Sailing to Weather

Gentlemen never sail to weather. And they don't get anywhere that isn't downwind. Fair winds and following seas. In what world is that? We had a tough time with Arguello and Conception, but Points Sur/Lobos/Pinos knocked us on our butts. Of course, not a gentleman in sight, so we came back fighting.

In fact, we had no choice, as the wind really started screaming about 12 miles below Point Sur just before dark. We quickly got out the Coast Pilot, just to make sure that there was no safe haven available to us, and Pfeiffer Point was our only choice. It's iffy protection at best, and since the National Weather Service and Sailflow had both forecast something far more mild than what we were experiencing, we decided to stick it out and wait for the wind to moderate. Hindsight is wonderful, but we should have run for Pfeiffer and had a rough night at anchorage. Instead, we had a LONG all hands on deck night, trading off the helm as it was far too rough for the autopilot. The only way to make headway was with the engine RPMs cranked up, and the main alone double reefed. We tried to sail, the boat was beyond overwhelmed, and knocked down by both the wind and waves, crashing through seas that were almost on our beam. Scary. So we chose to use the motor. From 3 p.m. on Saturday until we pulled into Monterey at 4 a.m. Sunday, we were at war with the ocean, and it seemed as if it could win. About 35 miles in 13 hours, not a great pace, but we made it. The other choices available to us were to run back downwind to San Simeon, which we had left at 4 a.m. that morning, or to try and heave to in the heavy seas and wind. Our only choice when heaving to would have been to head further out to sea, into yet heavier winds, and that was not an option.

The boat took a beating, water everywhere, starting from the windlass and chain locker at the bow, through the hatches, portlights, mast step, companionway.....painful. Brand new down pillows soaked (I know they have no place on a boat, don't say it) and rugs squishy, all my clothing and bedding in the v-berth was wet, a really unpleasant scene. But on the good news side, in spite of a huge amount of creaking and groaning, rigging whistling, Pearl came through damp but unfazed by the pounding. Can't say the same for me though. If I hadn't had a stellar crew, I think I would have run all the way back to San Diego. Leigh and Mara both put in hours on the wheel, Mara was particularly impressive as she had never seen water like that before and had never had heavy weather steering expeience. Leigh and I have both rounded Cape Horn and crossed the Drake's Passage to Antarctica, so this was familiar territory to us. Paul was quite seasick, but stayed up in the cockpit and pitched in when he was needed in spite of feeling horrible. The worst of it was lack of sleep for me, I had been up since 4 a.m. in the morning, and the burden of being skipper and decision maker was a huge one. I made it though, although I think I don't want to ever get pushed beyond the stress level of Point Sur.

The worst moment came when the engine alarm came on, thank goodness just after we had rounded into Monterey Bay and were out of the heavy wind. The engine had been pushed at high rpm's for 24 hours, and had burned through enough oil to lower the oil pressure. I think it would have been fair if I had just sat down and cried, but Paul and I put about a quart and a half of oil into the Westerbeke, restarted it, and we were able to get into the Monterey Municipal Marina for the night. This morning we checked the oil level, added more, checked the oil pressure, bought a gallon more oil as a reserve, and we're off and running again.

I think the weather gods think we got enough abuse, and our first couple of hours of sailing were on a beam acorss Monterey Bay at 7 knots. The forecast (we don't believe forecasts) is for 15 knots and less from the south, all the way to the bay, then an easterly to push us off from getting home. I hope to be able to write a nice, gentle post tomorrow, from dry land. No more adventure is needed!