Elise

Friday, April 25, 2014

Video - Sunday evening. SHTP qualifier.

Photos Sunday - SHTP Qualifier

Seas around 10 feet with maybe some 15 foot waves at times (although I am a metric system person...so don't take my word on that) and winds betwen 25 and 30 knots all following day, on a tight reach. Had to take two reefs in the main. AP using up to 12 amp peak power. Crazy! Very unfriendly seas, attacking the boat from all angle. Basically living in a washing machine, full of wet fabric. Still pretty fun as boat was just flying along, screaming down the few waves I could surf on and just slice through water like soft butter. Exhilarating fun. Had to close off cabin entirely and discovered small dripping leaks I never knew existed...

The good news is that after you do Coastal Cup and reach in 40 knot winds, you know the boat can take this just fine so it just turns into a little fun.

Going down below definitely a relief to be out of the wind and more importantly out of the spray. Could only surf on a couple of waes here and there as otherwise, swell just wasn't going my way. Waves not big enough to overturn boat but big enough to break into the cabin and to give me a real cold shower.

Every piece of clothes I brought with me is now wet except for my socks because these boots of mine are made for sailing...My hair looks like celeri sticks.

Talked to Brian on VHF. Fantastic reception. Actually the first time he called I was down below eating (any time I would go up on deck to eat I would have a mushy piece of salty mess because it was too wet on deck. I had read all these stories about solo sailors hallucinating so I thought I was hallucinating when I heard 'Elise, Red Sky'. but then realized that I had a radio on and that it might actually be Brian.

Eating down below to avoid getting wet food. Just did a couple of repairs up on deck. A 'bang bang' woke me up. The jib car twisted itself out of its screw and was banging against the cabin. Fortunately the spring and the little cover were still on deck so I just put everything back together.

Shortly thereafter, the shackle of the turning block for the main halyard at the base of the mast just exploded. I had spare shackles so I switched to another one. Easy repair. The old shackle was totally shot anyway.

Heavy weather, both winds and now seas that have had heavier breeze for hours. Beautiful sunny day otherwise. B/c of no weight on the rail I have a very minimalist sail configuration which Elise seems to be handling just fine.

That was almost work!

My little control station. I wanted to get real input for my power budget so I spent sime measuring the current consumption of the autopilots (mostly at night so there would be no charging current). Amazing how hungry these little monsters are. I didn't measure this very scientifically and it is very coarse but NKE is very very power hungry. Very nice performance in terms of handling the boat but oh boy...on a reach in 30 knots, 184 Watt worth of solar panel will not be enough to keep the battery topped up basically. Most other situations I encountered during the qualifier would have the solar panel charge back the battery, except some of the heavy stuff upwind as well. Good news is that my SHTP configuration will be 204W, so a bit more than what there was available on that day.

This was one of my sleeping positions. I never really slept in my bunk. I slept 3/4 on the settee and 1/4 on the bunk. I slept on the floor but propped up by the settee. I had three cuchions that I was moving around to make a comfortable 'bed'. I slept outside (damp, bad idea). Not easy to sleep on the floor because flare box and tool box take up too much space.

By then I was eating well, sleeping well, had done several sail changes and was feeling pretty good about life despite a very wet butt. It was a bit rough but it was fast and I take rough and fast over slow and comfy any day. So basically all my nights were in 25 to 30 knot winds so far except for a short light air window at some point.

I was always clipped on when I was on deck. Falling overboard not an option...I could actually also walk into the cockpit clipped on so I would unclip and clip on while down below (where I would not be clipped on at all times. You can see my tether hang in the companionway. It is clipped onto the cockpit jackline.

This is a picture of the Doomsday Device which likes to decide not to give you the helm back from time to time. It drives beautifully I must say.

Some kind of flying fish hit me on the left cheek and two small fish landed on deck after a wave crashed into the cockpit (with a cold shower down my spine). I managed to rescue the two fish. Good karma. Ther was a teeny one too, smaller than nail size but I think I crushed it when I tried to free it...

You get so used to the humming of the autopilot...

Two videos from Sunday - SHTP qualifier

Saturday Photos - SHTP qualifier

It became very cloudy on Saturday and there was rain in the distance. Made it harder for batteries to charge up but the wind abated underneath the cloud cover so very pleasant sailing

Low cloud. Damp day.

My seat. Even wet that worked great as cold insulation compared to pure fiberglass contact

Changing into dryer foul weather gear which got super wet very quickly...

Light air. Low speed.

Was getting ready to change headsail to a bigger one

Changing headsail

Done!

Happy to be out there

Weather calmed down and I had a nice beat up and a quiet meal. Changed sail to #3 and shook the reef off. Wind picked up again a few minutes afterwards (of course..it is called Murphy's law) offshore despite forecast that it would stay around 10 knots. so I had to change back to the #4.

I was on a loose beats for days, until I went past the 100 nm limit (I went about 125 miles out although my GPS now says 140 miles), and then I got sick of 'upwind' and the west shift that I had been waiting for never seem to materialize so I headed south to have a bit of downwind fun which the boat is so cool for and since it wasn't really a race and I could go wherever I wanted...I had initially wanted to follow a routing based on Expedition but I totally messed that up so I had nothing to go on for that...

Clocked about 15 knots of boat speed and averaged around 10 knots.

When I go this fast, and particularly during the night since there is basically nothing that you can see ahead of the boat, my biggest fear is to hit something. The likelihood might be low...but it is possible.

It is one of these things that you probably shouldn't worry about much since there won't be much you can do about it, but the risk still exists.

Video - Saturday. Wind calming down.

Friday sunset - SHTP qualifier

wind calmed down a bit. Boat and deck super wet. Beautiful sunset. First night was a bit rough so I avoided going below to make sure that there would be no seasickness problems but after that, no issue with that at all. I take the scopalamine patch and it seems to work just fine.

Thursday, April 24, 2014

Pressure Drop writeup

http://www.pressure-drop.us/forums/content.php?4362-Qualifying-For-The-SSS-Transpac

from SPOT

I was only randomly using SPOT but basically, I can break the qualifier into the following legs

1- Out of the gate: tacking my way up the channel and into the potato patch, heading North toward Drakes Bay, about 10 miles. Total Distance sailed about 10 miles.

2- heading out offshore. Steering 240 (South West) and when the wind shifted North (as planned) I steered 270 (West). Basically on a beat (pretty loose because of heavy swell and autopilot driving). Total distance sailed about 130 nm.

3- After reaching about 120 nm offshore, I got sick of going upwind and I saw no sign of a westerly wind so I decided to make sure I would get some downwind fun so I pointed the boat downwind (about 180, ie South), put up the kite and started surfing. Just perfect conditions for the boat. 25+ knots of wind and nice waves. I did this for a little over 60 miles. Total distance sailed about 190 nm. (correction looks like from GPS track, it was over 140 nm offshore)

4- I then moved the boat on a tight reach, heading north west with a strong west component (heading about 60 degrees). Wind increased to 30 knots with heavy unfriendly all over the place type seas. I did this all the way to Carmel for about 100 miles. Total distance sailed about 290 nm. Wind from the North the entire time. Whatever west shift was supposed to happen managed to carefully work its way around Elise.

5- Headed North on what I was hoping to be the final leg. Wind dropped quite a bit but wind was still from the North...Total distance to go was about 100 miles. However, I had to tack my way up so I probably sailed 1/3 more distance wise...

6- the unplanned. I reached Half Moon Bay, about 50 miles up north but through tacked, so total distance sailed about 70 miles, which added to 290 nm gave 360. Bubbled around off Half Moon Bay, a little north of it, until storm started, then turned downwind and sailed 60 miles south to Santa Cruz harbor (50 miles offshore with one gybe and then final 10 mile reachy leg into the harbor). Total distance sailed was 420 nm and I had measured furthest away offshore to be 120 nm.

According to GPS: max boat speed was 15.3 knots. Darn, I didn't beat Nathan's record...

Friday - SHTP Qualifier

Making this kind of things happen is often a team thing. I couldn't have left on time without the help of Serge, Nathan, Brian, Jason, Gordie and many more. I am so lucky to be part of such a great sailing community.

Huge thanks to all of these people.

Left Friday afternoon around 330 to go out with the tide. Was blowing 25+ knots. Had a reefed main and a #4 jib

Elise is proud and ready to go.

Photos courtesy of Serge and Lucie. You can see the cassette for the emergency rudder all set up at the back.

Good bye land. Tacked up the San Francisco channel as usual, went north where I found even heavier wind and huge potato patch waves, so I tacked back South crossing the channel at the third set of cans. Saw pilot boats and several ships. Then headed South West about 240 degrees for long tack offshore.

Deck and Skipper got drenched within 10 minutes of exiting the harbor because of spray...

First night was a bit rough so I avoided going below to make sure that there would be no seasickness problems but after that, no issue with that at all. I take the scopalamine patch and it seems to work just fine. Elise is a very very wet ride (but fun).

Wind calmed down a little bit to the high teens as the evening set in and stayed around 20 knots throughout the night. Nice and steady conditions are great for single handers as it means that whatever sail configuration you have doesn't need to be changed! At 20 knots, the #4 wasn't really required but as it was at night a sail change is even more work and since this was a cruise, a bit more comfortable sailing was welcome.