Moonrise: Ship's Log |
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Winter's gone from the Bay, and Summer weather is already making
its presence felt, so it's time to get the sailing season going with
nice easy ocean trip. After a number of day sails this year, and
having fixed some recalcitrant engine problems, I decided on Half Moon
Bay to get some water under the keel. And knowing what Bay Area
summer weather is like, I invested in a full set of foul-weather gear
-- just as well!
Finding crew is always a problem, but at the last minute Paola
stepped in. No, not the same Paola as last time, another one! The
current at the Golden Gate on Saturday was due to be at maximum ebb at
08:23, with the slack at 12:17; and on Sunday, the maximum flood was
16:35. This made perfect conditions for getting to the ocean and
back, as long as we got out early.
Sat 28 Apr 2001 00:00:00 [UTC]
Alameda
However, we actually got going rather late, around 11:00, by which
time the wind was already blowing fairly strongly. I did a reverse
exit from the dock (when backing down slowly under power, it depends
on the wind and current as to whether I can physically turn the boat
the right way) and we were off down the estuary, the autopilot doing
useful duty at the helm.
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| Paola, in her foulies, as we motored around SF. |
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I decided to motor for a while, probably to the ocean, to get us
out of the Gate against both wind and current. By the time we reached
the bay, it was already blowing quite strongly, and the Bay was about
as choppy as I've seen it; as we motored around SF, spray was being
thrown all over the boat as we ploughed through increasingly large
waves. We both donned full foul-weather gear before even getting into
the slot where the wind blows in through the Gate.
As we got into the Gate, the wind increased as expected, along with
the chop, but Moonrise made light of the conditions and we passed
under the bridge at 13:42, making 4.5 knots against the flood in 15
knots of wind. We gave the sail a try, but it wasn't much use; too
much current swirling around the basin outside the bridge to keep the
bow pointed one way, far less make progress. So we motorsailed on.
But once around Mile Rock and Point Lobos we set sail at 14:50, and
started making good progress south.
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| Paola brings out the heavy artillery of foul-weather gear. |
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Out in the ocean the wind was behind us; by 15:22 we were making 5
knots in about 25 knots of wind, with the double-reefed main and jib
up; the staysail was lashed to the lifelines. But as we moved south
of the Gate the wind also dropped, and by 16:00 we were reaching with
all sails set, though the mainsail was still double-reefed. By this
time the wind was abeam, and down to around 11-12 knots.
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| The windvane in action. |
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At 16:30 we were sailing down alongside Highway 1, and the electric
autopilot was coping surprisingly well with the heavy seas; but I
decided it was time to give the windvane autpoilot a go. It was
terribly easy to set up -- drop an auxilliary rudder into the water
(it's usually tied up to the stern rails), clamp the wind vane onto
its bracket, and cleat the steering lines to the tiller. Turn off the
electric pilot and take it off the tiller, and we're off! No noise,
no power drain, we just coasted gently and silently down the coast.
By 16:50 the wind had abated more, only 8 apparent knots on the
beam, and we shook out the second reef in the mains'l (the first reef
stays in to balance the boat, since the main is over-large). We were
still making 6.4 knots down the coast, on an easy reach.
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| The view astern. |
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By 17:30, the wind was down to the point where the headsails were
slatting in the rolls, even though the swells were only 3 or 4 feet.
The wind by now was down to about 6 knots apparent on the starboard
quarter; since we were making 6.5 knots, the true wind was around
10-11 knots.
By 17:50 Pillar Point was in sight; we carried on heading south, to
stay on the broad reach and get the most out of the headsails,
planning to gybe east after passing the reefs (see the map of the approach to Pillar Point
Harbour for details). At 18:30 the plan was put into action; but
no sooner had we gybed and started making way towards the point than
the wind came up. Yes, of course it's going to seem like that when
you come off a run, but by now we were seeing 15-20 knots of wind on
the beam!
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| Sighting Pillar Point. |
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Still, we got in south of Pillar point; but we didn't find a lee
there, the wind was still blowing hard. At 19:00 we passed the "3"
buoy, headed upwind towards the harbour entrance, and dropped the
sails. I called Pillar Point harbour on the radio, and asked for a
slip -- bad luck! The crab fishermen are in port, and all slips are
spoken for. We're directed to head for E dock and raft up against a
New Zealand sailboat, Karo.
As we entered the inner harbour, the wind was still blowing
strongly. After one scouting run we got tied up at 19:30, and met
Karo's minder, Matt, an interesting bloke from Alabama. He'd sailed
from Hawaii with the owner of the boat he was on, who'd built her (in
concrete) and sailed her alone from New Zealand.
So that ended a pretty good run of 39.6 nautical miles in the day,
which we covered in 8 hours 30 minutes, with an average moving speed
of 4.9 knots.
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| Paola at breakfast time. |
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By the time we'd had a chat with Matt and tidied the boat up, it
was pretty late for a barbecue; and also still too windy, even in the
inner harbour. So Paola made up some pasta, and that was about it for
the night. The night was peaceful enough, although underscored by the
continual creaking of the mooring lines and fenders as the boats moved
together.
Sun 29 Apr 2001 00:00:00 [UTC]
Pillar Point Harbour
In the morning we had a leasurely breakfast, followed by a pot of
freshly-brewed coffee. (Actually, coffee isn't really a good idea if
you're going to be sailing, and we both ended up being a little queasy
in the swells later on.)
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| The crew at breakfast. |
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We set sail again at 10:05. As on the previous trip down, we found
a strong swell, up to around 7 feet, as soon as we passed outside the
line of the reefs; however, this time around the seas were generally
more confused and the ride was not too nice.
We motored out, and at 10:40 set sail; but since there wasn't too
much wind yet, we kept the engine on and motorsailed for a while.
With the wind coming from the north-west, the best tack we could make
was west out to sea; but that was not a bad way to go, since it would
give us the sea room to be able to reach north once the wind got up
later.
We tried the sails a couple of times, but couldn't make much speed,
and since we were heading back against both wind and current, we
decided to motor some more, in order to get home at a reasonable time.
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| Hawaii's out there somwehere... |
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At 12:20 we changed course, and started heading a little east of
due north. We were still motorsailing, with the mainsail and
staysail. The trip north was very quiet; we only saw one other boat
the whole way, otherwise we had the ocean to ourselves (at least the
bit we could see). At first we managed to make between 5 and 6 knots
motorsailing, against the current that comes down the coast; but by
14:25, when we had the town of Pacifica abeam to starboard, we were up
to 6.7 knots in increasing wind (around 13 knots).
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| Sailor dude off Highway 1 |
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Not long after, at 14:34, we could see the towers of the Golden
Gate bridge. By 15:09 we were sailing! The wind was getting stronger
all the time we moved towards the Golden Gate, and was forecast to get
stronger still. We sailed on under the mainsail with one reef and the
staysail; I kept the jib down in mind of the conditions ahead. By
15:26 we were passing the Sutro Tower in SF, making 6 knots in 22
knots of apparent wind off the port bow.
As we approached the Golden Gate, we could begin to see into the
bay, where there seemed to be huge numbers of boats -- probably
because today is the "opening day" ceremony on the bay. But we kept
the bow pointed north; mindful of how a flood current can push you
into Mile Rock, I wanted to be well clear before turning in.
Menawhile we listened to an incredible confusion of radio traffic on
Channel 16 -- boats aground, windsurfurs stuck in the bay and
becalmed, and tragically on man who drowned within yards of Alameda.
It seemed like an immense contrast to the peace and calm of the ocean,
where we sailed along without having to worry about dodging sailboats
and container ships every few seconds.
At 15:46 we turned northeast, skirting Mile Rock by a wide margin,
and with the wind increasing steadily, particularly in the gusts. The
swell was still pretty confused, and up to 8 or 9 feet as we crossed
the South Bar, but Moonrise handled it easily.
At 16:13 we turned towards the bridge, and the change in wind angle
made everything much calmer. The sea was also a lot flatter once we
were inside the bar; but sure enough, the flood current pushed us in
towards Point Lobos and Mile Rock, bringing us closer than I would
have liked. Still, we cleared them safely; if we'd got too close, we
could have just tacked.
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| Passing under the Golden Gate Bridge. |
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At 16:20 we passed under the Golden Gate bridge, at 8.4 knots
(assisted by the flood current), on an easy broad reach. Oddly
enough, the festivities in the bay seemed to be over, and all the
boats had gone! Well, there were still some around Angel Island, but
we had a clear run in, which made life a little easier.
At 16:40, we decided to gybe to pass between Alcatraz and SF,
leaving plenty of room; but just 5 minutes later, we were suddenly
very close to the island! Once again the strong current seemed to be
running directly towards the nearest big, sharp rock. A quick burst
of the motor took us clear -- yes it's cheating, but I'm just as happy
to be well out of there.
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| Clint at the bridge. |
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From before Alctraz the wind had been dropping significantly, and
at 16:50 we raised the jib; 10 minutes later, east of SF, we got the
staysail up. Another 10 minutes had us under the Bay Bridge, in
surprisingly little traffic; as the wind died, it took another half
hour to get to the estuary. Not being in much of a hurry, and with
the water almost flat, we turned to a run up the estuary under
mainsail; we drfted lazily past the huge movie set on the old
airfield, about a mile and a half long, but there was no sign of Keanu
or Carrie-Anne.
At 17:57 a huge container ship entered the estuary, and sounded the
danger signal to all the sailboats ahead of her -- including us! That
was when we decided to get the motor on, the sail down and head out of
there at top speed. Finally, at 18:38 we docked back in Grand Marina.
The run up from Half Moon was 43 miles, which we did in 8 hours 33
minutes, averaging 5.1 knots while moving. The whole trip was 82.6
miles; and while the weather was pretty strong, there was never a hint
of Moonrise not being able to handle it easily. Even Paola was
impressed with how solid she felt, even in the 9-foot swells over the
South Bar.
Copyright (C) 1995-2006 Ian Cameron Smith. (index.cgi $Revision: 1.98 $)
