Bill Anderson's Trip on FEET
Golden Gate to Ventura (see Farewell Crab Feed and Daysail)

Bamahamians,

Did the trip in just under 50 hours for the 300 some odd miles. All under triple reefed main, first third with the jib also but last 2/3 triple reefed main alone.

Motored out of the bay due to light wind and passed under the gate at noon but by the time we cleared the bar had reduced sail to jib and the main on the third reef. It was only blowing about 20-25 but it was quite lumpy and because it would be hard to reduce the main down wind I played it conservative.

I had monitored the weather and the forecast called for 10-20 so we expected things to lighten up. Planned to stay 2-5 miles out and enjoy the ride. The wind was good, though more than forecast, we were going in the right way so continued on through the day averaging 7-8 knots ddw with main and jib wing and wing. No watch schedule for the day and 4 on, 4 on stand by and 4 off for the nights.

As I came on watch for the 2-6 am we had pasted Monterey and were soon abeam of point Sur. My new/old tiller master steered 90% of the trip due to a cats directional stability and amazed me by being able to handle down wind. I saw one surf to 17 in the dark and we didn't feel as though over pressed.

By this time the weather started to mention 15-30 for the coast below point Sur. and we ran over a big patch of kelp which wrapped around the port dagger board and trailed back behind the rudder. Talk about putting on the brakes. It was still blowing over 20 and the seas were steep and close together so turning up wind and drifting backward for a bit wasn't to attractive. Boat speed was down to 5-6 knots and I wasn't sure we could even come head to wind. We left the jib out to help balance the drag and the auto pilot steering while we considered what to do. Possibility of San Simion till this blows over and we can remove the kelp in comfort.

Mark Axen harnessed up and climbed out on the stern deck and was able to grab big bladders and haul them up to deck level for me to cut. This freed up the steering a bit and we stopped to talk over the next step. Big wave and with the kelp still warped on the dagger we were doing 10+ then the kelp tore off the dagger board, instant acceleration into warp speeds with the auto heading us right for the trough. Scramble to disengage the pilot and steer across the wave to keep the bows from digging into the wave ahead, over sheet the jib to center line and drop it all while seeing big speed for the conditions. With just the triple reefed main we were now down to more practical and less stressful speeds.

After we caught our collective breaths we checked the instruments and found 21.8 on the meter. This in steep close together waves. Ran the rest of the day under reefed main alone still averaging 7 knots. Decided to carry on past San Simion.

Around noon we saw that we would be reaching point Conception early in the evening and thought it a good time to try the tire drag device. Deployed it by dropping over the stern with a few coils of line and surging the line on a winch to feed it out. Put it a couple of waves back and it worked great (saved my ass) 2-5 knots on the back of the wave and 8-12 on the fronts than the line would tighten and pull us off the wave face. Tiller Master still steering.

We passed Conception at 2300 with 8 foot faces, 8 second intervals and around 30 knots of wind. About an hour later the seas started to subside and the wind to drop. Shake out reefs and role out the screecher. Wind dies and then fills in on the head. We tacked into it a while and had a pod of about 200 dolphins come by and say hi, also say some whales. When our ETA started reading the next day we started the outboard and motored the rest of the way.

310 miles from the gate and 50 hours later we tied up for much appreciated hot showers and dinner out. Had a good nights sleep and went day sailing on Sun.

Bill
FEET

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