04/06/2002

This was our second longest coastal passage, but the first one done by-ourselves, on our boat, and on the Pacific coast. It was a wonderful day of great sailing with a few "uh oh" moments to remind us that we are new to cruising.

First leg: Half Moon Bay to Pescadero and Ano Nuevo

The weather window finally opened up for our departure from Half Moon Bay. The weather forecast indicated Saturday or Sunday (April 6th or 7th) would offer near ideal conditions - winds from the right direction (out of NW), 10 to 20 knots, 4 foot swell every 14 seconds, 3 foot wind-wave - all pushing us the direction we wanted to go - S-SE toward Monterey. We left the dock at 5:30 AM on the 6th with hopes to arrive in Monterey in 10-12 hours and to anchor/moor/dock before dark.

---

The trip plan had us cruising down the coast about 2-3 miles offshore, across 10 waypoints, for a total of 64 or so nautical miles. At 5 knots of boat speed we could be there in about 12 hours, and at 6 knots, we should make it in just over 10 hours.

---

The mellow morning winds of about 4-6 knots were not enough to push us along under sail (the swell would roll the wind right out of the sail), so we motored sailed for the first couple of hours.Around Pescadero Point, we started to see some wind in the 7 to 10 knot range allowing us to shut off the engine. Our boat speed of 3.5 to 5 knots indicated we would arrive in Monterey around midnight.

---

The main blanketed the jib and provided zero forward drive. Rather than furl the jib, we poled the jib out "wing on wing" (main out over one side, jib poled out on the other side) to run directly downwind.Once rigged, provided another 2-3 knots of boat speed.

5.5-6.5 knots of boat speed, brought our ETA back down to 7:00 PM or so - better, but still not within our 10-12 hour planned window. We did not want to arrive after dark, and we hoped the afternoon winds on Monterey Bay (forecast at 10 to 20 knots) would allow us to make up for any lost time. Be careful what you wish for.

---

Sometime shortly after Pescadero point, we settled into a comfortable downwind sail. The small swell and smaller wind-wave allowed us to relax a bit, drink some tea, and snack on some (excellent, made-from-scratch) banana bread. We glance up frequently looking for crab-pots, and avoided them as needed.

---

During this leg, we plowed through some rather large "fields" of "By-the-wind Sailors" (small blue floating jellyfish) blown together by the millions, on their way to a stinky demise in piles on shore.

We also saw several pods of common dolphins heading north. Unfortunately, they didn't have time to stop by and play in our bow wake. Although we looked for whales, we did not see any.

Only only a few other small fishing boats bobbed on the horizon, and we didn't see one freighter all day.

---

"What was that?"

Somewhere in the midst of our morning conversation about how cool this was, we heard an extremely loud thud up near the bow, followed by several less loud (but equally frightening) thuds -- all the way down the hull and keel of the boat, a final loud "thunk" on the rudder -- and out from behind us floats a huge plank of wood about the size of a railroad tie. How we could spot a crab-pot float a half-mile ahead, but not see this huge plank of wood right in our course-path still baffles me. There is also some irony that in the vast expanse of the ocean with its significantly smaller quantity of large flotsam, we would plow directly into this thing. A quick survey of the damage indicated no water coming in (i.e. no apparent holes in the hull), and a broken speed transducer.

The rest of the day was spent with much more frequent and focused watches forward. A quick in-the-water inspection in Monterey revealed no obvious damage other than a slightly bent transducer impeller.

At about 10:45 AM, we reached our Ano Nuevo waypoint, and we needed to get the spinnaker pole off the jibsheet, change course, and jibe (move the main and boom from one side of the boat to the other while running downwind). During this maneuver, we learned we needed to rig some additional lines that would enable one person to control it. Once released, the boat's rolling motion sent the end of the pole swinging from shroud to shroud in a huge pendulum arc - just out of reach. We eventually brought it under control without taking off a head or doing any boat damage, so from that perspective all was well.

---

Second leg: Ano Nuevo and Santa Cruz, to the middle of Monterey Bay

---

By Santa Cruz, the wind began to pipe up (15 to 20 knots), the seas picked up (3-6 foot wind wave), and we needed to jibe onto our new course for a buoy 25 nautical miles downwind in the middle of the bay.

---

The next 25-30 miles were awesome. The autopilot did all the work; we were sailing downwind under main only , and our speeds ranged from 7 to 10.5 knots. The theoretical maximum hull speed for our boat is a little over 9 knots, so these speed bursts to 10.5 happened while surfing down waves.

The seas built and the distinction blurred between swell and wind-generated waves. As the fetch (wind driven waves and surge) increased deeper into Monterey Bay, we were followed/pushed by very frequent and large waves. We estimated 6 to 8 foot waves, only a couple of boat lengths apart, with an occasional funky swell to push the boat in a direction it was not intended to go.

---

With the sun blazing, surrounded by azure blue water, topped with frothy whitecaps, and swooshing downwind with 18 to 25 knot winds on our stern - we pushed on toward Monterey. Our ETA was now estimated at 4:09 PM - not bad. Now this is awesome sailing! (click here for very cool video clip)

---

Last leg: The run into Monterey

The autopilot worked overtime and steered better than we did, but occasionally, the sea state was even too much for the autopilot (we needed to know how to change the sea-state to "heavy" before leaving the dock). As long as we always "rounded up" toward windward, the autopilot consistently recovered us, even though we could "feel" the strain on both the autopilot and the (shuddering) rudder. However, it still felt we were within the capabilities of the boat. Some of the more "out of control" surfing moments pegged the GPS over-the-ground speed at 11.5 knots. Robin uttered "not fun" or "not good" during these moments. It was a bit unnerving, but the faster we got there, the sooner we could get out of the (now) building conditions.

"Yikes!"

Well, it only took one large wave to send us surfing in the "wrong" direction putting the 20+ knot wind on the lee side of our main. Unfortunately, the autopilot could not correct (as it had already several times) from this brief "sailing in the lee" condition. The events unfolded very quickly. Thanks to the preventer rig, we watched it stretch in slow motion for a brief and terrifying moment. The line stretched one, two, maybe four feet - and finally stopped with the boom over the boat's centerline. What might have been an incredible uncontrolled jibe instead left us "rounded up" to leeward, stalled in an uncomfortable "beam-to the seas" position. The new Sta-Set preventer line stretched significantly, but did not break. Were we supposed to pre-stretch that line?

We quickly disengaged the autopilot and continued the turn before we lost boat speed -- and with much noise, bouncing, and commotion, we came 360 degrees back to (near) our original course. We stayed on a broad reach -- a safer, but less comfortable point of sail in those seas. Our peak speed from this "surf" indicated 11.9 knots. This is probably a bit too fast for a 15-ton boat designed as a displacement cruising yacht - I jokingly confirmed with Robin that it's not a surfboard. She was not in a mood for my attempts at humor.

We reefed the main in these fairly uncomfortable conditions, fell off, and proceeded under sail and power to our destination - still at 8 to 10 knots and making good time. We no longer trusted the autopilot implicitly, so we hand steered the rest of the way. We arrived at Monterey Harbor at 4:00 PM where Robin hailed the harbormaster on the VHF and arranged for a slip. We longed for a quiet evening at the dock and a good rest.

Reflection

We learned lots of lessons that day and will adjust our procedures and equipment to accommodate these real ocean sailing conditions. Although I may have made this day sound like a string of mistakes, the day really was a big success. We covered 65 nautical miles in a little over 10 hours without major physical or emotional damage to either boat or crew, and without any sign of seasickness (thanks to our ½ pill of Bonine). The "events" of the day make a somewhat more interesting story than the other 9 hours we just kicked back and enjoyed a wonderful downwind sail.

For the next two to five weeks we'll be playing in Monterey.

---