Seattle to Mexico 2004
September 13, 2004
2004/09/13 03:00 UTC 48-22.20N 124-36.96W Anchored at Neah Bay, WA - waiting for a storm to pass.
Renegade's Anchorage
September 18, 2004
2004/09/18 22:07 UTC 44-37.44N 124-03.12W Waiting for good or better weather/winds at Newport, OR
Renegade's Anchorage
Dear family and friends,
Left Blaine, WA later than I wanted - one week too late - and the weather
is what it is supposed to be this time of year - nasty! - One week would have
made all the difference since we would be by now in San Diego. Anyway, we
are going South at a slower pace waiting for weather windows here and there
- even when the weather is fine, it is only for one or two days at the most
and then it gets nasty again. My crew - Bob Knap - has no sailing experience
and the first few minutes out of Cape Flattery started to feel sick and stayed
that way until we stopped at Newport, OR. However, he is not quitting and
is continuing South...brave (or fool) man. His cooking is great so I hope
he will be OK from now on. Gordo has been very good - did not get sick but
he does not like to go to do his business in the bow of the boat when the
waves are more than 3 or 4 feet - we had waves of up to 15 feet - so, he "held
it" until we arrived at Newport and when the water became flat, he dashed
for the bow and went... He knows where to do it just doesn't like the risks
of going to the bow in bad weather.
We had equipment failures from the very start. First the autopilot - a new
one - would not work, after a while trying to figure out what the problem
was decided to removed the new one and re-install the old one. After doing
that, it would not work either so I put the new one in but without any of
the external components. Finally found out that the new gyro sensor was not
working. I removed the faulty instrument and the autopilot worked just fine.
Then the new Single Side Band (SSB) radio would not transmit. It received
but would not transmit on any frequency - I removed it and reinstalled the
old one which works just fine - The new wind generator does not put out any
voltage either so it does not work. Just a couple of hours from Newport, a
raw water hose busted causing salt water to spry all over the engine and,
of course, reducing the water that goes out the exhaust - the boat sounded
as it had lost its muffler - I shut it down in just a minute and repaired
it by rapping a rubber gasket around it. The hose still leaked a little bit
but we were so close to Newport that it was ok - That water hose busting caused
another problem that I did not see until we got to Newport. After refueling
there, I checked the oil to find that it was contaminated with water - I hoped
it was salt water because fresh water with antifreeze would have caused more
problems. Trying to get the oil/water mixture out to the oil pan was a difficult
task - none of the electric oil drain pumps that I had worked. It was like
liquid chocolate - But a fellow boater had a hand pump and it worked just
fine. We drained the oil, put new oil and filter, run the motor until it got
warm, removed all the oil again, put new oil and filter, run the motor til
warm and did one more oil change even though the fellow boater - who is a
diesel mechanic - said that it was not necessary. So, we are now ready to
go with most of the problems fixed. There are a couple of other problems -
small leaks everywhere - that will get attended to after we get to Ensenada.
To follow our progress southward, copy/paste the following internet address to your web browser
http://www.aprs.net/cgi-bin/winlink.cgi?K7POP
Besos abrazos y saludos!
Felipe
September 23, 2004
2004/09/23 21:08 UTC 37-51.72N 122-28.62W Anchored in Sausalito - beautiful weather here - will leave tomorrow for LA.
Renegade's Anchorage
October 6, 2004
2004/10/06 18:47 UTC 32-42.46N 117-14.01W Arrived at San Diego's Shelter Island Sunday 10/02 .
Renegade's Anchorage
October 10, 2004
2004/10/10 17:48 UTC 31° 51' 35 N 116° 37' 32 W. At Baja Naval in Ensenada BC Mexico .
Renegade's Anchorage
Besos abrazos y saludos!
Dear family and friends,
Finally arrived at Ensenada in the middle of the night in very dense fog but
without incident - however, I was worried that something would go wrong the
entire trip from San Diego. I had good reasons for being worried. Since I
wrote last, there were problems at each leg. The worst was an engine failure
due to bad fuel - Anyway, we left Newport, OR on September 19th and decided
to go near the coast just in case. In this leg, I had a severe oil leak that
took a couple of days to find and fix. Fortunately it was windy so we could
sail. By the time we got to Sausalito, CA on the 24th at about noon, I was
pretty tired. Bob left and Manuel Domecq - my friend from Spain who lives
in San Francisco - joined the boat on the leg to San Diego. The weather in
San Francisco was great - it reminded me of the weather in Andalucia. I enjoyed
the rest and at about 3:30pm on Sept 24th we left Sausalito. The wind was
up and we sailed for a couple of hours but then the wind died down and we
had to motor-sail. On Sept 26 at about 7pm we arrived at San Luis Obispo in
dense fog. We had been motor-sailing the entire time and I wanted to get some
fuel. The only weather problem was the fog. The San Luis Obispo port is very
old fashion with a long wharf and lots of commercial fishing boats. The fuel
dock was on this wharf, which had many car tires on a long log at the bottom
of the piers. It is probably ok for steel fishing boats but not for a fiberglass
boat with a white hull. I calculated that at that time we had about 50 + hours
of fuel left so, even if we had to motor to San Diego we should be ok. We
were motoring along the coast and after passing point Arguello, the wind started
to pick up - and also the waves - We continued motor-sailing and just before
passing point conception, the engine died due to a clogged fuel filter. The
low fuel in the tanks were stirred by the waves clogging the filter. I changed
the filters but introduced air in the lines and the engine would not start.
By now the wind had picked up considerable - 20 to 25 knots - and we sailed
until we rounded Point Conception. The wind continued to blow and had a very
nice run up to about 22 miles from Santa Barbara when the wind totally died.
I tried to bleed the air out of the fuel lines but was unsuccessful. We were
close to an oil rig platform and I decided to contact a towing service in
case we needed to get a tow. We waited for wind for several hours but it never
came. After we started drifting backwards and in circles, I called to towing
service to take us to Santa Barbara. The tow boat came at about 11 pm - still
no wind - and we arrived at the harbor 6 hours later. There we took in 142
gallons - we had 34 gallons in the tank when the engine quit. I learn how
to bleed the engine by opening the low side of the injector lines. The engine
started ok and we left for Newport Beach. After leaving San Luis Obispo, we
discovered that the front end of the steel plate that holds the head-stay
and roller furler as well as the anchor roller was bent. This plate is held
down by about 12 smaller bolts and two larger bolts. The front larger bold
broke off and when we raised the anchor in San Luis Obispo it got caught and
bent the front end of the plate. This means that use of the Genoa is limited
to downwind only. Anyway, we continued down to Newport Beach where we arrived
at about 8:30am. We waited at the harbor police dock for a couple of hours
for a delivery of a new set of Lifeline batteries that I had purchased a few
weeks earlier. Once the batteries were in, we left for San Diego where we
arrived at about midnight. The entrance and run up the channel to the anchorage
area was very spectacular. And, of course, since we did not have any other
problems during that leg, we had to have it after we anchored. We lowered
the dinghy to take Gordo to land but the engine would not start! We rowed
the dinghy to shore and Gordo was a very happy puppy. Since Manuel joined
Renegade the atmosphere in Renegade was very pleasant. Even with all the troubles,
we talked about the old days and laugh, told jokes and laugh more. Very nice
when the crew is knowledgeable, has a sense of humor and is your friend! Manuel
is also a very neat and clean person which came very handy in Renegade! We
drank wine and made very nice meals. He caught a very nice caballa and also
a tuna. We cooked that caballa and had a great feast! the tuna is still in
the fridge. In San Diego, unfortunately, we spent the day trying to find a
place to fix the dinghy motor and deal with the elite Coronado Yacht Club
which we wanted to use to get the motor off the dinghy. We finally managed
to find a shop to do the work an Saturday morning - we were there at 9am and
by 2pm I was driving Manuel to the airport after having fixed the engine and
back to the boat to get his things. After Manuel left, I took the boat to
the Harbor Police Docks in Shelter Island. During the next few days, I had
the radar fixed, the wind generator replaced - the new one works just great!
- The navtek baby stay hydraulic piston needed new seals and contracted with
a stainless steel fabricator to have the front anchor roller plate replaced.
I need to remove the old one and take it to him while the boat is in Baja
Naval. I left San Diego on Thursday and arrived in Ensenada Friday at about
4am in dense fog. I anchored out and waited until the morning to go to Baja
Naval. The marina and boatyard are of midsize but very clean and nice. They
have a good security system, clean bathrooms and a field next to the boatyard
where Gordo
Felipe