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Drakes Bay 2022
- Thread starter jamottep
- Start date
solosailor
Member
Chance of a blow Sat night..... you're kind of large to be side tied to another overnight being one of the largest boats there.
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jamottep
Member
BobJ
Alerion 38 "Surprise!"
It's not the weight, it's the windage and your boat has a lot of it. I'll bet your boat "sails on its anchor" all too well.
Buzz nearly put CA Condor on the beach up there. It took him most of Sunday to get floating again to come home. You might check with him about recommended ground tackle and setup. This must be taken seriously. A friend's J/37 got blown onto the beach in Drake's Bay and the boat had to be cut up and hauled away. Very expensive, not including the value of the boat.
Sailing Instructions:
https://jibeset.net/show.php?RR=YRA_T005137787&DOC=cr&TYP=pdf
.
Buzz nearly put CA Condor on the beach up there. It took him most of Sunday to get floating again to come home. You might check with him about recommended ground tackle and setup. This must be taken seriously. A friend's J/37 got blown onto the beach in Drake's Bay and the boat had to be cut up and hauled away. Very expensive, not including the value of the boat.
Sailing Instructions:
https://jibeset.net/show.php?RR=YRA_T005137787&DOC=cr&TYP=pdf
.
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I was next to Buzz, and yes, he was up on the beach at low tide. I was encouraged to burn the negatives. There was a power boat accompanying Buzz anchored further out. When we left it was trying to pull him off. i believe another boat went up further East that same morning and also got off.
SailFlow's HRRR 3 km forecast is suggesting South in the low teens around 04:00 building into the mid-teens plus before dawn. NOAA is suggesting South in the high single digits rising around 04:00, but staying below 10 knots. That makes the N end of Drakes Bay a lee shore. Anchor watch time.
SailFlow's HRRR 3 km forecast is suggesting South in the low teens around 04:00 building into the mid-teens plus before dawn. NOAA is suggesting South in the high single digits rising around 04:00, but staying below 10 knots. That makes the N end of Drakes Bay a lee shore. Anchor watch time.
Jonathan Gutoff
Member
Having never anchored at Drakes in a southerly, how bad and how fast does it get bad? I'll make my decision after the models update but right now HRRR and NAM both say a southerly at 0500 Sunday.
Intermission
Member
Anchoring there once in a southerly, we now carry a galley belt aboard.
Our season standing's top 3 making their way to Drakes Bay at 2 p.m. Sat. Galaxsea, Porkchop Express and Osprey. Porkchop and Osprey owe Daniel 80 seconds a mile between the two of them. Nauticat 44 rates 180.
Courtesy of Ray at Jibeset:
The drag race. https://www.jibeset.net/gpswatch.php?FA=JACKY_T005300257_1_1278809965
Race as a whole. https://www.jibeset.net/tv.php
Courtesy of Ray at Jibeset:
The drag race. https://www.jibeset.net/gpswatch.php?FA=JACKY_T005300257_1_1278809965
Race as a whole. https://www.jibeset.net/tv.php
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solosailor
Member
It started to blow out of the S/SW Saturday late night and built. Bucking bronco of short chop = not much sleep. Imagine trying to sleep at achor on the Berkeley Circle.
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solosailor
Member
PCE dropped out since he didn't think he had a chance to finish before the 9pm cutoff so he motored in like nearly all of the boats boats that came to anchor overnight. However the Race Committee finished a few boat after the 9pm cutoff and I asked and she replied the cutoff was 2200.
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solosailor
Member
There was nice breeze at the start and out to just past Pt. Bonito. There was fog but visibility wasn't horrible. Then it started to fade as expected. There was some remaining wind waves from the prior NW so it was difficult to keep moving. The wind slowly went aft and light. Not enough wind to fill the sails consistently as they were slammed around by the chop. We used a Code-0 and had to sail hot angles down wind as DDW to Drakes Bay. We are talking hours of 0.5-3k boat speed and some periods of 0.00K on the speedo and you were still bounced around by the remaining chop. We did get visited by a curious small whale. About 5 miles from the finish a NW line came down and we happily beat to the finish in daylight. Outsider was the first in @ 7:15'ish with much of the fleet that motored by already at anchor. I think an hour later the Seacart 30 finished and that was it for the entire fleet. Of course there were those few boats that stuck it out and got a finish time recorded after the 9pm cutoff.
It was flat and pretty clear at the anchorage and some boat were rafted as usual in small packs. Late in the evening the SW started to build and by 12PM it was getting choppy. We had to cut Pork Chop Express loose at midnight as we were lurching around. By the AM it was a low ceiling fog but still good enough visibility down low. It was breeze on and many boat started with reefs in. It was basically upwind to Duxbury Reef and a bit after with the wind settling down and reefs were shaken out to keep the speed up. Lots of tacking to get out of Drakes Bay. Finally got to crack the sheets a bit a few miles from Pt.Bonita to a close reach and the wind built in the bay right on schedule.
It was flat and pretty clear at the anchorage and some boat were rafted as usual in small packs. Late in the evening the SW started to build and by 12PM it was getting choppy. We had to cut Pork Chop Express loose at midnight as we were lurching around. By the AM it was a low ceiling fog but still good enough visibility down low. It was breeze on and many boat started with reefs in. It was basically upwind to Duxbury Reef and a bit after with the wind settling down and reefs were shaken out to keep the speed up. Lots of tacking to get out of Drakes Bay. Finally got to crack the sheets a bit a few miles from Pt.Bonita to a close reach and the wind built in the bay right on schedule.
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I had two important newbie lessons from Drake's Bay: Safety and anchoring. This one is on safety... I got an All Ships distress call on VHF.
Long story short:
I got an ALL SHIPS SAFETY distress signal on VHF between Bonita and Duxberry on the way out To DB
I took a screenshot
I know its 99% likely this was an accidental trigger but if you ignore them, what about the 1 in 100 chance it isn't?
Tried calling CG Sector SF and Sector GG CH 16, no response, which was odd at that distance
Tried 72, no response but I then had to get to the cabin top to get a cell signal so may have missed one
Cell phone worked to CG Sector GG
I expressed concern this might be MOB from single-hander for example
(BTW CG guy was really great throughout)
Cell phone comms was very poor and I had to juggle the phone to get coverage and calls kept dropping. Stopped racing, engine on.
Just before I lost cell signal I got a text number from CG
I texted the distress screenshot to CG
Between CG and myself back and forth we tracked MMSI to a boat H***-K** out of Sausalito
Neither my B&G MFD + NAIS Class B or my Em-Trak Class A showed this MMSI anywhere near me
I took screenshots of all boats in 5 nm range on both AIS devices
CG wanted contact info for PROs and I gave them both
I warned PROs by text what was going on and said I could do little more but was standing by in case
Got a text from CG saying thanks and they were investigating but didnt think distress was from the race fleet
I wondered if this could be a MOB that was "borrowed" from another boat (i.e. crew had taken a MOB device linked to boat A on board boat B), and I expressed that concern to CG
Didnt hear anything until I got to Drake's Bay and asked RC what happened, response was "It was resolved"
What I learned and don't know
1. You have to take a screenshot of everything. I did it so I could easily read it on my phone but thank goodness I did. Once you navigate away from screens it is easy to lose valuable information.
2. I have an onging "project" to figure out what is going on with VHF, CH 16 coverage, CG and boat Tx range, effect of direction, CG antennas used, Tx power... but basically in my experience in the Bay VHF is line of sight at best, offshore I'm still figuring it out.
3. I did not print out the final Sis with list of boats. I was moored in SF night before when SIs with fleet assignments were published. I discovered you cannot easily read SI PDFs on cell phone. Thus I had no easy way to translate MMSI <---> boat names and I could not easily give CG the boat names. I still have to figure out when and under what circumstances AIS displays change from MMSI (initially displayed) to name (sometimes names never appear). Also why my B&G AIS does not always show exactly the same boats as my Em-Trak.
4. I don't know exactly what different brands of MOB do to communicate with mother VHF via DSC and what messages go out in what format in what situations. So, for example, what exactly triggers an ALL SHIPS? Here's basically all I know which isn't very much https://www.sailingscuttlebutt.com/...2/05/PERSONAL-MOB-HANDOUT-FINAL-4.26.22-1.pdf The manuals for MOBs are pretty useless. I have one.
5. Text has way more distance that voice. Dont know what it is, I will try and find out, but it's way further.
6. Thank goodness I had written down stuff like PRO names and phone numbers in Ships Log. I keep stuff in Evernote but it would have been way too hard to rummage through that.
7. Biggest lesson is "fog of war". I have been through a few situations where I have helped CG rescues inside the Bay with kiter friends and what-not, but not usually life-threatening stuff. Things always get lost in translation and confusion easily sets in even with the CG pros. One kiter did drown a few years back because accurate comms couldnt happen quickly enough. But offshore in bad weather, it would be a nightmare. I keep thinking I should get a SART for example.
8. Digital DSC (like text vs voice) must have way more range than analog VHF. That brings up an interesting situation similar to the above, You get a digital DSC alert but you cant respond on CH 16 to figure out what is going on. I have not read anything on this. So you are out there, probably out of sight of anyone, no analog VHF comms, and you get a DSC from MOB or whatever, what the heck do you do?
Long story short:
I got an ALL SHIPS SAFETY distress signal on VHF between Bonita and Duxberry on the way out To DB
I took a screenshot
I know its 99% likely this was an accidental trigger but if you ignore them, what about the 1 in 100 chance it isn't?
Tried calling CG Sector SF and Sector GG CH 16, no response, which was odd at that distance
Tried 72, no response but I then had to get to the cabin top to get a cell signal so may have missed one
Cell phone worked to CG Sector GG
I expressed concern this might be MOB from single-hander for example
(BTW CG guy was really great throughout)
Cell phone comms was very poor and I had to juggle the phone to get coverage and calls kept dropping. Stopped racing, engine on.
Just before I lost cell signal I got a text number from CG
I texted the distress screenshot to CG
Between CG and myself back and forth we tracked MMSI to a boat H***-K** out of Sausalito
Neither my B&G MFD + NAIS Class B or my Em-Trak Class A showed this MMSI anywhere near me
I took screenshots of all boats in 5 nm range on both AIS devices
CG wanted contact info for PROs and I gave them both
I warned PROs by text what was going on and said I could do little more but was standing by in case
Got a text from CG saying thanks and they were investigating but didnt think distress was from the race fleet
I wondered if this could be a MOB that was "borrowed" from another boat (i.e. crew had taken a MOB device linked to boat A on board boat B), and I expressed that concern to CG
Didnt hear anything until I got to Drake's Bay and asked RC what happened, response was "It was resolved"
What I learned and don't know
1. You have to take a screenshot of everything. I did it so I could easily read it on my phone but thank goodness I did. Once you navigate away from screens it is easy to lose valuable information.
2. I have an onging "project" to figure out what is going on with VHF, CH 16 coverage, CG and boat Tx range, effect of direction, CG antennas used, Tx power... but basically in my experience in the Bay VHF is line of sight at best, offshore I'm still figuring it out.
3. I did not print out the final Sis with list of boats. I was moored in SF night before when SIs with fleet assignments were published. I discovered you cannot easily read SI PDFs on cell phone. Thus I had no easy way to translate MMSI <---> boat names and I could not easily give CG the boat names. I still have to figure out when and under what circumstances AIS displays change from MMSI (initially displayed) to name (sometimes names never appear). Also why my B&G AIS does not always show exactly the same boats as my Em-Trak.
4. I don't know exactly what different brands of MOB do to communicate with mother VHF via DSC and what messages go out in what format in what situations. So, for example, what exactly triggers an ALL SHIPS? Here's basically all I know which isn't very much https://www.sailingscuttlebutt.com/...2/05/PERSONAL-MOB-HANDOUT-FINAL-4.26.22-1.pdf The manuals for MOBs are pretty useless. I have one.
5. Text has way more distance that voice. Dont know what it is, I will try and find out, but it's way further.
6. Thank goodness I had written down stuff like PRO names and phone numbers in Ships Log. I keep stuff in Evernote but it would have been way too hard to rummage through that.
7. Biggest lesson is "fog of war". I have been through a few situations where I have helped CG rescues inside the Bay with kiter friends and what-not, but not usually life-threatening stuff. Things always get lost in translation and confusion easily sets in even with the CG pros. One kiter did drown a few years back because accurate comms couldnt happen quickly enough. But offshore in bad weather, it would be a nightmare. I keep thinking I should get a SART for example.
8. Digital DSC (like text vs voice) must have way more range than analog VHF. That brings up an interesting situation similar to the above, You get a digital DSC alert but you cant respond on CH 16 to figure out what is going on. I have not read anything on this. So you are out there, probably out of sight of anyone, no analog VHF comms, and you get a DSC from MOB or whatever, what the heck do you do?
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Thanks for posting your experience and looking out after the others.
A few years ago, I was approached by a Rib that was earnestly powering up and down the coast of Duxberry Reef looking for a missing and distraught sailor. It ended well, but I did not know the outcome until the next morning.
On the water, especially outside the Gate, we can be at the mercy of chance and conscientious sailors.
The results posted on YRA site and soon the SSS... https://www.jibeset.net/YRA000.php?RG=T005137787 See Race 8 and Race 9 for Drakes Bay results.
A few years ago, I was approached by a Rib that was earnestly powering up and down the coast of Duxberry Reef looking for a missing and distraught sailor. It ended well, but I did not know the outcome until the next morning.
On the water, especially outside the Gate, we can be at the mercy of chance and conscientious sailors.
The results posted on YRA site and soon the SSS... https://www.jibeset.net/YRA000.php?RG=T005137787 See Race 8 and Race 9 for Drakes Bay results.