Baja Haha '08

We got the repaired autopilot back and Steve reinstalled it, but when we left anchor October 27, it wouldn't hold a course. It was a bad way to start the Haha and made us miss the start by a half an hour or so because Steve was on the phone to Raymarine while we were motoring toward the starting line, doing 360s trying to calibrate the thing, and needing to fill up with water. Too much tension!

On day two, after hand-steering all night in 4-foot swells downwind with the sails rigged for wing and wing, Steve wondered if maybe something metal had been placed near the autopilot compass. Sure enough! We moved the nefarious metal objects and the autopilot kicked in. Ahhh, it's good to relax behind the wheel.

We had 10-20 knots of wind and so we sailed all day and night and didn't turn on the engine until the morning of the third day when the wind died to less than 3 knots. We had made over 250 miles under sail and had hit 10 knots on the boat speed meter. No complaints!

Brian had rigged up our rag-tag fishing gear and we caught a nice size yellow fin tuna. He and Kat are well acquainted with the San Francisco gourmet scene and Brian marinated and cedar plank smoked it while Kat prepared a scrumptuous salad and veggies.

We got into Bahia Tortuga early Thursday morning, Oct. 30, beer thirty, after motoring for half a day (no wind). Time to brush up on our Spanish and head into the little town.

The great sea makes one a great sceptic. ~Richard Jefferies

All I Want for Christmas is an Autopilot

We left Santa Barbara's charms for Santa Catalina island and had a little wind which we used to try the spinnaker. We arrived after dark in Catalina's west harbor. After hand steering all day, a nice steak dinner aboard was more than welcome. The next day, the captain stayed aboard to fool with chartplotter and toilet issues while the rest of us explored the little town of Two Harbors on Catalina and availed ourselves of the laundry, shower, and cafe. Since it was off season, we had the place practically to ourselves. It was very nice.

The next day we got an early start and found that the chartplotter had fumbled the radar heading and it was confusing to say the least in the dark. When the sun rose, the fog moved in, so we didn't see anything until the afternoon, but we'd fixed the radar heading by this time, so we could see what was ahead of us in the fog. We were in an area heavily used for military exercises and we had a cannon report across the bow which the captain managed to sleep through. Eventually the wind came up and we could practice the wing and wing rig. We needed to make some time to get to San Diego, so we didn't sail for long. We maneuvered through the military ships outside San Diego and made it to the Police Dock around 8:30.

We are leaving San Diego on October 27 with the 15th annual Baja Haha cruisers rally and there's lots to be done beforehand. We rented a car, anchored in Glorietta Bay, and found an Internet cafe since we can't connect to a network from the boat for some reason. We are anchored off lovely Coronado, home of the Hotel Del Coronado. It's a cutesy town, but a lot of our business takes us across the bridge to downtown San Diego where the marine supply business are.

The weather is warm; we have wheels; it's good to stay put for a few days.

So Cal

Santa Barbara, CA - Brian and Kat(rina) joined us Oct. 15 to crew to Mexico. We weighed anchor and went into the marina to fill up with water before leaving and noticed that the autopilot display greeted us with "No pilot." Uh oh.

Steve spent the afternoon, evening, into the wee hours of the morning trying to fix it, but it was uncooperative. So, he got on the phone with Raymarine the next morning, disconnected it, and we overnighted it to them in New Hampshire. So much for leaving as planned. We'll all get a lesson in steering for a while and leave in the morning.

We left Sausalito at 4 a.m. Oct. 17. Brian and Kat left behind their lives, belongings, and worries in San Francisco to go where little sailing boats sail half way 'round the world. They are starting their journey around the world with us and aren't planning on returning for a couple years.

The sun came out but not the wind, so we motored down the coast to Monterey and anchored for the night, taking turns hand steering. The sea was calm, so no worries. We saw sea lions, whales, and porpoises. And Steve contacted Raymarine who had received the autopilot, diagnosed the problem (an easy fix after all), and will ship it back to us in San Diego.

The next day, we left at 4:30 a.m. The sky was cloudy in the morning, and some fog obscurred the Big Sur coast, but we could make out the Bixby Bridge and Hurricane Point. The sun came out in the afternoon and since there was still no wind and the sea was calm, we decided to motor all night to reach Santa Barbara by the next afternoon.

The Wayward Dinghy

Sausalito, CA - It began the night of Sept. 9, the night before I left Denver to join Steve on the boat.

Around 11 p.m., Steve was safely aboard the boat, enjoying his last night of solitude in Sausalito and listening to gusts of 30 knot wind outside. He heard someone yelling "help" and when he looked to see where the voice was coming from, he saw a dinghy with two people and a dead outboard drifting out to the Golden Gate. So, he hurriedly jumped into his dinghy (in his underwear) to give a hand. They got the outboard started but things were not over for the couple. Their boat had dragged in the wind and was also headed for the Gate. After all the excitement and having been outside with few clothes for 20 minutes, it seems he must not have tied our own dinghy properly.

Later, that night, he was awakened by the wind and went to check on things outside. The dinghy was gone. Steve immediately checked the tide tables, hoping that the tide had turned. Nope. With a nearly full moon there was a strong ebb out the Gate. He notified the Coast Guard at 4 a.m.

Around 9 the next morning, after much worrying and gnashing of teeth and yelling obscenities into the wind, the Park Service called, reporting a dinghy washed ashore on Ocean Beach, 3 miles south of the Cliff House on the ocean side of the S.F. peninsula. Maybe it just wanted to be free, but had second thoughts after the big, scarey ocean. It hadn't even been rolled in its eight-mile journey in 30-knot wind-whipped seas because the unsecured gasoline tanks were still aboard. But it got a little beat up in the surf when it fetched up on the beach. Steve had to find someone to take him ashore, rent a U-Haul to get the dinghy, and call me to say he might not be able to meet me at the designated place. But at least he'd recovered the dinghy. Now, to see if the outboard would fire up.

Thanks to Brian Morrison, who will be joining us aboard in a few days, Steve got the dinghy back to Sausalito, returned the truck, and met me at the BART station in downtown San Francisco. I just had to wait an hour or so where apparently the medical marijuana brigade hangs out.

We went back to Sausalito on the number 10 bus. The outboard wouldn't crank, so we moteled it that night and got a tow to the boat the next morning. Our spare outboard is now on the dinghy, which is securely tied to the boat. The other outboard has a lot of sand in various engine parts, but hopefully is salvageable. No complaints from Steve. He is very thankful that dink is not on its way to the South Pacific.