Delivery
We bought Spice in October of 2020. For a number of reasons, not the least of was Los Angeles moorage rates, we needed to get Spice home quickly. It turns out, despite being a bit cold, November isn’t a bad time to move north along the west coast. November is known for occasional westerly or south westerly breezes that push the boat from abeam or astern. November is also known for sending big low pressure systems with high winds and waves. If we timed everything well and the wind and waves cooperated, we could make the ~1,200 journey in just 6 days.
Four salty sailors signed up for the delivery. We had Pete and Gavin, two official captains. Sam, my long time partner in sail boat racing, also planned to join. Sam had time constraints that meant we needed to find an early November weather window. And there was me, Nate. I was the least experience in off shore sailing out of the bunch. I had only done one overnight race around Swiftsure shoals, just barely qualifying as offshore.
The plan was straight forward. Watch the weather windows to find a lull in the normally cantankerous Alaska-sourced low pressure systems. Buy one-way plan tickets to Los Angeles arriving at least one day before departure. Prepare the boat and provision 2 weeks of supplies for the trip. Then, sail along the coast bouncing into harbors as needed to avoid weather, drop off crew or make repairs.
The early November weather windows didn’t appear. The first couple weeks had nasty winds and waves. Without an early November departure, we were unlikely to get Sam back to Seattle in time. We could drop Sam off along the way if needed, but that added a lot of complexity to the journey and wasn’t guaranteed to get him back in time. We made the sad decision to drop Sam from the roster. A weather window eventually appeared offering light wind to 15 kts of westerly. The weather router software estimated a time of ~6.5 days in total, perfect! We bought our tickets for arrival in Los Angeles on Saturday with plans for a Sunday or Monday cast off. I started preparing a meal plan with food and equipment provisioning lists. But the day before our departure, the weather window changed. We needed to cast off the same day we arrived in Los Angeles, ideally before 6:00 pm. Waiting much longer and we were sure to encounter heavy head winds at Mendocino point, a place known for nasty wave action. So now we had to do all of our preparations with only about 3 hours of working time! I quickly built a detailed itinerary down the minute, and I decided pre-order groceries with plans to pick them up on the way from the airport to the boat. Just as I was ready to place my Whole Food pickup order, Sam called. His time constraint was cancelled due to Covid-19. Sam was able to get a ticket on the same flight and I updated my shopping cart. We were back to a full crew.
The next day, the crew assembled at the gate for our flight. Pete made his introductions, being new to the other two. We boarded the flight and buckled up. Only then I realized I didn’t have my newly acquired iPad with our navigation and weather routing software. I had left it at the security check point. I gave my sob story to our stewardess. She seemed excited to have a real mission. We made contact with another individual in the airport and traded texts to coordinate the whole effort. The iPad was secured, but not in time to make our flight. It was placed on the next flight, but this added another wrinkle. Our timeline was already desperately squeezed. We decide that Sam would stay behind to wait for the iPad. Pete, Gavin and I would rent the SUV, get to the boat, and start the prep work and provisioning. Sam would taxi down the marina after getting the iPad.
Difficult as it is to admit, I was very happy to have the minutely itinerary. We had ~15 minutes of buffer time in the plan. We had to get a rental SUV from the airport, then grab the groceries on the way to the marina. Then we’d split into two teams. Gavin and Pete would stay at the marina to dive the boat, check the props and remove about 100lbs of crap, including a foam owl and coyote which were used to keep birds away. Also on the chopping block were a number of garden hose reels glued at various places on the cabin top, which were apparently used to wind up the tails of halyards and reefing lines. These clever innovations were considered in conflict with sailing in proper seaman-like fashion. They were dispatched with prejudice. Meanwhile, my job was to load up the propane tanks from the boat, get them filled and make a WestMarine run to secure flares, emergency repair epoxy, sunglasses and cartridges for our inflatable offshore harnesses. Finding a place to fill propane in Los Angeles proved a little tricky, the hardware stores only did swaps, and I wasn’t keen to swap our fancy fiber glass over wrapped tanks for steel tanks that would rust out in mere days. Local knowledge, acquired at WestMarine, sent me deeper into the industrial areas of Long Beach to a man in dirt parking lot under a pop-up awning surrounded by large rusty propane tanks. After the fill, it was back to the boat to drop off the gear and tanks. Then it was time to return the SUV to a near-by drop off. I was back at the boat by 4:30 pm. Sam was there. Everything was put away. We were just about ready to go. Last steps included swapping out the depth sounder, configuring and testing VHF and satellite communications. Check, check and check, it was time to go!
Pete used the opportunity to teach me about maneuvering a 51’ catamaran in a Marina. I think he was more nervous than I was (probably because I didn’t know any better), the twin engines make it easy to spin around. We were off and headed to the fuel dock. Then it was my first opportunity to dock the boat. I was chided for attempting to come in bow first. We docked, we filled, and we set out of Los Angels Harbor. We were finally away just before 6:00 pm, on schedule and in time to see an amazing sunset. Briefly an argument ensued as to which way we should turn. Sam argued that taking a left turn to the south would make for a much more pleasant sail. Turning right and sailing north was sure to be unpleasant cold and would probably mean having to go back to work. I turned right, and I’m not sure Sam will ever forgive me.
We split into two watches, Pete and I paired up to form what would become the serious shift, splicing and cleaning the boat, testing out various systems and running weather routing. Sam and Gavin paired up and throughly enjoyed themselves with music, and talking and snacky treats through the night. They fished and had more fun during the day. This difference in approach setup a friendly rivalry between crews. The shifts were 3 hours on 3 hours off through the night and 6 hours on and 6 hours off during the day. The 6 pm change included crew dinner. The first night watch set the stage for the typical monotony of delivery. Very early Sunday morning, not long after midnight, my relaxed montany was disrupted. I was scared out of my mind by what must have been a rouge torpedo coming from behind aimed directly at our midships. On a second look, this wasn’t a conventional torpedo, it was glowing silver, must be the photon torpedo variety. No, it was a pair of dolphins moving very quickly in the water.
The next morning, it was still warm, still Southern California. The fun crew decided it was time to get out the fishing rods. After of couple of hours and almost catching a seagull, then almost catching a sea lion, they decided to haul in the lines. It is difficult to remember day to day, they all started blurring into one. We were motoring quite a bit to keep up speed and get us north of Mendocino before the wind turned north and started whipping up uncomfortable seas. Despite a lot of motoring, we managed to get some good sailing in. We had opportunity to use the Code-0. One night time shift change found the fun crew sailing over 12 kts with a fully main and a Code-0. It was kinda fun, but were sailing beyond the limits of the Code-0. So the serious crew rolled up the fun sail and put in a reef. A day later, we had the wind to set a Spinnaker, but not long after the kite was in the water. The head had sheared clear off.
We just caught the start of the low pressure system fixing to mess up Mendocino. We had about day of wind on the nose, making for a bit of uncomfortable sailing. Sam had the bow berth and told us he was spending about half of his sleep time in the air due to the wave action. But we made it around without too much strife. We had burned a good bit of fuel and wanted a top off for the next part of our journey. We planned to pull into Eureka for a fill-up, and had to contend with a bar. Our timing was tight, but ideal. We filled up and headed back out. Pete took the helm, as the waves were stacking up. We approach head on for a 10 foot wave that wasn’t quite breaking, hands on the throttles our bows poked into the sky. We flowed over the top and we were on our way again. Another 15 to 30 minutes of tide change and that wave would surely have been a big breaker.
Just past the Columbia River, we saw breaching whales. The next evening, we were turning into Puget sound. And by morning we were dodging logs just north of Port Angeles. I wasn’t particularly good at dodging logs and probably hit three or four in the process. I would get one hull lined up and clear only to hear a big thunk from the other. We rounded Port Townsend soon after, and my friend Steve capture a home coming video of Spice turning the corner. For the last crew dinner, we enjoyed a pasta carbanara. Our timing to the marina was near perfect, Bremerton marina can’t be safely navigated in Spice except for a 15 min window during slack tide. We showed up in time, moved through the Marina and parallel parked into Spice’s tight, but just large enough slip.
Sam and Pete quickly departed for the Ferry with a quick farewell. Gavin and I enjoyed a much earned rum while we waited for Sarah and Lillie to pick us up. My first real offshore adventure was just eventful enough to be interesting and educational. I am thoroughly looking forward to more adventures on Spice.