The Delta

We stayed at Decker Island until Tuesday then decided to brave the various lift and swing bridges, sloughs (pronounced "slews" for the initiated), and narrow shallow rivers in order to head deeper into the delta. I feel like I should be hearing Cajun music and speaking Cajun cher. Anyhow, we worked our way through 3 bridges and made it to a place called Oxbow Marina in Georgiana Slough. This was a trip that took us through 3 Mile Slough onto the San Joaquim River, onto the Molekumne River then into Georgiana Slough. The bridges are easy and basically open on demand in the summer. After tourist season (which ends at labour day), you need call in advance, sometimes as much as 4 hours in advance to get a bridge open. We have really not seen much boat traffic here which surprised us. Then are thousands upon thousands of boats around the bays and tucked into marinas all around here but few ever seem to move. Granted, the cruising here is more or less from marina to marina with a few anchorages. You can anchor pretty much anywhere outside of the traffic channels but not much around. So, as I said, we tied up at Oxbow Marina on their guest docks which have a total of maybe 10 slips. The rest of the marina is boat houses, or more properly long boat sheds. It was HOT. Cabin temperature around 35C with not a lot of air. The marina is part of a secluded little community that has its own pool, which we made good use of, again, not many other people did though. Just as we got tied up, this couple appeared and introduced themselves as Randy and Ramona. They have a Beneteau First 42 that they cruise on and had worked a deal to spend three months at Oxbow before they head for Mexico. A really nice couple. They offered to drive us into town to get groceries and had a genuine "just let us know if we can help" attitude. Wednesday, we took them up on the offer and went and got groceries and then they turned around and took us out for dinner. Hopefully we will meet up with them again in Mexico and return the favour or as it goes in the cruising community, pay it forward. We left Thursday to head further into the Delta to Walnut Grove. A trip of 10 whole miles! We passed 3 bridges and tied up alongside the town dock for $20.00 for the night. Walnut Grove and it's neighbour, Locke, are both undergoing restoration. Walnut Grove has a history of Chinese migrant workers as well as Japanese workers. Essentially the town in split in half, half Chinese and half Japanese. Nice little place. Locke is a bit further behind the restoration process but you can see the potential. Both towns now exist to serve the tourists from Sacramento, Stockton, and the Bay area. We were the only boat on the dock, a beautiful, new concrete dock with room for quite a few boats. We had a couple of people drop by and have a chat, one guy on his way home from work who, with his wife, is planning to go cruising. Another local who stopped by after he sat on the dock with his dog and had his dinner, just to chat and say hi. He came back and dropped his contact details a bit later so that we could e-mail him about where we are. And last, this morning another guy dropped by (a boater) to admire the boat and generally have a chat. The funny thing is a first thing the two boaters asked when they came up was did we know so and so from Vancouver or Victoria, oh well, worth a bit of a laugh. We left the dock this morning and before we had gone 200 meters the motor started to die, again! We made it back to the dock, and I changed the Racor Filter AGAIN and it was pretty plugged up. I changed the engine filter as well just to be on the safe side. I guess the tank cleaning we had before we left didn't do as good a job as I hoped as I am cleaning a lot of black stuff out of the RACOR. I have plenty of filters and it only takes a moment to change them but this is getting to be a bit of a drag. I will have to try and figure a better way when we get back to the Bay area. We ended up at Decker Island again this afternoon, watching a water ski boat buzz around us. We will only stay the night before we head down to Glen Cove Marina in Carquinez Strait tomorrow morning for probably a couple of nights.

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Oakland Yacht Club and the Delta

We arrived at the Oakland Yacht Club on Sunday August 12 after a great trip down from Drakes Bay. We sailed in fog until we reached Bonita Channel which is the inside route form the North to avoid the "Potato Patch Shoal" outside of the narrows of the Golden Gate. The fog lifted and by the time we got into the narrows heading for the bridge we put the sails up and we sailed under the Golden Gate and into San Francisco Harbour. It was fantastic. Sun shining, boats out sailing on the Bay, a big warship preceding us under the bridge, all the elements you expect. We sailed along the Presidio and then under the Oakland Bay Bridge and on into the estuary between Oakland and Alameda. A totally man-made area. 50 years ago it was a swamp, now full of marinas and shipping industry. We called the OYC and managed to get a place to tie up. They are in the midst of planning a marina reconfiguration and space is a premium just now. We weren't there 5 minutes before this guy with an eye patch wanders over and says "Hi I'm Paul, and I understand your good friends with Derrick and Anthea, small ocean isn't it?" Well we had met Derrick and Anthea last year when they were around Van Isle and Tsehum harbour getting ready to head down the coast. We had a great time with them and David and Linda off Toketie last year before they both left to head south. Derrick and Anthea stayed at the OYC for a couple of months and got to know the people quite well. They knew we were heading south so they gave their friends a heads up. Paul was quickly followed by Ivan and Cheryl off Thumbs Up. Paul's boat Xanadu and Thumbs Up are both planning to head for the Marquesas next year (Feb/March 08) so we will likely met up with them again. We had a wonderful 5 days at OYC. Everyone we met was extremely helpful and friendly. We were both pretty taken aback by the generosity of openness of everyone we met. We are trying to arrange to spend the better part of September there while I go back to work briefly. Friday we paid out small bill (typically offshore yachts get 5 nights free when they first arrive at OYC) and headed out and up into the Delta. More properly, we headed through San Francisco Bay, through San Pablo Bay and into the Carquinez Strait, through Suisan Bay and into the Sacramento River. We have Tarun in FRESH WATER. She is sitting a bit lower now but on the bright side, nothing will grow on the hull for a week or so. We picked a few brains while we were at the OYC and have a bit of a journey planned out. There are rivers and interconnecting sloughs that have been dredged out for ship traffic so you can wander around. Very flat with huge wind turbine farms (literally THOUSANDS of turbines). The ride up the rivers is great, wind at your back and typically current with you. We made it up in a day but it will take a couple of days to get back. We are in no rush!! We spent Friday night anchored just inside a place called Chain Island. It was windy and when wind and tide opposed it got a bit rocky for awhile. We will have to get used to a different style of anchorage now that we are out of BC. Today we went all of 6 miles and tucked in behind another island (Decker Island) in a narrow channel in 4 meters of water. Still windy but flat. A few other boats are at anchor here and fishing seems pretty popular. No license so I don't think I'll try my luck. We plan to spend a couple of days here and then tour a few other places before working our way back to San Francisco before labour day.

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Awake in Drakes Bay

After a rather interesting couple of days, we made it to the north side of Drakes Bay. After writing on Thursday, the wind started to rise and so did the seas. By afternoon had to drop the mizzen and reef the headsail right in to about storm jib size. We were running downwind at 5 knots in a 4 meter sea with winds to 35 knots. The only challenge was the cross seas we were taking every so often. The wind steering could not handle the headsail alone so we were hand steering 2 hours on 2 hours off. Between 19:00 and 20:00 Thursday night we took a big gust as we were coming off a wave and we basically broached (OK we actually broached). No damage other than a slight bend in the 1 inch stainless support for the starboard side solar panel mount. Very exciting! The night was tiring for both of us but when the sun came up, it all came into perspective. We continued on with reefed headsail and the whisker pole up and charged south between 6-7 knots. The weather was actually great, sunshine and clear sky. We were 20 odd miles off shore and the land was quite hazy. Pt Reyes itself is quite imposing. A huge promontory sticking out into Pacific with what seems to be a tiny light station perched on the cliff face. There is one other sailboat anchored and a couple of small fishing boats. We were both pretty surprised not to see many more boats. The NW wind I guess would make it a bit of a slog to get here from San Francisco. The weather since Cape Mendocino has been NW 20-25. Over all we motored for 67 hours in total in the 6 ¾ days we spent on passage from Port Angeles which works out to around 40% of the time under power. We will stay in Drakes Bay today, clean up the boat, etc. before heading to San Francisco tomorrow. We will hopefully end up at the Oakland Yacht Club tomorrow night.

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Drakes Bay

We're Here! We dropped anchor in Drakes Bay at 20:00 tonight. More tomorrow. We are safe and all is well

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Cape Mendicino

We made it south of Cape Mendicino, yeah! We passed our waypoint at 09:00 this morning in 15 knots of northerly winds and 3 meter seas. We had planed all along to e at 126W but the offshore forecast was for stronger winds offshore so we altered course to be 20 NM off. A good choice. The weather has been awesome the past day with sunshine during the day and a perfect starscape at night. The wind steering continues to give us grief but we are not too worried. The autopilot has picked up most of the slack but does not like surfing down 3 meter seas. We have been hand steering since about 01:00 this morning. The boat is running really well under poled out headsail and mizzen. Overnight we reefed in the mizzen and headsail and still maintained better than 5 knots. He sail combination seems to be ideal for downwind. We are running the sails wing on wing. We will likely be in Drakes bay tomorrow evening and will decide when to go into San Francisco after that.

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Moving Slowly South

Well, another day and more miles behind us. We are still running due south along 126W longitude and are experiencing very unusual weather. Just now we have basically no wind with a gentle NW swell. We have been under power for most of the past 24 hours with about 4 hours yesterday afternoon when we had enough wind for the asymmetrical spinnaker. It was the longest continuous use we have ever put that sail to. Cathy are both well rested and are getting used to shorter more frequent sleep times. As it turns out we are likely getting 8-9 hours of sleep a day each, just not all at once. Our wheel autopilot has been a real saviour. We had serious doubts that it would work well enough on the ocean but we were in no position to replace it before we left. It has been going strong for the past couple of days with only occasional hiccups. It has made standing watches a lot less tiring than it could have been. Without wind, no wind steering so we would have to hand steer if not for our faithful "George".
We had the most amazing experience last night. Cathy went on watch at midnight and we were joined by a pod of dolphins. Their wake trails were incredibly lit up by phosphorescence. As they swam along with the boat you could see where they were coming from by the long trail they left in the water. The really incredible part is that they remained with the boat until after I went on watch at 03:00. It is always amazing to us to have dolphins and porpoise swim with the boat. We are not alone in our ability to play as there can be no other reason for them to surf the bow wake for so long. We have not seen any bird life out here but do see the occasional fish jumping. I briefly toyed with the idea of dragging a line but quite frankly we don't have room to store the fish, if by some miracle I did catch one, and we really don't need to supplement our food on a 6 day passage. While we are on the subject of fishing, the fishing fleet(s) seem to appear out of nowhere around 18:00. For the second night in a row, they just appear. We don't see another vessel all day and then wham, there they are. Do they hide all day and then try and surprise us? The first night out we tried to steer around them. A hopeless idea as they are fishing in circles. The next night we basically stayed our course. A couple of boats seem to be curious and came relatively close but no problem. Last night we had at least 7 boats around us. Only one came close. I guess they are getting used to us being here. Maybe they are just shy, hmm I wonder….. I can't wait for tonight's show. Better than television by a long shot!

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Somewhere off the Oregon Coast

It was quite early when Cathy and I both woke up IN Port Angeles and decided that since we were awake anyways, why not leave? So we left at 03:00. The winds were 5-10 knots from the west so we pulled up the main, put a couple of reefs in and motor sailed out of Juan de Fuca. We had a bit of fog when we left and that soon closed in to leave us about 50-100 meters of visibility. We had a lively discussion with a tug operator coming out of Crescent Bay. As it turned out, he was more worried about another sailboat that had left about an hour before us bound for Portland. We had listened to the forecast and Environment Canada and NOAA both had small craft advisory (NOAA) and a gale warning for Vancouver Island South (Environment Canada). Both calling for strong NW winds. As we got closer to Cape Flattery, the winds turned more to the SW (no, NOT a typo!!) and stayed light. Eventually by around 21:30, the winds came up from the NW and were able to shut the motor off and sail on a close reach as we headed SW on a line for longitude 126W where the plan was to turn south on a broad reach and sail in 15-25 knots of NW wind. Hah, again Hah. The sail to 126W was great. The windvane worked beautifully and we had a great run on mizzen and headsail at around 4 knots. Our first night out so we decided to sail conservatively. We turned to head south and the winds eased to around 10-15 knots. We managed a good turn of speed (5-6 knots) but there was no way we could get the boat balanced with 2-3 meter seas on the starboard quarter and light winds. So hand steering was the order of the day. That lasted through until this morning around 08:30. The winds eased to 5-6 knots from the NW and we were unable to maintain 3 knots so headsail in and motor on. We have been motor sailing since and from the forecast, we will likely have to maintain this for another day until more wind is forecast. Given the choice of getting hammered by too much wind and motor sailing, we are both quite happy to motor sail. The highlights so far include a whale sighting by Cathy Saturday evening, using the new whisker pole (which works brilliantly) and watching fishing boats do slow circles in the night, oh and I saw a beer can float by. Not much else out here except sea and sky. Lots of sea, not much sky. We had some sun yesterday but it has been completely overcast since last night. Comfortable temps around 19-20C. We are both adjusting to life on watch. We are 3 on 3 off and it seems to work OK for now. Basically my life has been in 6 hour segments, 3 of which I get to sleep in. Now on day 3, it is getting more normal. We are currently around 80 miles off the west coast and around 295 miles north of Cape Mendicino. At our current 5+ knots we will arrive at our waypoint (between two seamounts) sometime before midnight Wednesday. We see how that goes………..

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Southern Man (and Woman)

After a furiously busy month in July sorting out boat issues, visiting with friends, family birthdays/anniversary’s (mom and dads 50^th this year) we finally got everything done that needed to be done (we hope).  We left Tsehum Harbour (Sidney BC for you non island types) on Tuesday morning with the tide and had an uneventful motor to the Royal Victoria Yacht Club in Oak Bay.  No wind of course until the turned the corner into Cadboro Bay.  We had dinner with my folks on Tuesday and then David and Linda from Toketie (boat in Mexico, owners in BC making a bit more cruising kitty) came down with dinner on Wednesday.  Cathy and I grilled them mercilessly after dinner about routes down the west cost, favourite places, rules/regulations, Mexican experiences etc.  They were great and hopefully we can put the knowledge gained to good use.  We had looked at the weather forecast on Tuesday for Juan de Fuca and beyond and it looked like if we went to Port Angeles on Thursday we could leave early Friday morning and just keep going without having to wait in Neah Bay.  Thursday morning, up at 6:00 gone at the stroke of 7:00, dodging deep sea vessels south of Trial Island by 8:00 and then across the Strait to Port Angeles.  We left seeing a small fog bank on the US side and light winds.  Great, we both thought.  Sails went up and the wind continued to build.  We ended up sailing with mizzen and about half a headsail and still made a comfortable 6 knots.  Of course we were going to weather.  Our most cherished wish right now is to get the (*^%(^(%^*%$ out of here and STOP SAILING INTO THE *&%$*^%$*% WIND.  We cleared Homeland Security in Port Angeles without any problems at all.  The customs person that came in to clear us drove up in an early  1960’s lowrider VW van.  Enough said!!  The weather however was not playing in our favour.  The winds continued to rise and the forecast see’s the winds easing to reasonable Saturday morning.  So our first bit of exploration in our journey south will be Port Angeles.  We will stay here today and get an early start tomorrow and head out and south without the Neah Bay stop.