Long Beach to Cost Rica

Sailing with Dummies (California to Texas, Day 14)

Monday, June 22, 2009

by Mike

We spent the morning and afternoon at dock today. It rained lightly most of the morning and quit around noon for three hours. Then it started again.

We put up a new radome and now have radar again. Repaired the chafed rope holding a radar reflector so now it might not fall. Painted some marks on the anchor chain so we can see how deep it is in the water. Fixed the generator so we can run the air conditioner. Repaired the lifelines so we might not fall overboard. Remounted the teak seat in the front right of the boat so we can sit there and relax. Replaced the halyard clip so the rope wouldn’t flail around in the wind. Ate a bunch of cake for energy.

We also got 4 large trash bags of laundry done.

At 6:30 the welders showed up and welded the broken ¾” aluminum. Then we reassembled the front end of the boat and filled up with diesel.

By 9:00pm we were heading out to sea. And at 10:00 we put up the sails and were sailing at 9-10 knots in smooth waters with a nice quartering wind under the stars.

Fine Dining:

Bacon, eggs (over easy), and tuna-fish sandwich. And we ran out of cake!

Long Beach to Cost Rica

Sailing with Dummies (California to Texas, Day 13)

Sunday, June 21, 2009

by Mike

Today I got up at 4:00am. I got semi-functional at 4:10. Bob went to bed at 4:15. It was rough with a 20 knot headwind and big waves coming right at us. And it was raining, of course. It was too rough to do much of anything comfortably, so I plugged in a movie. Then I sat, reclining on two pillows letting them absorb some of the banging and slamming.

The movie, some football movie with James Caan, wasn’t great, but wasn’t bad. About an hour into it I heard a huge “BOOM” behind me (toward the front of the boat) that sounded like some sort of major impact. Maybe like a car wreck really close. But I felt nothing. It was followed by a secondary noise (toward the back of the boat) which reminded me of glass breaking. Or something breaking.

Immediately I went outside to see what I could see. Well, immediately after pausing the movie, that is … it was at a good part. I didn’t see anything except rain in the pitch black. Then I grabbed an overboard beacon and a headlamp and put on a nighttime harness. I clipped into the safety webbing and headed forward. When I got to the front, I saw he front stay flying around loose and it had already caused some damage. I slowed the engines and went back inside and told Bob that he might want to start getting awake, we had some things to do (“happy father’s day, now get outa bed you lazy muttonhead!”).

The front stay is a 60-foot-long guy-wire that goes from the top of the mast to the tip of the bowsprit, (the pointy thing out front). It has a large sail (gennaker) furled around it. It holds the mast forward and we fly the gennaker from it in good sailing conditions. At the bottom of the stay is a drum that spools a rope used for furling and unfurling.

The stay had wrapped around the right spreader, about 30 feet up, and the bottom was held in a general area of the right front by the furling rope and a cable attached to the bottom right hull of the boat. Still attached to it were the eight-foot bowsprit and the 20-foot cable, along with substantial hardware and connections. It was heavy and swinging around wildly as the boat crashed into the waves.

I turned the boat sideways to the wind to settle the motion of the boat some and to use the wind to help keep the swinging mass away from the boat and doing more damage. Then I went forward for a better inspection of the situation, clipping and unclipping my harness along the way. It was windy, dark, and still raining. The gennaker had unfurled about 15 feet and was catching a lot of wind. It looked to be slowly unfurling more, not a good thing.

I took the left spinnaker tack (rope) from the front left of the boat and tied the end of it to the furling cage. Winching it in, it pulled the bottom of the mess back towards the middle of the boat over the trampoline where we could work on it.

By then Bob was up and silently observing the mess. We tied the bottom of the stay off with four different ropes and then removed the extra cabling and the bowsprit. This got rid of a lot of weight and thereby reduced the inertia of the swinging stay immensely. Then we turned the boat downwind to help get the stay off the spreader above. This accomplished, we tightening and loosening the four ropes, along with the furling rope, and managed to refurl the sail around the stay. That was a big help.

From there we ran ropes through the front cleats and back to winches. We were able to pull these ropes tight which pulled the end of the stay somewhat tight. Two hours after the “BOOM” we had things in good enough shape to limp on to the next town.

Some fine detective work later revealed that a shackle connecting a cable to front bottom part of the left hull had broken or come loose. This let the bowsprit be ripped upwards and to the right, which tore the bowsprit off where it was welded to a crossbeam. The stay, bowsprit, and cables tore off the top of the radome, killing our radar. It also tore off a radar reflector, broke a lifeline, and stetched and sprung two more lifelines. The gennaker furler may have some damage; we won’t be able to check it until we get the other things fixed.

While we’re at Huatulco, we’ll try to get the bowsprit mount welded and we’ll also try to fix a few other things, get some laundry done, and fill up with diesel. With luck, maybe we can be back sailing late tomorrow.

Long Beach to Cost Rica

Sailing with Dummies (California to Texas, Day 12)

Saturday, June 20, 2009

by Mike

There was no sailing today. Lots’ or rain, direct headwind of 25-35 knots, and big, choppy waves to go along with it kept our sails down and both our motors running.

The forecast showed winds of 7 knots from the front right, but this was one of the days that they didn’t get it quite right. In addition to the crappy wind and rain and waves, we had a head-current of up to two knots. That really hurts when the boat speed is five knots. Yes, that means we made the progress that a person makes at a comfortable walk, about three miles an hour.

And this was with both motors running at high speed and a rough ride. A very rough ride. It’s exactly the kind of situation where we would have opted to stay in Acapulco to ride out the storm, had we known the weather. But we didn’t, so I blame the weather, Bob, and anyone reading this blog that didn’t tell us about it.

OK I feel better now.

Fine Dining:

At what seemed like a tiny lull in the wind and waves when we got really close to shore, I decided to take the opportunity to cook. I chose eggs, over-easy. We ate eggs, scrambled.

Long Beach to Cost Rica

Sailing with Dummies (California to Texas, Day 11)

Friday, June 19, 2009

by Mike

We got to Acapulco around 8:00am this morning. Much of the city is built high on the rocks and cliffs. The view from the water is beautiful. As we were pulling into the bay area, there were lots of different sized fishing boats heading out.

We had arranged for an “agent” to facilitate the customs process for us. We wanted to get in and out as fast as possible. All we wanted was to fill up with diesel and leave. Our first communication with our “agent” was to anchor in the harbor and wait. Luckily we were slow at that and before we got anchored we got our next instructions – tie up at the fuel dock and wait until 9:15 when he would meet us there.

We tied up at the fuel dock at 8:45 and waited. And waited. We couldn’t get diesel until our agent got the paperwork done. 9:15 came and went as we waited. We waited until 9:30, just sitting. We waited until 10:00. We waited until 10:30. We weren’t able to do anything but wait.

At 10:50am six “official” people came aboard the Minnow and made themselves at home in our living room. They did some paperwork. And then they started talking. And talking. In Spanish. And talking and laughing. Lots of stories with animated gestures. We could tell things were slow for them. I would have offered them Cokes and cookies, but that might have prolonged their visit for who knows how long.

Finally, at 11:30 they began the process of getting up and they slowly meandered their way to the dock. Our agent assured us that he would be back “in one hour. I’ll be back at 1:30” with our permission-to-go paperwork. Bob informed him that one hour was 12:30. Bob informed him several times. And he got lots of nods and assurances back from the agent, “one hour.”

We ate lunch at the restaurant, filled up with diesel, and were able to wait some more. 12:30 came and went. 1:00 and we still waited. Sigh.

We got untied and moving by 1:30.

Fishing Report:

We fished a few hours late in the afternoon. Didn’t get a bite. It looks like these waters must be fished out.

 

Fine Dining:

I ordered a cheeseburger at the restaurant. It was good, but not as good as yesterdays.

Some pictures

Long Beach to Cost Rica

Long Beach to Cost Rica

Sailing with Dummies (California to Texas, Day 10)

Thursday, June 18, 2009

by Mike

What a difference a day makes. Today, the weather was great. Gentle wind with nice slow swells. Very nice.

Fine Arts:

One of the hard crossword puzzles that Bob started, and I tried to finish, asked as a hint “Rossini opera.” Eight letters with the first three T A N. “Tancredi” I said triumphantly, not remembering if it was spelled Tancredi or Tancreti. Bob mentioned that the only T A N opera that came to his mind was Tannhauser. I mentioned that that was Wagner. He mentioned that he knew that but was going to try to make it fit anyway.

This led to a couple of hours of Rossini overtures played on the boat-wide stereo. We agreed La Scala was pretty lousy. I told him La Gazza Ladra (The Thieving Magpie?) was my favorite Rossini overture. We both liked William Tell, but weren’t sure if it counted since it was from TV.

Fishing Report:

Fished all day. Didn’t get a bite. Again. We put the fishing poles into storage.

No, not because we were giving up on fishing! Because we didn’t want to get hassled by the Mexicans for fishing in their waters tomorrow.

 

Fine Dining:

good weather = smooth sailing = lots of french toast and huge cheeseburger = smile

Long Beach to Cost Rica

Long Beach to Cost Rica

Sailing with Dummies (California to Texas, Day 9)

Wednesday, June 17, 2009

by Mike

The rain started about 1:30am. That’s when the windows were shut and the heat started to set in. Along with rain squalls comes wind. Bob turned, adjusted sails, and contended with squalls and changing wind for two hours. When I got up and 3:30 he was in the process of taking down all the sails and we began motoring with two engines into a stiff headwind. Probably we would get through the rain and wind in a few hours and then would be back to easy sailing again.

The big waves from yesterday had turned into a substantial swell from the left. The headwind (20+ knots) was making a new set of “wind waves” from directly ahead. Motoring into this with no sails was rough. The constant splashing combined with the rain made it wet, too. Wet enough to keep all the windows shut. Which made it hot.

Luckily we have an air conditioner. Unluckily, it was blowing hot air, not cold. So it stayed hot. And rough.

The headwind and occasional rain continued all morning. And all afternoon. In the late afternoon the wind shifted to the right and put up some sails and turned off the motor.  We sailed fast. We were doing more than 8 knots (40 degrees off the wind, with our mainsail at the second reef and our solent at 75%). It was still rough, but better with some sail up.

After sundown, twenty hours after it began, it started to ease. Turns out we were just north of a low pressure that was expected to dissipate, but when we got new weather this evening it had strengthened and is forecast as a possible tropical cyclone tomorrow.  It’s behind us going the other way now, so no worries about it for us. The worries are the low that is forming south of Acapulco. We might end up in Acapulco for a few days to let that one pass.

Fine Arts:

None.

Fishing Report:

Didn’t fish. Too wet, too bouncy, too hot (that’s not what fishermen do).

 

Fine Dining:

The closest I got to fine food was the Chef-boy-ardee (is that named after R. D. Mercer?) ravioli I microwaved late in the day.

Long Beach to Cost Rica

Long Beach to Cost Rica

Sailing with Dummies (California to Texas, Day 8)

Tuesday, June 16, 2009

by Mike

Today I’ll give you a snapshot of life on the Minnow. Or sailing with Bob (see above).

In the living room we have a “nav station” where a lot of electronic and electrical stuff is. It has our VHF radio, HF radio, and satphone for communicating with people who not on the Minnow.

When we talk to other boats we sit there. When we connect our computers to the satphone to get weather or send/receive email, we sit there. Sometimes when we read we sit there.

There’s a nice table and a comfortable chair there, too. And our boat-wide stereo and DVD player. And TV.

It’s where we drive the boat from most of the time. It has a GPS/chartplotter with a big electronic map display. A control for the autopilot is there, along with instruments indicating wind speed and direction, depth, speed, water temperature, air temperature, barometric reading, and time (yes, a clock).

The autopilot steers the boat virtually 24 hours every day. There are two steering wheels outside, but they rarely get touched, except when we’re docking or anchoring. The autopilot steers the boat on a straight line, or I follows the wind in “wind vane” mode. Most of the time, when we are using sails we use “wind vane” mode, so when the wind shifts the boat turns and the sails don’t flap or tangle or jibe. The autopilot beeps when the boat has turned very much as a result of a wind direction change so we don’t go in circles, or to Japan. When this happens, it beeps until a button is pushed, acknowledging the change in direction, or until the wind changes back (can be a long time).

Typically, the person sitting at the nav station presses the button, stopping the annoying beeping. If no one is near the nav station, someone gets up and stops the beeping. When Bob is at the nav station, it works something like this:

“BEEP…BEEP…BEEP…BEEP…BEEP…BEEP…BEEP…BEEP,” the autopilot asks for a button push.

“Bob?” I say from across the room, laying down reading a book.

“BEEP…BEEP…BEEP…BEEP…BEEP…BEEP…BEEP…BEEP…BEEP,” it’s louder right next to Bob.

“Hey, you want me to get that?” I try again. Bob is in his own world.

“BEEP…BEEP…BEEP…BEEP…BEEP…BEEP…BEEP,” we’ve turned 20 degrees right and this thing won’t stop its racket until the button is mashed.

“I’ll get that.” I sit up slowly, delaying a bit longer, hoping Bob will snap out of his trance.

“BEEP…BEEP…BEEP…BEEP…BEEP…BEEP…BEEP…BEEP…BEEP…BEEP…BEEP…” 

I walk up behind Bob and silence the noise with a simple touch.

“Oh,” he says, now staring at the button in a stupor, “want me to get that?”

A snapshot of life on the Minnow. It’s not pretty.

Fine Arts:

For lots of years many of us have been in the habit of listening to books-on-tape while we drive. Before going hiking in Nepal last fall, I put several audio books on my MP3 player and got in the habit of listening to them anytime I was walking. I continued this habit while deer hunting, bike riding, lawn mowing, and lots of other things.

Now it’s become a habit while sailing. It’s nice to be able to keep busy AND stay wrapped up in a story. On the Minnow, it’s not uncommon for Bob and me both to be walking around with ear-buds in our ears, doing whatever we do. It cuts down on meaningless chatter, too. Not that we talked much before.

But, there’s always a price to pay. It has cut back on our boat-wide enjoyment of the fine arts.

Fishing Report:

Changed lures. No bites. We were going fast today, most of the day between 9 and 10 knots, which is too fast for good fishing. But I took action anyway. I put new line on one of the reels so we could let the lure out farther. Take action. That’s what fishermen do.

 

Fine Dining:

When there’s enough wind to push a sailboat 9-10 knots, there’s enough wind to make some pretty big waves. So I opted for ready-to-eat meals. Banana bread, leftover fish, oreos, chips and salsa, breadmaker bread (good for the gums), cheese, chips ahoy, and bologna. It was a good day for eating.

huh?

Tuesday, June 16, 2009
8:42 p.m.
by Bob

Location: 17°46'N 107°05W
Water temperature: 91 (Is this right? That's what Raymarine claims.)
Air temperature: 85
Sky condition: Dark
Weather: Light Snow
Wind: 9 knots
Boat speed: 8 knots (with one motor)

The night before last about 2:00 a.m. I was tooling along, minding my own business, and I noticed something come up on the radar.
The return looked like a big ship, but it didn't have an AIS (identification signal) like most ships do now. It looked like it was
headed toward us from 15 miles away.

A little later, I could make out some lights on the horizon. They kept getting closer. It was going about 13 knots. We were going a
blinding 6 knots. They seemed to be coming right at us, from the right. I think that's starboard. I couldn't tell whether they would
pass in front of, behind of, or over the top of us.

About two miles out, I got a radio call in Spanish asking for the vessel at our latitude and longitude in Spanish. I wasn't 100%
sure of the numbers, since I lost track in my translation after about the 4th or 5th digit, but since we were the only two boats for
hundreds of square miles, I guessed they wanted to talk to me.

I replied with the time-honored naval greeting, "Hablo Ingles?" It turned out the other boat was a Mexican Navy Warship, trying to
get by us without resorting to artillery. I offered to turn left or right, and speed up or slow down. They requested a left turn or
reduced speed, and I gave them both.

When they passed us I could see it was a BIG ship, even though I could only make out the outline. After I slowed down and turned,
Mike woke up and wandered outside, a little incoherent. He probably still thinks it was a UFO.

Yesterday morning we arrived at Isla Socorro, about 300 miles off the coast of Mexico. There is a naval garrison there. I called on
the radio for Socorro and Capitania and etc. on three different channels to get clearance into Mexico and/or Socorro, but nobody
answered.

Finally we got the dinghy out, threw in a bicycle, and I headed for shore with our papers, hoping to find aduanes and migracion, or
at least a naval officer who could make us legal.

I had do duck under a big 2" rope going about 200 yards across the harbor, holding a barge in position while they unloaded it. When
I got close to the dock, I saw several men with M16 rifles getting into a small boat. I waved to them, they waved back, and they
followed me under the rope and out to the Minnow.

We've never had machine guns on the boat before. Too bad I had taken the skeet off the boat in Oregon. The officer completed our
paperwork while the other guys stood guard. Mike fed everybody Coke Zeros and Chips Ahoy.

We asked a few questions. There is an airport on the island. There are 347 people there in the naval garrison. The Island and
surrounding is a nature preserve. The scuba diving is no good because of low visibility. He has been stationed there for a year. We
were not allowed to go onto the island.

After we were officially cleared, Mike and I broke out the scuba gear. The naval officer was correct. The visibility was lousy near
the bottom (60 feet down). Nearer the surface, visibility was 75 feet or so, but down below it was more like 8 feet because of all
the silt. So we cleaned the bottom of the boat.

As we left, the water was pretty smooth. There must have been some swells, though, because there were some huge waves smashing into
the rocks on shore. There were a couple of places where the water splashed up 30 or 40 feet. There was a big blowhole where water
shot up even higher. It looked a little dangerous for kayaking, so we headed out into open water.

We are now headed to Acapulco for diesel, or possibly Guatemala or Christchurch. This navigational business is confusing.

Long Beach to Cost Rica

Long Beach to Cost Rica

Sailing with Dummies (California to Texas, Day 7)

Monday, June 15, 2009

by Mike

Land Ho Ho Ho!

Before sunup Isla Socorro was visible as a shadow in the distance. A low cloud layer obscured whatever mountain tops would have been seen. As we got closer, a ragged shore became noticeable. Isla Socorro, or “Help Island” is a rough place. A quarter mile (1320 feet) from shore the depth was more than 2200 feet. Heading around the west side of the island to the south side, to a sheltered bay, “Bahia Braithwaite,” there were no beaches, no sand, only ragged, rough rocks.

The bay was edged by these igneous rocks. At a depth of 55 feet, there was not much width for dragging or error. We wondered how our anchor would hold, expecting the bottom to be rocky like everything else. I dropped the anchor and it held.

 

After trying to hail the harbormaster, or “Capitan del Puerto,” for a few minutes and getting no reply, Bob headed to shore in the dinghy with a backpack full of paperwork and a bicycle. Before he got there a boatload of six uniforms were headed for the Minnow so he turned back and met them at the boat.

Bob pulled up to the left stairs and the Mexican boat pulled up to the right ones where I was waiting to take and tie off their painter to our cleat. It was kind of wavy so I helped them onboard.

The first man had a handgun in a holster on his belt. Pearl handled, probably a revolver. But I’m not a gun nut so I don’t know any more than that. It looked well worn. Wondered if that meant worn out and lousy, or worn in and reliable and accurate. Didn’t matter. However, when I see people carrying guns for purposes other than hunting animals, it makes me uneasy.

The next three guys handed their M16s back and forth as I helped them aboard. (Bob told me what kind of guns they were after they left, does that make Bob a gun nut?) One stationed himself at the front of the boat and the other two at the back corners of the boat. All three stood erect and were posed looking out from the boat, as if protecting it from attack. From the water?

It was hot. Bob and the first guy were sitting in the living room. The first guy was doing paperwork. Bob was watching. After a few minutes I offered everyone a Coke. Everyone knew the name Coke. And everyone took one with a smile and a “thank you,” except for the guy up front, who took one with a serious look and a “gracias.” After the Coke, the guys on the back relaxed, slinging their guns over their backs and laughing with each other. The guy on the front continued to stand erect, gun in two hands in a semi-ready position.

By now Bob and the first guy were playing some version of “Do You Know This Word” and Bob was cheating using a Spanish Dictionary. Also by now I had tried to make conversation with the other five (“Do you speak English?” … “No”) with no luck. So I opened a new bag of Chips Ahoy cookies. Even thought they didn’t speak English, they all seemed to know the word “cookie.” Got five thank-you’s and a gracias out of the cookies, too.

They eventually left. They were all extra nice, except for the serious one who wasn’t bad, just serious. But the guns were still scary.

Fine Arts:

There was no other place around the island we knew of to anchor the boat. So after the Mexican boat left we donned scuba gear and went down to explore the artistic beauty of the undersea world of Bahia Braithwaite. We followed the anchor chain to the bottom – there was some sand amongst the rocks there – and found that visibility was less than 10 feet. We gave each other the thumbs up (meaning go to the surface) and did some other pointing and gesturing (I took it to mean “meet at the boat” since that’s what I meant).

We proceeded to use the entire contents of our tanks cleaning the barnacles and growth off the bottom of the boat. About an hour and a half. And yes, that’s the closest we got to fine art on this particular day.

Fishing Report:

No luck. Didn’t get a blasted bite before the island. Didn’t get a danged bite after the island. Going to change lures tomorrow. That’s what fishermen do.

 

Fine Dining:

Although I started the day baking a quality loaf of banana bread, the highlight of the day was the post-diving plate of nachos. Cheesed up and salsa covered.