Captain's Blog
I'm Back Avalon, Safe & Sound. President's Day 07 from Pride Of Cucamonga 2/20/2007 1:36:49 PM (0 comments) Login to Add a CommentI'm Back Avalon, Safe & Sound.
I fulfilled yet another sailing personal challenge over the President's Day weekend. I have wanted to sail to Catalina during the winter time ever since I acquired the "Pride Of Cucamonga" Every year in February we usually get a few days of Indian Summer weather with temps into the high 80's. I usually don't start my sailing to Catalina trips until April. Well we had one of those Indian Summer days last Saturday and I found out at the last minute on Friday that the company was giving us President's Day off, so it was a no brainer, time to sail to Catalina. I knew there was a possibility of rain and 25 knot winds coming by Sunday or Monday but hey, the boat was ready to go so I scrambled to pack her up on Saturday morning and I was heading out of the harbor by 11 am. It was down right hot during the crossing. I took off my shirt and put on the sun block. Not much wind to speak of so I motor sailed all the way and arrived at about 3:30 pm. Pretty good time despite the lack of wind. Avalon was packed. I was able to get a mooring inside the harbor though on the left side of the pier. It was a location I had never been moored at before with a very nice view of every thing. Alas, I had forgot my camera this time so no pics to pass on.
I was pretty tired so I settled in early that night. Had a can of beef stew and watched a little PBS until I fell asleep. The next day (Sunday) I rowed ashore and had a nice breakfast burrito at a joint near the tour bus station. I got a phone call from my friend Sergei. He said that he wanted to bring his cousin who was visiting from Russia over on the Ferry and sail back with me. I agreed and they arrived at about 3:30. We did the usual thing and rented a golf cart and showed Sasha (Sergei's Cousin) the sites. Rained was predicted and it started getting over cast at sunset so we headed back to the Cucamonga for the evening. We all bedded down around 10 pm. We were awakened at about 3:30 the next morning to howling winds and light rain. I checked my wind indicator and it was gusting to about 22 knots in the harbor. When we got up at 7 am things had settled down quite a bit so I suggested we just pick up a coffee and a doughnut ashore and head out. By the time I got the boat ready to go it was pouring rain. I put on my fowlies and covered my crew in all the other jackets I had. The rain let up a bet as we left the harbor at 9 am but the wind had piped up to 17 knots. Of course it was right on our nose for my course back to San Pedro. I tried motor sailing into the wind but we were only making less than 3 knots of head way. I decided to head west along the coast of Catalina for a few miles until I could get a better tack. I went about 5 miles up to White's Point and still no luck getting a reach. The wind was now blowing between 20 - 25 knots. Seas were now between 5 - 7 feet. Pretty rough but fun sailing. We sailed all the way up to Two Harbors, about 15 miles now from Avalon. During this time Sasha had become sea sick. Not bad though but he had to lay down for the rest of the trip. I tried yet another reach to San Pedro and the wind was yet again on our nose. After I made my tack I saw Sergei hanging his head over the side. I thought he was sea sick, but no, he was washing blood off his face with salt water. Apparently when I asked him to get on the other side of the cockpit when I made my tack he fell face first into a jib cleat. He had a deep cut in the corner of his mouth and said all his teeth were loose. I asked if he wanted me to take him to a Doctor at Two Harbors he said no he would wait until we got to the mainland. I felt very bad. This was the first serious accident I have ever had on my Ericson.
So we slowly plugged along motor sailing at less than four knots four about 2 hours. Finally with in less than 5 miles of the mainland I was able to sail. We had left Avalon at 9 am and didn't get back to my slip until about 5 pm. That's eight hours we spent beating it back. I swear the wind had changed direction at least 180 degrees or more over the course of the day. During the night at Avalon it was blowing from the south, the next morning from the east and then by the end of the day it was coming from the normal north west.
I just thought I would share this winter sailing experience. I am very tired and sore today, but hey it sure beats sitting in front of a TV. I think I lost a couple pounds. That's good. It was worth it to show a Russian my sailing world for his first trip to America! Sasha is still thanking me!
Skipper Jeff
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