Sept 4 - after the bridge

What do you do now? The sun is a shinning, the wind is a blowing, the crew wants to tour San Francisco, what better way then to sail around the city and Alcatraz Island. What a finish to a great trip.

For all the you wanting to know, really how was the trip? I can't say enough about the crew, they were great. Sailing with my lovely wife, my brother Ray and Jennifer and Mac is one of the trips never to be forgotten. Linda's comment was I have to sail with 4 Warren's, ( apparently 1 is more then enough for most.) Disappointments, well the auto pilot needs a little more work but the wind vane performed great. Biggest surprise, for me it was my idea of down wind sails changed totally. I though that our spinnaker and genoa would be the main force. Problem with both of them is they were too heavy. With the swells and waves hitting you from the back corner every 3 or 4 waves the boat would rock, this would spill the air out of the sail, colapse, bang and refill. After a while you try all types of configurations. Day 2 we tried putting up the small yankee jib. Well what a difference, the sail could move through a change of wind angle of 30 to 40 degrees or more on each side. Rarely colapse not bang around, and we were pointing almost dead down wind. On day 3 to 5 when the winds were up we tried the yankee stay sail and it was the same, easy to ride and look after.

Golden Gate Bridge

Here we are sailing under the Golden Gate bridge. 25 + knots of wind ( usual San Francisco day not like sailing in White rock ) stay sail set doing 6 to 8 knots.

Day 6 Golden Gate bridge - Tues. Sept 4 2007

We motored around Cape Mendocino in absolutely flat calm water for many hours. The next day winds picked up to 30 knots out of the NW. We flew the stay sail all day and night. Next day as we were closing in on the coast ( we were out 86 miles ) the wind was still blowing 30 but in was foggy. Visibility was less then 1/2 mile most of the time so used our radar. We decided to anchor in Drakes bay on Monday the 3. As you can see by the photo the weather cleared as a very happy crew sailed under the Golden Gate bridge on the 4th of September.

Mac's Tuna - Aug. 30 2007

Here is a happy camper. Mac reeled in this monster Tuna up to the boat, closely followed by a shark so I grabbed the line and flipped the tuna into the cockpit, this started a chorus of screaming because Jennifer was also in the cockpit steering. After much to do and a lot of cleaning up blood all over we enjoyed tuna steaks that night, and celebrated Linda and Steve's 10th anniversary. As you can see in the picture skies were clear, winds were light in the early morning ( motor sailing ) but would pickup in the afternoon to about 15 knots so we had some great sailing .

Aug 28 2007 Neah Bay

After leaving Port Angeles on the 28th Linda and I took the first shift and we were lucky enough to watch the full Lunar eclipse. We had a good push of current to Neah Bay and arrived there at 9:30 am. Here we are finishing the last of the preparations before we head out into the Pacific.

Aug 27 2007 - Port Angeles Washington

Dennis and Brenda pushed us off of the Blaine docks at 2:30 am on Aug. 27 2007. We motor sailed to Friday Hbr. to pick up our cruising permit which took 6 hours to procure. After several hours of fighting the current we arrive at Port Angeles in the early evening.

Technical - Boat Equipment

BOAT EQUIPMENT:

1976 Tayana 37' cutter rigged fiberglass boat built at the Ta-Yang Yacht Building Ltd in Kaohsiung Taiwan



Length 37 feet Overall lenght 40' 6"

Beam 10' 6"

Draft 5' 6"

Net tonnage is 22,500 lbs.



Sail area 870 square feet. We carry 9 sails 2 - mains , genoa -yankee jib, staysail - yankee stay-storm stay, tri sail and a spinnaker with a pole.



Engine: It was a perkins 4-108 50 hp. Now it is a 54 horsepower Yanmar 4JH4SE with a KM35PS 2.36:1 ratio transmission.



Fuel capacity: We have 4 tanks, main tank - aluminium 52 gal., 2 aux. plastic @ 18 gal. each and 1 aux. aluminium @ 15 gal. giving us a total of 103 gallons.



Speed & Range: Unknow at this point but figures indicate that at 2500 rpm we consume 1 gallon/hr. At this rpm we would cruise at 6 - 6.5 knots giving us a range of over 600 miles. Maximum rpm is 3000, which gives us a max. speed of 7.25 knots.
Jan 2008 update. figures indicate that at 2000 rpm we consume about .6 to .7 gals / hour which gives us a range between 825 to 925 miles.




Galley: I redid the galley installing a 6 gallon water heater run off of the engine. A new single bowl deep stainless steel sink. We have 3 access doors in the counter with locking clasps giving us ample storage. All new plumbing, taps throughout. The Nova Cool fridge freezer was moved to the starboard side of boat by the previous owner and is well insulated.



Navigation: chart plotter - Lowrance LCX 110c - love my chart plotter. Navionics gold chips with charts from Alaska to Panama. Also have a Lawrence H2O hand held plotter that can use the same chips. Sitex hand held GPS - 11 yrs old
Furono radar - 11 yrs old but still works good. You will use radar a fair amount.
Sea data depth & speed ( back up to plotter )
Simrad tiller pilot - works off the wind vane, this still needs lots of work yet.
Standard Horizon VHF - GX3000s - works good, you will need a good VHF you use it all the time at the anchorages.
Uniden hand held, we actually have 3 hand helds, have not used them very much.
Icom 706 ham radio - works good, we have over 260' of copper ground. You should use this lots so make sure you have a good set up. Also have a pactor modem.
Cape Horn self steering. works well with head sail but takes practice with both sails up.

Anchor:we have 3 anchors main anchor is a 45lb manson supreme with 400' of 5/16 grade 40 chain. A 45lb CQR with 100' of chain and 300' of 3/4" rode, stern anchor - 45 lb CQR with 50'chain and 250' 5/8 rode.
Simpson Lawrence manual windless. You will get your exercise with this.
400' of 5/8" spare line that we will use with the drogue and para anchor when we get one.

Mics:Little wonder LWM 160 water maker just started to use this north of Cabo. Rated at 7 gals. /hr. we were getting just over 8. Less than 20 hrs on Machine.
Viking life rafe valise model. zero hrs on this and we hope to keep it that way.
Satellite 2 406 epirb and an older epirb.
Toshiba satellite computer. Get a good compter
Older sony radio with satelite radio ( still working in Mazatlan)

Power: We carry 3 solar panels with 230 watts of power.
4 - 6 volt golf cart batteries new. Total amp. 500. We do not carry a separate start battery
Trace 1500 watt inverter.

Dingy:We now have a 9' Caribe with large pontoons and a 9.8 hp Tahatsu outboard. Dingy has wheel away wheels ( you will need these )


Boat Budget - what it really costs to boat?

Boat cost $100,000.00
cost to get boat ready for journey $ 41,000.00
Total $ 141,000.00

Monthly budget

-----------------sept 07----oct 07----nov 07 ---dec 07 -----Jan 08
boat ------------265.53----646.71 ---112.26 ---------- ------385.00
fuel -------------222.92----351.77 ---527.50 --------- -------------
office ------------70.96-----59.65 -------- ------------ -------------
moorage --------360.00-----328.00---256.00 ----437.00 --713.00
first aid ---------227.26------------------ ------------ ------25.80
wifi/cell/skype--108.96----236.00------ --------199.60 ----10.00
entertainment --190.00-----556.00---136.00 ----115.00---484.00
provisions ------184.20----573.56---643.00 ----332.43 ----452.20
travel insur -----141.94----141.94---141.94 ---141.94 ------141.94
boat insur ------228.33----228.33---228.33 ----228.33 ----228.33
mexico license & clearing in----------623.39
mic---------------------------------------------157.00

Total----------2000.10--3113.96---2429.73---1611.30-----2065.27

-------------------feb 08-----march 08-----april 08
provisions-------182.25-------195.74---------------
boat-------------147.20-------250.77--------311.20
entertainment---40.00--------137.75--------150.00
skype/cell--------43.00--------20.30---------20.00
moorage---------667.00------275.62----------------
fuel----------------------------76.37----------------
travel ins.-------141.94--------141.94--------141.94
boat insurance--228.33--------228.33--------228.33

Total-----------1449.72-------1326.82-------851.47

yearly total $14848.37 ---- $1856.04/month