Seeking Whales in Santa Cruz - Part III Safe Return

While you should in general try to avoid sailing in storms, it may at times prove useful to catch the weaker winds around their periphery. Last Thursday, hurricane-force winds were predicted to sweep through the Gulf of Alaska. Storms such as these, caused by low-pressure systems in the Northern hemisphere,  have the wind blowing counterclockwise around them (or clockwise in the Southern hemisphere) - the low-pressure system is literally sucking up air from all across the Eastern Pacific. As a consequence, winds circulating counterclockwise in Alaska will provide southerly winds blowing all along the West Coast, with the winds becoming weaker as you go further south (see weather chart below). This is exactly what you need if your goal is to sail from Santa Cruz north towards the San Francisco Bay Area. As soon as I read this forecast last Wednesday, I contacted my friend and crewmember Danok to see if he would be available to do the sail back the next day. And he was.

 Winds in the Gulf of Alaska on Thursday, November 5th 2009.

Arrows indicate the wind direction. Long feathers are 10 knots, short feathers 5 knots, and black triangles 50 knots. Note how the winds circulate clockwise around the low-pressure

system (L) and blow from the South along the West Coast.

Southerly winds off Santa Cruz are rare, and we had to make use of this exquisite opportunity to succeed at sailing Chelsea B back north past San Francisco and to her home in Redwood City (100 miles total). Fortunately for us, the wind was predicted to be 10-20 knots in strength, which is about the best you could possibly ask for. The storm in Alaska was going to remain contained with safe conditions prevailing in California.

After taking train and bus, we arrived at the Santa Cruz Harbor on Wednesday night. The plan was to leave the harbor the next morning and reach Half Moon Bay that evening to anchor there for one night and arrive in home-sweet-home (Redwood City) by Friday night. When we left Santa Cruz at 6 AM at sunrise, the wind was blowing the predicted 10 knots from the Southeast. Perfect. We hoisted both sails, turned the motor off and just sailed - from the beginning smooth and fast and with the steady wind. Once the sun rose further, the clouds dissipated and the sky cleared up. The conditions were literally ideal (I actually had a conversation about this with Danok: if on any given moment the wind and the weather are ideal and the boat is moving as fast as it can, you can literally say that this is the best place in the whole world to sail on).

Ideal sailing conditions about 10 miles north of Santa Cruz.

Note that both sails are partially open, as should be the case when you

are running with the wind.

Twelve hours later we reached Half Moon Bay, 50 miles north of Santa Cruz. And while initially we had planned on staying there for the night before doing the remaining 50 miles, we decide to change plans.  Since conditions were ideal today and we had no certainty about what their were going to be tomorrow, even though the forecast was optimistic, it would be safest to just keep going. In addition, a strong 4-knot ebb current that would help us enter through the Golden Gate Bridge was predicted to occur near midnight, just about when we would arrive there. If we could catch that current with the winds not changing too much, we were almost guaranteed to arrive in Redwood City by dawn.

We reached the Golden Gate Bridge by 11 PM, with conditions remaining ideal. San Francisco was beautiful as usual, with the bright lights illuminating the nighttime sky. Inside the Bay the wind died, and we turned to motor on to keep going: Bay Bridge, San Mateo Bridge, Redwood Creek, and home. At 3 AM we got there. The boat was tied up, the sails dropped, and we knew that we had finally made it, in record time.

Crossing the Golden Gate Bridge at night

Recap:

Time: 21 hours non-stop

Distance: 100 miles

Average speed: 5 knots

Motoring: 2 hours on the ocean and 6 hours in the Bay

Technical complications: none

P.S. A thought: Even though I was tired, hungry, sleepy and cold when I arrived, I felt an enormous degree of satisfaction. It occurred to me that in order to feel good, our physical well-being may be less important than having a sense of accomplishment and success.