Elise

Sunday, November 17, 2013

Sunday, November 10, 2013

Delivery

On Wednesday night I took Elise to Richmond as she is having some electrical work done.

Nasty ebb but beautiful warm evening. I started off with the engine as the wind was quite dead by the St Francis. The engine died on me off Angel Island right at the time the breeze picked up a little bit.

So I figured that I was a sailboat and I put up some sails and continued on.

The engine had run out of gas so I refilled it.

I was happily sailing along, looking at full sails and getting closer to Richmond, very close in fact...I was a little low, right past the shoal markers which usually isn't a problem...unless you sail up along the breakwater to go back to the entrance of the channel, a few boat lengths away.

It looks like there are some shallows.

Rudder unresponsive and sails full...not going anywhere...

I was stuck in the mud.

I was really worried about Serge waiting for me at the dock. I tried to call but cell signal is very bad in that area. I texted him to go and get dinner.

Because I didn't want Serge to wait I called vessel assist to find out if they could tow me out before the tide would float me out. ETA for vessel assist was 1.5 hr and in their opinion, the tide would only take 30 minutes. So we agreed that I would wait for the tide. Vessel assist recommended that I take my sails down as they would push me further into the shallows. I made sure that the engine would start and settled for a wait.

I waited for well over an hour before I could motor out. In the meantime, the Coast Guard reached out to me asking for my position. I replied that this was not a distress call, just a call for a tow. Seemed important that I transmit my position still.

As I motored away vessel assist called saying that they were 5 minutes away and to look for their lights. I was surprised since I didn't believe that they were coming based on our last conversation. They just wanted to make sure that I was ok. Nice of them. I signed some paperwork and that was it.

I sure went around every single shoal marker and channel marker on my way in...

Day sail

Elise went out for a lunch on the water with Nat and Serge.

Photos courtesy of Serge and Nat

Exiting the harbor in light air. Adjusting the sails.

Chilling

Beautiful day for a sail

The girl, as beautiful as ever

Serge driving

Oooo, cold!

Splash!!

Getting back on terra firma

Fixing the masthead fly

Which was not very symmetrical lately...

Thank you Serge for hoisting me

View from the mast

Brickyard Cove

Serge working the lines.

Hoist and Splash

ZYC sail loft

Sunday, November 3, 2013

All is Lost

The 'Elise' crew went to see 'All is Lost'.

IF YOU HAVE NOT SEEN THE MOVIE, SPOILER ALERT

I really liked it as a movie - even if from a sailing standpoint, there are of course a few things that are unlikely to happen with a truly good (and prepared) sailor and a real life situation. However, without those, there would be no movie :)

The movie is gripping, you do not really know if 'Our Man' is alive or dead at the end with the opening statement, you're on edge for most of the movie. The intent of the director is to make every scene very realistic and part of what they do to do this is a) show mundane scenes on the boat like eating out of a can, shaving, etc... b) show the things that would normally not be shown in movies: like making the boat ship shape before a storm hits or pumping water out and mopping the floor. It does a good job at showing that a boat is a floating washing machine most of the time. It is a tiring environment where sometimes the simplest things will take effort and concentration.

The scene in the raft is pretty realistic, you always have a bit of water at the bottom which is extremely annoying!

Robert Redford has a super expressive demeanor, and increasing desperation is clearly shown by his character. He doesn't really need to speak...

I also liked to watch the movie to learn new stuff in case I find myself in this situation. The improvised solar still is a great idea and I'll remember that one.

What is true in any boat incident is that usually, even when things go bad, you don't run out of options for a long time...and with today's communication systems, even though you traverse a very hostile place (oceans are not human friendly, FYI), you can do so and maximize the odds of survival to probably even more than what they are if you bike to work every morning in heavy traffic.

I feel safer on Elise even in rough weather on my way to the Farallones than on my bike heading home in the dark.

Now for the parts that I am not sure are very realistic.

1) For an offshore cruiser, Our Man is amazingly unprepared.

No grab bag ready to be taken to a liferaft including emergency food, a lot of spare batteries, flash lights, flares and water and communication equipment. If you do have more time, you can use that time to salvage even more from the boat. He seemed to be putting this together on the fly.
A liferaft buried under mats forward of the mast (ideally, you want to be able to deploy in less than a minute so it is either on deck or very close to being on deck.
No jacklines
No hand held GPS or hand held VHF
No ready made emergency water, he has to take that water from the boat water tank
Are these foulies from his youth?
He has light wooden hatch boards that are NOT tied to the boat (and float...) - miracle he hasn't lost them
His non waterproof satellite phone is left in a non waterproof place - this being a super super critical safety item, I'd take very good care of it
No handle for the manual bilge pump

He wouldn't qualify for an OYRA race.

2) Our Man is portrayed as extremely resourceful yet he makes some weird decisions or has weird things happen

Even after tacking the boat the right way to bring the hole entirely above water (it's not like you have an immediate lee shore to worry about), he then tacks back the other way and puts his weight to leeward confirming that indeed the hole takes on a hell of a lot more water that way
Trying to push away a container with the boat hook
In the middle of a raging storm, he decides all of the sudden that a storm jib is required and takes huge risks to deploy it. Unfurling just a tiny bit of the jib still in the track would probably have done both the stabilizing job as well as balancing the loads on the mast.
For some reason a hole in the hull causes the mast head VHF antenna to get disconnected which requires him to go aloft, even though the radio is toast from a power standpoint so who cares
Shaving before a storm comes in is clearly a top priority (Vs. getting the storm jib ready so it can be hoist easily and run the lines aft so you can do so even from the cockpit if it needs to be used). I'll make sure that I have my makeup handy next time I go out. And interestingly he seems to be shaving every day thereafter even on the raft.
Deploying a drogue off a cleat in heavy weather would probably make it hard to recover it.
Tying up the liferaft to the TOP of a stern stanchion in a storm instead of a stern cleat makes it a lot more likely to break your stanchion and lose your raft.
Blocking the wheel turns the auto-pilot on apparently or connects the windvane
An S.O.S. at sea is called 'Mayday'
Tying up the tether to the top of the lifeline makes it more likely that there will be full immersion if you go overboard. Also not very strong. In the absence of jacklines, perhaps at least the middle rail
Even though the boat is taking on water from the deck, in calm weather there is not pumping out the water and all of the sudden, a massive hole appears out of nowhere and sinks the boat
Only one sail tie is necessary to keep the main in check...Even on Elise I need two.
He can cut loose the last piece of shroud keeping the mast attached to the boat with a teeny little cutter and with one hand...No halyard to sort out, etc...I need two hands, a lot of effort and a big big bolt cutter...and my shrouds are probably a fraction of the size of the Cal 30's...
dodger never pulled up in rough weather to keep the water out of the companionway
Going out again to deploy the drogue or whatever else he was doing without wearing the harness even though conditions don't seem to have improved at all
Going out on deck and taking a ton of time removing the hatch boards and opening up the companionway hatch, yet not placing them back when on deck to limit the amount of water getting into the boat. It's not like you want to keep water out of the boat just when you are down below.
And of course, it isn't just one bad thing that happens - it is one bad thing after one bad thing after one bad thing after one bad thing after one bad thing...

re: a lifejacket when single-handed, people seem divided. Some say that it is better not to wear one - more movements, lighter, etc... and tethering is the key to safety, as well as moving very carefully around the boat. If you fall overboard and your boat sails away from you, do you want to be able to keep floating for a while, or drown quickly? I wear my lifejacket even when alone because I carry a hand held VHF and a spot device on me in rougher weather. Of course this is quite useless if you are a couple of days away from anyone being able to reach you.

Also I think that the Cal 30 should get some of the credit...Doing a great job in challenging conditions.