The Log of Indiscipline III

05/27/03 Memorial Day Cruise

My wife took the little dogs to the beach in the kayak, got swamped and returned wet, covered with sand and rather unhappy. But the dogs did their business. A rather large swell was running into the anchorage (2+ feet). The Catalina 25 loves to rock and roll in those conditions!

During the day the wind clocked around and finally started to blow from the west. I was a little concerned about the anchor (I had about 200 feet of line and chain out and I knew the depth was greater than 50') but everything held fine. Because of many boats around I could not put more scope out. All night long we rolled, pitched, bumped and banged. Karen had to take the dogs to the beach at midnight and at 3 AM. She said it was easy to find our boat - we were the anchor light that was rolling the most (we were the smallest boat by far in the area).

Monday dawned bright and sunny. It was hot and bright all day. Our solar panels had the batteries fully re-charged by noon. We went hiking up the canyon (even though it is a Girl Scout camp, private property with many no trespassing signs) and encountered numerous birds and 3 buffalo. We spent the afternoon playing on the beach. Our dinghy, 3.5 HP outboard, and kayak all worked great. It was challenging landing them in the large waves hitting the beach. All the wet and sand eventually ended up in our cockpit. The place was now deserted so we moved to a mooring right off the beach. We enjoyed fishing in the evening when the whole bay was jumping with sardines. On the mooring we didn't roll as much but the boat yawed severely all night long. At least the dogs did not have to go at 3 AM this time.

Tuesday morning we were up at 7 AM and ready to depart by 8. We had the boom tent down and stowed, pop-top down, cover put away, dinghy deflated, dissembled and stowed, kayak stowed, main sail up, breakfast, coffee and ready to go in an hour. It was foggy, lightly misting, and the seas were as flat as a highway. There was not even a whisper of wind. The Honda 8 HP at 1/4 throttle moved us at 6.2 knots with not even a ripple on the water. I had the main up all day for stability. The sea, sky were all the same shade of grey and we existed inside a bubble about 1/2 mile radius. It looked like a very boring 6 hour passage. The wife and kids played games all day on the queen-sized bed in the salon and I found every place possible to sit in the cockpit and keep watch. The tiller pilot and the Honda did all the work.

On the way back 20 miles from all land, we ran into an area of sea that was teaming with life. We encountered several schools of dolphins, flocks of "working" birds, and many groups of sunfish (mola mola) on the surface. Then I saw a large fin. I called all hands on deck. I thought it was a killer whale (unusual in our waters). Then, I saw a large shark-like tail. At that point I thought it was a floating log. We sailed up to it, cut the motor, and took a close look.

Nature treated us to about a 30 minute encounter with a Whale Shark. He was about 50 feet long. He circled the boat and followed us (we were sailing at about 1 knot). I wish words could experience the sense of awe we all felt. He was beautiful and majestic. Time and time again he swam right up to the transom, so close that I was afraid he would bump the rudder or something, then circled the boat. The water also held many strange small jellyfish. We all realized that we probably would never see another one in our lives and that this moment was a precious as they can get. It was truly a miracle that his path through life and ours intersected at that time and place.

We arrived by 2 PM, used 5/8 tank of gas, never sailed, never saw even a little wind until we were in the harbor. Next time I will get a stabilizer for anchoring/mooring and figure out a way to increase storage on board. The boat is small and tight for 4 people and 2 tiny dogs, and everyone had to move each time we needed to get something out of one of the storage bins, but it worked out OK. Ice lasted 2 days but we would be out of refrigeration on the 3rd.

We didn't really like White's Landing and next time will go to the Isthmus where there is a dinghy dock, everything is not private property or yacht club only, and there are shops and things to do.