Slow Ride to Catalina, Quick Ride to San Diego

After tacking smartly all the way out of Marina del Rey and leaving Venice beach astern, we came about and headed down the coast in light air. As usual, light wind and a decent sea made for slow sailing and it was late in the afternoon as we passed Long Beach. We continued on, slowly heading south and eventually the wind died almost completely. As we inched along, still just able to maintain a heading, we had another brush with a whale. This time, we felt a great bump and the bow was pushed about 20 degrees off course as the giant bumped our starboard bow and sounded immediately. Incredible! Luckily the force of the encounter was not nearly hard enough to cause damage to either party but, I’m sure, left everyone involved a bit baffled at the chances.

We sailed on into the night, again holding the perennial discussion of whether or not to motor in such situations. As per usual, without any hard and fast schedule to be followed, we opted to drift about. Unfortunately, this night that meant floating back north many miles before the rising sun brought us a bit more wind. Event still we made an early morning entrance to Twin Harbors, dropping the anchor at the east end of the mooring field. Unfortunately, the harbor has been monopolized by the company who runs the small establishment and there is only one small corner, right next to the rocks and exposed to the northwest wind and swell, that is open for free anchoring.

When we came in we were warned by many people that a stiff northwest breeze was to come up in the afternoon, warnings which continued as we talked to people on shore. We did have a few hours to walk around the bay and see the area around the harbor but before too long we decided that if we were going to try to find safer anchorage or pay for a mooring ball we might as well just head for San Diego. The island itself was not calling to us for exploration and we still had the strong evening blow in Smuggler’s Cove fresh in our mind. What’s more we thought it would be great to take advantage of a stiff blow so we could make fast tracks southward. We pulled up the anchor and sailed out of the harbor in the early afternoon.

Our run to San Diego was great. Although wind speeds never reached the predicted 35-40 knots, we had a good 25 knots at our back nearly the entire evening and night. The moon was big and it lit the 8 foot waves that came charging after us one after another. We arrived in San Diego Bay at around 5 AM and tied up to the police dock, waiting for the harbormaster’s office to open. When it did open we applied for a free “cruiser’s” anchorage permit. We passed the simple harbor police inspection, obtained the permit and made our way on to the anchorage.

We went for a spin past the tall ships at the maritime museum downtown before dropping the hook just off the coast guard station in the cruiser’s anchorage. Excited and relieved to have reached our destination, we relaxed for a few moments before heading into town for celebratory meal and a little exploration of the town in which we planned to spend a few weeks.

A few days after arriving, Alden left for Seattle after spending about a month cruising with us. Special thanks goes to Alden for his help and company along the way.

  

For more pictures visit our Picasa site at: 

https://picasaweb.google.com/103461058936929561161/LACatalinaIslandToSanDiegoMay2012

Living Large at Marina del Rey

We dropped sails as we entered Marina del Rey and motored in amidst the glitz and glamour of LA’s major small-boat harbor, passing mega-yachts and party boats on their way back to the dock. We were approached by a nice man in a yacht club inflatable who gave us directions to the Pacific Mariners Yacht Club, where we had arranged to berth. We were also in touch with the club via phone and we were greeted by a small party when, at last, we threaded the narrow fingers of the dock to our guest slip directly in front of the clubhouse.

We had arranged to stay at the PMYC through our good friend Louis as a guest of his good friend Dennis, who was a club member. We were cordially greeted by the dockmaster Sparky and a few of the club members who were just finishing up a dinner event. We hung out in the clubhouse for a bit before retiring to the boat, very happy to be secure at a dock with shore just a few easy steps away.

We ended up spending about five days in LA, first exploring areas close to the marina, namely Venice beach, and eventually making our way further into the city. We were joined by friends from the bay and were able to visit a few old friends, who showed us around the town. During our stay we also spent a good amount of time with PMYC members around the clubhouse. Most all were very nice people, excited to hear our stories as well as share their own, welcoming us into their hang-out spot. The PMYC is a member-run club and refreshingly lacked the pretentious air that comes along with most yacht clubs. We made some good friends and got good advice for our upcoming travels as many of the club members had traveled south of the border. We even spent an afternoon watching the partial solar eclipse on the club’s patio through our friend Alan’s telescope.

We have always thought that it would be a fun idea to rent the boat to be used in some kind of film or music video and what more perfect place than LA? Lowell put a simple ad up on craigslist with a picture of the boat and the next morning we were politely asked to leave the dock. Apparently the owner of the entire marina complex had caught wind of our ad and had made the PMYC kick us out. The marina owner also mentioned false allegations that smoke had been seen wafting from the boat and It seemed obvious that he was looking for a way to get rid of us. We bid goodbye to our hosts and spent the night on a public dock that we did not previously know about on the other side of the harbor. The next day we peeled off the dock and sailed out the channel bound for Catalina Island.

We were definitely happy to have stopped and seen the sights in LA but it was a little challenging to be in a harbor where we clearly did not fit the part. We send our great thanks to the member of the PMYC and especially to Sparky and our host Dennis. 

Wild Times in Smuggler's Cove

In Ventura we met up with our friends, made a few new friends, ate a hamburger and picked up a few more groceries before heading out the next morning, again bound for Santa Cruz Island. This time we headed for an anchorage on the easternmost side of this island called Smuggler’s Cove. We had nice weather for the crossing: sunny with a light wind building to a good 25 knot breeze north of Anacapa Island. Shortly thereafter, the wind died completely and we ended up having to fire up the engine and motor the last few miles into the cove.

We dropped the anchor before the sun went down and found ourselves in a large open bight, just off a long sandy beach framed by steep, rocky shorelines to the north and south. The beach seemed to be the end of a valley which quickly ascended into golden grassy hillsides. We had noticed earlier that our chart indicated an olive orchard on the hills above the beach and we were delighted to see the enormous block of dusty green as we surveyed the land. We launched the dinghy and had a few sunset moments for an initial walk-about on shore before darkness fell.

 Here we encountered a problem that we had encountered in other anchorages in that the seemingly small swell entering the exposed harbor made for sizeable waves on the beach. The dinghy landings we made were all quite exciting and we even had one capsize in the surf. Sometimes this sort of thing can be fun but it wears on the crew to have to make daring landings in order to get the shore and relax for a moment. 

Some of the crew spent the following day exploring the shore near the cove: the olive orchard, the Wyoming-like valleys and hills, and the old homestead just inland from the beach. It is a shame that we won’t be here again later in the summer as we found numerous fig trees, walnut trees, and a white sapote tree in addition to the large olive orchard. Definitely a spot to remember for future harvesting!

While Vincent, Crystal, Lowell, and Jocelyn spent the day walking around, Alden and I took the boat about five miles to a surf break on the south side of the island. Located just below “the golfball (a large, spherical, white antennae or observatory of some sort),” the point break was a great fun, even on very small day. We surfed with some folks who were also anchored just east of the break and they regaled us with stories of hanging out and surfing in the same spot in their youth.  We caught a handful of waves, mostly waist-high, but with the occasional shoulder to head –high set before catching a few fish and heading back to Smuggler’s Cove in the late afternoon.

That evening was seemingly peaceful: Alden and I re-anchored and the others came back out to the boat while I was dropped off ashore to gather a few milk thistle seeds and do a bit more exploration before the end of the day. I got a bag full of seed, valued for their liver-supporting medicinal qualities, and was walking around the old homestead when the wind started to build. Crystal called me on the VHF handheld and said that I should think about heading back as the offshore breeze on the boat was strengthening. By the time I got to the beach, the wind had built to such a speed that Lowell was unable to make any progress towards the shore in the dinghy to pick me up. Although I was fairly confident that I could swim the distance in the cold water, I decided that there was no rush and that I needn’t risk it. As darkness fell, I gathered dead grass from a hillside and built a mound next to a large bush, into which I burrowed and tried to fall asleep. I had come to shore only wearing short and a t-shirt and although I was awakened by the cold a few times and had to gather a bit more grass, I eventually fell asleep and stayed warm enough despite the cold night and strong wind.

Meanwhile on the boat, the others were concerned that we did not have enough anchor rode out and were busy trying to let out more scope. In order to do so, they had to ease the chain on the springline and attempted to do so by driving into the wind with the engine but the slack in the rode allowed the wind to blow the bow down, tightening the chain and sending the boat zagging back and forth on the anchor. At one such time, the chain popped out of the bow roller and came down on the toe rail and Alden’s hand. Shocked at first, all were relieved to find that the injury was minor. The springline was then cut at the windlass and more chained paid out, finished with a new and longer springline.

After a long night of continuing strong breeze (estimates ranging between 45 and 70 knots), the wind abated with the rising sun. Alden came and picked me up from shore and we were off. The events of the previous night left the crew feeling a bit shell-shocked and lucky to have escaped without injury or damage. Discussion was had as to what should have been done in the situation, whether the strain on the ground tackle warranted attempting maneuvers when the offshore wind posed no great danger to the boat itself, and among other thoughts we resolved to affix a line or chain to prevent the chain from jumping out of the bow roller.

We had an uneventful sail past Anacapa Island towards LA. The wind slacked off throughout the morning until it finally died about 25 miles short of Marina del Rey. Because we had arranged to be guests in LA, we fired up the engine and motored the rest of the way, arriving at the breakwater just as darkness fell.  

For more pictures visit our Picasa site at:
https://picasaweb.google.com/103461058936929561161/SmugglerSCoveAndLA

Prisoner's Harbor on Santa Cruz Island

After spending a few nights in Santa Barbara, we struck out again for the Channel Islands, this time towards Santa Cruz Island. As usual, there were a few things to address before we pulled up the anchor and this time we were delayed by a slightly corroded connection in the engine ignition circuit that was preventing us from starting the engine with any regularity. Thanks to Lowell and Vincent's persistence and hard work, we were able to find the problem and fix it before we headed out. Although we feel very comfortable maneuvering the boat under sail it is prudent to have a quickly starting engine as a back-up.

We had a very smooth passage across the channel, close-hauled and approaching the island near it's midpoint on the north shore. Although we had hear about a string of anchorages along the coast, we read that we were unable to make landfall on most of the island because it belongs to the Nature Conservancy, who require a permit to make a landing. Because we wanted to spend a few days and do some exploring, we decided to run down the coast to the East for Prisoner's Harbor, just beyond the Nature Conservancy/State Park boundary.

The time of day and the dramatic grandeur of the island made for a glorious few hours as we cruised downwind along the shore in the soft evening light. We were tempted by numerous the tiny anchorages tucked into the sheer rocky cliffs in front of steep tree-filled valleys but we sailed on, entering Prisoner's and dropping the anchor just northeast of the large pier as darkness fell. The harbor that night was brilliant with green bio-luminescence and we played music on the deck as great seal comets chased scattering fishy shooting stars in the water below.

We spent the following day exploring the island, hiking up the winding, rough road to to the crest of the island to gaze on the ocean to the south.

We delighted in experiencing a new variation of the Southern California bio-region, especially in seeing a variety new plant species. Of great interest was the diversity of microclimates on the island, from a restored wetland near the anchorage to sweeping fields of fennel on the north-facing slopes to lush creek beds below grass-covered valleys sides and oak-filled ravines just over the State Park boundary. Aspect and proximity to water definitely played a part in the uniqueness of each of these zones but the island's complex geological make-up obviously factored greatly into the diversity of microclimates.

One of our most exciting encounters on the island was with a beautiful patch of shaggy parasol mushrooms high in the hills. We caught a few fish and made several excellent meals from the food we had gathered.

In our wanderings we also caught a few glimpses of the endemic, cat-like Channel Islands fox and met a few of the very friendly state park employees, getting to hear a bit more about the island.  

Before long we headed back to the mainland, this time to Ventura to pick up a few crew members. Our passage was an easy one, further east along along the island before heading northwest across the channel.

For more pictures visit our Picasa site at: https://picasaweb.google.com/103461058936929561161/SantaCruzIsland

Goodbye SF, Hello Southern California!

Hello friends and family! We send our love and greetings to you from a coffee shop in Santa Barbara, where the Libertatia is anchored in the mooring field just east of the pier. Our travels of late have been the biggest that we've undertaken in a good long while and have taken us worlds away from our bay-area friends and our home at the end of Z-dock in front of the Berkeley Marine Center. Since sailing out of the gate on the sixth of May, we have sailed several hundred miles down the coast, explored the windswept wildlands of San Miguel Island in the Channel Islands, and made an easy thirty-mile crossing of the Santa Barbara Channel.

The past week has been a wild one: although it was easy to make a plan to leave the bay, actually doing it was a different story. Our time leading up to our departure was extremely full. In terms of boat preparations we had plenty to do but much of the battle was just deciding which of the projects on the big list we could afford to forego while still cruising in good style. The projects we really focused on included installing the reconditioned windlass, amassing supplies for eventual re-rigging, installing a new house battery bank, splicing lines, installing a new compass, and doing an extreme amount of stowing and organizing. During this time we were joined by our friend Alden who came down from Washington to help ready the boat and cruise for a while before entering into architecture school in the fall. We were also joined by our friend James who did an extremely nice job repainting the name on the boat. Thanks you James!

A few weeks prior to leaving, we decided as a group that in order to ease the stress we were all feeling surrounding our departure we would push the date back and take a one-week mandatory vacation from working on the boat. Although part of the reason for taking a break was just to relax before embarking, we mostly filled our time tying up all of our personal loose ends in the bay and spending time with all of our friends. Whether we had the intention of hosting a gathering or not, it seemed that we ended up having a party on the boat most every night (and sometimes every day) leading up to the sixth. 

This time for us was on one of the most special times of our travels thus far: taking a step back to delight in all of the great connections that we made while in the bay. Pretty astounding! The stream of well-wishers and friends, old and new, bringing us their love and gifts really made us feel like the richest people in the world. To be surrounded by such wonderful, fun, loving, talented, generous and generally amazing people fills our hearts up with joy.

This blissful feeling was carried up to the very moment we shoved off from our slip and motored out beyond the breakwater, leaving most of our dearest friends waving on the dock. As expected, "the sea level rose a bit in the bay," as we shed tears and we blew kisses and shouted our farewells above the freshening breeze coming in through the golden gate. We were even pursued momentarily by several who jumped in and swam after us as we peeled away.

Soon enough our friends disappeared behind the breakwater and ahead of us lay the wind swept bay and the exit under the bridge to the west. We motored a little longer than normal as we did a bit of final stowage but before too long had sails up and were tacking out past the city. The closer we came to the bridge, the stronger the current became and in no time we found ourselves getting swept out into the Pacific. One final goodbye was had as our dear friend Kacey jumped and waved, gazing down down on us from high in the Marin headlands but before too long we were miles out beyond the gate and night began to fall.

Our passage down the coast ended up taking just under three days. Over the course of the several hundred miles we encountered a range of conditions but largely enjoying quite pleasant sailing. Our first night out we experienced light winds, always a touch frustrating in sizeable seas, but before too long the wind freshened out of the northwest and we zipped away to the south. For the remainder of the trip wind speed varied between 10 and 25 knots, always out of the northwest. Because our destination was nearly dead-downwind we ended up heading up a touch to the south-southwest in order to keep the sails full, increase boat speed and ease the rolling motion of downwind sailing in a seaway. The largest waves we saw on the passage were something like 15 feet but the average wave height diminished to something more like 5-8 feet a the trip progressed and as we approached Pt. Conception.

Everyone did quit well out on the big water: we all had some adjusting to do in gaining our sea legs but after a few days we were all feeling good. Despite the motion and funny sleep patterns, we all felt something of a relief to be out living the much simplified life at sea. The time and vastness also gave us all time to reflect on our departure and really our lives, both individually and as a group. We all felt a considerable amount of doubt and other strong emotions having left our home in Berkeley but despite the difficulty and pain of experiencing these feelings, it was good to have time for thought. Such a seemingly big life moment has really caused all of us to reflect on what we really want to be doing as well as on the things that are important to us. We surely haven't figured anything out completely but we are certainly learning more and more about ourselves.

For the most part, the trip was relatively uneventful, a few incidents aside. We jibed a few times as we made our way south in order to avoid being too close or too far from shore. The furthest we found ourselves from the nearest land was about 60 nautical miles (nm) and the closest, before approaching our destination, was about 15 nm.

Along the way, we saw an assortment of wildlife: albatross, many other seabirds, porpoises, grey whales, etc. but the most interesting was perhaps a hummingbird who hovered in the cockpit, seemingly interested in a hot pink pair of rainpaints, while we were about 50 nm from the closest land. Quite a mystery of nature! Although seemingly minor at the time of the event, the most dramatic and interesting occurrence of the trip was hitting a whale late the first night out of San Francisco. The blow must have been glancing as the feeling aboard was only slightly stronger than getting a large slap by a wave. In the barely moon-lit dark, Lowell caught a glimpse of a whale sounding as we passed and both he an Vincent heard the whale behind as we sailed on into the night. Luckily, the collision seemed to light to cause damage to either the boat or the whale but it was quite an interesting whoa moment. Definitely something to think about.

After a easy rounding of Pt. Conception, we sailed into the Santa Barbara channel and jibed just before daybreak, bound for Cuyler Harbor on San Miguel Island. We entered heavy fog before reaching the island and navigated in using the chartplotter, watching the cliffs and breakers appear out of the mist. We were unable to start the engine before entering harbor but luckily the lay of the land was such that sailing in was very easy. The wind dropped considerably as we came into the lee of the island and we put up all sail, ghosting in over giant kelp beds, tacking up into the harbor a few times before dropping the hook close to the southern shore. As the fog cleared and filled in again, we were able to catch better glimpses of the beautiful half-moon bay, with highs hills, cliffs and dunes all around and sandy beaches covered with lounging elephant seals.

Although still quite exhausted from the trip, we were excited to explore and Alden, Lowell and I rowed ashore to what seemed to be the only stretch of shore devoid of seals. We climbed high up above the bay to take in the surroundings and were met at the top of the hill to the west with clouds and strong winds reminiscent of the idea of some wind-blasted island in the British Isles. Before long Alden headed back to the boat and Lowell and I walked around the rim of the harbor, through fields of succulents, yarrow, grasses, low-lying legumes. We spotted a building through the fog and made our way up the hill through gulches  stands of coriopsis before making the acquaintance of the islands two rangers just outside the building, the island's ranger station. We were greeted warmly by the rangers and learned a lot from them as we walked together back down the hill towards the beach. They peeled off to continue their hike and we made our way back to the shore.

Unfortunately, while we were ashore, the wind had gradually picked up to something like 40 knots. The rest of the crew spotted us from the boat only through the valiant effort and strength of Alden, were able to land a dinghy the beach, well downwind of the boat. Lowell waded and towed the boat up the beach over a quarter of a mile in order to give us some downwind advantage in getting back to the Libertatia. After a short break, we "rowed," mostly sailing under bare poles back to the boat. We made it an early night after that.

The wind held steady and even grew stronger through the night. Although by morning it had abated to 15 kt, the crew was ready to leave immediately upon waking. We quickly prepared ourselves for departure and started cranking up the anchor with the rebuilt windlass that Lowell had worked so hard to make ready for use. Unfortunately, although the wind had slacked off, it had changed direction in such a way that we had several large rocks a few hundred feet to leeward, not leaving much room for maneuvering after breaking out the anchor. Luckily we were able to work together, backing sails and gently tacking to aid the windlass. We finally came free on a tack headed out of the back and hoisted all sails, scooting out of the entrance to the north.

Upon exiting the bay, we decided on Santa Barbara as our destination and set our course, a nice broad reach across the channel. The sail was a hazy dream, very peaceful compared with the winds around San Miguel and we made good time in a gentle, yet steady 15 kt breeze. Eventually the shore appeared to the north and we rounded the point to drop the hook under sail, just before six o'clock.

For more pictures go to our Picasa site here:

For more specific photo sets got to:

Farewell SF
SF Bay to San Miguel Island
San Miguel Island

Building Excitement for the "Bon Voyage"!

(Dazed and hungry, I'm taking a break  to post some photos and notes of the last week!

https://picasaweb.google.com/103461058936929561161/BuildingExcitementForBonVoyage#

Contents!

Big fun at big party! 

Final projects

Voyage possibilities

Final Friday Get Together at Berkeley Marina!

We're getting ready for the upcoming departure from our Berkeley home-away-from-home, on our way to LA, Mexico and Beyond! Everyone is excited, trying to take time to finish our work here on the Libertatia, as well as enjoy the brilliant spring and our kind friends in the Bay Area! The weather has been perfect and we are all in good spirits for our upcoming trip to Los Angeles.

Big Fun at Big Party!

Thanks to everyone who came out to our big Party at Berkeley Marina! We could not believe the amazing people and great food who all came out. One big moment was at sunset where we had an estimated 80 people on board the libertatia! I was amazed. Special thanks to Cree Partridge for making the special arrangements possible for this special event. Also, thanks to everyone who rafted up and espeically 'Bama (Kurt) for holding down the party and making lunch starting at 10:30 am (!yeah!). 

Cree cooks out on the docks.

Emmett is excited!

Final Projects to get ready!

The Mackies take over the Libertatia

Crystal splicing new double braid halyards in the sun; a tough puzzle. 

We are all working hard to knock out the critical projects left and make final arrangements for food and other necessities. Joining us to sail for a while is Alden Mackie, a childhood friend of Emmett's and good sailor. We were lucky enough to party with the Mackie Clan and Grandma Jean recently as well as have Kimo Mackie accompany us on a sail to consider new suggestions for optimizing sail trim.

Among other projects, this week we installed new batteries, installed the rebuilt windlass, improved the running rigging and are installing a new compass.

James repaints the name on the Bow with awesome style!

Mary helps us out again!

Alden and Lowell install the rebuilt windlass

Anthony simulates temporary sea madness in
the rigging after helping us for just a single afternoon.  

We are parceling and serving our rigging with a traditional
serving mallet. The idea is to protect the metal wire rope
from rusting with oil. It's pretty crazy; you whip a roll of string around the
 rope and it creates a tight protective covering that soaks up oil
and resists the salty ocean. 

Voyage Possibilities

We're going to be taking off for the Channel Islands and will likely stay in LA for a week or so. Weather permitting we'll be on our way to San Diego and then Baja to enjoy summer and wait for a window in the hurricane season to move on to Central America. Our larger plans seek to put us in South America early next year, but we want to go where the opportunities for fun group projects and unique connections or opportunities to help people out! Stay in touch with us if you have unique ideas for connections or cool places to go!

Final Friday Fun at BMC

We're shoving off this weekend and throwing a last get together on Friday at 7. Please stop by! We'd love to see you one last time. I love california and we're all sad to go but excited to see the world!

check the photos from this week!
https://picasaweb.google.com/103461058936929561161/BuildingExcitementForBonVoyage#