DECEMBER 26, 2023 THE DAY AFTER CHRISTMAS

 

 

DECEMBER 26, 2023

 THE DAY AFTER CHRISTMAS

Christmas is a big holiday, so I knew it was sketchy to offer a race on the day after.  Missing the sail last week due to rain, my crew was eager to get back out on the water.  I had crew so I put the offer out for a race.  Several factors had to be dealt with: there was a potential swell building through the afternoon and with the swell there was excessive current at play in the harbor.

As we left the harbor at about 1:30, even though the weather was fine, there was only one  other sailboat out on the bay in the, once again, very light wind.  We saw tempting wind lines out on the horizon as we bobbed along in the less the 3-knot wind. Suddenly, at about 2:30 the bay was filled with an 8-10 knot breeze, and we were sailing!   On the whole bay there was no more than 5  boats including the fishing boats!  With such little traffic and all of the racing marks removed, the crew was taking turns at the helm learning how to use the tell-tales.  When I am not on the helm, I normally scan for obstacles  to avoid but with no traffic I was lulled into complacency.  As the crew shared turns on the helm, a new person took the helm and immediately noticed that we were aiming straight for SC3 little more than a  boat length away, the ONLY obstacle in the bay.  Lesson learned: always watch for obstacles even with no traffic.

At about 2:30, one other boat came out for the fun: Kicks.  With only two boats, we just enjoyed the sail with no race.  There were still lessons to be learned and conditions to deal with.  The swell was building and the tide was dropping delivering more energy to the harbor entrance.  This made the approach to the harbor and motoring in the harbor trickier. 

Both Kicks and PAD approached the entrance close to each other.  With the swell and the power increasing, I turned out to avoid entering right on the stern of Kicks.  In breaking surf at the harbor entrance, you do not want to be right on the stern of another boat.  A breaking wave could drive you into the stern of the boat ahead.  On both leaving and entering the harbor, it is good to have a surfer on board.  Surfers are accustomed to scanning the horizon for a lump of water (a big set) on the horizon to ride.  Surfers can use this talent to scan the horizon for lumps on the horizon to AVOID.  In any case, whether you can avoid the set waves or not, it is critical to take the wave with the boat absolutely perpendicular to the face of the wave, doing this with a clear path into the harbor.   If you are not absolutely perpendicular to the face of the wave, your boat will roll violently to the side, possibly dumping crew in the water.

As you are motoring through the harbor dealing with the surge created by the surf, there is no problem when you are in the main channel since water is surging up and down the harbor.  Problems can occur when you enter the fairway approaching your slip.  The old adage about docking: “SLOW IS PRO” does not apply in these conditions.  The most dangerous position to be in with strong winds or heavy surge is to be motionless in the water.  You must have speed to have control of your boat.  Speed, but not enough speed that you cannot stop the boat in the slip with the engine in reverse.

I know all of these points are well known by seasoned  sailors in Santa Cruz, but thought it would be good to review them again for the new to Santa Cruz sailors  that are sailing with us.

As usual, it is the skippers responsibility to ascertain the conditions and to decide whether the skipper and crew can deal appropriately with what is happening.  The swell predictions are for big swells to continue through next Tuesday.  If we cancel next Tuesday’s sail, I will post an email on  Tuesday morning.

Have a great New Year!

Barry Keeler

Sailing Pair A Dice