Three Bridge Fiasco Blogger Division – THE PLAN

Zen reminded me in a comment that perhaps there should be a plan. I was so wrapped up in my own preparations for the Three Bridge Fiasco, I kind of forgot the Blogger Division.

it didn't even occur to me until just now to check out Zen's Blog. I even forgot to check out EVK4’s post. Zen, if you read this email me at cptnjhn@gmail.com - I didn't figure out until just now that your boat won't be involved.

So completely off the top of my head, at the last minute, here is the PLAN:

If you are entered in the race itself, leave a comment on this post, or on EVK4’s post that links back to a post on your blog that identifies the boat you are on and its type and sail number.

Readers can then check out the Single Handed Sailing Society’s web page and figure out your start time. They can go to the Golden Gate Yacht Club, or any other place on the city front tomorrow to cheer and jeer your start and finish.

If you are not entered in the race, but are part of the Blogger Shadow Fleet Division, leave a comment here, link back to your post that describes your intentions. Be sure to identify your boat so others can smile or curse for your camera as you sail by.

Rules:

#1 Have Fun
#2 Don’t get run over
#3 Don’t run over someone
#4 Comment here before and after so readers of this Blog can find your posts.


I haven’t figured out how to place a link in a comment, so you can find the boat I’ll be on here. Notice the fine appointments below deck. The ‘marine sanitation device’ is not shown, but it is in its own cabin (i.e. bathroom, with running water no less). There is a stereo, and an actual navigation station with lots of dials and switches. There is no internet connection, so I won’t be Blogging as I go. There is a sink with running water (if I can figure out which switch to throw). The Admiral is my crew for the event, so I expect she’ll make me wear the hat.

Have fun.

TBF Preparations (5), The Tides - A River Runs Through It

“In this mix of theory and empirical experience, theory works rather well for predicting tides at ocean ports, where the rebound of the tidal wave- bouncing off the continent – is relatively uncomplicated. Inside the San Francisco Bay and Delta, experience plays a larger hand: the tide wave bounds and rebounds from crooks and islands, and shallows. It meets the flow of sixteen rivers and, all together, they play some pretty tricks.”

Kimball Livingston, Sailing the Bay, 1st edition

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(B)log . . .

None for this post, I’m setting aside the journal entries to focus on the TBF Preparations
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(B)log comments

No Comment
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My Blog . . .

My preparation for the Three Bridge Fiasco (TBF) continues.

Part of this post is about my thoughts Saturday afternoon, January 10th. The Admiral and I took some time between the sailing excursion earlier that day and a very special moonlight sail planned for that night. We hung out in the north classroom and poured over Kimball's book, Chapman, and used the white boards to diagram the different forces that cause the Tidal Flows throughout the Bay and Delta.
The Tidal Currents of SF Bay take the form of a massive and swift flowing river; one whose existence is very temporal. It comes into being, lives and dies out over the course of less than an hour.

The Flooding tidal wave meets the flow of cold water coming down from the snow capped mountains to the East, mixed with the tidal Ebb currents.

An epic battle is waged, and the warmer pacific waters drive the colder mountain water to the bottom of the straights where it continues to flow westward surrounded by a confused sea that attempts to corral it.

These warmer waters only holding sway for a few hours or minutes.

Sometimes the cold bottom flow rises up and spreads out over the surface, forming a glassy, moving spectacle of its own. In general, the upwelling is clear and cold. Except when it’s not.

In the summer, the waters flowing down from the mountains are warm and muddy and the pattern is reversed, the cooler pacific waters forced to the bottom.

Sure, understanding the motions of the Earth, Moon and Sun in relation to each other is very helpful as background information when reading what Kimball describes as the “Most Misread Book in Town”. But that book only addresses when, how much, and in which direction the flow of water through specific points is predicted to occur.

To go beyond this generality, the first time I saw this spectacle of the river running through Raccoon Straights helped me visualize the massive amount of water spilling into and out of the bay from different directions: surging along the bottom and banks of the contours of the basin and gorges that lie below the surface.

Since those contours are hidden below the surface, and only suggested by the form of the land that breaks that surface, we are left with the patterns that this flow etches on the surface as it interacts with the flow of air along it. Reading the water is a skill that comes to the sailor on San Francisco Bay slowly. It only comes through constant observation when sailing along that surface and paying attention to it.

To the vast majority of boaters, it goes by unnoticed. To the dedicated bay sailor, it is the book that is read whenever the eye scans the wind, waves and water they transit, rain or shine, sun or moonlight, fog or starlight.

How to explain this as an answer to the Admiral’s questions about the action of the Earth, Moon and Sun?

We shut down the computers, close the books, gather up everything and head for the boat to meet the Full Moon at it’s closest approach in many years. The talk is that the moon of Jan. 10th, 2009, will be 30% brighter than normal.

We'll see.

Closer to when I'm posting this, I dug out my "Tidal Current Charts - San Francisco Bay". These used to be published by NOAA and NOS. They basically gave up. Miniature versions are sometimes included in Tide Logs and Tide Booklets.

The sales sticker on the front cover of my set reads: "Jun 77 $4.00".

I bought my set over 30 years ago!

I'm scanning in the appropriate parts for the TBF. In Microsoft Word, I'm calculating the expected Currents for each segment of the TBF. Text Boxes with the calculated values are being superimposed over the 'nominal' values.

So the situation is this. The Flood starts at the start of the race.

Which way to go?

I still think it will be determined by the weather. How much wind and where it's coming from. The weather will determine how long we are out there, and when we'll be going between Red Rock and Yerba Buena.

Either way, go to the Golden Gate first.

If we have wind, the whole race will be in Flood. The chart I'm posting tells the tale.

If it's a south or west wind, and there is plenty of it, go to Yerba Buena after The Golden Gate, and ride the slight Flood up to Red Rock with the spinnaker flying. There are lots of ways to handle the building and waning flood when there is a strong south or west wind, and get back to the cityfront. Going through Raccoon Straights and hugging the shore of Angel Island is one of them, (Knox will be slack around 5 PM), and then you dash across the strong current between Alcatraz and Aquatic Park and short tack along the cityfront to get to the line.

If we don't have much wind and are likely to be pushing the time limit, then it's ride what little Flood there is to Red Rock after the Gate. This will clearly be my strategy if it's a Northerly wind.

Fight it to Yerba Buena as a downwind leg, staying East of the ship channel, and then ride the start of the Ebb to the finish line.

At 4:50 PM, Three Hours after the Max Flood, the Ebb is established along the cityfront, the 'rebound' from the South Bay is in full swing and water is flowing South to North. At 5:50 PM, it is two hours before Max Ebb, and all of the water is now heading towards the gate.

The two charts above are shown without the calculated flows.

This is all just a theory, just a best guess. I still don't know exactly how to interpret the role that declination has in creation of a 'diurnal inequality', that 'do not permit the selection of the proper chart'.

So NOA has spoken in black and white on the inside cover of the June 28, 1973 chart sleeve.

Jan. 31st has the moon just one day away from it's first quarter, and the resulting neap tide. Does this mean that the moon is in the tropic of Cancer? I'm searching Wikipedia for the answer, but it doesn't leap out at me.

Has the warm weather of January increased the icy downriver flow? Will the Ebb make itself known earlier? Will the rain over the last several days add to the snowmelt and increase the downriver flow? The flow plays tricks.

"Watch the Water" is the only way to know for sure.

The Admiral and I went sailing during the most dramatic Full Moon in many years (the 3rd sail of the year), which produced a very dramatic Tide Range, and went out again for our 4th sail during a light wind day and to compare the ripples of our wake at about 1 knot of boat speed with the ripples of the wake of Bell Buoy #2 off of Treasure Island Three Hours after the Maximum Flood with a similar flow rate.

Preparing for the TBF is a fun way to experience the vast number of things that a serious sailor must understand and react to in order to get the most out of Sailing The Bay.

TBF Preparations (4) - Weather . . . Again?

“As the system passes, winds shift to the north or west, again with considerable velocity.“

Kimball Livingston, Sailing the Bay, 1st edition
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(B)log . . .

None for this post, I’m setting aside the journal entries to focus on the TBF Preparations

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(B)log comments

No Comment

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My Blog . . .

My preparation for the Three Bridge Fiasco (TBF) continues.

Still focused on the weather. Yes, Edward, the tides are important, and I’ll be posting on that soon, but the tides rise and fall in cycles, and the weather is much, much, more unpredictable.

Today we are smack dab between Low Pressure to the East and High Pressure to the West, with lots of moisture in the air, and cold (the wet cold) temperatures.


It will be very interesting if the High Pressure moves to the East of us by next Saturday. We’ll have the warm Northeasterly flow that we had two weeks ago.

Right now we have a more typical Westerly.

TBF Preparations (3) - Computer Hard Drive Upgrade

“SET OUT ONE CLEAR eve for a sail west, with a westerly breeze to stir the sails and the downtown towers flashing gold astern. Let the gentlest of chop lick the leeward rail.“

Kimball Livingston, Sailing the Bay, 1st edition

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(B)log . . .

None for this post, I’m setting aside the journal entries to focus on the TBF Preparations
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(B)log comments

No Comment
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My Blog . . .

My preparation for the Three Bridge Fiasco (TBF) continues.

One of those preparations is to upgrade the hard drive on my laptop from 88 Gigs to 298 Gigs. I got a copy of EZ GIG II and bought a Western Digital 320 Gig drive (you never get all the Gigs on the box).

I was down to 2 Gigs with the old drive and had a 100 Gig external drive full up, with backed up files and other files I'd moved off to make room. It was getting to be a hassle. There are about 27 tiny screws on my Sony Vaio 17" laptop (it has a sweet screen), and once you get ready to pop the top, you have to pry it off of the 'snaps' under the hinge for the screen. Talk about terror! I have visions of cracking the case every time I do this.

The worst is over, I now have about 200 Gigs of free space, and only about 60 Gigs of files to transfer onto the new drive from various external hard drives - once I figure out what files are duplicated. For some reason, they are coming over very, very slowly from what appears to be a USB 1.0 bottleneck. I know I have 2.0, but have all day and am not inclined to figure it out.

I'm going to spend this slow time on a slow day to bask in the glow of not cracking the case and having excess bytes to fill.

I have several posts in DOC files to get up on the blog, and some more TBF prep work to do.



I've made a lot of progress on my reading, as the Excel Graph now shows, I've read ALL of EVK4, and Sailing the Bay with CJ. Tilly will get his turn soon. Reader will keep me up to date on an ongoing basis from now on with the first two. I'm also up to chapter 23 of Chapman, Marlinspike Seamanship. 795 pages out of 928!


When I get all the files transferred, I'm going to download Google Earth, install MapSource, and finish my post(s) on the Tides.

TBF Preparations (2) - Wind and Weather

“Our most variable season is winter – not the calendar winter, but the months from November through February“

Kimball Livingston, Sailing the Bay, 1st edition

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(B)log . . .

None for this post, I’m setting aside the journal entries to focus on the TBF Preparations
______________________________

(B)log comments

No Comment
______________________________

My Blog . . .

My preparation for the Three Bridge Fiasco (TBF) continues.

To understand the TBF, check out EVK4's post on the subject.

I went to bed (Jan. 12th) with the howl of the Northeast wind threatening to dislodge my son’s Dish Network hardware from the corner of the roof just above my head. I went to sleep dreaming that it took the corner of the roof off, just like those Midwest videos of Tornados ripping houses apart. I’ll welcome the next earthquake, as long as I wake up to a house with a roof over my head. Even if the books that were on my shelves are now on my floor.

This morning I awoke with a roof over my head. The KTVU newscast came on when I turned the TV on, so I guess the dish is still on the roof, pointed in the same direction.

I like KTVU. The station is next to the water, so the roof top cameras show the weather on the bay. Nice. Very nice since it’s January and the temps are forecast to be in the 70’s (who can go sailing with me?).

And, it’s going to stay that way for the rest of the week.

So I updated the links on my BLOG homepage to get my readers to the surface analysis website and also to the SJSU Real Time Streaklines Animation.

As I drove to work, I paid special attention to the direction the flags were flying, and the trees were bending.

High pressure areas have clockwise airflows, they counter rotate relative to storm systems, which rotate around low pressure areas.

Today we have an oblong double high over the far Northern California and Nevada areas. KTVU says the weather will be dominated by the high pressure systems for at least the next 10 days.



This is winter in Northern California, in the shadow of the weather systems, highs and lows, that pass to the north, or right overhead. Or sometimes roar down from the gulf of Alaska, following the coastline until they surprise Hollywood with some natural drama.

But today as I write this (Jan 13th), there is a tight grouping of isobar lines on the southwest side of this oblong. Draw an arrow perpendicular to these lines, and it points straight at San Francisco Bay. Mother Nature has her own way of playing Cupid. That arrow delivers warm weather – and lots of warm wind.

I guess it’s her way of playing nice after a month of seasonal temperatures.

There is a low pressure trough hugging the coast line, creating a trench for the warm, high pressure air to slip over the edge of that trench and try to fill the relative vacuum of the low pressure.

This trough is shown on the charts as a dotted line.

That is the story that the surface analysis tells; the explanation for God’s distaste for the Dish.

Further out, there is a low pressure system shown as a tight grouping of concentric isobars. Between that and us is a grouping of smaller low pressure systems backed up between 135W and 165W, with two of them tucked into the Gulf of Alaska.

It’s now Jan. 20th. We’ve been blessed by warm weather and though the winds have been light, there have been some spectacular (for winter!) sailing days. Charlie Bergstedt’s Blog is a fantastic record of this weather as the low pressure systems have sorted themselves out, but haven’t pushed the High pressure Eastward . . . yet.

His pictures of yesterday's sunset tell the tale - an approaching line of clouds makes for a brilliant sunset, and signals the approach of a cold front.

The surface analysis now shows a series of weather systems lined up like impatient crowds at an inauguration on a cold day in DC, waiting for the speeches to begin, then waiting for them to end, then waiting for the trains to get them out of there.

The TBF is now about 11 days away. Today’s Intellicast Mixed Surface Analysis image shows the approaching cloud cover pushed up against the trough that hugs the coast line. There is an informational page associated with it that explains what the symbols mean. There is a series of large cold fronts with very short warm fronts associated with each of these weather systems stacked up across the Pacific.

What I’m looking and hoping for is an Occluded Cyclone to develop – a warm front ahead of a cold front, poised off of the bay area the day of the TBF. Should that happen, we can expect a warm South Wind to prevail, creating a long spinnaker run from Yerba Buena Island to Red Rock.

Hope springs eternal.

As each of the low pressure systems approach, I’ll start keeping track of whether they form such a system, how long they take to get here, and how wide they are. This will help estimate just what sort of weather we’ll have 11 days from now.

I’ll pay particular attention to the streakline images associated with the different phases of the approaching low pressure systems.

They talk about a ‘storm door’ opening to let these systems flow on shore.

We’ll see.

Sailing Against the Wind

“An all too frequent expectation is that the tide will turn first in the middle of the Bay. Instead, whether the tide is high or low, the first fingers of the new tide currents will form in a narrow ribbon along the San Francisco city front; later, similar thin bands of current will form along the Marin shore.“

Kimball Livingston, Sailing the Bay, 1st edition
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(B)log . . .

On Sunday the 22nd of November we were off at dawn for our beat up the channel up into La Paz Bay. The fishing boat that had anchored near us during the night had preceded us by about fifteen minutes and stood our into the Gulf, apparently for a a days fishing. We had our motor on, went past Point Pedrico and close to a point that is know as La Ventana. From there we got the full force of the northerly blow that had been stirring up the waters of the gulf for days. The seas were only about eight or ten feet hight, but they were extremely close together and were extremely rough* rough in character. When the bow of the boat would break through one into another, she would come to a shuddering stop. We would have to fall off the wind, then get up our speed and do it all over again. We kept the motor running all day for it was only by this means that we cold make any headway at all.
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(B)log comments

I have, of course, typed ahead, but am only placing this morsel in front of my readers. Balancing all that I want to write about is not easy. In future posts, I’ll chart my Grandfathers passage northward to La Paz, and his entry into that harbor (with charts! – I can’t wait!). The Journal is now getting very descriptive of he sailing and the condition of the water and coastline and sailing from one place to another, with islands, and rocks and harbors, and mmmmm . . .

Sailing is about balance, and sometimes not quite getting that balance right. When the balance is off, you don’t make much headway.
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My Blog . . .

Kimball writes about the tide, Dr. Holcomb is writing about the wind. My second sail in 2009 was about both, and new acquaintances.

My mind has been on racing of late, on the TBF in particular. OCSC does, or has done, timed circuit racing in J105s in the past. I fully intend to rally the Admiral, grab some crew and participate in this in the future.

But I’m getting ahead of myself.

A crewlist notice appeared early in Jan:

"Happy New Year,

My friends and I are looking for 2-3 sailors to join us for a spinnaker sail on a J105 on Saturday, Jan 10. Crew size will be 4 (or 5 max). We'll sail 9-3ish (early stop due to Saturday's low minus tide). We'll eat lunch on board between sets. We can accommodate a range of experience levels, but are looking for a solid commitment for the day. "

Oh boy! That sounds like the group that does timed circuit racing!

I quickly responded and got on the crew. I let the Admiral know, and she got on the crew as well, Nature Girl signed on, and we all anticipated a great experience. I crossed my fingers that I could talk the group into allowing me to be ‘Skipper of Record’ on one of the boats, and take it out again that night for a moonlight sail.

It turned out that I had to keep my fingers crossed up until Sat. morning. The organizer of the group didn’t think it was ok, and I didn’t know until I met the fellow who was going to skipper the boat the Admiral and I were assigned to. Nature Girl was assigned to the other boat.

That fellow was Mr. G.

A German born gentleman, with the emphasis on Gentle. He’s been an OCSC member for more then 20 years, and the rest of the crew consisted of a group of friends who’ve been sailing for years. The Admiral and I were newcomers.

Speaking of the Admiral, she’d driven down from Redding that morning, and didn’t arrive until 10:15 am, about 20 minutes after the first boat, Tenacity (Y- in the fleet lettering system) with the Organizer and Nature Girl, had already departed. Mr. G was very cool about it; was in fact, quite understanding. Both about her tardiness, and my desire to do the moonlight sail that evening.

I could relax my fingers.

The group on board The Four ‘C’s (R – in the fleet lettering system), the J105 we were taking out, was one of the nicest collection of sailors I’ve had the privilege to enjoy a day on the water with.

We headed out and motored for a little while to get to a steady wind that enabled us to set the sails and chase Tenacity under sail. Some sailors would get very completive and motor right up to the other boat before sailing with them.

Mr. G, did the classy thing. Motored to within about a half a mile astern, set sail and then tried to catch up under wind power alone.

Tenacity headed northwest under spinnaker and we followed, but stayed to leeward in the ship channel, to enjoy some of the (very) last flood. The very light wind was coming from almost due north.

Some calls were made, and both boats decided to try to reach some steadier wind in the central bay.

This, incidentally, placed us ahead of Tenacity. So we confidently sailed into a hole that should not have been there, and ate some humble pie. We thought we’d beat Tenacity around the Island if we stayed to the East of Angel Island and caught the beginning of the ebb in the ship channel. How a hole would occur on the North East corner of Angel Island with a North wind, was counter intuitive, but important to remember.



We abandoned our well laid (but foolish) plans, and in the face of reality, jibed over and headed into Raccoon straits, having completely given up our advantage.

We were once again chasing Tenacity’s tail.

Then Tenacity sailed into a hole of their own near Point Knox and we caught up to them and passed them.

I’m a bit new to this idea of racing, but not racing. Catching up and passing, then having the ‘race’ course change at the whim of the other boat. They were down wind (we now had a southeasterly) and behind, so they just headed west towards the Golden Gate Bridge.

Now we were behind.

So we followed the leader, and sailed right out into a 6 knot ebb under the gate with about 9 knots of wind, coming at this time from the North East. We dropped the chute and started sailing against both the wind and the tide.

There is a saying in San Francisco.

“So the photographer’s all chipped in . . . and built a bridge”

Pretty apt.

It’s January 10th, we’ve got a WARM North East wind, and we are sailing under the Golden Gate Bridge in a J105 in our shirt sleeves.

Taking pictures.

Tilly, are you thinking the Left Coast is the Right Coast?

It is in January. You can go sailing in shirtsleeves, touch the Pacific Ocean, get up a little early and be skiing at 9000 ft the next morning before lunch.

So we turned around at the tide rip next to the South Tower (a sure sign that you’ve got early Flood on the city front).

We sailed upwind to Blackhaller, then short tacked the city front in the opposite direction from that which it is famous for.



I’m updating this, but left my external hard drive at work, so I don’t have the chart to show it. (groan) – I’ll come back tomorrow to this post and put up the chart.

San Francisco, and the St. Francis Yacht Club in particular, is very well known in racing circles for weather legs of courses that involve short tacking up the city front. You tack every 100 yards or so, and try to be the boat that goes closest to the shore.

The narrow ribbon of new tide currents start several hours before the ‘slack water’ that is shown on current charts. In particular is the situation where there is a 6 knot flood tide in the shipping channels, and a hundred yards of early ebb traveling up along the shore from Fort Mason past the Golden Gate Yacht club, then St. Francis, then Crissy Field, to escape through the shallows that exist between Fort Point and the south tower of the Golden Gate bridge.

When the ebb is running at it’s max flow, there is a narrow ribbon of flood, and a yacht race that has Blackhaller as it’s final weather mark and St. Francis as it’s finish line will have a spectacular parade of boats with spinnakers flying as they vie for the closest track along the shore.

On this day, we had the unusual East wind, with a strong Ebb tide. So we headed for shore and short tacked from West to East to stay in the early flood. Just to demonstrate how strong the Ebb was, we ventured outward from the shore at he A-B marks off of St. Francis Yacht Club. The GPS track showed that we made no headway in the light wind. Retreating back to the shore, we continued our way Eastward.

I've just started using Google Earth and imported the Garmin Track to it.

East of the yacht clubs is a region where there is a shelf about 20 feet below the low tide level. This sandy shelf extends about 10 yards off the rocks of the breakwater. It results in a situation where your shoreward tack is within one boat length of water breaking on the rocks. It’s exciting as you come in and tack smartly this close to the breakwater. You watch the depth gage and see the depth jump up from 40 to 35 to 30 to . . . 20! And TACK! Quickly!

In a race, everyone knows this and when it looks like the inward boat is right on top of the rocks, everyone tacks to give that boat room to avoid going up on the rocks. And every outward boat knows that the next shoreward boat just gained several boat lengths on them in the race as they tack back outward to give that boat room and are themselves forced into the current.

One Kayak after another passed us and we realized that a race of the paddling sort was underway. The kayakers themselves were sticking to a few yards off the rocks to stay in the favorable current. Their turning mark was positioned just off of Fort Mason. So by giving way here and there, we managed to avoid getting in their way, at least most of the time. We had to perform a weird maneuver when we found ourselves at their mark at the same time several kayaker’s were rounding it.

We made our way against the wind. The most extreme tidal range (-1.9) was going to close the Berkeley Marina to us if we didn’t get back there before 3:30 pm. So after making our way up to Aquatic Park, we began motor sailing across the shipping channel and into the tide cone of Alcatraz. We eventual lowered the sails and got back just after 3:30, with all eyes on the depth gauge as we passed through the breakwater.

A nice after sail get together in the club room included setting up the computer and downloading photos to share. The crews of both boats exchanged the thoughts that propelled them to make their course choices, and some understanding of the whimsy was shared by all.

What Price Freedom?

$30/month

Seems I had unlimited data service on my ATT phone.

There was a tidbit fed to me as I nodded my head and agreed to the $30 unlimitied data service: that I could use my new phone as a modem for my laptop?

Well, that was something I filed away for future reference a year ago. I took it out today, dusted it off, and called ATT.

I wanted to thrust off the chains that bound me to the corporate giant that issues me a paycheck (and the scrutiny of their IT goons). So I discovered that for (only) $30 a month in addition to the unknown cost of my existing unlimited data plan, I could in fact download some software, sign up (ATT was more than willing given that it will net them $360 this year alone), and transmit and receive.

This blog now comes to you from my mind to my fingertips, through the keys of my very personal laptop and courtesy of the USB Bus, through my phone and thence, to the world.

Provided I pay my monthly bill on time.

Captain John

Chapman and Charts

(B)log . . .

I was hopeful that the northerly wind that had been blowing all day would abate somewhat during the night and we would have an easy day to beat up the last 45 miles to LaPaz. I awoke several times during the night as the wind was blowing through the rigging, so that you could hear it below. It did not sound very good. A fishing boat came into the bay from the sea and anchored about 200 yards from us. They seemed to be very heavily laden and I wondered what they were not on their way back to San Deigo. it was a very large tuna clipper and she was so heavily laden that her bow was almost down to the anchor chocks and her stern fishing platforms were at a leveal with the water.
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(B)log comments

Hmmm, what is a tuna clipper? That is why the internet is so cool. From your seat infront of a computer screen, you can find the answers to such questions.

When I started this effort, I knew that somewhere, there would be sections of the journal that described sailing along coast. That would connect memories with reality.

A memory I have from my childhood is one of the crew of Landfall II saying to another:

“Yeah, skipper is really something alright, one night I was on watch on the helm, offshore, watching a meteor shower, and he seemed to come out of nowhere!”

“Why are you off course! - he shouted at me.”

“I was dumbfounded, felt pretty stupid, I looked at the binnacle and sure enough, I was 10 degrees off – how in the blazes did he know that?”

“I snuck into his cabin a couple of nights later, there was no compass there!”

“He’s something alright; he just seems to know the compass heading, even if he isn’t looking at it!”

Chapman, in the chapter on the compass, describes a style of compass that is recommended to be mounted over the skipper’s bunk. But there was never such a device on Landfall. I figured out later that he was super observant. He’d pay attention to everything. The wind direction, the wave direction, even the loading of a Tuna Clipper anchoring in the same cove in the middle of the night. The port of call of said Clipper. All of these observations would be worked out in his head and assembled to give him a sort of weird ability to know stuff the crew was clueless about.

I’ve learned for example, how to sail with my ears.

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My Blog . . .

I’ve gotten to chapter 16 of Chapman, the chapter on charts, their symbols, abbreviations, shading, and a host of other chart related subjects.

As I’ve said before, somewhere in my garage is an old, rolled up sailing chart of the pacific. Marked on that chart are the noon sightings of the outward bound leg of my grandfather’s 1937 voyage. I went to West Marine and purchased a chart case. When I find that old chart, I'm going to take better care of it.

The last few posts from the journal are the stuff I needed to chart his course on this trip. This time on an electronic chart. I don’t have the noon sights, but the coastwise piloting . . . my decision to read Chapman cover to cover is paying off.

I’ve gotten to Feb, 2008 in EVK4’s blog. My Tillerman blog reading effort is way behind at Feb of 2006.

But I’ll catch up.

I got an email from a friend, I’ll call ‘Crewless?’ I met her at OCSC one day last year in May. She was standing at the head of the gangway to the piers wearing a T-Shirt that read “I want to CREW for YOU” She joined us for last years Summer Solstice Sail on Knot’s Sq’d. We left around 9 am, and got back at 2 am. She lives in Albuquerque, New Mexico, went sailing with Carol Anne. Once I’m done with Cheryl's then Tilly’s blog, Carol Anne’s is next on my list of catch up.

TBF Preparations (1)

(B)log . . .

None for this post
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(B)log comments

None for this post either - Throughout Jan, I'll be posting a lot re: the TBF Preparations. Typicaly I'll number these and not post an entry from the (B)Log, My Grandfathers 1953 Circumnavigation Journal.
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My Blog . . .

My preparation for the Three Bridge Fiasco (TBF) has been officially kicked off. I’ve finished chapter 16, the Chapter on Charts, of the 65th edition of Chapman, and I’m on to my next reading challenges.

Carol Anne got bumped. Tilly is going to have to take a back seat. I’ve got some serious reading to do. Chapter 17 is Piloting, and the 3BF is a piloting challenge. The crazy 70’s, when dinghy racing on the bay was at its peak, was all about local knowledge. Towards the end of that decade, dinghy sailors were being recruited to become crew on Maxi racers in the Big Boat Series. When you were short tacking up the city front, reaching across to Harding Rock, jibing around that corner of the universe and blasting over to Aquatic Park, the intimate knowledge the dingy sailor got from going over, around, through and often under waves was some kind of wonderful. Owners of maxis wanted those rock stars on their decks and in their cockpits.

The Star and 505 scene was the center of that world. Kimball Livingston, at the time a newspaper reporter, wrote about that world. His book, Sailing the Bay, is in my mind, the ultimate story of local knowledge. I bought the second edition last year, gave it to somebody, then forgot about it. The first edition has a prominent place on my bookshelf. So I’m attempting to memorize that first edition. But I get lost in the imagery, which is not such a bad thing, it’s just terribly distracting. My coworkers and team mates on the project that pays my bills are wondering where in the world John has wandered off to.

Where was I? - oh yes, Amazon.com. I’ve ordered another copy of the 2nd Edition of Kimball’s book. Paid more for shipping than the book itself (I just had to get it as soon as I can). My recollection is that the second edition is a little drier than the first, perhaps I’ll be able to focus a little more. Unlikely, but I’m often delusional, so what?

While I was finding a copy of Kimball’s book, I also added his blog to my reader subscription list. And I found myself back on a blog by Cheryl which borrows from the title of Kimball’s book.

Both Cheryl (a Google Goddess) and Kimball are professional writers. Any resemblance that EVK4, Tilly or I have to these people is limited to recognition by people wearing sunglasses at night. Cheryl's blog has now taken a prominent position in my reader chart, hers is the third column. She started writing in Aug. of 2007, so there is less to read, but it's that good that she's just behind EVK4.

So I have a LOT of reading to do between now and Saturday, when the Admiral and I find ourselves in the same boat again. I think I’ll call in sick on Friday.

OH NO! did I just write that on my work laptop?

Dang!

Ok, so at the Admiral’s request, here are the important things for find in Kimball’s book for the local knowledge to play the TBF correctly:

His account of the role that winter storms play in the bay area, where they come from, how they form, what their cycles are. Choosing the course is all about what weather is passing over the bay area that day.

If that day is between storms, then Tidal Currents will be the determining factor for the course. The first edition has a fantastic set of time lapse pictures of the Bay Model during a confetti test. One picture for Max Flood, the other for Max Ebb. The Max Ebb shot clearly shows the South Bay Surge that creates a tide current shadow north of Treasure Island.

My recollection is that the second edition substituted a discussion of Tide Current Software models for the confetti test pictures. Too bad if that’s true, the confetti test was cool.

Sailing the Bay

“Our most variable season is winter – not the calendar winter, but the months from November through February“

Kimball Livingston, Sailing the Bay, 1st edition
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(B)log . . .

None for this post
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(B)log comments

None for this post either
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My Blog . . .

I’m not holding hard and fast to the idea of having every post include a (B)log or (B)log comments entry.

Sailing requires many things. Flexibility is one of them. Now that I have my (B)log entries list set up in the sidebar, anyone who wants to navigate that entry list can do it easily. I need to pause a moment and address the TBF preparations.

The first preparation was to dust off my copy of Kimball Livingston’s work, Sailing the Bay

I used to have a copy of the 2nd edition, but alas, I loaned it to someone and forgot who (I do that a lot). But I still have my copy of the 1st edition, and now that I’m blogging about sailing the bay, I realize that I’ll need to guard that copy with my life. The 2nd edition? Last I checked (today) West Marine had one dog eared copy left. Email Me and I’ll tell you which store. It has my fingerprints on it.

The 1st edition is a treasure (and no, not the treasure referred to in my last post). I don’t think Kimball will mind if I quote from that book. I’ve been opening the book randomly for the last few weeks, and today I went to the front and was a little stunned to recall the foreword by Tom Blackaller.

To quote Tom:

“Without a doubt, San Francisco Bay is the most exciting place in the world to sail. The consistent velocity of the wind, the trickiness of the currents, the fickleness of the fog all combine to offer real challenges to any sailor. Kim Livingston attempts to solve these problems and to make sailing on the Bay more enjoyable for everybody by explaining why they happen and how they happen.”

It is no coincidence that one of the TBF marks is named after Tom.

This is a good place to start one’s preparations. Tom does not mention the fickleness of a winter season on the bay. Perhaps because if you pay attention to what Kim says in the section on the Bay’s winter season, you’ll recognize why and how that weather is what it is, when it is.

So my next step was to put a link on my Blog to the Surface Analysis page of the National Weather Service.

After tomorrows romp with the J105 group, we’ll be going over how to use surface analysis in conjunction with Kim’s thoughtful explanations and begin to answer the question:

“Which way to we go?”


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Special Thanks to CJ

1st Annual Pirate Rendezvous, Roust and Rescue

Captain John

hereby announces

My intention to indulge a fantasy, go over to the Dark Side, become a Pirate, kidnap a Blogger Sailorwoman, or Blogger Reader (or her offspring), abscond with the victim to a Deserted Island, and challenge the other Sailing Bloggers to rescue said maiden. Or at least alert others to her whereabouts.

Whew, that's a lot to do in a day, but my desire is strong.

This event will be in the form of a contest, Rules and Regulations* have been established.

There is a particular deserted Island on San Francisco Bay that looms large in my memory. I don’t remember what age I was when I first laid eyes on it. My mother would tell tales about exploring it when she was a child. There are caves on this island, and the stories revolved around her father telling her that there were skeletons in the caves. She would confess that she did not have the courage to enter those caves.

Other tales relate a dismasting that occurred during a Vallejo Race my grandfather was in. Landfall II jibed near the island, and her main boom carried away the rig of another yacht that was to windward before the jibe (Tilly, do you know which rule applies here?).

As a child I witnessed the strangest Man Over Board (MOB) I’d ever seen. This event occurred as we were anchoring (under sail!) in the cove of this island. Chapman covers anchoring under sail, but the way my grandfather did it was not mentioned.

This cove is very difficult to sail into. The island in question is small, and smack in the middle of deep channels which pass it on either side. The tidal and river currents are treacherous. Please pay close attention to the current conditions if you foolishly take up my challenge.

We approached the cove (which is very small) on a downwind run. Jibed and rounded up to drop the anchor while in irons in the cove, which was on that day, in the lee of the Island during a Flood tide

The individual disappeared from the deck and reappeared miraculously soaking wet and shaking back on deck in the same spot. He’d been standing in the wrong place at the wrong time when the jibe started. Positioned on the windward quarter before the jibe started, he made a split second decision to avoid being killed by the boom, jumping over board. He grabbed the mainsheet when he was in the water.

As the main went all the way out, the mainsheet went from slack to ramrod straight and catapulted him back on deck. He landed on his feet exactly where he was standing before.

This happened over the course of about five seconds.

The slack jawed expressions on the crew members who witnessed this resulted in other crewmembers turning their heads at the splash, too late to see what happened.

”What the . . . ? How did you get wet?”

The poor victim was speechless. He had to be taken below as the witnesses tried to convince those whose attention was focused on anchoring and taking in the sails as to the fact of the matter. It wasn’t easy.

I attempted a landing on this island in my third Tornado in the 80’s. It was a beater, and I’d gotten it just to introduce my young kids to the joy of sailing a very fast craft.

I’d always wanted to explore the island and go into the caves my mother talked about. My two oldest kids were with me that day (ages 7 and 5) and I chickened out when one of my rudder fittings broke during the landing. It was a foolhardy attempt.

I’m older now, not necessarily wiser, and I want to go back. It’s a line item on my bucket list to see if there really are skeletons in those caves.

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*Rules and Regulations

Ha! You fell for that drivel? THERE ARE NO RULES! I’m a Pirate! You thought there would be rules? You fool, if you fell for that you aren’t very likely to find the maiden.

There will be clues however- I think "Clues not Rules" is part of the Pirate Creed or something like that.

Prizes? Hah!, who needs wimpy prizes when treasure is involved!

At the very least, the honor of a maiden is at stake. What heroic sailing blogger could refuse such a challenge?

If you've guessed that my intention is to send the maiden into the cave first to check out whether there really are skeletons in there, then you are very smart indeed, and may just win the honor of rescuing the maiden.

She may however, go into the cave anyway.

Disclaimer

From the Log . . .

On the following morning, November 21st, we left at dawn for Ensendad de Los Muertos, a distance of about 45 miles directly into the wind. The first leg of the journey stood us well out to sea past the point that make up the bay or small cove know as Los Frailles. On our second tack we stood along the southern beach of Los Palmas Bay. This bay is approximately 30 miles in length and has along it’s southern shore, two large rivers that enter into the bay that are filled with palms. I could not see from the boat just what kind of palms they were, but they have, both coconut and date palms in this area. There is a small town called Buena Vista that is located on the shore near one of the river entrances. It makes a beautiful appearance from the sea.

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I'm at home this morning, posting from my personal computer, the one that doesn't automatically connect to the server of the corporate headquarters, whose server is identified by Google Analytics as 'Great Lakes'. Not the one that has all this software that monitors my every keystroke. With IT security guys looking for keywords that would indicate nefarious, unauthorized activity. (Oops, I just edited this blog from the wrong computer . . .)

I can use all kinds of language that might get me into trouble and only have to worry about Homeland Security. Those wimps are nothing compared to the corporate headquarter goons. I work for a 40 billion dollar company that doesn't need to be bailed out. They are actually profitable, even in this economy.

I can beg or hint at my desire to get a pirate hat and turn a sailboat into an amusement park.

And my readers will understand.

I'm at home, the rest of my project team knows this, even the manager that grinds his teeth every time my name comes up. I'm waiting for an important package from FedEx Ground. I know they'll be delivering it, the tracking computer God said so. But hey, it could be delivered in the next minute, or 8 o'clock tonight.

Aaargh.

And I'm sailing this Weekend! Yeah! I won't be 'Skipper Of Record' (SOR), that unlucky fellow has never had me on board, I don't know the other crew (except for the Admiral).

And it's going to be warm. WOW, all that clenching of fists has paid off.

And I'll be on a J105, in a semi competitive environment. If the idiot at the helm (even if it's me) runs into something, it's not my responsibility.

Hey! I can close my eyes and do foredeck! Yippie!

We're going to fly the 'kite'.

And today, at home, I can pull up maps and charts and blog to my hearts content.

Hmmm, my charting software is on that other computer . . .

But if I disable it's transmitter, and don't allow it to connect via a wire . . .

Bradley, how do I find that log file that records my keystrokes?

Bradley?

BRAAAAADLEY!

Where are you?

I need you!

He's probably cuddled up with his girlfriend.

sheeesh, girlfriends are such a distraction to my young nerdy, geeky friends.

Soul Searching

Today's Blog is going to be different.

I've done some soul searching and I need feedback from my readers.

I started this as a personal journey, just using blogger as a device to capture my thoughts and to help me transcribe Dr. Holcomb's journal.

That transcription is creating a Microsoft Word document. I copy a paragraph or two onto the post as I go, then . . . well, if you are reading this you know the rest.

But I now need help.

I've been using Charlie Bergstedt's Blog and others to track the weather and water conditions on SF Bay for about as long as I've been writing this blog. In fact it was Charlie's Blog and a little push from a dear friend, that got me started. I wanted to know how Charlie did it, and discovered Blogger. I haven't learned enough about Blogger to really make a quality Blog, but I'm learning inch by inch.

Then, a couple of months ago, I happened upon The Skip's Blog. From there I found and starting reading Tillerman's blog, from his comments about EVK4, I started reading that blog.

Ok, so some of you are smarter than I am, you understand how blogs work, how the internet connects people all over the world (I had to read a book to figure this out).

As soon as I started linking and tossing out challenges and stealing ideas from Tillerman and EVK4, signs of life in Google Analytics started to appear.

But the quality of EVK4, the simplicity of it, the openness of it. The extraordinary fact that his boat, Lady Bug, is within spitting distance (for some) of the OCSC docks I use to embark on most of my sailing adventures. That has really made me step back and think about what I'm doing with this Blog.

Since I started this blog and turned on the Google Analytics Function, 509 visits from 26 countries have been logged. Yeah, this pales in contrast to EVK4 and Tillerman, they have hundreds of thousands of visits from probably every country in the world, as well as interplanetary visitors, but whateeever duuude, I just want to go sailing, and share that with whoever wants to join me.

I know who maybe 5 of these people are who read this blog on a regular basis.

But 26 countries? What the . . .?

Ok, so the vast majority are people who stumble on this site. They don't even get this far into it, and quickly leave. Who cares about them?

I don't.

But I do care about the strangers who come back and read more pages. Even if they live in Australia or Rio . . . or Poland? Hello? is there even sailing in Poland? If so, please email me and let me know. Seriously, that would be cool.

I'm a Californian, we on the left coast don't really understand the rest of the world.

There is a joke that when the really bad earthquake comes on the Pacific Coast, we'll be able to go skiing at Tahoe, then Sail the Atlantic Ocean along the beach in what used to be Nevada. San Francisco, the city that can, will live forever.

But I digress, I'm very good at that.

I would like to be better at Blogging, if I have friends who sail in Poland that I don't know about . . .

Or Rio. hmmm, Rio sounds really nice, I just didn't want Poland to feel bad.

SO PLEASE email me, where ever you are, and let me know what you like about this blog, what you don't like, etc. You can even put a comment on this blog, but hey, if you don't want to publicly admit to reading this, an email would be fine.

If you have a nasty thing to flame me with, you can place an anonymous comment, and nobody will ever know who you are, including me. I don't moderate the comments, haven't had to - cause I don't get any.

I'll still do what ever I like, but who knows? the feedback may just improve your reading experience.

Captain John


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Ok, now that I've finished begging for feedback, here is your next Journal entry:

The headlands that make up the small indentations on either side of the Lower California Coast are bold and rocky. They rise, generally, in the mountains back of them, to heighths of four to six thousand feet and are spectacular in appearance. They are beautiful when the sun shines upon them directly and this beauty is even enhanced in the shadows that come with the early dawn and dusk.

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Wow, that's cool, that's the kind of writing I expected in my Grandfather's journal. Makes me want to get on a boat, sail out the gate and head south.

(Just kidding Richard, I know OCSC's insurance stops as soon as I leave the gate - I'll be a good boy and just dream for now).

Blog, Blog, Blog

(B)Log . . .

On the eastern side of the Lower California peninsular, the country is predominately green, while on the other side it is predominately dry and brown. There are numerous cattle ranches that one could see along he shore and as we came into Los Frailles Bay, near our anchorage, it was odd to see great numbers of cattle wading along the shore close to the water. I never knew that cattle like to go bathing at the beach, but these seemed to take the beach, either, as a convenient road or they enjoyed walking in the sand. There were 20 to 40 cattle roaming around the beach at Los Frailles Bay.
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Blog about the Log:

I’m blown away as I transcribe my grandfather’s log (journal). The things he would write about. The language he’d use. I know that he coveted the recognition from places like the New York Yacht Club, and the Cruising Club of America. I know that his circumnavigation meant a lot of things to him. The journal would be his way of putting his stamp on that world. This, his generation, was one of legacies; Sterling Hayden on Brigadoon and Wanderer, the Johnson’s on Yankee; Schooners traveling to the South Seas and around the world, writing about it and sharing it with others - following in the footsteps of Captain Cook, Bligh and the Bounty, Christian on Pitcairn, Darwin in the Galapagos.

In the sixties around the dining room table, the comments I’d hear, the references to other schooner trips. Those discussions echo in my ear as I read the words in ‘Dr. Holcomb’s Journal’ as I type them on this computer. The purpose of the journal is clear to me.

But the subjects are eye opening. The Grandfather I knew was a sailor who strummed a ukulele on the deck of a schooner anchored in Ayala Cove, signing lusty sea chantries and ballads to society folk from that lesser city by the bay; the city with Lake Merritt in the middle.

The songs bringing to mind time spent in the South Pacific.

Not cows bathing at the beach.

That’s a side of him I lost and am beginning to find.

We'll get to the south seas later.

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Blog about the Passion of Sailing, where does it come from? Where does it take me? :


I was watching Peter Bodanovich's film 'Running Down The Dream' about the 30 year legacy of the rock group Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers.

Not fully paying attention to the film, I was reflecting on the difficulty of writing my Blog and trying to keep three streams of thought going at the same time:

. . . Discovering my Grandfather through his journal.

. . . Relating his circumnavigation to the loss in my life.

. . . The passion for sailing and sharing that with others.

It's like I'm trying to write three Blogs at the same time.

The answer came in the words of one of the people being interviewed in the film.

He remarked on the idea that the really successful rockstars all seemed to come from childhoods that involved the loss of a parent.

I’m no rockstar, in any sense of the word. But I understand that passion, I think every sailor knows that underlying drive to go down to the sea and find what was lost on land.

The idea there was this passion and drive that emanates from such a loss – now that resonated with me. Experiencing a loss as a youngster creates this well of emotion resulting in a passion for something. That the ‘something’ could take on different drives for different people. The loss I suffered is too personal to write about at this stage, but the passion that stems from that loss . . .

That I now understand.

For sailors, the passion drives us to go down to the sea, take to the water, leave the mechanics of the industrial age bound up in the machinery of mankind, and seek the natural forces that are the imbalance between wind and water; that get you somewhere else. To seek the treasure buried elsewhere.

I shared this with the wise Admiral. Her suggestion was to compartmentalize, something I’ve always struggled with. But it makes sense now – thus three blogs in one post.

In each compartment, a post that fuels the passions that propels me to write.

. . . The journal

. . . What it means to me

. . . Sharing the passion of sailing

Singular Sounds

From the Log . . .

We left San Lucas Bay with a very light wind from the southwest. It blew us along past the first point which is called Ballena Point and we were shortly in the San Jose Del Cabo Bay. This bay is, again, one of the great historical importance, because from it the entire mission system of California was produced. The friars from Carnevaca went to San Blas. There they took boats from the Mexican mainland and landed at San Jose Del Cabo, which is the first valley of any importance, north of Cape San Lucas. There is a river entering into the sea at this point, but nothing that one might actually call a satisfactory harbor.

As we coasted along from the sea, it was interesting to look at the old houses and spires of the church through field glasses. Most of the town was concealed by trees, but there was enough visible to make a very beautiful scene. One is reminded, again, of the sagacity of the Jesuit Priests who seem to pick places where their church and congregation might prosper.

We sailed along gaily with a favorable wind for about two hours, when suddenly and without warning, the wind shifted 180 degrees and brew directly at us, from the course that we had intended to make. We were going along a northeasterly course and we had a north east wind. It was not long before it kicked up a nasty chop. We set our sails in a close hauled attitude put on the motor, and beat up against the chop that we had from there all the way up to La Paz.
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Log comments:

This is cool, growing up sailing on SF Bay, one learns to understand the interaction of the flow of the air around objects. My grandfather lived on Adams Point, a few blocks from Lake Merritt. My mother (I’m the son of a daughter of a sailor) learned to sail an El Toro there. So did I, and many others (some of them famous – Tilly, eat your heart out, LOL!). Kaiser Aluminum built and office tower to the west of the lake, in the shape of a sail – well, sort of.

The west wind had to bend around this obstruction and find its way East along Grand avenue, collide with Adams point, then bend south. This flow alternated with the flow down 20th Street. The boathouse was situated on a point, and we learned at the age of eight, how to get to the mark just south of this point by playing the wind shifts. Some of them really large wind shifts.

So when I read the log entry, I knew just what ‘skipper’ was talking about.

My MapSource program includes Baja California, so I went down there on a virtual cruise.


The circles are the ‘Major Lights’, lighthouses to the common land lubber. The second one from the lower left is Ballena Point, the next one up the coast from there, San Jose Del Cabo. The third one, well, that’s the subject of the next post about beach bathing cattle.

And here is what the wind was doing, some of it coming down the valley of importance:

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Musings on the present tense:

A call you don't want to get-

"After a review of the circumstances, we've determined that you are responsible for the sail repair on Spinnaker # . . . "

The good news (sort of):

It's only $59.04

That is to repair an 18" rip between the sail and the luff tape about 3/4 up the port side.

Here is my tale of woe-

We were doublehanding a J24 about a month ago. The details of which day it was and who the other person on board was are lost in the fog of my memory. My brain seems to only retain those crystal clear images associated with certain experiences.

The sight of a fleet or YRA boats on the party circuit taking the lee of Angel Island wide to stay in the gentle breeze downwind.

Us crossing the fleet and threading the needle as we sailed close hauled towards the straights in wonderfully clear air.

I even have pictures! - I just can’t find them, but the memories!

Oh Yeah!

But who I was with that fateful December day? Oops, sorry, that little detail is written over by the singular sound of sail cloth being separated from its stitching. And the particular sensation of gathered cloth in ones hands, the tearing sound linked to the pull of the forearms.

Hmm, what's that sound?

It stopped when I stopped pulling. It starts when I start pulling . . .

Oops

$59.04 (plus tax)

Skipper Of Record (SOR) comes home to roost.