Sailing – Page 6 – Road and Ocean

Money for new rope

January 17, 2014 Chris Tanner

Don’t you just love it when a store decides to run a big discount on something that’s been on your wishlist for a while? Today is West Marine’s “Friday deal” – which is a tidy 40% off all bulk rope. Whilst it was tempting to go overboard (how many phrases have nautical origins?!) and replace most of the tired lines around the boat, I was able to restrain myself to the “need” rather than “want” list.

The other day on the trip up to Point Reyes we got some nasty riding turns on the jib sheets, partly due to the ancient, flattened and fluffed ropes. So they were up for replacement. I got blue ones thinking that all the other lines aboard were white … making it easier to give instructions – “pull the blue one”. Getting back to the boat I see that the jib furling line is also blue. Oops. Ah well. At least now I’ve got two more tired, end of life ropes hanging around … perfect for holding the kayaks down!

I have no halyard backups to use in an emergency if the jib or main halyards go, and at some point I’m going to be looking for a spinnaker, so it also made sense to get the line for a new halyard too. Ended up with 8mm dyneema. I’m amazed by the breaking strength of this stuff – it claims 7000lb, which means that I just need 3 lines to hold the WHOLE BOAT up in the air.

So, now I have another job for the next trip up the mast; fit a spinnaker halyard crane and run the line. It’s also going to need a cleat on the mast.

A day on the dock

January 17, 2014 Chris Tanner

Today I was working from home. The internet is fast enough to do what I need now that we’ve installed a WiFi booster and aerial – it claims to work up to 5 miles offshore with a good signal and line of sight! But where we are a few boats down from the dock transmitter is fine too, even though there’s a big beast of a motor boat in the way. Anyway, the reason I based myself here today was to be around for the first stage of the dodger install. Two guys from Iverson’s came down from Washington and up from San Diego – they also have a few other jobs in the area. The frame was mailed to me last week, and today they set it up and measured out the panels.

I love sailing without a dodger (what we call a spray hood back in the UK). It gives you so much visibility, and you feel much more like you’re part of the world around you. On Rancote we almost always sailed with the fold-able spray hood down. Thinking about that always makes me feel lucky to have had such good weather for our trips over the last few years. Either that, or exceptional planning and weather awareness. But we’re going to be heading off for longer offshore trips when it’s going to be wet, windy and grim, and we’re going to be heading south when hiding from the sun is just as important as hiding from the spray. This thing will have fully removable windows so we can use it in sunshade mode too. The trickiest decision is going to be choosing the colour! We got a new sail cover a while back in taupe, thinking that we’d get the spray hood done in the same, but having looked at samples today I’m thinking that a coffee brown would be nicer. These white plastic boats could do with a bit more brown.

It’s been super warm, too. And really peaceful. The wind is blowing slightly onshore which means there’s no highway noise at all. Only the chink chink chink of halyards against masts, and the gently plop plop of tiny waves lapping against the hull. And yes I did manage to get some work done. However it does really set the mind thinking about getting away from the dock and off to new places, away from cities and gazillions of people.

Rose got back from a trip to the David Hockney exhibition at the De Young museum with Kate and then we took the kayaks out for a paddle as the sun went down. You can just see the city in the background. Last night was the full moon – a “mini moon” – the smallest this year. I bought some 7×50 binoculars last week and we checked out the night sky last night – with Jupiter above the moon as it rose. I was sure I could see Jupiter’s moons – is that possible through binoculars?

Point Reyes and Drakes bay

January 12, 2014 Chris Tanner

Rose, me, Mike, Rachel and Brittney headed up the coast for the weekend to Drakes bay which is nestled in just inside Pt. Reyes, about 30 miles north of San Francisco.

The day started out a bit wet – the forecast was for showers, and it was right. We had rain for the first few hours as we sailed north up the coast in a light westerly breeze. Mike and Rachel had been having it large the night before so were fast asleep below, keeping nice and warm and dry.

Soon the sky started to lighten in the west, and within minutes we were in the sun. Point Reyes was on the horizon. The wind picked up and veered north, so we ended up tacking up to the bay as the sun started to set.

Off Balinas just after the cloud and rain cleared

We had 3 attempts to get the anchor to hold, eventually getting it to stick as dusk fell. Food and drinks and games took us all the way to late evening – everyone pretty tired and all asleep by 11. The wind picked up further overnight, gusting over 30 knots. Up in the forward cabin it felt like we were still at sea – but the anchor held and we woke to calmer conditions and warm sunshine for Rachel’s birthday.

After breakfast we rustled the kayaks off the deck and took turns heading to shore to check out the (very noisy) elephant seals. These things are huge. A few harbour seals (like we have down in Sausalito) were their usual inquisitive selves, following the paddlers almost all the way back out to the boat. I’m pleased by how the kayaks handle the chop – we got a bit wet without spray decks, but that’s easy to sort.

By 1130 we were “back on the road”. A fresh NW wind from almost dead astern meant we had to put a few gybes in as we headed back down the coast. We tried wing-on-wing for a while but it was a little too rolly without polling out the jib to be comfortable.

By the time we got down to the SF bay, the swell had picked up considerable. 9-14 feet the forecast said, and it was definitely on the large side of that. Large and rolling though so not dangerous. As we rounded the SW corner of Four Fathom bank, we were surfing at 12 knots down some of the larger waves. Closer in to the bridge in the shipping channel things mellowed out a bit.

As usual, we lost the wind when the sun went down and motored back to the slip in Sausalito. Mission accomplished!

Plymouth – Bristol delivery trip

September 15, 2013 Chris Tanner

What an awesome trip.

Double reefed main after a windy night, with the forecast looking to deteriorate through the day. Will we get back to Bristol in time?

A blustery day

August 4, 2013 Chris TannerLeave a comment

David sheltering his coffee from the morning drizzle.

On Friday we made a last minute decision to head down to Plymouth and suggested mum and David came along. After spending some wicked time with Shaya and Laurie we headed off. On Friday I picked up the van, hoping that they had finally got to the bottom of the power problem that has been plaguing us for a year. Yes! Back up to max power. Awesome. So we arrived at Mayflower marina at 9pm, just in time for last meal orders at Jolly Jack’s restaurant. We stayed aboard on Saturday night; it was windy and the dock lines were too short so it was a bit noisy and bumpy. Heading out to sea, the heavens opened. An hour or so towards Cawsand and back was enough for the day. Enjoyed the fresh air though!

A strong dose of weekend

June 10, 2013 Chris TannerLeave a comment

I’m still glowing from the weekend (inside and out … having caught a little too much sunshine) – even though we only spent a day and a half away, it felt like a lot longer. It’s amazing how refreshing a short trip can be. We only sailed just around the corner from Plymouth to the river Yealm, but the weekend was spattered with a load of different Things To Remember. So what did we manage to cram into a trip not lasting much more than 24 hours?

Got some great footage from the kite + Gopro
Decided to hoist the camera up the mast with the boat hook as counterweight
Lost the camera when the mount broke and it catapulted itself over the side (boooo)
Couldn’t get the boat hook down …
Sent Ant up the mast to retrieve it (and fix the wonky windex whilst he was at it)
Replaced the primary diesel fuel filter after the engine had trouble on the Yealm approach
Discovered a broken wire to the diesel pump … must sort before next offshore trip
Had the first swim in the sea this year (brrrr)
First go at driving a dinghy with an outboard for Anna
Found some amazing squidgy squashy seaweed to squelch in
Reminded ourselves how great mud between the toes feels
Lazed in the sunshine drinking G&Ts and Rums&Cokes
Had a good mid-ocean (well, slightly off the coast) boogie to Les Yeux D’La Tête
Slept under the stars in the cockpit – another first for this year