San Francisco Bay

We finally "escaped" Alameda Monday morning (actually, we like Alameda).  Thought we'd try anchoring at Angel Island  at Winslow Cove (mooring buoys at Ayala Cove are $30/night -- too steep for us).  Anchorage seemed nice until we got hit by the CONSTANT ferry wakes!  Tsunami-like breaking waves that would toss us around holding on for dear life -- from 630am until 930pm - - Oh come on.  Got out of there early next morning.  

Headed to Clipper Cove on Treasure Island - -  nice spot,  protected (waves wise)  from westerlies.  Watched Americas Cup in a pub... but winds picked up so we felt we should be back on board Pelagia.  Were we glad we did.  Winds got up to 30 knots... then a friends' boat dragged anchor right on to us (they were not on their boat, having gone into the city).  Thankfully,  we got our fenders out just in the nick of time.  No harm done.  We re-anchored and,  happily for them,  their boat stayed put (in our original spot).  guide books say there are some "soft" spots on the bottom -- guess they found one.

Next day was calmer as we watched OracleUSA beat EmiratesNZ  - -  see what money can buy you?  Then Oracle had the big (BIG!) loud  party on Treasure Island... :-( 

Headed over to Sausalito and picked upmooring buoy at the Sausalito Yacht Club.  Nice place .  But very rolly moorage (still,  no tsunami wakes). Michelle woke up this morning singing "rock-a-bye baby...".

Pelagia at Sausalito Yacht Club

Pelagia at Sausalito Yacht Club

Will rent a car today for the weekend - -  roadtrip!

VANCOUVER to SAN FRANCISCO: The culprit (of our steering problems)

Here it is, the cause of our steering problems:

Bad seals on cylinder shaft

The seals on our Wagner cylinder were nearly gone -- especially on one side. Amazing the system steered reasonably well (under power). But totally understandable why the rudder couldn't hold under any weather helm when sailing. Seal on right side looks more like a wrapping of electrical tape rather than a double-lipped rubber seal.

Rodney at Svenson's Boatyard thinks the seal on right side of the shaft may have been damaged when it was installed. We'll never know.

New seals and all seems good now.

A short sail out in San Francisco Bay (sea trial of steering fix)

Yes, it is true, we went sailing yesterday!

Our hydraulic steering was deemed (and seemed) "fixed" by Svenson's late Friday, so we decided to do a sea trial on Saturday and perhaps catch an America's Cup race.

Success on the first: the steering worked fine, even with weather helm while sailing (admittedly, we only had 10-15 knots of wind, so not much weather helm). Yeah! It turned out to be a nice sail out under the SF-Oakland Bay Bridge along treasure Island. Tons of boats out for the AC race.

Sailing towards SF Bay Bridge

Happy Admiral -- the steering works!

Skipper is happy too!

As for the AC 72 racing... as usual, the race was postponed because of weather. Previous cancellations were because of "too much" wind (25 knots corrected for current is max), or because the race took more than 40 minutes (not enough wind). Saturday it was because the wind was in the wrong direction. Huh? We had a nice sail; seemed fine to us.

Emirates-NZ AC72 speeding back to base (outpacing the speed boats!)

The AC 72s are pretty spectacular -- more like airplanes on the water -- but seaworthy they are not. Too many postponed and abandoned races due to "weather". The America's Cup will become interesting again if/when it returns to its roots.

Back in Alameda, we are provisioning today and will settle-up with Svenson's Monday morning and actually try to go cruising in SF Bay Monday.

Repairs in exotic places... we must be cruising!

OK,  Alameda is not exactly "exotic" (but it is a nice,  friendly and relaxed place).

We have done a number of fixes/improvements,  but we are still shut down trying to figure out/repair our hydraulic steering.  (Rebuilt helm pump but slipping still a problem.  Now will rebuild ram/cylinder. Fingers crossed.)

No idea when we will be done.

VANCOUVER to SAN FRANCISCO: Some photos Neah Bay to SF

Rounding Cape Flattery (11am, Sept 2, 2013)

Off-watch snooze

On watch

Reefing

Our very experienced crew (Jim)

Bad weather coming...

During the gales, we were too "involved" to think of taking photos.... In retrospect, too bad.

Golden Gate Bridge (~1pm, Sept 9, 2013)

Golden Gate "Lucky Hats" (a gift from Jim)

VANCOUVER TO SAN FRANCISCO: Our route in detail

For those interested, here is a detailed graphic of our route from Neah Bay to San Francisco.

Pelagia's route (September, 2013)

(If anyone is interested, we can send a gpx or kmz file.)


In retrospect, if we were to do this again, we would stay within 40-60 nm offshore (as we did on SV Sapphire in 2012):

• winds within 60nm of shore were significantly less than we experienced (while we experienced 35 knot winds, closer to shore winds were 20-25 knots)
• <60nm is far enough out to be away from fishing fleets and traffic, but close enough to head in to harbour should a major blow (such as we experienced) be predicted

VANCOUVER to SAN FRANCISCO: (recap) Neah Bay to San Francisco Days 5 to 7: Gales, steep seas & steering problems

We had 48 hours of gales and steep seas off of the southern Oregon/northern California coasts. It was not fun, and made much worse by concern over problems with our hydraulic steering.

The forecast called for 20-30kn NW winds, with a warning of "steep hazardous seas".


COASTAL WATERS FORECAST
NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE MEDFORD, OR
259 AM PDT FRI SEP 6 2013
COASTAL WATERS FROM FLORENCE OREGON TO POINT ST. GEORGE CALIFORNIA
AND WESTWARD 60 NM.

PZZ376-061600-
WATERS FROM CAPE BLANCO OR TO PT. ST. GEORGE CA FROM 10 TO 60 NM-
259 AM PDT FRI SEP 6 2013
..SMALL CRAFT ADVISORY FOR WINDS IN EFFECT FROM 2 PM PDT THIS
AFTERNOON THROUGH SATURDAY AFTERNOON...
..SMALL CRAFT ADVISORY FOR HAZARDOUS SEAS IN EFFECT FROM 2 PM
PDT THIS AFTERNOON THROUGH SATURDAY EVENING...
..GALE WATCH IN EFFECT FROM SATURDAY AFTERNOON THROUGH TUESDAY
EVENING...
..HAZARDOUS SEAS WATCH IN EFFECT FROM SATURDAY EVENING THROUGH
TUESDAY EVENING...

WeatherFax for Sept 10, 2013: Surface and Wind/Wave(m) forecasts

By 3pm, the winds had built to 20 knots; at 430pm, seas were building and winds were 24-27 knots. By 9pm. we had winds up to 38 knots with steep confused seas (12 feet with 7 second period!), sailing under mostly furled yankee only. Fin our Hydrovane was having significant trouble holding course, and we found our hydraulic steering was significantly slipping with any weather helm sailing. We decided to run under bare poles with the autopilot holding course while we made 5 knots. There were definite times we (or, at least, some of us) feared for ours and Pelagia's safety! 

Next day was supposed to decrease to 20-25 knots. However, that night, we again had gale-force winds up to 36 knots and large seas. A lousy night. We kept the motor on due to our concern for the hydraulic steering. We also had Fin steer while motoring for about 12 hours -- but we stopped that after the Hydrovane rudder tube was found to have turned a bit off centre (turns out, the bolts all needed tightening: note for future routine maintenance).

By Day 7, winds and seas were down considerably. Such a relief! Nevertheless, concerned over the hydraulic steering, we motored on to Pt. Reyes, arriving at Drakes Bay in thick fog at 11:45pm.

Regardless of the late night, anchored in Drakes Bay, we quickly caught up on or "state-line" rums, plus a "few" more.

After arrival in San Francisco Bay, we headed to Alameda to arrange repairs. We were exhausted and needed days to catch up. (But at least our underwear were clean.... ;-)

The first 3-4 days of the trip were a good, albeit rough, sail. The last 3 had bad weather (gales and hazardous seas), significant equipment issues, fog and way too much motoring. The three of us -- David, Michelle and crew Jim -- did well together. We were very fortunate to have Jim join us as (very experienced) crew: Thank you Jim!