Click the pic for a better view. Now get out there and have some fun!!
H2uh0 - Bonehead Moves on the Water from SF Bay and Beyond!
Friday, November 06, 2009
Ski SF 2005
Thursday, November 05, 2009
Mav's Big Wave Surf Contest This Weekend?
The Big Wave Contest may be this weekend. This year, the contestants vote for the go or no go. We should know in a few hours. Here is the forecast:
LARGE NORTHWEST SWELL...THE LARGEST OF THE SEASON SO FAR...IS FORECAST
TO REACH THE COASTAL WATERS BY LATE FRIDAY. WAVE FORECAST MODELS
PREDICT SWELL HEIGHTS REACHING AS HIGH AS 20 TO 22 FEET WITH SWELL
PERIODS INCREASING TO 17 SECONDS BY SATURDAY MORNING. THESE LARGE
NORTHWEST SWELLS WILL ALSO CREATE LARGE BREAKING WAVES WITHIN THE
SURF ZONE. NORTHWEST SWELL IS FORECAST TO DECREASE BELOW 15 FEET
BY MONDAY.
Here is the official site.
They just announced no go. Stay tuned as the next big swell may be around the corner.
Last Update From the Ha Ha
Via s/v Whatcha Gonna Do
Well, we arrived yesterday afternoon (Tuesday Nov 3rd) in Bahia Santa Maria two thirds of the way down the coast of Baja. It has been an awesome trip! We finally caught up with the rest of the Baja Ha Ha fleet and it was quite an impressive view to turn into this bay in the middle of nowhere and see nearly 200 boats all anchored. We joined up with the party going on at the beach and then came back to the boat for an excellent steak dinner. Today, the fleet planned to depart at 0600 to begin the final leg to Cabo San Lucas. Given that we had just arrived at Bahia Santa Maria only late the prior afternoon, we decided that we would take it easy today, sleep in, have a late breakfast, swim and then go for a late afternoon hike. Once all those other boats had left it was pretty awesome to see ours and just two others anchored in this bay. After two over nights at sea we figured we deserved a little break. Overnight sailing, which requires doing two hour watches, can be tiring after a while. We are doing 2 hour on, 4 hour off shifts with Barb and Caren sharing one of the shifts.
Catamarans are great and here is just on reason why! On Barb and Caren's shift two nights ago all of a sudden the port (left) engine alarm went on and the rpm's went to zero. We could not figure out what was causing the alarm so we turned the engine off and decided to look into the problem the next morning. Well, when we got up that next morning and went to look inside the port engine compartment we discovered that the engine room was over half full with water! We thought maybe there was a leak caused by the rope getting wrapped around the propeller but found that hard to believe. When we looked closer there was a lot of water further aft of the engine room and that was the water that was leaking into the engine room. What the #&$*@! We started pumping all the water out with a hand bilge pump (which took about four hours -- there was a lot of water) and during that time tried to figure out how all that water could have gotten into the boat. Was there a hole in the boat and if so where was it? We had not hit anything. Anyhow, we kept looking and went down onto the sugar scoops (the steps behind the boat) and there they were -- two very little holes on the bottom step. The boat has these nice outdoor carpets that are usually snapped onto the steps but we have taken them off for this passage and stowed them. My guess is that these two tiny little holes were left when the carpets were originally installed and not properly sealed! Only with extended time at sea in a boat heavy with gear and water constantly slapping up on the lower steps could that water have slowly leaked in. Well, we patched the holes with a sealant that we had, finished pumping out all the water and then finally sat back to have lunch. Now the reason catamarans are great is that if this had been a mono hull the whole boat may have been underwater (or worse), but because this was a catamaran, with built-in buoyancy, this was much more of a nuisance than a safety concern. Needless to say, it made for an exciting morning.
Well, after a great day of relaxing in Bahia Santa Maria today with the kids swimming in our outdoor swimming pool all afternoon :) followed by a sunset hike, we have departed on our final leg to Cabo San Lucas. We hope to get there sometime on Friday but as I write this there is not much wind, so we may be motoring for a while.
Well, we arrived yesterday afternoon (Tuesday Nov 3rd) in Bahia Santa Maria two thirds of the way down the coast of Baja. It has been an awesome trip! We finally caught up with the rest of the Baja Ha Ha fleet and it was quite an impressive view to turn into this bay in the middle of nowhere and see nearly 200 boats all anchored. We joined up with the party going on at the beach and then came back to the boat for an excellent steak dinner. Today, the fleet planned to depart at 0600 to begin the final leg to Cabo San Lucas. Given that we had just arrived at Bahia Santa Maria only late the prior afternoon, we decided that we would take it easy today, sleep in, have a late breakfast, swim and then go for a late afternoon hike. Once all those other boats had left it was pretty awesome to see ours and just two others anchored in this bay. After two over nights at sea we figured we deserved a little break. Overnight sailing, which requires doing two hour watches, can be tiring after a while. We are doing 2 hour on, 4 hour off shifts with Barb and Caren sharing one of the shifts.
Catamarans are great and here is just on reason why! On Barb and Caren's shift two nights ago all of a sudden the port (left) engine alarm went on and the rpm's went to zero. We could not figure out what was causing the alarm so we turned the engine off and decided to look into the problem the next morning. Well, when we got up that next morning and went to look inside the port engine compartment we discovered that the engine room was over half full with water! We thought maybe there was a leak caused by the rope getting wrapped around the propeller but found that hard to believe. When we looked closer there was a lot of water further aft of the engine room and that was the water that was leaking into the engine room. What the #&$*@! We started pumping all the water out with a hand bilge pump (which took about four hours -- there was a lot of water) and during that time tried to figure out how all that water could have gotten into the boat. Was there a hole in the boat and if so where was it? We had not hit anything. Anyhow, we kept looking and went down onto the sugar scoops (the steps behind the boat) and there they were -- two very little holes on the bottom step. The boat has these nice outdoor carpets that are usually snapped onto the steps but we have taken them off for this passage and stowed them. My guess is that these two tiny little holes were left when the carpets were originally installed and not properly sealed! Only with extended time at sea in a boat heavy with gear and water constantly slapping up on the lower steps could that water have slowly leaked in. Well, we patched the holes with a sealant that we had, finished pumping out all the water and then finally sat back to have lunch. Now the reason catamarans are great is that if this had been a mono hull the whole boat may have been underwater (or worse), but because this was a catamaran, with built-in buoyancy, this was much more of a nuisance than a safety concern. Needless to say, it made for an exciting morning.
Well, after a great day of relaxing in Bahia Santa Maria today with the kids swimming in our outdoor swimming pool all afternoon :) followed by a sunset hike, we have departed on our final leg to Cabo San Lucas. We hope to get there sometime on Friday but as I write this there is not much wind, so we may be motoring for a while.
Libations
Found a nice site set up by a local sailor about his Pearson 323. He really goes into a lot of detail and has plenty of info about what to think about when buying a boat. Also check out his cruising pages as there is a ton of great info there if you sail the bay and beyond. Here is the link.
Wednesday, November 04, 2009
World Speed Challenge
Sailing begins at the 2 min. mark.
The third annual Luderitz Speed Challenge has begun, where many of the world’s top kitesurfers have descended on the remote Namibian town of Luderitz to compete during the month of November against each other and the clock to prove what is the world’s fastest wind-powered craft.
Last year’s challenge shattered the previously unbeatable 50knot barrier (93kph), setting a string of world and national records in this “Formula One of Sailing”. Kitesurfers took over many of the top slots in the international rankings for speed sailing, contested by sailboats, windsurfers and kitesurfers. Alex Caizergues of France set a new outright world record of 50.57knots (93.6kph) over 500m, with Rob Douglas of the U.S.A. and Sebastien Cattelan of France, also breaking the 50 knot barrier, recording times of 50.54 and 50.52 knots respectively.
The greatest battle is between two very different worlds - the skill, strength and sheer bravery of the kitesurfers and windsurfers on their tiny boards, set against well-funded sailboat teams making use of the latest computer and materials technology to design ever more outlandish sailboats. Last year the kitesurfers beat the windsurfers, who had before beaten the sailboats. This year the sailboats have come back roaring, with the Swiss/French sailboat l’Hydroptere setting the world record in September with an astonishing 51.36knots (95kph) at Hyeres off the south coast of France.
Will kitesurfers again achieve high-speed glory on water in this year’s Luderitz Speed Challenge? The refinement of sails, fins, boards and technique continues to take leaps, and the Luderitz speed strip - located in a lagoon on Namibia’s southern coast - provides absolutely ideal conditions for speed sailing. After strong breeze on Monday helped to establish a new Brazilian speed record, light wind is expected for the rest of this first week, so most of the riders are settling back to patiently (but nervously) await the next wind cycle. Via sailing.org
Update from the Ha-Ha
Baja Ha Ha Leg 2: from Turtle Bay to Bahia Santa Maria aboard s/v Hello World
This leg was a *much* easier run than the previous leg. Only two nights at sea and the weather has been great. We left Turtle Bay under spinnaker. No - we hadn't fixed the spinnaker halyard. We tried, unsuccessfully, but left the jib piled in a heap on deck and used the jib halyard to hoist the spinnaker. Hello World really hauls ass under spinnaker. In fact, perhaps a bit too much. We let the wind build a bit too high before dousing and had... let's say an exciting douse. Too much wind to put the jib back up so we sailed under mainsail alone for the rest of the evening before starting the engine.
Day 2's big excitement was landing Hello World's first fish! You may recall Christy caught a couple salmon on the west coast of Vancouver Island but both fish shook off the line before we could land them. This beautiful little dorado was not so lucky. We ate very well that day. Thai satay dorado for lunch and teriyaki dorado steaks for dinner. Burp.
At dawn after the second night out, the sun rose behind Mt. San Lazaro in what had to be the most incredible landfall we've made yet. With the rest of the Baja peninsula hidden behind haze, Cabo San Lorenzo towered up like it's own island. It looked and felt like we were sailing into a south Pacific volcanic island. The terrain here is still green after hurricane Jimena blasted the area with rain a month ago.
No sooner did our anchor hit bottom in Bahia Santa Maria than we were shucking off clothes and hucking ourselves into the 80 degree water. Heaven. We anchored next to the ever kooky gang aboard s/v Stepping Stone so we swam over and invited ourselves onboard their great Maple Leaf 42 (hey Scottie and Kelly - we can't seem to escape the Maple Leaf 42's!). The crew of Stepping Stone are great at catching fish and Sarah has worked in a sushi bar for years so we hung out on their boat while they fed us dorado, big eye tuna, and yellowfin tuna in all sorts of ridonculously great concoctions.
Today, we made a shore landing and hiked perhaps not Mt. San Lorenzo itself but one of it's very high cousins. The three of us sweated and grunted and heaved ourselves to the top along with Sarah from s/v Stepping Stone and Kristin from s/v Allymar. We soaked up incredible views of the 170 boats at anchor below us to the east and the Pacific Ocean to the west.
Tomorrow we leave at 0600 (I guess that's AM?) for Cabo San Lucas and what should be our last overnight run. I'm sure you'll hear me say this again but it's been so great having Kim on board. Having someone crew that you trust to run the boat safely is such a luxury. Christy and I would be absolutely ragged without her. Thanks, Kim!!!
24 46.680N 112 15.037W
This leg was a *much* easier run than the previous leg. Only two nights at sea and the weather has been great. We left Turtle Bay under spinnaker. No - we hadn't fixed the spinnaker halyard. We tried, unsuccessfully, but left the jib piled in a heap on deck and used the jib halyard to hoist the spinnaker. Hello World really hauls ass under spinnaker. In fact, perhaps a bit too much. We let the wind build a bit too high before dousing and had... let's say an exciting douse. Too much wind to put the jib back up so we sailed under mainsail alone for the rest of the evening before starting the engine.
Day 2's big excitement was landing Hello World's first fish! You may recall Christy caught a couple salmon on the west coast of Vancouver Island but both fish shook off the line before we could land them. This beautiful little dorado was not so lucky. We ate very well that day. Thai satay dorado for lunch and teriyaki dorado steaks for dinner. Burp.
At dawn after the second night out, the sun rose behind Mt. San Lazaro in what had to be the most incredible landfall we've made yet. With the rest of the Baja peninsula hidden behind haze, Cabo San Lorenzo towered up like it's own island. It looked and felt like we were sailing into a south Pacific volcanic island. The terrain here is still green after hurricane Jimena blasted the area with rain a month ago.
No sooner did our anchor hit bottom in Bahia Santa Maria than we were shucking off clothes and hucking ourselves into the 80 degree water. Heaven. We anchored next to the ever kooky gang aboard s/v Stepping Stone so we swam over and invited ourselves onboard their great Maple Leaf 42 (hey Scottie and Kelly - we can't seem to escape the Maple Leaf 42's!). The crew of Stepping Stone are great at catching fish and Sarah has worked in a sushi bar for years so we hung out on their boat while they fed us dorado, big eye tuna, and yellowfin tuna in all sorts of ridonculously great concoctions.
Today, we made a shore landing and hiked perhaps not Mt. San Lorenzo itself but one of it's very high cousins. The three of us sweated and grunted and heaved ourselves to the top along with Sarah from s/v Stepping Stone and Kristin from s/v Allymar. We soaked up incredible views of the 170 boats at anchor below us to the east and the Pacific Ocean to the west.
Tomorrow we leave at 0600 (I guess that's AM?) for Cabo San Lucas and what should be our last overnight run. I'm sure you'll hear me say this again but it's been so great having Kim on board. Having someone crew that you trust to run the boat safely is such a luxury. Christy and I would be absolutely ragged without her. Thanks, Kim!!!
24 46.680N 112 15.037W
Tuesday, November 03, 2009
Trip Report
Back in October I posted a video of a foursome sailing the world from Cape Town. I ran into them again on the TripSailor site and they have a cool feature on their blog. On the right side there is a map (or slideshow) with their location on it. If you click the link, Google Earth comes up and shows you their track from home. Along their track are numbers. Click on the number and their adventures come to life in video, pictures and text. What a cool way to document your adventure! Check it out here.
Monday, November 02, 2009
Friday, October 30, 2009
Vid of the Rescue in Baja
Here is some footage of the crew that was rescued during the Baja Ha Ha.
Hopefully you and I will never see the inside of one of these guys. Then again, if we are in this much trouble, it's one thing to look forward to!!
Hopefully you and I will never see the inside of one of these guys. Then again, if we are in this much trouble, it's one thing to look forward to!!
Update from the Ha-Ha
Folks are starting to throw their anchors down on the first planned stop of the Ha Ha. Here is a report from one of the crew on Say Hello World (40' Caliber):
The weather report for this first leg from San Diego to Turtle Bay was for wind. Finally! After motoring this entire Pacific coast, we chose to sail in the forecasted 20 to 25 knots rather than duck into an anchorage like most of the rest of the Baja Ha Ha fleet. Turns out that 20 to 25 knots with an unlimited fetch makes for some spiky seas. We saw pretty consistently 8 to 10 foot swell with a very tight period. Hello World would be just coming down one wave when the next would pick us up. Amongst the 8 to 10 foot swells were a few 12 to 14 foot waves. We saw quite a few that broke behind us. Pucker. Also? Barf.
But we had a great downwind sail - minus all the barfing. In Newport Beach, we finally setup our autopilot to be able to steer to a wind angle instead of just a magnetic heading. This turned out to be a huge boon during this run. We set the sails and autopilot for broad reach and hauled ass down the Baja coast under a reefed main and reefed jib. We made just under hull speed for about 36 hours straight. So this is what sailing is like? Who knew. Over 300 miles on this leg and only 17 hours of motoring.
We are now anchored in Bahia Tortuga surrounded by a crapload of other boats. We haven't gone to shore yet because our dinghy is on deck and we need a halyard to pull it off the deck and drop it in the water. Since our spin halyard is piled at the bottom of the mast, we have to drop a sail to get a halyard down. And right now, we just can't be bothered.
This sailing thing is hard.
27 41.068N 114 53.374W
Check their blog here.
Yesterday a Whale, Today a Dolphin
In yesterday's post a whale took out a sailboat (see below) and today we have a dolphin.
Via Conjuminando.com
Via Conjuminando.com
Thursday, October 29, 2009
Alameda Sailing Yacht Capsizes in Ha Ha
ALAMEDA, Calif. — An MH-60 Jayhawk helicopter crew from Coast Guard Air Station San Diego rescued five people after their sail boat capsized 197 miles southwest of San Diego, Wednesday morning.
The Coast Guard received a distress signal from a 406-MHz Emergency Position Indicating Radio Beacon registered to the Crosswave, a 40-foot sail boat, homeported in Marina Village here, participating in the Baha Ha Ha race, shortly after 10 a.m.
A helicopter was launched from Air Station San Diego, and an HC-130 Hercules aircraft from Air Station Sacramento provided long range coverage.
Once on scene, the helicopter crew found the five people in a life raft, and subsequently hoisted them into the helicopter. The rescued sailors are Eugenie Russell, a Coast Guard licensed master from Alameda, Calif.; Barry Demak, a Coast Guard licensed master from Oakland, Calif.; Raymond Quinn, sailing student; Mark McKinnon, sailing student and Judy Land, sailing student.
One of the rescued individuals had a minor hand injury. All five people arrived safely in San Diego at 4 p.m.
The Baha Ha Ha is sailboat race from San Diego to Cabo San Lucas, Mexico, that began Monday.
The cause of the accident is under investigation. The area where the accident and rescue occurred was experiencing gale force winds.
This is a boat out of the J-World fleet skippered by professionals who are prepared for something like this. Here is a link to their website recruiting folks to pay for the trip. Link. Wonder if they get a refund?
Update: Many of you have probably read the posts this week about the start of the annual Baja Haha race from San Diego to Cabo San Lucas. This race is well attended with nearly 200 boats in the flotilla heading south of here. One of the Sailing vessels had become the attraction of a pod of whales. It is believed that one of the whales had flipped its tail and the tail struck the ruder post damaging the rudder (or removing it). The vessel began taking on water and reportedly sank in 7 minutes. Five people were on board and all had life preservers and a life raft was deployed along with an EPIRB. The vessel was 200 miles south of San Diego when it sank. San Diego area Coast Guard responded and plucked all five from the water and returned them home to SD safe and sound (and wet). The efforts of the Coast Guard were difficult since our area also experienced some very usual high winds yesterday wherein coastal winds were 25-35 knots. All in all a happy ending and a reminder that even an innocuous party fest as the Baja Haha can turn tragic if not taken seriously. This is Grey Whale migrating season and having a pod around you and the associated danger it could pose should be anticipated.
The Coast Guard received a distress signal from a 406-MHz Emergency Position Indicating Radio Beacon registered to the Crosswave, a 40-foot sail boat, homeported in Marina Village here, participating in the Baha Ha Ha race, shortly after 10 a.m.
A helicopter was launched from Air Station San Diego, and an HC-130 Hercules aircraft from Air Station Sacramento provided long range coverage.
Once on scene, the helicopter crew found the five people in a life raft, and subsequently hoisted them into the helicopter. The rescued sailors are Eugenie Russell, a Coast Guard licensed master from Alameda, Calif.; Barry Demak, a Coast Guard licensed master from Oakland, Calif.; Raymond Quinn, sailing student; Mark McKinnon, sailing student and Judy Land, sailing student.
One of the rescued individuals had a minor hand injury. All five people arrived safely in San Diego at 4 p.m.
The Baha Ha Ha is sailboat race from San Diego to Cabo San Lucas, Mexico, that began Monday.
The cause of the accident is under investigation. The area where the accident and rescue occurred was experiencing gale force winds.
This is a boat out of the J-World fleet skippered by professionals who are prepared for something like this. Here is a link to their website recruiting folks to pay for the trip. Link. Wonder if they get a refund?
Update: Many of you have probably read the posts this week about the start of the annual Baja Haha race from San Diego to Cabo San Lucas. This race is well attended with nearly 200 boats in the flotilla heading south of here. One of the Sailing vessels had become the attraction of a pod of whales. It is believed that one of the whales had flipped its tail and the tail struck the ruder post damaging the rudder (or removing it). The vessel began taking on water and reportedly sank in 7 minutes. Five people were on board and all had life preservers and a life raft was deployed along with an EPIRB. The vessel was 200 miles south of San Diego when it sank. San Diego area Coast Guard responded and plucked all five from the water and returned them home to SD safe and sound (and wet). The efforts of the Coast Guard were difficult since our area also experienced some very usual high winds yesterday wherein coastal winds were 25-35 knots. All in all a happy ending and a reminder that even an innocuous party fest as the Baja Haha can turn tragic if not taken seriously. This is Grey Whale migrating season and having a pod around you and the associated danger it could pose should be anticipated.
Wednesday, October 28, 2009
Ha Ha Sets Sail For Cabo
It's an escape from gray cubicle walls for Megan Buechler, a reprieve from pancreatic cancer chemotherapy treatments for Thomas Christensen, a medical school graduation present to themselves for Seth Strattan and Sophie Candille.
To others, it's a retirement party, a family trip, a line on a bucket list.
It is the Baja Ha-Ha, the mostly relaxed but potentially hazardous two-week sailing rally with the ridiculously perfect — or is perfectly ridiculous? — name. Yesterday, smiles washed over sailors' faces in waves.
Nearly 200 boats, hundreds of sailors and a few dogs in life preservers paraded along the glassy water off Shelter Island yesterday morning at the start of the 16th running of one of the world's most popular sailing events.
Billed as the largest offshore sailing event in California and the world's second-largest cruising rally, the party will end nearly 800 miles away in Cabo San Lucas early next month after stops in Turtle Bay and Bahia Santa Maria.
Organizers warn sailors they'll get “the opportunity to have an adventure, not a guarantee of happiness.” The rules, as such, warn entrants that the ocean “exposes mariners to all perils of the sea,” but also contains this caveat: “There shall be no whining! And no sniveling either!”
Read the article here.
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