It's For Sail: 73) Delivery: day 13

Subject: 3 July AM Update
Sent: May 3, 2011 6:22 AM

Our position at 0733 HST (UTC-9 zone time for George ;-)) our position is 33.9N 131.4W. Unfortunately a gale has come up over night 30+ knot winds and 10-12 foot seas. We're taking the waves well, but it impossible to stay on our course to Long Beach. It looks like this will blow out in 24 hours. Seas are down since dawn. We may have to go in somewhere south of Long Beach and the motor/sail back in the area sheltered by Point Conception. We are able to do 090M and the bearing to Long Beach is 079M. 657 nm out.

Everyone on the boat is doing fine.

Bill

Subject: PM Update
Sent: May 3, 2011 3:20 PM

Hoping this morning's gale will blow out soon. Looks good for it abating tomorrow. Out position is 33.6N 130.5W. Hoping to be in Long Beach on the 6th. Everyone is good and the boat is doing well. Reaching under double-reefed main and no jib to keep the speed down in the big swells and waves. Headed east toward Long Beach.

Bill

Cold sailing (YouTube link-no sound-Dave at the helm).

In the first several days out of Hawaii we all casually helmed the boat either standing or sitting as there was really not much to do to keep the boat going in the desired direction. The wind and waves were so favorable that we became very relaxed and enjoyed the ride.

But, going into the first gale when the conditions became much more difficult to navigate, specific driving styles emerged. Clive and I learned early on in our sailing careers to steer the boat through the waves to eliminate or reduce pounding. Really, we were taught that you can not pound the boat. If you do, you get pulled from the wheel. The two of us were regularly turning the wheel as we worked out way through the waves. Even though we took the proactive approach to steer through the waves the boat would still fall off waves and pound.

Hulls with a deep-V shape at the bow (fishing boats) will do much better in these rough conditions and a boat with a flatter entry such as this boat (the forward part of the hull) have a tendency to hit the water hard after falling off a wave. One trade-off of hull design comes right down to accommodating these exact conditions. There is a hull design element known as rocker which describes the fore and aft curvature of the hull below the waterline. A typical heavy boat with excessive rocker can be prone to hobby-horsing. A boat with a flat rocker is not likely to hobby-horse but is likely to slam whereas heavy boats seldom slam. Light boats can slam hard going into the wind with any waves or chop. And, light boats with minimal rocker tend to be faster boats and that increases the tendency to slam or pound. Chasch Mer is a light boat with minimal rocker and a flat entry. She was designed for the downhill run from California to Hawaii going with the wind and waves coming from aft of the beam.

A glaring defect in Bill's driving technique emerged during these difficult, rough conditions. He favored sitting directly behind the wheel with occasionally making slight turns. Effectively, he did not take evasive action to reduce pounding and just let it happen. There were times the boat would slam 5-6 times in rapid succession. I even got to the point of counting how many times it hit and it worked out to a bare minimum of 1-2 times a minute. In simple terms, these weather systems can take anywhere from 24-48 hours to dissipate and the number of times the boat could potentially slam in that period was astonishing. There are only so many times you can allow a boat to hit the water that hard before something breaks or the rig comes down from shock-loading.

When the initial pounding started I got on everybody to drive aggressively and to try and avoid it or stop it. I literally said that if it pounds you must turn the wheel and break the cycle. It was so bad that the primary conversation on-board between all was about not breaking the boat. Without a doubt Bill's driving technique of doing nothing to avoid or reduce the impact played a major role in any damage that may have occurred. Things like cracks in the structural sub-frame of the hull are difficult to find until it is too late. As a regular part of my routine I inspected the hull to deck seam while I was down below anytime I could see the seam. I would also yell from below to whoever was at the helm to stop pounding. After that everyone yelled to whoever was driving to stop the pounding. It was a very serious situation and everybody got it (at least that's what I thought). On a side note, this pounding makes it nearly impossible to sleep below. As well as, your teeth literally chatter when your head bounces while walking below when the boat suddenly hits the water.

I became internally furious with Bill's technique and let him know in polite terms that he had to stop what he was doing. Since he was the skipper/captain he got to do what he wanted as he was in charge. I had an intimate history with this vessel and it broke my heart that this guy came along and in all aspects did not care. His actions proved he did not care. There is also the possibility that he had no skill driving sailboats in these conditions. At the least, he could have admitted that and tried to learn. I will give credit to Mark in that he at first adopted the do nothing driving technique but over time he became a very aggressive driver as he saw that was the only way to handle the waves.

Shift change (YouTube link-no sound-Dave handing the wheel to Mark).

Going into last night we saw the wind and waves increase dramatically. We were once again falling off waves and pounding the boat. But, this time was different. When the sun came up we were able to see the waves and the conditions with much more clarity. The air temperature was colder and the waves were bigger. By this time we all had on full foul weather gear and tethered while on deck. In the clip above you can see it was standard procedure that the next driver to take the helm clipped on and stepped in from the rear. I wanted to make sure no one left the wheel unattended.

The strong wind increased the boat speed and that pretty much made all of us happy but the trade-off was still there. It's not always possible to capture the essence of the conditions if the camera is not on and in reality we had priorities.

The exact dates and moments of the later days of this passage evade me as there just really was no time to keep a journal whether due to fatigue or the general life on board. I think it was going into the evening that the conditions had worsened and it became extremely difficult to drive. Meaning, we would regularly fall off waves and pound and in extreme large waves get knocked. There were too many times when the boat could not get enough speed to climb over the wave and would just not make it and then slide down the face of the wave going sideways. While down below in the cabin this sounded like we were pushing gravel while heeling over. This was a terrifying feeling. If we were going to roll these were the conditions that would allow it.

There were many times that a wave would hit the side of the boat and hit so hard that the aft section would move sideways. This movement let you know how vulnerable the boat was. It was very important to always have a strong foothold and hang on to the wheel.

As one evening approached Mark, Clive and I discussed reefing and reducing the head-sail while sitting in the cockpit. Bill was not in the conversation because since he mentally checked out during the accidental gybe he was not looked to for authority. It was obvious that he was in way over his head and could not skipper effectively. He was the one that admitted that whatever he says about the weather we should just expect the opposite. He would regularly get weather updates and then relay that information to us. But, no matter what he said, such as the wind speed, wave height or how many hours it would last, he was way off the mark leaning toward the bad side. The wind speeds were dramatically higher then what he said and the gale did not blow out until we were inside the Channel Islands several days later.

I reviewed the weather updates by reading the text and while having coastal knowledge I knew what it meant. I talked with Bill about listening to the VHF weather since it started coming in over the radio and he admitted that he did not know where the locations were that they mentioned so he did not pay attention or use that info. I then started logging the weather from the radio. I was able to pinpoint what was going on and what the future forecasts were. I immediately told the crew that the wind and waves would not settle down and in fact we would be in these conditions all the way to the coast. I told them the truth.

Every time I came on watch I also told them that at least there was an end in sight and it was Long Beach. I always told them our speeds and ETA and any other info I could relate to what we were currently involved in. Bill was useless.

Bill's demeanor and general apathetic behavior caused the three of us to gather together and figure out what to do. They listened to me as I had the most experience with this boat and these conditions. I expressed that they had to drive very aggressively to get over the waves or turn early enough to surf down them.

The wind and wave angles caused us to go with the flow. I constantly checked the navigation status and if we ran (going downhill with the wind and the waves coming from the aft quarter) we would end up midway down the Baja peninsula. If we tried to head more in to the wind we would end up near San Francisco. I preferred to stay away from SF as that would cause us to run down the coast in big waves and I've done that and it is extremely difficult and dangerous. But, if we run we will be doing that same thing while heading to mid-Baja. And, the boat speeds would increase dramatically as we would then be surfing. At this time it was safer to keep the boat on its current path and not go through the learning period of how to drive a high-performance sled in extreme surfing conditions.

Bill, on the other hand was freaked out about where we were going to end up due to the conditions because he had a flight to catch.

I was trying to save the boat and crew and that influenced my decisions and he was trying to make a flight. It all adds up. Well, he came up to the cockpit in the evening well after the time to reef and we all said we wanted to reef. He argued and said no. We pushed him harder and he uttered something in anger and went below. After dark he realized we had to reef to keep the boat under control.

Anyway, Bill did not want to reef but finally agreed to go forward to change the head-sail to a #4 storm sail. It all happens so fast sometimes and you just can't register what you are seeing at the moment but Bill staggered forward on this violently pitching boat approaching dark with waves breaking on the bow and no life-vest or tether.

We watched him go forward not holding on to the boat and unsteadily weaving back and forth. We all yelled to him to hang on. He then got to the bow and fell backwards while standing and landed with his ass on the upper starboard lifeline. He literally was saved from falling over. The three of us were in the cockpit ready to handle the lines and after seeing him in action and all of us yelling at him to get a vest and/or hang on I scrambled forward to help. I have extensive fore-deck experience and knew that I did not want to be there. It was bad.

I managed to gather the lowered sail amidst the breaking waves and noise and chaos and got it down the hatch in the bow. Bill managed to secure the #4 and got back to the cockpit where we all tore in to him about his lack of PFD. During his solo time on the bow the three of us discussed that he was putting all of us in jeopardy by his actions and that if someone was going over by accident it would be him. We all mentally prepared ourselves for dealing with a crew-member that was either mentally incapacitated or worse.

I later learned from Clive and Mark that Bill had stopped eating several days before and/or had a very irregular diet. Mark and Clive stressed to Bill about the importance of eating and in a sense had to tell him to eat. We all also noticed that immediately after the accidental gybe Bill was constantly sleeping. When he was not on watch he would have very minimal interaction with the crew and would also be hidden in bed. The skipper is looked to for answers and guidance and he is supposed to be in charge. It did seem that he was hiding from the situation.

The way that Bill 'checked out' was obvious and devastating. It left the three of us to confer and discuss what to do and how to do it. I always gave my opinion about what the boat was capable of doing and what the best plan of action was. I knew that we needed to keep the boat speed up to keep rudder authority to maintain control.

Mark at helm (YouTube link-no sound).

Clive (YouTube link-no sound).

Bill at the helm (YouTube link-no sound).

Early afternoon-Bill at the helm (YouTube link-no sound).

Late afternoon-Dave at the helm (YouTube link-no sound).

Just another day (YouTube link)

Sailors generally know something about wind and ocean swells but not so much about breaking waves. Waves generally break in water depths about 1.3 times their height. In other words, a 6-ft wave will break in 8 feet of water, a 10-ft wave in 13 feet of water, a 20-ft
wave in 26 feet of water.

Bathemetry makes a dramatic difference in both the depth of water a wave breaks and how it breaks. Longtime ocean sailor Al Hiller explains in what he calls ‘Oceanography 101’ that “Long period waves react with the bottom, slow down, and start to stand up in water depths of 10 times their vertical height. Thus a 10-ft swell starts to stand up and become cycloidal surf as it hits 100 feet of water. By the time it hits 24 feet of water, larger waves have already turned into huge, breaking surf. When the water depths become shallow gradually, waves tend to crumble. When the water depths become shallow very quickly, waves
tend to break in barrels.”

Sets are waves, or more frequently small groups of waves, that are significantly higher
than the average wave height at the time. But as any surfer can tell you, set waves vary dramatically in how much bigger they are than normal waves, depending on the number of waves there are in a set, the time between sets, and also on the state of the tide and current.

What does it mean when the Coast Guard or weather service reports 15-ft waves? It means that 15 feet is the average of the highest one-third of the waves. If 15-ft waves are being reported, is it possible that there could be a 25- or 30-ft wave? Yes. In an article he wrote on waves, wave spectra and wave sets, Steve Lyons, tropical weather expert for the Weather Channel, wrote, “A general rule is that the highest single wave in a large
sample will be about twice the height of the significant wave height reported by a weather buoy.”

We are fairly confident that we were looking at 15'+ waves. Some of the bigger waves would break and that really got our attention when we could see them in the daylight. The primary danger in this situation is that a breaking wave half the length of the boat, in this case a 25' breaking wave, that strikes the cabin broadside has the power to roll the vessel. We did in fact see waves in excess of 20' and most likely they were bigger but it is really difficult to accurately estimate their size. One way to measure them was to compare the wave height with the mast. Sometimes we would be in a trough and the top of the wave was well above our heads as we stood at the wheel and that head height was about 9' from the water. Some of those waves were at or above spreader height.

In the Earth shot below if you start at the furthest right end of the yellow track the we made a left turn to the east. But, prior to that we were heading southeast and that is where we were forced to go with the wind and waves and calculated a mid-Baja target.