• Ahoy and Welcome to the New SSS Forum!!

    As you can see, we have migrated our old forums to new software. All your old posts, threads, attachments, and messages should be here. If you see anything out of place or have technical questions, please take a look in Forum Q&A for potential answers. If you don't find one, post a question and one of our moderators will answer. This will help others in our community. If you need more personalized assistance, please post your questions in Contact Us and leave a note with as much detail as possible.

    You should be able to login with your old credentials. If you have any issues, try resetting your password before clicking the Contact Us link.

    Cheers
    - SSS Technical Infrastructure

Sailors arriving

That's great! I hope Bill and Patty are enjoying the ride.

Captain Bob and I are planning to depart Silver Gate Yacht Club on Saturday morning, to start Morning Star's journey North. The conditions might get rather unpleasant before we reach the Golden Gate -- GFS-based forecasts say we'll be fine; ECMWF suggests crash helmets and body armor will be in order.

A question for those with local knowledge: If seeking refuge from NW swell once past Carmel, would you head for Monterey Harbor, Santa Cruz Small Boat Harbor, or Santa Cruz Anchorage? All things being equal, we like anchoring just fine.
 
Dolfin Swims Upstream:
Delivering Dolfin from San Diego to San Francisco is "kind of" like a qualifier - 425 plus miles and if not completed then no SHTP. But you can use your motor and you better like the sound of it because you will be hearing it a lot. Patty is helping me again so I get to eat well and sleep some. We had planned to anchor at Smuggler's in the Channel Islands tonight after leaving Catalina at 4am but plans were altered by the military who buzzed us off course with their chopper, then hailed us and said they were doing target practice and we were in the way. So no more stops until probably Half Moon Bay on Friday. Getting to the starting line can be the hardest part for some of us.

DolfinBill
 
Bill: Santa Cruz Harbor offers very good shelter, but call ahead (831-475-6161) or VHF 9 or 16 to inquire re: entry bar conditions/closure. Shouldn't be a problem to get in now though. Santa Cruz anchorage S. of the pier is pretty well protected, and Capitola, a bit further south, is perhaps even quieter, and offers moorings. (Hail “Capitola Boat and Bait” on VHF channel 11 for mooring assignments and any help you might need getting tied up.) I haven't stayed in Monterey, but there's an anchorage and a large marina, a lot closer than Santa Cruz if you're wanting to catch a rest. Good luck! Cliff Shaw, Rainbow
 
Welcome Bill, Patty and Dolfin!! I wish I were around HMB to give you a welcome in person, but I'm in SoCal until Monday. Please feel free but to stop by the yacht club and have dinner Friday night. Tell them Carliane sent ya and that you'll be racing with me to Hanalei. I'm sure they'd love to hear all about your preparations :)
 
Thanks everyone for your support on this passage. We had an ideal weather window so just kept going, arriving in Pillar Point Harbor 6pm yesterday, just 50 hours (and 36 gal of diesel) from Catalina. Cold starry nights, whales, dolphins, other floaty things with fins, flat calm mostly - hope Lee is as lucky on Morning Star. We could have done without the military helicopter in the Channel Islands harassing us without telling us why or responding to our call on 16 or that hard, clanky thing we hit halfway across Monterey Bay (couldn't see it but sure heard it), but otherwise the trip couldn't have been nicer.

Thanks to Jackie for trying to get my communications out (not an easy thing to do) although I'm trying to do better in that department than last time. I sent a message to "racereport" before leaving Catalina over the ham radio (Winlink) but it didn't seem to make it. Apparently I was to use [email protected] rather than what the Communications Plan (page 6) says to use. Part of what's so charming about the SSS, like transpac, ssstranspac or [email protected] - I guess you just have to use them all and hope one gets through. Or just send to Jackie - that seems work best for me.
 
Gamayun said:
Welcome Bill, Patty and Dolfin!! I wish I were around HMB to give you a welcome in person, but I'm in SoCal until Monday. Please feel free but to stop by the yacht club and have dinner Friday night. Tell them Carliane sent ya and that you'll be racing with me to Hanalei. I'm sure they'd love to hear all about your preparations :)
Click to expand...

Hi Carliane, At your suggestion, we went over to the YC last night. Very lively and fun crowd, lots of visitors with large name tags and three very cute little triplet girls, maybe 3-4 years old. We had a little rum (not actually enough to break out of my laconicism) and had some great pot pies for dinner. Asked some of the regulars about you, including a lady who looked so much like you she could have been your mother, and they all had good things to say. Probably didn't talk enough about the race but like I said, probably not enough rum. But anyway, thanks for the tip - it's a wonderful, low key club and a very comfortable place.

Bill Meanley
Dolfin
 
dolfinbill said:
Asked some of the regulars about you, including a lady who looked so much like you she could have been your mother./QUOTE]

Oh, too funny. I wonder who that was?! Glad you had a nice time. The HMBYC is a super awesome club with a great group of sailors. And they do absolutely love their sailing. Next, you'll have to visit Island Yacht Club, which is the new one in my life since moving to Oakland. I seem to have started collecting them....
Click to expand...
 
So we're sitting here all comfy having just arrived at our guest slip at Marina Village. We spent last night anchored in Aquatic Park after coming up from Half Moon Bay. The view of the beach and Ghirardelli Square on a beautifully clear Memorial Day, as you know, was incredible. So why were we the only boat anchored there? But we did feel a little guilty watching Lee's progress up the Big Sur coast on Morning Star while alternatively looking at the weather he was dealing with and hoping he could just make it to Monterey before all hell broke loose. Today we see from his tracker that he made it safely into Monterey harbor and texted our congratulations. From what I could see, he might be there for a week before being able to proceed. But he texted back "we're just here for a fuel stop, we hope to be in Alameda tomorrow afternoon. What a stud - and to think I have to sail against this guy.

Bill
sv Dolfin
 
Welcome to the hood! If you plan on sticking around for a bit and would like to listen to the sea shanties plying their sing-along songs at Quinn's Lighthouse (only on Thursday nights) just let me know and I'll meet you over there for a beer. It's a classically nautical thing to do around here ;)
 
Good news: Lee on MORNING STAR arrived at Santa Cruz Wharf anchorage last evening about 11 pm. They had battled headwinds, head seas, and head current yesterday south of Pt. Sur, finally doubling that challenge and making Monterey Harbor in mid-afternoon for a quick refuel.

Crossing Monterey Bay was no cakewalk either for MORNING STAR. But it sounds like Lee has his act together. An ascent of the California Coast in spring during NW trades can be a bear. Though Pt. Conception has the rep, it's actually Pt. Sur (and Cape Mendocino) that are the challenges for small craft heading north.

MORNING STAR headed out from their overnight anchorage just east of the Santa Cruz Wharf (20', hard pack sand) about an hour ago.(0900 Wed. 5-30-18.) They are going to give the final 65 mile leg of their delivery to SF a try today. It's breeze on up the coast, 20-25 knots, with higher gusts forecast this afternoon.

I wish Lee a safe passage. But suspect MORNING STAR may well turn 180 and be back in Santa Cruz this afternoon. As we are fond of saying in the delivery business, "best not to leave a good port on a bad day.."
 
Last edited:
sleddog said:
MORNING STAR headed out from their overnight anchorage just east of the Santa Cruz Wharf (20', hard pack sand) about an hour ago.(0900 Wed. 5-30-18.) They are going to give the final 65 mile leg of their delivery to SF a try today. It's breeze on up the coast, 20-25 knots, with higher gusts forecast this afternoon.
I wish Lee a safe passage. But suspect MORNING STAR may well turn 180 and be back in Santa Cruz this afternoon. As we are fond of saying in the delivery business, "best not to leave a good port on a bad day.."
Click to expand...

I'm happy to be wrong. At 3pm today (Wed.) Lee and MORNINGSTAR are proving their mettle and earning a stiff drink. 5 hours after leaving Pt. Santa Cruz this morning, MORNING STAR is 16 miles up the line, 4 miles short of passing Ano Nuevo, averaging 3.1 knots overground.

I can see "sheep in the meadow" offshore from where I sit at CBC. Here is the current wind report from UCSC Long Marine Lab, on the coast, 15 miles downwind of Lee. Gusts in red, average speed (mph) in blue.

Long Marine Lab.gif
 
Last edited:
Thanks, everyone. And especially, you, Skip. It was very gracious of you to call Wednesday morning. Much appreciated.

Lest anyone missed it, I did not attempt this singlehanded. I was very ably assisted by Bob Michels, a good friend and fellow member of Silver Gate Yacht Club. Bob has served as paid crew on numerous off-shore deliveries between SD and Cabo/Mexican Riviera, and enthusiastically volunteered his help for this delivery. I would not have been able to do this in the conditions we had without his help.

I'll write up a play-by-play in the next several days, but the essentials are: no one was injured, nothing broke, and the crew remain friends.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top