"And we sail and we sail and we never see land, just the rum in the bottle and a pipe in my hand…"
… and counting. Today we were up at the boat installing the new 200 A-hr LiFePO4 battery pack from Race Cell. The new 80A alternator and 135W solar will be on board in a couple of weeks, producing, one hopes, energy nirvana.
I’m not sure if I am going to do the Stand Down Marathon or not. I need time under sail, but would prefer doing drills double-handed. We’ll see.
Shore team member and all-around spokesmodel Char displays our new 135W solar panel, soon to be fitted to Temerity, and the stylish Temerity PacCup 2012 aloha shirt, of critical importance to winning the party.
Last Saturday we had an OYRA race that was not the Duxship. Following the Low Speed Chase accident, US Coast Guard Sector San Francisco has issued a ‘stand down’ on ocean racing originating in San Francisco (Santa Cruz, Princeton Harbor, and other west coast ports are not affected.) The OYRA did a great job at the last minute scheduling a replacement course that did not go outside the COLREGS demarcation line.
We had a great start, once again in a heavy ebb and light winds. We stayed clear of the pin and observed several boats piling up on in it in a highly reminiscent fashion. “That was us about 4 weeks ago,” I told Andreas and Andrew, who were once again crewing this race. Our upwind leg was fast and fun; as you can see from the tacking angles above. Even with so little weight on the rail we were in a good position rounding the mark, the Pt. Bonita buoy. And there I blew it. I knew that the current inside Bonita Cove would be much less than out in the main channel, and we had arrived at the mark a lot sooner than I had reckoned, so that the ebb was still in full force. But with only 3 aboard and still a little jittery so soon after LSC, I decided not to go close to shore under spin for the current relief. After we set the spin I had my hands full steering, and it wasn’t for a while that I realized how the ebb was setting our ground track to a net southerly heading. So we lost a lot of ground on the run to the North Tower. We made some of it up though with some good calls putting us near Angel, and anticipating the strong current still setting out of the channel to the north; we make the next mark, YRA 8 without needing to douse and tack back up. We doused before reaching the mark and went back up with the #1 for a reach south.
The call to go behind TI also proved to be a good one. There was a big wind hole just past the bridge, but apparently there was an even bigger one on the west side of the island and the course that way was longer. A nice spin run down the Estuary got us to the finish, and only a few minutes from our slip, a very welcome change from the usual situation. In all, a great day out with A&A, and a good party at EYC afterwards.
Last Friday Temerity had her safety inspection, with inspector Michael Caplan performing this service for us. The previous weekend Char and I had spent a full day on the boat marking gear, applying reflecting tape, and performing a host of other checklist items, to be fully in compliance with the 38-page Special Offshore Regulations, Category I. There were a few minor items, such as a leaky bilge pump (since fixed) and no sail number banner (I did not understand the requirement, and it is since been ordered), but overall there were no deficiencies that needed to be checked prior to race start, and Michael was in fact very complementary, much to my pleasure (and relief). We chatted afterward, and he had some very useful suggestions beyond safety issues, and put me on to a local source for landjaeger, a critical provisioning item.
Afterwards, I called my crew to share the good news, and she said “Wow, this is getting pretty real.” Yep.
EDIT: I’ve since learned that Temerity was the very first boat in the Pac Cup fleet to pass inspection. Let’s hope this sets a precedent as far as other finishings are concerned!
Track detail from our minor wipe-out on the way home from the Farallones.
As many readers will by now know, the ORYA Full-Crew Farallones race was struck with tragedy as five sailors from Sydney 38 Low Speed Chase were swept overboard by a wave as they rounded the islands, and the boat with the remaining three sailors aboard was driven onto the rocks of Maintop Bay shortly after. We were quite close when this happened. I did not witness the boat going aground personally but some of our crew did, and we made one of the first calls to the Coast Guard, at approximately 1450 hrs PDT. The sea state was quite rough, with a big swell and mixed chop that produced the occasional drencher on deck, even before we came to the windward side of the island where the waves are made even worse by the effect of the waves rebounding from the shore. Wind was NW 25 kts.
As of this writing on Monday morning, the USCG has discontinued their rescue efforts, which had involved considerable effort and assets over more than 30 hours, and the missing crew must be presumed dead. Only one body of the five that went overboard was recovered. Two of the survivors who went aground (including the skipper) were thrown off the boat when it hit the rocks, and managed to climb on some rocks where they were picked up by a USCG helicopter. Video here. The remaining survivor was on the boat with a broken leg, and was also picked by by helicopter.
Chartlet of the islands.
Here is our GPS track for the full race:
View Larger Map
And an excerpt from the rounding of the islands:
View Larger Map
Raw .gpx files are here: full, islands
We were way too cold and wet much of the time to take pictures and in a somber mood on the ride home. Frankly, what happened to Low Speed Chase could have happened to us also. When shorthanding in the ocean I am very disciplined about having myself and crew clipped in 100% of the time, but with crewed racing with very proficient crew I am much more lax, as conditions outside the Gate many days are no worse than in the Bay. But Saturday was not one of those days. It was pretty hairy from Pt. Bonita onward.
For the race we had a great crew, comprising Kim, Chewy, Andreas, and Andrew K., the latter two new to the boat and very experienced, skilled sailors. There was a big ebb and almost no wind at the start, something of a tradition it would seem. We set the #1 genny, and tried to work our way out into the middle of the stream as best we could. Approaching Bonita, the wind and seas increased steadily, and we made a good anticipatory call in changing down to the #3, with Andreas and Andrew working very well in managing this with the new hanked-on sails. From then on it was just a nasty beat into the square waves formed by the ebb meeting the 20 – 25 kt northwesterly. As usual, crockery down below was smashed, the galley cupboard door popped out, and drawers in the forepeak cabin knocked off their tracks. It was very wet, with plenty of waves washing over the deck and down inside the clothes of most of us.
We rounded with the islands to starboard, and mid-way we observed Low Speed Chase very close inshore, and then driven aground. The radio call was made to USCG as described above. We were already as close as any rational person would want to be to the rollers breaking on shore, and with a helo on the way and LSC grounded, we did not feel there was anything we could safely do to help, though we did scan the water for survivors.
On the ride home we stuck with the #3 sheeted to the rail and full main, which we had been flying since Bonita. I did not feel like putting up any more sail than that. Near the Lightship we were hit by a breaking sneaker wave on the port quarter, which flung me across the cockpit and to the starboard lifelines, and tumbled Temerity around in a 360° circle. As I was in the air I had plenty of time to remember that I was clipped in and would not be going overboard. We finished without further incident, and pulled in to StFYC to drop off crew, and everyone jumped on their cellphones to inform friends and family that we were OK. It seems that there had been some confusion with our initial radio call and USCG thought for awhile that we were also in distress. Strangely, they called our cell phones and emergency contacts, but did not attempt to hail us on VHF, which would have cleared things up immediately, as we continued to monitor Ch 16 for the rest of the race.
I and the Temerity crew extend our deepest condolences to the families and friends of those lost at sea.
Yesterday Annika and I were up at the boat knocking off a few PacCup checklist items, including practicing deployment of the emergency rudder. It went OK, but I will be drilling some more holes in it to add some attachment points to make it easier to mount, and also to better secure it to the boat. It is so buoyant that it tries to ride up and out of the mount, and needs to be restrained, here with some green utility line.
The DH Lightship ended not with a bang, but a cold and wet whimper as all but 5 of the 36 entrants retired in the face of light winds, bumpy vomit-inducing seas, and the flood tide that started all too early for most. As you can see from the track above, we were among the retirees. My crew was Gilles Combrison of GC Marine, who has done most of the rigging and deck work on Temerity over the last two years.
We had a good start, as most of Div A was fooled by the Race Committee’s mistake of starting the race 5 minutes earlier than had been stated in the SI’s. The First Warning was meant to be at 0900, with the first start at 0905, but they started the sequence at 0855. It was light, light, light though, and the lighter speedsters pulled ahead. We set our somewhat baggy 0.75 oz runner and tried to make do reach-to-reach jibing to keep boatspeed up, the angles be damned. It was cold and there was a heavy drizzle much of the time. Eventually, we realized that we had spent 4 hours covering 25% of the course distance, with the wind only expected to get lighter later on. So we bailed. Well at least it was good practice of a sort, and I enjoyed sailing with Gilles. Hopefully he can join us later in the season and we will have some better weather!
A storm trysail is required per OSR 4.26 and is thus a PacCup requirement. We has ours built by Dominic Marchal of Marchal Sailmakers in Alameda (UK Halsey). It was delivered recently, and this week Annika was able to bend it on and in consultation with Dominic work out its sheeting requirements. Looks good.
To say that our running in the OYRA Lightship I race got off to an inauspicious start would be beyond understatement. I was lucky to have Kim, Chuy, and Michaela as crew, and was looking forward to turning in a good showing, as well as a good time. The start proved to be a fiasco however, as I misjudged the speed of the early ebb and we drifted over the pin, snagging it in fact on our rudder. As as you can see from the animated chart below, there we sat for all to see for nearly an hour. The RC delayed the two Divisions after us, but then started them off, with Temerity playing the inglorious role as the pin.
After the other fleets had all left, a nice young man in a big StFYC RIB helped us off, after several attempts against the 3 kt current. By towing straight back towards the ‘X’ buoy, we were eventually freed, and could see the nasty pink inflated mark ahead of us by a boatlength or so. And then, before we could get the sail up and get steerage, we drifted right back down on it and snagged it again with the rudder. A real character building moment. Finally, we were off for real, we hoisted sails and started out the Gate.
The wind died, and then filled again out of the promised NW. We made the Lightship in one long beat on starboard, getting a bit of a lift on the way. It was too late to be clever and try to work to the north of the course. As we rounded, the wind was blowing about 20 kts and had veered enough so that the apparent was nearly on our beam — too far forward to set the spin, and the seas were pretty steep, probably about the 12 feet at 12 seconds that had been forecast. We stuck with the #1 and power-reached for home. As the afternoon progressed, the wind built to a solid 30 kts with gusts of 35 kts. With Kim and Chuy sharing the driving most of the way back, we saw over 17 kts on the speedo, a new boat record, helped by the steepness of the waves. We even managed to pass a couple of the PHRO3 boats on the way back. The result was a DFL, not surprising given our delayed start.
Fortunately the crew were very good about the whole business, and après-race we were all happy to tuck in to the delicious chicken pot pie that Kim had prepared, with Dark and Stormy chasers to take the edge off. It was a lovely day with good wind and a chance to be on the ocean, so what’s not to enjoy?
Temerity is now back from our GC Marine, our rigger, having had the mast out and a number of maintenance tasks completed. This included rig overhaul and inspection, replacement of mast head sheaves, replacement of VHF antenna cable, rebuild gooseneck and vang attachments, hydraulic backstay adjuster service, rebedding the forward hatch, and adding a second topping lift and pole butt car to enable twin-pole jibing of the spinnaker (we also had the old black pole repaired and re-rigged, and a new carbon pole is under construction.)
What did not go back up when the mast and rig were reinstalled was our foil on the headstay. Instead, we are going bare, and I have had the sail loft convert all our headsails from luff rope to hanks. The Sweden type brass beauties can be seen above. Char and I took her out for a test on Saturday afternoon, and so far I am happy — it was blowing 10 – 16 as we motored and then sailed upwind under main alone with the jib unattended and un-bungied on the foredeck, and the jib of course had no ability to try and fly up and out of the boat. On the douse the sail did not exactly fall like a rock, and I had to run forward as usual to pull it down, but this was with our brand new #3 which is quite stiff and crispy still.
This year’s edition of the SSS Three Bridge Fiasco was the fourth time we have done the race, and the first time we have finished. Annika flew up from UCSD to provide her excellent helming skills. The weather couldn’t have been better warm and with lightish winds, except for the two big holes near Blackaller and at the end rounding Yerba Buena.
The wind was pretty variable at the time of the start. Motoring along the city front at about 0900, the wind was up to 15+ kts with whitecaps forming west of TI, and so we put the #1 genny below and hauled out our shiny new Doyle Stratus #3. But a half hour later it had dropped to less than 8, so it was down the hatch with the #3 and out again with the #1. Even so, we called the start pretty badly, and were about 5 minutes late over the line, creeping along at 2 kts. After being razzed by our pal War Dog about having too small a sail up, we set the spin, and proceeded to drift down to Blackaller, with over a hundred boats around us doing a floating fiberglass impersonation of 880 at rush hour. We barely stayed outside the Anita Buoy, and then it was really crunch time as we entered the Maelstrom. Three trimarans were lined up ahead, ama to ama and we where hemmed in on either side with boats less than 10 feet away. The tris seemed to form a solid barrier, and in spite of the well known fact that multis are the fastest boats sailed by teh bestistist sailors, with our spin up we were fast than they were, and as overtaking boat had no rights. I guess in hindsight I should have doused the spin, but somehow the waters parted and we snuck through. “A ballsy move” was what one fellow racer told me the next day, but it was more reckless than anything.
We overstood Red Rock only to find the wind dying there as well, and had to do a short, slo mo tack to stay clear of the reef. Then we made one of the better tactical calls of the day, delaying setting the spin to head south until the wind settled down. At it turned out, the apparent wind was ahead of the beam for the whole reach down to TI, and we saved time over those boats that had set and doused. The Bay Bridge was another traffic jam, and this time we did not do so well getting out of it. But we picked up a bit by going straight for the Pier 39 corner instead of hugging the city shoreline as many boats did, and then had to tack out. Our finish was at 15:35, putting us at 158th out of 271 double-handed starters. It was a great day on the water for Annika and me!
Approaching the finish, photos by Jeremy of Surf City Racing.
Somehow there is always a line dangling whenever we get a photo taken…
[Edit] framgrab from our crossing the finish, seen from the Racedeck
It’s never too early to start thinking about. DH again this year with the 1st Lt. Our start: 9:57:45. This year’s goal: to finish.
Animation from holdentechnology.com:
Frames broken out for your printing and studying pleasure (click for big):
The tide is not as strong as it has been the last couple of years:
Thanksgiving weekend, having no girls to feed or care for, I decided to go on a cruise. My choices were Half Moon Bay, Drake’s Bay, a rounding of the Farallones, or some combination. The troublesome factor was not wanting to reach a new-to-me anchorage in the dark, and the huge ebb tidal flow out the Gate in the late afternoons, which meant that once I left the bay I was not getting back in. Winds mid-morning Friday were nothing-to-5 kts, so I started motoring up to Drake’s Bay. There was a slight favorable current most of the time, but under engine I was faster than the wind coming from my transom.
The last few miles saw Pt. Reyes itself cloaked in a thick fog bank. I found my horn and quickly refreshed myself on the signaling rules for powered vessels under way in reduced visibility in the COLREGs. I was thinking also on how I might have spent some of the enroute hours in rigging my new radar reflector. Visibility was about 100 ft as I groped slowly forward for the last mile, keeping a sharp eye out for the big mooring buoy near where I wanted to anchor — which is unlighted, and might not be where the GPS said it was. Finally, dead ahead, a white sloop loomed into view. It was S/V Tiger Beetle, a friend from the SSS and Grand Marina. I hailed Rob and Kristen aboard, and we rafted up for some drinks and snacks.
The fog lifted a bit shortly after I arrived (at about 1700) while there was still light in the sky.
Tiger Beetle and Temerity hanging out.
Oh snap, the Singlehanded Farallones Race is being held on Judgement Day.
Well I guess that is true in a way. Yesterday I did a singlehanding practice, and meant to fly the spin, but by the time I got to the Cityfront (it was slow going against a big flood), the wind had kicked up to the teens, which was more than I wanted for my very first solo kite flying expedition. So I messed about a bit just outside the Gate, enjoying the sun, breeze, dolphins, and views of the America replica and USA76 which were both out for a spin.
Fortunately, the End of the World will occur just after the Vallejo 1-2, which is pretty much the end of our season.
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