Tawodi Sailing Adventures

The Tall-Ship Lady Washington is in Puget Sound for part of her summer tour.  She is the Tall-Ship ambassador for the State of Washington.  I am filling the role of Captain for the month of July and will be stopping in different ports along the way.  I have picked up the ship in Olympia and that is where we are now.  On wednesday we leave for Seattle and will be on lake Union for the fourth of July, in fact we will be firing the cannons as part of the celebration.  After Seattle, we’ll take the boat up to Blaine, just at the Canadian border.  After Blaine we go to Bellingham and I get off the ship there on the 24th of July.  I’ve been associated with this organization for about 8 years now and I always enjoy operating the vessel.  There is nothing quite like manuvering a square-rigged ship through a cannon battle.  We travel in company with the Hawaiian Chiefton so we always have someone to play with.  We provide sail training for our volunteer crew and maritime education for school children and adult passengers.  Both vessels are owned by the Gray’s Harbor Historical Seaport Authority held in public trust by the city of Aberdeen and Washington State.  If you would like to see more the Seaport maintains a website and there is an unofficial but well run site at ladywashington.org.  If you think you might enjoy something like this come see us for a day or volunteer for a tour of duty.  It is only $500.00 dollars for two weeks before the mast.  We’ll feed you and give you a bunk and after two weeks of training you can stay for as long as you wish to volunteer at no additional charge. If you see us on the water be sure to say AAARRRRRRRRR!

Abby has failed in her goal of circumnavigating.  Once failure has occured it is easy to claim you knew it all along and many, many people have jumped on this band-wagon.  I cannot walk down the street without being stopped by someone wanting to talk about it.  It is a little frustrating as my only association was to give her good advice which she ignored.  My dentist always tells me to floss, but I still don’t, who’s fault is that?  Did I see this coming?  No and Yes.  The whole point of advising was to help her find success, if she doesn’t follow the recommendations, then I can see why it didn’t work.  I don’t really know what to say about it at this point, so I’m going to use the words of others.  First is Kathleen who sent me a nice e-mail saying;

“People have walked up to you and said- “Well, what do you think of your girl now?”

It’s a jab, a poke in the ribs for a moment’s support given to Abby Sunderland, a girl you took on as an individual.  You afforded her a respect few others have the hubris to consider, but you, perhaps, because you remember 16 as something other than childhood, did just that.  You took Abigail Sunderland on as her own person.

That was your failing and your success.  In the brevity of time spent with her you had no way to comprehend all the manipulation, all the merchandising, all the selling of Her; Abby Sunderland, as Product.  You talked to the person while the marketing circus minced along in the background.  You focused on her as the individual about to attempt the spiritual and physical gain that IS the act of sailing round the world south of humanity.  That was your success.

Never apologize for that.

They asked advise and you gave it.  And they ignored and now the boat drifts alone in the Southern Indian Ocean.  She was never ‘your girl’, she was a person you treated as a sailor without understanding that she was, first and foremost, a product, a piece of merchandise in the Sunderland Catalog.

When people walk up to you and ask you what you think of ‘your girl’ all you can do is shrug and admit you got taken.  You thought you were dealing with sailors only to discover you were dealing with an advertisment aimed at culling as many dollars as possible.

Even if it meant Abby lost her life.

O.K., that’s what I think.  Call it a letter from a friend who knows what it means to close the circle.”

Thank you for those words Kathleen.

I remember Moitesseir saying something to the effect of “Those who attempt to sail around the world for profit or fame are doomed to failure.”

While we’re at it, I’ll throw a few more quotes your way.

Francis Stokes- “The sea finds out everything you did wrong”

Uffa Fox- “You must at all times remember that the power of the sea is greater than anything else on earth; and that although many fleets have sailed over it, not one has conquered it or harnessed it, and no one ever will.  Remember too, that like fire, the sea is a good friend but a bad master, so you must never, never allow yourself to get into a position where the sea takes control”.

Alain Gerbault- “Adventure means risking something.  And it is when we are doing that, that we know what a splendid thing life is and how splendidly it can be lived.  The man who never dares never does.  The man who never risks never wins.  It is far better to venture and fail than lie on the hearth rug like a sleepily purring cat.  Only fools laugh at failure.  Wise men laugh at the lazy and the too contented, and at those who are so timid they dare undertake nothing”

Tuesday, June 1st, I became another year older and am now 39.  I have a good friend, Jano, who shares my birthday and this year was her 60th, so we had a party for her on the Saturday before the 1st at the Outboard Boating Club on Shelter Island.  The crowd included many members of the now dis-banded EYC (Eichenluab Y.C.), including Carl himself.  Arne, Jack, Mark, Steve, etc al.., there must have been 30-50 people.  It was a good gathering.  Kathleen was at the party too and we were able to spend some time together and commune.  Kathleen just moved into a new place and asked me to help her shop and build furniture on the coming Friday.

Tuesday itself was a day of eating.  I had breakfast with a group of friends in the morning at the “Point Break”.  Later in the day, Fritz and Richard took me to lunch at the “Brigantine”.  I rode my motorbike in the afternoon and hooked up with my friends in Alpine; Scott, Kelly, Miranda and Coral.  Scott and Kelly and I rode off together and stopped by a bar, for more eating and drinking.  Later I had a home-cooked meal and was even able to take a hot bath, which is always a treat for me.

Another breakfast, this time in P.B. with my friend Ann Marie.  I can totally see why people begin to gain weight when they get older, everyone wants to feed you!

Dispite their efforts, there is still no fat on me.  39 years old and no hint of a beer-belly, of course, I don’t drink beer, which I’m sure must help.

The following Friday, I spent the day helping Kathleen shop for home furnishings at Great News and IKEA.  In  the evening I worked on assembling the furniture while Kathleen made us dinner.  Some people are challenged and frustrated by IKEA puzzles, me, I love that kind of thing. 

Saturday I rode mostly around the bay on my bicycle with my friend Michelle, who lives on her beautiful Bristol Channel Cutter near me in the mooring field.  We used the ferry to get over to Coronado, and later the Trolley to get back up from Chula Vista.

The next day, Sunday, I did the same ride again, only this time with Kathleen and in the opposite direction.  We rode down to Chula Vista and met up with Brian, who just moved into his new Condo.  We admired his place, then we all rode out together for the silver strand.  Brian turned around when we got near Fiddler’s cove and Kathleen and I continued on to the the Ferry-landing, where we boarded the ferry for the return to the mainland.

June 26th marks the one year anniversary of our return from circumnavigating the planet.  It has taken most of the year, but we seem to be recovering our friendship and reiterating what we mean to the other, which is a lot.  We each care deeply for the other, and it feels very nice to be friendly again.  I do love her.

On June 26th of this year, I should be up in the Puget Sound.  The Gray’s Harbor Historical Seaport has asked me once again to come up and drive the tall-ship “Lady Washington”.  It’s been a few years since my last tour with them and I’m looking forward to it.  I plan to drive up on my motorbike in just less than two weeks and will be gone for the month of July.  I pick the ship up in Olympia and will leave it in Bellingham 4 weeks later.  It will be the standard tour, with education programs and cannon battles between her and the “Hawaiian Chiefton”.

Otherwise than that, live is good.  I took my sailing dingy out into the bay yesterday afternoon to cheer on and watch the “beer-can” races.  Kathleen was racing on a Oslen 34′ called “Buzz Lightyear” and they looked good at the weather mark, although K. said they had some issues at the other end of the course.  It was fun to see them go by.

Yesterday I also got to dive to the sea floor to retrieve an expensive part that someone else dropped over.  They looked for it for a while and gave up, so I said I’d go get it, and I did.  For some reason, I’ve alway been successful on those kind of missions and I was cocky enough to virtually guarantee success before I even got in, so I was happy that it worked out.

Summer is here, in San Diego that means June Gloom.  It is foggy and overcast all morning long.  This should be over by the time I return from the “Lady”

I hope all is well with you and yours.

Be well, have fun!

The outer waters from Cabo San Lucas to San Fransisco can be punishing, especially for those wishing to go up the coast.  I flew down to La Paz with my friend Jeff of the sailing vessel “Tika” and once there met with the rest of the crew, Mike and Linda from the vessel “Aquavit”.  We took a 38 foot Catamaran up to S.F., but not before loading it with fuel and food.  I purchased a number of 50 litre plastic containers for additional diesel, as the boat’s own tank was small.  We stocked the larder from the C.C.C. grocery store and we were off like a prom dress.

Uneventful 25 hour motor-boat ride down to Cabo from La Paz.  Hot weather, warm water, dolphins, all the stuff they write about in the brochures.  We topped the fuel in Cabo and had an ice-cream break at the fuel dock, then around the corner just before sunset.  By the time the Sun went down, we had 25 knots on the nose, the prevailing noserly.  And cold.  The wind direction was unforgiving and the velocity varied from 15 to 25 most of the way up to San Diego.  The cold just got colder.

We did stop for fuel in Turtle bay.  They’ve got it down so well, we were out of there inside half an hour.  We arrived at Turtle bay around 0930 Sunday morning and were met at the enterance by a panga who informed us that the fuel barge near the anchorage could accomodate us.  They even had fenders and lines all ready to go, saving us from digging in the cockpit lockers.  We took on our 125 gallons or so and departed.  We remained well offshore for the bulk of the passage, only closing with land for Turtle bay and again when we arrived in San Diego.

We cleared Customs late and then rafted up to my boat on its mooring in Commercial basin, but not before dropping Jeff off on his own boat.  The next morning we collected Jeff and went to the Fuel dock.  Topped off diesel, propane and water and went to San Diego Plastics to by a new piece for the Head door, which broke enroute.  By mid-day we were back at sea and bound for the home stretch to San Fran.  The wind, however, had other plans and smacked us down in the Santa Barbara channel, so we ducked into Santa Barbara for 3 days.

While there, we ran into many friends, some of whom were blown in also.  Ken Roper, the General was there, on his way up to do yet another Single-handed Transpac race, his 11th officially, 12th unofficially (One year he became frustrated with the race commitee and sailed to Hanalie without their sanction).  This race only happens once every other year, and all his haven’t been uninterupted, so he’s been doing this race for over 30 years.

I also ran into a group of old friends who live in the area.  John Paine, Matt Ridge and Daniel Bean are all former employees of the Santa Barbara sailing center and I know them from those days.  We all went out to a show one night, then returned to John’s boat to have him sing and play his guitar until early hours while we all enjoyed ourselves.  The next day Daniel took me for a back-country hike and then to a Tavern with a funky band.  I got down with my bad self on the dance floor and had a great time.  Despite all this distraction, I still managed to replace the broken head door, repair the broken dingy davit, service the engines and top the oil, fill the fuel again and so on.

Finally Monday dawned calm and both Ken and I decided to go for it.  We both left in the morning and motored as fast as we could toward Pt. Conception.  By 3 pm the headwinds were gusting to 35 but it didn’t stop us from making it to Coho, where we anchored in the lee of Goverment point.  At 0200, Tuesday morning, the wind was down to less than 10 and we weighed the anchor and got underway.  We saw a few puffs over 25 just past Pt. Conception, but the wind soon abated and actually became a slight tailwind later in the day.  With such a clear weather window, we motored non-stop the rest of the way, arriving at Richmond Marina Bay around 4pm on Wednesday.  The owner came in the evening and we settled up and went to the rental car outlet at the airport.  We were on the road by 9pm and I drove us straight through to San Diego.  We stopped early on for dinner at a Carl’s Jr, then only once more for gas.  We arrived in San Diego just after 4 am, having hauled ass.  I had the cruise control on 85 and often exceeded that as the road was nearly empty, even through L.A.

Now I’m sitting on the boat in standby mode, which is always a little hard for me.  I have to return the rental car this evening, but planned to us it for some errands today.  The only trouble is I had Jeff move the car to the parking lot last night after we unloaded our bags, while I rowed out and retrieved his dingy, and he did not return the keys to me.  Now I’ve spent half the day looking for Jeff, who does not have a phone, so I can get the keys back.  Let’s hope I don’t have to pay for a second day.

Such are the adventures of a sea-life.  I hope everyone is well and that you all enjoy a happy Memorial Day holiday.

Happy May!

Today is Friday, May 7th.  On Wednesday I rode in a rental car with my friend John up to Long Beach where we picked up a Columbia 52 to bring down to San Diego.  The boat needed fuel when we got there and we were in thick fog. Oh, and the boat didn’t have radar.  We groped our way slowly forward all the way to the Huntington harbor where we went in and got fuel.  The fog still hadn’t cleared as we felt our way out of the Huntington breakwater.  We never saw the end of the Long Beach breakwater, but eventually figured we must be out in the ocean (we did have GPS, but no chartplotter).  By mid-day the fog finally lifted and we came up to full speed, which was close to 9 knots with the current.  We made it into San Diego just after sunset and tied up at the Driscoll dock.

Tomorrow, Saturday, there is a Airhead tech rally for older BMW motorcycles in Murietta, so I’m going to ride up in the morning.  Should be a fun and interesting day/weekend.

Monday I’m flying down to La Paz, Mexico to pick up a 38 foot Catamaran and deliver it to San Fransisco, California, up the outside, of course.  I’m taking my friend Jeff with me and have another friend named Mike in La Paz who will join us there.  I anticipate about 2 weeks to get up the coast but we’ll see.  I should be home in San Diego by the end of the month.

My family in Alabama has a reunion every year on Memorial day.  I was thinking of going on my bicycle this year, but I’ll be offshore instead.  Maybe next time.

Safely returned from another Hawaii trip.  16.5 days for the Hunter 456 to cross from San Diego, CA to Ko-Olino, Oahu, HI.  A strange weather year.  The trades never really filled in for us, dispite sailing well south.  The only real trouble we had was when the brand new genset hydro-locked due to seawater entering the exhaust.  The recent installation was supposed to have addressed this problem, but failed.  I drained the water from the Verna-lift and pulled the glow plugs to clear the cylinders.  Once we got the generator running, we noticed the distinct smell of burning electical insulation.  We burned through one of the feed wires from the genset to the distribution panel, which opened the circuit and ended the fire.  Without the generator, we had to run the main engine for 4-5 hours a day to keep up with the electrical draw from refrigeration and auto-pilot usage.  No worries, we had plenty of fuel.  We ate well and were sheltered by a fully enclosed center cockpit.  We spent two days washing and polishing the boat before leaving it and flying home.  My little row boat was waiting patiently at the dock when the taxi dropped me off and I rowed home to Tawodi out on her mooring.

Last weekend was my last weekend ashore for a while.  If all goes according to schedule, I’ll be leaving thursday to deliver a Hunter 456 to Hawaii, a trip of about three weeks.  Saturday started with a nice treat.  As I sat in the cockpit having breakfast a small group of dolphins came swimming through the commercial basin, where I keep the boat.  They were joined by a couple of our local sea-lions and they all circled around here in the mooring area.  I think dolphins are always a happy omen.

Once I rowed ashore, I spent the bulk of the day on the Motorcycle.  I went out to Pine Valley, then north to Mt. Palomar.  When I road the bicycle up Palomar a couple weeks ago, I didn’t stop at the museum.  This time I did, as well a having a bit of a walk around.

Sunday I had a relaxing morning, then went ashore and did my laundry.  I had a nice chat with my brother, he’s currently buying his first house and is quite excited.  By mid-day the domestic chores were done and I spent the rest of the afternoon riding my road bike around Point Loma, including my old friend, the hill up from the tide-pools at the Cabrillo monument.  I was home before dark and had a great evening, including a good talk with my parents on the phone.  Sunday evenings I’m able to listen to Vin Scelsa’s radio show on the satallite radio.  A nice chilly-chill evening and another great weekend in SoCal.

Barring anything unforeseen, I should be back near the end of April

The NOODs have returned to San Diego.  National Offshore One-Design racing.  Fleets of boats, all the same within each class are racing all around the area.  Race courses off the Coronado roadstead, outside Mission Bay and in south San Diego bay are all being utilized.  I imagine it was interesting in Mission Bay this weekend, what the large semi-organized inner-tube floatilla of drinkers (in defiance of the beach ban on alcohol).  Something like 7,000 people were expected to show up and get drunk while drifting on their tubes.  I’m sailing in the Flying Tiger fleet on a boat called Niuhi belonging to Paul and Julie McPhearson.  Our fleet is in South Bay (how that qualifies as Offshore I don’t know), with racing all day Friday, Saturday and Sunday.  We have finished with two days of fun sailing.  Today is Sunday and I’m on my way in a few minutes to get underway for Coronado Yacht Club.  The fleet is very competitive and the racing tight, so mark roundings can be exciting.  These boats are little hot-rods, lightweight and lots of power.  They perform well and we get off about 3 races a day.  Each race is a standard upwind/downwind with one race comprising 2 or 3 laps.  We sail with 7 people on the boat and we’ve got a good group of people.  It’s time now for me to go.  Be well.

Last weekend was one my favorite events, the start of daylight savings!  I wish it was daylight saving time all year, I really value the time after work when it is still light.  Saturday found me sailing in my smallest boat, my dinghy actually.  I sailed over to a friends marina and made a splice for them on a furling line.  They just recieved a Code 0 type sail and wanted to look at it right away.  The boat was turned around in the slip and the sail unrolled, using the line I just spliced.  Almost immediately the backstay failed, followed by the topping lift.  The only reason the mast didn’t fall down was because the main halyard was stowed on the end of the boom and by way of the mainsheet, provided some support.  Needless to say, the sail was rolled up and taken down quickly.  I sailed home and spent the evening enjoying Pod-casts of “This American Life”

On Sunday, I went for a double-bike ride.  This is what I call it when I carry my bicycle on my motorcycle.  I rode the motorbike, with the bicycle lashed alongside, out to Santa Ysabel.  I parked there and rode the bicycle up over Mesa Grande to Lake Henshaw, then up to the top of Mt Palomar, where the Hale observatory is located.  I rode back and was seriously dehydrated, dispite leaving with two water bottles and five snacks by the time I returned to Santa Ysabel, some 4 hours after I left.  I sat down in front of Don’s Market and downed a big Gatoraid, three bananas and an orange.  I recovered quickly, loaded the bike onto the bike and rode to O.B. for dinner at the Barbeque House and a drink at Cheswicks.  Then I rode home, then I rowed home.

Next weekend NOOD racing comes to San Diego.  I’ll be sailing on a Flying Tiger all day Fri, Sat and Sun.

Be well- Enjoy the Sunshine! (for those of you not in So-Cal and without sunshine, Sorry)

San Diego survived the tsunami, but we did have some drama.  First, it started with a stormy morning.  I needed to take the boat downtown for my annual safety inspection.  The wind was blowing me sideways as I released the mooring line, which fouled on a bow fitting and caused me to swing into my neighbors boat.  I, the human fender threw myself between the boats, preventing harm.  I was able to reach a real fender, jam it into the fray, then leap aboard and run forward to clear the foul, then dash back to the helm for full forward throttle.  I just barely avoided ugly damages.  Once I got to the inspection dock, I was pinned against it by the wind.  I had four fenders out and all were squished flat.  I passed the inspection, but had to wait for a lull to leave.  I made it safely back to the mooring, no small feat when alone with a bit of wind, then it really got interesting.  The tidal action began around 12:30pm with the water rising and falling with about 20 minutes from one to the other.  I tracked the depth with my digital sounder.  The full moon is tonight, Feb 28th, so the tide was already extreme.  The scheduled low was for 14:26 and by that time the tidal wave action was beginning to peak.  I saw the biggest change just after 15:00 when the water depth at my mooring dropped from 15.3′ to 8.2′, again, in less than 20 minutes.  The current was huge and mooring floats were buried underwater.  There was so much slack in the mooring lines that boats were tangling with each other.  It didn’t help that along with fast current we had fierce wind blasts and squally weather with rain.  By 1800 it was all mostly over with not too much real harm, although there were some damaged boats and docks.  Much better that it arrive during a low tide.  A little over 30 years ago, we had one hit during a high tide and many marina docks came off the top of their pilings, along with shoreside facilities flooded.

Sunday was beautiful.  I did laundry in the morning then spent most of the day riding my bicycle.  My friend and neighbor Michelle joined me in the afternoon and we rode up to the Mt Soledad cross.  It felt good to be out on the bike.  I’ve been so busy with sailing that I haven’t been for a ride in weeks.  Now I just need a shower.