June 1, 2008
We settle down for the afternoon and catch up on some rest. We are going to leave the following morning to continue our trip up to Channel Islands Harbor to repair the batteries and install the solar panel. Santa Barbara Island looks inviting and we will return when we can stay a while to explore the island and meet the ranger that is stationed here.
Santa Barbara Island, looking west.
June 2-7, 2008 Once again the winds have come alive in the night, blowing us around and disturbing our sleep. We still rise at 5 a.m. for our 6 a.m. departure from Santa Barbara Island. Jodie cooks breakfast and we retrieve the anchor to the sounds of sea lions waking for the day. We head north from the island and encounter some 5-6 foot westerly swell. We raise the main to dampen the roll and when the wind starts to trickle in we are soon doing 5+ knots motor sailing.
The last three hours are spent bashing into wave after wave as we slowly make our way into Channel Islands Harbor in Oxnard, California. Just outside the harbor we lower the main and things then get really rocky as the mainsail helps stabilize the boat motion. We have a small (big) scare when Logan, upset with all the motion, tries to go out of the cockpit to take a look himself and loses his footing. There is nothing to keep him from falling overboard on the back deck if he should slip or fall and the conditions are ripe for him to do both. We cry out in alarm and he slowly backs up away from the cockpit opening. Jodie takes him down below to comfort him and I bring us into the harbor where things immediately calm down. It is amazing what a breakwater can do to calm swell and it is a fine summer day inside the harbor. Quit a contrast to the rollercoaster funfest we were a part of outside the harbor. All in all, not a bad passage as we got sun for most of the trip and got to see our first shark directly next to the boat (Jaws theme). We pull into our designated slip and meet our new friends at the temporary guest dock that is administrated by the harbor. First is Maurice, an old sally dog who has sailed over 60 thousand, yes thats thousand, miles. He has an old wooden 30 footer that looks it too. Out of the old school boat Maurice sits with his laptop while surfing the WWW. He tried to get to Hawaii, but was caught in a gale and knocked down (mast touched the water) and ran back downwind for repairs. He will give up on Hawaii this time and head north to Oregon for the summer. Next are Mearle and Allison with their two boys, Shandro (5) and Matero (3). They are the proud owners of a 42 Beneteau cutter, which they plan to sail into Mexico this winter. Good chance we will meet up with them again as we will be going south at the same time. Mearle has never been sailing, but he knows more technical sailing terms and concepts than I do (which isnt saying a lot, but he is really smart). Allison has a little ocean experience and they have sailed the boat only twice before we have met them. I say this without any sarcasm, I am sure they will be fine and we look forward to seeing them in the future. They will spend the next three months around the upper Mexican Baja peninsula to avoid paying sales tax from their purchase, before coming back to Southern California to do final preparations. The boys are wonderful to have at the dock, as they bring us joy with their simple discoveries like sidewalk chalk, bathing in buckets, and finding tiny sea crabs. We also met Andy and Joslyn, a younger couple who have taken a year off to discover life on a boat in the Channel Islands. They are in a 35 foot sailboat and are living the simple life spending most of their time at Santa Catalina Island. In fact I saw their boat in the Isthmus anchorage during our stay at the island, but we had managed to miss each other till today. Our new batteries were waiting for us at the local West Marine, but I found out that I would have to wait till Wednesday for a stainless steel pipe that I needed for the solar panel installation. No problem, as I have many things to do before that part of the installation. The new batteries go in with out much problem and after an overnight top off they are fully charged and working properly. I will need to get a new starter battery as I found out that it was hooked up parallel with the house batteries, so it went on strike and quit as well. I found the parallel switch and have isolated that battery, but the damage is done and I will need to get to an auto parts store in Santa Barbara, our next stop. There are no auto parts within several miles of the marina here.
So we have a logistics issue now. I will need to have this pipe bent just so that it will connect to our existing bimini top. I have never bent pipe so I thought it prudent to have a professional perform the work. With a Friday delivery, I will have to deliver the pipe and have it bent the same day. Another problem we ran into is that the local marine yard here at the harbor doesnt bend pipe. They have a guy from a neighboring city come in to do it for them. He isnt going to be coming by on Friday afternoon to make 4 bends, thats for sure. So we find a local canvas shop that is willing to do the bends located only 3 miles away. Yep just 3 measly miles. Well at least the land is flat around here. Looks like I will be doing some traveling by foot. I get the pipe by 1:30 p.m. and bring my handheld pipe cutter. I separate the pipe into two 10 foot lengths and by 2 p.m. I am the walking dude. Carrying a pipe, sure Im quite a site, smelling pretty ripe, be there by midnight. Ok, no more rhymes. Around 3 p.m. I get to the canvas shop after having confirmed that Dave, the guy who will bend my pipe, is there. He still is and we go into the back. I explain what I am doing and what I need from the pipe. He says no problem; I can pick them up on Monday. Hmm. Thats not going to work. I explain we need to leave as we are on the daily dock, and I am on foot just having walked from the marina to here. He smiles and says "Ok, lets get it done then." 20 minutes later he is done and trucking out the door as I have made him late. Rachel, who is Daves sister, works the front desk and offers me a ride back to the marina. She couldnt believe that I walked there in the first place. It is amazing how much people will help you if they feel you are in need. Dave is now late, Rachel offers a ride. Small things mean a lot more to me each day as I now find myself out of my normal element. I used to be able to provide for myself, but now I cant. I used to be able to drive anywhere, wait over the weekend, etc. I need a little help now and people surprise me by offering it when its needed. I get back to the marina and set about fitting the pipe onto the bimini. Stainless steel is hard stuff and by the end of my fourth and final cut, my pipe cutter is broken. RIP little pipe cutter, you served me well. The pipes fit perfectly into the mounts I have installed and now it is ready for the solar panel. "I am going to get this done before we leave for Santa Barbara", I say to Jodie. Wrong! I open the panel and discover that it is a 24 volt panel inside a 12 volt panel box. I count the number of electrical cells just in case its the wrong sticker on the back. Nope. 24 volt for sure. Well, it looks like we have more scouting around to do in Santa Barbara. I call the solar store and leave a message. Im sure they will get right on it. Lol. We spend the rest of the evening with Andy and Joslyn and at 10:30 we call it a night. They are heading out to Santa Cruz Island in the morning for a week or so before coming up to Santa Barbara. By then, hopefully we will be done with our running around and we can actually relax and enjoy some down time.
June 8, 2008 We left Oxnard at 9:30 a.m. and entered the ocean with calm seas and a slight breeze from the west. By 10:30 we were motor sailing and making 6+ knots as the wind began to pick up. The day was really beautiful, with clear skies and sunshine. At 11:00 we shut down the engine and sailed an almost direct line to the anchorage off the coast of Santa Barbara, and by 1:30 we had set our anchor off Sterns Warf. This is an open anchorage with exposure to south and east winds, as well as mixed swell (swell from two directions). The conditions arent terribly comfortable, definitely the least comfortable anchorage we have encountered to date. Apparently this last winter, several boats ended up on the beach when a storm came out of the southeast. If a south storm or the easterly Santa Ana winds start to pick up, we will be out of here in a jiffy.
June 9-19, 2008 Our replacement solar panel finally arrived and I installed it on the boat. We had to order the replacement from a different company in Arizona, because the company I purchased the original panel from kept giving us the runaround. They basically tried to tell me that a 34 volt panel was the same as a 17 volt panel due to the fact that they both produce the same wattage. Around and around we went, but in the end they gave me a refund of the full purchase price, including shipping charges. Plus they had to pay to ship the panel back to themselves. Serves them right for advertising one thing and sending you something else. This back and forth did cost us a week and around ten dollars in phone time, not to mention having to run the generator every other day to keep the new batteries full. But we now have the new panel mounted and connected and all is well. A quick glance over at the solar monitor and I see we are currently pulling in 15.34 amps per hour from the combined solar panels. This should be sufficient to keep the batteries charged to a decent working level. When we run the generator to make water, the batteries will be topped off at the same time. We will keep a close eye on the entire system over the next few weeks to see how things are operating. If we need to, we will purchase an additional panel. I have already run the wires for an additional panel, when I did the last wiring work, so Im all ready. Each night when the tide is pulling out, after the winds have calmed down, we have experienced some major rolling in the anchorage. I cant believe we put our children into cradles and rock them this way. The side to side action is extremely uncomfortable. Anyway, I placed a second anchor off the stern of the boat to keep us pointed into the general direction of the incoming swell. This will effectively hold the rear of the boat still and keep it from drifting sideways when the tide is flowing out. The downside is if the wind comes from the side of us, it is pretty loud because the wind waves slap the broadside of the boat. This has happened on several occasions, but it is better than the alternative of rolling side to side. Unfortunately most of our nights here have been unrestfull, but it is hard to complain too loudly since we can sleep in during the mornings to make up for the lost sleep.
Andy and Joslyn on Athena, the couple we met in Channel Islands harbor, have returned from a week at Santa Cruz Island. They drove by us at the anchorage to say hello before entering the harbor. We have gone out with them for some dinners and have made some excursion runs together into town. We will be heading out to Santa Cruz Island ourselves tomorrow for a week or so.
June 20, 2008 It will be a 5 to 6 hour run across "Windy Lane" to Santa Cruz Island from Santa Barbara. We head out at 11:00 a.m. and have no trouble retrieving the stern and bow anchors. I say no problem because I decided to move the stern anchor two days ago to get a little better angle on the incoming swell. That turned out to be a big chore. The process requires me going out in the dingy and raising the anchor by hand. I had attached an anchor ball (float) to a line attached to the fluke (arm) of the anchor, which marks the anchor location and is also used for retrieval. There are two ways to retrieve the stern anchor. One is the dingy method, the other is to let out enough anchor rode off the bow to drift back over the stern anchor and retrieve it from the rear deck. Maybe I should have gone with the bow rode method€¦ So two days ago, I am out in the dingy pulling on the anchor marker line with everything Ive got, which is no where near enough after the anchor has had a week to dig into the sand and mud bottom. After half an hour I manage to get the anchor free of the bottom. I am hot, wet, and tired as heck. I move the anchor way too far to the other side of the boat. Now it is worse than before, not better. Aw heck, Im a noob. I am too tired to even think about going back out to move it again. So I do some creative line work and manage to create a bridle which allows us to move the attachment point of the anchor rode to the side of the boat and things settle down. Only a day or so with this hokey setup, so it should be fine as long as the wind or some big swell doesnt kick up. Which it doesnt. So no harm was done. I also figured that I should put a line cleat into the rear of the dingy to assist with the anchor retrieval. Now that the cleat is installed, I pull on the line till it is tight, cleat it pulling the dingy rear slightly down into the water, and go to the front of the dingy and bounce it up and down. The floatation of the dingy combined with the up and down rocking, work the anchor free of the bottom. I rock up and down for 20 seconds, then go back and take in the new slack, re-cleat and repeat. If there is some ocean swell, it will do the up and down work for me. Doesnt take very long for the anchor to break out and rise up out of the bottom where I can begin to raise it by hand. This is how it worked this morning and the anchor came up with no real effort. We motor sailed towards an anchorage named "Frys" on Santa Cruz Island. It is one of the more protected anchorages on the north side of the island, and a popular destination. We hope to beat the crowd by leaving early on a Friday. There is a calm breeze from the east and it keeps our mainsail full as the small swell tries to rock us back and forth on our beam reach to the anchorage. After an hour, we are 5 miles offshore and the wind fills out to a steady 8 knots. We unroll the headsail and shut off the engine. There is nothing like that feeling when you shut down the engine and sail under the power of the wind. Calm, quiet motion. It is the golden moment when you realize why you are here doing this crazy thing and all the work which never seems to end. Ten minutes later, the wind dies. We are being thrown back and forth by the swell, sails slack. Heh heh. Funny. What was that golden moment thing I was talking about? I did say moment, moments last but a moment. We roll in the headsail and start the engine and begin to motorsail again.
We finished the passage in 5 hours and arrived at Frys anchorage to find one small sailboat anchored close to the shoreline. We drop our main anchor in 40 feet of water as the skipper of the sailboat (Lance) hops into his kayak to greet us. We had planned on being stern to the shore, however, Lance informs us that the winds really come down the canyon in the afternoon and so it is better to be bow to the shoreline. Sounds fine to us, so we begin to retrieve the bow anchor we just dropped into the water. Then, the anchor windless goes haywire again. Locked into the up position. This is fine till the anchor gets here. Then we have a big problem. I tell Jodie to "Shut her down." She is well accustomed to this phrase and quickly dives below deck to hit the shut off switch to the windless. This is the same problem that occurred to us with the windless before, so it must have some other problem than a sticky switch.
That night, the winds do turn around and come down out of the canyon. Ten knots with gust to about 15. Even on the very limited scope the stern anchor holds throughout the night. The following morning I pull up the stern anchor and reset it close to shore giving us a scope of 8:1 in 20 feet of water.
June 21-28, 2008 This morning I awoke at 5 am to see the sunrise. I had taken the windless control box apart last night to see what was causing it to stick. It is now apparent that the contact plates are becoming fused together by the current passing through them. I sand the pitted plates smooth and reinstall the unit. Not much else I can do out here. I will see about finding a solution when we get back to the mainland. One solution is to install two separate off-the-shelf solenoids to control the up and down switches. This is the K.I.S.S. (Keep It Simple Stupid) solution. At this point, I really like the idea of separate solenoids. Although we have gotten pretty lucky with the timing of the failures of the windless control box, it is not something that I want to go through again. If anyone out there knows how to keep these plates from fusing together, please let me know.
Later in the day, we explore another anchorage by dingy. Not far to the west lies an anchorage named "Diablo". It is described as a temporary anchorage as the swell has a tendency to enter and make the stay uncomfortable. We find Diablo empty of boats and motor up to the beach, landing our dingy in the small 1 foot swells. Diablo is relatively small, there is room for only a single boat comfortably. It is inhabited by two seals, one of which is sunning itself on a rock that rises out of the water. We
explore the beach and hillside and return to find the seal exploring
our dingy. It quickly waddles back into the water when we
appear. We try unsuccessfully to stay off to one side of the
beach to allow the seal to return and finish i We spend the rest of our stay snorkeling, diving and hiking in the surrounding hills. We discover a small spring fed swimming hole nearby, but the day is fairly cool, it isnt quite hot enough to take a dip. Ferns and flowers grow out of the cliff wall that tower over the swimming hole. One funny thing that happened when we went to go diving for the first time. Jodie BCD (buoyancy compensator device, an inflatable vest that holds the tank) was loaded with weights and when I dropped it over the side of the boat, it sank like a rock to the bottom. The water was only 30 feet deep and I was able to swim down and get it when I dawned on my gear. I use a weight belt and didnt realize how much air we needed to put in Jodies BCD to make it float. The look on our faces was priceless when the bubbles cleared and there was no BCD floating on the surface. Our time was done at Frys and we prepared to leave, stowing away gear and tying things to the rails on the deck.
June 29, 2008 The sail back to Santa Barbara was, in a word, fantastic. We left under clear skies and a 10 knot westerly breeze. The sea was mostly flat, with 1 to 2 foot swells and 1 foot wind waves. For those who would like to know, swell is the lasting effect of weather patterns and wind that has occurred in the past and wind waves are the direct effect of the current wind conditions that will be added to the total height of the swell. So our combined swell today would be a maximum height of 3 feet. These are ideal sailing conditions and we took full advantage by pointing directly to our destination. We averaged 6.5 knots and hit 7.3 knots on several occasions. This was done under a full main and headsail. We didnt raise our mizzen sail to gain any extra speed. It is a 20 mile run to Santa Barbara and we would get there quickly enough with our current speed. We even purposely slowed down by easing the mainsail and thus reducing the heeling of Savannah. In the speed vs. comfort battle, comfort won the day. At 6 plus knots under sail, the boat really feels like it is moving. The sails are full, motion is relaxed and you have a feeling that you are really getting somewhere. I was thinking that if I was on a highway, doing 8 mph, I would be pulling my hair out. But here, 8 mph feels terrific. Just outside of
Santa Barbara, a Coast Guard inflatable comes charging up to
us. And I mean charging. It was quite impressive,
though not really necessary. The wind had eased up somewhat and
we were doing around 6 knots. They came at us at least 25
knots. They asked when the last time we had been boarded, which
was never. So they came aboard to do a routine inspection.
We had the autopilot on already, so we didnt have to adjust anything
as they came alongside The Coast Guard inspection went smoothly and they were friendly and professional. One inspector really loved our boat and went on and on about how great this and that is to have. This is the second time that a marine officer has commented on just how nice of a sailing boat Savannah is compared to others. That makes us feel good knowing that these guys see thousands of boats and ours stands out among them. Way to go Savannah! We dropped our hook in the anchorage and noted the time; 3 ½ hours from anchorage to anchorage. It took us just over 5 hours to get there motor sailing. We are going to spend the Fourth of July holiday here, and then return to Santa Cruz Island to explore the southwestern side of the island. Hope all of you enjoy the upcoming holiday. Michael
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We
make good time heading north and I am reluctant to tack to bring us
more west as that would cause us to lose some of the northing we are
making. This proves to be a mistake when late in the day the
winds climb to 10-15 knots and we are forced to go directly west into
the wind, and the swell has increased to 8 feet.
I
complete the wiring for the solar panel and Wednesday I head to West
Marine to meet the truck that has my tubing on it. I have
purchased a 20 foot length of tubing so it should not be hard to
find. When I get there, Brandon said he had confirmed that the
tubing was on the packing list for that weeks delivery. We head
to the back where there are pallets of merchandise, but no
tubing. Like I said, it was 20 feet long, kind of hard to
miss. Turns out it never got off the truck and the truck was
already on is way back to Los Angeles. Kyle, a manager, takes
over and begins to make calls. Nothing can be done at this point,
but he promises that they will special 2 day order it for me and it
will be here on Friday. Thats as good as it can get so I will
come back Friday to pick it up.
Santa
Barbara is a great little town and we have found every thing we need in
a reasonable walking distance, or by the city trolley. The
trolley runs up and down the harbor and into the downtown area.
Rides are only 25 cents each way. And they let us bring our
humongous solar panel on as well. There are quite a few
characters living here in town. You can see them on any given day
walking the streets or in the park. They are quite a vocal bunch,
which is a little different than we are used too. Harmless
enough. There is also some creative street "performers"
like the guy with the rat that sits on the cats back that sits on the
dogs back. And 
Time
passes slowly. I bring out the fishing gear (Fish 9, Michael 0)
and drop in a lure to troll behind us. We keep a lookout for the
blue whales that are reported to be migrating north through the
channel. We didnt see any whales, but were treated to some
large dolphins. But what is better than dolphins? Baby
dolphins! A mother and her baby come in close to swim under our
bow and we managed to get some pictures.
I
manually release the clutch to the windless and the anchor chain feeds
back out. We will stick to our original plan going stern to
shore. We stop the chain at 120 feet, since most of the wind will
be coming from behind us. We lower the dingy into the water and I
load our stern anchor into it. I head to shore and Jodie feeds
out the stern line. When it reaches the end of its 200 foot
length, she cleats it off and I try to swing the boat rear around to
the shore. The boat weighs 40,000 lbs and I am in a 10 foot
inflatable with an 8 horsepower motor. This means the boat is
going to go where it wants and I am not going to be able to do much
about it. So I drop the stern anchor as close to shore as
possible, with Savannah lying parallel to the shoreline. I return
to Savannah and we begin to take in the stern anchor rode via a sail
winch. By the time have brought Savannahs stern towards the
beach, most of our anchor rode is sitting on the deck, with around 70
feet still out. Thats not much. If some big winds come
down the canyon, it could easily break out the stern anchor. We
use a 17 lb Aluminum Fortress anchor (sounds small, but actually has a
large surface area being made out of aluminum) with 20 feet of chain as
the stern anchor setup. That setup is not meant to be used as the
primary anchor. But it is what it is, and if we do pull loose, we
will just be swung out somewhat from the anchorage and our primary
anchor off the bow will take over at that point.
Lance,
the skipper of the small sailboat is leaving today. He asked if I
could give him some assistance getting out of the anchorage. It
seems that he has no power plant. A true sailboat. Another
sailboat anchored alongside us last night, so he is pinned inside the
anchorage somewhat. A quick tow from our dingy could get him out
into the channel and keep him from smacking either of the boats he
needs to navigate through to get out. I have never done a tow
before, but no problem. With Lances boat being a small 24 foot
Columbia, it sounds like it would be a good learning experience and
might even be fun. I grab a bow line from him, connect it to my
cleat at the rear of the dingy, and then begin to tow him out of the
anchorage. It is a little hard to get the boat moving, as the
dingy gets pulled and spun around by the forces at work.
Basically the dingy doesnt want to go in a straight line. I am
quick to switch between the forward and reverse gears of the motor to
keep pulling him toward the open water. Its hard to explain, but
the dingy will rotate and spin on its axis so that one minute the bow
is forward, the next the stern will want to face out as the tow line
goes taunt and springs backward. Once we get moving however, I am
able to tow him normally, bow forward, out into the channel. I
release him a couple hundred yards outside the
anchorage where he raises his sails and begins to make his way back to Santa Barbara.
ts
study. We hope to get a nice snapshot of the scene but the seal
remains elusive. When we exit the anchorage by paddling out, the
seals poke their heads out of the water from time to time to watch our
progress as we leave their home.
.
Before we left San Diego we had a full Coast Guard vessel inspection
performed and had the sticker on our port window to indicate that a
yearly inspection had been done. The coasties had approached on
our starboard side and didnt swing around to check if the sticker was
attached. That was protocol. Supposed to be anyway.
That is why the Coast Guard encourages all boats to do the annual
inspection, to avoid on the water inspections. Anyway, it was no
big deal because having done the annual inspection we knew that we had
all the necessary safety items on board. Also, it was kind of
cool with the big C.G. cutter ship giving support and standing off
behind us and the C.G. inflatable.