Hove-to in a Gale off California

Sorry for the delay in getting my latest messages out. I have been busy getting the boat back in shape. Bob and I are safely tucked away in Morrow Bay since Monday afternoon around 2:00 pm.

You may remember me kidding about surviving rough seas in an earlier email. Well I probably should have not sent that message because it became reality. We left Monterey on Sunday around 10:00 am. The weather forecasts were showing 10-15 kt winds with 3-5 foot seas. The first 4 hours were typical for the trip with sunny skies, little or no wind and flat seas. We saw several whales again off of Carmel and we were enjoying the scenery. The winds around that time started to pickup and we became excited about finally being able to turn off the engine and actually use the sail boat for sailing. I had planned to put a reef in the sails for the evening in case the winds became too heavy so instead of waiting until sunset, I decided to put the reef in while it was putting the sails up. We had a couple of hours of good sailing but noticed that the seas and the wind was picking up. Not long after dark, the wind became very high between 35 and 40 kts and the seas were building up to 10-15 feet or more. I went forward to put the second reef in on the main sail and rolled up the jib to about 25% of its’ maximum size. We readied ourselves for a long and rough evening. Despite all of the weather forecasts showing mild wind and seas, we found ourselves in the middle of a gale. My route that I planned was to have us off the coast between 20- 25 miles to give us plenty of room between us and the shore so that plan worked out for us as an advantage.

The boat was difficult to handle in those seas so it is understandable that both of us tired and I didn’t want us to keep pushing on if we couldn’t remain alert. I told Bob to ready the boat so we could heave to which is a procedure that you follow to set the sails in a manner where the boat slows down to 1-2 kts and remains level on the water while it drifts around on the seas in the safest and most comfortable position as possible in the conditions we were at. This is a procedure that is followed when one finds themselves in this type of storm if they need rest or to simply ride the storm out. We finished getting the boat hove to, picked up the lines around the boat to straighten up the cockpit, went down below in the cabin, shut and locked the cabin doors, and went to sleep for a few hours. Imagine for a minute being tied down on the back of a bull at the rodeo and told to get some rest and sleep after they let the bull out of its’ pen, but sleep we did. We got up after three hours since we were now 10 miles off shore and sailed back to our original course. Around 3:00 in the morning we hove to again and got some more rest. By the time we woke up, it was dawn. We sailed off again and the winds and the seas started to calm down. We made it! We tied up to the dock in Morrow Bay around 2:00 in the afternoon. What does a sailor do after having this kind of an experience; He or she has a drink. That is exactly what Bob and I did as we sat to reflect what we just went through. The boat handled well under those conditions and was put to a test that it probably has never seen before. This is great. It proved that both the captain and the boat are ready for these conditions if ever it occurs again. We hope we are not ever tested again.

I found a sail repair place in Morrow Bay. Three slides on my mainsail failed and they are being replaced with stronger slides. In the mean time, Bob and I are enjoying the area and I get to spend time with my son and daughter in-law, Jessie and my grandson Ray. It looks like our next weather window will be on Friday. If this holds up, we are heading for Santa Barbara and we get to go around Point Conception which is referred to as the Cape Horn on the California coast.

I have not been able to post our current position yet and I need to replace my cable so I can download my photos for the blog. I will get caught up before we leave for Santa Barbara. Until then, all take care.

Dennis Gade