September 24, 2013

If you look up through the fog, ladies and gentlemen, you will see the Golden Gate Bridge.  If you look ahead you will see Alcatraz Island and if you look slightly to your right you will see the America’s Cup start line….Welcome to San Fransisco! 

Our first glimpse of Golden Gate Bridge

Improving weather at the Golden Gate Bridge

That’s about what it was like for us when we arrived into the bay city on Saturday, September 21 just at 12:00 noon.  Our trip log registered 1001 nautical miles as we approached the huge looming orange structure so well known throughout the world.  We motored under the Golden Gate Bridge with torrential rains pounding Falcon VII, rains which broke the all time records for one day’s rain accumulation!  What a way to enter but we made it and then anchored in Aquatic Park, which is a man-made semicircle anchorage right downtown.  Entering and anchoring was made all the more challenging as we had to dodge swimmers at the narrow entrance into Aquatic Park.  Jim and I peered out through the rain looking for swimmers, unsure if we spotted one or if it was a round bouy floating on the surface.  Sure enough it was a swimmer near a mid-channel marker flag joined by two other swimmers.  They didn’t seem to mind if it was pouring either. LOL!

Alcatraz

Aquatic Park with Falcon VII and Avant

We were thrilled to anchor next to Rob and Debra from Avant, who had arrived a couple of days before us.  Since we arrived an hour before the next start of the America’s Cup International Sailing Championship we decided we HAD to watch it from Mason Point Hill Park next to Aquatic Park.  We both rowed our dinghies to shore, secured them to lamp posts running along the front of the maritime museum and hiked up the hill with hundreds of other spectators. The increasing wind blew the dark foreboding clouds away giving us a spectacular view of the Golden Gate Bridge and the start of the race.  New Zealand was ahead of the US 8 to 3 but the US boat (Oracle) took the race bring the score 8 to 4.  It was exciting to be part of it, as we didn’t expect the America’s Cup to still be on when we arrived. 

Neck and neck racing.

The American boat, Oracle.

The New Zealand boat, Emirates.

After the race we hopped into a cab and heading to the overwhelming Apple store to purchase our first ever Ipad.  That was an experience in itself!!  The store is massive with dozens of associates helping multiple people at once. There are no cash registers or sales counters.  Each associate has an iphone to do sales transactions.  After we adjusted to the feeling of being in a large crowd we were assisted by Shannon who helped us get our new ipad set up.  Wow!  We have finally moved into the new century!  We had Chinese dinner to celebrate the Moon Festival with Rob’s partner, Debra, who immigrated from China 10 years ago.   She is a CGA who finished her master’s at Malaspina College in Nanaimo before moving to Vancouver.  Rob and Debra are a great couple and Rob has been to San Fransisco many times on business and really knew his way around, which we took full advantage of.

We awoke on Sunday to sunshine and warmer weather.  After a stroll around the world famous Fisherman’s Wharf we headed back up the hill to watch two more America’s Cup races before hosting a potluck dinner on Falcon VII for Rob and Debra and Martha and Doug from Thea who arrived earlier in the afternoon.  We headed to bed, agreeing to meet and watch the next two races together on Monday.

We all rowed to shore at noon and climbed the hill again to have a picnic snack lunch before watching some spectacular racing. Oracle, the Cup Defenders, did not give up and were cheered on by the American’s around us to win two more races, bringing the score to New Zealand Emirates to 8 and US Oracle 6.  How exciting for us to be here!!!

The rest of Monday was so much fun!  Rob, our unofficial tour guide, suggested we purchase day tickets for the San Fransisco cable cars.

Turning the cable car around at the end of the line.

These cable cars are the only ones in the entire world!  What a blast it was as the cable car climbed up and up and up over the hills of San Fransisco then down the other side right into the financial and fashion districts. 

Amazing architecture in San Fransisco.

The sidewalks were really wide and crowded by business people finishing up their day, easily distinguished from the hundreds of casual tourists looking up at the amazing skyline around us, dazzling stores like Sacs Fifth Avenue, Burberry, Louis Vuitton, etc .  We walked to the US Mint, a building whose columns are made of sandstone from New Castle Island in Nanaimo.

Old San Fransisco Mint.

We got our exercise in the warm afternoon hiking up and down the hills, through Chinatown, from cable car to cable car and into another huge Apple Store before our stomachs started growling.  Rob, using his iPhone, found a little Italian Restaurant near the cable car line and we were off once more chugging our way up the hills on a cable car with dozens of others looking all around us at the densely populated city.  The Italian restaurant was a real treat. We were greeted at the door and ushered through the cramped restaurant, along a back corridor and up a set of rickety steps to a small mezzanine level where we were seated and warmly greeted.  We ate ‘family style’ sharing five mouth-watering dishes, appetizers and unlimited amounts of fresh Italian bread, olive oil and balsamic vinegar.  Eventually we made our way back into the cooling evening and grabbed the next cable car heading back towards the waterfront. I found myself standing on the outside at the front of the cable car with both hands holding tightly to the skinny pole as cars passed us inches away. What a rush!  We ended our evening with a stroll to a bar that invented Irish Coffee, another San Fransisco treat for sure.  As we pulled our dinghies back down the sand we all had smiles on our faces, happy to have spent a spectacular day together.

Tuesday was the day we wanted to watch the America’s Cup from the water, with us all arriving at Thea around 10:00.   Anther single hander, Francis, had arrived the night before. Martha and Doug het met Francis in Drakes Bay and were relieved to see him since he had no engine, carried no radio and didn’t even have radar on his 32’ sailboat.  He was a very nice young man and we were happy to have him along for the day.  Being a week day there were far fewer boats and yachts anchored out to watch the race.  In fact we were so early we were the first boat to anchor.  We all contributed food towards lunch and enjoyed a bit of this and that while the winds continued to increase into the low 20’s.   The two races were spectacular!  Oracle easily took the first race, making it New Zealand 8 and US 7.  Then the kiwi’s got a great start in the race and it looked like they were going to win and take the championship until the 3rd mark when Oracle took off like a race horse and outdistanced them hugely to take yet another race, tying everything up at 8 wins a piece.  What an exciting time it was, only to be outdone when we motored back into the windy anchorage, only to find out that Avant had dragged anchor!  Jim, Rob and our young friend Francis jumped into Francis’ sailing dinghy and dashed to Avant, which was bumping into a large metal bouy tied to an historical tall ship tied to a long pier.  Doug, Martha, Debra and I anchored Thea while watching the three guys re-anchor Avant successfully.  Thankfully, Avant had very little damage from banging against the metal bouy.  By this time the winds were gusting to over 25 knots in the anchorage so we all said our good byes and headed to our respective boats for a boisterous evening at anchor.  Tomorrow we’ll watch the ninth and final race of the America’s cup from the finish line perspective.  We can hardly wait!

Wednesday we walked to Pier 39 to catch the final America's Cup race.  The American boat, Oracle, won the race much to Jim's pleasure and the dismay of some of the rest of us.  This was an international sporting event at an incredible level and it was a once in a lifetime experience to be there.  We went to the after-race celebration and awards ceremony and it was a really emotional time for many of the people there.

Now we are sitting in a café in Haight Ashbury, the centre of the 1969 free love culture.  There are still a lot of interesting and trippy people here.  Tomorrow we'll sail across the bay to Sausalito and see what new adventures await.

Wed, Sept 19, 2013

We’re so close to San Francisco that we can almost hear the cable cars!  Just kidding…we’re still about 6 hours away but getting there.  We pulled into Bodega Bay mid-morning  after a rather boisterous 27 hour ride from Eureka.

We had a great time hanging out in Eureka for five days.  Part of that time was doing boat projects but part of it was also just enjoying ourselves and our fellow cruisers.  We were at the ‘overflow’ dock about a mile further inside the channel from the regular marina. There were no washrooms, laundry, shower facilities but we could use the showers in the rec centre next door so it wasn’t bad at all and closer to the centre of town than the marina.  Not only was Falcon VII tied there but four other cruising buds heading south were on the same dock!  Our little fleet became quite the tourist attraction since there are usually no boats tied there at all, mostly just locals fishing from the docks!  Even the little harbour tour boat pointed out the ‘world travellers’ as it motored by and we would all wave at the people and they’d wave back.  We’re such celebrities!

Harbour cruise of Eureka with tourists checking out our boats

  Lots of Eurekans came by, drawn by all the masts, to see our boats, ask questions about cruising and generally chat.  However, the few locals who usually fished for sharks with weighted nets were not happy with our invasion.  We lucked out in being at the party end of the annual Eureka Gay Pride Parade where a stage was set up with many musical acts performing throughout the cloudy afternoon but the weather didn’t dampen the spirit of the event or the colourful dress of the participants.  This party atmosphere brought even more locals down to check us out.  I invited a dad and four kids into our cockpit so they could see what our sailboat looked like below.  One of the kids said “Dad, it’s bigger than our house!”  The kids were all very polite and festooned in necklaces, face paint and feathers from the gay pride gathering.  In addition, the annual paddle festival was happening on the other side of the rec centre.  Dozens of kayaks, paddle boards, canoes and some cardboard wanna-be boats cruised up and down the channel all day.  They also had a small stage and live music so we were surrounded.  That evening a bunch of us had an excellent dinner out in an upscale looking Japanese / Italian restaurant, followed by creamy gelato and flavourful ice cream cones before our stroll back to the docks.  We got to know our way around Eureka by foot, that’s for sure!  The town was full of murals and heritage buildings but there was also the sad decay of bygone days with the rusty locomotives, empty storefronts and a homeless shelter for those less fortunate individuals.

Old town Eureka

Days gone by

Watch out for the flying bears!

We were going to leave Eureka on Monday at dawn along with Martha and Doug from Thea and Rob and Debra from Avant.  We had all discussed the trip the night before and agreed to get up at 5:30 a.m. and leave the docks by 6:15 a.m.  Around 5:45 a.m. there was knock on our hull and it was Doug with his updated ipad weather report.  After a few minutes of discussion and more internet research on Rob’s iphone, we all decided that the forecast was calling for quite high winds and it wasn’t prudent to leave, knowing it would be between 30 and 35 hours until we made it to Bodega Bay or even more hours to San Francisco.  So we all retreated to Thea for morning coffee and muffins and decided that a road trip was in order instead – to see the mighty redwoods in the Redwood National Forests 25 miles to the north and 40 miles to the south of Eureka. We rented a 7 passenger van to hold the six of us and Cameron, a young single handed sailor taking his boat, Roughneck, south by himself.  He had arrived at the docks around 9:00 a.m. after helming all night from Crescent City and, though tired, was game to join us ‘oldies’ for a land adventure.  After meandering through town to the car rental location we drove north, looking at the rugged coastline from a different perspective.  We stopped at the National Redwood Park Information Office just off highway 101 where most of our group checked out the internal displays and information kiosk while Jim and I headed down the sandy, brush lined path that led to a long, sweeping beach with cresting waves and miles of soft sand.  That was Jim’s first time on a California beach and 40 years since I was last leaving sandy footprints in California myself.   The road trip was full of lively conversation and laughter! We had a great time together and saw some pretty enormous trees. 

Jim, Doug and Cameron at the "Big Tree"

Guess who!

One of the two famous drive through trees - Rob behind the wheel.

The slightly less famous 'lean on' tree.

We ate lunch at a very typical 60’s greasy spoon restaurant next to the highway with the best selection of homemade pies you have ever seen and then ended the day with a big grocery shop – having a vehicle was priceless for that.  The clouds and fog had vanished for the day and, though not terribly warm, we sure appreciated the sunshine.  The van rental, gas and paying to ‘drive through a redwood tree’ worked out to $21 per person for the day.  Well worth it for sure…..So we finally left Eureka yesterday morning with Thea right behind us.  Rob and Debra on Avant decided to wait another day, so we’ll meet up with them in San Francisco.

We left the docks at sunrise heading for the Humbolt Bay bar 45 minutes away.  Within 5 minutes we heard the Humbolt Bay Coast Guard asking for assistance for a sailboat that had run out of fuel just inside the Humbolt Bay bar.  Jim looked at me and I looked at him, knowing we were the only boat around and that we had to help if we could, even if it meant we missed our opportunity to cross the bar, forcing us to wait another day.  We immediately radioed the Coast Guard that we were on our way and would arrive in a few minutes to assist with giving gas to the sailboat, which had dropped its anchor in 24 feet of water.  As we motored towards it we realized it was a single hander we had met in Neah Bay, one who was not well prepared to go down the coast and had already caused problems for other cruisers in Neah Bay when his anchor dragged down on theirs.  I grabbed our full dinghy gas can and carefully passed it over to him while Jim backed us off.  He said he would return the gas can in San Francisco but we told him to empty it right then and give it back. (We didn’t want to see him in San Francisco!)  With a quick thanks (and no offer to pay us) he passed the gas can back and we motored quickly towards the Humbolt Bay Bar.  Though not as big as the Columbia Bar, it was nasty none-the-less.  The first four hours of the trip were not very pleasant as we motored into steep seas and building winds but once we turned south the wind was coming more on our stern quarter, making sailing conditions better.  The winds built all day and evening to about 30 knots but when you’re on a passage you have to keep going, even if conditions do deteriorate.   And now I must say a BIG THANKS to Doug and Martha from Thea!  Our trip was all the more pleasant as Doug and Martha just happened to have a spare actuator

The two actuators from our two boats

identical to our broken one and they lent it to us til San Francisco so we now have a working autopilot again!  What a difference that made because, though we were each still on watch for a few hours at a time, it was easier on our bodies when we were not helming all the time.

We were blessed with a full moon shining brightly all night and sky full of stars and even spotted a couple of whales in the distance haze of sunrise. 

Sunset between Eureka and Bodega Bay

Though I still find night passages a bit challenging it was certainly manageable, especially with a great skipper like Jim letting me take an extra half hour here and there to rest.  In dawn’s early light we could see the rugged northern coastline of California with its rolling hills and treeless terrain.

Bodega Bay is an extremely protected area and we spotted the first glimpses of arid hillsides like we drove through on Monday.  Doug and Martha arrived an hour after us.  They had some rudder difficulties on the way here so we’ll see if we can help them figure it out tomorrow.

Entrance to Bodega Bay

The next day Jim and I took out another port light, scraped off all the old goop and rebidded it, with the hopes that we had finally found the confounded leak.  We took time off in the middle of the day for an afternoon walk around the bay to ‘town’.  Calling it a town is a bit of stretch as there was only a small Remax real estate office, a surf shop, a deli/grocery and a candy/kite store, all located up a hill on a bluff overlooking the bay.  The prices were pretty high so we limited our shopping to an expensive loaf of bread and wandered back down the hill and around the bay again, enjoying the afternoon sun.  We finished re-bedding the port light at dusk and put all the tools away so we could leave for Drakes Bay in the morning.  We realized that San Fransisco was more like 11 hours away so we decided to overnight at  Drakes Bay en route, half way between Bodega Bay and San Fransisco.  The wind was calm and the fog was extremely thick as we waved goodbye to Thea with a promise to connect in San Fransisco.  The channel was very narrow and the fog created ghostly images around us, including a white truck driving beside us that scared Jim because we could barely make out the shape of the land or the road close by.  Jim gave me day ‘off’ from helming and steered all the way to Drakes Bay, entering the wide open south facing bay mid- afternoon.  We tucked into the southwest corner and dropped the anchor as the sun made a very brief appearance.  We were joined in the anchorage by another sailboat called Mystic Island but other than that the place was desolate and deserted.  Carved cliffs and rolling hills with a smattering of buildings edged the sandy embankments around the bay. The only sound through the fog was the grunting and barking of sea lions on the rocky ledge at shore.  We enjoyed a quiet evening, anxious to make our way to San Fransisco in the morning.

Sept 12, 2013  

California!  Warm, sunny, hang ten, surfing dudes….well….not exactly…yet!  We’re in Eureka, which is the largest city in northern California.  The weather here is much like it was along the Oregon coastline – foggy most of the day, if not all day but on the bright side, we don’t need to bother with sunglasses.  We arrived early yesterday afternoon after another overnight passage.

Last time I wrote we were getting ready to leave Astoria, on the northern border of Oregon.   Crossing the Columbia Bar out into the Pacific was, thankfully, uneventful under blue skies and a light breeze.  We motored about 30 miles from shore before turning southward.   As the breeze picked up we were able to fly our spinnaker for a most of the day, hand steering again as we ran out of time to fix our auto helm or figure out our wind vane steering system.   It’s a little more tiring but we managed fine, having hand steered our diesel trawler to Alaska twice!   We sailed under a warm sun all afternoon and evening and I was enthralled by the glorious sunset and simultaneous spotting of a humpback whale, tail gracefully lifting out of the water before it slid under the surface.

Thank goodness for our bright spreader lights, which illuminated the foredeck like we were on stage, for our sail change in the middle of the night.  The seas had picked up and I helmed as Jim made his way forward to take our huge colourful spinnaker down and pack it away.  It takes more time to do things at night as we have our harnesses clipped into tethers, which are then clipped into jack lines which run from bow to stern.  We have a hard and fast rule to NEVER go out of the cockpit at night unless we’re clipped to the jacklines because it’s against the rules to fall overboard!

The sand spit at Coos Bay

By dawn we a few hours from Coos Bay.  We had a royal welcome from cruisers we met in Neah Bay and, after napping the afternoon away we had a great happy hour on Tregoning’s cockpit with a bunch of other cruisers.  The westerly wind whipped through Coos Bay all night and fog loomed near the spit where pelicans looked like aerial bombers diving for food over and over. 

The 'fleet' of cruisers with fish boats in the background

We got lots of exercise while in Coos Bay, met even more cruisers heading south and even took a bus to Walmart about 40 minutes away, where there was no fog!  We heard over the radio that Oregon and California were experiencing record nigh temperatures but you wouldn’t know it along the coast where the fog remained.  Jim explained that the high sitting over Arizona and another high sitting over the Pacific trapped the damp air over the Oregon and California coastlines, causing the lower temperatures and fog.  But we’re not complaining and loving every minute of our journey.

We began our next leg to Eureka on Thursday with the prediction of 10 – 15 knot winds from the southwest, easing in the afternoon before settling down to nothing during the night.  We motored out of the harbour and were met with significantly more wind from the southeast.  Falcon VII took on the challenge and plowed southward like a galloping horse, happy to be free of her docklines.  We discovered a couple of porltight leaks and had towels draped around the cabin catching the worst of the constant drips as we crashed through the waves.  ARG! Another job added to our ‘to do’ list.  The wind didn’t settle down as predicted but we made extremely good time anyway and then...someone turned off the wind, just like that! We put the sails away at dawn and motored directly for the entrance to Eureka.

I was on the helm when we were joined by another tiny puffball sized hitc hhiker that flew right into the cockpit and settled down beside me. 

Our little hitch hiker

 It hopped under the corner of my bright red jacket, around the dodger and then took a snooze in a little recessed area. Jim got a great movie clip.

We motored up the four mile channel into Eureka and Humbolt Bay past two marinas, a seafood processing plant and lots of large public art pieces along the restored waterfront walkways. 


Crossing the bar at Eureka, Ca.

Eureka was significant over 100 years ago around gold rush time for its logging boom, which saw many mills erected along the length of the channel.  The boom brought wealthy people to the area who built large homes, many ornate and colourful with fine details we now equate to heritage status homes. As the logging industry faded significantly the huge mills were demolished and new modern restaurants, a chandlery and recreation centre replaced them.


The back of the Sweeney Performing Arts Centre, Eureka, Ca.

Randall and Alison from Tregoning were already at the marina docks as they had left 12 hours before us.  They were a bit slower than us and had only arrived an hour before we pulled into the slip.  We were greeted with hugs and smiles as they helped us tie up Falcon.  Jim and I had each managed about 4 hours of sleep during the passage and felt considerably more energetic than after other night passages. 

Heritage bed and breakfast, Eureka, Ca.



Heritage home, now restaurant, Eureka, Ca.

We ate a quick lunch, cleaned up Falcon down below, showered at the rec centre next door (great facilities!) and meandered around old town Eureka, admiring the remaining colourful heritage buildings, public art and shops.  Today we must start on boat projects – fixing leaky portlights, looking at our failed auto helm, and handle monthly maintenance.  We’ll stay a couple of days before heading towards San Francisco.   We are very excited to be on this journey and happy to share it with our friends and family.  More in a few days… 



Tuesday Sept 3, 2013 Astoria, Oregon

We made it to the border of Washington and Oregon and are now in Astoria. More on that in a moment.

The last entry we made was while we were in Neah Bay waiting out a few rainy, stormy days, hanging out at anchor and getting to know other cruisers heading south.  Gusts of wind swept through the anchorage off and on each day but we felt safe and secure on Falcon.  Last Thursday seven of us headed to shore in our dinghies and splashed through puddles en route to the Makah Museum and Cultural Centre. The Museum contained an extremely rare collection of little seen aboriginal artifacts which had been preserved in thick mud for five centuries from the oceanside village of Ozette, 15 miles south of Neah Bay. The village was wiped out in the mud slide. In the early 70’s the ocean started eroding the mud, revealing more and more of the culture, carefully revealed with the use of pumps and salt water.  The museum is home of these artifacts, fantastic natural history exhibits, replicas of dugout canoes, woven baskets, tools, and a replica of a long house.  Later that day we visited a Dutch couple who had been cruising around the world for 13 years but we had to cut our visit short as we were due for appies on Tregoning.  Such a busy social calendar!

The weather improved greatly by Friday afternoon.  We readied Falcon – put the dinghy on the foredeck, outboard on its bracket, ensured everything was stowed properly and headed to bed early.  We pulled up anchor before dawn last Saturday and cleared the breakwater at Neah Bay, as the sun came up, heading for Cape Flattery and the wide open ocean.   We motored for hours before the wind grew enough to put sails up and then we had a fantastic afternoon and evening cruising southwest.  We were over 30 miles out at sea when we had our first flying hitch hiker, a beautiful little yellow breasted bird that circled us a few times and finally perched on our life ring for a few seconds.  Later we crossed paths with a large pod of gray sided dolphins but they were clearly on a mission and not interested in playing.



As dusk arrived we were settling into our routine of 3.5 hour watches for each of us. That gave the ‘off watch’ time to rest and get a little sleep.  Unfortunately our routine was soon thrown off when the autopilot started acting up.  We disengaged it and began hand steering through the night when we dropped the sails and started motoring.  An orange crescent moon rose slowly in the sky to the east as we made our way south, using both our chart plotter and the stars to steer by.  The stars were spectacular and the Milky Way so clearly visible it felt like I could touch it. I spotted two streaking lights underwater beside the boat – two dolphins checking us out!  Towards dawn the southeast wind picked up considerably making conditions somewhat uncomfortable until we raised the sails, steadying the boat immediately.  We soon realized that we did not want to spend three more days slamming into the 25 knot headwinds.  We tacked onto starboard and headed for the Columbia River and Astoria .

The Columbia River Bar in a very peaceful state

We had to sail around 70 miles back towards the Washington coastline and I must admit that I was happy to see the distant rolling hills appear.  By late afternoon we were approaching the Columbia River Bar, a stretch of water that demands respect and extremely precise navigation, often under treacherous conditions. Because of the extreme conditions (mostly in winter) of the Columbia River Bar it is used by the US Coast Guard as a training ground for life saving exercises.  We knew this and were both feeling nervous as we approached the first of many aids to navigation.  The Columbia River, over 900 miles long, leads to Portland and is used as a major import and export route  for freighters with as many as 4,000 crossing the bar yearly.
Our passage of the bar was fairly benign, just a little rolly but not bad as we motored past three huge freighters, a tug and barge, numerous sports fishermen and a very fast US Coast Guard cutter before making our way into the marina at Astoria, 10 miles inside the bar.

So we took Monday ‘off’ to rest and recover from our 38 hour passage and spent today taking in some of the local sights.  We hopped on the great little 100 year old tourist trolley,

its whistle blowing as it made its way through the old town and along the active waterfront.  We spent the afternoon exploring town, the very informative Maritime Museum and touring the “Columbia”, a retired light house ship that was anchored off the Columbia River Bar from 1950 - 1979.  We’ve enjoyed Astoria and want to come back this way by land sometime to explore the length of the Columbia River.  Our next three days will be spent working on the never ending list of projects including trying to fix the autopilot and setting up our wind vane steering system so that, hopefully, we can avoid having to hand steer to our next port. 

This display shows actual conditions the Coast Guard face at the Columbia Bar in winter. 

By Saturday morning we expect to be pushing off again heading south along the Oregon Coast.  Depending on conditions we’ll either stop in at Newport or Coos Bay.