San Diego: inland; almost; Ricardo Breceda; size matters

        I spent the weekend 4,000’/1200 meters above GANNET at the home of friends, Susan and Howard, whom I met when we lived aboard boats in a marina on San Diego’s Harbor Island forty years ago.

        Few places have as varied beauty as does California:  coast, mountains, desert.  Although only about forty miles inland, Susan and Howard’s house is a different world.  Quiet and peaceful.  Deer and wild turkeys wander across their property, and the view is a panorama of constantly changing light and shadow.

        One day we drove over the crest and down to Borrega Springs, where the sculptor, Ricardo A. Breceda, has created a display of 129 pieces spread across several miles of desert.  

        I had never heard of this before.  It is a stunningly original achievement.

        I did not have my camera with me and only remembered my iPad after we had passed some of the more dramatic pieces, including elephants and what appeared to be saber toothed tigers.

 

These will have to do; but you can discover more here.

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        During my absence from sea level, in another stunningly original achievement, Saildrone has almost completed its voyage.  As I write, it has only 23 nautical miles to go.  I wonder where it will dock.  And how it will put out fenders and secure lines.

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        Size matters, but in uneven ways.

        WWII U.S. Navy destroyers were 300’ long, which would be huge for a private craft, but was minuscule in fleets of aircraft carriers, heavy cruisers and battleships.

        In December 1944, Admiral Halsey placed his fleet directly in the path of a severe typhoon.  The consequences are dramatically related in HALSEY’S TYPHOON, by Bob Drury and Tom Clavin, recommended to me by Tim, for which I thank him.

        There are many details of interest, from the lack of warning technology that we now take for granted--had the Admiral and his weather advisors had my iPad and a few apps, they could easily have avoided the storm--to the way ships, particularly those low on fuel which served a secondary function as ballast, reacted to cataclysmic conditions.

        Typhoons, cyclones and hurricanes are the same storms given different names in different oceans.

        I’ve been in cyclones and hurricanes at least eight times in boats approximately a tenth the size of a destroyer.  While three of them were flipped over mast beneath the water, they came back.  Having even less freeboard and windage, I think GANNET would, too.

        However, there are typhoons and there are typhoons.

        Maybe the lesson is be on something really big, such as an aircraft carrier, or something really small, such as EGREGIOUS or GANNET, and not in between. 

San Diego: cardinal points of The Great Cabin at night

south

east

north

west

San Diego: washed; amps; link; chef; garlanded

        Rumors of rain materialized into drops for about an hour at 3:00 a.m., washing GANNET and the sky, and, unfortunately proving that I was not successful in curing a leak on the aft side of the forward hatch which I noticed when I scrubbed and hosed down the deck a couple of weeks ago.  This is particularly frustrating on GANNET, where there is no liner and the inside of the hull is exposed.  I applied additional sealant along the edge of the hatch, both inside and on deck.  Obviously I’ll have to apply more.  I now think the leak may be around two bolts near the aft port corner.  

        Today is one of crystalline beauty.  Sunny.  Pure blue sky, dotted with cotton ball puffs of cumulus cloud.  Everything clean and pristine; and very few people around.

        I biked over to Pacific Beach, passing almost no one on the bay side of Mission Beach and only a few on my return along the ocean.

        Fall and winter are my favorite seasons in San Diego because of the greater contrast with the Midwest where I grew up, and because the crowds of summer are gone.

        October is often a month of strong Santa Ana winds, blowing from the east when high pressure develops over the desert.  With the wind coming off the land, the sea near shore remains flat and there can be spectacular sailing.  I was hoping for a Santa Ana, but thus far there hasn’t been one this year.

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        Watts divided by volts=amps.

        I now have six 25 watt solar panels wired into a 12 volt system, which in theory could provide 12.5 amps of power.  THE HAWKE OF TUONELA had 180 total watts in her three solar panels, which could have theoretically produced 15 amps.

        I stress the theoretically because I never saw more than 6 or 7 amps being registered on the Solar Boost 2000e regulator on HAWKE, and I haven’t seen more than 5 yet on GANNET.

        The loss comes from shadows and angles and, to a lesser degree, wiring, though I minimize this by using over size wire with, except for the two panels near the stern, short runs.

        All of GANNET’s panels are functioning properly.  However they are fixed on deck and not often perpendicular to the sun and are subject to shadows.  A few mornings ago I noticed that five of the six panels were partially shadowed.  One shadow came from the tiller, which I usually leave vertical.  Simply lowering it and eliminating that shadow increased output by half an amp.

        Being able to tilt the panels so they are usually at right angles to the sun definitely increases output, but I find such structures aesthetically unacceptable and am unwilling to run around all day  trying to keep up with the sun.

        GANNET’s two new panels are providing a definite increase in total daily production, with the little boat’s bow to the west particularly in the afternoon.  Readings are generally two amps higher than they were with only four panels.

        The SolarBoost 2000e regulator is said to be like having an extra solar panel.  I had one on THE HAWKE OF TUONELA, as well as on GANNET, and it seems to work.  At the moment, the panel current  reaching the regular is 4.3 amps; the output to the batteries is 4.9 amps.

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        Saildrone continues steadily onward.  It is now 377 miles from Hawaii.

        Alan, who sent me the link, is kind enough to say that I am not going to become obsolete any time soon.  But I’m not so sure.

        Saildrone is self-contained and powered by wind and solar panels.  So is GANNET.

        The universe is unquestionably not on a human scale.

        I have long thought that as a species, we--or at least some of us--are best as engineers and technicians.  Obviously we make lousy politicians.

        What if we are not the glory and purpose of the universe, but in the evolutionary process only the creatures needed to build the machines who are the next step up?  This is not an original thought, but one that Saildrone has reminded me of.

        I have said that one of the advantages of solo sailing is no risk of mutiny.

        I have four tiller pilots aboard GANNET.  Soon they will be residing in a bag with the Torqeedo tiller arm.

        If they all get together…

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        My culinary skills reached new heights two nights ago:  I used a pot.

        As you probably know, usually I just heat water in the JetBoil; but I bought some prepared soup at the supermarket and decided to heat it in my one pot rather than the vertical JetBoil cylinder.  

        Once I remembered where I stowed the pot, it worked.

        I am humble, but proud.

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        When I returned from my bike ride, I found GANNET’s bow garlanded.

San Diego: ALL IS LOST; trashed; Saildrone

        I thought about sailing around to San Diego Bay this weekend, but then remembered that the 170+ fleet for the Baja HaHa, a southerly floating party/cruiser’s rally, is assembled there for tomorrow’s start, and the coastal fog hasn’t burned off for two days, so I biked four miles inland to see ALL IS LOST.  I thank Larry for letting me know that it was playing nearby.

        I am not going to express my opinion now, although I would very much like to hear yours if you see the film. 

        I will note that I saw the heading of another review, “What if you had to consider your own death?”  As I was by the NY TIMES reviewer’s finding solitude terrifying, I was struck by the insular shallowness of this reviewer’s mind and life.

        A paradox is that we are herd animals, yet we are each alone.  

        Just as one function of cities is to block nature from those who can’t face it, so I think that Internet social networks are attempts to hide from the fact of essential aloneness.

        If you are more than a child and haven’t considered your own death, you haven’t been paying attention.  

        To paraphrase Socrates, the unconsidered death is not worth dying.

        If you see ALL IS LOST, please let me know your thoughts.

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        GANNET is light enough to be moved by a landing bird.  

        Sometime Friday night I was awakened by such a slight movement, followed by sounds that I could not identify.  Rustling paper?  Tearing?  Scratching?  

        It was enough for me to untangle myself from the sleeping bag, push open the forward hatch, sit up and look around, but I saw nothing.

        Only in the morning light, when I opened the companionway, did I see that someone, presumably a sea gull, had raided the trash sack I keep in the cockpit and messily spread the contents.  Friday’s evening meal was freeze dried New Orleans Rice with Ham and Shrimp.  I did not eat it all and placed the resealed pouch in the trash.  Obviously the shrimp were perfume to a gull.

        Now I’m going to have to either walk the trash up the marina bin after dinner or put it in the dockbox.  I don’t think gulls can lift that lid.  

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        While the admirable young people on the east coast tried to send an autonomous power boat across the Atlantic, a more professional and better funded group on the west coast have opted for sail, which would have been my choice for more than romantic reasons, and with seemingly greater success.

        Saildrone left San Francisco for Hawaii on October 1 and as I write has sailed 1710 miles and is 477 from its destination.

        You can follow its track here.  (I first typed ‘her’)

        If you google Saildrone, you will find some short videos, but I haven’t yet come across detailed specifications, such as length, sail area, and weight.

        I may have just become obsolete.

San Diego: wrecked; the right stuff; no more; changed

        Martin in England sent this link to a series of photographs of ships wrecked along the British coast, some dramatic, some with captions of a vanished era.  

        Thanks, Martin.

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        Whenever I’ve driven across this country, particularly from the Midwest to California, I’ve found myself thinking as the sometimes endless miles went by at sixty or seventy miles an hour, of those who in the 1800s walked across those plains and deserts and mountain passes.  

        I interrupted reading STRUMPET CITY, a good novel set in Dublin, Ireland, in the early years of last century, to read all of Mike Roddy’s THEY RODE WEST account of biking across the country with friends in 2009.

        Before moving on the THEY RODE WEST, here is a passage from STRUMPET CITY:  The moment filled her with an oppressive sense of mortality.  She wanted to leave the garden and get back into the house, to feel its four walls putting comfortable bounds to a world which was too wide and careless to hold intact for any certain period the happiness it now and then offered.

        The novel is generally about the early days of organizing labor with main characters some of whom are among the monied class; some among the poorest; and three Catholic priests.  I haven’t quite finished it, but find it well written and memorable.

        I found Mike Roddy’s bike ride memorable, too.  The people he and his friends met along the way--mostly generous; a sense of humor; the regional differences in people and places; a good eye for telling detail; and the pitting of bodies and wills against distance and time and wind--a headwind is as undesirable on a bike as on a boat--and rain and thirst and long climbs up hills and mountains, just as some of our ancestors once did.   

        Published reports and personal observation show that most contemporary Americans are obese and sedentary.  I am pleased to know that Mike and his friends, and others they met riding who are doing the same thing, some women, some considerably older than they, have proven that there are still among us some who could have been pioneers. 

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        You may have seen that the U.S. government, such as it is, is going to stop printing paper charts.  An interesting counterpoint to the shipwreck photos.

        This will not be a problem for me.  I do not own any paper charts.  I do have multiple copies of electronic charts, some in devices with waterproof cases.

        I will probably buy a paper world atlas and stow it in a Ziploc bag on GANNET in case of cataclysmic multiple failures.

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        As I noted when I flew from Chicago to San Diego just over two weeks ago, the weather was better there than here.

        Today it is sunny and 70ºF/21ºC aboard GANNET; in Chicago it is freezing and there has been talk of snow.

San Diego: painted, paneled, pad-eyed

                The two new solar panels arrived Monday, prompting me to put the second coat of non-skid paint on the deck Tuesday in the belief that it would be easier to do before they were installed and had to be painted around.

When a month ago I mentioned my intention to put a second coat of paint on the deck I left out a ‘d’.   Zane in New Zealand emailed that he wouldn’t want to go skiing on his deck, either.  

I appreciate the correction, Zane.

(My favorite all time typo was when I wrote from Tahiti to a friend that I was reading WAR AND PEACH.)

Not having to paint the cockpit, non-skidding the deck only took two hours and less than a quart of paint.  Painting white on white in bright sunshine, subsequently I can see a few places I missed on the second go around, but overall the deck looks better and easily passes my viewed from a boat length away test.

Yesterday I installed the two new solar panels.

This was easy.  I took measurements, but still don’t think I have them precisely parallel to the centerline.  They are close enough.  Certainly with my vision.  GANNET now has 150 watts of solar panels on deck.  This is only 35 less than did THE HAWKE OF TUONELA, and GANNET’s are considerably less obtrusive.

Wiring was simple.  I had only to splice into existing connections.  I tested the circuits of all four of the forward solar panels, and all showed full output.  Today has remained overcast.  When we next have bright sunshine, I’ll go around deck, covering each panel sequentially with a towel and observe whatever changes appear on the SolarBoost 1000e regulator.

Although I seldom even take spray on deck when sailing here in San Diego, I know that in the future there will be times when waves will sweep GANNET.  On EGREGIOUS, RESURGAM and THE HAWKE OF TUONELA, waves snapped vanes on Aries and Monitor self-steering devices and washed tiller pilots from tillers.  So I bought a folding pad-eye at West Marine a few days ago to tie down the tiller pilot. 

I knew at the time that it is bigger than I need, but it was the only one in stock and was on a hook showing a price of $24, so I bought it, along with several other bits and pieces and didn’t look at the receipt until I got back to GANNET when I found that the pad-eye actually cost $66.  I could have taken it back, but didn’t.  It has a safe working load of 3500 pounds, more than enough to lift the entire boat if bolted to a strong enough part of the structure.  I think it will adequately secure a tiller pilot.

I also installed four eye-bolts beside the v-berth, one on each side in the partial bulkhead forward, one on each side in the main bulkhead.  I’ll run lines fore and aft between them to secure bags and jerry cans, so everything won’t slide to leeward when GANNET heels.

I can’t think of anything else that needs to be done, so I’m going to walk around to the other side of Quivira Basin and eat a fish sandwich for lunch.

San Diego: full moon from The Great Cabin and self-portrait in darkness

San Diego: tillered; hacked; They Rode West

               The tiller arrived late Friday and I fitted it Saturday afternoon.  Due I am sure to my imprecise measurements, some sanding was needed to reduce the butt end by perhaps 1/16”, so to use my power sander I plugged into shore power for the fourth time in a year.  The other three were to use a power hand saw. 

My thought was to drill the three holes for the bolts to attach the new tiller to the rudder shaft so it could go in place quickly if needed, but then remove it and continue to use the old tiller.  However, once the new one, made of mahogany and ash by RudderCraft, was attached, I liked it too much to remove and the old one will be the spare.

I ordered the tiller unfinished and have applied eight or nine coats of Deks Olje No. 1 over the past three days, with more to come.

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On Saturday the home page of this site was hacked.  I don’t often visit that page, going directly to the journal page, but a couple of you did and emailed me.  Thank you, Eric and Steve.

I don’t recall the exact details, but the page had a black background, lettering at the top stating that it had been hacked by people with Islamic intent, contained some Arabic script and some in English, which I believe was from the Koran, and an Islamic chant played.  As far as I could determine, the rest of the site was untouched.

I didn’t have time to deal with the problem that evening, but worried that my laptop may have been compromised because earlier in the week I ran an ad on Craigslist to sell the Norvane for the man who gave it to me, and in addition to a half dozen serious inquires, received a huge amount of spam, some of which I did not recognize as such until I opened it.  

I woke Sunday morning to find with some relief an email from MacHighway, which hosts this site, stating that they had changed my passwords and that I should under no circumstances try to use the old ones.  As the day progressed, more information was received stating that the home pages of many of the sites they host had been hacked--I do not yet know how--and were being restored.  Mine was by late afternoon.

As Billy Pilgrim notes repeatedly in SLAUGHTERHOUSE FIVE, “So it goes.”  In the Internet Age.

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Over the weekend I met a young man who with some friends biked across the country. east to west.  He has written about the journey well and enthusiastically at THEY RODE WEST, which I started reading last evening.

I’m going to follow the whole way.  Some of you might enjoy doing so, too. 

San Diego: sailed; shopped; terrified

                I’ve been trying to go sailing for three days, but beneath a high blue sky there has been no or little wind.  Accepting that this is not going to change soon, I decided today to go anyway.   

There was never more than five or six knots of wind.  GANNET sailed mostly at four knots.  

I was able to compare my Quatix watch with the Velocitek ProStart.  Usually they showed SOG within .1 of a knot of one another.  The ProStart shows COG Magnetic, while I had the Quatix set to  True.  In San Diego there is a 12º difference.  With the Variation East, True is greater.

Once clear of the Mission Bay Channel, I sailed north toward La Jolla close hauled on port tack.  GANNET’s speed kept creeping higher.  When it momentarily touched 5 knots, the excitement was too much and I turned back.  Actually we were about to sail into a kelp bed.

On the return I put a waypoint into the Quatix just off the channel breakwaters.  I now have three:  the condo; the slip; and what I’ve named MB Jetty.

Several times I’ve tested the watch walking back to GANNET from the shower, which Quatix tells me is 556’ away.  When I’m 50’ away a message, “Approaching Slip” appears.

Standing in the companionway, Quatix usually tells me I’m 4’ from ‘slip.’  Good enough.

The sail was pleasant.  Everything worked.  And I remembered how to lower the mainsail.

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In the absence of sailing, I shopped online.

Two tiller pilots have arrived.  I found them on sale at a place I’ve never heard of named Hodges Marine.

Someone noted that I could buy a lot of tillerpilots for the $5,000 boat yard estimate to reinforce GANNET’s transom.  Thirteen to be exact.  I now have four.  That should be sufficient.

I found a very nice man in Idaho, to whom I spoke by telephone, who made GANNET a spare tiller.  It is ‘Out for Delivery’ on a FedEx truck today, but hasn’t been.

Two Aurinco solar panels are in transit.  

After considering the mock-ups in various combinations for several evenings, I ended up ordering the almost squares to install near the mast.  Working out all the possible combinations of sun, shadows, and course, is impossible.  No matter where panels are placed, at times they will not be fully exposed to the sun.  In the end, the mock-ups near the mast just made GANNET’s deck look to my eye better balanced.

And a new Sport-a-Seat is also on the way.  This one with a black cover, which will be hot in the Tropics, when I will put a towel over it or use the grey one, but will not show stains.

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The movie, ALL IS LOST, about a solo sailer trying to save his sinking boat and himself, staring Robert Redford, is reviewed today in the NY TIMES.

The review is positive, as have been others.  I will go see the movie when I can.

What I found most interesting and revealing in the review is:  And though this man’s radical aloneness is terrifying, to him and to us

In a too connected world, to be alone is to be terrified.

I also note that we are told the sailor, who apparently is never named, is wearing a wedding ring.  I suppose this is to show that he is not a true loner, which would be terrifying, though the idea of a solo sailor being married is obviously absurd.

I do not know about others, but this solo sailor does not wear his wedding ring when he sails.  I do wear one ashore.  While sailing a wedding ring can catch on lines and other things leading to injury.  

Details.

San Diego: The Man; SCOUT's end; flat; a year ago today

        “Power tends to corrupt, and absolute power corrupts absolutely.” 

        I did not know that Lord Acton continued:  “Great men are almost always bad men.”

        In my old age I try to assume a becoming modesty, but sometimes it isn’t easy.

        Two nights ago just before I retired to the v-berth, I saw from the companionway a dark shape at the far end of the dock.  I shined my brightest flashlight on the offending sea lion, who immediately rolled back into the water.

        Mid-morning yesterday, upon standing in the companionway I saw another sea lion on the dock.  Without evening climbing onto deck, I commanded, “Go!”, pointed my arm, and 100’ away the sea lion obeyed.

        I have created a Sea Lion Free Zone.  I am The Man.  The Lord of the Sea Lions.

        Lord Acton was right.  It is going to my head.

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        In the transition from the flatlands to the sea, I lost track of SCOUT, the autonomous 12’ vessel, programmed to attempt to cross the Atlantic.

        The attempt has come to an end.  Imprecise minds would say that SCOUT is now at the mercy of the wind and waves, but I know that wind and waves are insentient and not capable of mercy or being merciless.

        I believe that SCOUT functioned for more than a month and stayed more or less on course for more than a thousand miles.  

        Although I doubt the young people behind the project have a real understanding of what it means to cross an ocean, the attempt is praiseworthy.

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        Riding my bike to Pacific Beach on Sunday was hard.  As I was gasping to the top of the bridge between here and Mission Beach, I thought:  Damn.  Climbing those stairs wasn’t enough.  And the whole time I felt as though I were pedaling through deep sand.

        Before riding to Ocean Beach today, I checked the tires.  They were 30 pounds under pressure.  I pumped them up.  A world of difference.  Perhaps two worlds.

        Details.

        Often it is said, “The Devil is in the details.”  But the correct quote, usually attributed to the architect, Mies van der Rohr, is:  “God is in the details.”

        In either case, as my legs can testify and voyages prove, details matter.

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        GANNET was lowered into the Pacific Ocean a year ago today.

        Both days identically perfect.