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Thread: Sailing Tomorrow

  1. #331
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    Quote Originally Posted by AlanH View Post
    Even if there's no wind, like the time I came up from Morro Bay in 2006, the lumpy water around Point Sur extends a remarkably far distance out from the big rock. I was maybe 2 miles out in very light wind and wow...steep, steep chop. I'd suggest giving Point Sur at least 4-5 miles of clearance.
    ~3 nm West-Southwest of Point Sur is the relatively shallow Schmieder Bank, with the top at about 20 fathoms. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Schmieder_Bank

    My Sue was one of the Cordell Expedition divers who originally explored Schmieder Bank resulting it it being included in the Monterey Bay National Marine Sanctuary. And as Alan suggested, depending on the conditions, you might want to stay offshore of Schmieder Bank.
    Tom P.

  2. #332
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    Jul 2016
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    Dura Mater spent a 2nd night at San Simeon Cove. Lemon thingees and private tours of the big house on the hill? What else could it be?

    Ants

  3. #333
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    Dense fog the whole way - it didn't sound like she was enjoying herself. Yesterday evening she was entering some new GPS waypoints.

    AFAIK the big house on the hill is closed.

  4. #334
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    Jul 2016
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    Quote Originally Posted by BobJ View Post
    Dense fog the whole way - it didn't sound like she was enjoying herself. Yesterday evening she was entering some new GPS waypoints.

    AFAIK the big house on the hill is closed.
    I had no idea about dense fog. The speeds down the coast were more impressive considering the lack of visibility.

    I knew the big house was closed to mere mortals, but lemon thingees create special privileges.

    Does fog clear around Pt Conception?

    Ants

  5. #335
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    Jan 2010
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    Does fog clear around Pt Conception? Well jeez louise, I sure hope so! Look, Ma! I can text from sea! This fog business makes for a boring passage. San Simeon was splendid. Safe and quiet and sparsley furnished. On to Morro Bay. Showers. New friends. Whoa! Is that the sun trying to come out up there? Bob was right. It is getting mo better.

  6. #336
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    9.21.20 Monday
    Dura Mater and I are in San Simeon Bay. Got in, dropped anchor last night at 9:30 pm after leaving Monterey at 6:30 am.

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    This morning I re-anchored away to the side of the entrance so that someone like me (in dense fog and the dark of a night with no moon) will be able to come in and anchor immediately. The boat that preceded me, s/v HINA and one that came in later, s/v Annabel Lee out of Portland, Oregon, have done the same.

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    I re-anchored downwind of the Annabel Lee. She looks like an ocean going boat and I have confidence that she won't drag anchor and float back onto my dear DM. And me.

    As I prepared to leave Monterey yesterday morning people were coming down to their fishing boats in the municipal harbor. It was a Sunday morning. They were bundled up against the cold fog and wore watch caps and gloves. They carried big thermoses and and coolers.

    We nodded at each other as they passed Dura Mater to their own boats further down B Dock. For her part, DM was ready to go. As I untied her lines the engine clicked into gear and she leaped forward. Well, maybe leap is the wrong word: She was ready to get going. I was just anxious.

    I reminded myself of what that fella in Half Moon Bay called out to me as I motored past him on his boat at an end dock. He said, "I had a Cal 2-27! Sailed her from Alaska to New Zealand!" Now that's reassuring. Of course, you never hear anyone say, "I had a boat like yours! Sank underneath me." That would be rude.

    The fog was dense. But it's okay, right? I have two (count 'em, two, not one) chart plotters with MX Mariner installed. Plus I have the 2020 California Coast Pilot in the cabin, and installed on both chart plotters.
    Almost importantly, I have my trusty Garmin gpsmap 78 and many many rechargeable Eneloop pro batteries, which last a long time. Two AAs lasted almost the whole trip - until Cape San Martin, where I switched them out with another set ready in the cockpit bag. I do try to prepare.

    The swell increased at Lovers Point, a bit more than a half mile out of the municipal harbor, and it got real rolly at Cypress Point. We were motorsailing in dense fog. The weather app tells me that it is sunny in Big Sur. Well, I was looking forward to it. We were headed SSW and the sail was slatting in the swells. There was no wind. I reminded myself of the important detail Skip told me: there is a good bakery in Morro Bay.

    We passed Point Pinos buoy at 8:03 but I never saw it. It seemed the fog was even denser than in the harbor. Next waypoint: Bixby Bridge, aka Hurricane Point. I looked forward to seeing the beautiful Bridge from the water, maybe photographing it. Well, not on this trip, I wouldn't. I followed a route approximately 1.5 nm from land most of the way down from Point Pinos on.

    At 8:13 am the sky was blue above us, but the fog stayed. The sun was trying to come through, and the water was shimmery in its rays, but it didn't try hard enough. We remained in dense fog for the rest of the day and into the night.

    There was nothing to see in the fog. A couple of times I unrolled the jib, but we would have had to sail much further out to get wind and it would be a long day already. I just kept on under engine. That wonderful Engine by Dave still manages to sound like an engine. Loud and powerful, but loud.

    There was big swell off Point Sur, and I hand steered. It seemed to take forever. We were abeam at 11 am. Once past Big Sur Rocks the swell lessened appreciably. We kept on, sliding down the swell, gybing all the way from Big Sur to San Simeon.

    The swell past Point Sur subsided enough for me to take stock of the circumstances. I'll admit to feeling a certain amount of ... trepidation. Yet so far, everything was okay. We approached Partington Point at 12:48 with an ETA for San Simeon of 11:30 pm. In the dark. In this fog. Sigh.

    I couldn't stay away. I gybed over toward Big Sur at 1:44 pm and was rewarded by a view of Big Sur!

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    Like Shangri La the fog lifted and there it was in front of us! It was mesmerizing. Magnificent!
    When we got close enough to see the waves crashing on the cliffs I gybed back into the fog, but not before I videotaped it. Then I gybed back into the fog with 40.5 nm left to San Simeon. There were white caps on the water and the next waypoint was Lopez Point, and ETA to Piedras Blancas was 8:37 pm.

    At 4:48 pm we approached Cape San Martin the swell increased again, and the wind, too. It seemed significant to me, but I don't have wind instruments. Afterwards I looked at Old Sail Flow for the Central Coast area and it was 15-19 knots at the buoy.

    I was glad that I had put in my first reef, a shallow one, at the dock. My sail has a deep leech and would have caught on the backstay every time we gybed. And my little Humminbird depth finder is supposed to register only to 200 miles' depth, but we were in 595' off Cape San Martin. This was when my Nexus 7 handheld chart plotters ran out of juice. I switched it out for the other one, the 10" RCA. A good handheld, but it gobbles juice.

    If we didn't sail in fog regularly in and off San Francisco I would have found the day disconcerting. At the least, inhospitable. So about this time I looked around to find something else to worry about. How about the new fuel gauge? Whoo, it works great. Although it does tell me that there is less than a quarter of a tank left. That's okay, though, because there will be fuel in Morro Bay and I have five gallons of diesel in that fuel can Mike Cunningham (ahem) loaned me last year when I visited him and the two Jacquelines in Discovery Bay.

    And where is that fuel can? Did I really lash it down in the starboard lazarette beneath the Pelagic? Well, of course I did. If I had stowed it in the port lazarette that would be too easy.

    So, in big wind and big swell I did the "lash the tiller while you lean down and drag a heavy can of fuel up and out of the lazarette without falling on the tiller" trick. You know the trick. It's always a different trick. Damn tricks.

    Poured the fuel into the tank via the middle of the sole of the cockpit at 6:10 pm as it was starting to get dark. Thank you, Ichiro, for persuading me to install the intake there when you replaced the tank last year. Bob was right. It is easier that way.

    Sat down, looked around for something else to worry about. Oh, look! The lazy jack has shredded up there where I can't reach it. And the dyneema is only ... well, seven years old. Maybe I can find a rigger to replace it in Morro Bay. If not, I have my ATN climber and the safety line Todd Olsen gave me.

    2.3 nm off San Simeon my RCA died. I was down to my Garmin handheld. This was when I reached for my terrific flashlight, an impulse buy at the cash register back when Svendsen's chandlery was ... at Svendsen's. It's very heavy and powerful: A NEBO brand Redline Blast. With the light of this most excellent item I was able to search the entrance to San Simeon as we tiptoed into the bay.

    What was I able to see? Every single drop of fog reflected back at us. Really. It is such a great flashlight that the fog looked like rain. Of course, it was useless. So we just inched forward. I saw one bleary anchor light, and someone aboard shined his/her own NEBO back at us. That was incredibly helpful, and told me where they were already anchored so I knew to not anchor there. It was a "please don't hit us, here be we" signal.

    Finally dropped anchor down wind of the other boat at 9:30 pm and turned off my Engine by Dave. DM and I were alone and safe in San Simeon.

    The conditions I experienced during this trip were relatively benign. However, the trip is long and I was tired. Could I have napped? Not likely. Although I never saw another boat all day. I saw a boat 5 miles offshore on AIS. Once. At the end I realized that I could have slept for hours. Only a lunatic would have been out there in those conditions.
    Last edited by Philpott; 09-23-2020 at 12:06 PM.

  7. #337
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    I wish I'd known that San Simeon was a viable anchorage, back in 2006.

    Fog.
    It gets really old, really fast. Yup, yup.

    Now you know what I mean about the swell near Point Sur. 1.5 miles isn't enough to avoid it, 5 miles is more like it, I think.
    1968 Selmer Series 9 B-flat and A clarinets
    1962 Buesher "Aristocrat" tenor saxophone
    Piper One Design 24, Hull #35; "Alpha"

  8. #338
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    Quote Originally Posted by AlanH View Post
    Now you know what I mean about the swell near Point Sur. 1.5 miles isn't enough to avoid it, 5 miles is more like it, I think.
    I take your point, Alan, but closer in = fewer miles. Perhaps you would like to bring DM back up the coast for me, write it up? It would be interesting to read about the different perspective and course possibilities. Hmmm, let's see, what would a one way Southwest flight cost ....?

  9. #339
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    Sep 2007
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    Capitola,CA
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    You'd be hard pressed to find a nicer live view of DURA MATER at Morro Bay with the Rock in the background. If you're lucky this afternoon, you may see Jackie ascend her mast to replace lazy jacks...
    https://www.mbyc.net/webcam1/

  10. #340
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    Sep 2007
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    I just checked in after finishing this last tax return, and it appears Jackie is prepared to start to commence to begin her ascent.

    She knows there's a live webcam on the club's roof, so no need to feel guilty watching. In fact, grab a bowl of popcorn!

    Update: Great - the cavalry has arrived to rock the boat around while she's hanging up there...

    Further update: She's back down and just took a bow for us lurkers. I'll bet they don't see THAT every day at the Morro Bay YC!
    .
    Last edited by BobJ; 09-23-2020 at 04:07 PM.

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