Finally, the weather cooperated; sort of. Steep chop and light wind meant motor sailing the first half of the trip, but North of Bolinas, we got 20knots, gusting to 25 and some nice sailing into Drake's Bay. Windy night, gusting up to 30 knots, but anchor deeply embedded in the sand and the anchor alarm set to 120 feet, meant a good sleep. On the way back, saw two whales (probably Gray's) and a dozen or more dolphins that swam with us, surfing on the six foot waves for 15 minutes during one session and 10 minutes during another. Really fun to watch!
By the way the Monitor (now known as "Wilson") steered all the way back. In 15 knots true, a double reefed main and yankee jib, Wilson steered brilliantly. We just sat, read books and looked up from time to time to make sure we didn't hit something. The trick is the heavily reefed main. Keeps weather helm from overpowering the self-steering. We made about 5+ knots with this set up. Even better would have been the 130, but I was too lazy to put it up!
Went to China Camp. Wanted to go to Drake's Bay, but winds were 35+ and waves 12 feet at 9 second periods--not a fun ride.
China Camp was nice though. Warm, good anchoring and a chance to test out the new hammock!
Went sailing the other day with another Tayana; "Alchemy" just down the dock from me.
What a fun day and some great pics to boot!
A continuation of the Monitor testing. Went sailing (duh) and let the Monitor do all the work. Spectacular! I don't need to sail the boat anymore. Well...actually I do. To make any wind vane work effectively you need to carefully balance the boat. Reminds me of using the autopilot in my airplane. Once I got it for my plane, I stopped hand flying the plane, but still spent a lot of quality time trimming the plane so it would fly well. Here's a couple pics of our new "pilotless" boat. 
I wasn't sure if Saturday would be the right day to single-hand to the Farallones or not. Forecast was for 15-25 with gusts to 30 knots and 6-9 foot waves. Since several sailboats have been lost out there in the past year, I wanted to be careful. But Charisma is not "some boats". She did an amazing job. The actual conditions turned out to be 25-28 with gusts to 35 knots. I was thinking that it's been a while since I've felt that 25 knots of wind was "calm", but that's what it felt like. Waves were about as advertised. 6 feet or so, with the occasional 10 footer. However, with a single reef in the main and the stays'l (jib furled) we made 5+ knots upwind and actually had a nice ride out. With that configuration in the wind and waves, we were also able to tack in about 90, maybe 95 degrees, which was surprising to me. I would have thought we'd have a harder time going upwind. Quite a boat.
The trip out started pretty calm. You can see in the photo going under the gate (around 10AM) that there was little wind, but since the buoy reports were showing a blow just out the gate, I motor sailed with the main already reefed so I could get out since there was a full on flood tide. I wanted to sail, not tack back and forth trying to get outside. Sure enough, by Pt Bonita the wind picked up, engine off and within half an hour the jib was furled and we smashed the 20 miles out. 
Didn't see another boat all day. I think everyone else decided not to venture out. Charisma was really pretty exceptional. Even though we "flew" pretty high over a couple waves, she didn't slam once like I've felt in other boats in similar conditions. One thing that did surprise me was that when wind and waves pick up you have to drop the main traveller and let the stays'l out further than you would when you're using the jib. But even with the sails "sheeted out" a bit, she still seemed to point as high. Probably making less leeway that when trying to point higher with the jib up. One fun point in the trip was crossing the "line" from green water to blue. At about 9 miles out, there's literally a line in the water. One side is green from the coastal influence and the other is blue. No mixing, just an abrupt change. The prep list for the day; jacklines rigged, cowl vents turned backwards, harness with tether and full foulies and seaboots on before going under the bridge. Didn't want to have to leave the helm, although even in those conditions, she did steer upwind by herself quite nicely and I ended up going to the foredeck a couple times to clear lines and even a trip below to the head with Charisma happily steering over the waves. Downwind is another issue and almost impossible to leave the helm for more than a few seconds when in waves.
All in all a great day. Even hit 9.5 knots coming back. Who says Tayanas can't surf?
Short post today. Just a couple new pics from Peter Lyons (www.lyonsimaging.com) taken in January over by Tiburon. 
Doesn't seem possible it's been a year already since I acquired Charisma! In fact, according to the log book, the first sail was on Sept 1st, 2007. Wow, what a year. Lots of day sails, some great overnights, several fish caught and of course the "epic" Santa Barbara trip in May. For 2009, I hope we'll get some more coastal cruising (Drakes Bay, Santa Cruz, Half Moon Bay?). Today, I went for a single handed sail on Charisma. Gorgeous day on the Bay. Saw the ridiculously large Maltese Falcon. What a joke that someone feels they need to build a private yacht the size of that thing. See for yourself how big it is.
While we were cruising about, we thought we saw Shanti come out the G8, but what was up with all of the extra (and wrong) numbers on the Main???? It was great to see Shanti and crew, but it would have been better if we were all on the same boat. :)
By the way the Monitor (now known as "Wilson") steered all the way back. In 15 knots true, a double reefed main and yankee jib, Wilson steered brilliantly. We just sat, read books and looked up from time to time to make sure we didn't hit something. The trick is the heavily reefed main. Keeps weather helm from overpowering the self-steering. We made about 5+ knots with this set up. Even better would have been the 130, but I was too lazy to put it up!
