March 2011 – Fetch the Horizon

Heading South

We interrupt the tale of last fall’s trip to the Channel Islands to bring your news of our current whereabouts and happenings. The short version is: we’ve been in San Diego for two weeks, and now we’re headed to Baja!

On Tuesday the 8th of March we departed our slip at the Berkeley Marina, and headed south. Bound for the southern tip of the Baja Peninsula and the Sea of Cortez, our first stop was to be San Diego. The trip down was mostly an uneventful mix of sailing and motoring. That is until we got to Point Conception.

We left when we did to avoid one of several large storm systems that had been and continued to be attacking the California coast. We knew we had to reach our destination by the weekend to avoid heavy weather, and we new there was no avoiding the typically rough conditions around Point Conception.

Even approaching the point from well off shore things began to pickup pretty quick. By the time I had put the first reef in, I immediately decided to add a second, and I’m glad I did. It blew 30-40 knots, with waves to match, all night and didn’t let up. In fact, some time in the early morning our autopilot managed to tear itself off it’s mount trying to fight a wave that was rounding the boat up. As a result we had to hand steer the boat from that point on.

We continued to have heavy conditions around the point and past the northern Channel Islands, where things moderated a bit. About half way from Santa Cruz Island to Catalina the winds finally died off to almost nothing, and we decided to fire up the engine, and get in to Avalon sooner rather than later for some much needed sleep. Unfortunately I had failed to keep a careful eye on our batteries, and the engine wouldn’t start. It was well after dark so we decided to heave to, keep a watch, and deal with it in the morning.

Lucky for us I had gotten all the supplies I needed to wire up our new solar panel. Well almost all of them. So, with wires strewn around the nav station and cockpit, I was able to get enough juice to start the engine. After monitoring things more carefully for the next 48 hours I decided the battery bank itself was partially to blame and would need to be replaced in San Diego.

We moored at Avalon harbor for two days. We slept, showered, shopped, and reassured all our friends and family that we were safe from the tsunami that had threatened the California coast while we were off shore. It felt good to return to Avalon in our own boat, having visited last fall in Fetchin’ Ketch. We had made our first passage, albeit a short one, on our own. An accomplishment for any burgeoning cruiser.

On Monday the 14th we departed Avalon for San Diego. Before we left however, we made a stop at one of the nearby anchorages where I tried in vain to get the autopilot functioning again. It turns out the hydraulic piston that turns the rudder had not only been dismounted, it had fried some internal component.

After a frustrating few hours spent on the autopilot I decided to jump in the water and do some snorkeling. I donned my gear, my video camera, and jump in. The water wasn’t too unpleasant considering the temp was in the low 50s. I took a look at our anchor, watched a ray take off from it’s hiding spot in a cloud of silt, and headed for the kelp beds near shore. After just a few minutes kicking around with the garibaldi and perch, I rounded a stalk of kelp right into a seemingly massive 5 foot shark. Needless to say that brought a swift end to my snorkeling endeavors. In retrospect I wish I had stuck around to try to get a little footage. The shark probably would have been just as scared of me, and been eager to go find some smaller prey.

Around dusk we started up the motor and made our way over to San Diego. We had timed our departure to make a morning arrival in San Diego in order to give us time to figure out arrangements for docking/mooring/anchoring. I knew San Diego had a public guest dock, but at a cheap $10 a night I was worried it would be full up. But as it turns out the dock isn’t really that crowded when it’s not the season for cruisers to be passing through, and we’re going south pretty late.

Now for the last two weeks we’ve been in San Diego fixing/installing/procuring stuff. I rewired the solar panel properly, replaced our battery bank and wiring, added a battery monitor so we wouldn’t have any more engine starting issues, and installed a new alternator with a fancy charge regulator. We had professionals take care of the autopilot and VHF antenna wiring issue (turns out somebody botched the installation of the connector at the top of the mast).

Right after I post this we will be weighing anchor and heading south. Our first stop will be in Ensenada to do our entry paperwork. Many people have told us to just go south and enter at Cabo, but the official story is that if you’re entering with a pet you have to have a health certificate that is less than 10 days old. Plus I’ll feel a lot more comfortable going a shore at the anchorages along the way with all our paperwork in order. From there we’ll be off shore a few days before anchoring at Bahia de Tortugas for a bit, followed by Bahia Santa Maria. We’ll be back in touch from Cabo San Lucas on or around April 16th. Until then you can watch our progress on our SPOT tracker page.

The Sea (2010-09-22)

After arriving in Avalon and connecting to the world again, a friend asked about the trip. This poem was the result.

The Sea

Remember how you felt out on the water
Just feeling happy to be there, to exist with it?
Close your eyes and feel it again
How big it was, and endless

This is all that and more.

It is cold:
Moonless, starless, foggy nights
Dark except for the phosphorescent sparkle
On each wave, like a thousand fireflies
And our wake, churning up a path of glitter

Or an orange moonset, then so many stars
Dawn comes on the breakfast watch,
The only one that gets better, warmer.

It is warm:
Bathed in sunlight, blue afternoons stretching on and on
Deck naps, anywhere naps.
Reading, sitting, listening to the VHF

Finally shedding layers and layers
Bare feet, surprisingly comfy

It is alive:
Rolling seas, dolphins frolicking before the bow wave
Things that sound so cliche, so overused, overdescribed
I cannot make them new and different, just with words
You have to be there, then you will feel it, you will understand.

The Channel Islands – Part 2. Catalina

September 15th-23rd, 2010

See: Part 1. The Trip Down

You really appreciate the little things when you’re on a sailboat; like sleeping in and having omelets for breakfast. I like being at sea, but I like it in the same way I like twenty mile hikes through the Texan desert: You get lots of time to introspect, it’s peaceful and often trance like, and when you finally reach your destination you feel an immense sense of accomplishment, not to mention your next hot cooked meal never tasted so good.

After breakfast at Cojo we weighed anchor and headed southeast towards the gap between Santa Rosa and Santa Cruz islands. We had decided to head straight to Santa Catalina to the south where we would spend some time in civilization at Avalon harbor before touring the local anchorages.

This leg of the trip was one of the most pleasant sailing portions. It was notably warmer than it had been. We were able to sail a good part of the time. We had numerous dolphin and porpoise sightings including large numbers of them riding our bow wave. The night was clear, and with the lights of the coast behind us the view of the stars and moon was stunning.

On the evening of the second day we reached Avalon, got tied to our mooring, and went to bed. The town of Avalon is an interesting little place. It is definitely a small town with a population of just over 3,000 people. It directly faces southern Los Angeles, and thanks to the ferry it is a popular day trip destination. That and the large number of boaters that visit the harbor make it a bit touristy, but getting off the beaten track isn’t too hard and the locals are quite amiable. The first thing we did when we arrived on shore was go get showers. There was a pay shower on the waterfront, and they were nice enough, although the attendant looked like he needed to avail himself of his own service. After that we had lunch, grocery shopped, visited the local coffee shop, and headed back to the boat for dinner.

The next day we motored up the coast to do some fishing. We had little success with the hook and line. When fishing for Rockfish, which are some of the more edible fish in the area, the strategy is to bounce a baited hook near rocky outcroppings where the fish hang out in small crevasses. Unfortunately we caught more rocks than rockfish. Spearfishing, on the other hand, was incredible. As you dive down below the canopy of broad kelp leaves, schools of small silvery fish part before you, their scales glinting in the beams of sunlight that filter through the fronds above.

¹Some Rights Reserved

As you approach the stalks of the kelp forest, looking for an opening, everything goes dark all around you. It’s not until you’ve plunged in, unable to see more than a few feet ahead, that your eyes finally adjust and you see a new world of life. Larger fish glide warily around rocks covered in urchins, starfish, and sea grass. You must move slowly, spear extended, careful not to contact the rocks or kelp which would stir up sediment and alert the fish. And there you wait, ten feet down or more, for a fish to pass. Twitch even a little, or wait to long, and your prey will flee faster than you can hope to react or follow. Finally the moment is right and you relax your tight grip on the tensioned spear. It whooshes forward and lands home with a dull thud, the three prongs of the paralyzer tip disabling the fish and minimizing its thrashing. But now you must remain calm, to swim straight up in excitement would mean becoming hopelessly ensnared in the kelp, so you reverse your course, returning to the brilliant yellow green world outside the kelp.

My first catch was a medium sized Opaleye, which would turn out to be the easiest fish to catch, being almost as dumb and slow as the protected Garibaldi (state fish of California). It was large enough to fillet, and was decently tasty, but the more attractive Perch and the elusive Kelp Bass would become my prey later on as my skills improved. But then, to dull my pride, after we had boated my first catch, I dropped the spear in 70 feet of water before passing it to Jen.

That night we anchored nearby at Buttonshell beach and headed back to Avalon the next morning. Bill and Monica took the ferry over to the mainland. Bill needed a boat part, and Monica was taking the train home (she had classes to get back for). Jen and I took a long walk through some of the less traveled parts of Avalon, and saw some great views of the town. We also replaced the spear I had lost with two new ones.

The next day we rounded the southern tip of the island and made another attempt at fishing along the rugged western coast. The western side of the island was exposed to quite a bit more swell and wind, which made the motion of the boat pretty uncomfortable,especially when we were drifting in an attempt to fish. Bill did catch a medium Scorpion Fish (a relative of the Rock Fish), but for Jen and I it was a bust again. That night we went to a place called little harbor. It was reputed to have a surf spot near by, but we didn’t see anything surfable.

After the first night in Little Harbor we did some more spear fishing, with limited success. The water there was colder and murkier, and there seemed to be less sea life. We did, however, see some Bat Rays slide gracefully by along the sandy bottom. Although they’re generally harmless they made an intimidating spectacle. In the afternoon we went ashore in the dinghy, hiked around a bit, and generally enjoyed being on solid ground for a little while.

The following day, after two nights in Little Harbor we set out again to return to the east side of the island, where we spent another night at Buttonshell, and did some more fishing. From there it was on to Santa Cruz island…

Coming Soon:

Part 3. Santa Cruz Island
Part 4. The Trip Home

The image “Kelp Forest” by David Ciani reused with modification under the Creative Commons Noncommercial-Attribution-Share Alike License