On Nov 23, 6:08�am, Wayne.B wrote:
On Sat, 22 Nov 2008 21:20:06 -0800 (PST), "





wrote:
I'm not going to attempt to compete with Skip here. �Our trip from San
Francisco to Ensenada was slowish but generally uneventful. �We made
the trip in three legs: �San Fran to Santa Barbara, Santa Barbra to
Santa Catalina Island, Cat Island to San Diego and then SD to
Ensenada. �We had generally fair weather and mostly light NW winds.
The new AIS and watchmate and Seaclear II all worked wonderfully.
What a great technology.

Along the way we had a few casualties. �A patch of batten pocket gave
out on the mainsail. �I threw some sticky back on it and had a more
proper repair done in SD. �The raw water pump on the port side burnt
up its bearings and shaft seal. �I put in a new seal in SD and
replaced the bearings here in Ensenada -- I had a spare set of
bearings aboard but found a new set locally as well. �While we were in
SD I replaced both ends of the pressure vessel of our Spectra
watermaker. �They both had small cracks in them and were the old style
with tapered threads. �The new ends have straight threads and O rings
and I trust they will last longer. �We had the ends of the Clake pump
changed out when we were in New Zealand last time so there are no
tapered high pressure fittings on the unit now. �A hose from the head
to the holding tank split and I replaced in SD. �Other than that we
did well.

The wild life was out in force and we saw whales, dolphins, seals, sea
lions giant jellyfish and sundry others. �The sailing was slow but
with the exception of landfall at Santa Barbara where it was thick
fog, was in lovely clear weather. �Between Cat Is. and Sand Diego the
US Navy was playing war games with two carrier groups and tankers for
underway resupply which made a total mess of the traffic in an area
that already has a lot of shipping. �Avoiding all of that was kind of
like work, but again hard to complain given the lovely weather. �We
had some issues with Kelp coming down from San Diego. �We've never had
to deal with kelp before. �I had no idea how tough that stuff is..

Our plan is to head south from here. �I am hoping to get in a bit of
exploring on the Pacific side of the Baja but the wx doesn't look
promising. �Current reports show a font early in the week and low
moving down the coast late in the week creating S to W winds. �Not
only does that make it a beat to go south but it makes most of the
anchorages along the coast untenable. I haven't decided if I will wait
here for better wx or just go south in a big jump either doubling the
cape and going to La Paz or going direct �to the mainland...

-- Tom.

Sounds like a great trip Tom, thanks for posting. �

Are you eventually headed for the Panama Canal ?- Hide quoted text -

- Show quoted text -

Thanks for sharing Tom it sounds like a great time