Route planning

It's a new year and, just so I don't lose track of our goal to set sail for warmer climes this summer, I decided to do a little bit of route planning the other day.  Here at the marina, our high sped internet connection is in the laundry room.  So, since I was actually up there doing laundry anyway, it seemed like a good time to work on some of the details of our planned trip.

There are several schools of thought on sailing down the Oregon and California coasts.  The first is the express route.  In this one the idea is to go out 60 miles or so and then aim straight for San Francisco or San Diego and skip everything in between.  The advantage is that you get to your destination fairly quickly and, if the weather kicks up you have lots of sea room to play with.  Some say that the ride is much nicer out there since the swells are more regular (though probably larger) and the seas aren't so confused by bouncing off the land.  You're also far enough out that you are less likely to feel the effects of places like the dreaded Cape Mendocino.  You may also be far enough out to avoid running into crab pots and fishing nets as well as other coastal boat traffic.  The downside is that, if the weather kicks up, you're a long way from a potential safe harbor.  The watchkeeping required for a 2-person crew can also be quite tiring on a trip like this.

Another approach is to travel 5-20 miles off shore and visit the more prominent ports every few days.  The advantage is that you're probably close enough to duck into a harbor if the weather turns on you and you get to visit a few ports along the way where you can catch up on your sleep.  The disadvantage is that you need to watch your weather closer since you're always fairly near to a potential lee shore. Also, even a couple days of 4 hours on, 4 hours off watchkeeping can get pretty tiring.  And you're right where the fishermen and crabbers are working and need to keep a good lookout for them as well as other boats and ships traveling the coast.

The final approach is called "keeping one foot on land" and basically consists of harbor-hopping down the coast usually no more than 5-10 miles offshore.  The downside to this approach is that you need to keep a really close eye on weather because you have virtually no sea room to play with.   You might luck out and be inside much of the fishing and crabbing areas but you might also be smack dab in the middle of them.  You need to keep a sharp lookout for shoals and rocks as well since you may be close enough to encounter some of these. On the other hand, you might get to sleep at anchor or at a marina every night and you only need to get a weather window that's large enough for you to make it to the next port safely.  This plan will definitely take you the longest amount of time of the three.

So, what to do?  Well, in our case we want to leave Newport as early in July as we can find a decent weather window.  No particular reason other than just to get this show on the road.  However, we don't want to reach Mexico until the end of the hurricane season, November 1st.  That leaves us potentially 4 months of travel time.   We could walk to Mexico in less time than that.  So, since we want to leave early and take a long time to get where we're going, the "one foot on land" approach seems to fit the bill.  We hadn't really considered this until we started following a blog of some folks we met here.  Mark  and Vicki (Sailing with Mark and Vicki) are from Corvallis and have been meandering down the coast since last August.  Following their blog has been a real education since I don't think I've ever read any other blog where they did as much harbor-hopping as these two.  Since we're looking for a slow trip down the coast, we're going to pretty much follow in their wake.  They also sound like they've been having the most fun of many of the cruising blogs I read.

So, with this general plan in mind, the next step was to start laying out a route.  First I'd go to Mark & Vicki's site to find out where they'd stopped and then I'd go to Google Earth to get a picture of what the harbor and its approaches actually look like.  Google Earth is so cool.  It's great to actually be able to follow our proposed route and be able to zoom in and out at will.  The feature that allows you to calculate the miles between waypoints also helps a lot in route planning.  So, here's what we're looking at for our first major leg of the trip: Newport to San Francisco.

We're planning stops in:

Winchester Bay, OR (maybe)

Charleston Harbor (Coos Bay), OR

Port Orford, OR

Brooking, OR

Crescent City, CA (maybe)

Trinidad, CA (mark & Vicki warn of lots of kelp flies but it still seems like a logical stopping point for us)

Eureka, CA

Shelter Cove, CA

Fort Bragg, CA

Bodega Bay, CA

Drake's Bay, CA

San Francisco Bay, CA

Once in SF Bay, we plan visits to various places such as Sausalito, Alameda, etc.  Also planning to venture at least part way up the Sacramento River.  We may try to go all the way to Sacramento but I haven't studied things enough to know whether or not that's a viable trip.  We have friends in various places in the Bay Area and the Northern California Westsail Owners' Rendezvous is being held in Alameda in early October so we'll try to make that. 

Putting together the list above afforded me the opportunity to pull out my Coast Pilot (#7) to make sure I was listing the stops in the right order.  As I followed the route I see many anchorages along the way that afford protection in certain wind conditions, but not in others.  We may take advantage of some of these along the way.

Once we get started on our SF to San Diego route planning, I will also be using some information that was in an issue of Latitude 38 magazine last fall.  They answered a reader's query about inexpensive cruising along the central and southern California coast.  We'll use their answer as another tool in our route-planning toolbox.

Anyway, the whole route planning thing is an enjoyable way to get started on the cruise before the weather allows the actual slipping of the mooring lines.  We have Google Earth, electronic charts in our Garmin GPS, paper charts, the Coast Pilot, maps, cruising guides, etc. to help us plan things out.  Hopefully you all will stick with the blog long enough to see the trip actually start to unfold.  In the meantime, get out your Oregon and California maps or log on to Google Earth and take a virtual cruise along with us.

Ratlin' up to the yard

Just so you don't think that ALL I do is go to the store and sit around doing crossword puzzles, here's a picture of what I did yesterday.  I installed ratlines on the starboard lower shrouds.   The mast steps are great for climbing all the way up to the top of the mast but if the mainsail is up it's a little more difficult.  Besides, one has to be all harnessed up when using them.  Enter, the ratlines.  Made from well-varnished white oak, they're about 1-3/4" thick to be semi-friendly to bare feet.  They're very easy to climb and, because they cant inboard, they feel quite safe.  Just the ticket for working on the spreaders or, more often, for "ratlin' up" to get a better view when navigating shoal waters or looking for coral heads to avoid.  Most boats that have ratlines only seem to have them on one side of the mast.  But I plan to put them on both sides so that there is always a clear view regardless of which tack we happen to be on.  People without ratlines are always yappin' about windage and weight aloft, but I have a feeling we're going to love them regardless of what the detractors say.

BTW: they have been Lulu-tested and declared "Safe-feeling" and "fun".  So there.

Going to have to fire the watermaker back up

We'd put the RO watermaker to bed a couple months ago.  After satisfying ourselves that it worked as advertised, it seemed pointless to keep using it when perfectly good water was available right at the dock.  So we went through the "picklng" process which has to be done anytime the unit isn't used within 5 or 6 days of the last time.  Pickling consists of pumping a biocide (in this case RV water system antifreeze) into the system so that any biological stuff that is stuck on the RO membrane can't proliferate and foul the (expensive) membrane.  Hadn't planned to fire the system up again until just before launch time next summer.  Then winter hit.  We've been experiencing nights in the 20s and days in the 30s most of the week.  Naturally, the water pipes on the dock froze and broke.  We've been assured that the water will be turned on as soon as the weather eases and they can get everything repaired.  Pretty sure we'll be out of water before that happens.  So, it's either schlepp the water from somewhere (not sure where) or use the watermaker.  And, since we bought it so we wouldn't have to schlepp water, the choice is obvious.  You know what the worst part is?  On Friday I told myself that I should probably fill the water tank just in case they decided to turn the water off.  Oops.  But you know what's probably even worse?  I bet that on Friday, the maintenance crew told themselves that they should probably turn the water off just in case it gets as cold as predicted.  Oops, again.  At least my oops didn't result in as much work as their oops did.

A day in the life

I've had a couple of requests from people who actually read this blog
for a new entry or two. Seems I've been remiss. But frankly, not
that much is going on. However, when I read over some of the blogs
that I follow, I find that I don't really care whether or not
something earth-shattering is happening, I just like to follow their
day-to-day lives. So, maybe you're like that too. I guess you always
have the option of not reading the blog if it's too mundane for you.
Warning: what follows might be construed as BORING, so proceed with
caution. Of course, you're probably reading this on company time
anyway, so what do you care how boring it is? Beats working.

It occurs to me that some of you might be interested in what it is we
do on a day-to-day basis, living on a 28 foot boat without a car.
What follows is fairly typical. May give you a little insight into
whether or not you want to retire.

Typical day:

The day often starts around 4 or 5 AM when one or the other of us wake
up to use the head and then can't fall immediately back to sleep. At
this point it's time to turn on our individual reading lamps after
quietly whispering "I'm going to have to read awhile." If the other
is fast asleep, nothing much happens. But, more often than not, we're
enough awake to murmur an "OK" and then turn over so we're facing away
from the light. Anyway, this reading usually lasts an hour or so,
after which time the eyes are scratchy and the various idiotic
thoughts that had been keeping us awake are sufficiently displaced by
whatever we're reading to allow sleep. Then it's back to zonkerville
until it's the "normal" time to wake up.

For me, "normal" wake up happens between 7:00 and 8:30. For some
reason it now seems uncivilized to rise before 7:00. Anytime after
that is OK. I get up to (at this time of year) a cold boat. I pull
the curtain separating the v-berth from the rest of the cabin. This
is largely for my own mental comfort as it really does nothing to stop
the noises that I make from traveling to the "bedroom" with virtually
no diminishment in volume. I try to be very quiet but noise happens.
Fortunately, Lulu can handle it. I fire up the heater which consists
of plugging it in and turning it on. No more building a fire in the
woodstove for me. Then I have to venture out into the cockpit to turn
the propane on. Many people are wary of propane on a boat because,
being heavier than air, any leakage can accumulate in the bilge until
there's enough to completely ruin your day at the first strike of a
match. So, to be safe, we always turn the gas off and on at the
bottle. So, gas on, I light the stove and start the coffee water.
Recently I started using two coffee-making methods every morning. I
set up a drip pot which makes enough to fill the thermos so it's ready
when Lulu gets up. Then I also use a Melita funnel and #2 filter to
make a large commuter cup for my immediate needs. I get dressed while
the coffee's brewing and usually work on a crossword puzzle and eat an
apple while I'm waiting. Once the joe's done, I grab the laptop and
head to the marina's laundry room to do my interwebbing and to leave
the boat nice and quiet so Lulu can sleep as long as she likes.

My internet routine consists of reading and writing e-mails and then
visiting several blogs, a couple of discussion groups, a weather site
or two, a site following the boatbuilding progress of a fellow we met
in Texas who's building a George Beuhler-designed Diesel Duck 44, our
mail forwarding service site, and our bank site to see if we still
have any money left. By the time my coffee's gone I'm usually done
and head back down to the boat. This could be anytime from 8:30 to
10:00, depending on when I got up. By this time, Lulu's up and
working on a crossword and drinking her coffee. Usually she's already
eaten breakfast. This is where her and I part ways. For Lulu, the
perfect everyday breakfast is granola with a banana and coffee. For
me, the perfect breakfast is hot and salty. That could be anything
from a breakfast burrito made with eggs, chilies and cheese, to last
night's dinner reheated. So, Lulu continues to work on her puzzle
while I make my breakfast. We're usually figuring out what we're
going to do with the day during this time. I work on my crossword
while eating and generally for a little while afterwards. We don't
like to rush in to things. If I have a project, Lulu will do the
breakfast dishes but, if I don't, I usually do them since I'm the one
that made the bigger mess. We're usually ready to get on with the
business of the day about 11:30 or so.

More often than not, we'll have a need to go to town. This is usually
to get some groceries. Since we have to carry everything on our
backs, we can't just make one big trip every two weeks. Instead we
need to make small trips every few days. But, y'know, what else do we
have to do? If we can manage to work it out, we'll catch the Newport
City Loop Bus (aka "the shuttle") to town. This is more important
when the weather is really nasty. Don't really want to be walking
across the bridge when the wind is blowing 40 mph+ . And, if it's
raining? Well we have good raingear but let's be real. The trouble
with the shuttle is that it's just one bus running the whole route.
One circuit takes almost 2 hours. They run 6 full circuits a day.
One of the morning and one of the afternoon circuits take an extra 20
minutes to allow for a break for the driver and the mid-day circuit
takes an additional hour so the driver can have lunch. Consequently,
it's often much faster if we just walk at least one way. But, if we
have a heavy load, that's no fun at all. So, a trip to town is going
to consume a minimum of 2 hours whether we ride the bus or walk. If
we have any running around to do, it could take much longer.
Yesterday, I had to hit 6 different stores. I biked over and from
store to store. My last stop was for groceries. We were low on some
of the canned stuff (mostly chili and soup; the kind of stuff I eat
when Lulu's not here). Between the canned goods, a half-gallon of
milk, some apples and bananas, plus all the stuff I'd already gotten,
I had a REALLY HEAVY pack. It was so heavy that I didn't feel safe
riding the bike. I was way too top-heavy. Fortunately, the shuttle
is set up to carry up to two bicycles. So I went across the street,
waited about 10 minutes and caught the shuttle home. However, the
place I caught it was more or less at the start of the loop relative
to the marina. So, even though I was aboard at 3:34, I didn't get
back to the marina until 5:03. My trip to town took a total of 7
hours. Is it any wonder that on some days we don't get much done
beyond "going to the store"?

So we get back to the boat either by shuttle or foot. Before we've
been back very long, it's time to start dinner. Lulu's willing to
cook anything. She just doesn't like to have to think of what to
cook. So, if I can come up with something it makes her very happy.
My rule is that, if she cooks, I clean up, and so I do. Afterwards,
we usually work on those ubiquitous crossword puzzles some more and
then, long about 8:00, pop a DVD in the lap top and watch a couple of
TV shows until we're ready for bed. Bedtime can be anytime from 10:30
to 1:00. When we were working it was always 10:00. Period. Except on
weekends when it would be extended all the way to 11:00.

Now, not every day is exactly like that. They all start about the
same but sometimes we have projects to do instead of going to town.
Other days, I help out at the Aquarium. I currently do volunteer
interpretation every Sunday afternoon. In addition, every other
Thursday I spend a little over 2 hours cleaning the otters' toys. Ya
see, the otters are very intelligent and inquisitive. They also get
bored easily. So, the aquarium staff has amassed a huge pile of
"toys" for them to play with. These include traffic cones, lots of
rubber and/or plastic balls of varying sizes, strips of fire hose, a
disassembled Playskool playhouse, a beer keg, etc, etc. They use an
Excel spreadsheet to randomly choose which toys to toss in each day.
Well, all the toys need to be washed off and disinfected every week
and they recruit volunteers to do it, and I'm one of those
volunteers. The payback is that, if you get done in time (which is
pretty easy), they let you stand inside the exhibit while they feed
the pinnipeds. The seals are fairly boring but the sea lions have to
perform various stunts to get their grits. It's quite a show and you
get to be right up close to the action. Other days we might do some
laundry. Some days Lulu cleans "house". And other days we just goof
off. Good thing we're both easily amused.

Just to give you a taste, here's my actual to-do list for tomorrow.
Keep in mind that Lulu stayed at Cody's an extra week following
Thanksgiving and will becoming back tomorrow.

___ wrap Lulu's Xmas gifts
___ straighten up the boat
___ pick up prescription at Rite-Aid
___ pick up "marine fact sheets" I had spiral-bound at Staples
___ get Lulu some granola (since I'm pretty sure she's out of the
stuff she made and she'll need something for breakfast until she makes
more)
___ check the used DVDs at the thrift shop to see if there's anything
worth buying
___ call Lucas and wish him a happy 30th birthday
___ take a shower
___ meet Lulu at the bus depot in the afternoon

Geez! I don't know how much longer I can maintain this pace.

Another windy day

We were all set for a MAJOR blow here in Newport yesterday.  NWS (National Weather Service) was predicting gusts to 60 knots while some of the folks on the docks were saying they'd heard we were going to get gusts up to 90 miles per hour.  All day I kept tuning in to the NWS weather station to hear if things had been updated but 60 knot gusts are as high as they ever predicted.  Just before I went to bed last night, I found out where they were getting their 90 mph predictions: off the stupid local radio stations.  Now I've been aware for quite awhile that the so-called "news" on radio and TV tends to be somewhat overblown, but come on!  If they aren't using information from NWS to make their predictions, what are they doing, just making up whatever sounds spectacular?  Trouble is, after listening to these sources over the years, I've gotten a skewed idea of what various conditions should feel like.  25-30 knot winds should just seem like a fresh breeze if you base things on what the TV/Radio weathermen tell you.

Awhile ago, we bought a Kestrel wind monitor so we could start getting a feel for what various wind speeds feel like.  Putting names to faces, so to speak.  I was so disappointed the first couple of times I used it because, even though it seemed to me like it was blowing pretty darn hard (what I would have estimated as 20-25 knots), I couldn't get the wind gauge to read much over 12-13 knots except during the gusts when it might almost reach 20.

Yesterday we were predicted to get 30-35 knot winds with gusts to 50 (later amended to 60) knots.  I checked the NWS site today. They have weather stations along the coast and one is about a mile from where we're moored.  It's sitting on a sandy knoll above South Beach where the south jetty starts.  So the weather there is going to be very similar to here although the weather station's wind speeds will probably be a bit higher.  The weather station readings are recorded hourly and posted to the internet.  So here's how yesterday shaped up:

MM	DD	TIME (PST)		WDIR	WSPD kts	GST kts
11	17	7:00 am		SW	15	18
11	17	6:00 am		S	18	23
11	17	5:00 am		S	19	21
11	17	4:00 am		SW	19	22
11	17	3:00 am		SSW	23	30
11	17	2:00 am		SSW	21	24
11	17	1:00 am		SW	23	25
11	17	12:00 am		WSW	21	25
11	16	11:00 pm		SSW	40	48
11	16	10:00 pm		S	27	34
11	16	9:00 pm		S	32	41
11	16	8:00 pm		S	42	52
11	16	7:00 pm		S	31	36
11	16	6:00 pm		S	38	50
11	16	5:00 pm		S	31	39
11	16	4:00 pm		S	33	37
11	16	3:00 pm		S	29	35
11	16	2:00 pm		S	33	41
11	16	1:00 pm		S	35	40
11	16	12:00 pm		S	32	41
11	16	11:00 am		S	29	33
11	16	10:00 am		S	29	35
11	16	9:00 am		S	30	38
11	16	8:00 am		S	29	34

What does it all mean?  Well, it flat blew yesterday.  Just before I went to bed, a gust came through and heeled the boat 10 degrees to port. And held her there for a few seconds.  Probably would have heeled further but the mooring lines on the starboard side held her.  This is in a protected (well, sort of) harbor.  At times, as I was walking up the dock or across the parking lot, I had to stop and plant myself with both feet to keep from losing my footing.  The boats in the marina were all dancing in their slips.  Tarps were blown off.  Canvas covers were unsnapped by the wind.  I mean it blew!  But look at the recorded wind speeds.  Mostly in the mid-30s (as predicted).  A few excursions over 40 knots but the highest gusts recorded were 50 and 52 knots.  Since 1 knot = 1.15 mph, that's recorded gusts of 57.5 to 60 mph.  A far cry from 90 mph.

So, big deal, what's my point?  My point is, take your TV and Radio weather predictions with several grains of salt.  They seem to cater to the portion of our brain that wants to be able to say we suffered.  Think about it.  When you're talking about the weather with your co-workers, don't you usually relate the report you heard that had the most dire prediction?  When it's cold and 2 weathermen say it's going to get down to 20 and one says it's going to get down to 15, which one do you repeat?  Same thing when it's hot.  We're suffering from weather inflation and as a consequence, when I'm reading my sailing magazines and the writer talks about sailing in 15-20 knots of wind, I have the idea that this is just a gentle breeze.  It's not.  15-20 knots is a fairly stout wind if my Kestrel is to be believed. 

Blew like a sonofagun yesterday

The weather predictions over here on the coast seem to be a lot more accurate than they were in the valley.  For instance, yesterday's prediction called for a 100% chance of rain and 25-30 mph winds slacking off after 6:00 PM.  Well, it didn't rain too much until about 3:30 and then it just opened up and poured.  The wind blew like crazy starting about noon-ish.  It blew 23-32 knots (26.5 - 36.8 mph) with gusts to 41 knots (47 mph).  And then, at 6:30 PM, it was like a switch was flipped.  The wind dropped to a more normal 5-10 knots and the rain slowed down to the occasional smattering.  It blew a few times during the night but all-in-all not so much.  While it was blowing, it was pretty exciting.  The boat rolled and pitched pretty good alongside the dock.  One dock box was blown apart, a few sets of boat steps blew over and I had to fish a couple of crab traps out of the water this morning.

A precursor of what's to come in the next few months.

The vultures are circling but it's not what you think

Fellow children of the 50s and 60s, we've been duped!  All those TV shows we watched where Palladin or Festus or someone was crawling across the desert after the bad guys had pulled some underhanded trick were giving us misinformation.  I'm not talking about the "water in the heart of the cactus" deal.  I fully expect to be able to open a cactus when I'm dying of thirst in the desert and pull out what appears to be a baggy of fresh water.  No, I'm talking about the vultures.  You know, they show the vultures flying around in circles above our hero just waiting for him to die.  The implication being that they could smell death and the their sense of smell was so acute that, once they started to circle, it meant sure death.  Well, the Oregon Coast Aquarium, where I'm volunteering,  is now home to 2 new turkey vultures.  Since we are expected to be able to pass on a little info about the aquariums residents to visitors, the "Bird Department" put on a little enrichment session the other night.  Here are some of the things I learned about vultures:

Our vultures were rescued from a teenager in the midwest who took the chicks out of a nest.  This is, of course, quite illegal and once his folks found out about it, they called the authorities who called a raptor rescue group.  The chicks had already been imprinted by their exposure to humans and so, could never be returned to the wild as they lack the necessary survival skills.  The Aquarium is their new permanent home.

They are brother and sister named Ichabod and Olive and are about 18 months old.  Turkey vultures in captivity live 25-30 years.

They cannot smell impending death.  They can, however, smell dead stuff up to a mile away.  They are one of only two species of birds that can smell.  Their "noses" are built in such a way that they can also tell from which direction the smell is coming.  When you see them circling in the air, they are simply riding the updrafts, looking for food (things that have already dies, not Marshall Dillon on his last legs).  They also can be just playing or gliding around because it's fun.

They are nature's cleaners.  They can eat diseased animals and, because of the strength of their stomach acids will discharge non-diseased poop. Their urine has a high strength uric acid component and they urinate on their legs to kill the pathogens that might be present due to standing in dead carcasses.  Of course, they probably don't know they're doing this.  They just know the pee feels nice and cool on their legs and feet.

They've been known to gorge themselves when the opportunity affords.  To the point where they're too heavy to take flight right away.  They can, however, puke up what they ate to lighten their loads if necessary.  They also puke on themselves if they get too stressed.  When you come across some roadkill with a bunch of vultures lunching on it, slow down!  These guys are not crows and can't take off as quickly to avoid getting smacked as crows can.  And you don't want a 6 lb. vulture with a 6' wingspan coming through your windshield.

The Cherokee Nation calls the "Peace Eagles" because they are as big as eagles but never kill anything.  Given a choice, they prefer fresher rather than older dead meat and prefer dead vegetarians to dead carnivores.

They're family-oriented: live together and share a roost tree; monogamous; and will share a carcass with each other.

Have been recorded flying between 15 and 45 miles per hour.

A group of vultures is called a "venue".  A large group of flying vultures is called a "kettle".

Why does an aquarium have vultures?  Because, although technically not shore birds or even sea birds, they do live around the coast and are frequently spotted on the beach dining on dead seagulls so they're part of the overall aquatic/estuarial environment.  And besides, we had a space where a previous Plover display was.  The Plovers didn't work out very well.

So, turkey vultures are my new favorite bird. Well, not for eating.  That honor goes to the actual turkey.