Yep, Ann is now baptized into the sailing life.  She drove the boat a good deal of the time yesterday as we were making our way back inshore from about 40 miles out off of Baja.  Spinnaker up, cruising along at 5 knots, with 7 knots apparent wind, Ann was in charge.  As the moon came up later in the evening, she continued channeling her new persona by locking her keen eyes on the horizon and practically channeling Melville himself, when she exclaimed: “I see something over there!  It looks like a blown-out spinnaker”.  Well, I have to tell you, it got my attention that Ann even knew what a blown-out spinnaker was!  Unfortunately for the “Salty Dog”, as we now call her, Diane quickly set her straight; “Ann, that’s the moon rising”.  So the trip continues.

In fact, the moon rising (or blown out spinnaker, if you’re Ann “The Salty Dog” Adams) was just the beginning of a most beautiful night as we headed toward the finish of the first leg.  The stars just surrounded us in all directions down to the horizon and were just stunning in their beauty.  Geoff and Jansen said to add that we were; “escorted by Dolphins, shooting stars and a warm breeze as we make our way past Cedros Island toward Bahia Tortuga”.

We arrived in Bahia Tortuga at 0330 last night.  Always a thrill entering an unfamiliar harbor in the dark.  Very cool to have the radar to help guide us to a good spot to anchor given that there were already dozens of other boats here that we had to avoid in the dark.  Dropped the hook, set it into the sand and hit our bunks with exhaustion.  Back up at 0800 for coffee, and boat clean up, then headed into town for a look around. The community here is very poor by North American standards, but the people are so nice!  We had a delicious lunch at Hotel Veracruz (top of the hill-used to be the whore house, but Diane who’s been here before, wanted me to assure everyone it is now a respectable establishment) and then back to the boat for a much anticipated treat; spending the afternoon in the hammock (in Ann’s case, it was lounging on the spinnaker up on the bowsprit and Diane was laid out on the foredeck reading a book and soaking up the sun). Then we took a sun-shower at around 1600 and cocktails at 1730.  Of course I made our patented drink, “The Charisma”.  One of those and you’ll think everyone loves you. We’re now all very happy.

(From the “Command Module” on Charisma, anchored at Bahia Tortuga.  This photo refuses to rotate, so apologies for forcing you to turn your head sideways to view.)

For those following Geoff and Jansen, they spent the day ashore catching up with friends, came back to the boat and made fish tacos from our tuna of yesterday, jumped in the water for a swim and then left for a night of who knows what.  (well maybe not so much of “what” since they both still smell like dead tuna!)

Blood was dripping down the porthole by my cabin while I was on the morning radio net trying to give our position report.  My only option was to run into the cabin and get the book.  I rushed topside with it and handed it to Diane who rapidly read it to Geoff, who was wielding the knife with wild abandon in his eyes. Diane: “First you cut a ‘vee’ into its head exposing the brain”  Yep, we caught a fish and once we had it aboard all we could say was; “whoa, now what?”

So fast forward to sunset.  (caution; run-on sentence ahead!)  Ann and Diane are up on the bowsprit reading, everyone’s in shorts and tees, the spinnaker is pulling us along at 4 knots, sun’s shining, the dolphins have been dancing past the boat, there’s not a cloud in the sky, fresh sushi for lunch and now Geoff and Jansen are blackening peppers and searing fresh Yellowfin Tuna for fish taco dinner, while I’m sitting here writing email while sailing essentially in the middle of nowhere.  Yup, we’re all getting used to this.

The aforementioned former tuna blessed us with his presence just minutes after sunrise.  Geoff and Jansen were on watch and put the line out as the sun came up and were just taking a few pictures when the reel started screaming out.  All hands were alerted; “Fish on!”  After about 15 minutes of fight, Geoff brought it alongside and I gaffed it aboard.  What a gorgeous fish!  About 30 inches and 30ish pounds.  A hectic start to the day since I was just getting ready for the morning radio call and Diane and Ann were just waking up to go on watch.  This event got everyone going.  Soon coffee was made, breakfast was ready and the day was starting out to be a real Baja Day.  Finally.

(An aside: I just got handed a salt-rimmed glass with Tecate, a salted rim and fresh squeezed lime.  My main problem now is not spilling it into the computer as the boat rolls while I’m typing this blog).

Last evening’s ride was pretty lively.  10 foot seas and 20 knot gusting to 25 knot wind. There was some carnage in the fleet, but we reefed down and had a fairly uneventful, if exciting ride.  As to the fleet; one boat lost its mainsail and gooseneck, several others had some damage and put in to San Quintin for repairs and unfortunately one crew on one of the boats suffered a dislocated hip (fortunately there was an EMT on another boat who lent help and when we last heard had stabilized the individual.  They are heading to Bahia Tortuga for assistance).

The quote of the day heard over the Net this morning between the Net manager, “Profligate” and one of the boats in the fleet, “Mosuli” who ran over a 10 foot long dead shark.

Mosuli:  “Last night we T-Boned a dead shark”
Profligate:  “Oh my goodness, what kind of shark was it”
Mosuli:  “I don’t know. It was a dead one.  They all look alike when they’re dead”

I’ll leave you with that thought as we’re 20 miles from the finish of the first leg and the tacos are ready.

But not by the Giants.  My head.  In the last 24 hours I’ve managed to bonk it pretty hard three times. Two drew blood, but not a lot.  Just flesh wounds.  First one was last night on the foredeck getting the spinnaker ready.  Stupid.  Got clocked by the staysail boom.  Second was below deck.  I was getting something in a cabinet and the boat is rolling so hard in the 10 foot seas, I zigged when I should have zagged and clunk, number two (more blood).  Third was banging into the preventer while checking lines in the dark. Ouch, ouch, and OUCH!

Gorgeous sunrise today.  I can’t remember seeing so many colors.  Pink, Rose, Lavender, Orange, Red, Cerulean (ha, look that one up!) and of course the new day’s sky blue.

Sun’s been out all day.  We’re not quite in the topical zone, but it’s a lot warmer.  Geoff and Jansen have gone to just shorts.  Ann, Diane and I are still fully clothed, but we’re thinking tomorrow is likely to bring out the shorts for us.  Deep blue sea, 20 gusting to 25 knot wind and 10 foot following seas make for a mesmerizing time.  You just can’t take your eyes off the water and the never ending train of waves coming up behind you.

Some of the waves are pretty big.  Geoff and Jansen took a wave (or at least part of one), over the stern sometime earlier today.

Jansen: “We got dumped on by a wave”
Geoff: “Spray”
Jansen: ” Well, it was really a LOT of spray”

So I’m working on my story for this seemingly harrowing experience.  I tested something like this: “Jansen, knocked out of the boat by the rogue wave was hanging on for dear life, halfway through the lifelines.”, when Geoff corrected me to the following; “Jansen, snoozing on the foredeck, hoisting a Tecate took a few drops of spray on his sunglasses.”

It’s the little things.  Speaking of which, our highlight today was a boat crossing.  Another HaHa boat came within 100 yards or so and it turned out to be the 52 foot Ketch that was right next to us on the starting line yesterday.  A day and a half later, they come out of nowhere (on the radio they said they went 60 miles out last night and they were coming back toward land) and cross right in front of us.  There’s little else to do, so an event like this is almost like going out to dinner or a show; “Look a boat, quick we should get dressed up or something”.  Ah, but as soon as they cross we’re back to our lazy selves.

Getting ready to cook now.  Dinner tonight is Risotto with Spinach and a salad.  More importantly it’s not yet fish.  We have two lines out and no action.  Hoping for a lot better.  We have at least a hundred tortillas stored on the boat for all the fish tacos we’re hoping to make.

Signing off with this morning’s radio call sightings (i.e. from other boats reporting): Great White Shark, Dolphins (we also have seen dozens, many of which swam around the boat, leaping out of the water for a great show), whales (one boat reported being “surrounded” by whales), first Tuna caught and an aircraft carrier.

That’s it for now.

Hey I’m just getting ready for Baja!

It’s been a “chill” day and I’m celebrating that I’m in San Diego.  Kind of cool to be here in my home. Down below, it seems like I’m in Berkeley, but when I stick my head out the hatch, I’m in San Diego!  Kind of a poor man’s time travel.

Speaking of poor, this place isn’t.  I had forgotten how affluent this part of San Diego is.  Ridiculous amounts of money are being spent here to “one-up” the competition.  I saw a yacht with a full size helicopter on it.  Crazy, gratuitous, spending.

Speaking of gratuitous spending,  I walked over to West Marine.  The SD store has to be the closest thing to Disneyland for boaters that there is.  I spent a crazy, gratuitous amount of money on new fishing lures for the trip.  I’ll show these nutty zillionaires who’s who when we catch some serious Tuna and Dorado with Charisma’s new lures!  Helicopters indeed!  I now have a Boone Bird and a Triple Squid Trolling Jig with a big feather thingamajig on the end.  Ha!  Practically guaranteed to slay Tuna and Dorado.

Ann’s coming in tomorrow and we’ll spend the better part of the day provisioning (I.e. Go to Costco, buy lots of food). Diane’s also flying in, and Geoff and Jansen should be back from their surfing expedition, so our crew will all be here.  Also my Daughter Christine is driving down from Long Beach for dinner.  I’ll check in with my other Daughter Kelly in Santa Barbara on the way home in late November or so.

(Hmmm, I’m getting used to this Tequila..wonder if they have the good stuff at Costco?)

Left Catalina at 1600 and made it to San Diego at 0745 this morning, completing Part One of the trip. We stop here for a few days before leaving for Baja on Monday.  The most challenging part of this leg was getting a slip in San Diego. The whole of San Diego is booked and it looked like we were going to have to anchor out.   Fun to do when we’re in Baja and actually want to be “off the grid”, but a real pain when we need to provision the boat for the trip, recharge the batteries, get water, fuel, do laundry, etc, etc to get ready for being in Mexico for over a month.

So after getting turned away from the harbormaster who claimed “no slips”, I charged down the waterfront stopping at each Marina, rather aggressively requesting a space for a few days (I think I scared a few Marina Managers. After thunderstorms, lightning, rain and not much sleep I’m guessing as I think about it, I might have appeared, well…a little scary. The beard, wet clothes, sea boots and crazed, stressed look might have contributed to this clear misunderstanding). One place I called said yes, they had some space. After racing over there to get it before it got taken by some of the other boats that I saw pulling in, I was told, well, they actually made a mistake and had no vacancies for at least a month.

I. Was. Not. Happy!!

As noted I think I scared someone, because the manager at that marina personally drove me in his own car to the next Marina on my list.  Chain smoking the whole way and making nervous chit chat.  I think I detected a distinct facial tick as well.

As luck would have it though I scored the last spot in a great marina right in the middle of Shelter Island, which is where all the stuff I need is available and at a discount no less (possible serial killer discount?). It also comes with access to the hotel amenities behind the marina; hot tub, pool, gym, laundry, etc.

Sometimes the adventure of cruising isn’t out at sea at all.

Definitely the case on this leg. Left Catalina to a pretty sunset and other than some more rain on the way, the on-water part of this leg was pretty uneventful.  There wasn’t even much wind, so we motored most of the way.  I even slowed the boat down a bit halfway in, to make sure we wouldn’t arrive to an unfamiliar area in the dark.

So, hopefully the next few days will be boring and I won’t have much to write about.

Stay tuned though as we leave Monday morning and will no doubt have more adventure to share.

In the mean time all you folks in the Bay Area will be enjoying the wet weather we’ve had the last couple days as I see it’s heading North.  Have fun!  We’re going South.

After such an eventful arrival yesterday morning in the driving rain dodging thunderstorms and lightning bolts, today’s departure is positively peaceful.  It’s very calm, still cloudy, but no rain.  We’re motoring to San Diego with an expected arrival time of around 0700.  We’ll check in at Shelter Island, but I called them yesterday and it’s not likely we’ll get a slip.  We’ll likely have to anchor out.  Not a problem, but makes it a lot more hassle to provision for the trip into Baja using the inflatable.

Two Harbors was a nice spot, but next time I take a shower there I’m wearing shoes, but I’ll get to that in a minute.  Coming ashore is nice.  You just call the Harbor Taxi and for three bucks, they come out and pick you up in a small launch.  Nice!  I organized my gear; laundry, soap, shaving kit, grocery bag, garbage to dump, all accounted for.  Then a call on VHF channel 09 and the launch arrives.

Went up to the laundry, got the clothes started, then went to the shower and that’s when the problem started. Got in one of the stalls and the coin machine was broken.  OK, moved to another stall…coin machine, good…took off my clothes, opened the curtain and YIPES the local wildlife started scurrying around. Cockroaches, crickets and earwigs daring me to turn on the water.  Well, I’ll tell you-they won round one. Clothes back on, went down to the handicapped stall, CHECKED the shower first.  Immaculate (well, no wildlife anyway).  Took off clothes, set up my soap, put the money in the meter and…it was broken.  Put on clothes, moved to another shower, it was muddy, but worked and only one cockroach on the curtain.  That was easy, I just flicked him into one of the other stalls!  That’s taking a shower in the cruising life (oh, did I mention I forgot my towel and had to use my jacket to dry off?).  Oh and the shoes?  That’s to stomp on the cockroaches so I can use the first shower in the future.

A final thought: The crew asked me to mention that while stealthily stalking Island Buffalo, Geoff stepped in some Buffalo poop, let out a kind of shriek, then fell and slipped down the hill after which Jansen was laughing so hard, he also stepped in it.  Alcohol might have been involved.  As Amanda noted; “Boys will be boys”.

(this photo courtesy of Geoff – more at GeoffreyByrne.com)

We’re comfortably moored right now in Two Harbor, Catalina, but had quite a ride in.  More on that in a minute.

First, had a 155 mile run yesterday.  In total with these kind of daily runs on 10-20 knot winds, we’ve arrived Catalina in a few hours less than three days from SF.  With the exception of about four hours from 3AM last night to 7AM this morning, all the the time has been sailing and we haven’t touched the wheel.  Wilson has been happily steering (much to Amanda’s consternation as she was hoping for some helm time).

Great dinner of Pork Loin in Calvados sauce, potatoes and brocolli (again) done in the pressure cooker. We’re got three more converts for cooking that way.

Long night coming through the Channel Islands from outside, via Santa Barbara Island.  Past Santa Barbara Island, the wind eased and finally stopped completely which is when we cranked the diesel for the first time other than to charge batteries.  Started seeing lightning on the mainland and went below to check the radar and saw a whole line of Thunderstorms moving toward us.  Maneuvered around a couple cells, but finally got swallowed by cloud and rain on toward what should have been dawn.  Instead of sunrise, it stayed ominously dark and soon it was clear the lightning was now getting very close.  Little did I know.  Within an hour or so, just as we were about a mile from Two Harbors, the sky near and above us lit up.  Lightning and Thunder with no separation, hitting the water around us and the hills on the Island (Catalina).  Half mile from the Harbor, one bolt hit the water so close Amanda about jumped out of her foulies.  Geoff has a picture of me looking “angst-ridden” as the crew now describes it.

Not only did the lightning hit the water right near us, but we could hear the static “crackle” through the rigging.  I pushed the throttle all the way forward in an attempt to get into the bay before we got hit–which would have fried all of the electronics and turned them into molten plastic and silicon.  Couple other boats were racing for the Harbor as well.  We got there in time though, picked up a mooring and snugged in listening to the thunder and rain as the cell passed.  Wow!  Don’t want to get that close to a T-Storm again thank you very much.

Pancakes for breakfast to celebrate the comfort of harbor and the gang has taken the water taxi ashore for showers and refreshments.  I’m cleaning the cabinet where the baking soda container blew open.  Can’t have a load of white powder floating around the boat as we cross into Mexico!

That’s it for now – time for a little rest and to plot our leg into San Diego which we’ll likely start either late tonight or early tomorrow.

For more of Geoff’s Baja Haha photos, check out GeoffreyByrne.com

October 18th and we’re off San Miguel Island which is in turn is off the Santa Barbara Coast.  Getting a bit warmer, but still doesn’t feel like SoCal.  Very cold last night (or was it that I was so sleepy I couldn’t keep warm?)

We passed Pt. Conception in the early hours.  Not too bad.  Wind came up gusting into the twenties.  We already double reefed the main so Wilson could steer better on a broad reach.  As the wind came up, we needed to reef the jib at about 2300.  Tried, but it wouldn’t budge.  I went up to the bow and found the furling line had jumped off the furler drum.  Had to go out on the bowsprit to fix it.  Definitely lonely out there in the dark rising up on the face of waves, then plunging down into the shadow.  At the bottom, water gurgling around my knees as Charisma stopped, then started to rise with the wave.  Ten minutes and all was fixed and we could furl and ultimately jibe out just North of the shipping channel.

Asked the crew what they wanted to say on this post.  Geoff thought a moment, then; “Let’s see…Moon, Stars, Wind, Offshore…hmmm it’s all there”.

The second exchange:
Amanda: “I heard Jansen snores”
Geoff (under his breath): “(On Watch)”
Jansen: “It’s Wilson’s fault!”

At this point, we’ve plotted a course just West of Santa Cruz Island, past Santa Barbara Island and then to Catalina.  Plan is to stop at Catalina for a day before continuing on to San Diego.  Should make Catalina in the early morning hours.

That’s it for today!

By the way, thanks to Jen for the last minute add to our stores. Geoff made amazing steak Tacos with the stuff you gave us and Jansen masterfully BBQ’d the meat, onions, and bell peppers. Topped off with rice and avocado and all was good!

The photos in this post are courtesy of Geoff – thanks Geoff! For more of Geoff’s Baja Haha photos, check out GeoffreyByrne.com

What an eventful couple of days.
First off the party at the dock Friday night was fantastic.  So great to see all the friends and family.  Special thanks to Andy for catering and Ann for helping me get provisioned and organized.

Saturday morning was great too.  Inspiring to have so many folks stop by to see us off and fun to see you all out at the Marina entrance as we left.

Motoring out was uneventful other than just as we were getting to the Gate, Geoff said; “Oh #@%! I forgot my foulies and shoes!”  Fortunately he still had cell coverage and his Mom will bring them to LA where we’ll pick them up.

Accompanied by Porpoises under the Gate, we motored with the ebb tide about 10 miles out to the Lightbucket.  Once there, we set sails, turned left and haven’t had the motor on since.  With 10-20 knots of wind out of NW, we’re been doing from 5-8 knots.  Gybed early this morning about 68 miles off the coast and now heading more toward Pt Conception.  It’s 1130 now and our 24 hour distance is 130 miles (from where we started sailing).  Good time, especially considering much of it was more on the 10 knots of wind side.

Dinner was chicken, potatoes and broccoli in the pressure cooker.  Most of us were queasy, and I had to jump up into the cockpit every couple of minutes to get fresh air while cooking, so not a very fancy version.  Just the basics.  We all have our sea legs now, so tonight’s dinner should get more attention.

We’re well South of Carmel right now and about 140 miles from Santa Cruz Island.  GPS says at this speed we should get there early tomorrow morning.  Good time, so we might drop the hook and stay overnight.

That’s it for now.  It’s been overcast, but really nice wind, 5-7 foot following seas and it hasn’t been too cold, so we’re having a blast!

Much love to everyone.  We’ll check in again in a day or so.

“S/V Charisma”