It's been a while.  I've been busy...

But yesterday we shook off the sailing cob-webs and got underway once again.  Our excursion was again in a Catalina 250 and this time we added a few adventurers to the fun.  Sam, Mandi, Madison and I were joined by Alec and Sergei, two kids in our neighborhood.  They kept Sam occupied, perhaps a bit too much.

Initially I wanted to get Mandi and Sam some time on Tiller and Sheet, so once I raised the sails Sam got on the tiller, I took the baby, and Mandi hit the sheets, so to speak...

As we approached a lee shore I deemed it time to tack.  Sam called the commands, and Mandi was ready, so Helm to Lee!  But then the sheets were not cooperating on the winches.  The fairleads were too close to the winches which was causing the sheets to ride up on themselves and get wrapped up, jamming the sheet and not allowing the Jib to switch sides.  This happened three times before I had to take the sheets in hand myself and see if I could do any better.  I could not, but at least I was strong enough to pull the sheets out once they'd wrapped.  Of course I didn't diagnose the true problem until much later in the day when we'd already wrapped the sheets around the winches far too many times for a four hour sail.  We moved the fairleads forwards on their tracks a few clicks...  lessons lessons...

All of this was exacerbated by inconsistent shifty winds.  From the moment we left Marriott Yacht Harbor to the point where we were abeam of Shelter Island the winds had shifted a good 140 degrees!  Further challenges lay in the fact that the winds would gust from 0 to 20 knotts and back.  When we finally decided to turn and head back down wind towards San Diego we ended up in a wind hole.  Not sure how else to describe it.  We were becalmed when just minutes before we were heeled nearly 30 degrees.  What I did notice as we bore westward though was that the closer we got to the mouth of the Bay the more consistent the winds became.  Mental notes were taken...

Another factor that was challenging us was the rudder flopping around on very loose or worn pintals.  We could not make minor adjustments in course because the rudder would just flop over a few more degrees than intended and the course would swing MUCH farther than intended.

Okay, I can hear you out there, I know...  We were still enjoying a spectacular day on San Diego Bay!  Truth be told we probably learned more under these conditions than we would have in perfectly steady 10 knot winds on a brand new boat.  At this point in my sailing career that really is the point of most of the these trips.

I did get to practice one more manuever before the day was out.  I successly got the boat into Heave To, albeit probably from the worst point of sail to start from.  We were running, having just passed under the bridge, in a wing and wing configuration.  With the mainsail to starboard and jib to port I probably should have turned to port there-by taking pressure off the main and backing the jib.  Huh?  What?  You mean that would have just put us into Heave To pain free?  Well, yes it would have, had that been what I chose to do...

Of course I'm Monday Morning Skippering here and at the time it seemed the right thing to do was to turn starboard.  I really wish we would have had some video of the events that followed but long story short we did a 270 with the main flailing from full starboard to full port and back again.  Under certain circumstances this really wouldn't have been all that bad because we weren't moving very fast and the wind was in somewhat of a lull.  The problem we encountered was that Sam was straddling the traveler and the main sheet wacked him in the face as it swung to port and back again.  It wasn't enough to hurt him but I'm sure it scared him and made me feel like a total twit!

While I appologized to him profusely I maintained the tiller full starboard with the jib backed on the port side and the main swinging free, as we very slowly drifted leeward.  Yes ladies and gentlelmen, we were hove to!  Nothing about the evolution was graceful but we did end up in the configuration sought.  I continue to be thankful for small successes...

Next weekend I take the ASA 103 class and I hope we have at least as challenging conditions.  I'd really like to see how someone who knows how to sail handles these things.

Until then I remain hove to,
Seaman Ray 

Sam and I did a four hour sail today out of Sea Port Village.   I think there was both more wind starting further west then Coronado Harbor, but there was also just more wind today.

And what a glorious day it was!   We took off under power, as is required when leaving this location of Seaforth Sailing Club, then turned the corner out into the bay. I was at the helm until we were in the bay then I turned it over to Sam so I could go forward and raise the sails.  I actually hadn't done this before so it was a bit of OJT.  It took a bit to untie/unwrap the main and hoist it.  Then I realized that we didn't have a winch handle.

When we were preparing to leave I'd mentioned to the deck hand that there was no winch handle.  I thought he'd left and brought one back. However when I had the main most of the way up I looked in the handle holder and it was empty.  I couldn't get the main up that last six inches so I chocked it off and left it.  Perhaps not the most efficient rig in the world but we were able to sail.  I can hear Kurt groaning from here...  ;)

The jib, being on a roller furler, was a simple matter of pulling on the sheets to unroll it. 

I got the jib and main sheets tied off then traded positions with Sam.  We headed up wind towards Harbor Island, Shelter Island,  Point Loma and beyond.  We had about 10 knots wind in a close haul and we were moving!  Now I should give a disclaimer here.  "Moving" in a 22' sail boat is about 5 knots.  One of Sam's classmates in middle school could have easily outrun us.   But I digress...

We got down past the Cruise Ship terminals and the Midway and I turned the helm over to Sam.  We did a few tacks and then somebody lost their attention for a few seconds and suddenly we were falling off into a reach and then a broad reach.  I REALLY didn't want to gybe at that moment so Sam and I switched spots and we headed up towards Point Loma again.

Sam got a lot of practice handling the jib sheets.  Here again we lamented the absence of a winch handle as Sam could not take the jib sheets in as tight as we wanted with the 10kts wind.  I had to help him after each tack.  This was okay but he could have handled sheets on his own with proper use of the winch.  Next time we'll know to insist on a winch handle.  As it was Sam got proficient with both line handling and some of the commands used on a sail boat.

Quicker than I expected we were down by Shelter Island and could look west out the entrance of the bay. Wow!  There were a LOT more boats down this way!  I got a lot of practice on my Right Of Way rules and Sam and I would review who was the Stand On vessel with each encounter.  One of the boats out sailing was the America's Cup boat Stars and Stripes.  I was intimidated by her. I knew Dennis Conner probably wasn't aboard but I didn't want to make any mistakes in her presence never the less...  Boy can she move!  Whoever was at the helm was courteous in the extreme and she kept her distance from most vessels, including us.

Never having sailed this far down the bay I wasn't really sure how fast we could get back.  Playing it safe we decided to turn back towards the Cruise ship area.  In a matter of minutes we were staring at the bow of the Midway and we still had two hours of sailing left!  Like two little kids, instead of the dad and kid that we were, we headed west once again, giddy.  We got almost to the Sub base and were in really good wind, just having a grand time.  We were getting hit regularly with good sized wakes and waves as the big motor-yachts would barrel on by and the rollers were coming in the mouth of the bay.  Sam and I were having a blast riding these up and down...

It was finally time to head back in earnest so we configured the sail in a wing and wing.  This was the first time I'd done this on my own and was pretty pleased with myself...  We made good time on the way back and only turned on the motor when I had to furl the jib and lower the main to head back into the Marriott Yacht Harbor.  Sam drove us almost all the way back, even through a HUGE wake that actually came over the stern a little.

Once in the harbor we had to wait a few for another boat docking in front of us then we eased in smooth as you please.  Even getting praise from the deckhand meeting us.  :) 

Here's to another great day on the water!
Seaman Ray 

PS. I wonder if I can get a promotion to Petty Officer Ray yet... 

I went from not having sailed in years to sailing once last month and then three straight days this weekend!

Madison, Sam, Mandi, and I took a boat out from Coronado again today.  I had fun.  I'm pretty sure Sam had fun.  Madison, and therefore Mandi?  Maybe not so much.

We left at noon trying to catch as much wind as we could.  There wasn't much.  We tried to follow the wind where we could see it.  I could see it across the bay near the Navy Ships over at 32nd street.  We motored over there and put the sails up.  That part went fine, but Madison really didn't enjoy wearing her new life jacket.  We tried a few different options with the buckles and it just wasn't working.  Mandi took her below where she could loosen the vest but then Mandi wasn't enjoying not being topside and not being able to see the horizon...  Not wanting to get my wife sea sick on this first, of hopefully many, family sailing outings, I suggested she sit on the sole of the cockpit and hold Maddie in her lap without the life vest.  She actually sort of had the life vest on backwards, not that that's any safer....  Anyway, this configuration seemed to calm Madison and allowed Mandi to be topside and somewhat part of the action.

I showed Sam how to use the winches to pull the jib sheets and how to release the jib on the leeward side.  He seemed to pick this up pretty well with the exception that he consistently wanted to pull the jib sheets in with his hands first before getting some wraps on the winch.  Luckily the winds were light enough this wasn't too much of a problem but we'll need to work on this next time out.

We tacked a few times near the naval station and then I wanted to try to head under the bridge.  We tried to reach our way to the bridge but the closer we got to the bridge the less wind we'd had.  Without wind we just kind of bounced around on the various wakes making the ride less than fun for everyone.  So I turned us around to try to ride what little wind we could.  This proved pointless so after three hours we decided to head in.

A couple times I thought we'd found some wind and would try some sailing again but it just wasn't meant to be on this day.

Sam and I had fun and now we know we need to find another option to keep Madison comfy on the boat.  We'll find that and get her out there again.

Ciao,
Sailor Ray 

Finished up my ASA 101 class today.  I did end up passing and getting my certification. I missed a few on the written test but I felt pretty good about it.  The ones I missed were pretty much guesses.  I hadn't studied bouy's as well as I could have nor indicator lights.  I felt very good about the practical portion of the evaluation.

I guess the way it works is during the two days of instruction and sailing the instructor is evaluating how you implement his lessons.  I felt like I was picking up the concepts pretty quickly.  Several times during the two days I thought back on the day of sailing I had with Kurt.  That was a definite help to me and kind of put me ahead of the game just a bit.

Today we spent more time sailing.  While the wind still waited till almost noon to pick up we had more of it so the sailing was more interesting.  Our primary maneuver was the Man Over Board drill.  The technique we were taught is called the figure 8 method. I won't get into the details but we started the maneuver from numerous points of sail and each of us had several opportunities to play every role in the evolution.  We found a can floating in the bay, we snatched it up this became our MOB.  Actually over the last two days we picked up several pieces of trash from the bay.

We also practiced reefing the main.  While this topic isn't specifically covered under ASA 101, it was interesting to try.  Another fun evolution we all got a chance to perform was Heave To.  Intially I couldn't get the boat to stop and drift to leeward, but then I just let it sit in the heave to configuration.  She swung back and forth fore to aft a couple of times then just settled in.  It was a very natural feeling once it happened and seeing the boat stop put a smile on my face. 

All of our time sailing was on the south side of the bridge.  I am taking the little family out tomorrow so maybe we'll pop under the bridge then.

Speaking of sailing tomorrow, I've talked everyone into going sailing with me tomorrow, my first day as a certified sailor.  On the way home tonight I stopped by Sports Authority and picked up a little tiny Type II life vest for Madison.

In case anyone is interested the text book for this class is Sailing Fundamentals by Gary Jobson.  I remember Gary Jobson as one of the commentators of the America's Cup races in San Diego.   

So that's it.  I'm certified.  I'm hesitant to call myself Captain Ray.  Skipper Ray maybe?  Sailor Ray? hmmm, well, I'll think on that one more but for now I don't think I'm Seaman Ray any longer...

Ciao,
Sailor Ray 

Just got back from the first day of ASA 101 class.  We had really light winds all day but that didn't diminish the fun!

I got down to Coronado a little early. I wore jeans but brought shorts thinking it might be pretty warm.  Lucky I did because by the time I got down there it was already getting hot.

I went over to the docks and got checked in.  A few minutes later the instuctor, Jeff, came by and introduced himself.  I met my three other class mates then we got aboard and put our gear below.  We were on a Capri 22 again.  There was a regatta that day so they wanted us off the dock as soon as we could.  The class started at 9AM and 9AM in San Diego means no wind.  Our wind generally comes up later towards noon.

Fire up the engine and off we go.  Jeff starts with terminology.  Basically he points to something and says "What's this?" It's a long motor out of Coronado harbor.  After a while we got out in the Bay but it looks like a lake, the surface is smooth as glass.  So we continue to work on boat parts.  I'm pretty comfortable with much of the terminology having lived on a ship for four years so I was mostly quiet.  To which Jeff felt I wasn't participating...  So I participated more.  We worked on raising and lowering sails and tried hard to get some wind.  We spent some time going through our text books covering any topics we didn't feel real strong on.  The written test is first thing tomorrow morning so this session was important.  By noon we were all sun burned and eating lunch.

We could see wind across the bay so after we ate we motored to the east side of the bay and picked up some wind.  The wind slowly built for the rest of the afternoon and we were able to take turns at the helm and handling the Jib and Main sheets.  We tacked and gybed and I now know the difference. After an hour or so we headed south towards Sweetwater Channel.  There's a new marina down there and Jeff wanted to pratice docking under sail alone.  I was at the helm and less than comfortable sailing a few feet from nice yachts on one side and empty slips on the other with only the sails from propulsion.  My first try was a miss as I misjudged how the wind would affect the boat without the sails.  I assumed we'd continue to glide in the same direction once we dropped the sails.  In fact the wind pushed on the boats hull and caused us to change course.  It was a minor issue as Jeff ran forward and jumped on the dock from the bow and pushed us back off.  We raised the sails for a second run and this time it worked perfectly as I corrected for an anticipated wind caused course change.

We tied up for all of 60 seconds then we left the marina and headed back up the channel towards the bay.

This part's kinda funny:  I gave up the helm position and took up a Jib sheet position which gave me ample time to look around, including over the side.  I had some concern over water depth as the channel is clearly marked and the shore is not far outside the channel markers.  Our instructor was less concerned about this and his experience clearly trumped mine.  As our new helmsman tacked up the channel we'd go around the outside of the channel markers on the left so as to extend our tacks and cover more distance.  Near the end of the channel the instructor called out to bear off to port.  But we hadn't reached the last port channel marker yet.  Without anything else to do at that moment I began to look over the side.  10 seconds later I saw the telltale sign of bottom, that being sand that looks like it's moving; it isn't but we are.  Not wanting to be obnoxious I quickly called out "OH, so that's what the bottom looks like!"  I hear the instructor say "What??" and then we abruptly slowed to a stop and began to heel significantly.  Opps...  Intuitively the helmsman tried to turn into the wind to reduce the pressure on the sails and we crew moved over to the leeward side.  The instructor went to the tiller and vigorously tried to skull it back and forth.  These three things worked and we slowly moved off the bottom and back into deeper water.

Although it was funny, it was actually a good learning experience too.  We learned how to unground ourselves in one specific situation.  We also heard something about 'there are sailors who've grounded and there are liars' or some such thing.

We spent the rest of the day sailing with a freshened wind back towards the Coronado Bridge.  With our standard westerly winds we were on a nice beam reach all the way.  It was the funnest sailing of the day.

We turned left back into Coronado Harbor and sailed all the way to the dock.

I'm really looking forward to tomorrow and hoping we'll have a bit more wind!

Sailing Ray

I finally got on the water today!

I had a blast and the wind probably never got over 5 knots. I'm sure my father-in-law, Kurt, was bored to tears but I was having a great time!

We got down there about 11am and I'm sure I looked like a little kid on Christmas morning.  There was no wind so we decided to have a cup of coffee and wait an hour before taking off.  The guy at Seaforth said the wind had been picking up around noon lately so we waited for the switch to be flipped at noon.  Apparently the guy working the switch was out sick today.

We got our boat and one of the Seaforth guys gave us, okay Kurt, the rundown on the boat.  Halyards, sheets, mains, roller furlers, winches, handle, motor etc...  Okay, check, we're ready, see ya in four hours, bye...

They require you to motor out of the marina so we did.  Once out of the marina I took the tiller and steered us into the wind while Kurt did some magic with the sails and related ropes until the sails were up and unrolled. I heard the command - Kill the engine!  So I did.  Then we stopped.

Now who woulda thunk it but it turns out you need wind to make a sail boat go.  We didn't have any.

I pull the starter rope on the motor and we head north towards the Aircraft Carriers on North Island.  We see ripples on the surface of the bay, this is a good thing.  The motor vibrates us until we get up near Shelter Island then we kill the engine again.  This time there is the smallest puffs of wind.  Enough to sail by at least.  Suddenly we're sailing!  Well to tell the truth all I was doing at first was holding the tiller where Kurt told me to while he handled all the sails alone.

Kurt started telling me about the commands one needs to issue for various maneuvers.  Tacking and Gybing were the main two we worked on.  I'm still not clear the difference.  But we tack/gybed for a while then we headed a little farther north towards the north end of the Aircraft Carriers.  At that point it seemed prudent to at least point the bow in the direction of south so we won't get back too late.

Wing and Wing is the configuration we used.  Kurt pulled ropes here and there, moving side to side and back and forth, then he pointed at one of the buildings down town and said "Go there." So I did.  It's called down wind sailing, or running, and it's when you have the wind directly astern. Apparently it's not terribly safe due to something called an accidental gybe.  But with the light winds I was able to handle it just fine.  The Mainsail goes way out on one side of the boat and using the ropes you pull the Jib to the other side of the boat.  Now you have one sail on each side of the boat allowing both to get wind, hence Wing and Wing.

After an hour of Kurt and I shootin the shit in our Wing and Wing configuration we had traveled about 1/2 mile.  It was time to fire up the engine once again and head back to the marina. I drove us back while Kurt again played with various ropes until the Mainsail was securely tied to the boom and the Jib was once again wrapped up in it's burrito.

While we were motoring in the marina heading for the docks a group of kids in a rental motorboat came flying into the marina, which is supposed to be 5MPH only, at about 20 MPH.  Huge wake all over the place.  We decide to circle around and let these bozo's do their thing.  The guys on the dock started yelling at them to slow down right away.

After that we docked, paid, and headed home.  Kurt might have been bored but a great time was had by Seaman Ray!

I'm looking forward to my next time out.  Kurt and I are working on a date when we'll head up to Oakland and we can go out on San Francisco Bay in his boat.  They get way more serious wind up there.

Now I'm tired,
Seaman Ray