Lisa Falk
11/01/2009, Oceanside, CA

So....Marty calls the recommended Volvo mechanic. He says "that engine, that year, a little fairy told me one thing is to check that nothing in the cockpit locker, like a life jacket, got tangled up or jammed against the back of the panel"....nothing was touching it at all, but SURE FREAKIN ENOUGH, Marty gets in the cockpit locker and JIGGLES THE BACK OF THE DAMN THING, and it clicks back into place and works again. I had a jumping-up-and-down stomping stamping fit on the dock. But HOW would one KNOW to do that????

In any case, it's fixed. It cost nothing. We headed north this morning and are back in Oceanside; tomorrow to Newport. Then either to Catalina or Redondo. Flat seas and almost no wind, we headed up w/ the mainsail up an motored all day. Saw a large pod of Risso's dolphins. Nothing else. What else can we do but laugh???

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10/31/2009

Seems like a bad Halloween joke, but it's not. Thursday evening, just after sunset, went to start up the engine. We were south of Ensenada. Transmission wouldn't shift into neutral. Opened everything up we could think of, nothing obvious. With no engine, no recharging: no fridge, no autopilot, no communications. We thought about heading for Ensenada but figured it would be hard to find a Volvo engine expert.
SO - we turned north. Spent the night bashing and tacking - we figure we sailed 60-70 miles to make 15 miles north. Yes, it sucked. Friday morning we called Sea Tow, who met us about 11 miles south of the Coronado Islands and towed us (8-9 knots!) back to San Diego. Now we are at the guest dock at Southwestern YC. Trip over - we can't catch the fleet and can't get to Cabo in time for me to make my flight back to return to work.
We'll be heading back north to home once the problem is resolved.

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Lisa Falk
10/29/2009, 15 Miles offshore Ensenada

Rolling south, wind 7-11, swell 6 feet, both from the starboard quarter (back right). Motored most of the day, 8-3:30, then I said BREAK FROM THE NOISE! We rolled out the headsail and have been making 5-7 knots since. If the wind would stay at 11, we'd be great; gets a bit rolly when we are down below 6 knots sog. (Speed over Ground) Marty made chicken salad sandwiches w/ pickles & chips for lunch, we've got a homemade lasagna & salad for dinner. I went below for too long this a.m. and got a bit ill feeling so I slept for about 4 hours - have on my buzzer and am fine as long as I don't stay below for too long.

Yes, we did hear about J World, the J 120 that got rammed several times by a whale yesterday and sank; all five aboard were rescued by US Coast Guard helicopter out of San Diego after 2 hours in the liferaft. We are keeping a sharp lookout for whales! 285 miles to Turtle Bay!

Hoping the map updates correctly.....

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10/28/2009, SD

Nope, we did NOT leave yesterday, we went to Sea World! (Lemonade out of lemons and all...) Had a great time, it's like a combo marine zoo and theme park. Hand fed some really nice rays ;-) Watched the Shamu show - wow. Not sure I could get in the water with something that big like the trainers do.

Email from our dockmate Qualchan who left w/ the fleet - as of yesterday afternoon they were tucked into San Quintin to wait out the waves. We've been unable to pick up the SSB morning fleet check-in due to static - probably from being the harbor. Gusty winds here now - we should depart in a.m. Forecast looks like there will be some wind but the waves should be managable.

Today we'll do a few boat chores, top off the water tanks, etc....

Thanks for everyone's supportive words!!!

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10/26/2009, SGYC San Diego

One of the crew said NO WAY NO HOW, in 15 - 20 foot seas the autopilot won't work and we'll have to hand steer and not be able to cook or move around easily, and the anchorages are recommended for wind not swell, so we went out for the parade and are delaying departure until Thursday a.m.

We hope to catch the fleet in Turtle Bay - assuming most of them lay over Tuesday evening-Thursday a.m., we probably will. If not, we will hope to catch them in Bahia Santa Maria. After Wednesday night, the weather looks very benign, so we'll just see what happens! Most of the fleet started, some dropped out, and they were again strongly recommending everyone to anchor before dark on Tuesday til the weather moderates. A few boats left last night hoping to get to Turtle Bay before the swell arrives.

We went to the Cabrillo National Monument in the afternoon to pass the time and watched a Navy ship go out and a submarine come in, meet up w/ a boat of some sort, then turn around and go back out. No idea what they were doing.

Tomorrow we'll maybe do Sea World as Henry and I have both never been (Mike, Henry joined us last night!) and/or Balboa Park.

This was very disappointing and an excruciating decision - we spent from 7-9 a.m. going back and forth, discussing options and comfort levels, and decided that with one less crew and me probably getting very anxious and scared, it wasn't worth going today. I considered that, if this were the forecast and we were heading to Catalina, we wouldn't go. Might turn out to be a big ado about nothing, but at least MY comfort level is higher and anxiety level is lower. It was still a very difficult decision as we were out there with all the other boats as it was a BEAUTIFUL day, light winds and very tempting to just keep on going.

So, we'll monitor the morning roll call and see how things progress....

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10/25/2009, SGYC, SD

Attended the skippers meeting and party - got excited, but then the head of the event reported the weather - there's some coming, and it could be 20 foot seas with about 11 second intervals and 25 knot winds...so we'll see if we go or not. The boat can take it - can I? A two-day delay might be in the works.

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