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Our friend Bill writes: "One question: how do you manage daily hygeine? Do you have a shower aboard, do you use a SunShower, or what? That's been one of Holly's biggest objections to cruising."
Ellen writes: About hygene: we use our SunShowers a lot. They work great. Until now, we've been using them in the cockpit. When anchored, we either put up towels for some privacy or wear our bathing suits. We do have a shower pan in the boat, but don't yet have a curtain, yet. We plan to put a very small openning hatch in the deck above the shower area so we can hang the shower from the mast or lay it on deck and have the feed hose lead down through the hatch. I plan to put it in a corner of the shower area so that if it's raining out, we don't have to stand under the rain, but the rain will go down the shower drain.
Sometimes it's not sunny enough to get the SunShower warm. No problem, just drain some of the water out into a pan, heat it on the stove and use a funnel to put back into the SunShower. My Tupperware funnel works great for this purpose.
Using SunShowers might sound like a bit of a hassle, but it's really not. Especially when you're out cruising and aren't jumping out of bed to rush to work every morning (hope I didn't rub salt in any wounds with that one...) They've also been much more satisfying than the pidley pressure shower we had on the trawler we chartered last year for our honeymoon (we weren't complaining last year, it was a warm shower!)
Anne in Portland writes:
>I tell everyone I can, with some amount of jealousy, of
>course, about your perfect trip up the coast. The picture of Ellen
>steering the bouys out the bar whilst Todd did the cornbread is a
>marvelous thing! (the spaghetti dinner across Juan de Fuca also good)
Ellen writes: Eating the cornbread on the ocean and spaghetti across Juan de Fuca was also a wonderful thing! I have to confess, though. I made the spaghetti because it was easy and fast. Boil noodles, drain water, open sauce jar, add sauce to noodle. Fast, hot carbohydrates for a cold, dark and rainy night
Ellen writes: We should be leaving Deer Harbor tomorrow (10/3/97). Hoorray!!! I told Todd that I definitely did not want to still be here on my birthday, this Sunday. A friend from Hawaii is in the Seattle area. We will hopefully talk to him today and meet up tomorrow. Then it's head for Victoria, then Neah Bay and beyond. We are watching the weather. Just had a screamer come through yesterday. Big gusts came up into Deer Harbor creating white caps in areas. Todd went out to the boat with Graham who works part time for AquaMarine to set another bow anchor in addition to our CQR 35. Yes, it's true. We have finally used our new Bruce 44 anchor. Todd said it wasn't too hard to get out of the closet. We'll have to see how easy it is to put back in....
Most of the people who have been emailling us tell us to "sail safe." We've decided that we will sail safe as long as you all agree to Drive Safe. Anyone reading this is hereby included in our mandate to Drive Safe! Okay? Crossing oceans on a properly equipped sailboat is actually safer than driving to work in the morning. These last few days of computer and tech writing consulting/work, we've been rowing our dingy from Mandolin to the dock. A pretty easy commute. We've been generally rowing back out to the boat for lunch. It great to be able to go home for lunch.
Todd writes: After pulling in three of our four anchors (Ellen: I pulled up the Bruce 44 all by myself with a stern and bow anchor still out! Todd was so impressed.), we hopped over to the Deer Harbor resort to fill our water tanks and empty the holding tank before heading to Jones Island for the night. By the time we finished up with the chores it was pretty dark. We felt comfortable making the passage since we had sailed around Jones Island in the daylight. The radar helped out for spotting markers and the entrance to the bay. We tied up to a mooring bouy to avoid a noisy boat that was tied to the dock.
The wind and currents were doing weird things in the bay causing the metal mooring bouy to bonk against the bow of the boat. My first solution: tie a longer line to the bouy, thinking that the boat would sit further away therefore avoiding contact. It didn't work. We listened to an occasional bonk for most of the night. Our anchors don't make this kind of racket. Finally morning arrived. Solution #2: lead a line over the bow roller and tighten up on the bouy so that it sits directly under the roller. Due to the curve of the bow, the bouy now can't reach our hull. It worked. (Ellen: we used this solution after freeing the line from under the mooring bouy. That long line had gotten well wrapped *under* the bouy due to the boat wandering around the bouy. Picture us on the bow of Mandolin in our bathrobes freeing the line with boathooks. We were ready for our oatmeal this morning!) We had breakfast in peace. We motored over to the dock to go for a hike. Marine Park docks are free after September 30th. There is a nice gravel beach and a meadow that leads down to it. Out came the hiking boots and we were off to see the other side of the island. Most of the way across as I was looking down to avoid stepping on the occasional slug, Ellen grasps my arm and says, "Look!" Up the trail trots a small doe. She comes within feet of us, stops, turns sideways and just watches us. We eyed each other for a bit. Soon we reached out a hand and stroked the delicate hair on the top of her nose. She didn't mind a bit. (Ellen: We got to pet a deer!!! I was so amazed. It was sooooo neat.) We figured she observed us as a food source, but we didn't bring anything to share. After a while we continued down the trail with this doe following like a puppy. Looked at the beach once at the other side of Jones Island. We spotted another deer in the apple orchard that had been part of an old homestead. I plucked some branches and apples that this buck happily munched up. We saved some for the doe, but she was being stuffed full of cored and quartered apples that some other visitors had brought. How spoiled. Our hope is that they still remember how to fend for themselves once winter arrives and no one is around to feed them.
After some time throwing pine seed into the air and watching them helecopter their way back to the ground (We are amused by simple things) we boarded Mandolin and readied her for the crossing to Roache Harbor on San Juan Island. The wind was such that we put the sails up at the dock, untied the dock lines and sailed away. So great. It was too bad we didn't have anyone around to witness our smooth and silent take off. The next two hours were a wonderful beam reach with the genoa and full main at hull speed. We were even able to sail into Roache Harbor, but decided to turn on the motor to dock because of the traffic. If all our passages were like this, we would go months on a few gallons of fuel. Picked up some fruits and other groceries, made a phone call, then continued onto Wescott Bay where we scored another bucketful of oysters. I spent the evening baking a chocolate mocha cake for Ellen's birthday tomorrow.
Ellen's Birthday started out great, the barometer took a big jump promising a sunny day ahead. The winds had calmed down, so we headed down Haro Strait towards the straits of Juan de Fuca where we would turn right and continue to Victoria. While we didn't see any Orcas this time, we did happen upon a pod of dolphins that came over to check us out. There was a regatta happening in Oak Bay that provided some entertainment as we passed near the downwind mark and watched the race boats drop their spinnakers raise the jib and round the mark to windward. Even saw a Moore 24 "One Moore Time" that brought back memories of college in Santa Cruz. Ellen and I learned to sail keel boats aboard a Moore 24s through the UCSC sailing program. Once around Trial Island we were headed right into a stiff wind and sharp waves to match. Mandolin handled them well, even though the ride was a bit rough.
Soon enough we turned into the Victoria Harbour entrance. The waves and wind calmed down, but our nerves didn't as a sea plane on take off turned around the corner some 50' off the water on what appeared to be a collision course with us. We both ducked… Whew, he missed. Oh no, here comes another one. This is actually very typical as the harbor is also the runway (waterway) for the sea planes. There are several ferrys, water taxis, whale watching boats, row boats, and kayaks. It makes for a busy place, but everyone keeps an eye out and things all work out. We checked into customs then found a place to tie up at the Wharf street docks. What a deal, we signed up for two nights, including power, right in the heart of town for $21 US. Monthly moorage is even cheaper at $170 Canadian. This is the first time we have plugged into shore power since we left Casselman's Cove in Oregon. We went out for dinner to celebrate Ellen's birthday. First time we've been out to dinner since leaving Portland. By hardly going out to eat, it becomes a real treat when we do go out. We had Erica, who lives on her Columbia 36, over for cake and tea (Empress Afternoon Tea at that!) and to celebrate Ellen's birthday with us. It was great to hear about her trip in '93 to Mexico and Costa Rica.
What to do/see in Victoria:
The Maritime Museum is a great place to spend an afternoon. They have many well done exhibits. The price of admission gets you a three day pass. It's nice to be able to take in a little at a time.
The Royal British Columbia Museum is a must see. We spend most of today (10/6) looking over all the exhibits on whales, aboriginals, and modern history. Well worth the $7 Canadian per person. Your admission ticket is good for the entire day. Go eat lunch when you're hungry and then back to the museum for more great exhibits.
Where to eat:
The Cheesecake Café: They have a huge and diverse menu, and what look like great deserts, although we didn't have any because we had birthday cake to eat back at the boat.
The Bent Mast Café: This is a cute place where we ate dinner when we were here in 1995.
James Bay Tea Room: A very British place to have a good afternoon tea and soup. (Ellen: Be sure to get a window seat. Maybe we will have sat at that table. Something to tell your kids about…)
Murchie's: Another great tea place. They also have a store where you can purchase many different kinds of teas and coffees. Murchie's makes the tea blend for the Empress' Afternoon Tea and you can enjoy it here or buy it in bulk (at a better price than at the Empress' gift shop). Or you can be hoity-toity and have tea at the Empress for $29/person. We paid less than $7 for a pot of tea and goodies for two at Murchies.
Green Cuisine: This is definitely a place designed for Todd: A vegetarian buffet style resturaunt where you pay by the weight you serve on your plate. The smells were great as well as a unique atmosphere. 25% off the self-serve buffet between 5:00 and 8:00pm what a deal.
Spent the morning getting the boat ready for the trip out the Straits of Juan de Fuca. Ellen did some shopping while I emptied trash, checked the engine and tidied up. We left about 12:00, and were able to sail some towards Race Rocks. The wind finally slowed down, so we motored through Race Passage and around the corner to Becher Bay. There is a storm coming through and we wanted to find a good place to hide from the wind. Just behind Frazer Island, we tucked in behind some rocks and set the bow and stern anchor. There was very little wind, while we watched it blow 35-40 out in the straits. Becher Bay is really neat with lots of little inlets and small islets. A good place to explore by dingy if we had more time.
After listening to a favorable weather forcast, we headed out of Becher Bay at the end of the flood tide so that we could maximize our time in the ebb tide. The ebb tide would give us a 1-3 knot push out the straits.
Interesting happenings while motoring out the straits: Canadian warships were doing live firing practice at each other. During one of their exersizes our GPS locked up. Not just stopped receiving data for a bit, but complete locked up. None of the buttons worked, I couldn't even turn it off. Ended up having to remove the power cord and batteries before it would turn off. Once it was back on, the memory was totally cleaned out. It didn't know where any of the satellites were, had none of the over 200 way points or routes we had entered. There was just nothing there. After it's initializing period, it was able to reaquire satellites and again give us a fix. So we started anew entering waypoints for the rest of the straits. We were glad that we are not relying on one piece of equipment and have been plotting our course every hour on the chart. Fortunately the GPS was the only piece of gear that was effected, The radar, autopilot and depth sounder were still fine. My recommendation to any countries thinking of going to war with Canada: Don't do it, you may not be able to find your way home when they are done with you.
After this episode, the wind started to pick up from the east. We put up the main and jib, shut down the engine and enjoyed the sail. The closer we got to the mouth of the straits the Pacific swell picked up with the wind. Soon we were reefed down to our working jib. Then it was storm jib alone, still making 6 knots down wind towards Neah Bay. We crossed the shipping lanes with no excitement. With the wind behind us and the swell coming at us, the ride was pretty bumpy. We started the motor and powered the last bit into Neah Bay where everything calmed down considerably. Now only 3 foot wind waves, without the 10 foot swell. We tied up to clear customs and make a call to Ray and Ginny who live in Neah Bay. They weren't there, but we left a message. Anchored out for a bumpy night with the wind and waves. Didn't sleep too well. Stayed at anchor the whole next day getting rest and cleaning up and trying not to be sick with Mandolin pitching and rolling in the wind. In the evening the wind changed we watched a Trimaran move over to the other side of the bay where the wind was less. Hmm, good idea. We raised anchor and relocated. It was very dark by the time the we finished anchoring. Almost finished with dinner when Ellen noticed the anchor light of the tri go by. They were dragging anchor with the increasing wind. Soon we heard a "Mayday" call from them stating that they were going to drag to the beach and needed assistance. The Coast Guard launched a rigid hull inflatable and a 40 foot cutter who were able get a tow rope to the tri just before they packed it into the island. By this time the tri had also lost it's engine. Our question: Where were the sails in all this? Answer: Tied down. During all of this we watched two large fishing vessel separate and re-anchor and another drag anchor past us. Over the radio we heard that it was blowing 50 knots through the harbor. We were steadily gaining more confidence in our 35 lb CQR anchor and 225 feet of rode that held us through all this. Could it be that were were the only ones not to drag anchor that night?
The next morning brought sun, and much calmer winds. I noticed a kayak approaching our transom. It was Ray. He came out to meet us. We had some tea and talked for a while. We got all signed up to come over to their house for dinner and take showers. Boy, were we grateful. Today was shopping and project day. Tied up at the dock and I filled the water tanks and serviced our diesel engine while Ellen did provisioning. We talked to Bob from the tri, who put out the Mayday call last night. I thanked him for moving to the other side of the bay since we decided to follow him. "Heck" he said, "I was dragging anchor, I had to move somewhere." This was before he drug the second time. A Bruce 22 lb anchor with 30 feet of chain and 70 feet of three strand rode apparently was not enough of an anchor for his 30 foot boat or didn't bite into the bottom well enough. I think a little bit of both. Dinner at Ray and Ginny's was wonderful. Ray showed us the latest weather fax, tomorrow looks like a good day to go. Had them down to the boat after dinner to have tea and a played a block game that they left on the boat for our entertainment. Thanks you two, you are so wonderful. Also thanks for the home-canned king salmon.
The wind and swell were now coming out of the Northwest and they were ugly. We pounded into them to get around Duntze rock, the turning point to get onto the ocean. Averaged only 2 knots through this. Once around the corner we raised the reefed jib and took off at 6 knots with a much improved boat motion. Ellen was pretty sick by now, but was being a trooper and still standing her watches. Sailed over halfway to Grey's harbor. A new record for us: stayed on the same tack for over 12 hours. The motion and wind calmed down the closer we got to the harbor. The bar was a like "walking through the front door of a department store" says Chris of the Tahiti Ketch "Usra Major" who we met in Gray's Harbor. Entering the boat basin we were confronted with many small fishing boats trolling in crazed patterns inside the harbor. Many people were also fishing and crabbing from the docks. All this activity had us perplexed until we found out that several years ago Silver Salmon had been planted in the harbor. An interesting effect of this is that the salmon come back year after year to the harbor to spawn. The fishermen love it. Scouted out some 25cent showers at the local RV park. Rates were $18-$20 a night for an RV. We were only paying $10 a night at the port. Another reason for traveling by sailboat.
We met Gene aboard a 26 foot Choy Lee "Ghost" who is singlehanding to Mexico. We had a great evening over tea talking about places and boats. He signs our guest log: "Those are rich who own their own time." Right on Gene. The next day we met Chris and Carl aboard "Ursa Major" who are also enroute down the coast. They had a terrible trip from Neah Bay. Ellen helped them with information for crossing the Columbia River Bar, as well as a lesson on entering waypoints and routes into their GPS. Under a time schedule to get to San Diego before November 1st, they are going up the Columbia River to Scappoose. In Scappoose they will have their boat hauled and put on a truck for a land trip. We loaned them our chart book of the Columbia River and Ellen showed them all the cool places to tie up and anchor. I was busy installing our pair of 6 volt batteries. Another project that had didn't get done before we left now had a new priority since we didn't want them moving around the cabin in rough seas.
Cruisers potluck dinner: this is really like a normal potluck, but it happens aboard a boat, dock or the beach, where you bring your own utensils and plates in addition to your favorite dish to share. Chris and Carl contributed a wonderful Japanese sesame cabbage salad while we filled in the main course with home made spagetti sauce and pasta. Gene turned out a apple cobbler in his pressure cooker that I have been striving to match since. The following morning looked like a good weather window to leave.
The plan of the day is to continue as far as the weather window will allow. Once out of the harbor all three of us put up sails and started south. Before the Columbia River the wind died and we motored. The outflow of the Columbia made the ride pretty bumpy for a couple hours. Once past the Columbia the wind picked up and we started sailing again. This was the start of 34 hours of continuous sailing. Outside of Newport, Ellen contacted KC7LOP on the 2 meter amature radio. He was able to call Christine in Scappoose on the phone to see if she could make it to Newport for dinner. Unfortunatly they couldn't make it down, so we continued on. This call on the amature radio saved us several hours of coming into port to find the same news. So we continued south. Here is a distinct memory: Todd is down below making a salad. Ellen is in the quaterberth resting. The motor isn't on. The sun is setting, turning the clouds orange. The spinnaker up. Mandolin is sailing along at 6 knots with Hemsley (our Monitor Windvane) steering. What more could you ask for? Later the wind picked up and we went to a poled out jib and main wing on wing. During the night Ellen had our fastest 2 hour run at 6.5 knots each hour. All the while Helmsley was steering. Ellen didn't have to touch the sails at all; she did keep a careful eye on the conditions. The fog started in off of Bandon, and we only saw the sun for 15 minutes at sunset. The next night the swell picked up and we took the main down. I was unsuccessful at reseting the spinnaker pole on the jib in this much wind so we just went with it alone. Later the wind died and we motored the last 6 hours into Humbolt Bay. Another lesson: Timing is everything for crossing a bar. We crossed at 2 hours before max ebb. This put us in the middle of some breaking waves that Mandolin surfed down. Ellen was having a great time of it all, point out the geyser that would come out of the cockpit drains as we came down the face of a wave. I was somewhat nervous by the whole thing, but did fine. A cruising guide would have been useful as we had no idea that this was the second worse bar behind the Columbia River Bar. An hour later we were tied up at the dock and were headed for the showers. Oh, we slept well that night. The next day, Ellen talked to the person at the marine shop who introduced us to some circumnavigators who gave us a ride into Eureka for some grocery shopping. We had them over for tea and fresh baked banana bread that evening. The next day I bruised my leg while hanging off the back of the boat trying to tighten the bolts on the wind vane. I was asked to help out with the committee boat for a Laser race in the afternoon. That was great since I could stay off the leg for a while. Ellen sewed some sunbrella bags for our propane tanks that were starting to rust and stain the deck and then took a walk into Old Town Eureka. Chuck who was also on the committee boat and his wife Margie own a Cal 2-46 "Dream Catcher" that they are getting ready to go to Alaska. (Hugh, they say the Cal 46 cruising association is alive again. You might want to look into it.) They came over for pressure cooker apple cobbler for dessert last night.
Today (10/21/97) looks like good weather conditions for getting around Cape Mendocino and Point Arena. We rowed over to old town this morning (much better than walking!!) to buy bagels and a recipe book from Los Bagels. We're going to try our hand at baking our own bagels. We'll let you know how it turns out. After rowing back to Woodley Island Marina, we walked across the road to the National Weather Service. Robin showed us all their cool equipment for predicting weather. Got to look at weather fax forcasts for today and the following 48 hours. That amount of time should easily see us to Bodega Bay or San Francisco if we decide to not turn in at Bodega. Wind and swell from the Northwest, but not too much. Cape Mendocino sounds a little windier, but we are planning to get there past sundown when the wind should lay down some. Don't know if we will be able to send this before we leave, but hopefully you're all thinking good thoughts about our journey down the coast.
Todd and Ellen S/V "Mandolin"
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