HOMESeptember 13, 2005
Bodega Bay to Half
Moon Bay
After checking the updated weather report at 0545, we got ready and departed at
0700 with a forecast of 5 to 15 knots of wind, 1’ to 3’ wind waves and 3’ to 5’
swells, all from the NW.
I have decided to take the outside route straight south from Point Reyes as the
inside route would still put us over 7 miles from the Golden Gate Bridge so it
is doubtful we could even see it or at least not well. The tide will be
starting to ebb from SF Bay and with the prevailing winds and swells, could get
rather choppy in close. Further out should be better though we will have three
Vessel Traffic Lanes to cross and there is typically a lot of ship traffic in
and out of SF. Right now, visibility is good with light fog, especially towards
land. Winds are 5 to 8 out of the W. We will be passing by the Farallon
Islands and will be in their lee as we pass through the traffic lanes.
We decided we will probably stay over at Half Moon Bay a day or two, maybe
more. We both want to get into cruise mode and out of transit mode and HMB
seems like a good place to do it. That will also be a good place to fuel up and
check out systems on Dreamer, especially in the engine room and the
steering/autopilot systems, they have been working hard. Probably time to pull
some fluid samples and mail off to Titan Laboratories for analysis.
I am very pleased with the Gulf Coast bypass oil filters on the main engines and
genset. Oil is kinda black, but obviously much cleaner. After getting the lab
results from Titan, I will establish initial filter change intervals.
We can’t believe how cold, foggy and damp this trip down the West Coast has
been! I generally try to stay in shorts and tee shirts all summer, but put my
jeans on yesterday and have kept a long sleeve denim shirt handy since leaving
Oak Harbor. Definitely not warm summer weather yet! But that will change
soon….we hope.
We are presently (1020) crossing the first of three Vessel Traffic Lanes in and
out of SF and so far, no close encounters of that kind. Thick overcast but
good visibility, about the best we could hope for.
I have been experimenting with the Digital Antenna wireless cell phone signal
boosting (supposedly) system and have found absolutely no increase in signal
strength unless I get to within 3' of the little antenna inside and then only
what might be expected using a remote outside antenna. That is helpful at
times of marginal signal strength, but falls far short of their claims, IMHO.
I will be contacting them to see if they can resolve this problem satisfactorily
and will write a full report here when I have all the information. Based
upon my past experiences with them after purchasing their equipment, I am not
hopeful.
In the meantime, if I were asked my opinion, I would suggest waiting until I
know more and perhaps looking at some of the other products out there. If
you find any worth considering, please email me with the info.
Spoke too soon! We just had a close encounter with that kind (BIG
ships). We had just crossed the outbound lane of the Main Vessel Traffic
Lane and were just entering the Separation Zone (that's like an ally ally in
free zone for little boats like Dreamer). I had been monitoring one ship
coming in about ten miles out on our starboard side as well as another ship
outbound about ten miles to port. There was another tanker to starboard
about 12 miles out. I had to calculate their speeds and positions to
determine whether we could pass in front of them or wait for them to pass
before continuing to cross the inbound lane. I had just finished making
the calculations and concluded that we could safely pass in front of the first
ship. To get a little extra margin for safety, I advanced the throttles,
expecting to see the tachs increase from 1850 RPM to about 2200 RPM, which I
intended to run at for about 20 minutes.
Nothing happened!
No increase in RPM! Now I have Mathers electronic controls and had to
process what had happened or not with that fact along with checking the gauges
to confirm. I brought the throttles back to see if they responded and they
did. However, the starboard engine came down way too fast and almost quit
but caught and idled. I could not get it above idle. Vacuum gauges
showed zero vacuum. So, I altered course to a parallel course with the
ships in the separation zone, checked to be sure the port engine was operating
OK, Kath took the helm and I went into the engine room with the port engine at
about 1200 and the stbd at about 600.
All looked OK, controls connected, no air bubble in the secondary John Deere
glass filter, main Racor filter looked clean and I saw no water in the bottom of
it. The only thing I could think of was a fuel problem at that point.
So I switched main Racor filters and went back up to the helm. Advanced
the throttle in neutral and the engine slowly advanced and came up to maximum
RPM. I put it in gear and brought both engines up to 1500 and all was OK.
So, at this point, I have to suspect either water or a clogged filter. Air
would have shown at the secondary. If a clogged filter, the vacuum gauge
is not working and it is new. Will pull some fuel off the sumps in Half
Moon Bay tomorrow to see what is going on and will probably change the main
Racor filter, at least drain off any water. We stayed in the separation
zone and passed the stern of the second ship and continued on our way.
As we were approaching the third and last VTL, our radar picked up another large
ship about 12 miles to stbd coming in. I tracked it for a few minutes to
get an idea of its speed and I calculated close to 28 knots! Uh oh, time
to pay close attention. I continued to track and time it and confirmed the
speed and the fact that we may have a problem with our course. We entered
the outbound VTL and continued to monitor figuring it would pass in front of us
and we could slow down or hang out in the separation zone. As it
came closer, I checked it our with the binoculars and it was a large fully
loaded container ship and it was heading straight for us which didn't make sense
as that would put it out of the VTL. I continued monitoring it with radar
and the binoculars and finally I could see its stbd side which meant that we had
passed its course and it would pass behind us. As time went on and we
entered the separation zone, I could see more of its stbd side and my concern
was that it would make a course change and enter the VTL. It didn't and
appeared to be heading for the main channel VTL, so we dodged that bullet!
We arrived in Pillar Point Marina at 1600 and tied up to assigned our slip
without any further events.
September 14, 2005
We have checked the weather reports and have decided to stay here in HMB today,
take a walk into town and check it out, maybe pick up a few supplies, fuel up
and drop the hook out in HMB which is really Pillar Point Harbor. The
weather reports were generally good and we intend to leave tomorrow for either
Santa Cruz or Monterey. If Santa Cruz then on to Monterey the next day and
hang out there for a few days.