Last week LeeAnne and I took Spray on a four day weekend trip to attend the 2011 All Islander Rendezvous at Catalina Harbor on Santa Catalina Island. We loaded Spray on Wed, Sept 7th and left our slip in Channel Islands Harbor at 5:30 AM Thursday. We motored directly towards the West end of Catalina at a little over 6 knots in calm seas and light wind. By mid-morning we had light and variable winds from behind so we continued powering. We came across a couple of large groups of common dolphins that seemed to be in a hurry to find their next meal. We tried sailing for an hour or so in the afternoon; however, the wind was still light and variable blowing from our stern. We finally gave up and continued motoring to the West end and then to Catalina Head where we saw several small groups of Rizzo's Dolphins. Once in Cat Harbor, we hailed the Harbormaster on channel 9 and picked up our assigned mooring (F4) at approximately 3:30 PM.
This was Bubba's first long trip aboard Spray and we gave him a small dose of Dramamine to prevent him from getting seasick. The medication made him rather drowsy and, as hoped, he didn't get seasick. We took the dinghy to shore and walked to the Two Harbors side. It has been about 20 years since LeeAnne and I sailed out boat to the Isthmus and we were curious to see how much it had changed. The Two Harbors side was a bit more developed with nice public restrooms with showers, a visitors center, and rental shop for snorkel, SCUBA, kayak, disc golf, etc. The general store and Harbor Reef restaurant were still there and seem to have expanded.
Behind us there were three Islander Freeport 41's from San Diego and an Islander 36' sloop from Ventura for a total of five Islanders. Brad from Big Tuna, the middle Islander Freeport 41, came over on his dinghy to welcome us and provide an update on the plans for the weekend. It turned out that the FOGgers moderator and Rendezvous organizer, Don Grass, had a breakdown with Grasshopper and was unable to attend.
On Friday night we had a group barbecue and pot-luck at the picnic area just above the Cat Harbor dinghy dock. This was our first opportunity to meet the other Islander attendees. We first met Islander Freeport 41 owners Dave and Kim from Canta Libre, Brad, his wife Nikki and daughter Dawn from Big Tuna, Hank and Brandy from Windscape, and Phil and Anne from Mouse Pad, the Islander 36' sloop. It was great meeting the others and hearing about their sailing adventures and/or plans. It turns out that Phil has owned Mouse Pad for many years and has sailed her extensively in Mexico and across the Pacific all the way to New Zealand.
The next day we slept in longer than normal and again went to Two harbors to walk Bubba and shower. On the way back to Spray Hank hailed us over to his boat and invited us aboard for a tour. That night we all met at the Harbor Reef restaurant for a wonderful dinner.
On Sunday morning we dropped the mooring at 6:30 AM for our return trip to Channel Islands Harbor. We motored in very flat seas and no wind at 6.8 kts for most of the way. The wind picked up in the early afternoon so we sailed on a broad/beam port reach for the last 2-1/2 hours. We used the autopilot the entire time in both directions and it worked flawlessly. Also, the AIS from the VHF radio integrated with the chartplotter informed us of all nearby commercial vessels. It was great being able to determine their name, course, speed, heading, destination, etc. with a push of the buttons. This was the first time we had a chance to use our rigid inflatable boat with the 8 HP outboard... and it worked very well. It was also the first time we used the Honda generator to heat the water and charge our batteries.
All in all it was a great trip! We had pleasant weather, met delightful and interesting people, got to see Two Harbors again for the first time in 20 years, learned that Bubba can indeed handle long trips, and Spray worked wonderfully. After running the diesel engine for approx 18 hours, our fuel gauge went from slightly above 1/2 tank to slightly below 1/2 tank and we ended with 138 total hours on the engine. Here are some pics (the Friday night pics are from Brad):
Today we had a nice afternoon sail with my parents and got to fly our new cruising spinnaker. This was my first several hour sail aboard Spray since completing the Transpac race to Hawai'i. My parents owned sailboats from the late 1970s thru the 1990 and sailed extensively along the Southern California coast. However, they sold their boats when the moved inland and haven't sailed for over 10 years. Fortunately, it was a beautiful day with good wind, calm seas, and plenty of sun. We wanted to try our new cruising spinnaker which we just picked up from Ullman Sails yesterday. I got a great deal on the sail plus a new ATN sleeve and it fit Spray very well. The sail was designed and ordered for my dock neighbors Tom and Kelly for their Hunter 37. Unfortunately for them, and good for me, the sailmaker built the sail in turquoise rather than the dark blue color that was ordered.
The spinnaker worked nicely. It was easy to hoist and douse with the ATN sleeve. I attached the tack line to a block on the anchor roller bail and secured it at the bow cleat. The sheet was run outside the lifelines to a block at the quarter. Everything worked as it should and we sailed back down the coast at 7-7 knots. Here are some pics of our sail.
The day after Memorial Day, Bill and Charlie headed out towards Santa Cruz Island for a week long trip The morning winds were light and the seas were kind of choppy so they decided to motor over. Unfortunately, about 2/3 the way over the engine died. Charlie figured that pounding into the swells caused some debris from the fuel tank to clog the fuel system. Not wanting to diagnose and fix the problem in the heavy seas, they decided to sail Spray back to the marina in Channel Islands Harbor. They had a great sail back with building winds and following seas. They were able to sail right up to the end-tie on D dock and were greeted by Dave and Chris for an uneventful landing. After a brief rest, some lunch and a couple of beers, they flushed and replaced the Racor fuel filter / water separator. Although the filter / separator contained some debris and water from the tank, the source of the engine failure was a dislodged glob of blue sealant that plugged the intake line to the filter. They removed the offending glob of sealant, cleaned the filter bowl, replaced the filter, and the engine fired right up.
On Wed morning, they left bright and early with plans to sail around Anacapa Island and into Smugglers Cove on Santa Cruz Island. By the time they got to oil platform Gina, the winds were blowing over 20 kts so they reefed the main and Genoa. The wind built to a steady 35-45 knots as they approached Anacap Island and the seas grew to 4-6 feet. When they got to the back side of Anacapa, the seas flattened out as predicted. However, the winds continuted to blow at 35-45 knots. When they got to the gap between Anacapa and Santa Cruz Island, the sea got choppy and the wind started gusting to 55 knots. They continued to Smugglers hoping that the island would provide some shelter from the wind. It did not. The unrelenting winds continuted to blow 35-45 knots. The only other boat in sight was the Coast Guard Cutter waiting in standby to rescue those in trouble. Charlie and Bill decided to return to CI Harbor and wait out the storm. The return trip was very quick with strong wind and following seas. Spray's new Raymarine X-10 Smartpilot auto-pilot did an excellent job of steering while under sail and power, even with the high winds and 6-8 foot following seas. Charlie was glad that he opted for the heavy duty below decks auto-pilot.
The winds continued to blow at over 30 knots through the next day. On Friday morning they departed once again for Santa Cruz Island. This time they headed directly for Prisoners Harbor. They encounted over a thoushnd dolphins on the way over. They sailed into and empy Prisoners Harbor and had a nice lunch.
This has by far been the longest, most complicated, and expensive project so far. We ordered a Raymarine X-10 Smartpilot system back in August 2010 intending to have it ready before the Islander Freeport Rendezvous at Catalina the week after Labor Day. Unfortunately, we quickly learned that the product was back ordered and nobody had them in stock. We finally got the parts delivered in November; however, due to bad weather, backed up projects, and the holidays, we were unable to start the install until after the new year.
Mike did the install. Our original plan was to re-use as much of the original Sharp autopilot installation setup as possible. We had the original rusted carbon steel tiller arm custom replicated in stainless steel. Mike discovered that the Type 1 linear drive unit would not fit in the original mounting location with the new tiller arm. He ordered a Type 2 long linear drive and tried mounting it on the other side. That didn't work either due to interference with the fuel tank.. He rotated the tiller arm 90 degrees, switched back to the Type 1 linear drive, and moved the mount to under the propane locker. The new mounting location seemed to work. It's solid and accessible via the rear port locker in case it needs to be removed in an emergency. Of course, we now have three new holes in the cockpit floor that need to be sealed!
Our next complication was that the original rudder stop was set to about 70 degrees from center. The Raymarine autopilot requires no more than 35 degrees from center. It turns out that the ABYC standard is 35 degrees and more than that causes the rudder to stall. This explains why LeeAnne lost steering a couple of times when Spray was overpowered and she had the helm all the way over. I took Spray to the boatyard and had them modify the rudder stop to max out at 35 degrees from center. Unfortunately, they screwed up and it now stops at only 25 degrees from center which really limits our maneuverability in and out of the slip. Mike will try to grind down the starboard ends to get an extra 5 or 10 degrees.
We commissioned the autopilot last weekend and it seems to work great! I'm looking forward to being able to do other things like trim the sail, remove fenders, and get refreshments while underway. It'll be even better when we integrate the autopilot with a new GPS/Chartplotter and wind instrument.
Last weekend we had a couple of great day sails with our firends Sandy & Bill from Costa Rica. The conditions were excellent both days with clear skies, warm weather, flat seas, and moderate wind. On Saturday we just did a day sail up and down the coast. We attempted to use our cruising spinnaker for the first time since we had extra crew with our friend Dave. Unfortunatley, the dousing sock got jammed and we were unable to fully raise the spinnaker.
On Sunday we left earlier and headed for Anacapa Island where we planned to anchor for lunch and return in the afternoon. On the way over we saw lots of marine life including a pod of Risso's Dolphins, porpoise, sea lions, etc. Our friends Tom and Dave from D dock met us there on their boats. It was a beautiful afternoon and we had a chance to enjoy our lunch and relax. Our return sail was exciting with good wind and smooth seas.
It's been very overcast over the past few weeks so we took the opportunity to give Spray some maintenance and improvements. Mike from Boatyard Electric installed a new Rule automatic 1,100 GPH bilge pump, a new fuel gauge, and replaced the fuel gauge sending unit. Spray didn't have a fuel guage when we acquired her. Now we no longer have to guess how much fuel is in the tank (more than we relly need). Although the original bilge pump worked OK, Charlie wanted a higher volume pump for the extra margin of safety. The original diaphragm pump is still in place to serve as a backup, if needed.
Last weekend Charlie replaced the wet exhaust hose clamps in the port stern locker. The original hose clamps had broken free and the hose was moving around a bit while under power.
Charlie took the day off work today and changed the engine oil (~6 quarts of Chevron DELO 400 15W-40), relaced the oil filter (Westerbeke 36918), and replaced the sacraficial pencil zinc (0-A) even though it had minimal wear. At a total of 81.5 hours on the engine, it had been only a little over 40 hours since the last oil and filter change. Charlie mainly wanted to see how much effort it would take to change the oil. He was pleased that the job was rather easy with minimal mess using his maunal oil changer.
This was our first multi-day trip to Santa Cruz Island, CA. Our original plan was to circumnavigate the island clockwise starting from Smugglers Cove on the South East end. Unfortunately, there was an unusual South swell coming from a storm in New Zealand. Consequently, we changed our plan and decided to stay on the North side of the island for the first few days. Monday morning we filled up our fuel tank (15 gallons on 20 hrs) and headed for Prisoners Harbor. The seas were calm and there was little wind so we powered the entire way at 6+ knots. We arrived at Prisoners Harbor a little after 1:00 PM. There was only one other boat in the large anchorage so we set a single anchor in 25 feet of water. We ate lunch, launched the dinghy, and went ashore for a nice hike. We had a great dinner - our new barbecue works excellent, and LeeAnne grilled up some tri-tip and ribs - and we slept well since the anchorage was uncrowded with calm seas and little wind.
Tuesday morning we slept in late, ate breakfast, and headed West to Fry's Anchorage just a few miles up the island. As with Prisoners, there was only one other boat anchored at Fry's when we arrived. We set the bow anchor (a 35# Delta with 100' of 5/8 HT chain) in 25' of water then launched the dinghy to set the stern anchor (a 13# Fortress/Guardian with 12' of 5/8 HT chain) closer to the beach in 15-20'. Both anchors set nicely and kept Spray in place with her bow facing out to the channel. Several other boats arrived in the afternoon but the anchorage never got too crowded. We launched the kayak and explored the caves on both sides. We also took the dinghy ashore to explore the remains of an old structure and hiked up the canyon a bit. Back aborad Spray we spotted a pair of bald eagles perched on the cliffs beside the anchorage. It was a delight to see the Eagles fly around the anchorage and get chased by the seagulls. We had another great dinner (grilled salmon, roasted asparagus and couscous), and slept well again due to the calm seas and wind.
We enjoyed Fry's so much we decided to stay another day. This was a perfectly lazy morning - we slept late, had breakfast, and then had a nap! After our lunch settled, we decided to go SCUBA diving along the West wall of the anchorage. There was plenty of kelp, rock structures, and sea caves with all of the typical So. Cal coastal marine life. We saw some good sized bat rays, kelp bass, tree fish, senoritas, surf perch, sea cucumbers, sea stars, star fish, sea urchins, sole, gobys, lingcod, etc. It was a rather shallow dive mostly in depths of 20-35' with no current and minimal surge. The sea temperature was 61 degrees F and visibility about 15'. Unfortunately, we didn't bring an underwater camera so we don't have any pictures of the dive.
After our surface interval we began our second dive along the same Western anchorage wall. Shortly after we descended, a rater chubby and friendly looking Harbor Seal approached Charlie. They were looking eye to eye one foot apart. The seal touched Charlie a few times and Charlie rubbed the seal's belly. The seal got kind of excited and began swimming around playfully. He then approached and startled LeeAnne a few feet away. The seal came back to Charlie for another belly rub. He then got a bit too friendly and started nudging us with his nose and flippers. We decided to surface since we were in the kelp beds and didn't want to get tangled in all the commotion. Plus, LeeAnne wasn't sure if he was being territorial and agressive, or just overly friendly (and possibly even amorous). We did a surface swim over to the Eastern anchorage wall and then descended. We saw another large bat ray and more of the same marine life. The seal found us again after 10 minutes into our dive. We ended the dive a bit early when the seal got a little too friendly and started nudging and nipping at our gear. It was very exciting to have such close contact with a friendly, but wild animal.
While we didn't have our underwater camera with us, here is a video that shows a similar encounter that happened to a different diver last year, just off the coast of Santa Cruz Island. Note that OUR harbor seal was about twice the size of this one!
The week before our trip Charlie had a new custom shower sump installed. We took our first showers aboard Spray that evening. It was great being able to take warm showers after our dives! Unfortunately, the shower sump pump stopped working after the second shower due to a clogged check valve.
That night was yet another yummy dinner - Caribbean jerk chicken with corn-on-the-cob and salad.
The next morning we raised our anchors after breakfast and headed West to explore the famous Painted Cave. We saw what we thought was a kayak tour boat on the West end and headed towards it assuming that they were at the Painted Cave. Unfortunately, it was a dive boat and they were several miles West of our destination. We turned around and followed our cruising guide to what we thought was the Painted Cave. Charlie explored this 25 years ago and didn't have GPS coordinates... so we relied on the guide's description to locate it. We launched the kayak and LeeAnne explored what we thought was the Painted Cave. It seemed smaller than what Charlie remembered and LeeAnne was only able to enter a little over 100' into the cave, so it clearly wasn't Painted Cave. After we brought the kayak back aboard and headed East, we found the real Painted Cave on the other side of the point. Unfortunately the wind and swells were picking up so we didn't re-launch the kayak, much to LeeAnne's disappointment. We now have the correct GPS coordinates and will visit it on our next trip.
Even though it wasn't the real Painted Cave, it was still exciting to kayak into a sea cave. There was a rocky beach at the end of it that was covered with sea lions - when LeeAnne shone her light on them, they all took off into the water, almost swamping the kayak!
The fake Painted Cave
The real Painted Cave
As we powered East, we checked out the various anchorages. Pelican looked like a nice anchorage; however, it was very crowded, so we continued East. We decided to spend Thursday night at Little Scorpion anchorage. We anchored on two hooks with our bow facing the outer most rock in 25'. We used the dinghy to set the second anchor in 20-30 feet. Both anchors set well and held Spray in place all afternoon and through the night. Little Scorpion was a wonderful anchorage with numerous rock structures and caves to explore via kayak. LeeAnne spent over an hour out on the kayak while Charlie napped. We had another wonderful dinner (grilled fillet mignon, sauted potatoes, and grilled veggies) and watched a movie on LeeAnne's PC. Again, it was a calm night so we both slept well.
Friday morning we took it easy and headed around the East end towards Smugglers Cove after breakfast. Although there was still a slight South swell coming into Smugglers, there wasn't much wind and the anchorage looked reasonably calm. We set our bow anchor close to the southern wall in 18'.
After a lazy lunch, we took the dinghy to shore for a hike. We landed the dinghy on the far northern side of the beach since the waves looked smaller there and it had more sand than the rather rocky south side by our boat. The landing was a bit more exciting that we thought and we got a little wet. Fortunately, our dry bag kept our shoes and cameras dry. We had a nice hike up the road to the top of the hill. After an hour or so, we decided to return to Spray.
By the time we got back to the beach, the swells had increased in size. We carefully studied the swell pattern to determine when to attempt our launch through the breaking waves. Although we thought we timed it right, we got swamped on our first attempt. The dinghy filled with water and Charlie got knocked out of it and almost sucked out to sea in a rip current. We pulled the dinghy back on the beach to recover and plan our next move. After studying the swell pattern along the entire beach, we determined that what we thought was the best point for landing our dinghy was probably the worst point for launching it. The breakers seemed to be smaller on the southern end of the beach, and were breaking closer to shore, which might make it easier to paddle past them before being swamped by the next big set. Consequently, we decided to carry the dinghy with motor about a quarter of a mile along the rocky beach to the southern end closer to where Spray was anchored. This was back breaking work and took us over an hour scrambling along the rocks like crabs. We both got a lot of scrapes bruises, and sore muscles doing this. It was also quite scary, as the swells continued to rise and come in closer sets, leaving us wondering if we were going to make it back to our boat at all! We definitely had some frightening visions of being stuck on this deserted beach overnight, soaking wet with no water or food and no way to get back to our boat. Fortunately, our plan worked and we were able to successfully launch the dinghy and paddle past the big breakers. It sure felt wonderful once we got back aboard Spray!
We took quick showers (after some jury-rigging of the shower pump), then LeeAnne cooked up a spicy batch of vegetarian chili and cornbread, and we celebrated our warmth and safety with a good bottle of red wine. We definitely learned a lesson: skip the beach landing if there are waves breaking on the beach.
The swells seemed to get larger and more intense after dinner. Charlie couldn't sleep until the swells settled down after 1:30 AM, so it was a rather restless night. (LeeAnne slept well though!)
We woke up early the next morning, ate a quick breakfast, and headed back home to Channel Islands Harbor. We saw lots of dolphins and sea lions on the way home. LeeAnne spotted a humpback whale sticking his head out of the water. We also saw a good sized Mola Mola basking in the sun at the surface out by oil platform Gina. We got back to our slip shortly after noon and spent the evening unloading Spray and relaxing with our friends on D dock, and sharing our adventures. Turns out we're not the only sailors who've been almost stranded on the beach at Smugglers.
The good friends, food, live music, and drinks were a wonderful way to end our first great island adventure aboard Spray!
Mola Mola sunning himself at the surface
PS - Since our refirierator was still not working, we were concerned that we might run out of ice in the ice box. We used six blocks of ice plus a case of frozen water bottles. It turns out that the ice held up great with the blocks at almost their full size. In fact, some of the water bottles were still frozen. We probably could have easily gone another 5 days before the ice melted.
