A glimmer of hope

The weather, (Sea) forecast is once again promising a glimmer of hope. Even with large bumpy seas, if all remains as is, we will be granted a three to four day window, in which delusions of grandeur now exist. We will be praying to the Great Chief in the sky, that we may be granted this long awaited passage. As Charleston, Oregon is definitely NOT the place we wish to spend the winter. We lust for milder climates. Oh, what we would give for 80 degree temps with blue water and calm seas. Yeah, yeah, I know…..Dream On!


We have been making good use of our time here. Catching up on Maintenance and installing a few items that have been lying dormant on the “To Do” list. I am still having a problem with the charging of the house batteries. The only way I can get them to take a charge, is to put the control switch on ALL. The house batteries are supposed to be isolated from the others, by putting the main switch on #1. The problem is that on # 1 they won’t take a charge from any source, Alt, Solar, or AC power plug. That is unless, as stated before, I change the main battery to ALL. I am a little concerned about this, because if anything pulls excessive amps, including a short, it will drain all the batteries except the capstan battery. This battery is isolated with its own switch. The emergency use of that battery would prove difficult, as it is located in the chain locker. If we ever catch up with Steve & Lodie, I will call on his “expertise,” even if I have to grovel a bit.

In our current dreams we will reach Moss Landing next week. In reality, where will we be at this time next week? Only God knows that! Sure do hope he’s on our side!

Stuck in Coos Bay (again) sung to the tine of "Stuck in Lodi again" by CCR

Ten days here....and we thought the weather was getting better....NOW it looks like it's getting worse for the next few days thru the weekend......not a very clean port but our friend Gary came down yesterday and took us shopping for groceries (he and Jay) while I got taken to a laundromat to do the week's laundry...but it was cool they had a video arcade, vending machines for all kinds of stuff and boo koos of old Enquirer magazines to leaf thru.....I had NO idea that Carnie Wilson (beach boys kid) had porked out to about 300 lbs again after her gastric bi-pass and that Oprah and her best gal pal Gayle (somethingoranother) are having a feud......and that Russell Brand explained why he "slept around" so much cause he "wanted to make sure he found the right girl" before he married Katy Perry! The things I don't hear on the boat! so laundry was actually fun and informative.....ha ha

Back to real life: Jay and I found this great huge (30 x 25 ft) netting (I think it was a soccer goal net) at St Vinnie's and we have been making great storage nets for the v-berth sides and etc. to give us more secure storage for our "stuff".....

Boogie is in a depressed state right now...hope he gets better....he got in trouble for pooing in the v berth on the floor instead of using his box and Jay boxed his ears and yelled at him and he hasn't been the same since.....last nite I went to move him over to get into bed and he growled at me, bit me on the shoulder and gave me an evil look......I think since Jay is the alpha cat, he thinks he is second in line and he was trying to exert his alpha  #2 cat power over me.....I guess I am the wimp of "the family 'pride'" as I didn't fight him back........he is just sleeping a lot......wish I could till this bad weather is over. I don't want to get stuck in this yucky port much longer........hope our sailing friends Lulu and Steve and Lodie and Steve are faring better, but I hope we get out of this place and get to meet up with them again. Boy will I appreciate warmer, drier weather...keep praying for good waves and wind......Judy

Changing Reports

At two this morning the alarm drug us out of bed, only to discover the NOAA sea condition report had changed. Our predicted window slammed shut. Now with nine ft waves dominated by 4 ft wind waves driven by high winds out of the west. The Wx report was even worse with Hazardous Sea warnings for small crafts. I guess we hang tight here till the two storms coming up the coast pass by. Supposedly this will be next weekend. We could make it to Crescent City (116 NM), but it would be a miserable, extremely cold trip.
Oh well, there is always something that needs to be done on the boat. I have a cabinet that is full of things
" to be installed"  There is also the Interphase 180 se sonar that I can install all of, except the port transducer, which I have to install another thru-hull for. Will have to wait until we haul out in Ensenada to do that. The weather is supposed to turn nasty here on Thursday, so will have to plan my work accordingly.
We walked to Englund Marine yesterday to get a spot light. They only had two in stock. A 60,000 candle power one, which would be useless, and a LED one that was measured at 500 lumens. The salesman said the Sheriffs Dept. liked them so well that they bought several for their boats. What I want to know is how do I compare the intensity of lumen's to candle power? Guess I'll check the Internet. The price on the LED seemed high at $116.00. I've never seen such ridiculous prices as when they say "marine."

Judy's version:

After spending days in this dirty marina I was so excited to think we would finally get to leave...then we woke up at 2 in anticipation of salvation from this yucky port only to have the weather change and thwart our plans...guess God must have something else in mind for us this week.....wish we were further south like Steve and Lulu and Steve and Lodie......we will make it I know....to the sunshine...but they say patience is a virtue but mine is getting thin.....the only saving grace here seems to be the fact that the sun has been shining every day we've been here and all the people we've encountered have been extremely nice.....so we will wait till Captain Jay says it's time to leave............

Around the Capes

I installed the water heater yesterday and it works great, at least in the galley. I was minus one 1/2'' nipple so couldn't run the hot water to the head. Tried to get Judy to loan me one, but she wasn't going for it. Sure is nice to have hot water again though. It's surprising how we tend to take things, like running hot water, for granted. That is until we suddenly don't have them.
It looks like we will be able to leave Charleston around midnight or one tonight. That is if the weather holds. It is around 60 miles to Cape Blanco and we want to go around it in the daylight. Locally they call our next sail around the Capes "the horn of the pacific"
Shure hope the weather holds. We don't much care for this marina, although the sun has been out every day. The transient dock is open to the public for crabbing. Yuck, what a nasty dock. The public doesn't seem to care much about cleaning up after themselves, or their animals. If you get what I mean.
Our next intended stop is Crescent City, or Humbolt. Depending on sea conditions.

Stuck in Charleston

It is now the 16th and the seas off Cape Blanco are still not acceptable to venture out. The next possible window, and I stress "possible," is not until next Tuesday. This will give us time to do some extra work on the boat such as installing Judy's new hot water heater. This will also free up some badly needed storage space.

Since my last post I have discovered more electrical problems that had to be dealt with. The house batteries wouldn't take a full charge. At first we thought it might possibly have something to do with the installation of the two new solar panels' control box, as we had to send it back to the manufacturer earlier due to it being a faulty unit. I had avoided checking the house batteries with my new hydrometer due to the fact that all of our spare teak wood supply was secured above the battery box in the quarter berth and the quarter berth was being used for storage and was therefore packed full. We finally gave in and pulled everything out of the quarter berth and upon checking the batteries we discovered that they were in poor condition. We called the local Battery Exchange and procured 4 new Trojan 125s which they actually delivered to the marina and our boat at no charge. The gentleman who delivered them was extremely nice and carried all the batteries down to the boat and carried the old batteries back up the dock. We were very surprised at the great customer service we received from this retailer. When I disconnected the batteries I had to follow a strict procedure written down by the electrician who installed the new solar panel control box and had to reverse that procedure upon installation of the new batteries. Upon completion of this procedure I connected the solar panels and again to my chagrin there was no input and the light would not come on. At this point I was extremely frustrated/pissed off wondering WTF was going on! I was so angry that I told Judy "I'm finished for the day and will deal with this tomorrow!"

After a good night's sleep and several cups of coffee I received a phone call from Steve and Lodie, our friends from Canada who are several days ahead of us on the water. I explained the situation to Steve (who is also a shipwright) who advised me to start at the control box or the panels and test for voltage until I located the problem. I decided to start at the panels which were only putting out one volt due to the lack of sun but I followed this meager current back to the control box without discovering any change. I then checked the wires from the batteries to the control box and still could find no faults. I then disconnected the control box, referred back to the hook up instructions and repeated them exactly the same as I had previously. This time, voila, they worked! So as to the problem I don't have the foggiest! Fortunately we now have power and are ready to go, unfortunately the weather isn't cooperating. We get conflicting reports from NOAA and the VHF(WX). So we went to the Coast Guard Station and asked why we were getting conflicting reports from NOAA and the local VHF reports. We asked if they used the NOAA weather reports online and were told no they used the U.S. weather info. They then brought us a hard copy of the report which was favorable. Upon walking back to our boat we were discussing how similar their report was to the good report we had from NOAA. When we reached the boat, fired up the computer and used the site they gave us it turned out to be the same NOAA report site that we had been using. All in all the coast guard doesn't seem to know what report they are using.....

Tomorrow I will install Judy's new water heater. That is unless our prayers are answered and there is a miraculous change in the forecast, and we are able to sail around Cape Blanco to Crescent City or beyond.
Judy and I are doing fine, but it would be nice to have another crew to help on watches.

Newport to Charlston OR.

We left Newport Oregon on 10/12/10 and headed south for Crescent City, or Humboldt CA, as our first intended port. As usual, the best made plans never seem to work out. Yep, more electrical problems. Judy called out to me from the cabin to inform me that one of the red lights on the inverter panel was flashing. When I tried to start the engine to boost the charge, the engine refused to turn over. To my chagrin, I discovered that we lost our starter battery. I then switched over to all on the main battery switch and started the engine. The light stopped flashing. We were back in temporary service mode. At this point the closest port was Charleston. We arrived outside Charleston at around eleven thirty that evening. One of the first things I learned was never try to enter an unfamiliar harbor in the dark of night. I ended up spending most of an extremely cold night at the helm keeping Wind Raven pointed into the wind, until I discovered that she is quite capable of lying a-hull on her own. At this point I first took care of my bladder problem, and then crouched under the protection of the dodger, as the wind was up to around 20k and damn cold. There were two large trawlers in my proximity that I was keeping a sharp eye on all night. At five in the morning, after lying a-hull for almost six hours we had only drifted about a mile. Around an hour before daybreak we headed towards the bar at Charleston. The bar report wasn’t bad, so we headed across the bar in four foot rollers extending up the channel about ¼ mile. We were glad we waited to enter, as the entrance was not well marked and if you missed it you would end up riding a large wave onto a somewhat rocky beach.


We are now safely docked in the harbor with, (we hope) all repairs completed. We were informed that the 775 CCA deep cycle battery that came with Wind Raven was the wrong type. We procured a 1000 CCA starting battery in North Bend. I was in for a surprise when I tried to remove the old battery. I am too big to fit into the engine compartment and enable myself to get into a position to lift it out. I tried several times to no avail. Luckily when James arrived to finish labeling all of the new electrical switches he was able to pull the old battery and install the new one, due to his small stature.

We planned to leave Charleston today 10/15/10, but due to unpredicted weather changes we will lay over another day. I am not keen about going around Cape Blonco sixty seven miles south in 20 – 25kn winds and combined waves of 12 to 13ft at 9 seconds. Tomorrow will be much better. We can both use the rest anyway.

Next stop Humboldt, We hope

Shakedown Cruise

Shakedown cruise- Jay’s version:


Hi Folks!

We left Newport last Friday morning (9-17-10) heading southwest to put us a safe distance from the leeward shore. It was a little bumpy, but not bad. Sometime during that day someone inadvertently hit the rocker switches on the electric panel, turning all but one on. This resulted in a tremendous drain on the batteries. Unfortunately, we failed to notice this ,as the seas were rapidly increasing. The wind went from 23k to over 30k in less than fifteen minutes. As night approached I lost the GPS. It would come on but could not find the satellite. I started checking the electrical and discovered the problem with the batteries, but still not knowing the switches were on. I started the engine to build the power and just as it was beginning to come back the engine started to overheat. Shutting down the engine I then emptied the lazarette, putting everything in the v-berth. Upon accessing the engine it was discovered that the alternator / water belt had severed. At this point I threw aside all of the equipment in the v-berth in order to access the spare parts compartment. To my chagrin, it was then discovered that of the four extra belts all were too large. The next eight to ten hours were spent in the dark with a flashlight making a variety of makeshift belts which would last from five to ten minutes before self destructing. During this time the seas had risen from to fourteen to sixteen feet with thee to four feet breaking waves. The winds were in excess of 40 knots and we were over 100 miles off the coast.

Not being able to make a decent repair we decided our best option was to head back to Newport sailing in a northeasterly direction. We sailed through the night with four reefs in the main and still no power. The handheld GPS was working sporadically, but only for extremely short periods.

Upon arriving seventy miles off the coast from Newport, we headed south easterly in an attempt to arrive south of the bar to give us the safest approach, as the wind was still out of the south.

After a couple of hours the wind died and we turned the helm over to the ladies. Exhausted, Tom & I laid down. When Tom awoke five hours later we discovered that we had only made it five miles in five hours, due to the four reefs and no wind to speak of. I could not sleep during that period so put out a fishing rod and hooked a Tuna. Didn't want him on board so drug him along.

As we headed toward Newport the win rose and again we reefed the main. The wind built fast, but not as fast as before. The seas built to around eight feet with small breakers. It had been sunny from the time we arrived off the coast of Newport, but now we could see another storm between us and the coast. Sure enough, Newport had low visibility. When we arrived we could not tell if we were south of the bar as intended or not. Due to the poor visibility. We contacted the coast guard instructing them that we had no power or electronics, but believed we were south of the bar, and requested a lead in. They located us 3.2 miles south of the bar and requested to tow us in as the bar was rough.. I refused the tow (been there, done that before) and requested a lead to the bar. We sailed in with four reefs across the bar, under the bridge to the entrance to the marina. I turned into the wind as Tom dropped the main, fired the engine and dashed for the marina slip.

The coast guard met us at the dock and did an inspection which we passed almost as well as Wind Raven handled the high seas.

All in all, it was one hell of a shakedown cruise. We are now extremely confident in the abilities of Wind Raven. She is one hell of a good sailing vessel!