SoCal TaTa

Charlie and I have been wanting to do more off-shore sailing, in preparation for our eventual retirement (hopefully in a few years) when we plan on doing some long-term cruising. We've always wanted to do the 2-week sailing rally to Mexico known as the Baja HaHa, but we just can't take the time off work for the 3-week-long sail BACK from Mexico. We even tried to sign up as crew for a couple doing the HaHa on their own Islander Freeport 36, but unfortunately they picked other people for their crew. After being summarily rejected for the HaHa, We decided to participate in the first annual Latitude 38 SoCal TaTa, a one week long group cruise along the Southern California coast and Channel Islands organized by the same folks who put on the Baja Haha. On Friday, Sept 7th, we left our slip in Channel Islands Harbor at 6:00 AM for Santa Barbara Harbor. We powered and motor sailed for most of the way at about 6 knots for about 5 hours. We arrived at the Santa Barbara Harbor harbormaster dock before noon and requested a guest slip for two nights. We ended up in a slip adjacent to Profligate, the organizer's boat, and AHA, a large catamaran that sailed up with us from Ventura.

Saturday was a layover day, which we spent exploring the lovely Santa Barbara harbor, purchasing the last few provisions, and giving Bubba lots of walks (feeling a bit guilty that he wasn't going to be able to get off the boat for a few days once we departed). We walked into town, and Bubba got to make a new friend outside a little Mexican market.

Sunday afternoon was the skipper meeting. The theme for the SoCal Ta-Ta was Reggae Pon da Ocean, so everyone wore their best Rasta-wear, including us!

Monday morning the fleet departed for Santa Cruz Island. The weather was lovely, the winds were brisk and it was a blast sailing with 33 other boats.

We had a lovely sail into Smugglars, and found a nice spot on the north end of the anchorage. We wore our Rasta gear for the finish - here's Charlie looking for a good spot to drop the hook.

We spent two nights at Smugglers. The first night we held a dinghy appetizer party, with ten or twelve dinghys rafted up to each other near the surfline, passing plates of food. We called this the "Outcasts" party...the story was, Profligate (the organizer's boat) had a skipper/first mate party each night for the first three nights, but could only fit 1/3 of the fleet each night. We were scheduled for the 3rd night. So, as part of the 2/3 of the fleet who weren't invited the first night, we attended the Outcast party. It was a lot of fun, although a bit bouncy! We were treated to a lovely sunset over Anacapa that night.

The second night I used our new Korean BBQ to whip chicken and veggie kabobs, and gazed at another gorgeous sunset.

Here's a shot of the fleet, gazing towards Yellowbanks.

Charlie and I never went ashore at Smugglers, given our scary experience a couple years ago when we'd dinghy'd to shore and then couldn't get BACK to our boat due to the crashing surf! So we happily just relaxed, played with Bubba, and napped. Fortunately Bubba took well to his new astro-turf potty pad, although I'm sure he missed his usual walks.

On Wednesday we departed early for Paradise Cove in Malibu. It was our longest leg, but one of the best as the winds and point of sail allowed for us to use our spinnaker for hours! It was the longest we've been able to fly our chute yet. Charlie got to take several naps, which Bubba always appreciated.

Paradise Cove was a bit of a challenge - lots of kelp, and no way to go ashore as the surf is just too dangerous. That meant yet another day with no walks for Bubba! He was doing fine, though...he's really become a great boat dog.

Even though we couldn't go ashore, we enjoyed the view of the mist over the Malibu canyons, the pier and the famous Malibu institution, the beachfront Paradise Cove restaurant.

That night was our skipper/first mate party on Profligate. We enjoyed appetizers and wine, and got to spend some enjoyable time with Richard, Donna and the rest of the crew of Profligate. As the owner/editor of the magazine "Latitude 38", Richard is a fascinating guy with an encyclopedic knowledge of West Coast sailing. Richard also organizes the Baja HaHa, and he is full of amazing stories. We didn't get much sleep that night - the winds were pretty strong, and a small sloop that had dropped anchor near us ended up swinging into us, colliding at about 3:00 am. Fortunately the collision was relatively soft - we could see no damage - and after a bit of scrambling in and cranking in some rode, we managed to avoid each other for the rest of the night. The next morning we departed for King's Harbor in Redondo Beach. We had some guests along the way - Pacific Bottlenose Dolphins, racing the bow.

Charlie partook yet again of his favorite sailing activity - napping with Bubba.

King Harbor is a lovely but somewhat cramped harbor - there were no slips available, so most of the fleet rafted up together in the middle of the harbor near the King Harbor Yacht Club. We were rafted up between Shadow II, another Islander 36, and Tilligo, a Union Polaris 36, along with several other boats. We had a great, solid raft-up, although some of the boats in other raft-ups apparently dragged and had a bit of a rough time. FINALLY we were able to get off the boat! We dinghied to the dock at King Harbor Yacht Club, where Bubba finally got to get on dry land, and we both got to take showers. That night the wonderful folks at Kind Harbor Yacht Club held a spaghetti dinner for the Ta-Ta, and we all enjoyed the delicious food, and made copious use of the bar! Friday morning we departed for Catalina. We motor-sailed up to the Palos Verdes bell bouy, then killed the motor and headed on a rumline for Two Harbors. This was our best sail yet! The winds were perfect, close reached on a starboard tack, hitting our best upwind speed of 7.4 knots - a record! We were pacing along with the Tilligo and a few other boats from the fleet, and keeping up nicely. It was about a 5 hour sail, and it was one of our most enjoyable EVER! We nabbed a nice mooring in Isthmus cove, and then dinghied ashore, where we enjoyed showers and Bubba got another walk on dry land. We had two fabulous days in Two Harbors, including two great parties with the Ta Ta fleet replete with Conga lines! On Sunday we dropped the mooring at 6am for the 9+ hour motorsail back home. We met some GREAT people, had fantastic sails, and thoroughly enjoyed ourselves!

Solar Panel

In May we added a 100W Ramsond mono-crystalline solar panel on Spray's stern rail. Our intent was to provide enough power to keep the house battery charged while anchored or sailing with the refrigerator, radio, and navigation instruments running. The panel weighs only 16.5 lbs and generates 5.41 peak amps which should be sufficient for our needs. We installed a Schnieder/Xantrex 40 AMP charge controller configured for our Lifeline 8D AGM house battery with the float charge rate set to ~13.2 volts. We mounted the solar panel on the stern rail using two sturdy adjustable Magma BBQ mounts. This allows us to position the solar panel on either side or aft sections to achieve optimal sunshine based on our position. We're pleased with the results and will upload some pics next week.

Daysail to Anacapa

On Saturday we took a daysail out to Anacapa Island. We picked up some extra sandwiches which we planned to bring for Dave and his crew aboard Niko Maria out at Frenchie's Cove. We powered out of the harbor and then set the sails for a close reach toward Frenchie's at 5-6 kts. The wind died down as we approached the island so we furled the Genoa and approached Dave's boat under power. It took us a little longer than we expected to get out there, so rather than drop the anchor we just did a quick pass by Dave's boat, which was at anchor.  LeeAnne hung onto the spreader and tossed Dave his sandwiches.  Luckily he caught them, or some fish at Frenchie's would have been enjoying a couple of foot-long roast beef subs.

We did one more spin around Niko Maria and then headed back.  We were hoping the winds would be favorable for flying our new spinnaker, which we've only flown twice.  Initially the winds seemed to have shifted and were right on our nose, so that wasn't going to work.  But once we got a little further away from Anacapa, the winds shifted back to the port beam and we were able to set the spinnaker.  We'd asked Dave to take a few pictures of our boat under sail..  So after they chowed down their sandwiches, they powered up behind us and snapped a few shots.

After setting the spinnaker we FLEW back toward Channel Islands Harbor at 6-7 knots on a broad reach. The wind was blowing 10-15 knots with 4-6 foot following seas. Flying the spinnaker was exciting in these conditions with just the two of us. We were the only ones flying a spinnaker and we got a lot of cheers from passers by, and a few powerboats even swung by to take photos.

After about an hour the wind shifted and got kind of flaky when about half way across the channel so we doused the spinnaker and motor sailed back to the Harbor.

Electrical Upgrades

Mike from Boatyard Electric came by today to replace the house and starter batteries and upgrade some of the electrical components. We replaced the 4-1/2 year old wet cell 8D house and group 27 starter batteries with new Lifecycle absorbed glass mat (AGM) batteries. We used an 8D deep cycle AGM for the house and a larger Group 31 AGM starter battery for the engine. The new AGMs are maintenance free and hold their charge better than the wet cell batteries. Since the AGMs are more tolerant of high temperatures I decided to leave the starter battery in the engine bay. Mike has had good luck with the Lifecycle brand and thinks we should get 8+ years of service from them. We mounted the starter battery box more securely and repositioned it slightly to make room for the other components. Since the AGMs require a lower float charge voltage than the 14.2v that our alternator puts out, Mike installed a new Balmar voltage regulator specifically configured for the AGMs. I've been using AGMs for my motorcycles for many years and really like them.

We also added a Xantrex Link LITE battery monitor. This will allow us to better monitor the condition of the batteries. The LinkLITe is much more accurate than the old original analogue volt and amp meters. In addition to volts and amps, the new monitor includes a gauge for percent full. This will be useful to determine when we need to recharge the batteries while away from the dock.



In addition to the battery monitor, we added a remote panel for the Xantrex 40 Amp battery charger. The remote charger panel was mounted below the main battery switch. This will make it much easier to monitor what the battery changer is doing since the charger is located under the starboard settee.

Mike also installed a 12 volt accessory outlet at the navigation station and fixed the shower sump which had a detached wire at the circuit breaker connector. Having a working shower sump pump will make LeeAnne very happy. LeeAnne will use the 12 volt outlet to charge her cell phone.

Mike convinced me into upgrading our basic Perko main battery selector switch to a Blue Sea unit with an automatic charging relay (ACR). The upgraded switch will automatically allow the generator to charge both batteries and will also isolate them to ensure that the starter battery is optimally charged. He has had good luck with these and said they last a long time. After our experience on New Years eve day, I decided to give the automatic charging relay a try.

Mike referred me to Curt for some woodwork. Curt crafted a teak panel for flush mounting the new main battery switch and remote charger panel. Unlike the current panel, the new panel has finished edges, counter sunk and bunged screw holes, and the grain is properly oriented. While we was on Spray, I asked him to repair a crack along the port side settee board used to make the double bed and flush mount the v-berth door so that it will close properly. Everything he did came out great!  I varnished the panel in seven coats of gloss and re-did the galley cabinets in satin.
 

Here are some pictures of the new Jabsco electric toilet with instructions and the new sink faucet.  LeeAnne really loves the electric toilet!