Monday Morning – drakes bay

The sun has just climbed up over San Francisco, which is easily visible from here, as is the sillouette of hills to the south; visibility is tremendous, no clouds or marine layer this morning. I got a bunch of pictures of the sunrise, hopefully some of them will come out ok.

The breeze is down to 20 knots, it was a lot windier yesterday and into last night with winds through the anchorage at 30-38 knots topping out at 47 – made for a pretty bumpy ride at anchor even with the short fetch. Two fish boats were in the anchorage last night, it must have been too windy for them to want to work the crab pots in the area.

Spent most of yesterday feeling rather smart to not have inflate the dinghy – it would have been too choppy in the bay to have an enjoyable dinghy ride, and with the water temp at 50 degrees it would be really chilling to get wet in the dinghy. The weather forecast was for temperatures to drop into the high 30′s last night, and tonight forecast is calling for high 20′s up this way – we should be back in Alameda tonight and hopefully not have too cold of a day for the sail back to the Gate. As it is we ran the diesel heater all of yesterday, not shutting it off until after watching The DaVinci Code on board. The movie was punctuated with moments when the wind generator would overspeed and the blades then automatically twist and let out an amazing high pitch racket as they shed speed – the screeching sound makes the cat look up abruptly wondering what the heck is going on out there.

Boat is semi-organized, camera gear is put away (Nikon D90 is up in the cockpit with the long lens, i’ve been trying to get pictures of the birds this morning). Looks to be another good day, wind is forecast to fade away this afternoon as another weather system sets up to the west, we’re expecting a front Wednesday that should bring rain to the area.

And now its back up to the cockpit to continue with Zane Grey’s Riders of the Purple Sage (or words to that effect).

Good morning!

- rob

Drakes Bay – Sunday morning

Good morning from Drakes Bay, it’s the long holiday weekend away from the lab, and the weather pattern we’ve been having in San Frnacisco (hot, dry, sunny) is forecast to continue through today – so yesterday Kristen and I popped up north from Alameda to bring the crab pot and check in on the elephant seal (e-seal for those familiar with SEFI biologists) colony is doing; there are lots of them up on the beach and the point reyes group is monitoring them.

We got a way from the dock a couple of of hours later than planned, so missed the ebb; the flood wasn’t particularly much and we tooled on up the coast in flattish water and 1-7 knots of wind from the east, nowhere, and the west. the breeze was mostly from the east, which made it a downhill motor and between the sun and the non-existent apparent wind it was quite warm (fun for mid-January!).

Drakes Bay was declared part of a marine sanctuary a couple of years back, so no more fishing from the boat at anchor, nor can you drop a crab pot west of a specific line (approximately chimney rock to the estero). Once at the line we found loads of other crab pots (looks like two or three commercial boats are making Drakes Bay there base), rigged up ours and set it in an area somewhat clear of the commercial pots. Then on into the anchorage.

Lots of e-seals on the beach busy gargling and honking and blurping at each other. I played with the 816T microphone connected to the 702 recorder and got a fine 10 minute recording of them from a half mile off (sound carries well over the water). It was fun to play them back downbelow through Beetle’s stereo.

Last night there were two fish boats in the anchorage with us, and this morning we’re the only boat here. Not surprising, reajlly, as it’s forecast to get quite cold tonight (plus wind), with the wind backing off tomorrow. Later on this morning we’re going to run over to pull the pot and see how we did, reset pot for retrieval Monday morning, and elsewise have a pleasant day on the bay. It’s a bit cold to want to assemble the dinghy, so likely give that a miss and just hang out here.

And I’ve been experimenting with using the camera on the tripod set on the foredeck, and that’s worked ok – cuts down a lot on the bounciness of the camera and makes the image a bit more usable.

Upshot – looks to be cold, somewhat gray morning, and getting colder and windier tonight. But it sure is more fun than being back in Alameda!

Beetle, out.

Dungeness crabs in Drakes Bay

We’re up at Drakes Bay, having arrived (under power) yesterday late afternoon in 0-4 knots of wind from the South. It was super foggy at times, and at other times bright sunny. When we actually got into the bay it was extra thick fog, and we found the big steel USCG mooring ball via radar. Then we motored out for 6 minutes into the bay to get away from the protected animal area (which includes the anchorage), and proceeded to set our crab pot.

The crab pot is a flex-o=fold fullsize pot that folds down into a tiny flat disk about 18″ diameter and 4″ thick, undone it’s a giant crab pot! – very cool. Into the pot went the bait bottle stuffed with a store-bought turkey neck (on sale Thursday afternoon), the dinghy grapple anchor and 3′ of chain tied to the lower pot ring served as the weight, and down it went. I do have 150′ of leaded crabtrap line that is normally used for the anchor ball, and that was used for the float – which says ‘TIGER BEETLE ANCHOR’ on it.

Then we weant back to the mooring ball and anchored via radar half way been the shore and the ball – keeps the boat out of the 10-12 foot swell rolling by just outisde the point (and good crashing breakers on the table rock just outside Chimney Rock).

A bit later a fog horn went ‘beep!’, and out of the fog appeared Dave on Temerity, a friend from Grand Marina. Unexpectedly (to me) he had decided to also go up to Drakes Bay and enjoy the weekend. He rafted up for a bit, then moved a bit sideways and anchored for the night.

And now it’s morning, visibility is fantastic, all the way to San Francisco, even Half Moon Bay hills are visible. Two groups of elephant seals are gargling at each other from their respective beaches, and we went over to find the crab trab. Conveniently we had written down the GPS coordinates, and headed out into the bay (zero wind) in the dingy, Kristen directing by observing the handheld GPS. And there was the pot.

Up it came, loaded to the gills with male Dungeness Crab, 11 in total, all way above minimum shell size. We put back the smallest one, leaving us with 10 – the daily bag limit in these parts. And now they are stacked into the cockpit cooler loaded with salt water (I change out the water every so often) and Kristen is busily preparing the hot water for cooking crabs – she loves to eat them, I enjoy catching them but am not much for eating the crabs.

So it’s a super Saturday in these parts, the day has stayed sunny, got the video camera out for bit, and take some more pictures later on.

Out for now!

- rob

Replacement refrigeration in

The Adler Barbour CU-200 Supercold Machine’s evaporator plate finally died (lost the ability to hold a refrigerant charge), so the new unit is now installed.

IYC Jack and Jill + 1 race

Kristen entered the three-handed Jack and Jill + 1 race (Kristen drove, Erica was crew, I did the foredeck) in the estuary. Good sailing, and we got the half-ounce spinnaker going.

Half Moon Bay with Billy

Trip down the coast to Half Moon Bay with Kristen’s brother Billy joining us from the East Coast. Whales, perfect weather and sun, spinnaker run to the harbor, good food at the yacht club’s halloween party, and a more typical sail back in pea soup fog on Sunday.

SSS Vallejo 1-2 Race

A great time on the SSS Vallejo 1-2 race, good weather, no holes, fastest trip I’ve made to Vallejo on this course.

SEFI Farallon Patrol run

Did a pickup run out to the Farallon Islands when another boat fell through and Beetle was able to make the run – much fun!

Half Moon Bay Sept 4-6

Labor Day weekend sail to Half Moon Bay to represent Island YC at the Half Moon Bay YC festivities.

Drakes Bay and Continental Shelf

And another run in search of whales, again, weather cooperated admirably.