Going for a little sail

[Alan H]

As some of you know, I am gearing up for a race next summer where I sail, solo. from San Francisco to Kauai, Hawaii. Before my sailing association lets you do that race, you have to complete a 400-mile passage, solo, in the boat you're going to use for the race. Thus, since the Singlehanded TransPac happens in even-numbered years, the Singlehanded Sailing Society puts on a 400 mile ocean race in the odd-numbered yeaars to help people qualify.

It starts on Wednesday.

I have a solid boat...though small, and I'm not "worried", but of course there's always a degree of anticipation and concern when doing something like this. I'm well prepared in every way except one...I haven't sailed the boat very much. However, my boat is really pretty simple,and while I won't get maximum racing speed out of her, I can keep her going in the right direction, no problem.

I finshed up most of the big jobs this weekend, but I really only have until Tuesday morning to get everything together, here. Tuesday AM I go to work, but leave work at about 2:00...dash home load sandwiches, fruit, tea and a beer into the cooler grab my bags and go. That starts an afternoon of running around like a crazy man, picking up last-minute details....like my liferaft!. My sailmaker didn't finish my storm trysail until Saturday night, so I have to go getthat,too. So I'm condemned to tearing around Tuesday afternoon, getting the very last-minute stuff together.

All of the high priority projects this weekend got done, they just took half-again as long as I thought they would, so I got the bare minimum accomplished. There's nothing like having to crawl into the boat, all the way to the back of the quarter-berths, for every single little screw you have to take out and replace. I can't hold the nut from outside, so I have to crawl back there with my two vice-grips, clamp on the nuts, then back out and go up into the cockpit to twist the head of the thing with a screwdriver. It's incredibly cramped back there, and geting in and outis amost imposible for a big guy like me. It'd be fine if it was once, but no...its, like 8 - 9 - 10 times. I only have two vice grips. It takes FOREVER to get 8 screws removed, replace hardware, and tighten them down, again..like two hours for eight screws. OYYYYYYYY.... So a couple of jobs remain undone, but nothing TOO important.

I need tonight to make sandwiches, hang with Joan (I didn't see her all weekend) finish my lap-navigation board,etc. I'm gonna be working like a crazy man tonight. I can't go 400 miles out into the Pacific without having reviewed my medical kit and renewed the stuff in my abandon-ship bag, or without having the cantilever arm for my autopilot fixed. Those areon the list for tonight, though I looked over the first aid and abandon-ship stuff this morning.

Here's the weather report for later in the week, 20 - 60 miles out from the Central-Nor California coast. We leave on Wednesday.

***********************

POINT ARENA TO PIGEON POINT TO 20 NM-
POINT ARENA TO PIGEON POINT 20 TO 60 NM OFFSHORE-
307 AM PDT MON JUN 25 2007

...SMALL CRAFT ADVISORY IN EFFECT THROUGH TUESDAY AFTERNOON...

.TODAY...NW WINDS 20 TO 30 KT. WIND WAVES 4 TO 6 FT. NW SWELL
6 TO 7 FT AT 8 SECONDS.
.TONIGHT...NW WINDS 15 TO 25 KT. WIND WAVES 3 TO 5 FT. NW SWELL
6 TO 7 FT AT 8 SECONDS.
.TUE...NW WINDS 15 TO 25 KT. WIND WAVES 3 TO 5 FT. NW SWELL 6 TO 7 FT
AT 8 SECONDS.
.TUE NIGHT...NW WINDS 15 TO 25 KT. WIND WAVES 3 TO 5 FT.
NW SWELL 6 TO 7 FT. PATCHY FOG.
.WED...NW WINDS 10 TO 20 KT. WIND WAVES 2 TO 4 FT.
NW SWELL 5 TO 6 FT.
.THU...W WINDS 5 TO 15 KT. WIND WAVES 1 TO 3 FT. NW SWELL 4 TO 5 FT.
PATCHY FOG.
.FRI...W WINDS 5 TO 15 KT. WIND WAVES 1 TO 3 FT. NW SWELL 4 TO 5 FT.
PATCHY FOG.
******************************************

I don't much like the "patchy fog" but the windspeed is nice. I should finish...hopefully...around midnight, plus or minus 3-4 hours, Saturday. With luck this should be a nice sail. That'd be nice, I already "paid my dues" on the trip up from Santa Cruz. I'm sure glad we didn't go this PAST week, it was blowing high holy hell out there....gale warnings all week.

If you want to follow the race, you can check up on me by visiting http://www.sfbaysss.organd visiting the forum. Position entries should be in the "LongPac 2007" forum. We've been having problems with the forum provider, so it may not be "up" when you visit. Give it an hour and it seems to pop up and be available.

Alan

[David Dalglish]

Good luck Alan-Safe journey

[Splash_4]

Good fortune and may the wind always be off your quarter!

[Monkey@Arms]

Alan,

Keep the shiny side up and the rubber side down, er no . . . that's for cars . . . uhm, break a leg, no. . . no . . that's not right either, how about "bon voyage", or better still as they apparently say it in the Auld Country "Turas math dhuibh!"

Look forward to reading the report of your successful trip.

Best regards,

Jake

[BEEDEE]

Wishing you fair winds and following seas.

Brian

[Riverkilt]

You're a braver lad than I sir.

Enjoy the adventure.

I will support you from terra firma. Last time I went sailing on the Pacific I managed to puke up the Dramamine...

Ron

[Alan H]

You're a braver lad than I sir.

Enjoy the adventure.

I will support you from terra firma. Last time I went sailing on the Pacific I managed to puke up the Dramamine...

Ron

that reminds me....gotta get Bonine (Dramamine puts me to sleep) at the drugstore. Mine is expired. I only need it the first 24 hours, but I'm a LOT happier with a half-dose of bonine in my stomach.

The boat is going to be lit up like a Christmas tree. I will have the regular Navigation lights, which depend on the boats electrical system. However, since lights are what makes you visible out there at night, I also have three strobes on the boat. I can hoist one to the masthead as per the racing rules keep another in reserve and have one on a 7 foot pole at the stern of the boat, just below my radar reflector. These are all battery-powered and independent of the boats electrical system. So if the main batteries get drained, I'm still visible.

Electrical systems are what die out there, quicker than anything else, so while I have an autopilot, I also have a Navik Windvane. The Navik (It's nickname is "Vanessa"....sometimes I talk to Vanessa out there) can steer the boat in wind from 5 knots to 50 knots and requires no electricity. I have 4-5 spare parts for the most ussually lost-or-broken bits of the Navik.

I have lights for down below, but I also have two head-lamps which run on AA and AAA batteries. My GPS's (I have three) all run on batteries. I do "paper navigation" meaning that I don't live and die by a computer which depends on electricty. It's a low-tech approach, but by being terribly redundant and having everything I need function independently of a single system (the boats electrical system) a failure won't put me out. I have three compasses, for example...all of them are mechanical, not digital.

i have a VHF radio which will allow me to talk to guys up to 20 miles away, and will actually allow me to talk to Coast Guard Group San Francisco from over 100 miles out. If I had another $150 lying around, I'd have a handheld radi for the abandon-ship bag, but oh, well.

I have a mess of sails and a backup rudder which will steer the boat in case the main rudder fails. It even works with the autopilot, though I have to take the windvane off to deploy it. I have storm sails; a storm jib and a storm trysail, just in case it blows 50 knots and I have to beat off a lee shore.

I will wear a chest harness with is integral with an inflatable lifejacket. The harness is shackled to a stout tether, which at it's other end has a beefy snap-hook. That snap hook goes around super-strong nylon tubing called "jacklines" which I run fore-and aft on the boat. This means that when I move around the boat to do things, I'm always tethered to the jacklines so if I fall off....God Forbid...I'm tethered to the boat. There's a brilliant hot-pink polyproylene line that runs a few inches above deck-level all the way around the boat that when yanked, disengages the autopilot or the windvane from the tiller, so the boat will round up into the wind and stop. I carry a little nylon ladder in my foul-weather jacket. I hook that to the toerail, and using it, I can climb back aboard.

I will live in the same clothes....two layers of polypropylene underwear, wool socks and foul weather gear, for four days. I DO, however, have a full change of clothes...more polypro underwear and another full set of foul weather gear in case of disaster. There will be food for six days aboard and water for ten....more than twice as long as the trip should take. I have a well equipped first-aid kit and when I sail offshore I wear a Pro-Tec climbing helmet to protect aginst head injuries.

I will have an ORC Cat 2 certified liferaft on board, a 406 mhz Emergency Position Indicating Radio Beacon, and an abandon-ship bag with water for 4-5 days, a small supply of Cliff bars...sunscreen and a space blanket and sunglasses and a sunshade for my head etc..

So as long as the mast doesn't fall down or the keel doesn't fall off or I don't hit a half-submerged shipping container and tear a huge hole in the bottom of the boat, I'm going to be fine.

I've done this race two times before, though in different boats from this one. I know what to expect. It's basically two hundred miles out...or would be if we could sail straight West (we can't) and then at Longtidue 126 deg, 40 min, you turn around and head back for the Golden Gate.

I'm ready...or w ill be, after tonight!

[Dirk Skene]

I am sure you are a fine sailor, but please be careful & come back to us safely.

[Panache]

Alan,

Best of luck on your trip. "The Ankle Biter" and you sound ready.

We will toast your health this Friday at the Devil's Canyon Brewery.

Cheers

Jamie

[cavscout]

Godspeed Alan.

Ya know, kilts and sailing just go together. Both enjoy a good breeze