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[Note: Written by Steve Reed, Santa Cruz, CA]
I wanted to write about the delivery of Solar Coaster, our "new" Sceptre 36 which we bought from Bob Vaughn (as Gossamer), in Vancouver last March before the memories either fade, or get so exaggerated that there’s little resemblance to events that actually occurred. I’m writing without the benefit of our ships log, nor from the chart positions because we haven’t put it all together yet. Our delivery "crew" were all close friends – and I intend on blurring names and specific events to protect both the innocent, and the guilty.
We only knew the boat from two brief cruises around the Canadian Gulf Islands, during which we had excellent weather and overall conditions. The boat performed better than my expectations, she sailed easily, fast, and predictably. I was not able to get any real feel however, of how she’d handle out in the Pacific Ocean, especially if the big ocean gave us a real workout. The other major unknown in the equation was "la Nina", the unusual weather that has had global impacts, and which had produced "winter" through most of the Pacific Northwest’s summer.
So, it was with at least prudent concern that we planned this delivery, which was to take us from the eastern portion of the Straits of Juan de Fuca, to San Francisco Bay and then further south to the Monterey Bay in central California.
LEG NUMBER ONE
We were able to time our departure from Port Angeles, Washington just before slack water (at about 03:15) and with a light breeze from the east (imagine our good fortune!) we rode the ebb until the next slack – and we were "propelled" past Neah Bay and Cape Flattery effortlessly. (Imagine, our good fortune!!). Once we turned the corner, and headed her south, we got our first feel for the conditions that we would have for most of the rest of the trip … the seas were large – not too large, but large enough at between 10’-15’. The discomfort we began to experience was due to the 7-second period between crests, which was very short, and manageable mainly because the winds remained moderate, under 15 kts. (from the north to northeast) initially. We made about 20 miles westing, in an attempt to find longer duration between swells and more reliable winds.
As the evening went on, the winds continued to build, as did the wind-driven waves, and by the early dawn the winds were in the 30 kt. range and the sea state now included wind driven waves of 5’ or so on top of the ocean swells. The swells were coming from one direction, and the wind driven waves were coming from the other quarter. The intermittent problems we had had with our Autohelm/autopilot continued, and the autopilot simply gave up and died sometime in that first 24 hours, forcing us to reconsider our watch schedule, as we were now required to hand steer all the time. During the day, the winds built, and a gale was declared for the Washington/Oregon coast. We were running with the second reef in the main and a tiny bit of the #3 jib rolled out for balance. The boat was overpowered, and unbalanced, and we didn’t feel that we could safely put in the 3rd reef without jeopardizing the crew or the boat, so we just rolled up the remaining stitch of jib in an attempt to slow the boat down a bit, and gain some additional control. She did slow down an little, and she remained both overpowered and unbalanced—we really should have been able to get the third reef put in, but believe me if I thought we could, we would. The seas were simply too large and too close together, we were taking green water over the forward deck regularly, and we couldn’t reach off without broaching… so, we just rode (fast) with it. We accidentally jibed several times, due to the seastate punching us about – and we decided to start the diesel, and run it in gear at a fast idle. That way, we had steerage and an additional measure of control in the event of a jibe or broach.
Approximately 50 hours after leaving Port Angeles, we were closing in on Coos Bay, Oregon – and with the weather still building, we decided to try to tuck into Coos Bay. About 20 miles out to sea, and about 20 miles from Coos, a U.S. Coast Guard Search & Rescue helicopter flew over, inspected our condition, and flew off – no contact was made on the radio, which we took to mean that they thought we looked shipshape (we did) and were doing O.K. (which we were, all things considered). The Coast Guard did make radio contact with us as we made our approach to Coos Bay, to warn us that the bar and tide and wind conditions were extremely dangerous, and urged us to exercise "extreme caution" (thanks guys!)- which we tried to do.
Once in, the Coast Guard once again radioed us to "congratulate" us on a "textbook example of crossing the bar". We had a good boat, and good crew, and lots of luck, and we probably needed all three, as the bar appeared brutal for the last hour or so as we made our final approach. We were just 60 (approx.) hours out of Port Angeles, and already tied up, safe in Coos Bay, Oregon. What a run down, depressing place!
Therefore, Leg #1 – from Port Angeles, Washington to Coos Bay, Oregon was ____nm., which we covered in about 60 hrs, at a average speed in excess of 6.5 kts.
[Following are some pictures taken enroute Coos Bay]
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LEG NUMBER TWO
We stayed in Coos Bay for a day, and left on the following day – in conditions that the National Weather Service predicted to include slightly diminished seas, and winds from the north to northwest at 10 – 20 kts. What we encountered however was pretty much the same sea state, and 20 kts right – on – the – nose !! – Horrors, a southerly! We attempted to beat into it throughout the rest of the day, and night. The boat was being tossed and punched by the seas and waves from both quarters, and from the wind directly out of the south, and despite our best effort to sail our plotted course, by the time Scott woke from his off watch, our position was closer to Japan than it was to the West Coast of North America. We made, in 12 hours of fast and exhausting sailing, something like 3 to 4 miles on the rhumb line!
The winds eventually clocked around to the north as we got further offshore, and we started making good VMG again. By this time, we were not only taking green water over the bow, but we were taking occasional white water over the stern. We filled the cockpit once and half filled it dozens of times. Throughout this period, the boat continued to sail predictably – she exhibited no bad habits. The electrical system was soaking wet – and "things" began to short out, sounding "low voltage" alarms. We lost the Loran (intermittently) – the autopilot made brief come-backs, but the clutch eventually gave up for good, and we were forced again to say goodbye to "Ingrid" the autopilot. We were using much too much electrical power, and we knew it was most likely caused by electrical shorts, opens, and so on… and regardless, we couldn’t do anything about it given the conditions. We shut off all non-essential electrical equipment.
The interior of the boat was quite a scene! Scott said it was like living in the Russian Spaceship, "SOYUZ V". The boat was rolling from rail, to rail and back in less than four seconds! Provisions would fly over the heads of the off watch to land on the opposite side of the boat. No chart or navigation equipment would stay on the chart table for more than a few seconds – once a position was plotted, the chart would fly off the table, only to land somewhere in the galley. We never had a chance to sail out of "full uniform" (layers, full foul weather tops and bottoms, PFDs, Safety Harnesses, strobe lights, whistles etc etc). Wet gear was stowed anywhere convenient. "Food", as in "meals" was out of the question, but we all enjoyed continuous snacking, and no one was ever hungry… nor in a foul mood. In fact, it was more like a joke a minute, and we sailed on. Personal hygiene was at an all time low—but we remained in a good mood, and we sailed on.
Crewman ‘Dick’ announced before we started the delivery, that he had to be in Denver on a specific date, and we decided that in order to absolutely ensure that he made his Denver deadline, we should pull into Crescent City (California) and drop him off. We made Crescent City by last light (well, actually, we made it by first dark) in a dying breeze and lumpy seas. After getting disoriented by the unlit inner Crescent City harbor, we made a safe tie at a dock along with some of the fishing fleet that had come in due to the poor conditions that continued to exist offshore. Dick was able to arrange an (expensive) taxi ride to somewhere, where he would be able to make some sort of other connection, eventually getting to San Francisco airport, and on to Denver. We were down to three and had to once again rethink our limited options for watchkeeping. We decided, against my best judgement that we would try to keep a one-person watch going – which was crazy given the conditions, but no viable option really was available. Watch was three hours ‘on’ and six off. During the three on, realize that due to the lack of autopilot, crew was practically tied to the wheel, with no ability to relieve ones self, get a snack, trim sails etc. The offwatch tried to sleep, or rest, but was to remain on-call and committed to provide assistance to the lone on-watch crew.
Overall, leg #2 – from Coos Bay, Oregon to Crescent City, California was a total of _____nm., which we covered in _________hours/ _______kts.
LEG NUMBER THREE
We left Crescent City (after running aground in the channel—we hit soft sand and backed off without any apparent damage to Solar Coaster) in weather that the National Weather Service predicted would be diminished seas, and winds between 10 –15 kts/ north to northwest. Again, we got offshore and found seas that were minimally smaller, and winds in excess of 20 kts. We tied the third reef in, and stabilized the boat a great deal, however we were hit by white water over the stern (into the cockpit) time and time again as the seas and wind driven waves continued to come from opposite quarters. It was impossible to steer DDW in those conditions - the boat just took a pounding, and gracefully accepted ongoing accidental jibes without complaint.
We did listen to a fair amount of VHF traffic which sounded like many boats (sailboats and fishing trawlers alike) were having difficulty in the conditions, we heard of breakdowns, requests for assistance, and the need for towing. We could not pinpoint where this radio traffic was coming from, but it certainly didn’t look like seas or winds were moderating as the NWS predicted. Our electrical problems continued—necessitating running the engine for steerage, and to generate enough power to run the radar, the VHF, running lights AND the Espar Diesel cabin heater (which provided us with a virtually unlimited amount of WARM, DRY cabin air – imagine!). We making ____average kts., and doing O.K.- but the unpredictable weather, and the carnage we were hearing on the VHF (along with the exhaustion of crew) indicated that we should pull into the harbor at Fort Bragg, California, which is located on the Noyo River.
We made Noyo in the late afternoon. We covered ________nm, from Crescent city to Fort Bragg, in ____hrs., for an average speed of ____kts.
We stayed one day in Fort Bragg, and took off the next morning—well, we started to leave. Upon departure, ALL the engine claxon horns (warning of low oil pressure, and/or high water temperature) went off, the electrical meter sounded its own ‘low voltage’ alarm, and we saw smoke in the cabin which smelled like burning, or overheated electrical wire insulation. We pulled back into the slip, and shut things down—and hit the panic button. We didn’t see anything obvious once we dug into the engine compartment—and we knew we were beyond our "core competency". We got two diesel mechanics to come over to the boat—both decided that we didn’t have an engine problem per se, but that we most likely had an electrical problem with the alarm circuits. They fixed the problem by pulling the alarm wire, listened to the engine run, and pronounced that we were "good to go". To double check, I called the closest diesel expert, in San Francisco – a woman who runs Golden State Diesel. Barbara Matthews asked us to start the engine so she could listen to it over the cellphone! We did, and she arrived at the same conclusion – the engine was healthy, so worry about the electrical problem later… well we fell for it, and left Noyo River/Fort Bragg both relieved and concerned.
LEG NUMBER FOUR
The run between Fort Bragg and San Francisco was blissfully uneventful (finally!). We decided to "play the beach", using the radar to stay within four miles of the coastline—which allowed for a smooth trip, with light breeze or no wind at all. We made it under the Golden Gate at mid-day, during the start of the "Big Boat" regatta – covering the __nm. In 35 hours.
POSTSCRIPT
The short version of all this is, we sailed Solar Coaster approximately 1100 nm. We were at sea for 6 1/2 days with an overall elapsed trip time of 10 days. Despite the trials that are illustrated in the narrative, there were no major or significant breakdowns, the crew performed perfectly and we really had a pretty good time.
In retrospect, we were extremely fortunate that our deckmaster, Dick was as assiduous and competent as he was. On deck Dick lashed, four, six-gallon diesel fuel jerry jugs, our "heavy #1" Genoa, our light air asymmetrical gennaker, and our Simpson Lawrence 6-person Coast Guard certified liferaft. Throughout the trip, NOTHING shifted.
Somewhere along the line, we caught one salmon, which was delicious – and only because Marty was able to cook it during the chaos down below. Being a believer in redundancy, we carried three hand-held GPS receivers. We lost two of the three – probably due to repeated dunkings. Other than that, the boat and crew held up very, very well – boat and crew exceeded my performance expectations. Solar Coaster, the Sceptre 36 designed and built by Hein Dreiehuzen in l980 (hull #16 of 36) is one heck of a strong, sure footed, well mannered, quick sailboat! All of us who are lucky enough to own them are fortunate indeed. I’m looking forward to some nice, fair weather day-sailing on San Francisco and Monterey Bay – but I’d take her offshore again.
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