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Grounded!

About 10 years ago when I owned Terrapin, a Ranger 33, my family did a cruise-in to Petaluma.

From Alameda, the trip is decent. We took an extra long weekend off to make this trip, leaving on a Friday night and anchoring off of China Camp (a great anchorage). The Saturday morning we were up at the crack of dawn motoring up to the entrance of the Petaluma River.

San Pablo Bay, despite it’s vastness, is actually very shallow in spots. I did a good deal of research before making this trip and read the importance of adhering to the channel markers. It is also important to make the trip at high tide, which we did.

There is one draw bridge prior to Petaluma.

We stayed a night or two, I can’t remember. We planned on sailing from Petaluma to Alameda in one day.

We left early ( I believe on a Monday) and were nearing the mouth of the river. I had gone down to use the head and Sherine had taken the helm.

Upon returning, I came up to the cockpit and looked around…and almost immediately said: “You need to be over there!!!!”. Within, what seemed like seconds, we screeched to a halt.

We were towing our dinghy with some line which floated. However, while trying to reverse out of our situation, we essentially sucked the line into the prop….the motor stopped.

I believe it was Labor Day weekend or later at during the trip. The Bay’s never warm but it was especially cold this time. I proceeded jump in and and cut the rode off the prop.

It was much later when we hauled the boat out for bottom paint that we realize the strut had been bent in this ordeal.

Ten or fifteen minutes after the grounding while deciding what to do, a power boat came speeding by looking at us…seconds later it was spitting out spouts of mud as it tried to strong-arm itself out of it’s grounding.

We tried for a half of an hour to get out but were unsuccessful. We call an emergency vessel service. $800 to have us pulled out. Holy Cow! They did give us a good idea of dropping out the anchor into the middle of the channel and wait for the tide to some in. Late evening, the tide turned and we proceeded to winch ourselves out.

I ended up taking an extra day off of work and rather than make way to Alameda under darkness, we got a slip at a nearby marina for the night.

Properly Store your Dock Lines

A handful of years ago, a few of us were heading out on the Bay. Sailing is a lot of work, for those that are thinking about getting into it. Stretching, contorting, nonstop moving around and grinding are all part of this sport. I’ve always been taught to do things such as to minimize the amount of work later. I’m not necessarily talking about unsafe shortcuts, what I’m talking about is little things like: Instead of taking the lock off my boat and putting it downstairs in some random place in the galley, drop it in one of the holders inside of the cockpit. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve locked up only to find I needed to open her back up to go find the lock.

Anyways, we don’t remove our dock lines generally (unless racing) and generally just coil them up, put them around a lifeline, and then place one end of the coil inside the other. It works great. Of course, I haven’t invented this, I’ve seen so many do the same.

However, if you done make the diameter of the coil of the rope long enough, there can be only a small portion of the coil end inside the other and, as we found out, it’s not safe!

It was a windy day and we were heading out past the Golden Gate. It must have been a flood and the wind waves were decent. It was a rough go. Unbeknownst to us, either a wave or the excessive bobbing of the boat cause the coil of rope to come off the lifeline and fall into the water. As we tacked out the Gate, everything was great until just about 100 yards to the other side Sherine noticed we only had steerage to Starboard and steerage to Port was very limited.

I don’t know what caused me to notice, but we eventually found the dock line in the water with no end visible!

Honestly, I can’t recall how we managed to tack (or gybe) and eventually turn back under the gate. Oh yeah, I forgot one more point. The dock line has fouled the prop we found so we’d be unable to drop the sails and motor somewhere safely to fix the steerage.

The winds through the Golden Gate in the summer can easily exceed 25 kts. I decided to sail into Treasure Island’s Clipper Cove. For the most part this was relatively uneventful once you figured out how to plan for significantly limited steerage.

Clipper Cove is generally not protected from the winds unless you get up close to the south-west portion of the cove. The entrance is also shallow at low-tide and groundings are possible depending on your draft. The southern portion of the cove is very shallow, stay north.

We eventually were able to drop the the main and the jib and drop anchor.

For the next hour, I spend cutting the dock lines off the rudder and from around the prop in sub 60º water. This is the second time I’ve had to do this in my sailing career on the Bay and yes, there’s a story and a lesson’s learned in that one too! I’ll write about it later.

Bareboat Charter Captains, Know Where the Tools Are

Since buying my first sailboat in 2007, I have had a number of events on the Water from which I have learned from. Every sailor and boater is bound to have a few. It doesn’t matter whether you sail a 40 year old venerable plastic classic or a brand new boat. Stuff breaks.

I always love to read other sailors’ accounts on incidents they’ve had and what they learned. I find it makes me a better sailor. Despite all of this, I can almost guarantee another incident is around the corner to apply what I’ve learned and to learn new skills from.

Sherine and a good friend of mine were chartering a new (1 year old?) Leopard 40 out of Tortolla in the BVI in following Thanksgiving in the BVI. We were several days in our trip and having a blast. This was my second trip to the BVI (I’ll cover my first trip in the Points of Interest section of my site eventually). We sailed from Virgin Gorda near where the Bitter End Yacht Club were to Anegada for the night where we had an excellent freshly caught lobster. I didn’t make it to Anegada my first trip to the BVI, but I was glad we made it a priority this time.

Anyway, the next morning we woke and decided make way for Jost Van Dyke, a must-do for anybody sailing the BVI. The channel into Anegada is shallow and you must pay close attention to the markers. Once we were out of the shallows. The winds were about 10-15 knots, I seem to remember. We were making good time.

I believe I was at the helm and my friend was helping with the sheets up near the helm, where they were all run. All of the sudden, we noticed that the boom disconnected from from the mast. My friend went to investigate where he found a pint which the tack of the main attached and which ran down through the gooseneck had come out. Yikes!

Being a good captain requires you to me calm under any circumstances which may arise. I can tell you that I’m certainly a work in progress after 13+ years of sailing on the San Francisco Bay…what can I tell you! Things got exciting quick, as they often do, when you encounter a situation from which you have no experience.

I can’t exactly recall the durations and all of the steps we took. Sherine took the helm and we tried to fix remedy the situation. Of course, we could have just dropped sails, anchored and called for assistance…but if you’re a sailor, this is what sailing is all about IMHO. WE CAN DO THIS!

But I believe the first idea we had, prior to finding the pin and the parts, was to put a screwdriver in place of the pin to stop the boom from flailing around. We went to the cabin to find tools.

Now, I know the Captain that checked us out told us were the tools were but given it’s not our boat, we forgot. Next time, I’ll pay more attention and even inspect the tool box to know what it had and did not have!

We got a screwdriver but I can’t remember if whether we were successful or not. I believe upon further inspection we figured out that the pin were still attached to the tack and we found the washers and the nut on the deck which, fortunately did not fall overboard.

After trying to align the boom to the gooseneck while under sail and insert a pin which was under load of the main (I was sure we were not going to do), we decided to let the main down.

Long story short, we were able to re-attach the boom to the gooseneck and continue on sailing to Jost Van Dyke.

The rest of the charter we joked about the situation and the fact that folks with far less experience could have fared much worse. When the charter ended, we told the Captain about our situation…neither was he apologetic or interested!

Things I learned:

  • This is not new, but further reinforces the fact that Stuff Happens on the water and this is why it’s important to be sober (which we were)!
  • Pay attention when checking out the boat…they do it for a reason!
  • Fire up the engines (for safety) and drop the main.
  • Stay Calm!!

Welcome, fellow cruisers, sailors and dreamers!

I’m finally starting to get Farraige, a Catalina 42, ready to go on a long-term cruise of North America, Mexico and the Caribbean. Exact date, TBD. Duration, TBD…but I imagine 3 years or so. At least that’s my agreement with my wife!.

Little did I realize over 30 years it was going to be so hard to decide when it was time to do something new and to move on from Engineering. I’ve been quite lucky. I have a great job. That said, I’ve been longing to on or near the water for as long as I can remember.