Steve York, Author at Santa Barbara Sail & Power Squadron

October 2023 Cruise to Pelican by Lisa & Scott Burns and Virginia & Dennis Johns

Steve York on October 11, 2023 Member News and Articles

From Benchmark:

The weekend of September 22-24 was the last cruise on SBSPS 2023 calendar. Calm seas and light winds on Friday made for a relatively quick and easy motoring for Point lead, Scott Burns & wife Lisa, and Boris Alves to Pelican Bay anchorage where 3 sailboats: 30′ Catalina similar to Burns’ Benchmark, a well-outfitted J-31 from San Francisco, and a 40′ Beneteau.

After laying stern & bow anchors, dinghy and kayaks were offloaded and lunch served under clear skies. Then Lisa showed Boris her favorite kayak destination, Hole in the Wall, with the blowhole cave that Lisa calls dragon’s breath because it sprays a mist of ocean water, depending on the tide. Water temperature was 66.

Scott brought a printed copy of the Nature Conservancy’s trail guide from Prisoners to Pelican. A pdf of the guide can be found at https://islandpackers.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/11/Pelican-Trail-Guide-.pdf Boris kayaked over the steps of the old hotel, now covered with barnacles. Scott took a safer way to land using a dinghy or kayak to the small pebble beach around the east point of Pelicans.

Winds picked up in the late afternoon and 2 sailboats left, making us wonder what they knew, however the evening winds did not disturb our well-anchored 30′ Catalina, Benchmark, with 150′ scope on either end.

On Saturday, Libertad arrived at Pelicans with exciting news of seeing whales, including a pod of Orcas working together to catch fish. We made arrangements for appetizers and dinner on their beautifully remodeled ketch.

Sunday was a completely different sail for Benchmark as all three sailboats at Pelicans sailed together to Santa Barbara. The crew of the Benchmark saw whales breach airborne, another whale repeatedly slapped its fluke to capture fish, and dolphins with their calves swam by.

From Libertad:

We had a meeting on Friday evening, so Libertad had to head out Saturday morning to join our monthly cruise. When we were at Catalina, we found that our outboard would not idle. Dennis spent a day or two fiddling with it with no success. Fortunately he could order a new carburetor and it was delivered the day before we were to leave. The outboard now runs great. Pelican anchorage was the destination and we would be using two anchors. Using our stern anchor takes a bit of prep before leaving the dock as we manage it off of our bow roller. Dennis pulled the anchor out from the depths of its storage locker, attached the chain leader and long rope rode, and positioned the anchor on the bow, next to our main anchor, with the rode pulled along the port toerail to the stern of the boat. Once we had it all secured, we headed out.

We motorsailed most of the time, but were able to turn off the engine as we approached windy lane. We saw so much marine life that day. Just off our port for a good portion of the trip we saw whales, dolphins, more whales, sea lions, and then all three together for a bit. It was amazing. They weren’t doing a lot of acrobatics; it appeared to be a feeding frenzy. As we got nearer the island and were sailing, we saw orcas on our starboard side. They were being the true wolves of the sea by circling and corralling their prey. After watching them for awhile we saw the Double Dolphin whale watching catamaran in the distance, headed our way. We have never seen so much marine life on a trip across to Santa Cruz. Sorry for the lousy pictures – just couldn’t keep the camera still!

When we arrived at the anchorage, the crew of Benchmark, and likely the other two boats, settled in to watch the show. It does take us some time to scope a spot, drop our stern anchor from the bow, walk along the side deck managing the rode as it pays out to make sure it doesn’t get near the prop while we motor forward to drop the bow anchor and then go into reverse to center ourselves between the two anchors. There was some wind in the anchorage and we were a bit closer to the Beneteau than we planned. They were only on one anchor and we wanted to give them more swinging room. As we were working to realign ourselves, they deployed their stern anchor and all was well.

It was a lovely day. We enjoyed our lunch in the cockpit and relaxed a bit before gathering the group aboard for happy hour, dinner, and lots of stories. Scott and Boris were part of the crew when we delivered Libertad to Ensenada for some refurbishing (varnishing and painting) about a year ago. Dennis wanted to launch the dinghy on Sunday morning and run over to Prisoner’s Harbor and go ashore to look for island foxes. Nevertheless, the wind picked up early the next morning and it was deemed necessary to head for home. So we still need to have a sea trial of the dinghy.

We all left the anchorage about 9am Sunday morning, with three of us headed for Santa Barbara. We had enough brisk wind as we first headed out and were crossing windy lane and kept enough wind to sail most of the way home. Unlike Benchmark, Libertad saw very little marine life on Sunday. We saw a few whales spouting in the distance. It was a very pleasant overnight trip, which left us hoping for some good boating weather weekends in the coming months.

September 2023 It’s Always Nice in August, Right? Our Club Cruise to Catalina Island by Rich Ciolino

Steve York on September 7, 2023 Member News and Articles

The National Hurricane Center issued its first ever tropical storm watch for parts of southern California as hurricane Hilary churned its way up the coast of Baja. We were not aware of this until we arrived at Catalina Island however. I don’t think any of us had looked beyond the near-term wind forecast for our Club cruise to Two Harbors on Catalina Island. Hey, this is August in southern California and the weather is always nice, right? We’d stay about five nights and check the winds for our return trip when it was time to leave. That somewhat lackadaisical weather check turned out to miss or ignore the fact that hurricane Hilary was moving its way up the Baja Mexico west coast and was forecasted to make landfall near San Diego in several days.

Two boats, S/V Libertad with Virginia and Dennis Johns on board (see their report elsewhere in this newsletter) and S/V Ecco Bella with Peggy and Rich Ciolino on board, departed Santa Barbara Harbor at about 10:00 on Tuesday August 15 bound for Smugglers Cove on Santa Cruz Island, about a five-hour sail. We motor sailed for about 2-1/2 hours before turning off the engine as we picked up a nice westerly breeze that took us around the east end of Santa Cruz. We motored into Smugglers and had our anchor set with 120 feet of chain by 15:45.

After a calm and peaceful night at anchor we departed Smugglers at about 06:30 and set our course for Isthmus Cove at Catalina.

The run over to Catalina is typified by no sailing wind for the first six hours or so followed by a lovely northwesterly breeze for the next four hours with an arrival around 16:00. For us, the wind never materialized and we motored or motor sailed the whole way and were moored at 17:45. We got our dinghy in the water and were ready to relax and have some fun.

Later that evening we became aware of hurricane Hilary! Peggy and I were planning to stay five nights and leave on Monday morning for the trip back home, but this news got us thinking and checking the forecasts to see when the storm was due to arrive at our area and when would be a good time to leave so we would arrive in Santa Barbara without feeling the effects of Hilary. We had a couple of days to play with so we decided to relax and enjoy the day. We used our dinghy to take our garbage ashore, bought some ice cream for dinner dessert at the general store, and walked around a bit.

Back on the boat Peggy and I began inflating our stand-up paddle board (SUP) and while standing on deck I glanced down over the side of the boat and noticed that our dinghy was not in its normal tied-up location. My first reaction was, oh no, the painter came loose and our dinghy was being blown offshore. Trying to remain calm I then thought, well, maybe the wind had shifted, pushing the dinghy toward the bow of the boat instead of the stern, which does happen from time to time. I glanced at the mid-ship cleat to see if the dinghy’s painter was still attached and it was. Still hopeful that the dinghy was secure, I walked forward to check and the dinghy was gone! The painter had failed near the cleat and I looked seaward as the offshore breeze would have been blowing the dinghy in the general direction of Los Angeles. As I looked across a few more rows of moorings behind us I spotted a man in his dinghy two rows back who was holding on to our dinghy. I yelled and waved to him but I couldn’t get his attention as he was busy tying what was left of the painter to one of the nearby mooring pick-up wands. The man left and I never did see him again to thank him. As luck would have it a harbor patrol boat was passing by our boat and I got the attention of the captain and told him our dinghy broke loose and someone tied it to that mooring ball as I pointed to it. He said he’d be back shortly and would bring the dinghy to our boat which he did several minutes later.

The major takeaway from this lucky dinghy incident is that I should have replaced the painter several years ago. Polypropylene line is recommended for dinghies because it floats thus avoiding the possibility of having it get wrapped around a propellor on the dinghy or on that of your boat when towing the dinghy. This particular painter has been attached to three dinghies of ours in its lifetime over about 15 years and I had noticed that it looked worn and felt quite rough which should have pushed me to replace it, but I didn’t and nearly lost the dinghy and its motor. I guess it’s like they say about reefing a sail – if you think you should reef, do it now, don’t wait.

After all the dinghy fuss Peggy got to cruise around the Isthmus on the SUP. There she is passing under the west end cliff next to a couple of other boats.

The four of us got together at 17:00 for snacks and drinks aboard Ecco Bella and had a brief discussion about our exit plans. We had a rough plan by the end of our talk and decided to have a final look at the forecast in the morning – most likely we’d leave on Saturday morning to arrive in Santa Barbara in early afternoon on Sunday, following the same route home with a stop at Smugglers on Saturday night and then an early departure for home on Sunday morning.

Early Friday morning I suggested an alternate plan that the John’s agreed to. We’d leave at noon on Friday, make the roughly six-hour sail over to Marina Del Rey, then leave early Saturday morning and head toward home. This leg could take 12 hours or so and we’d be passing near Channel Islands Harbor in Oxnard along the way and could stop there for the night if desired. Or, if conditions were good and we felt like it, we could keep going all the way to Santa Barbara. Besides giving us the option to pull into Channel Islands Harbor I felt we’d have better internet connectivity just about all the way home on this route so we could keep in touch with the weather forecasts.

Marina Del Rey has a very nice public docking area next to Burton Chace Park, that we’ve use several times over the years. I called their office in the morning and they said there are two spaces available “now” but you can’t reserve them – it’s first come first serve. I’d never seen it that full but got a bit concerned. I then called the harbor master/police and was told that there’d be no problem – he’s never seen it full either, and if it was full to give him a call and he’d find a couple of places to tie up for the night.

As we were preparing to leave, a harbor work crew pulled up along us and asked when we were leaving. We told them we would be leaving in a few hours which they seemed pleased to hear and they said something about using the mooring we were on, E3. It wasn’t clear what exactly they would do with our mooring but it apparently had something to do with the incoming weather.

So, full of confidence we’d have some place to stop in Marina Del Rey, we left the Isthmus at about 12:30 and motor sailed the entire way arriving at 1830. As we approached the Burton Chace docks we slowly passed by slip after slip with big boats and little boats, some so small they were not visible until directly in line with the slip, until reaching the end where two slips were empty! I motioned the Johns to take the next to last one and we took the last one which was an end tie. In my hurry to dock the boat, I didn’t want someone else to sneak in before us, and with a slight stern quarter wind we got a bit sideways with the bow in ok but the stern pushed off the dock. A woman came by to help Peggy get the bow secured and then a very nice guy in a tiny craft that looked like a couch with a canopy covering him came in behind us and I tossed him a line. He was barely able to back up with his small motor and pull our stern closer to the dock where another guy on the dock took the line and pulled us in to the dock – very embarrassing and I felt like a real amateur for rushing into the dock before getting really ready for it.

This fellow that helped out said his boat was down the way and that earlier he had pulled into the space we just took and was told by management that he couldn’t stay there as it wasn’t a slip. As I said, it is an end tie with cleats so it looked ok to me too. As it turned out we arrived after the dock office closed and left before they would open in the morning so we got a free pass for the night.

One benefit to being here in Burton Chace Park Docks was that our daughter and son-in-law could join us for dinner on our boat. We were happy with the chance to get together and enjoyed barbecued hamburgers, salads, and ice cream until about midnight when they left for home in Sherman Oaks. They said it only took them 24 minutes to get home – I guess the benefit of traveling late at night.

We got underway about 0700 on Saturday morning and had flat seas and just a couple of knots of breeze as we motored along the coast of Santa Monica Bay, around Point Dume (Paradise Cove), and up to near Point Magu. It was about here that Dennis and Virginia suggested we keep going to Santa Barbara since the conditions were so benign and we should get in before dark. That sounded good to us so we struck a new course directly to Santa Barbara. Later in the day we were treated to some interesting cloud formations, obviously “brought to you by” Hilary. We entered the Santa Barbara harbor as the sun was getting low in the sky, tidied up a bit and head home for a relaxing and restful night.

Although we would have preferred to have stayed longer, we enjoyed the trip and look forward to doing it again next August, and hopefully after a closer look at that nice August weather.

AFTERWORD: The next day after our return home I went to the Two Harbors webcam site to see what Isthmus Cove looked like and it became obvious that everyone had left under evacuation orders after our Friday departure. It was also raining by then. As seen in the picture below there are black rectangular structures lined up in one of the mooring rows that were not there before we left on Friday. Virginia later spoke with one of our sister Club members about it and learned that they are sections of the dinghy dock. Apparently in situations like this they disassemble the dock and tie the sections to that row of moorings to better weather a storm. That also explained why a harbor work crew had come up to us earlier Friday morning to ask when we were leaving and talked about tying something up to the mooring we were on, E3. We weren’t quite sure what they were going to do at the time but now we know.

July 2023 Adventures in Australia, Part 1 by Dennis Johns

Steve York on July 11, 2023 Member News and Articles

We had made a promise to our son that we would keep him notified of our progress on our round-the-world trip either daily by email via a Pactor Modem connected to our Single Sideband Radio (in the middle of a passage) or by email when we had an internet connection (once arrived at a marina or anchorage). In addition, when leaving on a multi-day passage, we would provide a float plan with departure and estimated arrival dates. Virginia was so diligent with this process that it became a source of comfort for our son.

Before leaving New Caledonia for Australia, a four to five day passage, she sent the float plan as usual with our approximate arrival date. One day out from our landfall we sent an email update.

After five days we did arrive at Bundaberg, Australia. We knew that the cyclone season was closing in on us and we would have put the boat up on the hard for that foul season. There were two marinas at Bundaberg to choose from and for several days we were singularly focused on investigating the options. Speaking to the marina that was most convenient being only a short walk into town on the banks of the Bundaberg River, we discovered that their equipment could not haul our size boat. We were, to some extent, thankful for that rejection because their method of laying up a boat was to tie them to the local trees that grew along the river bank. So we proceeded to make arrangements with the alternative marina that was at least five miles out of town but they had a modern concrete boatyard with eyebolt anchors in the concrete to tie down the boats.

That night, having arrived back at the boat, we had the VHF radio on, as it was common to have the boats in the marina report to each other their next day activities. You can imagine our surprise when we heard the Australian Coast Guard hailing Libertad. Of course I answered the call dreading what crime we had committed and what the fine was going to be. To our wonderment, the Coast Guard asked our position (Lat & Long) to which we advised our slip number in the marina that we were at. They responded that they were happy to hear that but we had better send a message to our son about our successful arrival as three days had passed from our approximate arrival date and he had contacted the US Coast Guard to advise them of our last location and communication. Embarrassingly, we immediately sent a message with our apologies and our thanks that he followed up with his concern. We learned two valuable lessons 1) How effective the concept of a float plan can be and 2) Best to not deviate from an established procedure.

So we laid up Libertad and left for the US for a few months. The last serious cyclone season they had had was 20 years ago and it was noted as a 100 year storm which caused the river to flood. While in the US we monitored the Australian weather regularly. To our shock and dread, the cyclone season for that year was designated as another 100 year storm, causing the river to flood again. Worried about the conditions at the boatyard, we tried to contact the marina office. They didn’t respond to our inquiries for several days which had us expecting the worst. Eventually they contacted us advising us to not try to contact them any further. Our boat was fine and they would contact us if anything further needed to be advised. As you can imagine, we were relieved to say the least.

Eventually we returned to Bundaberg to get Libertad ready for the next leg of the journey. We were overwhelmed by the destruction caused by the cyclone and the river flooding. The marina upriver was completely washed away, every boat breaking loose and either sinking or being washed out to sea. The Coast Guard was still tracking down some of the missing vessels. The boatyard that we were in was virtually untouched but their marina was in shambles. Many of the boats that had broken loose from the marina upriver had collided with the marina docks before careening out to sea. The most disturbing scene we encountered was a sunken boat in one of the marina slips –see attached photo.

June 2023 Projects to Get to the Project; A Lesson in Spring Commissioning by Ed Kaufman

Steve York on June 5, 2023 Member News and Articles

The galley was nearly clean with only a sink full of wash water draining, when I heard a sickening dull thud. A distinctive thud that I recognized as the sound of a duck bill valve everting in response to a water outlet obstruction. How did I recognize this sound, you might ask? Experience. On one or more occasions in the past, I had activated the sump pump that drains our galley sinks without having first opened the thru-hull valve. But, this time the thru-hull was open. What was obstructing the system after a winter layover?

Our Dutch-built sailboat has deep double stainless steel galley sinks. We love them for many reasons. We also hate them. Or did. The bottoms of the sinks are barely above the water line. Situated off-center to port, the sinks didn’t drain very well normally; when cruising offshore, they were virtually unusable, especially on starboard tack.

About fifteen years ago, I installed a galley sink sump and sump pump to facilitate drainage. The following photo shows the installation. The sump is actually a modified plastic wastepaper basket. I suppose I should have used a proper sump, but one needs to improvise when in the Caribbean, and this wastepaper basket has served its purpose flawlessly since installation. As labeled but unseen in the photo, the sinks are plumbed into the top right side of the sump. Water drains from the bottom of the sump into a hose that runs below the thru-hull valve and then up to an inlet to the sump pump. The outflow from the pump leads to an anti-siphon loop that runs up and back through a chase that houses a deck drain immediately behind the galley sinks. The return from the anti-siphon loop leads to the thru-hull valve to discharge overboard.

The sump pump is a diaphragm pump, a Whale Gulper Grouper, and is attached to an inline tail piece that includes two duck bill valves, one at the inlet and one at the outlet. These valves are basically the same as used in many marine toilets, and serve to keep the discharge water heading in its intended direction to the thru-hull rather than back into the sump.

Martha and I were gone all of January and missed the many storms and choppy harbor seas that hammered the marina. On return, neighboring boaters told us of all the debris that had washed into the harbor from the runoff that followed those storms. We witnessed a lot of debris ourselves, and considering our problem, the only thing I could envision was that the galley outflow must have been occluded by the same harbor debris. How to find and clear it?

Now, where is this sump apparatus located? In a “convenient” cabinet, just aft of the sinks and low to the cabin sole. And, of course, it’s obscured by the many galley and general maintenance items stored there. Gaining access was thus the first project in getting to the project.

Remedying the situation requires uninstalling the sump pump, freeing the tail piece from the afferent and efferent hoses, extracting the duck bill valves from the tail piece, and then reverting the duck bill valves or simply replacing them with new. I chose the latter. West Marine had them in stock—saved me rummaging through the spares compartment for those I know I have on hand.

I also decided to replace the pump’s diaphragm since I was “in the neighborhood,” and I had to replace the blue collar that mates the sump pump to the tailpiece because it was cracked.

Fortunately, WHALE still makes this pump and replacement parts are readily available. Sourcing them wasn’t difficult, but it was another project to get to the project. Of course, all this had NOTHING to do with the swamp I had come to drain, viz., finding and eliminating the source of blockage in the system.

The hose leading to the thru-hull looked a darker brown than its usual nasty self, so I concluded that a blockage in the hose was the source of the obstruction. After removing the hose from the thru-hull (it’s a two-inch hose), it was easy to see that it was packed tight with small wood chips, pretty much right up to the waterline. Fashioning a hook from a coat hanger, I clawed out two cups of debris.

Yuk! Ample explanation for the obstruction and subsequent failure of the duck bill valves. I flushed the hose with several liters of water, testing the new pump installation in the process, and then reassembled the entire system, confident that it was working once again.

I know there was a lot of debris in my slip and there was a lot of chop during the January storms. My assumption is that the constant pounding of the waves against the hull drove this debris into this relatively large discharge hose, packing it so tight that it occluded water flow. An aft sink discharge was similarly plugged, but easily cleared with a plunger. Ironically, my intake lines didn’t suffer the same fate, and my raw water filters are clean.

Nevertheless, check your raw water filters if you haven’t already, and I hope your discharge lines aren’t filled like mine were.

May 2023 Surprise Visit by Virginia Johns

Steve York on May 4, 2023 Member News and Articles

Dennis and I have made so many good friends with a mutual love of boating – both locally and abroad. We had some surprise visitors this past week who fit both the local and abroad categories – Tony and Shannon Morelli. Some of you probably know Tony as he is a sailmaker, who was located in Ventura for many years. Even though Dennis and I had Libertad in the Ventura Harbor for 10 years before departing for a retirement sailing adventure, we did not meet this couple until we got to El Salvador in 2011.

We spent time with them in El Salvador, headed south from there at the same time, and connected up in Costa Rica –enjoying Christmas there together. After the “green season” (lots of rain and lightning) we both moved on to Panama with several other boats. But then… we went west, and they went east.

2012 Lunch with Morellis — Boca Chica, Western

Fast forward a few years to 2017, we have just arrived from Jamaica to Cayman Brac and are the only boat anchored in the bay. A few hours later, we hear a call from the vessel Sweetie telling the Port Authority that they were approaching and wanted to check in. Tony and Shannon anchor Sweetie near us, we enjoy several days in the Caymans, and then sail north to Cuba together. We offload many pounds of hardbound Mediterranean cruising guides from our boat to theirs. They have plenty of room as they have a new Sweetie – a catamaran. Again, we go west and they go east.

2017 Cayman Brac to Cuba — Sweetie has 2 hulls!

Fast forward to 2023 and they are texting that they are in town with family. We went out that night for cocktails and had a wonderful time catching up. Next week they head back to Sweetie which is awaiting them in Turkey.

Of course we spent some time talking about new tools available to them now such as Starlink. They mentioned a popular app they are using which was new to me: Navily. Anybody using it?