Thursday, November 18, 1999

Log 3: South to San Diego--Sept-Nov '99

Log 3 of Albion (and other travels)





These are selected e-mails sent back to family and friends on our trip from Portland to San Diego down the Oregon and California Coast. It all started with a Bon Voyage Party for us with family, friends and co-workers at Albion's home, Tomahawk Bay Marina, on the Columbia River.




Saturday, 9/11/1999; 09:00
Subject: The adventure finally begins!

Albion is finally on her way down river, ready to turn left and head south. We had a few delays along the way, but are taking advice from veteran Mexico cruisers, Ivan and Bev Murphy and Herm and Nancy Ford, and have our schedule and plans firmly carved in Jell-O! The long-term weather forecast looks favorable. It's hard to leave now with the weather so nice here in Portland. Summer may have been a long time coming, but it sure doesn't get much better than what we have now. There is beginning to be just a bit of a nip in the air in the morning...a sure sign that fall is around the corner. We are taking it as a sign that it's time to get the hell out of Dodge! The work in the boat yard took longer than expected, but we are happy that we had her hauled. She has a new bottom, new dripless packing gland, new strut bearing and the rudder is repaired and good as new, they say. It will ease our mind a bit, I'm sure. The boat went back in the water on 8/2 and we spent the following week checking things off THE LIST! Our RV is on it's way to Tucson with friends where it will be waiting for us next spring. It will be nice to have it there so close. Thanks Nada and Dorsey for all your help. Our plans (again, firmly carved in Jell-O) are to go to Astoria today, cross the bar tomorrow and on to Newport. With both of us having lived and worked there years ago, there are lots of people to see. From Newport, we will be out to sea as weather permits, but should the seas become unfriendly we plan to head for port. We would like to take our time once we get below San Francisco. We are very jealous of Tom and Sue and all the ports they have managed to stop and see. For now.... "We're glad to say we're on our way We don't wanna be back for many a day" All for now,
Molly

9/13/99 Subject: In Newport

We had a great trip down the river on Saturday. We traveled most of the way with another boat heading south, a Morgan 44, Goodnight Irene, which had been in the boat yard at the same time with us. They are heading to San Francisco. They followed right on our stern wake through Cathlamet Channel as they had never gone that way. Since the new buoys are there now, it's a piece of cake! I'm sure they would have been more impressed with the "local knowledge" in years past! We both fueled up in Cathlamet and continued on to Astoria arriving there shortly after sundown. Goodnight Irene chose to continue on across the bar, but we opted not to cross on an ebb tide in the dark, and with just two of us aboard, a good nights sleep was important. We left early in the AM with warm sunshine and a light east wind. We crossed on the waning ebb tide. It was a bit rolly, but a very comfortable crossing. We headed south and put up sails and enjoyed a good beam reach off the port side with east winds. The winds were variable, 10 to 25 knots. We reefed and unreefed again and again. Thank you very much Mr. Harken, we do love that roller furling! The warm winds off shore seemed so out of place for the Oregon Coast. We expected to find tee shirt sailing on this trip, but not in Oregon! Finally the winds all but died out and we motor sailed the rest of the day. It was warm and sunny and we traveled right along the coast enjoying the shoreline. At sundown, we were at Lincoln City and anticipating crossing the bar at Newport about 09:00 with a favorable flood tide. But what had just a moment ago been a warm light easterly breeze turned into a mean cold blow right on the nose out of the south. It quickly grew to 25 to 30 knots steady. Where it came from, we do not know, but it was most uncomfortable. Along with it came heavy fog. We plowed our way along, giving up most of our speed. The wind finally began to die down after rounding Cape Foulweather. By the time we did finally reach the Yaquina Bar, about SIX HOURS later, the wind had settled down to about 10 knots, but still from the south. The tide was still flooding, after checking with the Coast Guard we made our way across via radar, GPS, and computer because of the pea-soup fog. Its was a good thing the Coast Guard warned us about construction on the North jetty with big barges and buoys taking up the North half of the narrow entrance. We didn't see them until we were a few boat lengths away. We charted our way up to South Beach Marina by 02:10. When the Coast Guard saw our lights in the harbor, they checked to make sure it was Albion, and we thanked them for the guidance. Then we secured the boat and hit the sack! Well, I guess you can say the weather gods showed us! We had everything from a great warm weather sail (7.5 kts), to flat calm motoring, to pounding into 30 kts at night in the fog. It is still very foggy here this morning. Guess it was 95 here yesterday afternoon and then within minutes, the southerly moved in and it was cold. Will listen to weather report and plan to head south again on Tuesday, weather permitting. After last night, a day of rest is in order and some friends from Brent's office here are coming down for a looked at our boat today. All for now,
Molly

9/15/99 Subject: Winchester Bay

That's right...that's all the farther we got on Tuesday...to Winchester Bay. More about that later. We left Newport early in the AM. Without fog, we could see the barges and marker buoys and realized we really did thread the needle coming in in the fog. The seas were very calm with some fog, but visibility was okay. We were just below Florence when we heard True Companion (fellow Baja Bounders, Fred and Kathy, also from Tomahawk Bay) on the radio with Coast Guard. They were experiencing alternator problems and checking bar conditions to see what would be the best harbor to pull into. We checked their position and they were about 14 miles behind us. We radioed them and decided to slow down and let them catch us and we would both proceed to Coos Bay. We shut the engine down and sailed along at about three knots in very light air. Finally decided to fire up the engine....only it wouldn't! We checked and rechecked everything possible to no avail. Finally, we, the would be rescuers, became the rescuees! The Umpqua River entry was the closest, but we would be entering on a strong ebb. True Companion would not be comfortable towing us across the bar and neither would we. So, we resorted to the ultimate humiliation....called the Coast Guard for a tow! What a blow to Brent! But, what a job the CG does. It was an experience to see them in action. A great crew of very professional people. True Companion and Albion were finally tied up at the guest dock about 19:45 (7:45 pm for you non-mariners). The four of us had a nice dinner ashore and decided to deal with our problems in the AM. The AM, found Fred and Kathy's alternator working just fine. Go figure! But our engine still would not start. Brent replaced the solenoid...nope, that didn't do it. Fred and Brent spent most of the morning with volt meter checking and rechecking power sources and whatever they could think of. Finally gave up, went to town to seek more professional expertise. MAYBE, tomorrow afternoon, there's a guy who might be able to come take a look. .........Brent's report from here........ Well, Molly found a screw laying in the engine room and there was a screw missing in the back of the starting motor....big deal there were still three holding the back plate, but she wanted it put back anyway so we wouldn't loose it. The starting motor, by the way is almost inaccessible, at arm's reach. So I screwed it in and went on reading more in the engine manual. The next sound I heard was the ENGINE STARTING!!!!! What did you do, I asked????? She just wanted do try it after the screw was put in, just in case it had anything to do with it. I couldn't believe it!! We killed the engine and restarted it several times without a hitch. Guess the real test will be in the morning. Next time something doesn't work, I not even going to give it a try....I'll just put Molly on it! We now refer to that screw as the "Molly" screw!So we're ready to head out in the morning (Thursday) with True Companion, but the weather is very marginal...North winds 25, Seas 4' and Swells 5'. The plan is to leave on high slack at about 7:00 and slowly cruise to Coos Bay and cross at low slack about 11:00 and before the afternoon winds kick in. At least we will be getting closer to California inch-by-inch. Bye, for now.
Brent and Molly

Subject: Eureka, CA

9/16/99 Thrusday
As planned, we left over a lumpy bar on the Umpqua and headed for Charleston in Coos Bay at slow bell. The trip went well as did the bar crossing at Coos Bay at about 10:30am. We both tied to the transient dock and had to go up to the Coast Guard to get a weather report. Still marginal and we took care of a few small projects and decided we may stay another day.

9/17/99 Friday:
Wow, beautiful day...sunny and light NW winds. We finally went over to True Companion about 9:30 to discuss the day. It seemed so nice we decided to take off in about a half hour. The worst that was predicted was NW 25 kts. We had already done that....no sweat! Away we went at about 11:00 for Cape Blanco and Crescent City. The wind kept building as we got out there. We both put up our main sails to stabilize and give us a bit of a push. The wind kept building! We finally passed Blanco at 3:45pm. True Companion had to stay on more of a SW tack to keep the sails from jibing and therefore was several miles behind and over the horizon. We had been maintaining a radio check every half hour. The WIND KEPT BUILDING! We were over the 25 knots that was predicted so it couldn't get much more.......but THE WIND KEPT BUILDING!!! The seas also were nearing 20 foot and the sea was turning completely white with foam. Then on a broach, the autopilot locked up. We could not turn the wheel back to head down wave. With great difficulty, I forced the wheel around and headed south again. I thought something had fallen against the autopilot arm below deck so Molly hauled everything out of the lazarette into the cockpit. But it didn't seem anything was wrong. It had just locked up and was VERY DIFFICULT to turn. AND THE WIND WAS NOW OVER 40 KTS!!! The main was still out and would not roll in. Several times we saw the wind gusts exceed 50 Kts. To say the least it was a wild ride. The bow would drop out of sight and we roared down the swells nearly burying the bow....the knot meter reading 12 and 13 knots!! After dark, about 8:00pm, the wind finally started to get into the lower thirties and a few hours later into the mid twenties. By the time we rounded St Georges Reef off Crescent City the wind had switched around to SE 10 kts, but the left over swells were still 10 feet. Fred and Kathy, being quite a few miles behind, decided to make a run for Brookings. He got a bar report that was music to our ears...SE winds 7kts visibility one mile. But we continued on and finally got into Crescent City about 3:30am Saturday morning. And we rested!!! The autopilot problem was diagnosed and a call to Tim Olsen (the friend who put it in) resolved the problem...the arm on the rudder post had slipped and locked the bar from the autopilot motor...never mind, you had to have been down there in the lazarette! We spent the rest of Saturday cleaning up and RESTING.

9/19/99 Sunday:
We talked to Fred and Kathy and they were headed to Crescent City Sunday, so we decided to take another day off and do some small jobs and wait for them. We also both topped off our fuel tanks today.

9/20/99 Monday:
We didn't have a good cell signal in Crescent City so we didn't send this update. We left about 5:30pm. We have a few things to take care of here and plan to spend another day, then make it to Bodega Bay on Wednesday.
Brent

9/24/99 Subject: Half Moon Bay

Wednesday, 9/22
We spent a nice day in Eureka. We walked across the bridge into town, did some provision shopping and visited the Farmers Market. It was warm and sunny and we enjoyed a day of relaxation. Fred and Brent walked over to the NOAA weather office late in the afternoon and got a weather report. It looked like it should be a nice trip the next day to Bodega Bay.

Thursday, 9/23
It was foggy, but fairly good visibility as we left the marina. Just outside, however, the fog increased. We were traveling by instruments and following a fishing boat ahead. At one point we lost the fishing boat. However, another came along and took the lead and we followed it all the way out across the bar. It was a calm sea and the visibility improved somewhat. We rounded Cape Mendocino about 11:30, still with very calm seas. The weather report for the day was variable winds to 10 knots....we can do that, right? About mid-afternoon, the wind started to fill in a bit from the north. It was very light and variable. We finally decided to put up the main for a "little push." As soon as we had it rolled out, the wind started building, and kept building. It was beginning to look a lot like Cape Blanco. We've been there, done that.....so we rolled that sail right back in! Good move. Fred and Kathy opted to leave their sail up for a while, but shortly radioed that their preventer had broken but they had managed to get the main down. Then their jib caught a gust and unfurled....made for a bit of excitement. The winds and seas were not nearly what we had around Blanco, but uncomfortable, at best. We started debating whether to duck into Shelter Cove or continue on to Bodega. We decided to ride it out and get down the coast. We had a radio call from a local fisherman who had overhead the conversation between us and True Companion. The fisherman agreed that continuing on was the best choice. He was sure we were through the worst of it and it would lay down after dark. It did and we were grateful. We had a pretty comfortable ride the rest of the night. The fog lifted a bit and we had an almost full moon to light up the sea. We got into Bodega Bay about noon on Thursday. We had a beer and shared our stories with True Companion. We will probably be parting company soon, as they are planning to go into San Francisco and spend some time. We are continuing on down the coast and will spend some time in Oxnard where we have family. The trip thus far has been challenging. We've come to know our boat intimately...much more so than one does on those weekend cruises to Martin Slough and such. Those folks who say "your boat will take more than you will" know what they are talking about. We have a lot of confidence in her.

Friday, 9/24
We said goodbye to True Companion at Bodega. They are staying for a few days before moving on to San Francisco. We left the marina about 8:30am in light fog. The sea was calm all day, but gray and foggy all the way. We got to Half Moon Bay about 18:30 (6:30 pm). Was nice to have an uneventful day! Will be leaving in the am for Monterey and will be spending a few days there. Still looking for that southern California sunshine!
Molly

9/26/99 Subject: Monterey and SUN Finally SUN!!

After we got to Bodega Bay, all we wanted to do is rest. But we pressed on to Halfmoon Bay and Monterey in two shorter day trips because the weather was right (albeit foggy) and we wanted to rest somewhere where we could play tourist. We do miss the company of True Companion. It was so nice to have another boat out there with us, especially around both the capes when things got tough. Our hourly radio checks with each other were comforting. We look forward to seeing them again either further down the coast or at least when we both reach San Diego. About a mile out of Monterey, we broke out of the fog and found sunshine and warmth. People were walking around in shorts and playing on the beach. We walked up to the marina office and then over to fisherman's wharf to have dinner. We plan to spend at least all day Sunday here, maybe Monday too, before heading on down the coast. It will be a slow day today, a lazy breakfast....as soon as Molly gets up..., a shower, and a walk around town. More later on the way South.

10/3/99 Subject: Southern California

Friday, October 1st
We are at long last in Southern California! Seas are calm and the sun is shinning...yeah! We spent three days in Monterey enjoying some nice warm sunshine on shore. We met up with Jasmine Isle (another boat in our group) and caught up on their trip. They are taking their time and stopping at a lot of anchorage's along the shoreline. As soon as we left the Monterey harbor we were back in the fog again. We anchored one night in San Simeon cove. It was a bit rolly, but a comfortable night. The fog lifted just a bit as we entered the cove, but came right back down and was very foggy the next morning when we continued on to Morro Bay. We managed to find our way through the narrow opening on instruments in the thick fog (1/8 mile) and tied up at the yacht club. We met two boats (both Passport 40's) headed north (north!?!--why?) They were very friendly folks and greeted us at the dock with margaritas. We left Morro Bay, again in heavy fog and started out for our last major obstacle...Pt. Conception...it has a terrible reputation for wind and sea conditions, but once around it, the ocean is a lot more friendly...they say. We had light winds and fairly flat seas, but still heavy fog until we got around Pt. Arguello and finally the fog lifted and we could actually see the shoreline....something we have not seen since we left Oregon. The entire California coastline has been covered with fog. We had 15 to 20 knot NW winds but very little swell. We rounded Pt. Conception and anchored for the night in Cojo Anchorage. It was windy but flat seas, so a comfortable night. It seemed odd this morning not to have to navigate our way out in the fog...it was bright and sunny. Seas are calm and we are headed for Oxnard where we will spend a few days visiting with family and then on to Marina Del Rey where we have more family and friends. LATER: We entered the harbor here at Oxnard about 5 pm. We will spend several days here while we catch up with our grandchildren's dancing and soccer games. We finally found a use for that SSB radio on the boat..enjoyed talking with Art Zehner back in Portland tonight and last night we connected with Lady L at Casselman's in Scappoose.

SAT. 9/2/99
The slip we were assigned was on the fishing docks and the boat next to us had its generator going all night. So today we started exploring for another slip with some of the private moorage's here in the harbor. Now we are in a beautiful marina (Anacapa Isle Marina) with pool, Jacuzzi, weight room, showers, laundry, no sea gull crap on the docks, and a lot better attitude of the marina operators. Very accommodating as opposed to the County Harbormaster. And the price was only $1.50 more!!! We signed up for three more days. Lynda, David, Megan and Jordan came down to the boat and graciously lent us David's car while we are here. That way we can make it into Thousand Oaks and see the grandkids play soccer games and other activities. All for now...more in a few days when we have more tales to tell.
Molly

10/12/99 Subject: San Diego

For the time being, Albion is "at home" here in Chula Vista, south of San Diego. We spent several days in Oxnard. David, our son-in-law, was generous to loan us his car for the duration of our stay there. It was very handy as we ran many errands and accomplished several boat projects. We replaced our engine kill cable which had broken while we were in Crescent City. It took the two of us to kill the engine in a fashion so we would be able to start it the next time. We also replaced the sink facet in the head. We would have liked to have spent more time in Oxnard and had more family time. Since the marina here was holding a slip for us, we had to get on our way. We left Oxnard on Wednesday and spent a long day motoring to Marina Del Rey. We had an extremely calm sea, no wind, but lots of sunshine!!!! This is what we have been looking for....We pulled into Marina Del Rey late in the afternoon. We had dinner that night with our friend, Bill and Marcia's son, Christian. The next day he took us on a long walk to Venice and Santa Monica for lunch where he worked. Friday night we had a great visit with our niece and nephew (Karen & Robert) who live close by. Saturday AM we left early again and had another long motoring day to Dana Point. At Dana Point, we found no room at the inn...the county moorage's were all full and the anchoring areas were crowded also. We contacted Dana Point Yacht Club and found them very hospitable. They had a member's slip available and then insisted we come to the club for their BBQ night, everything from hamburgers to lobsters. So, who could say no? We met a very nice couple from San Diego who have sailed to Mexico twice, once on the HaHa cruise and once on their own. We really enjoyed their insights on the trip. While there, we gave the club a SIYC burgee and got one of theirs. And Molly bought a Dana Point Yacht Club pull-over for $15. They are nice and friendly and made us feel right at home. Early Sunday AM we left Dana Point and headed for our temporary home in Chula Vista. Again, it was a no wind, motor day. The further south we got the warmer it was and the water kept getting more and more blue. We had a call on the radio from Whisper when we were about an hour away and they were headed out to meet us. As we neared the approach for San Diego, we spotted Whisper and they led us in. Brian and Laurie on Exodus and Will and Joann on Tica, who had both just returned from the swap meet in Newport, were there to catch our lines. It was like a homecoming and champagne and margaritas were enjoyed by all! Today, we managed to change our slip assignment to the same dock as Will and Joann. We took it easy today, but have vowed to start on the list of boat projects tomorrow. Brent & Will drove to town looking at watermakers and solar panels, two of the projects we are considering. We expect Perpetua and Dreamweaver to be arriving probably tomorrow and I heard that Mi Casa was due in anytime also. True Companion and Jasmine Isle are both in Santa Barbara, and Sedater and Reprise are still in Channel Island Harbor at Oxnard. IMPORTANT NOTICE!! OUR CELL PHONE IS NEARLY INOPERABLE HERE IN SAN DIEGO!! We called AT&T and they said San Diego was a very poor area for their service. Calling out is a "rare" happening, but we can get messages by via our voice mail, but not talk directly to the caller. We will check voice mail occasionally, just don't expect a response right away to your call. The best way to communicate with us is probably e-mail. We will be using the marina office land line or our friend's land line on TICA and checking it most every day. Feels like we are in an isolated third world country already! Not much hope for Mexico.
Brent & Molly

11/18/99 Subject: Off to Mexico Tomorrow

Hola amigos; Finally tomorrow if the weather looks good, which it does, we will be topping off the fuel and water tanks and heading for the Coronado Islands in MEXICO!!! They are actually only a few miles away, but it will be the first night out and in another country. After anchoring there for the night, we will sail another 47 miles down coast to Ensenada, the only major city we will be stopping at in the 800 miles to Cabo San Lucas, and check into to country officially. There are five boats from our group heading out tomorrow. We have all been busy getting last minute things done to our boats and, although I could use another few days, we decided everything looks good for a go. We have done some major items to the boat while here. To name just a few, we; -installed a new head, -installed new lifelines, -aligned the engine, -straightened the shaft, -installed a new dripless packing gland (the other new one always dripped), -rebuild the keel (after it was damaged during the haulout for the packing gland installation and shaft straightening) -installed a new stereo system (tape and cd), -installed two solar panels (flexible ones), -made shade curtains for the cockpit, ....and a lot of other minor repairs, purchases and provisioning too numerous to mention. We also ran around and got all our paper work done, ie: tourist visa's, fishing licenses (required), Mexican ham license in Tijuana, and Mexican liability for the boat. And we still had time to visit with Lynda and family twice (in Thousand Oaks), and go to Disneyland on Molly's birthday. We have also entertained some friends that visited here, like Rick Kruger (from my ODFW office), Dorsey Hensley (our Tucson friend), and several other cruising friends in the neighborhood. The social climate here at Chula Vista is great. There is usually a dinner or some activity up at the Chula Vista Yacht Club almost every night. We will miss that a lot. We have made many friends here and are leaving some of our Portland group hear for another year or two before they head south. Our loose schedule from here is get down to Cabo San Lucas about the middle of December. Maybe spend Christmas there or maybe head on over to Mazatlan where some of the group is heading for Christmas and New Years. Although we may also go around the corner if the winds aren't too strong and head up to La Paz. From there we will head to Mazatlan and then down to Puerto Vallarta by Spring to meet Jeanette and family for Spring break week. Then it's back up to San Carlos where we will take the boat out of the water in May and go to Tucson where our RV is waiting. Our car is staying here in Chula Vista with friends and will eventually be driven over to Tucson by May, or if not, we will drive the RV back over here and get it. From here, we don't know how often we will have access to e-mail and phone lines. So if you don't hear from us for awhile, don't get worried, we are just enjoying the sun and cruising slow. We will check in with an update whenever possible. We also don't know at this point if our cell-phone will work or if we can get voice mail on it. These are the exciting things about going to a third world country where they don't have the conveniences that you can count on. Until we get to Cabo;
Brent & Molly

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