Never. Give. Up.

We have been galavanting around enjoying the sunshine and clean air.  Good food, Good wine, and Good times.  The Captain's 38th birthday has come and gone, and it goes to show ya, that just showing up is half the battle.  Most people don't even muster.  Cheers to his 38 years of mustering!  May he have at least 38 more!

The boom worked perfectly.

"At sea, I learned how little a person needs, not how much."  Robin Lee Graham

San Simeon Cruise Snafoo

Well, we left the dock in primo shape this morning.  The bay was calm.  Galley stocked with everything for a BBQ overnighter . . . Captain and First Mate hyped with Birthday energy.  The Captain is 38 years old today!  Nothing better than a weekend overnighter!  Cell phones stowed.  Pager and laptop left at home.

We got to the harbor mouth and saw some chop, but kept going.  After about an hour slogging it out, I looked over to the quiet Captain and found him pale and turning green.  I had popped a Dramamine about 20 minutes earlier and I offered one to the Captain.  He took it reluctantly.

Later, I said, "Is this the way you want to spend your birthday?"  He thought for a couple minutes and said, "I don't think so.  We're going back." 

All and all, we were out 3 hours.  We stretched our comfort zones.  We broke in the new boom.  We slept off the Dramamine in the bay.  The rest of the Birth Day is going much better.  Even without seeing San Simeon.

Morro Bay to San Simeon

This weekend we are sailing to San Simeon for an overnighter with the Yacht club.  It takes about 40 minutes to drive from Morro Bay to San Simeon which means it will probably take 4 hours to sail it.

I have to look up our provisions list from the Zongo Cup in order to get everything prepared for two days on the ocean blue.  There are lots of left over hard-boiled eggs from Easter so I know those will be on the provisions list this time around!

Galley Provisions:
water
ice
coffee
half & half
hard boiled eggs
sausage
carrot sticks
snap peas
hummus
french bread
olive oil
cheese
chocolate
fruit
beer
wine

camera
hot water maker
propane for BBQ

Rigging a Drogue

After the boom failure a couple months ago I decided to do a couple blogs on methods for continuing a journey after various types of failure. First up is a rudder failure which can be overcome with a simple drogue. A drogue is created by hanging stuff off the back of a boat to slow the vessel and give the crew some sort of control. It is most often used in heavy storm weather when no sails are set and the tendency of most mono-hull boats is to lie with the side facing the oncoming waves.  The drogue is set to drag behind the boat and keep the aft (back) of the boat to the wave.  It slows the boat so that it doesn't surf down the front of a wave and bury the bow in the front of the next wave.

A drogue can also steer the boat. I have seen a few different methods of creating a drogue. The November issue of Cruising World had a great sidebar "Rig a Drogue" in the article "Up the Creek without a Rudder". This took the basic drogue design shown below and modified it to allow steerage.

All the needs to be done is to extend the length of the bridle and run each end to blocks located forward of the Genoa winches (usually the strongest winches). You can then use the winches to shorten a side of the bridle and pull the drogue to one side or the other creating more drag and causing the boat to turn. As is usually for sailing control still comes down to a balancing act. You have to experiment with balancing the amount of weight on the drogue with how much sail is up to have control and keep a straight course. 

The diagram above shows an actual store bought drogue line but a drogue can be made with materials already on most boats. The drogue line can be your standard anchor line with knots tied in it for drag and a couple sections of anchor rode chain for some weight.

More detailed discussions are available in the links below.

http://www.jordanseriesdrogue.com/D_6.htm

http://www.sea-anchors.com/goodoldboat.htm

Cool iphone App for Star Gazing

We featured an iphone Compass app in a past post.  This post is here to tell you about the iphone Star Guide app!

Have you ever looked up and wondered what constellation is overhead?  This iphone app uses the GPS and accelerometer to determine what constellations are in the direction that the phone is facing.  When you look at the night sky, point the phone's camera at the night sky, the screen displays the stars, their names, and constellations!
At SEA~ During the day, we were able to tell our direction by the sun.  When a sailor wakes up the morning, he looks for the sun.  Going from Hawaii to California, the sun should be directly in front of the boat or on the starboard side every morning.  The sun rises in the East and sets in the West.  Daytime orientation.

During the night, we set our intention to sail on a heading in line with a notable constellation.  The Milky Way is bright and bands the night sky.  At dusk, the sailor sets his compass to a line and holds it until the stars come out.

Go For Broke: Motor Sailing Rock-n-Roll

I have been home a week.  I am finally ready to start blogging again! Plus, I bet it is time for a technical post before I loose all the guys following blog. The First Mate's posts are good, but generally a little girly.  Ha ha, but seriously, I had a great time and learned a lot on my cruise aboard Go For Broke.

When we left Kauai, we had to slog directing into the wind for the first 20 miles to get out of the influence of the island. The island influence is due to the mountains, volcanoes, and shallow water around the islands that cause confused seas, steep swells, and often strong and/or shifting winds.  Heading directing into the wind we tried to get the Jib up to steady the boat. Raising a sail will always make for a smoother ride even when motoring.

We had to deal with the rocking and rolling of motoring.  How you power boaters out there deal with this I have no idea. In the the video below is Go For Broke leaving Kauai under power (motoring) with no sails set.

The video below really shows the advantage of "motor sailing" as opposed to just plain motoring. While departing Oahu we were motoring-sailing across the swell in the video below and the boat is still comfortably level. 

Boat to Land Communication

Truman has had cell-phone reception while he has been in the Hawaiian islands.  We've never been much for talking on the phone.  If he was here I'd tell him that Obama has written a children's book and the first Klingon opera is playing in the Netherlands!  The Danish are trekies.  Who knew?  Maybe he is keeping up on the news, but I don't know if he heard that Reggie Bush had to give up the Heisman.  Or if some female reporter was accosted in the NFL lockerroom while trying to interview Mark Sanchez.

I guess he will have to catch up on all the news when he anchors in Morro Bay in roughly 20 days! 

After today, we will only be able to communicate via email to the vessel's common email address.  They will post updates every few days on their blog.  Anyone who reads this blog is welcome to email s/v Go For Broke at goforbroke@ocens.net.