avionbianca   Blog for s/v Avion

Completed the Return and Some Final Thoughts

Saturday 8/16/2014

I can’t end this sailing blog without some closing thoughts about how this adventure affected me.   Soon I will go back and read all of the postings that were made but right now I want to reach down into my soul and see what impact this experience has had.   However before I get all psychological on you I would like to share the final leg of the journey.

At the end of my watch as we approached the Farralon Islands, 25 miles outside the bay, I briefed David on the conditions and course we had followed since he went down.  The GPS was showing us 4.5 hours from the Islands and we had set a course a few degrees south to avoid any potential hazard.  This is the time of the trip to be overly vigilant in watching out for things that go bump in the night.  The weather had quickly deteriorated; it is amazing that we went for shorts and t-shirts to multiple layers and foul weather gear in just over a day.  I was wearing the same gear I would wear while snow machining in the mountains of Wyoming in subzero weather.   Mark Twain sure got it right.

I stripped out of my wet foulies and one of the base layers and crawled into my bunk and pulled the blanket over me hoping to get some sleep because tomorrow was going to be a very long day.  I always know when I get a good sleep in when Angie has to wake me; however this time was an exception.  I woke right before my shift time was to begin but thought it was earlier, I got up hit the head and went right back into my bunk.  Angie promptly leaned into my nice comfy cocoon and said, “what the hell are you doing, it’s time for your watch”.  My response was that I had no idea what I was doing where I was or what time it was.  She politely explained that I was on a sailboat just outside San Francisco and handed me a hot mocha, what a gal.

I climbed into the cockpit, sipping on my coffee while Nico explained the multitude of lights that greeted me.  The San Francisco lights in the distance were obvious but all of the others were a mystery to this sailor that a few minutes ago didn’t even realize he was a sailor.  I sat down and listen in fascination as Nico pointed out each light.   “You can see the light bucket light just off our starboard bow.  If you look closely you can see the main channel red and green lights slightly to our starboard.  We will be staying just port of the green lights so we will stay clear of all of the ship traffic.  I’ve been monitoring Channel 12, vessel assist and there are 3 inbound ships and will shift over to Channel 14 as soon as we enter the channel.  The difference is channel 12 is for traffic outside of the channel while 14 is inside.  The boat off of our starboard, see at about 4 o’clock, is going to be taken on a pilot captain shortly so I am staying way clear of that so I have adjusted our course about 5 degrees to port.  You can see the pilot boat coming there at about 2 o’clock because it has a white over red light.  Now if you look off to our port after quarter you will see an inbound boat that we can ignore because it is only doing only 8 knots and is too far out to catch us at that speed.  I am concerned about the articulated tug and barge that has been chasing us for a while.  You can tell that it is an articulate tug rather than a barge in tow by the combination of lights.”

I was following him up to that point. I said, “what the hell is an articulated tug and how do you know that when I can’t hardly even see it.”  He proceeded to explain the various combination of lights to designate the different type of vessel, this over that and position of lights on starboard and port depending on the function of the vessel or the response an oncoming vessel has to have.  I was thinking I need to take a coastal navigational class and Juan was thinking that his time cruising in Mexico was a piece of cake compared to this; all he had to worry about was avoiding a few pongas that could do very little damage to his solid little sailboat and that the icebox was adequately stocked with beer!

We managed to avoid the multitude of traffic going and coming through the channel and passed under the Iconic Bridge at 3:50 A.M.  It was the quintessential Golden Gate Experience without the 20 knots of wind.  The fog covered the tops of the towers, the traffic moving across the bridge, the strobe off Alcatraz under the bridge, the new smells from land, both earthen and industrial, the vessel traffic, and the twinkling lights of The City all combined to provide a pleasant transition from the simple solitude of the journey to the complex realities of civilization.

The next two hours were consumed by the gentle passage through the bay.  Having no waves to contend with and very little traffic this early in the morning resulted in a pleasant final leg of our journey.  Once Avion was safely tied to her slip Juan found a care package left by our good friends Al and Michelle.  To think they were there when we departed, they were there when we arrived in Hawaii and now they were there in spirit to greet us upon our arrival with this wonderful care package.  I can understand why they weren’t physically there because Avion doesn’t know how to make landfall during the daylight hours; two trips to Monterey, one to LA, the arrival at Hawaii and now the return all were during the wee hours of the morning.   The care package was perfect.  It had beer, of course, but it also had stuff that Michelle knew we would have been deprived of late in the crossing.  Fresh chilled fruit and vegetables, milk, non-soggy chips with fresh guacamole and salsa, and red meat!  As the sun slowly lighted the sky and as live-a-boards in the marina started to wonder down the docks we received some interesting looks with all the empty beer bottles and wine bottle sitting on the dock box at 7 A.M.

So what were my most compelling thoughts of the adventure.  I’m glad I did it but I probably will not do this particular trip again.  The main reason for wanting to have this adventure was to learn more about sailing and about myself.  Sailing so I will be better prepared for cruising and for me just for self-actualization.  As I stated at the start of this blog I like to test my will and this trip definitely pushed it close to its limits.

The reason I am planning not to do this trip again wasn’t because of it being too much of a challenge, it’s just that I want to put that energy and expense into preparing my boat and myself for cruising.  This was the reason for the trip and one of the reasons I asked Lindi to marry me.  After the four year adventure with my late wife I have always wanted to go back.  The primary problem was that I never had a desire to do it by myself, so I have been searching high and low for that special person that will both put up with me and who has the same objective of wanting to go cruising.  Lindi has always had that desire and she also loves the Wyoming Mountains where we plan to stay when we are not cruising.  The strangest thing about that is that she is willing to put up with me, and for that matter Juan!

When I was cruising I was successful not necessarily because I had a great skill set but I knew my limitations, which were great.  Lindi and I want to go North up into Canada and possibly Alaska and that experience will require having much less limitations.  The only way to gain the necessary knowledge is to expose yourself to the elements which require you to become more proficient.  The racing aspect makes you push the envelope and find out stuff like it is okay to broach; the question isn’t if you broach, it is how effectively you handle the boat in the recovery of the broach.   Going both ways, to and from Hawaii, required a full set of skills.  The downwind focus on headsail changes and steering techniques to gain the best performance possible verses the upwind strategy of keeping the boat comfortable but  making good way without always in the need of the engine.  The biggest issue is anticipating what can go wrong and have contingencies and skills ready to solve them.  Of course you can’t anticipate everything that can happen but there is a lot that you can.

The knowledge obtained about the mental and physical aspects of endurance sailing was enlightening.  I have always maintained a fairly healthy lifestyle with my biking and sailing.   I have done endurance type of events that I think I was better prepared for than this event.   I knew I had to work on my upper body but didn’t do as much as I should have.  I found the race to be easier physically that the return.  The boat was flatter so moving around was easier and the times that required strength and cardio were few and far between.    The difficulty physical on the return was constantly supporting yourself do to the listing.  This was comparable to doing short sets of pushups all the time while moving about the boat.  Another lesson learned was the understanding for the need for flexibility.   Moving through the obstacles like mainsail traveler and constant clipping and unclipping harnesses were difficult at times and required twisting and turning that a yoga instructor would be impressed.  I am not flexible to say the least so this was a constant challenge and coupled with too much body weight made for a difficult journey.

As for the mental aspect I didn’t have much issue with the race, I knew what to expect and had mentally prepared myself for it.  The return trip was a different story.  It started out rough, the listing, the swells and the nausea all took their toll.  After the first few days I was a little concerned about what I had gotten myself into.  Lindi on the other hand seemed always in good spirits and gave me the impression that she was having a wonderful time.  This along with the great attitude of the other crew members gave me the courage to fight through the period of adjustment my body was requiring.  After 4 days I was well adjusted and was able to handle the routine without a problem.   However about 3 days from the completion of the return, after the winds picked back up and Avion was back in her 20 degree list I told Nico at the beginning of one of my shifts that I was ready for this to be over.  After talking to him a few days later he said my comment both surprised him and concerned him.  He said he talked it over with David to see if there was anything that they could do to make the trip easier for me.  A while later when David approached me asking if there was any shift changes that I may want I told him I was fine and didn’t need anything changed.  It turned out to be a short term minor adjustment to my will and all was soon back on track.

I now have another fabulous life experience to add to my collection.  This will be an adventure that will always be with me and I am so happy I was able to have this experience.  I would like to close by thanking both of my skippers; Tom for the race and David for the return, you kept me safe, and happy for 4,140 miles.  Thanks to my race team, Nico, John and Kent, and to our return crew Lindi and Angie.  Avion was amazing; she safely took us to Hawaii and back without incident.   Thank you for all of the positive feedback from those friends and family that followed us on Yellow Brick and the log; this made the trip even more special.  Mostly I want to say how happy I am for the experience and the fact that I now have a strong loving mate in Lindi to help me realize my next adventure.  You will be hearing more from us as we go out the Gate and turn Right.

Thanks,

Jon

SDolphins Come Play

Return Day 16 8/14/2014 9:30 (120 Miles to Golden Gate Bridge)

GPS shows only 18 Hours to go at our current rate 7.5 knots. Last evening at the beginning of my watch around 7:00 the wind started to weaken so I fired up the diesel and we have been running it ever since. We must all have our homing instincts in full gear.
Halfway through my morning watch we had a pod of dolphins come play in our wake. It always amazes and thrills me when I experience this. What compels these playful creature to dash around the boat like some carnival ride. They play for a while and then seem to get bored and as quickly as they came they vanish into the grey sea in search of either another adventure or food. Shortly after the first set left another pod came by for a visit. It could have been the same but I doubt it because I was able to watch them arrive off of our starboard bow and they were definitely in a rush to arrive making me think that they were looking for a a new adventure. At the front end of a wave, no further than 50 yards off our starboard beam 7 dolphins simultaneously shot out of the back end of a wave and gracefully entered the water like a choreographed show at SeaWorld. It was well worth the price of admission.

That is all for now, it is extremely difficult to write while trying to balance against the nav station at a 20 degree list while falling off 6 foot waves. This is SeaWorld and Six Flags all rolled into one!

Synoptic Winds

Return Day 14 8/12/2014 14:00 (250 Miles to Golden Gate Bridge)

Shortly after my last post yesterday after 5:00 P.M. they turned the engine off and it has been off ever since. We have had sustained winds of 15 with occasional gusts to 20 plus. The seas are about the same but shorter in duration so more frequent resulting in a bumpier ride. Just at the end of my shift thee winds clocked about 40 degrees and increased in intensity to sustained over 20. Juan wonders why do all of these changes in conditions seem to happen right at shift changes. We got Nico up and David, Nico and I depowered the boat as best we could without changing sails This is done by flatting the sails which requires all the lines other than the sheets to be tightened.

This increase of wind is a result of the strengthening synoptic winds as we get closer to the coast. I am no weather expert but I have made an asserted effort to learn as much as I can, not just for this adventure but more importantly for when Lindi and I are going cruising. My understanding is that the synoptic winds, that we are currently in, are the result of the compression effect of the easterly winds coming off the north edge of the Pacific High. As they circle clockwise to the south, they are compressed by the mountains along the Mendocino coast north of San Francisco. Without the land mass the winds clocking out of the north would spread out just as they do on for the points of the compass around the High which we have been experiencing as fairly light. Since the winds are being compressed there is a ventura effect just like when you restrict the flow of water there a spray nozzle at the end of a hose, it speeds up. The most resent downloaded weather files shows the wind building slightly for the next 120 miles, so over the next 24 hours, then easing off. Looks like we will have an E-Ticket ride for the next day then the winds should abate some resulting in an easy sail into San Francisco Bay. At least that is Juan’s guess and he is sticking with it.

Everything is still good aboard Avion. We should have a new distance record at the end of the day, my guess is 164 miles which will put us close to 200 NM from Golden Gate. Time to get some sleep, I think I will need it for the wild ride tonight.

We Have Wind

Return Day 13 8/12/2014 17:00 (401 Miles to Golden Gate Bridge)

We have punched through the Pacific High and are now on its eastern edge. With the clockwise movement of wind around the High we are getting its north/northwest vector resulting in a port tack with 15 knots of wind. Since we have plenty of fuel we are motor sailing doing 8 knots which means we are probably gaining about 1 extra knot with the motor. That doesn’t sound like much but when you factor 70 hours into the equation we should be able to gain an extra 35 miles; equivalent to 6 or more hours of sailing. Besides the increased speed, the motor allows us to run the autopilot without concerns of draining the batteries. The seas are 5 to 6 foot wide swells out of the north/northwest with 1 foot wind chop across our beam. Though not a terribly comfortable ride it is much better than the close hauled course we were running the first week of the return. My arms are not nearly as tired and my fatigue factor is minimal.

We are all doing well and having a grand time. The full moon the last couple of nights has been spectacular allowing for enough light to actually watch out for nets during the night. There has been enough interesting cloud cover to allow the sunrises, sunsets, moon rises and moon sets to be fabulous photo opportunities.

At our current rate of speed the GPS puts us home sometime Friday morning but there are lots of variables that can change that so we will keep you posted. The irony here is that if we arrive before 2:30 P.M. on Friday we would have made the return trip faster than the race! Juan isn’t concerned about that, he just can’t wait for a cold beer out of Antigua’s fridge upon arrival and to see the surprise Lindi says she has for us when we see Antigua’s interior. I guess she made a lot of improvements while I was racing.

Jon

Net Magnet

Return Day 11 8/10/2014 15:00 (716 Miles to Golden Gate Bridge)

Yes we are still motor sailing and probably will be for a few more days. The engine is doing well with the modification of removing the innards of the thermostat. We are motoring along at just over 6 knots and on occasion when the wind decides to come out to play we can get her all the way up to 6.5 knots but typically not sustained. We are still on track for a Saturday arrival which should make the delivery in less than 17 full days.

Right now we are in what looks like a very big lake on a very calm day. It is flat, blue and calm, very nice conditions for a motorboat ride, too bad we are in a sailboat.

Just as I was preparing to end my shift this morning just before 5 a.m., I was thinking about going below to wake David. However the engine decided to beat me to it by waking David when it stopped immediately. I reached back and turned off the key as David put on his life vest and came up to the cockpit to join Lindi and I. Naturally it was raining! He said he wasn’t going to dive on it in the dark so we raised all of the sails and drifted at maybe 1 knot close to the direction of San Diego with something creating considerable drag below the hull. Since there was nothing for me to do I went to bed because I’m thinking that come daylight there may be some work to be done and it would be good to get some rest, Juan completely agreed.

At 8:00 a.m this morning I heard the engine start, I sighed a bit of a relief, then when I heard it go into gear without shaking the boat apart Juan sighed a huge relief. I climbed out of my bunk and was greeted with hot pancakes by Lindi while David and Nico were in the cockpit drying off. They just finished diving on the prop and cutting away what they described as a huge fishing net with a very large bolt rope that was the reason for the immediate stoppage of the engine. Everything seems to be working properly and we were back on the rhumb line to the Golden Gate Bridge planning to arrive 3 hours later than we had thought yesterday. Juan was strategically planning how he was going to shanghai David and Nico when he goes cruising with Lindi so they can dive on Antigua instead of him if she has similar issues!

Just now as I was preparing to go below right after David came up to relieve me I saw a large net less than 10 feet off our port side and Lindi said that was small compared to the one we hit this morning. It’s good to be vigilant on our watches when we can because Avion is obvious a magnet for large fishing nets. Unfortunately they do not have Japanese glass balls attached.

We did score yesterday on those glass balls. Late afternoon, before sunset, Lindi saw a large green glass ball, about 16 inches in diameter, and hollered to Juan to alter course to fetch it. Great here is an opportunity to prove that Juan can indeed capture the ball as gracefully as Nico. After his third pass with no results Nico came up out of bed and instructed Juan what to do at the helm and was able to scoop it up with his long arms on his first attempt. Juan was right; given enough time and help he could in fact retrieve a ball! Within an hour Angie saw a very small glass ball the size of a baseball that Nico retrieved with no effort, on his first pass no less, Juan was just a little humbled. It is amazing to find something that small in this vastness we call the Pacific Ocean. Jon

Problem Solving

Return Day 9 8/82014 13:00 (979 Miles to Golden Gate Bridge)

When you plan a delivery such as this you have many options to thin k about. For example; should you follow the rotation of the high so you are constantly in wind or should you cut out a few hundred miles and motor through the high? We gave this extensive consideration weighing the increased distance to the dependency on the engine. We felt that even with motor sailing we could only gain about 2 knots advantage by following the wind not nearly enough advantage to justify the added distance. The downside of this decision is once in the center of the high and the engine has issues we could be stuck for a while waiting for wind or have to alter course to the southeast making a detoured to San Diego. Though I love my brother and sister in law that live there I’m not sure the extra few weeks of sailing would be worth it. I am one that typically hedges on the downside risk; what is the worst that can happen and make decisions that minimizes that from happening. So in this scenario that would typically be take the extra few hundred miles so that we could always sail towards San Francisco if we have any major mechanical failures. We choose the opposite approach because we have had very little issues with the engine, we have plenty of fuel and we were confident in our abilities to fix most of the issues that could arise with the engine and rigging.

I looked down and saw David up and about to relieve me so no need to go down and get him rousted. Lindi, my watch mate, had just gone down below to work on cleaning up the galley. As she was descending the companionway she told me to turn around and watch for nets and stuff. She had been forward on the bow keeping a close eye for more glass balls so I was trying to get confortable snuggled into my favorite spot looking aft. So I turned around and started watching the surface of the water in front of the boat for any obstacles. You would think that being 1000 miles off shore this wouldn’t be necessary, unfortunately we were in the middle of a huge debris where literally within a 100 yard radius of the boat you could always see something. Mostly it was small floating pieces of Styrofoam and plastic with an occasional line or plastic float and rarely a glass ball with webbing! I’m not seeing anything so I relax and enjoy the scenery of the rolling swells that remind me of small rolling hills back in Wyoming. All of a sudden we hear a loud bang and the engine drops considerable RPM ‘s. I look down into the companion way and see Lindi looking up at me with eyes that must have looked as large and concerned as mine. I immediately de-throttled the engine to neutral and looked around to assess the damage. Since David was getting ready to come up there was little delay in his entrance into the cockpit. I turned off the engine and he went below to check and see if the shaft would turn. He reported that it did so he suggested that I start the engine put it into gear and see what happens. I looked aft and saw a big net float below the surface about prop depth. We now knew what we had hit. So we shut off the engine and David got on his snorkel gear and dove on the prop, came up asked for the cockpit knife, went back down and came up with a big handful of netting. He reported everything was clear and no visual damage to the prop. Great news, however we had another issue to be concerned about.

In the early going on the return we discovered a strange behavior of the engine. Once we stopped the engine and turned it off we found that if we immediately restarted the engine the heat alarm would sound and there was no way for us to get it to stop buzzing without waiting for the engine to cool. While I was cruising in Mexico on Alocus I had the same engine as Avion and I explained to the crew that I had a similar issue but had installed a thermometer in line with the heat sensor so when this happened I could monitor the engine temperature to determine if the alarm was an issue and eventually the alarm would stop once the fresh water flow cooled the engine. We would wait to see if the alarm would go off and not knowing the temperature we felt uncomfortable waiting with the engine running so we would just let the engine sit for a while (typically we were motor sailing at the time so we were still making good way without it) and every time it would correct itself by simply waiting. This time there was no wind so instead of motor sailing everyone decided to go swimming except for Juan who like to be on the water not in it.

After swimming, bathing and general frolicking for about an hour we decided we should get back underway. We fired up the diesel and the engine heat alarm continued to blare. We thought for sure that after an hour the engine would have been cooled down enough to behave like we had experienced earlier. We decided to perform a more detailed analysis of the issue by tracking the water flow through the engine. We discovered plenty of water coming out of the pump, a good sign, but not so much coming out of the thermostat. We had replaced the thermostat before leaving Alameda so we were confident that it hadn’t fail. When we pulled it we saw that it was properly open so we decided to run the engine without a thermostat to see if we could get the alarm to stop. Sure enough it stopped so now we figured we are back in the same scenario as before but just had to hurry it along the cooling of the engine without the thermostat. We put the thermostat back in, fired up the engine with no alarm, put it in gear and bingo, the alarm came on; damn. Our thoughts now lead to a restricted orifice in the thermostat, so why not make it bigger? Since we had a spare we thought we should try making the hole in the thermostat slightly larger. This rational came from me based on my cruising experience; there had been lots of discussions about overheating issues involving boats that had sailed down to Mexico from Northern California, Oregon and Washington from cool water to warm water. We thought we could have a cool water thermostat and a warm water thermostat. Unfortunately the symptom persisted with the drilled out hole. Now the question was, what is the downside of running without a thermostat in warm water? Hopefully we will not find out because after 3 1/3 hours of trouble shooting this was the only way we could motor without the heat sensor sending an alarm.

Return Day 10 8/9/2014 10:00 A.M. (868 NM from Golden Gate Bridge)

After nearly 20 hours everything seems to be fine. We have a call into the owner to see if he can find out if there is any downside to what we are doing. We feel comfortable with our decision. Motoring through the Pacific High still seems like the right decision. Only time will tell!

Our shifts of 4 hours on and 6 hours off are working out very well. The days are actually 20 hours long consisting of two full rotations; one typically during daylight hours and one during the night time. Since every day the shifts change by 4 hours we never have one watch the same time of day within a week (which for us is 6 days). Every few days the schedules line up perfectly where you can experience both a sunset and a sunrise within a 14 hour period of two on-watches and one off-watch. Last night I was able to first see a beautiful sunset followed by a glowing near full moon; then after my off-watch, I saw a the moon drop over the horizon that rivaled any harvest moon I’ve seen immediately followed by a gorgeous red sunrise. It just doesn’t get any better than this; well maybe the sunset over the Tetons back home but my schedule there doesn’t typically allow for the follow up sunrise over the Absaroka Mountains.

White Noise

Return Day 8 8/07/20144 17:00 (1079 Miles to Golden Gate Bridge)

In about an hour and a half we will have completed 8 full days on the return, in approximately 7 hours we will pass through the half-way point. Ironically we are making better time than we did during the race and we are slogging uphill. We had a couple of windless days early in the race where we had no choice but to persevere via sails alone. Now, on the return, we can engage the iron spinnaker anytime we want! Prior to today we have only ran the engine approximately 36 hours and mostly while still sailing. The plan was to stay on a starboard tack until the wind ran out then power on the engine and turn right towards the Golden Gate. However, while on that starboard tack the winds would clock and veer causing us from time to time to turn on the engine to get a better purchase on the wind closer to the direction of San Francisco. The beauty of this is that we didn’t have to run the engine at high RPM’s with the sails up.

We left Kaneohe Bay with 167 Gal of Diesel with an estimated burn rate of of a gallon per hour making approximately 5 knots giving us a range of approximately 1100 miles while under power. This has turned out to be a very conservative estimate because with the 36 hours of motor sailing we have only had to offload 10 gallons from the diesel jugs into the tank to peg the gauge as full. We feel confident that from this point forward we can run the engine the entire trip and still have fuel leftover. Now that we are in the center of the high and see nothing but flat seas and very little wind we will be only motoring and will probably see higher consumption because we are no longer motor sailing.

We have now entered a completely different phase of the trip; one of less motion, easier handling and noise. The constant drone of the engine becomes what is known as white noise. Your mind mysteriously blocks it out so that you can function as if it isn’t there. With the help of earplugs sleeping becomes no different than in the peace and quiet of a home in the country. Avion is no longer listing at a 20 to 30 degree angle so doing simple chores like cooking dinner, cleaning up and writing are no longer frustrating challenges. The watches now are also a lot easier. With the engine running we can utilize the auto helm which becomes the third person on watch; in reality one person can handle the watch but with 5 on board we are still keeping with the 2 person watch teams at all times.
Lindi and I have changed our schedules so that we now have 2 hours out of 10 that we are on together. We had the fortune of being on watch together during the sunrise this morning, it was so romantic. We both agreed that this is the life we want to share together; this pioneer spirit where we are free to roam where ever the wind and water cares to carry us. The primary purpose of this adventure for me was to both confirm this wanderlust and help prepare for future voyages. Not just to hone my seamanship skills but to nurture this adventuresome spirit with Lindi. This morning proved that we are well on our way to watching countless sunrises and sunsets while exploring new territory gliding on the waves under Antigua, our sturdy vessel.

I have the fortune of spending the other 2 hours of my 4 hour watches with Nico. I just read his post on the beauty of the sea. We have talked about a lot of subjects and one was about his desire to attempt to capture that beauty in words and to convey how it affects him emotionally; I told him I’m sure he can do it justice and when I read it I was touched by its poetic beauty. I may have said this before but he is incredible, especially considering he has just turned 24. We spend hours talking mostly about sailing but also about the process of living a full life; there is no question in my mind that his will be amazing, it already has richness’s that people my age only dream. His stories based on his life experiences rivals Juan’s with only a third of the time for development. One of the topics I enjoy the most with him is talking about the necessary preparation for Antigua to make her cruiser ready. He has taken her out the Golden Gate down to Half Moon Bay, longer than any of my ventures with her, so he knows her well and has fabulous ideas about how to make her better. Between Lindi’s and Nico’s ideas we will make Antigua a first class cruiser.

Crossing the Pacific Ocean has its beauty as captured by Nico, but it also has its adventures. When one embarks on an adventure such as ours you want it to be full of experiences but not so many as to make it an ordeal. Thus far we have been fortunate. While writing this entry we just caught our 3rd fish, so again fresh Mahi Mahi later today. Early this afternoon we were honored with an escort by a huge Yellowtail Tuna that followed along our port side for well over an hour. Nico was so excited that he got out the fishing bag to string a cedar plug known for their attraction to Tuna. While he was tying up the line I spotted one of the glass balls used by Japanese fishermen to float nets Nico decided this was a much better prize than Yellowtail Sashimi (ironically both having Japanese roots) so he dropped the line, grabbed the tiller, cut the engine and reversed course in a matter of seconds. He proceeded to negotiate Avion alongside the ball and with his long arms gracefully scooped up the ball. The only problem now is that we need another four so we won’t have to figure out who gets this one. Juan believes it should go to the person that first spotted it, not the one that so gracefully retrieved it. His logic is that given enough time Juan eventually could have retrieved it, assuming others were willing to assist.

I have to say Nico did have a Juanism the other day, but unlike Juan he managed to rectify his. Juan’s friends concocted this term to describe the many embarrassing pitfalls bestowed upon Juan, by Juan simply being Juan. Nico is always ready when some rigging change needs to be made. Since he has only had to do one headsail change in 8 days, not even bothering to place a potential tattoo mark on his forearm, he is always looking for other ways to hone his nautical skills. The other day when the wind decided to take a vacation we had to drop the mainsail because it was no longer providing lift, it was being a drag. When the wind came back we had to reattach the main halyard (the line that raises the sail) to the main so we could hoist the sail. As he was attaching the shackle Avion pitched through a wave which caused Nico to lose his grip on the halyard, This miscue is often referred to by sailors’ as skying the Halyard; a dreaded condition that typically requires a trip up the mast. Juan ain’t going up there! Can you imagine what that would look like?? The picture that comes to mind is attempting to utilize the circus elephant as the acrobat on the flying trapeze that catches the beautiful maiden after she gracefully twirls from one bar to the next. Nico however looks like one of those muscular acrobats hanging by the back of their knees with the confidence of catching the maiden without a safety net. So you guess who volunteered to reclaim the skied halyard! Unfortunately the halyard managed to tie itself around the backstay, and there is only one other section of the boat harder to climb than the backstay, that would be the forestay. On Avion there are other lines that run parallel to the backstay providing some leverage; that is if you can call small 3/8 inch running back lines flimsily attached to a boat that is pitching and rolling in 4 to 6 foot seas with 12 knots of wind and Juan being one of your safety nets as leverage. The circus scenario sounds much safer. Now Nico wanted me to be clear in my explanation of this story so that his mother wouldn’t have a heart attack while reading the blog. Juan enjoyed meeting Nico’s mother and wanted to stay in good graces with her, especially when he discovered that she and his dad are great French cooks and have offered to entertain the Avion crew for a get together after the return. So I want to make it perfectly clear that both the skipper David and Nico would never attempt something that was both not within the skill set of the crew and wasn’t properly thought through with safety being the primary concern. They were able to rig a harness with 3 separate safety lines (two other halyards and his tether looped around the backstay) holding Nico in place while he climbed the backstay leveraging himself between the two running back lines. Juan scrambled to find a camera to capture the moment but Nico was down with the Main Halyard in hand being used as the 4th safety line, talk about redundancy upon redundancy, before the camera powered up.

This afternoon while Lindi attempted to get out of her bunk she lost her balance and crashed to the floor. We all heard the noise over the engine and David, being the responsible skipper, ran to her rescue and was greeted with a laughing Lindi. When he came on deck Juan asked what all the racket was and David told him that it was Lindi falling out of her bunk. Juan being concerned asked if she was alright and David said, “Not to worry she was laughing as she was pulling herself off the floor”. Juan countered with, “Yeah, she was laughing after she crashed her mountain bike also and has made three trips back to the Doctor concerning her shoulder!” This time the laughs were for real and was just a simple mishap. What do you think, a Juanism?

Strange Night Sightings

Return Day 5 8/04/20144 12:00 Noon (1476 Miles to Golden Gate Bridge)

After 4 complete days of sailing we are making good progress. The first24 hours we made 136 miles, second 120, third 126 and fourth 131 for a total last night at Children’s Hour of 503 miles made good. Sometime last night we completed the first quarter of the way. We celebrated by eating a fresh Mahi Mahi with wasabi and soy sauce, nice treat. I was just getting off watch at 9 P.M., which was still light, and I saw flying fish. We now know why the fish are flying because Dorado’s can’t. No sooner did I tell Nico that I saw a flying fish he hollers out that we caught a fish. This Dorado was 2.1 kilos with enough meat to have some grilled fillets later. Two minutes before the catch Lindi had just emptied a can of chicken into the curry chicken she and Angie were preparing, it would have been nice to have had the fish in the curry but this made for a nice meal with the combination of raw fish and chicken curry; like I said we do eat well.

The routine is settling in but I still require a lot more sleep than normal. Keeping my bulk stable is still contributing greatly to my fatigue. The gals are having an even more difficult time because of their short wing span, they are finding it challenging to find hand holds without lunging from time to time. The 3 point rule is critical on a listing and pitching boat and one of those points should not be your broken nose against the bulkhead.

After nearly 8 degrees north of Hawaii the tropical heat is beginning to dissipate, a bit. Night watches are requiring light foulies to keep us dry while it is cool. The spray during the day is a welcomed. I did get slammed by a wave while I was driving at night the other evening while only wearing shorts and a light shirt, a mere half hour from the end of my watch. I went down and got a jacket, put it over my wet clothes and went back on watch. The mistake I made was not changing; I went to bed after taking off my shirt but not my shorts. Oh well, I have had to deal with the chafing of my butt for the last few days; lesson learned!

This morning’s watch was just crazy. The remainder if the crew is worried about the sanity of Angie and Juan. At 3 A.M. I came up on board to relieve David and saw a light on the horizon at about position 8 o’clock off our port quarter. I said, “Ohh, I just missed the moon”. Which Angie replied, while at the helm, that it wasn’t the moon but a stationary ship that has been there for the past 3 hours. We speculated that it was some military ship or some research vessel. After David went down, Angie and I started seeing thing in the night. The first sighting was a strobe moving off our port bow a mile or so away moving rather rapidly. We first thought it was an aircraft but the strobes were 10 seconds or so apart. The movement was in the general direction to the stationary ship but not in direct path because we could watch the strobe pass between us and the ship. We figured that the craft must be on the water because the strobe sequence was intermittent due to the wave interference. While the strobe was still in sight off our stern Angie, still on the helm, reports seeing a red solid light at about 11 o’clock off the port side. This was definitely a watercraft showing us its port running lights. It wasn’t appearing to be moving as fast as the strobe but definitely faster than a sailboat. It appeared to be much closer to Avion, approximately mile or so but we couldn’t hear any engine noise. While this red light was moving across our port side Angie reported another strobe at about 1 o’clock off our starboard bow and approaching rapidly. We decided to make sure our AIS system was on and the VHF radio was on. The AIS system is a tracking device that sends out a signal to other crafts showing boat name, type, position and movement which Avion is equipped. We also can see other crafts with AIS transponders but Juan wasn’t checked out on how to monitor that on our navigation system. Angie, being a prudent helmsman, kept Avion as high into the wind to starboard as possible since the strobe was moving from our starboard to port across our bow that appeared to be way less than a mile out. Take these estimated distances with a grain of salt; at 3:30 in the morning while being fatigued one’s judgment of distances, or anything for that matter, is suspect. This may account for the reason stated earlier about the remaining crew’s concern of our sanity.

Anyway, getting back to the story, Angie said that she could start breathing again once she could see the strobe off our port bow. Knowing that I can’t hold my breath that long I began to worry not only about a potential collision but also for my helmsman’s ability not to pass out. We kept a keen eye on the luff of the jib hoping to see a light. It finally flashed and Angie finally took a deep breath. This strobe was even closer than the other two lights and appeared to be moving faster than the red light but about the same speed as the previous strobe. Since it was significantly closer it moved off our stern much quicker than the previous two light. All of the lights were moving in the opposite direction as Avion but again not directly to the stationary ship. You can probably guess that Angie and Juan had a heightened sense of awareness for the remainder of their watch.

When Angie went down to wake Nico I could see an animated Angie trying to explain to Nico what we just experienced. Nico, having been checked out on the AIS system, went to the computer and was unable to verify any AIS signal in the region. By this time the stationary ship was over the horizon but we could see a faint glow. David had seen the stationary ship before he went off watch, otherwise the remaining crew would have been totally concerned about our sanity. So what do you think? Military exercise with stealth technology, some research vessel analyzing the debris field in this general area of the Pacific, some alien encounter of the third kind, or some hallucinations from a couple of fatigued sailors?