Hearing Yourself in Someone Else's Book: GOD BLESS Amazon!

My adventure began while unpacking a bin of stuff from our recent move to Southern California.  I came across one of favorite gazettes - my Kindle DX.  My wonderful wife bought it for me years ago, so I was sure it wouldn't work.  I loved this device for two reasons: first it has a free 3G world wide modem built right into it and secondly because it has the capability of text to speech.  The Kindle DX will read just about any book to you from your Amazon collection. As a slow reading dyslexic really appreciated this feature.

Well, I had long ago lost the email account which tied to the Amazon Prime credentials on the device.  Hoping just to get the thing working I de-registered the device and did a factory reset.  After numerous attempts and trying the manual update (just in case you need it - https://www.amazon.com/gp/help/customer/display.html?nodeId=201504450) I had not luck in getting it back on Amazon.

With nothing left to loose I called Amazon and after proving I was who I was, for my new account I explained the problem to their tech support person.  She was awesome; she immediately looked into my old account.  I had a ton of books on the old account and only used the new one to order items and watch Amazon prime movies. (I believe Amazon Prime has the largest collection of sailing movies on the web.). By the end of the conversation the help at Amazon had refunded me my $99 from my new account, shut it down, established my new credentials on my old account and in less then 30 minutes I was $99 richer, had all my old ebooks, and my Kindle DX was working!

Once the Kindle DX was finished the first book that popped up was Breaking Seas: An overweight, middle-aged computer nerd buys his first boat, quits his job, and sails off to adventure, by Glenn Damato.  The book is an auto-biography of his life leading up him sailing off into the horizon, and then becomes of travel log of his adventures.

As a Cold War veteran, Glenn found himself in the.technology industry during Silicon Valley's boom.  Much like me, he came just on the tail end of it, so neither of us had Bill Gates like wealth.  Much like myself Glenn read everything on the web about blue water sailing, naval architecture, storm tactics, etc.  He'd become a knowledge sponge soaking up as much knowledge of seamanship as his cranium would allow.  Once again, like your truly purchase a classic boat in much need of repair. Glenn chronicles his next two years of gaining experience sailing in the Bay Area while recommissioning the boat for his dream journey.

Through a series of twists and turns he finally set out under the Golden Gate Bridge, With his crew his experiences along the California coast parallel my own recent exploits. I am not going to say anymore on Glenn's adventure because the ending came as a shocker to me:I spoil it for the anyone wanting to read it

Breaking Seas has become one of favorite books, I actually complete the book in four hours cover to cover last Saturday morning.  Glenn's style, the way he handled and solved problems coupled with his writing style make the book a great book on I would highly recommend

Days 10 and 11 Sailing from Portland to San Diego - Arrival

June 5th and 6th of 2017

June 5th Day 10

At midnight I came on watch as we neared Point Conception.  Everything was going smoothly until about 1:30am when I noticed on the AIS we had a large cargo ship about 5 miles away on a collision course with us.  The AIS identified the ship as YM Mandate.  I hailed YM Mandate on the VHF and we shifted to another channel to talk about collision avoidance.  The radio operator on YM Mandate stated he could not see us on radar.  I gave them our position, heading and our bearing to them.  After a brief pause on their side the conversation went like this:

YM Mandate: CarolMarie we can't see you on radar or see you visually.  What do you suggest? Over.

CarolMarie: YM Mandate hold please, over. (I did quick calculations on plotting collision avoidance.)

CarolMarie: YM Mandate I suggest you shift your heading 20 degrees to the west to avoid collision. Please confirm over.

YM Mandate: CarolMarie I confirm we will shift 20 degree to west from our current heading.  Please stand by on this channel until passing over.

CarolMarie: This CarolMarie Standing by. (About 15 minutes pass)

YM Mandate: CarolMarie this is YM Mandate over.

CarolMarie: Please go ahead YM Mandate over.

YM Mandate: CarolMarie are you that small sailboat off to our starboard side about a 1/2 mile away. over.   (I looked at our chart plotter to see, yep its us.)

CarolMarie: YM Mandate I confirm, that is us, over.

YM Mandate: You are a small sailboat, you made us move, over.

CarolMarie: You asked for a suggestion, over.

YM Mandate: Good for you CarolMarie, good night. over.

YM Mandate

We went back to our hailing frequencies and I watched as they disappeared from our screen.  By the next morning we were past Point Conception into the Santa Barbara Channel.

Passing by Point Conception. 

The Santa Barbara Channel was full of fishermen, oil rigs, otters, seals and dolphins. A thick layer of fog surrounded us as we'd pass an oil rig or a fishing boat.

Fishing boat off Santa Barbara

About 2pm our autopilot gave out again, this time the motor stopped working.  We are now on the last one.  

After dinner the third and final autopilot motor failed.  This was odd because two of them failed in calm seas.  With them dead, the sun setting and us approaching the LA basin I didn't want any chance of an accident while hand steering.  We changed the watches to two on switching people every two hours.  This gave each man four on and four off, except for Bill our cook, how had every other shift five off to cook.

June 6th Day 11

I came on watch after midnight to a sea of traffic as we passed the LA basin.  We were now heading eastwardly.  The night was lit in all directions from the city, the ships, and the oil rigs.

Hand steering via compass heading ESE

 For the last few nights a spider has been building a web right above our heads over on the starboard side of the Bimini.  The web building has been a sources of amusement breaking up the boredom of the watch.  

Spider

I went off watch at 4:00am, when I woke up it was late into my watch.  Both Paul and Bill let me sleep in, it was about 9:20am when I woke up to a misty rainy fog.

Foggy conditions

The weather cleared up through the day, winds built back up and we were off to sailing again.  Light swells and no waves.

Southern California Sailing

So-Cal Sailing

As luck would have it the dolphins came back at us.  They would come in lined up parallel to the boat, heading direction into us, pushing fish along the way.

We continued motor sailing for a while when we came upon Warship 53 in the distance.  We stay far away from him trying to keep out of their way.

As we got near Point Loma, the Warship turned into the channel for the bay and we thought they'd be pulling in soon.  We had turned off the motor to save fuel and were under sail.

Warship 53 in the distance heading into San Diego Bay

We cut Point Loma close as we were on a heading that would round an underwater buoy at near the end of the point.  The underwater buoy marked the edge of a sewer line that we didn't want to interfere with it.

Point Loma right before our turn.

After a brief dialogue with the Navy and their "warships" we rounded Point Loma to come into the San Diego Bay.

Rounding Point Loma.

Immediately upon turning into the bay we were faced with a Pineapple Ship from Dole.  

June 7th Departing Crew

Day 9 Sailing from Portland to San Diego

Postscript [During the night of the 3rd our Autopilot control unit began acting flakey.  I replace the control unit, we had a spare one. The wires from the connector plugging the unit into the sidewall of the boat had become exposed create a periodic electrical open.]

June 4th of 2017

At midnight I came on watch and decided we should pull into the next harbor on the way to check everything and get the crew some rest from the last few days.  Looking through the charts the bast place to pull in was Morro Bay.

Morro Bay is seen from the water by two geographic features.  The first is Morro Rock, standing 576 feet tall ir is a volcanic plug.  Morro Rock is now a historic land mark with a walking park surrounding it.  The other feature is the three large smoke stacks coming from the old PGE power plant.  The plant was shut down about four years ago and it's unknown what they will do with it.

Morro Rock

Looking into Morro Bay

There is a Shell fuel dock, and almost no transient moorage so it was going to be a short stop over.  I took the watch from midnight until we got into Morro Bay.  We approached the bay's bar roughly about how 6:30am as the sun came up.  At the same time the fog came in making it hard to find the red and white bar marker.  As we found it raising out of the fog came a fishing boat a 1/8th mile off our bow.  Both of us turning to port avoided a collision.  The swells were still large, as we approached the next red buoy.  Coming into the bar saw both sides of the bar markers keeping to port as the depth and current favored that side.  Once across the bar a series of small buoys supported a dredge pipe which seemed to surround the inlet past the bar.  It was impossible to find our way through and we nearly aborted this beautiful harbor.   We finally found the channel, and motored our way up to the fuel dock.

The fuel dock was 20 foot or so above the water, so docking was a little bit of a challenge with the current moving through the bay.  We finally tied up and we were there before they'd open.  About 7:30am the operator opened the fuel dock.  We topped off the fuel, water, added oil and checked all systems.

Looking down from the fuel dock by the ladder.

Paul getting ready to work his magic on the engine.

One thing that had happened was the clamps holding the transmission heat exchanger had fallen off and no one had noticed.  We'd noticed it a few days back and repaired it temporarily with cable ties.  Since we were in the small town, Bill volunteered to pick up oil as well as hose clamps needed for a proper fix.

Heat Exchanger on the back of the engine for the transmission

Paul disappeared for a walk while I waited on the boat.  Later he appeared with a large brown paper bag.  Once we got the new clamps on, we got underway.  Paul then announced he gotten biscuits and gravy from the local cafe as a surprise breakfast.  Bill warmed them up and it was a nice meal after crossing the Morro River Bar back to sea.

Shortly after crossing the bar.

Conditions through the day were much better then before, but the swells continued through the day and into the night.

Swells on the way to Point Conception

As dusk set in the Autopilot motor basically fell apart on the cockpit floor.  I picked up the pieces and brought out a replacement. It continued to work as we went on to Point Conception in hopes of calmer seas and nice wind.

Days 6, 7, and 8 Sailing from Portland to San Diego

June 1st, 2nd and 3rd of 2017

June 1st Day 6.

I haven't seen our stowaways at all.  I hope they made it back to land safely.  We approached Cape Mendocino thinking it was going to be the hardest part of the trip.  The cape is the farthest western part of California, a place where three tectonic plates come together.  The wave were suppose to be high and confused seas as the sea floor raises due to this geologic intersection of plates.  When we passed it the swells and wave basically hadn't change since we'd left Oregon.

About 3:00pm we listened to the weather reports.  Predictions were that through the evening the wind would grow to 30-35 knots gusting to 60 knots.   I told the crew we should likely take down the sails before I turn in at 8:00pm.  We had an early dinner of chicken, green beans and salad.  I took a quick nap.

When I awoke from the nap Bill and Paul were sitting in the cockpit, sun was setting, and seas were small.  We were sailing well and making good time.  I asked Bill and Paul about taking down the sails.  We all came to the realization we made had e avoided the weather predicted or it was wrong.   I went to bed.

June 2nd and 3rd Days 6 and 7.

If you've ever thought about doing something, then talked yourself out of it, only later to learn your original decision was the correct one.  I have heard that called an idio-second. I should have heeded the weather report warnings.  When I came up on watch at midnight, winds we're howling, 30 knots dead behind us.  The seas had gathered and shift WSW, 15-18 feet tall, with about every tenth wave coming from due west, slapping the boat like a mother how's child cursed for the first time.

With and course adjustment under these conditions we broach in the following seas.

I knew the waves waves were as tall as they were dude the height of the Bimini and the TV antenna on it.  They stand at 15ft from the top of the water.   When I came to take over for Bill I was cresting waves a couple of feet above our Bimini....

It was too hard to turn now, so we rode out the storm.  The press last two days, pushing us out to sea, as far as 148miles offshore in the end.