Thursday, June 13, 2013
Delta Ditch Run - chilling out
We met up with the crew of Abigail Morgan who motored into the marina next door and spent the night there.
There was rum - there was mixed pineapple and other exotic fruit juice.
That made a cocktail
Everyone but Nat enjoyed it (Nat was still dehydrated and with no appetite)
Jiri: 'this sounds like a great adventure for a Tuesday work conversation. But just right now, I want my bed.'
Recalling the famous quote of the previous day:
Nathan asking Mike to sit on the high side 'we don't value you for your skills, we value you for your ass'.
He was kidding of course.
Magic Bus (another express 27) actually sailed right by Elise, deviating from her course to check up on us while we were still an anchor. We must have seen at least 50 boats sail or motor by us while we were at anchor and no one stopped! @Express27 #love.
Photos: Ultimate Yachtshots
Delta Ditch Run - packing up
It was time to get ready for the next leg.
A little bit of strength renewal - Mike made coffee using some super duper jet boiling thing.
We removed the spark plugs and started the drying process on the engine. The lid was sacrificed to the
Delta Gods.
And we loaded everything onto the truck...
Photos: Ultimate Yachtshots
Delta Ditch Run - the way back
The way back from the delta ditch was a slightly different story.
It started in light air, about 8 knots of breeze and finally a cool temperature, just pleasant. Except that Nat got some kind of heat exhaustion and had started to feel a little sick for a while - however, during the race, the adrenaline was masking a lot of the symptoms. Post race, she started to feel really sick just as the grill was going out, beer bottles were opening up and a fantastic dinner planned by Nathan was about to unfold.
Grilled steaks and salmon with potato salad, cake and strawberries! Delicious.
Nat couldn't keep it in though. A headache also started - Mike had electrolyte tablets and she took a couple, just trying to rest.
Elise was motoring back with her little 4 horse power.
The wind picked up to 20 knots as we were making our way down the delta. The night set in and we started a watch system. Nat and Mike took the first shift. The wind increased to 30 knots and the water became really choppy, probably 3 to 4 foot swells. Fortunately Elise's engine is a long shaft and only a couple of waves pulled it out of the water while Mike was down below to get more gas up on deck.
We saw Libra and Abigail Morgan (with bigger engines) go by (with a 6 horse power)
On a couple of occasions Mike complained that the helm wasn't responsive. It didn't look at all like rudder failure and looking down, the engine had turned and was pushing the boat sideways, working against the rudder.
The problem is that the wave and the way the engine was mounted contributed to the engine swinging out of its mount - lying on its side in the water. It stopped immediately.
Mike quickly grabbed the engine in the most amazing athletic feat - this is a) an 80 pound beast and b) an uncomfortable position and c) everything happened fast.
Nat called for all hands on deck but Nathan and Jiri had already heard it happen from below and were already jumping out on the cockpit.
Elise was following the channel markers and was unfortunately near one when all this happened so not a whole lot of room to maneuver before we hit something on the bank of the river.
Priority #1: not create a bigger problem than the one we had to deal with. Nat pointed the boat downwind and the waves helped. Nathan and Jiri quickly helped get the jib up (we had both sails ready to go up in the event of an emergency, but the main was flaked with sail ties and takes much longer to hoist) - the boat started to sail downwind under jib pushed by the waves. Visibility was good so any immediate danger of running aground (just getting stuck in the mud really) was avoided.
Next: relieve Mike who was still fighting with the engine, preventing it from falling completely off the mount.
Jiri and Nathan helped get the engine up in the cockpit. OK - that was that one temporarily solved.
Next: as we didn't really want to sail all the way back to Stockton, nor we were ready to completely sail upwind, we needed to stabilize the situation. An anchor was the best solution - except that most of the width of the river is a shipping channel at that point! We were in 50 feet of water - we rig an 80 foot tow line to the anchor line and chain, pointed the boat upwind and drop the anchor. The boat quickly dropped downwind with the waves and we paid out the anchor line.
The anchor seems to hold - so things got a little quieter and we all gathered in the cockpit to examine the situation. We also paid close attention to landmarks to make sure that the boat was not going backwards with a loose anchor.
The wind hadn't abated and we were still pretty much in 27 knots of wind, gusting 30 - our 'anchorage' wasn't sheltered at all and the boat was right on the edge of the channel (with the anchor near the channel) - we couldn't pay out any more line without ending up in mashland.
We really had three choices.
1) sail downwind back to Stockton and figure something out. Pros: it is sailing downwind which is much more comfortable in these winds. It is also a shorter distance and we can probably leave the boat there, because it is a friendly crowd. Cons: it is 20 miles in the wrong direction.
2) sail upwind back to the city with 347 tacks, hoisting a #3 and potentially taking a reef in for a more comfortable sail. Pros: gets us closer to the city. Cons: it is the most uncomfortable way to travel and the team was exhausted from the heat and the long day of racing. The two people on watch might have to tack the boat fairly often and it is a bit more tiring than just holding the tiller with the engine going... and Nat was still sick (although when the 'engine incident happened', the adrenaline kicked in and Nat felt absolutely fine for a few minutes, in full possession of all her sense. Weird...)
3) call for a tow to a nearby marina. We didn't want to sail into a marina in the dark and in shallow water.
Pros: we could leave the boat there, fix the engine and come back the following weekend to finish the delivery. Rest and all that good stuff. Cons: it is costly and it forces us to come back the following weekend for the boat.
In any case, we called in Vessel Assist (Elise has insurance and towing is included) and found out that they could only come in the morning.
So we decided to stay at anchor as everyone was tired, no one wanted to head backwards and negate all progress made so far and no one wanted to sail upwind in choppy wet waters for a delivery.
We were still in heavy wind and the boat was swinging hard. The anchor seemed to hold but we had to keep our watch system with one person trying to minimize swing (pretty touch..as little water goes through the rudder even with waves and strong current) and one person making sure the anchor wasn't dragging.
Nathan during his watch changed to the #3 jib so that we could hoist the jib fast if at any point in time we thought that the anchor wasn't holding anymore.
We took turns every couple of hours.
Wet and uncomfortable night. Nat still not feeling well - tried to first rest on deck, or tried to make herself throw up to feel better for a short while and fall asleep! Unfortunately getting sick made the dehydration and the headache worse. Sleeping helped a lot.
Long and boring watches staring at the same friggin' blinking channel markers. But Elise's anchor behaved admirably and dawn came with the boat still where it was. We were facing Mount Diablo and started to wait for the little tow boat.
Just as the anchor started to slip and Elise was now slowly heading toward the lee shore (mud really...) rudder first (not good), the tow boat arrived.
Luck!
Conditions never look quite bad in pictures :)
Jiri looking at Mount Diablo
And Elise pulled into this marina - the boat itself (minus the twing block) was absolutely fine despite the rough conditions of the night. (@Express 27 - #love)
We called Elise's caretaker who jumped on his truck and headed over to Isleton to meet us,
Last photo courtesy of Ultimate Yachtshots.
Delta Ditch Run - the way out
on Summer Palace, the multi-hand bowman (Wolfgang Stehr photo credits)
Check out Norcalsailing's writeup of the event.
Check out Pressure Drop writeups on the race (the official one is here)
Elise started the race late but caught up w/ the pack - race started well, however, in San Pablo Bay, we didn't go either completely left into the channel for a stronger flood (we had plenty of current where we were and didn't think it was necessary) or right by the shore (a lot less wind and a lot less options if the land breeze doesn't pick up but the boats there got a huge huge push right by the vallejo bridge) -
We were never really able to catch up after that.
It was a really hot day, with a crew of 4, we swapped positions on a regular basis to stay focused on the race but as the day went on, I could feel that the focus was dwindling and more random conversations started happening.
Mike trimming the spinnaker with great care apparently ;-)
Jiri and Nathan sunbathing.
After 19, we ended up on a really tight reach in 20 knot winds - we switched back to a #1 for a tight reach but in hindsight, it didn't seem to be the fastest way to go and we lost ground to two other Expresses near us.
We also lost a twing block and had to rig up an emergency twing which wasn't located in the ideal location. Not a real issue though.
Gybes were good - trimming was good.
Getting close to the finish - water calms down and the air freshens up a little bit with the soft land breeze.
More of a contemplative mode.
We finished shortly after 7pm and turned around to head on home.
Friday, June 7, 2013
Boating in the med, probably in the late 80s...
How I miss warm water beaches...It's a different kind of boat...
Summer Sailing - Med on La Brigante circa 1991
The dinghy...My mom second from last on the left side
My aunt, friend and my mom prepping dinner in the galley
Yours truly doing doing dishes in the galley after dinner....Probably age 17 or so...
British Channel
Ferry crossing the English Channel, spring of 1990 probably, or maybe 1989.
My English teacher :)
Testing Elise's new Autopilot
Serge bringing the sails to the boat and the 80 pound spinnaker
Brian is driving in 25 knots of wind, downwind with very little deviation.
The homo sapiens version of Brian is splashing the boat
What a beautiful day for a delivery
Hanging out. Easy peasy when someone else is doing the driving :)
Yes, she can fly. Isn't she beautiful?
I wonder what boat that is. I have never seen anything quite so beautiful. Oh wait. Elise maybe?
More LongPac (and general SH offshore) prep
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Completing the kit to go aloft on my own easily. I also have a climbing harness but it is not as comfortable when working for a little while up top. I will still probably wear it as a second safety gear. It is super light. I carry it on the boat any time. Always good in case a halyard gets stuck up the mast or something...
I wanted a better way to lead the mainsail so it can be hoisted SH, regardless of wind direction. In fact, often when I share a reef off it is because I move downwind. The current prefeeder is too high up the mast so the sail will get jammed all the time unless I am straight into the wind; kind of slow in a race. So I will set up a jib prefeeder (with a bungee around the mast) for my SH races. I tried it already and it is pretty nifty.
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My duffel bag for daysail isn't waterproof. I have a smallish waterproof/resistant backpack for boating but it is a tad small and not guaranteed completely sealed up. Just in case things get really wet, last thing I want is to put on spare wet clothes. So I decided to invest in some real waterproof gear - and for that, I trust my long-standing friend Musto brand!
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