The delivery: Santa Cruz to San Pedro (Los Angeles)
Crazy weekend! What a trip! Short timeline:
Friday
5:15PM: Leave work
5:30PM: Prepare bag & food
6:30PM: Olivier and Fred pick me up
7:00PM: At Bertrand’s and pick him up + Sebastien
8:30PM: Arrive in Santa Cruz, get the boat ready, get pizzas, eat dinner
10:15PM: Depart Santa Cruz at night
10:45PM: Hoist main
11:30PM: Start of my first shift
Sunday:
10:00PM: Arrive tired in San Pedro Marina after 360 nautical miles and lots of adventures (see below). Pack stuff, clean boat and get an Uber
11:15PM: Arrive at Budget at LAX
11:30PM: Leave LAX in car rental
Monday:
5:15AM: Arrive home
5:30AM: Go to bed at last!
A wonderful weekend! With Bertrand, Sebastien R., Fred, and Olivier.
The team monitored the weather all week. All week, we saw areas with 30 knots of predicted wind on our course, nearly 40 knots of gusts, and very rough seas with high waves. We were supposed to leave on Thursday night. On Thursday afternoon, however, seeing that conditions weren’t good, we took the decision to postpone departure to Friday night because predicted winds and seas were a bit more favorable then. This means I would miss my son’s and students’ graduation, which is a shame. I hope they will forgive me. Safety comes first though. Also, we did not want to break Ruby right before the big voyage.
We reached LA after two long tacks, see the attached route. The first 36 hours were intense with sustained winds in the 24-25 and later in the 30-32 knot range, and short waves of about 10 feet (3 meters). It was nonetheless great sailing -- mostly on a broad reach all along, often surfing the waves. It is challenging to keep the direction steady at night because you see little and the crossed seas make you swing. It helps when you see the stars but sometimes, they’re behind clouds so you must rely on the sea surface and the compass, which is not easy. At least for me: I could see that other crew members could keep a better angle than I could. But it is much fun. Ruby behaved very well in the waves and came down roaring down through lots of them.
We organized shifts as follows: there were five of us and every hour a crew member would come on deck for a two-hour shift. Every hour a crew member would leave his shift. This makes rest periods of about 3 hours.
Seas were rough and we did not eat very much the first 24 hours. We -- at least I -- also slept very little because Ruby was rocking left and right, fore, and aft. But we moved fast, with an average speed of about 9 knots, and Seb hitting 13.5 during the second night!
On Sunday, as we were approaching the Channel Islands from the inside, the wind finally died down, and we could rest a bit. Then a miracle! Ruby was accompanied with dozens and dozens of dolphins speeding their way and dancing around her. I tried posting a video below so please check it out. We put out our gear to dry, enjoyed the sun, repaired the reef line. And Seb and Olivier even managed to bake bread! Yum! I cooked fresh pasta with homemade sauce.
We turned on the engine so that we would not arrive in LA too late. With a combination of motor and sail, we moved along the Ventura and Malibu coast I know so well and arrived in Long Beach after dark. What a contrast between the largest US port on the Pacific Coast and the Channel Islands + dolphins. Long Beach harbor is like a giant Christmas decoration blasting light from every direction, and offering a forest of cranes, bulk terminals, storage facilities, loading and unloading equipment, chemical plants, ducts connecting them, etc. Bertrand expertly managed to bring us to our destination, and we docked Ruby after 48 hours at sea. In the slips nearby, we spotted competitors for the Transpac, e.g. Picasa, a J-111.
We said bye-bye to Ruby and then LAX, Budget, the 405, the US 5 and our beds at the end of it all. Because of the late/early hours, we avoided the insane LA traffic and the Bay Area rush hour. Not a bad timing after all!
It was a glorious delivery. We endured a bit, but we feel we are even better prepared now. We are more seasoned, and the crew works great and lives well together. Our skipper is on top of things. And most of all, Ruby was impeccable throughout. She gives us so much confidence.
Next is the big passage!
