Bodega Bay, California, USA
Suffice it to say it was not our finest hour as far as judgement is concerned.
We left Eureka primarily because the "bar" was passable. The forecast for the next 48 hours looked, while not great, at least not horrible. The worst winds were to be in the 15 to 25 knot range from the south - not what we ideally wanted, but something we thought we could survive. If we waited another day, we would have to contend with some huge swells that were due to arrive on Tuesday, which we really wanted to avoid - besides the bar would be sure to be closed if we waited at all. Susanne, who had been sick on two of our longer passages, had no problems with the last two trips, and she had found some reportedly good preventative medicine that we hoped would keep her in good humour on this passage.
We left the marina before dawn, arriving at the entrance bar at about 7:45AM, coinciding with high water slack. The passage over the bar was excellent, very flat except for a few rolling waves just outside the entrance. The first few hours seemed to be shaping up OK too - the south winds were coming up, but we were expecting that - I started to think we could put up a bit of a mainsail. Unfortunately, Susanne started to feel bad, and before long the wind and waves were building up to the point that I felt I did not dare to go forward to try hauling up the sail without her to steer us into the wind. Probably just as well, as the winds just kept on building.
The challenge on this stretch of the coast is the infamous Cape Mendocino - really a combination of two capes including Punta Gorda, about 12 miles south of Cape Medocino. For the entire time we were rounding these capes, the winds never got below 25 knots. Pretty steady 30 to 35 knots, with occasionally gusts to 40 knots, all right on the nose. Combined with the seas that this produced, we were only able to maintain a speed of between 1.5 to 3 knots, for a period of about 8 hours altogether. Up until about 3 PM, Susanne tried to stay in the cockpit, lying on the port side, but every time we were heaved over to starboard, she came sliding onto the cockpit floor, usually hitting the steering pedestal on the way. I finally got her to go below, take off all of her soaking wet clothes and wrap up in some blankets on the sofa - that is where she stayed for the rest of the trip. Meanwhile, I just hung on and enjoyed the ride. I did manage to get into a complete change of dry clothes and covered everything with my mustang outfit, so I stayed reasonably dry and warm.
The spray from the boat hitting the huge waves, combined with a terrific downpour of rain for a while, made it a very wet and wild time. I tried to hand-steer the boat a couple of times and found that I was lucky if I could keep within 90 degrees of my course - I don't know how people do this without an autopilot. I am ready to bow down and kiss the feet of the people at ComNav - that system steers the boat like it is on rails, no matter what you throw at it.
By nightfall, we had made it past the capes, and the wind and seas slowly subsided. By midnight, we were making over 6 knots again and I pushed the engine to previously unheard of RPMs in hopes of making up some of our lost time. I really wanted to get to Bodega Bay before Monday night. We burned a huge amount of diesel - darn good thing we filled up in Eureka last week.
In the morning, the seas were almost flat - a very slight swell, no wind-waves at all, and variable winds, mostly from the NW at less than 10 knots. This persisted throughout the day, and even though we seemed to be fighting a small contrary current, we did get to the Bodega Bay entrance by 6 PM and were able to navigate the tight 3-mile channel to the marina in the daylight. Total distance covered was about 190 miles, in about 36 hours.
The consequences of our action:
At some point the wind grabbed our canvas cover for the main hatch and we had but a fleeting glimpse of it as it sailed past. Really have to learn to fasten these things on better.
The life ring again managed to break free of its mount and turn itself into an automatic drogue, trailing behind us for who-knows how long before we noticed it back there. We managed to recover it OK again.
We lost one of our boat hooks (a telescoping aluminum pole). Our own fault as it was not really fastened on at all - just lying on the deck beside the now coverless main hatch. Fortunately, it was the older, mostly not working hook.
Every cupboard and cabinet that was not in some way screwed shut, managed to open and spew their contents throughout the cabin. The freezer got out of its restraints and tipped over and tried to make its way from the front cabin towards the main cabin (still working fine though). The HP laser printer that is mounted under the table in a manner that I thought was infallible, managed to leap onto the floor and shed every removable part it possessed. Even the clothes cupboards all opened and contributed their contents to the general mayhem.
For reasons unknown, both the solar panel controller and the A/C inverter charger were flashing lights saying they had internal errors. Our best guess is that some moisture got into them, probably from me going up and down the companionway, dripping water all over everything. So, after we were safely moored in the marina, we could plug into power but had no way of charging the batteries except by running the engine. Fortunately, the batteries were fully charged when we arrived so I did not have to deal with that until Tuesday. The solar controller (a TriStar TS-45) just needed to be reset by disconnecting it from everything and then reconnecting it. The inverter/charger (a Magnum MagnaSine 1012) however appears to be totally hooped. After a few attempts to dry it out and reset it, I replaced it with my spare charger (my trusty old ProTech*4). We can live without the inverter until I can get the Magnum repaired or replaced.
Probably the most annoying issue was with the anchor locker. The chain, which was probably heaped in a bit of a pyramid from the last time we used the anchor, shifted towards the stern, managing to open one of the anchor locker access doors at the foot of our V-berth bed, and spew several feet of chain onto the foot of the bed. Both of the hawse holes (the holes through which the anchor chains come through the deck) opened up, allowing water to get into the anchor locker. Normally this is not a problem as the locker drains into the bilge and the bilge pumps take care of it. However, now the chain acted as a wick to let the water flow onto our bed. Needless to say, we spent the first night sleeping on the sofas in the main cabin. Yesterday, Sue washed all the bedding and we dried out the foam mattress using a couple of fans. Fortunately it was not completely saturated.
And how did the personnel do, you might ask. As for me, I am fine - I was just a bit cold towards the morning hours, and dead tired. I slept for about 12 hours once I got to lie down on my sofa. Susanne took the brunt of the punishment. She was pretty sick for most of the time, only arising from her death-bed in mid-afternoon on Monday - she was OK by the time we were entering the harbour. Susanne is famous for the number and variety of bruises she can get when we are sailing, but this time she took it to a whole new level - has to be seen to be believed. Probably the worst damage is to our spirits. Lately it has not been all that much fun and we are starting to wonder why we are putting ourselves through all this. I guess the good part is that it has not been boring.
{GMST}38|19.8068|N|123|3.4517|W|Bodega Bay, California|Bodega Bay, California{GEND}
Christmas music on the radio, Christmas trees on roofs of vehicles and, if can you imagine, outdoor ice skating in downtown Monterey. Last I checked, it was still November, but what do I know. Somehow this is not the California we had imagined.
Today, it was still cool and windy, but the sun was shining and we had a lovely walk around the harbour, visiting Fisherman's Wharf and, of course, Cannery Row. The hi-lite of the day was the Monterey Aquarium, well worth a look if you ever find yourself in this vicinity. They had a spectacular exhibit about the "Secret Lives of Seahorses". We saw Seadragons, creatures we did not even imagine existed. The huge kelp forest tank was also a show stopper. We were there for over 4 hours, and would recommend it to anyone.
