Sunday 30th July 2017

Saturday 29th July 2017 Sausalito, California

Well.... so much for hoping to get away early last week! The thoroughly dirty bilge took a time to clean (TG for strong degreasing fluid and a good mop! ), as did the hose end strainers, float switch and diaphragm pump, but all are looking pristine now. Hose ends needed to be replaced, also a water level sensor switch. It's a wonder I managed not to fall down the gaping hole for the last week but I was finally able to replace the main cabin flooring today.

The engine was serviced, oil was changed again and the seawater intake hose was replaced on Friday, meaning the forward access panels on the engine compartment could also be replaced, at last, as part of today's jobs.

Other jobs completed while at Spaulding Boatworks in Sausalito: wind generator now working fine, water-maker thoroughly serviced and in pickle (ready for Sept), computer 'serviced' and cleaned up & various software and other problems sorted out.

This weekend is being spent cleaning up and dealing with all the resulting chaos on board with a view to leaving on Monday to head north to the Strait of Juan de Fuca & Pt Townsend etc - a difficult passage probably.... and a good month later than had been planned some time ago.

Friday night I was made very welcome at Richmond Y.C. - it has been really nice to spend time with people while here in the Bay Area (and the Delta) and I've been made welcome at the St Francis Y.C. and San Francisco Y.C. also - very many thanks to all of you!

The maximum ebb on Monday just W of the Golden Gate is around 11 a.m. so I hope to leave from the St Francis Y.C. in good time to carry the ebb well out to sea.

Photos show San Francisco Bay just inside the Golden Gate,  newly-serviced watermaker, sailing on the Delta, view towards Tomales Bay entrance bar from Nick's\\Cove (lovely place for seafood meals! ), beautifully cleaned bilge and view of bilge cleaning in progress.

Friday 21st July 2017 - Pleasant sunny days getting useful work done at friendly Spaulding's in Sausalito

Lovely to get help from Clark Beek and the two Chris’s at Spaulding’s Boat Yard in Sausalito. "Nereida" was rafted up to pretty "Freda" (the oldest wooden boat still in use on the West coast, I was told) for a time,

Fixed: wiring problem below wind generator & faulty connections at on/off switch.

Fixed: water-maker checked over and filters changed - will be 'pickled' on Monday, since it won’t be needed until my late Sept departure from B.C.

Cleared: bilge - of dirty, oily water - ready for replacing pump(s) and float switch (probably also some hoses) - have not been working too well recently and badly in need of attention. (Will use spare bilge pump I’ve been carrying around for the last eight years!)

Changed: engine oil (again!) - nice to have use of a strong pump to make the job easier (and for clearing the bilge). Yanmar engine to be checked over on Monday by List Marine - valve clearances, timing, etc - important items I can’t deal with.

There are other jobs I'm hoping to do over the weekend but it’s reassuring to be getting these major ones off the list!

Looking at the weather forecasts, there are strong northerlies now and for the next few days off the N. California coast, so it’s good to be able to spend my time here usefully - and it has also meant I can meet up with some Bay area friends. Earliest I can see for a possible 'escape' is later on Tuesday - and even then the winds will be quite strong.

A vast area of navigable channels with reed beds and lots of shallow muddy patches to avoid, two big rivers and islands of all sizes... This is the Delta area to the NE of San Francisco Bay. 150 years ago, lowly-paid Chinese workers built high 'levees' on either side of water channels to enable land to be drained and cultivated.

Friends Dennis & June took me to see some of the Delta region and we went for a lovely sail.... but ended up stuck in a shoal patch! Got off the mud around sunset, luckily, having had a meal while we waited for the tide to turn...

A very pleasant, peaceful interlude before returning to Richmond to take "Nereida" over to San Francisco Y.C. in Tiburon. Delighted to meet with Judy Sanford this evening... (John would have been pleased....)

Great to be greeted by Bob & Torill on arrival at the club. Many familiar, friendly faces and a pleasant evening spent there.

A foggy trip to SF - needed radar to keep an eye on small boats not showing on AIS.
Big swell all the way, especially where the   water was shallow.
Saw a whale spout in the distance outside  the Golden Gate -and then,  just as I was organising the genoa, in the sudden good wind inside the GG,  it surfaced right beside 'Nereida'....!  Of course,  it disappeared before I could grab my camera!!  
I finally enjoyed a short-lived sail before turning in towards the St Frances Y.C  who are making me feel welcome  and where I'll  be staying while I get a few jobs done and see several friends.   
Had a beautiful, long, hot shower immediately after tying up - how great it is to enjoy  the simple things in life!!

Views of San Francisco Bay - towards the GG Bridge and over to Alcatraz  - from the terrace of the San Frances Y.C. 

Leaving  a misty Pillar Pt Harbour at Half Moon Bay.  A good restful,  overnight stop .Sun seems to be getting out so hopefully the overnight fog won't be a problem.
Very big swell - a good 3m  at times.
Now to catch the start of the flood tide through the Golden Gate into San Francisco Bay....  4-5 hours away.
Tide has turned here already and we should  make good speed with the flood  helping all the way.   Almost no wind.
Lots of murrelets in the water  - always dive just as I'm about to photograph them! 

Friday 14th July 2017   -   Happy Quatorze Juillet!!

Stopped at anchor here in pleasant Half Moon Bay rather than continuing on to San Francisco because it looked possible that I'd be trying to enter in the evening on an ebb tide - NOT recommended through or near the Golden Gate due to strong currents resulting from the enormus volume of water involved.

So I'm about to catch up on missing sleep now and I'll leave here around 8.30 a.m. tomorrow, in order the enter the Golden Gate soon after midday when the flood tide will be starting - and well before the expected bad weather sets in later on.

The weather window I originally saw last weekend, that made me hurriedly leave San Diego to head north, didn't quite turn out as forecast - but was good enough for me to get here safely by keeping well inshore, despite strong 'washing machine' conditions between Pts Conception and Arguello and again last night trying to pass Pt Sur.

It feels so much colder than further south - I've been wearing my warm leather seaboots and a warm fleece top for most of the passage.  The sea here is 10C/50F.. brrr!!

9pm Thursday 13th July 2017 Rounding Pt Sur

Keeping quite close in (2-3mls off coast) seems to be working - seas don't seem to be quite so rough now and wind has dropped to around 16kt so SOG (speed over ground) is 3-4kt - much better!

Still 7 ml to go until we're abeam of the Point, though...

9.40pm Wind NW 17-20 kt - but SOG still 4kt, so doing fine.... Not slamming into waves much, which is good for speed.

11.15pm - changed course around Point Sur, keeping at least 2 ml off. Pitch dark - no lights in sight. Sky overcast.

Now making for Carmel and S end of Monterey Bay - 15 ml away. Wind NW 13-14kt. SOG 4.6kt Seas still lumpy but not too bad.

If wind continues to stay down or die down further, we'll be able to cut across Monterey Bay and make directly for Pt Ano Nuevo - an elephant seal sanctuary, if my memory serves me right... I seem to remember the smell and noise carry quite a distance!

None of my hanging bananas survived yesterday's rough seas - they all eventually fell down, one by one!

Sunset photo of coastal mountains forming part of the Point Sur area.
Strong NW winds and rough seas are normal here!

7.30pm Thursday 13th July 2017

Approaching Pt Sur, 13 miles off, Santa Cruz 40 miles further north in Monterey Bay. High, barren mountains, dropping steeply to the coast, can be seen through the mist, catching the slanting rays of the setting sun, now that the low cloud layer has lifted and broken a little.

The 'Cape Effect' is at work again, giving winds up to 20 kt and choppy seas to match - it's slamming into the chop over the big swell that slows us down so much - and makes it very uncomfortable onboard, also.

We're struggling to make as much as 3 knots over the ground... so it will be slow going until after the Pt has been rounded - very much like the approach to Pt Arguello from Pt Conception yesterday evening.

At this rate, with a slight ebb tide aginst us not helping for the next three hours, it could take 5 hours or more of pounding into the waves to get around - speed keeps dropping to 2kt or less and then taking time to recover.... and the wind could get stronger....

The weather forecast shows an easing of conditions overnight close to the coast - but I'm sure that will only be true once this 'Cape' has been rounded. Winds are expected to get up again over the day and then ease again in the evening. Difficult to say how much distance we'll have made by then.

"It is what it is!"

Conditions started to calm down soon after rounding Pt Arguello, with wind down to 15kt just after passing the point and then slowly abating overnight to the present 3-4 knots. 
The swell is still large at around 2m/6ft but the rough wind waves died right down as the wind died, so conditions are quite pleasant now - especially since the sea fog lifted a short while ago to show the shore -just in time to see San Simeon Bay and then the dramatic rocks that give the name to Pt Piedras Blancas. 
Weather is looking hopeful for continuing straight on to San Francisco, with light winds so long as we stay close to shore, to give an arrival before the weather  deteriorates on Saturday.

Rough, slow progress with the wind up to 17kt now but the fog was left behind some time ago and the sun is shining. 
Pt Arguelo is next - 12 n.ml. away.

Wednesday 12th July

1.15pm

Dolphins and sealions seen heading towards the channel between Santa Rosa and Santa Cruz Islands.... There must be fish around here!

23 miles to Pt Conception - around 4-5 hrs if present calm sea and light wind continues. But a strengthening W wind is likely soon, although I'm hoping the grey, cool, overcast conditions might give less of a boost to the normal thermal effect - I'll find out soon enough. Forecast is for 10-15kt.

About to transfer fuel from jerry cans into the main tank - having left Oxnard soon after 5 a.m., I couldn't fill up but have plenty of fuel onboard to reach San Francisco motoring all the way, if needs be.

Delighted to receive a friendly response from Icom America - they'll 'expedite' my tuner repair as soon as I can get it to them - which I'm thinking to delay doing until I get to the Pacific NW - soon, hopefully.

Can't seem to contact Superwind US in New York so I wonder what's the situation there. I need to make sure my wind generator is working OK a.s.a.p.

Tuesday 11th July 2017
8.30am - leaving L. A. for Oxnard

Channel marker buoys have their usual complement of sealions lazing on a convenient ledge. Cormorants and small pleasure boats head out to their fishing grounds. Flat calm water with no wind and a layer of light fog just lifting as the sun rises higher over the sprawl of Los Angeles and its enormous harbour. It could be a hot day today!

It was nice to see cruiser friends Helen & young Isaiah who came to meet me on landfall last night at Cabrillo Beach, with Walt KM6MQ and Bob WD6AWI close behind. We all went for a meal together after I'd shown them the boat and Walt had taken photos - for the Baja Net website, he said.

Knowing of my present tuner problem, Walt had very kindly brought a spare tuner with him to give me to use with my radio system - "It's a good one. Tunes anything from a few feet to several hundred yards," he told me!

Yesterday, a strong WSW wind got up in the afternoon and the water got quite rough so we were slowed down a lot before landfall. Earlier, we'd made excellent speed for a few hours, beam reaching with full genoa before the wind suddenly veered and headed us.

Time for a relaxed breakfast with delicious fresh raspberries - from a quick trip to Trader Joe's last Sunday from San Diego Y.C. (Many thanks for that, Ron!)

Monday 6th July 2017
Oil rigs on the southern approach to Los Angeles harbour. The Santa Barbara Channel further north is well known for natural leakage of oil - thin patches are seen often on the sea surface.
Weather window for rounding Pt Conception on Thursday is still looking good. Things could change but I'm getting in position to be ready just in case.
Seeing friends in San Pedro tonight and on to Oxnard tomorrow

Well.... the good news is that replacing the fuse holder seems to have resolved the solar panel problem. Joseph had come this morning to try to help sort out the problem and things were just not making sense... So I finally suggested getting out the spare fuse holder (which I'd already tried and decided it had shown the original was not the problem ) ... Hey presto... full power and no blown fuse...! So the original IS faulty....

We wondered if the exposed metal of the spade connectors might have been part of the problem. I'll replace them soon and make sure they're covered but, for now, I'm delighted to see the increased input. Let's hope it continues!

Last night, I checked the weather, as usual, and saw a possible midweek weather window for rounding Pt Conception in light winds - strong northerlies have been blowing down that part of the California coast for some time so I'm heading to Los Angeles tomorrow (leaving around 3 am! ) to arrive San Pedro before sunset and I'll move on to Oxnard on Tuesday.

n between jobs, it's been nice to meet up with several friends.  Jeff, KJ6GET, took me to the not-very-conveniently-located office of Homeland Security to get a Cruising Permit yesterday - necessary for foreign-flagged boats wanting to cruise in US waters.  We then went for a tasty lunch before returning to 'Nereida' where he retrieved the inflatable kayak he'd lent me in January in lieu of a missing dinghy for use when at anchor while cruising in Mexico.

Present problem items I'm trying to sort out include SSB radio, wind generator, solar panels, water-maker, EPIRB,.... with a lot of smaller items also on the list...  

It was kind of Mark B. to spend time with me yesterday evening.  He helped sort out my mainsail shape - when reefed it has been looking very baggy, but once the reef lines were taken away from the reefing point fixtures on the boom so that the reef lines were free to move aft, the reefed sail looked a far better shape.  Now I need to move the reefing eyes to their new positions under the boom.
 

Friend Mark, AF6TC, came by 'Nereida' this morning with test equipment to check out the SSB radio - the end result being confirmation of my suspicion that the tuner is the problem.  The radio, antenna, counterpoise and connections are fine but the tuner seems to have a faulty component causing it not to be able to tune well enough on certain frequencies, partly depending on the previous frequency it had tuned to.  I'll be contacting Icom America about the problem to get the tuner looked at and repaired soon - possibly when I get up to the Pacific North West soon.

The wind generator seems to have become noisy and not to be outputting the power I expect - but that needs more investigation.  The company seemed to be taking an extended 4th July holiday on Thursday & Friday!  (Not the only company I tried to phone unsuccessfully last week!)

I visited friendly, helpful Downwind Marine & bought tinned wire yesterday to replace some corroded copper wire in the solar panel circuit - this afternoon's job - trying to resolve an ongoing problem and hoping, finally, see full power getting to the batteries..

Amusingly, people were complaining here about the heat yesterday - but I was perfectly happy with the sunshine, having just arrived from the warmth further south in Mexico!!

I'm planning to leave SD early on Tuesday and make a brief stop in San Pedro, Los Angeles.  Then to Oxnard, soon after, before trying to round Pt Conception as soon as weather permits, on my way to San Francisco.  Winds have been strong northerlies down that coast for quite a time, but I'm hoping they'll abate and give me a good weather window in a week's time.

Left Ensenada Wednesday just before sunset and had a fairly uneventful overnight trip to San Diego - but a slightly stressful approach to the S end of the Coronados Islands with quite a few fishing boats and strobe-lit objects in the water off the SE end of the main island  to avoid.  Luckily, our route took us just clear of all, but some of the strobes had me puzzled for quite a time.  (After I'd arrived here in San Diego, I was told the several large surface objects were the tops of tuna pens - the fishermen catch the tuna and then grow them on in these pens.)

Coronados astern... Thursday 6th July 2017
Murky grey morning approach to San Diego ..smooth water... rafts of birds resting...