Arrived at the Noyo River boat basin at about 7:30am. Very foggy on the way in, maybe 100 yard visibility improving as you went toward the highway 1 bridge, so it was find the bouy and then go from bouy to bouy. At the bridge it cleared up. A couple of turns through the narrow river lined with buildings, small piers and fishing boats leads to the Noyo river public marina.
In the previous post, I mentioned a great rounding of Cape Medecino, and it was. For several hours after, the sailing was great. I put of the jib and staysail, winged them out of each side and moved like a freight train on a track. Thor, steered dead down wind in 15 or 20 knots and we moved at 5.5 to 6 knots. After a couple of hours, I noticed some breaking wave tops and bigger waves. We were doing 6 plus knots consistently and 7-8 knots down the face of the waves. Hummm, I think it's blowing harder than 20 knots now. The wind waves were now easily 6-8 feet but flowing under the boat no problem. I knew I needed to reduce the sail area and get the main jib down. Unfortunately when I released the sheet and then the halyard to lower it, it immediatly wrapped itself around the headstay a few times. Took about 20 minutes of fussing and untwisting, but it finally came down. Mind you that this is all on hands and knees because no way are you going stand up in that kind of motion. Anyway, with it down and only the staysail we were still doing 5 and 6 knots and the wind was increasing. I went below to dig out the storm jib. I have been pretty diligent in keeping the hatch boards in and closing the hatch when not going in or out. Good thing. While standing below, theres this big slam on the stern quarter and as I looked out the portlight over the chart table, it's filled with water, and water's spirting in the cracks between the drop boards. I went up to see the last of the water draining out of the cockpit drain and my coffee cup in the cockpit filled with sea water. The boat was still on course and it must have been one of those bigger than normal waves from a little different direction.
At this point, the winds began to moderate a bit, and we continued under staysail. Later in the early morning, the wind really went light and I raised the main to keep some speed up.
Walked around the jetty entrance a bit this afternoon. Very scenic when there's no fog. Pictures when I can find internet.
Taking a look at the weather to round Pt Arena and probably end up in Drakes Bay. That will be about a 26 hour run.
Ed
No comments:
Post a Comment