct 10

At 1045 dropped our lines and pulled up to the fuel dock. Had called the coast guard for permission to cross the bar, but was denied at 1000 hrs, Just after taking on fuel the bar was opened for vessels over 40' and we stored all our docking stuff and got underway.

At 1145 crossed the bar with no problems and dry decks. Seas enormous on both sides. Are now underway in big seas 17 -20' and making steady 5 Kts.

Oct 9

Looks like the weather system has passed on. The Bar is still closed but it just low Ebb so that make sense as it usually the worst conditions at that time. Around noon we have a high and the flood start running soon. If the ebb current opposes the waves it kicks up steep and dangerous breaking waves. Right now up to 18' fluffing seas as they call it here. The coast guard is constantly updating this and we listen to the radio for the latest.

Last night we washed the boat as we had lots of soot on deck from all the engines running on the fish boats. Many have fish onboard and need to run the freezer constantly. Was funny as it first looked like someone had marking shoes and we where already to blame Chinese made Sperry boat shoes for leaving marks.

We are sea ready and just need some more fuel and can be underway.

Oct 8 Part 2

Made it in yesterday morning. (Monday) Awaiting the passage of a weather system to pas. Tomorrow morning expect to depart for NSF for Saturday Morning arrival.

We have many boats and the docks are full. Even the big commercial fish boats are in waiting it out. 6 Canadian Tuna fishers here.

The entrance over the bar was a easy one and it is closely controlled by the coast guard. Right now it is closed due to hazardous seas.
The winds have piped over night and it is still blowing but the forecast is for diminishing winds.

The mainsail is repaired after two days of hard stitching. Thanks to Sid, Walter, Tim & Rick who helped stitching in two teams we made this repair in good time. How many stitches in 20' of seam? Too many if the cloth is very heavy. We where very blesses as the tear was mostly a seam and the cloth was still in good shape. So better than new.

Sid, Walter & Tim said goodbye and Rick is going on with us to SF.
Outside the rain is coming down in buckets. Getting ready for early departure tomorrow morning.

Oct 8 Part 1

Just off the coast of Oregon. Had a bit of a blow and a rough ride. Matter of fact never had so much head wind this long anywhere.

Winds where 30 -35 Kts yesterday and we had the decks awash most of the time. Sailing was impossible as we could not make any headway at all. So we had to motor into it, making it uncomfortable. Yesterday afternoon around 1700 the winds veered and we set sail to take advantage of this only to have to take the sails down 20 minutes later as the winds died almost completely. The tempest settled down real quick as the seas where wild and unorganized to a 10' Westerly. At times we made as little as 2 Kts even at cruising RPM.

We are setting course for Goos Bay where we will be arriving at Day break. A deep 960 Low is forecasted to skirt the coast with some bad Southerlies up to 45 Kts for the area and up to Hurricane force winds further out. Better safe than sorry. Putting in till Wednesday morning seem the prudent thing to do given this coasts reputation.

The weather is fine right now and we making a easy 6 Kts under engine, under a star filled sky.
Yesterday a vessel we earlier crossed paths with( Revery) called the coastguard with steering difficulty and where escorted in to New Port.
We had our own scare with the autopilot as we in the middle of the night we experienced erratic steering a few times in a row, than things worked for a while till yesterday afternoon when it did it again. Rebooted the auto pilot and the new GPS compass and found the new compass is the culprit. Good we believe in redondecy and we reconnected the Magnetic compass back up and it works fine now. We are always mindful of the fact how much we rely on auto as steering by hand is a real chore and nobody steers better than a computer. So if things get nasty nothing better than retreat in the pilot house. Beats standing up to your waste in water. Sounds like we are soft but
making as many miles as we do it is the only way.

Would like to move on to Cresent City and put in there as its approach is clean with no bar to cross. But have not enough time to safely make it in on time, so Coos Bay it is

Oct 7

A bit rough today. This morning we blew out the mainsail. Still usable but only in the very small 3rd reef size.

Despite the weather all is well. Crew all up and contemplating putting in at Goos bay as weather forecast talks serious weather for Tuesday

Oct 5

Had a nice day first day out but had to motor to much. promised winds where so light and the swells so big that the sailing was tough. Tried off and on and got a few hours in but mainly made our miles under engine. Friday night the SW winds came up and we are now sailing in earnest.

Got a good size Tuna last night. A albacore 16 lbs or so. Weather fore cast not great as a few days of Southerly winds are predicted.

Everyone is doing fine. Crew works well together and all standing their watches. Despite the swell nobody even queasy.

Got Porpoises out of the Juan DE Fuca Strait and a large Humpback crossed our bows within a few yards. Close but the whale was on a mission heading for Hawaii.

Are now just North of Cape Shoalwater just North of the Columbia River.

Oct 4

Up with the birds and at the fuel dock at 0800 hrs sharp. Took 500 liters of diesel nearly breaking the bank. 0845 cast of our lines and underway. Motored till Cordova than found some wind and sailed almost all to Race Rocks. Then all wind left and with the tide and engine on 1400 Rpm making 7.5 Kts.

1800 Hrs Sooke abeam. Low Westerly swell, no wind. All crew medicated up ready for action.

Oct 3

Tsehum harbor

A good night at anchor, Winds where up but no problems as it was not to crowded and we where able to set a decent amount of scope.

Last day before departing and our crew will be arriving today.
Lost of last minute stuff like stowing some more, put dividers in the bunks, blinds on the portholes, rigging tension check etc.

Early afternoon Sid, Rick and Tiny Tim arrived traveling rather heavy, but we can handle it. How long are you going to stay anyway?

Started safety briefing and familiarization. Walter boarded late at night.

Oct 2

Last item on our list bring the car to storage. This is been a issue from time to time as we store it with friends but as their situation changes this may not always be possible. We got a spot with Winston Bushnell this time. He is a old time sailor in the area who is well know for his sensible and cost cutting approach to sailing. He is one of the first who on a very small steel boat traveled the North West Passage.

Joanne is doing the last bit of laundry. Equalized the batteries and should be in top shape for the next few weeks.

The last weather update suggest Westerlies making it tempting to take the outside route to Sidney.

1045 Left Stones marina. We where rafted up along "Nuevo Vida". Set
sail just outside Departure Bay/ light NW winds. Autopilot working good.

Despite a gallant try had to change plans as all winds disappeared. So reluctantly turned on the engine and change course for Dodds Narrows to run with the Ebb tide. This will give us a boost of a few knots in the Narrows and a slight boost the rest of the trip. 10.5 kts through the Narrows.

Had good winds going into Sansum Narrows, matter of fact hit a squall with 36 Kts and had to reef deep. 1830 at anchor Tsehum Harbour.

Oct 1

Most birds are migrating right now and we are feeling the strong urge to do the same. It has been a hectic summer with lots of long trips and much work to upgrade the boat to the New TC standards.

A big shopping day today to get all our stores and supplies for the next trip and also some items for the season as we plan to be back end of May 2008. Many items to carry and store. Storing is the hardest part as we have limited space and we sometimes do not know where we have put things. Despite all inventory sheets this happens from time to time. Resulting in checking all areas and much frustration.

Western Grace has been updated with additional VHF radio, fire fighting equipment, alarms etc. We also invested in a new GPS compass to aid our autopilot in keeping a straighter course when we are heavy pitching and rolling. We hoped to reduce the noise, wear and tear and efficiency resulting in more speed.

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