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From: Rob Walton, Capt. S/V R Escape

I fully agree with the plan for “next time” but being one of those who was on a boat in the harbor I’d like to relate what a “goat roping” this event was.

We awoke aboard Saturday morning to predicted scattered showers and possible t-storms. Sailing was most likely not in the cards, but there were plenty of boat projects to keep us busy. We poured a cup of joe and turned on the t.v. to catch up on the news. The earthquake in Chile was the lead story.

In short order the VHF came alive with CG sector L.A. broadcasting the Tsunami warning…or was it a watch at that point? Either way there seemed to be no detectable concern and as is the norm the voice on the other end seemed quite bored with the announcement duty. As best I can recall the “wave” was predicted to arrive around 1230 hrs and the surge was estimated 1′ – 2′. That didn’t seem to be anything to be alarmed about, so we went about our normal Saturday morning.

It was close to 1200 hrs when I first heard the new revised broadcast. It had changed from “Tsunami Warning” to “Imminent Tsunami” and the 1′-2′ was now was 8′-10′. T

The CG also warned mariners to stay off of beaches & jetties, out of harbors and to seek “safe haven.”

The radio came alive; “So are you saying to get out of the harbor?” some anonymous Captain asked.

Sector L.A. replied “Please stand by” followed by a disturbingly long pause…they didn’t know what to tell us! The revised announcement was repeated, no further instructions were given and Sector LA went quiet.

Ventura Harbor Patrol finally broke the silence and instructed anyone in the Harbor to stay put and consult their marina managers.

Whaaaat? Being a student of Sail Channel Islands and working on my graduate degree in “Ole Sea Dogness” I instantly knew what a horrible piece of advice that was – our marina’s only concerns are slip fees, registration and insurance compliance. Tsunami’s, water spouts, disasters natural and man-made as well as rampaging mothers-in-law are outside of their field of view.

By this time, it was much too late for us to get underway and out to deep water, but the question remained: should we leave the boat and head for the safety of … the parking lot?

I’ll admit at this point I phoned Captain Dan and told him what was going on. We both agreed that most likely very little will happen but to be on the safe side, close up the boat and go for a walk – away from the beach! We did just that and as we now know not much happened.except for the fishing boat who sped out of the harbor at full speed but that’s another story.

So what’s the moral of this story? Follow the Captain’s advice: head to sea or meet him in Ojai. I believe you’ll find him in the first bar on the right.

R. Harvey

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The next time we get a Tsunami warning, we’re not going to dither. We’re going to do one of two things if we’re in Ventura:

1. Get underway and get to deep water
2. Get to high ground.

This video from the 1994 Thai Tsunami is very instructive. For one, it shows that the first wave is not necessarily the worst wave. Watch the video for at least a minute. The second wave shows up at 53 seconds.

Tsunamis are probably widely known as tidal waves because they look tidal in that a lot, a whole lot, a veritable s-load of water comes ashore. The wave may be only a couple of feet high, but it can be on the order of a half mile long. And initially, it’s moving at 500 mph. Compare that to towering surf, which around here gets to maybe 20 feet, but runs back maybe 100 feet. And it trucks in at -what? – 20 knots?

A lot of us now realize we have never seen anything like a Tsunami. Nothing remotely like a Tsunami. NOAA warned us to stay away from beaches and out of the harbor.

So those of us who ran to the harbor and waited on the boat for this monster to come crashing in the other day were lucky that this Tsunami was trivial. Had it been something on the order of the second wave in the video, folks sitting on their boats would have been in for a fight for their lives.

However, if they’d been in deep water, they might not even have noticed.

Next time I’m either getting underway or heading for Ojai.

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Score this video.

The Ropers – Wayne and Bill – joined the Boatswain and me when we set sail on 15 Feb. As everyone knows, you can’t sail in winter. That is unless you buy some beer, a couple of pounds of steak and then throw off the lines. Remarkably, the boat floats just fine in February and the sails seem to work, too.

Bill Roper caught this Gray Well as he sounded between Anacapa and Santa Cruz Island

We headed for Santa Cruz thinking we’d overnight in Pelican anchorage on the north shore. However, we were distracted by whale spouts and sailed south for a closer look. We got within a quarter mile of a pod of three, but were unable to close the distance under sail. It was getting a little late in the day and we wanted to be in anchorage with a couple of hours of daylight left so that we could perfect our bow & stern anchoring technique.

The night was warm and the New Moon made it perfect for stargazing. Then day #2 rewarded us with a spectacular sunrise. It was warm enough by 0700 to kayak in shirtsleeves.

We had anchored in Coches Prietas, which is a very popular anchorage. I rarely go there because it is so popular, some times attracting 20 boats or more. But this night only one joined us and they did not actually get into the anchorage with us, preferring to ride to a single hook a bit outside. Though it’s easier by far to set one hook, we had a much more comfortable ride inside the reef. We watched other boat’s anchor light traverse an arc of ± 20 degrees. That couldn’t have been fun for long.

Winter Morning Coches Prietas Santa Cruz Island

In the morning, we set out in kayaks to explore the beach. This is the site of a Chumash village and we think we spotted the midden where their ancient garbage dump is located. The island is greener than we’d ever seen with water flowing in all the creeks and trees and flowers, including lupine in full bloom.

We got underway about 1100. Wind was still calm and seas absolutely flat: a perfect day for whale spotting. Once we were in the Anacapa Passage, we found several pods. As we were only making 5 knots, the whales had to come to us, which they did. There are a couple of excellent seconds of video and several great stills that Bill caught with his Canon.

We had to motor all the way home. We hate that, but if it was the price for hanging out with the Grays, it was well worth it.

The weather is lousy today and forecast lousy through the weekend. Winter sailing is great in SoCal, you’ve just got to pick your days.

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NASBLA – you just think you’ve heard of them. But, no, it’s not the nasty guys; this is the National Association of Boating Administrators and they have some questions to ask in the form of a (fairly) brief test. With the wx forecast to be foul beyond what we Southern Californians will usually tolerate, you should take the opportunity to go through their online training or download the state’s course in a .pdf

For those of you who were ASA trained, you originally met these requirements. But ASA no longer includes all of the info in their courses, nor did the old courses cover all of the now-required material. A good move by the ASA as the new law requires a lot of knowledge of jet skis and other issues far removed from sailing.

In any event, it’s a good review and you should mention that you’ve completed the course when you renew your boat insurance – they may give you a discount.

If you download the .pdf and want to get your boater’s card, you can obtain a Scantron form to take the test by e-mailing a request to sbetzler@dbw.ca.gov or by calling (916) 263-8183.

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Making sure your dreamboat is really the boat of your dreams.

by Capt. Dan

OK, you think you’ve found your dream boat and the broker assures you that she’s perfect for you and your family. You’ve spent a week or so visualizing yourself at the helm as the bow slices the swell and you head off towards the islands on your first cruise. If your imagination has really cranked up, you’ve also visualized the bottle of champagne and the lovely Mediterranean lunch basket that’s been assembled for lunch.

This boat is what you’ve always wanted and you’re bound and determined to get it.

And it’s going to happen. The nautical stars are aligned: you’ve made a deposit, the day is perfect, the broker is smiling and the boat looks simply gorgeous. The broker has arranged to have a captain aboard for two hours, and you’re on your way.

Ninety-nine percent of the time, (remember, all statistics are made up. But most times ….) this boat is already sold. In your head, you’ve already bought it. One of the reasons brokers demand a deposit before sea trial is to get you accustomed to writing checks to them.

There is a chance that this great boat of yours has no significant defects, but 99.7% of the time the prospective buyer is not taking a critical look during the sea trial. In his head, this is a done deal. And the broker is there to make sure the deal stays done and that you don’t take too close a look.

The last time I bought a boat, the broker said he had arranged for a captain for two hours for the sea trial. Since it takes an hour and change to get the boat ready, get underway and get out of Marina del Rey and then about a half hour to get back, that would leave very little time to check out the boat. Exactly the way the broker wanted it. The fewer winches you crank, the fewer knobs you turn, the more you overlook, the better you’ll like the boat. One of the warning signs that you’re off track is that you and your wife are discussing the “window” treatments rather than checking the head operation.

We said we needed the captain for eight hours.

“Oh no,” says the broker; “traditionally this is an out-and-back, couple of hours,max.”

“Eight hours,” we said. “We’re going to inspect everything. That’s when he started to whine about how much the captain would cost. He hated the idea, didn’t want to pay for that long a stint. But he finally relented.

My partners and I arrived early for the sail and the sight of our boat – we just couldn’t help saying that – was – I don’t know – out of proportion: She’s gorgeous.

Then we got our minds right: “Not our boat, not our boat, not our boat,” we chanted. (I tried to get us chanting, “not that pretty, not that pretty,” but couldn’t sell that idea.)

We gave her a very thorough preflight and did not find much we didn’t like. We got underway in about an hour and a half. The captain was driving and we observed. We checked out the electronics: the radio, radar (and all its features), the GPS/Chartplotter at the helm and below. We pulled the engine cover off and checked everything visually and noted water below the engine. (Finally a defect.) We tried to check the bilge but couldn’t find the access. (Turned out to be under a settee). We checked all the holds, the operation of the cabinets and locks, the head, the cabin lights, the hatches. We were being as nit-picky as we could be.

Once in open water, we got the helm. We tacked, we jibed, we put her in irons and sailed all points of sail. And, frankly, she was not all we’d hoped, particularly in downwind performance. But we did exercise everything – all the winches, which we operated manually and electrically. We reefed, shook out the reef and noted some stiffness. We noted a bent stanchion and some chafed life line. We ran the engine at full power for 20 minutes, checked for overheating and for steam coming from the exhaust. We checked the maintenance records. We did not pump out the holding tanks – broker said we didn’t have time to go out to three miles – that turned out to be an oversight as the pump was dead. We did not check the refrigerator operation – that turned out to have a bad compressor. We did not check out the stove/oven – that worked OK.

Finally we said we wanted to anchor. That met some more resistance, but we insisted. (It’s pretty evident that everything the broker resisted was an attempt to avoid a defect.)

So we anchored. She had 180 feet of chain and 180 of nylon rode. And we discovered two problems: the windlass/hawse were only set up to handle chain. If we paid out more than 180 feet, we were going to be hauling a lot of line by hand. And no matter what, the rode required hand flaking to get it all in the anchor locker. It’s a fairly serious concern.

Bottom Line: We bought the boat at a somewhat reduced price. The owner came down a bit and the broker kicked in a piece.

Lessons learned: I’d make checklist of everything I wanted to check on the boat. The list would contain everything. We missed a couple of items that day and they bit us for about $1200 down the line and these were all defects for which the owner should have been responsible. I’d bring as many knowledgeable sailors on the sea trial as the boat would hold. I’d assign them various aspects of the boat for particular scrutiny.

We had the boat surveyed by a guy that brought a frown to the broker’s face. He had a reputation for being very thorough, very tough. He frightened the broker. Even so, he found no deal-killing issues. If we do this again, I’ll get a separate engine survey, including oil analysis.

Hindsight shows we should have bargained harder on the bent stanchion, but let the broker explain it away. The next time around, we’re not buying any excuses. Even though we know that brokers misrepresent stuff and sometimes just lie, we let our manners get in the way and were too nice. Do not buy “that’s normal operation” if you feel it is not. Do not buy “all boats are that way after a few years,” not true if they are well maintained.

Don’t accept out of hand anything the broker says other than the price. He only wants to sell the boat. He’d like it if you were happy with the deal, but that’s way down his priority list. He wants his commission and that is his immediate focus.

The first guy who sold me a boat was a gentleman, a man of integrity. He, I have come to learn, was a rarity in the business.

Next step: survey – more chances to find defects and deficiencies. Again, don’t let the broker try to explain those away. Someone is going to pay to rectify those issues. Our last broker tried to talk us into having the survey after we bought the boat. I don’t know how that would work as you can’t get insurance without a survey and you can’t get a loan without insurance. It was a stupid request but did give us a read on just how far he was willing to go to avoid a thorough inspection.

Above all, remember that you can get out of the deal until you write the final check and sign the contract. Even though you’ve made a deposit, you are not locked in. YOU ARE NOT LOCKED IN. You will not feel good about backing out, but you’ll feel much worse if you make a bad bargain. And you’re going to live with that bargain for a long and expensive time.

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Actually I never owned one. I did use one – poorly – when I was a midshipman. I could reliably find our continent, might even be able to hit something in California, but I wouldn’t want to trust my best work when it comes to navigating shallow waters, reefs and the like. On the other hand, if you’re going out for an extended period way off shore, you might want to consider some of the bad things that might happen to the GPS satellites while you’re gone.

An article I read recently talked about all the possibilities for GPS disaster, including that the Indians or Pakistanis my take the satellites out to deny each other targeting info. They also cited some more likely issues notably that the signal from the satellite is very weak and prone to physical interference. There’s also some fear that terrorists might jam the signals to disrupt shipping.

Frankly, I’m not nearly as concerned with any of that as I am with the errors you can see everyday. One of the annoying GPS errors is manifested in false anchor alarms. Not that I’d trust any device 100% to keep me off the rocks, but isn’t the device supposed to be accurate enough to tell if I’m dragging anchor?

Well, no.

In fact, I was able to see GPS error quite clearly on my SPOT. I thought I’d turned it off when I put it in my nav bag. I learned that it was on when one of my friends called to ask if I’d run aground, noting that SPOT showed my Jeanneau in my garage.

When I went to the map display two days later, I saw that my garage had made several jumps of 100 yards or more in the course of 48 hours … or the GPS position was occasionally out of whack. And now I know why the anchor alarm goes off randomly.

The article that started this discussion voiced the opinion that we shouldn’t throw our sextants away. Well, mine is as rusty as my skills. I doubt that I’ll clean the one or brush up the other. That is unless I head to open ocean. In the absence of other entertainment, you can find an engaging activity (and for me frustrating) at sunset, sunrise and noon.

In any event, if you’re not in home waters, it makes sense – has always made sense – to keep a DR track going.

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The squid fleet is having a hell of a time keeping their boats afloat. About two weeks ago the Fishing Vessel Lady Francis (thought ladies spelled in Frances) ran aground in Smugglers and Sat. night, the F/V Donz Rig ran aground trying to find her way into the harbor.
 

The Fishing Vessel Donz Rig***** is supported by supplemental buoyancy bags and surrounded by oil booms. At least two Vessel Assist boats, a Coast Guard vessel and a few other boats accompanied the wounded lady back home to Oxnard’s Channel Islands Harbor.
 
I’ve been trying to get the CG to tell us what caused these incidents as there might be a lesson for us all to learn. Think of it – Lady F went aground on Santa Cruz Island on a no-wind night with visibility unrestricted and under a full moon. How’d that happen?

 Donz Rig apparently bounced off the north jetty trying to negotiate the turn into Channel Islands Harbor, began taking water immediately and beached herself on Hollywood Beach.

Actually, I can see how that could happen, particularly to an out-of-towner.
 
It may take an appeal under the Freedom of Information act, but we mariners need to know the multiple causes of these accidents or we’re liable to repeat the actions ourselves.

more when I learn more

and now I’ve leaned more

****Turns out that the boat towed in Sunday was Donz Rig on her way to the shipyard. Sources in the harbor say the crew thought they were entering Ventura Harbor, spun around when they realized their mistake and clipped the north jetty, ending up aground on Hollywood Beach.

There was a small – a couple of gallons – of diesel discharged during the event.

F/V Lady Francis was reportedly towed from Smugglers to a Ventura shipyard for salvage last week. Sources say that was a particularly long ride at a max. speed of 1.8 knots.

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by Dennis – the Bosun – Dreith
 

This past Saturday was one of those days that really makes you realize why you took up sailing. Dan and I were taking a couple from Colorado on a two-day sail to Santa Cruz Isl. The forecast was for clear skies and warm temperatures with light and variable winds, building later in the day.

We departed Channel Islands Harbor in Oxnard with a SW breeze barely strong enough to sail in. This, however, did not deter us from hoisting the sails to avoid any unnecessary destruction of fossil fuel. As the day proceeded, the winds not only built to a solid 15, with gusts of 17 or 18, but they also clocked around to the west enabling us to sail straight into Smuggler’s. The seas were relatively flat aiding a truly great ride with our SOG averaging between 7 and 8 kts for the better part of the afternoon.

While we are pretty used to winds dying off as you get in the lee of the island, this day was somewhat unusual in that as we were trucking along at about 7 kts., we hit the wind line at the lee, and everything just shut down as if someone threw the off switch signaling the end of the ride. As a result, we motored the rest of the way into the anchorage, which we had pretty much to ourselves save a few boats already bedded down in Yellowbanks.

Conditions in the anchorage were absolutely calm and visibility that night was incredible as we had a nearly full moon (actually a waning gibbous for those of you consistently following this blog) and completely clear skies.

OK…by now you are no doubt asking “why are you writing all this about as perfect a sail and conditions at anchor one could hope for?” Well, read on…

As perfect as the sailing and anchoring conditions were, these were also the perfect sleeping conditions with everything calm and just the gentle rocking of the boat. As a result, after a fine meal we all turned in. I was sleeping quite soundly when I woke sometime between 0200 and 0300 to what seemed to be the sound of numerous ships as well as the sight of some rather unusual lights. Bleary-eyed, I made my way topside, and saw what appeared to be quite an assortment of squid boats, a few other fishing vessels, a coast guard vessel (which actually turned out to be the park service boat, all with every light they had turned on (if you have ever seen squid boats at night, you know that they not only produce some significant candle power, but that some even resort to bizarre lighting that almost borders on the psychedelic – for those of you old enough to have survived the 60’s). In addition, there was a powerful search light trained on the cliff south of the olive grove occasionally scouring the adjacent beach. My first thought was that someone may have gone overboard, and I checked to make sure channel 16 was on to see if I could hear what was going on. I must say that with all the chatter we normally hear on channel 16 that ranges from the mundane…”I’ve run out of gas…” “Hey! Does anyone know where I am?” etc. to bona fide May Day calls with lives in the balance (see an excellent blog entry by Dwight Landis on 17 August – two articles down) But this night there was nothing at all on either 16 or 22. Regardless, I watched for a while, and confident that whatever was going on, there was nothing that I do except get in the way, went back to sleep. Waking early the next morning, I mentioned the commotion I witnessed during the night to Dan. He and I went topside to see what might be up.

As we did, we saw a CG Search and Rescue helicopter approaching and after a brief glance at the shore, spotted the object of the night’s commotion—the FV Lady Francis had run a ground and was getting quite a pounding on the rocks. We certainly hope the skipper escaped unharmed, and at this time have no idea of the cause of the grounding in such benign conditions. The lesson that it should teach us, however, is that the unusual can (and often will) happen when you least expect it.

The rest of the day, we reflected on the hapless skipper and his plight and continued to wonder how he wound up where he did. I suppose that this made us a little more attuned to what was going on around us, which leads to my next two topics.

After sailing an hour or so, there was one of those Securite – messages that we all half pay attention to. This one in particular gave the hot area for a live-fire (real bullets) exercise. Of course we all know that those are rarely anywhere near our sailing area (or are they??). After hearing the message 2 or 3 times, Dan asked me what the coordinates were. I automatically repeated what I had heard, and as I did, I realized that they just didn’t sound right. Dan hailed the CG, and after several attempts to have them repeat the coordinates of the hot area, they answered and asked us to switch to channel 22, which we did. However, no one ever came on 22. We hailed them again, and after a couple more attempts got the Los Angeles Sector to give us the coordinates one more time (which we repeated back to them). A quick plotting of the coordinates revealed that the location they gave was in fact about 50 miles inland in a suburban area. We were quite sure that was not the hot area, and called the CG back. We suggested that they check their coordinates mentioning what we noticed. About 10 minutes or so later, there was another Securite – this time with coordinates that placed the hot area just inside the missile range (a much more believable location). So why am I relating this mildly amusing story. Well, it got me thinking about Dwight’s blog entry (mentioned before). In it, Dwight gives some very good advice about clearly giving your position in an emergency. Among other things, he suggested the manner in which to hail the CG and how to state your position “Coast Guard Sector Channel Islands (or Los Angeles, San Diego, …) this is sailing vessel _________, my current position is 119 37decimal123, 34 36decimal456…” Given the possibility as demonstrated above of someone getting the coordinates wrong, I would suggest that in addition to your coordinates, that you also state your location (e.g. “I am approximately 4 mi south west of Santa Cruz Isl” or where ever you might be). In an emergency, the more information about where you are the easier it will for anyone in the area to provide help, and might help catch an erroneous set of coordinates.

Feeling good about having performed our civic duty, we returned to our sightseeing and cruised along the coast of Anacapa before heading across the Shipping Lane as we have done countless times. This time, however, there were approximately 40 fishing boats in the Separation Zone, all involved in different maneuvers on different courses and at different speeds. Getting through the Separation Zone took somewhere close to an hour (think rush hour on the 405 Freeway!), and kept Dan and me both busy just keeping track of who was going where and who was the stand on vessel. It was really quite a sight, and something that neither of us had seen before.

At the end of the day, what I learned from all of these stories is that even on the calmest of days, and doing seemingly mundane tasks that we have performed time and time again, stay alert and expect the unexpected.

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Boat Owners:

If you think the tax on your boat is too high, the Ventura County Assessor just might agree.

If you’ve looked at any brokerage page on the net, you know that your boat isn’t going to sell for anything near the amount you paid. Yet you keep getting tax bills based on that amount.
 

 
If your boat is in Channel Islands Harbor or Ventura Harbor, call the Ventura County Assessor and ask for an assessment appeal form, fill it out and send before the end of November. Don’t bother trying their website. That is an electronic disaster area. Call (805) 654-2181 and request the form.

BTW – the form covers the 2009-2010 tax year and does not affect this year’s taxes.

BTW -2- I intend to file every year for each of my boats. It’s marked on my calendar annually on 1 Oct.

The process takes a long time – about a year, so it looks like I’ll be “in process” all the time if I file a yearly appeal. Even if the economy largely recovers, the value of the boats will likely continue to decline. A sad state of affairs, but a boat fact of life. Don’t let it be more expensive than the law requires.

If you own a boat in California but outside Ventura County, call your county assessor. The process will be similar.

capt. dan

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