As announced on the Sailing Anarchy site, VALIS is throwing down the gauntlet: We hereby challenge any and all of the Pac Cup fleet to a fishing contest.

The winning fish will be determined by length (or the longest dimension: for example, octopi may be measured arm-to-arm), not weight, and must be documented by photograph (analog or digital), showing the fish against a tape measure or other properly-calibrated measuring device.

All methods of fishing are permitted, including bait or lures, explosives, poisons, harpoons, nets, etc. VALIS suggests that competitors may have good results using a standard drag net.

All entries must be submitted to VALIS for judging before the Awards ceremony, and results will be posted at the KYC. The boat presenting the longest fish will be the winner, and all other competitors must buy beer (or equivalent) for the winning crewmembers.

Since our recommendation is that you eat your catch after photographing it, here is a recipe for fish jerky, as submitted by VALIS crewmember Rich:

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Marinate thin strips of fish for 24 hours, then run a look of thread or thin line thru each piece…string a bunch of lines between the shrouds and tie the jerky to the strung lines for a day and bingo…dried fish jerky.

Back Country Jerky Marinade

1 bottle Teriyaki Sauce
1/2 pint Maple Syrup
1 oz Liquid Smoke
3 Tbsp Favorite Hot Sauce
1 tsp Vinegar
1/2 tsp Brown Sugar
1/2 tsp Garlic Powder
1/2 tsp Salt
1 tsp Lemon Juice
1 oz Molasses
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Paul and his Mahi-Mahi, Pacific Cup 2006

There has been a crew change aboard VALIS.

I was disappointed to learn that my good friend Daniel Terhune will not be able to race to Hawaii with us this time, due to family commitments. Fortunately, we have a great new crewmember:

His name is Steve Hill, he lives in San Rafael, is a member of the Richmond Yacht Club, and is an experienced racer (often single handing his Beneteau First 42 “Coyote”.

Steve during the SSS Farralones Race

Steve has been sailing/racing since he was 11 years old, racking up over 40 years on SF bay (YRA) the California coast (OYRA), Mexico, and Canada, on many boats from 20′ to 48′, and in 1996 he helped return a PacCup boat from Hawaii. Steve and his wife Connie purchased their first boat a Beneteau First 42 “Coyote” in 1999, and have raced in OYRA, and other races in and around SF Bay, including SSS races (spinnaker division). They live in San Rafael, and work in Napa. Steve is a Technical Marketing Consultant, and works with companies to help them improve the effectiveness of their marketing programs.

Steve is also involved in the Rotary Club of Mission San Rafael. They provide local Community, Vocaitonal, and Youth Services, as well as International Service projects (like the elimination of Polio from the world).

Steve claims that he is very happy to be sailing in the 2008 PacCup aboard VALIS.
Welcome aboard, Steve!

This afternoon we took a ride out to Bodega Bay to see the Bounty. We stopped at Doran Beach State Park, which has one side on Bodega Harbor and the Coast Guard station there, and the other side is a long sandy beach out to Bodega Bay and the Ocean. Bodega Harbor is at the north end of the bay, and Tomales Point and Tomales Bay are at the south end. Pretty much in the middle was the Bounty, riding peacefully at anchor.

She had her RIB tender hoisted amidships and I could see no activity on deck. The bay was calm, but the winds were still gusting enough to occasionally lay the Bounty over a few degrees. Quite a beautiful boat.

When we got home, I had some nice email from the father of one of the crewmen. His son had texted him the URL of this blog! Amazing, this newfangled internet stuff! He told me that they had been making so little progress fighting the wind and seas that they had decided to hole-up in Bodega Bay until things blew over. I was pleased to learn that my concerns about possible damage were unfounded.

Bon Voyage, Bounty!

My wife and I were driving south from Jenner towards Bodega Bay on Monday afternoon, and we saw a beautiful tall ship motoring up the coast in some pretty uncomfortable conditions.

The 108 ft Bounty

Winds (at the Bodega Bay buoy) were in the low to mid 30-kts, and the swells were about 10 ft. The ship was only a mile or two off the coast as she passed Duncan’s Landing, a rocky point locally known as “Death Rock”, after those who have been swept off the rocks by the sleeper waves while exploring the tidepools. We pulled off the road, to watch this ship force her way north. She was making very slow going of it and was pitching to where her upswept bowsprit threatened to submerge in the waves. I happened to have my camera with me, so I snapped a few shots and captured a bit of video.

As she was putting Death Rock abeam, the ship began turning to starboard, and finally began running downwind. Apparently the conditions were more than she cared to take on, and she continued to motor south, with her speed and motion much improved.

What does this have to do with AIS? Well, when we got home, which is on a coastal ridge overlooking Bodega Bay, I turned my home AIS receiver and continued to track this mystery ship as she sailed into Bodega Bay and apparently dropped anchor just outside the harbor breakwater. In this spot she would be well protected from the swells, being in the lee of Bodega Head. From her AIS signal I could see that she was the 108 ft long “Bounty”, and she had been heading to Port Victoria (I assume that this is Victoria, British Columbia, where the Bounty is scheduled to participate in a Tall Ships event). At this moment (00:48AM, Wednesday) the Bounty is still in Bodega Bay. I don’t know if she is waiting for conditions to improve, or if perhaps repairs are needed before she proceeds.

From the Bounty website ( http://www.tallshipbounty.org/ ):
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The Bounty was built in 1960 for MGM studios’ Mutiny on the Bounty with Marlon Brando. Since then, the new Bounty has starred in several feature-length films and dozens of TV shows and historical documentaries.

The studios commissioned the ship from the shipwrights of Smith and Ruhland in Lunenburg, Nova Scotia to commission a new Bounty to be built from scratch. Completely seaworthy and built just the way it would have been 200 years before, the new Bounty was constructed from the original ship’s drawings still on file in the British admiralty archives.
+++++++++++++

The Bounty received a complete refit in 2006 and is now on a world tour which will include stops at Tahiti and Pitcairn Island (where the actual Mutiny on the Bounty took place in the late 1700′s).

Attached is a short (about 8.5 MByte) video showing the beating that the Bounty was taking before she turned around.

Bounty.mpg

On Friday, May 16, Alan, Michael, and I took VALIS out for a spin. The day was warm, with light to moderate winds. Our goal was to give Alan more helm-time, and to familiarize Michael with the boat and her quirks.

Leaving Sausalito, we sailed past the north side of Alcatraz, then tacked out under the Golden Gate Bridge and past Mile Rock.

Alan and Mile Rock

The Mile Rock structure was originally a lighthouse, built after the tragic sinking of the City of Rio de Janeiro in 1901 (http://www.lighthousefriends.com/light.asp?ID=77)

The Original Lighthouse

The seas were unusually calm as we sailed, accompanied by pods of dolphins much of the way, north past Point Bonita. At this point the wind really dropped off, and not wanting to fight the building ebb tide, we sailed, and motorsailed, back into the bay. As we passed under the bridge the winds picked up as if a switch had been thrown. We raced into the bay, and were treated to the sight of Chip Megeath’s R/P 45 Criminal Mischief. Mischief will be racing in the Pacific Cup, and it looks like they are going to have a fast ride to Hawaii.

Criminal Mischief

Cameraman on a Wire

Michael at the Helm

Once Criminal Mischief passed us (which didn’t take very long!), we performed a “chicken jibe”, then sailed behind Angel Island, tacked up Raccoon Strait, then into Richardson Bay and our slip. Once VALIS was tidied up, we zoomed over to the Sausalito Yacht Club for dinner and discussion.

Attached is the GoogleEarth KMZ file of our track, and those of the AIS-equipped ships in the area:

2008May15.kmz

Meet the Pacific Cup Crew

It has taken some scrambling, and a little gentle arm-twisting, but VALIS now has her full crew for the Pacific Cup.

In 2006 we sailed with four, and discovered that long-distance racing is a bit different than cruising. For example, when cruising we have one person on watch, and the other three can do chores, read, sleep, etc. This is a pretty comfortable arrangement. When racing, each watch has a minimum of two crew, and with only four total we became pretty exhausted. Going with a crew of six this time will make the on-watch and off-watch schedules more tolerable, and allow us to sail more aggressively. So, here we are:

Alan Beckman, offshore near the Cordell Bank

While he looks quite salty, Alan is actually fairly new to sailing. Alan has been a friend of mine for many years, and has been an occasional crewmember on VAILS daysails. As a chemist specializing in wear and lubrication, Alan is will have a wonderful opportunity to research the effects of repetitive motion and load-cycling-induced wear in a corrosive marine environment. And do some sailing.

John Clinton, approaching the Golden Gate after nineteen days at sea

John has been a VALIS crewmember since 2004, and helped us prepare for the ’06 Pac Cup. He crewed on the ’06 Oahu-to-San Francisco return passage and is looking forward to the ’08 race. In 2007 John joined Daniel Terhune and me on a trip to Fiji, where we helped our friend Jim Marco sail his Crealock 37 “Intention” from Lautoka, Fiji to Port Vila, Vanuatu. John is a systems engineer for a telecom startup in Petaluma, and we were colleagues at my last company.

Rich Jones

In spite of what the photo might lead you to believe, Rich actually lives in Tigard Oregon, where he is quite involved in the Oregon sailing scene (he is crewing aboard Sampaquita II in the Oregon Offshore as I write this.) Rich has many offshore miles to his credit, and after the Pac Cup will be delivering another boat from Hawaii back to the mainland. Rich and I became acquainted after he crewed with Davey Glander on the homeward delivery of the Cal 40 “California Girl” after the 2007 TransPac. As you may know, Davey had helped me bring VALIS back home in 2006. Sadly, Davey passed away in late 2007, and in the aftermath of this Rich and I got to know each other. Rich will be bringing his great attitude and some serious racing chops – always welcome on VALIS.

Michael Moradzada, at Cayenne’s comm-station

I am extremely pleased to announce that Michael Moradzada will be racing with us. Michael is well-known to everyone involved in the Pacific Cup, and by joining the VALIS team he will no doubt help up take our game up a couple of notches.

Since Michael is truly an excellent communicator, I will let him tell us about himself:

I learned to sail in college. My wife Noelle and I bought our third boat, Cayenne, a Passport 40, in 1997, giving me the opportunity to try offshore sailing and racing. To my immense satisfaction, I found I liked it quite a bit. I am doing the race for my fifth time, the first being in the extraordinarily low wind year of 2000. I’m very happy to be making the passage on VALIS this year.

For the 2008 race, VALIS will be the comms boat, and I’m happy to be serving as radio operator again for that role. I also have the good fortune to be serving as PCYC’s Rear Commodore. In November, 2007, I ended my term as Commodore of Corinthian Yacht Club of San Francisco.
When not sailing, or thinking about sailing, I am probably asleep. If not, I’m doing some sort of woodworking, mechanical, or electronic project.

Daniel Terhune, nearing the Pacific Cup’s Kaneohe finish line in 2006

Daniel has sailed more miles aboard VALIS than anyone (other than me). In addition to daysailing, Daniel crewed on our 2003 voyage from San Francisco to Maui, Lanai, Molokai, Oahu, Kauai, and back to San Francisco. In 2006 he was part of the Pac Cup race team, and is now looking forward to doing it again. In 2007 Daniel also sailed with John and me on the Fiji-Vanuatu voyage. Daniel’s sea-time also includes time on other sailboats and a stint in the U.S. Coast Guard, where he served in both the Pacific (up to the Bering Sea) and in the Atlantic. Daniel is a software engineer (retired), and we have enjoyed working together in several companies over the years.

Paul Elliott, enjoying himself *way* too much

I have been sailing since perhaps the age of six, with significant gaps from time to time. Prior to VALIS I had never sailed further than Long Beach to Catalina, but I have found that I truly enjoy the long sea-passages. I am a retired electronics engineer, and am able to indulge my continuing enthusiasm for hardware and software by puttering around with the systems aboard VALIS. My time at sea includes the two Hawaii voyages, a trip down to Santa Barbara and the Channel Islands, all on VALIS. I have also sailed on other boats, including a delivery from Santa Barbara to Berkeley, sailing among the Marquesas Islands (South Pacific), and the Fiji-Vanuatu trip. My only race experience is the ’06 Pac Cup.

My other interests include music — I am involved in the nonprofit Phoenix Theater, a youth-oriented Petaluma venue for the performing arts: http://www.thephoenixtheater.com/ . Here I am, playing bass at a Phoenix Theater fundraiser: http://www.sailvalis.com/misc/ColdSweat.wmv

I also serve on the Board of Trustees for the SETI Institute – http://www.seti.org/ — an organization dedicated to research in the areas of astronomy and planetary sciences, chemical evolution, origin of life, biological evolution, cultural evolution, and the search for extraterrestrial intelligence. I am particularly involved in the Allan Telescope Array, an installation of multiple radio-telescopes located near Mt. Lassen, used for both SETI listening and advanced radio-astronomy. This is definitely not a crackpot organization, but rather a serious group of legitimate scientists, engineers, educators, and other professionals.

So there we are! Can this madcap assortment of misfits and outlaws overcome their deep inner pain and resentment to pull together and achieve greatness and glory in the Pacific Cup? Will we actually cross the starting line on the correct day? And what about those extraterrestrial space-spores that we encountered during the ’06 return voyage (http://sailvalis.com/wordpress_1/?p=87)? Are they still out there, waiting for us? Stay tuned!

-Paul

I have actually been asked to describe the systems and programs we use on VALIS  for communications and getting our weather forecasts.  Here it is: http://www.sailvalis.com/specs/CommTech.htm

Any comments or suggestions are most welcome.

On Monday I sent a quick email to the NOAA Ship McArthur II, inquiring about their operations when we saw them Saturday evening and Sunday morning. I just received a very nice email from McArthur II’s Executive Officer, Demian Bailey:
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The NOAA Ship McArthur II was working with government researchers from the Cordell Bank National Marine Sanctuary surveying various oceanographic parameters in this sensitive ecological area in order to help the Sanctuary managers better protect the area. I’ve attached a short summary that describes the Cordell Bank and briefly what the purpose of our research was.

When you saw us on Saturday night, I was on watch and saw your mast light. It was just barely visible from 5 miles in clear conditions. At that time we were doing small net tows looking for plankton.
——————————

It is good to hear that our tricolor was visible from 5 miles, which is well in excess of the requirements.

From Mr. Bailey’s attached summary:
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Cordell Bank National Marine Sanctuary was designated in 1989 to protect the rich biological community in the area and to prevent oil and gas drilling offshore of California within this region. The centerpiece of the Sanctuary is Cordell Bank, a rocky reef feature that was actually formed in southern California as part of the Sierra Nevada mountain range, and then was transported north to its current position due to the movement of the Pacific Plate relative to the North American Plate. The complexity of the Bank provides diverse habitats for an abundant seafloor community, including a vast number of rockfish and carpets of invertebrates including sponges, anemones, deep water corals and tunicates that compete for space on the rocky pinnacles (see pictures). The shallowest depth of the Bank is 35 meters. The position of the Bank close to the deep waters of the continental slope (drops to 1000 meters in just a few kilometers) causes conditions favorable for increased upwelling of nutrients from deep waters to the surface, where phytoplankton utilize these for growth. This abundance of phytoplankton in turn leads to an abundance of krill and other zooplankton, which make this region a feasting ground for lots of fish, birds, and marine mammals.

The goal of the current project headed by PRBO Conservation Science is to understand the relationship between oceanographic conditions (including upwelling) and the distribution and abundance of krill and their predators within the region of Cordell Bank and Gulf of the Farallones Sanctuaries.

Some images of the upper pinnacles of Cordell Bank.

Here is a Google Earth trackfile showing VALIS and the AIS-equipped ships in her vicinity:
2008 Apr 12-13.kmz

Also, here are some screenshots of the homebrew program I am using to monitor AIS traffic, as well as to monitor all the navsystem data aboard VALIS:

AIS Screen, showing “Gas Oriental” and VALIS ducking her stern

Windspeed and direction stripchart

Navdata monitor

We have been planning to take VALIS out on an overnight sail for several months, to give the crew a chance to regain (or gain) their sea-legs, and do some open-ocean spinnaker practice. We had agreed on the weekend of April 12-13, and if the weather wasn’t appropriate we would stay in the Bay. As it turned out, the weather was gloriously perfect. The San Francisco Bay Area was forecast to have temperatures in the 70′s and even 80′s, and the winds were unseasonably light, all thanks to a high-pressure system parked overhead. The marine forecast was for winds around 10 kts, with swells 3-6 feet. A low-pressure system would be moving in Sunday night, but we were planning to be back in the slip by sunset Sunday, and the Monday forecast was still reasonable.

The four of us (Alan B, John C, Daniel T, and Paul — me) met for breakfast in Sausalito, then set out under the Golden Gate Bridge. The plan was to work our way north, into the prevailing winds, and position VALIS for a spinnaker run back to San Francisco on Sunday.

Leaving the slip, we put up the main and genoa, and tacked twice out past Point Bonita. The wind was between 8 and 14 kts, and favorable for a close reach out to the Farallon Islands. We decided to pass the south end of the Southeast Farallon Island (because I had never rounded it from that side). As we approached the islands, we witnessed an unusual mirage effect, caused by a thermal inversion, which wildly distorted the Islands. The Southeast Farallon showed strangely truncated peaks and impossible vertical spires. The North Farallons, normally quite impressive, looked even stranger, with needle-like pillars under floating caps.

North Farallon Islands

As we approached, the mirages vanished, and we got a great view of the Farallons. Southeast Farallon Island is home to wildlife researchers, and landings are heavily restricted – limited only to support personnel. To visit this rugged island, a ship must moor offshore, and send a dinghy which is hoisted with a derrick onto shore. We were able to see the derrick, the two old houses and newer building, and the cisterns where rain water is stored. The Farallons lighthouse is at the top of the approximately 300 ft “Tower Hill”, and there is a steep trail, with many switchbacks, leading up the hill. Many seabirds make these islands their home, and the downwind odor is quite distinctive.

Southeast Farallon Island

Middle and North Farallon Islands

Landing Site

Research Station and Lighthouse

We sailed past Southeast Farallon, and Middle Farallon (not much more than a small rock), then tacked northeast towards Pt Reyes, passing south of the North Farallon Islands around 7:00PM. Dinner was prepared by John: Cup of Noodles for all. At 8:00 we began our formal watches, which we had set at 3 hours, with two watch teams. Paul and Alan stood the first and third watch, Daniel and John having the second and the last.

About 9:00PM we passed within a few miles of the ship “McArthur II”, which triggered the watch alarm on our AIS monitor. Throughout the night we monitored this vessel, as again and again it briefly maneuvered then held position. We speculated about what it was doing in the marine preserve area through which we were sailing, and it’s changing course and speed made us wary that we might find ourselves on a collision course. Around 9:00PM we tacked offshore again, and with the sky darkening we quickly put on extra layers of insulation and our foul weather gear for warmth. The winds remained moderate at about 10 kts and the seas were only a few feet – an easy initiation for Alan, and a gentle re-introduction for the rest of us.

Around 11:30PM we tacked northeast towards Bodega Bay. We were getting colder, but otherwise the conditions were good. We watched the stars, and sailed through several patches of phosphorescent marine life. At 5:30AM (Sunday) we tacked away from Bodega Bay and headed back out to sea. After sunrise we had breakfast (instant oatmeal). Actually, Paul decided to skip the oatmeal and instead took a nap. We again crossed paths with McArthur II around 10:00 AM, and in the light we had a good look at her. She was definitely not a fishing vessel, but appeared to be a workboat or perhaps a research vessel. We normally would have been able to see the Sonoma and Marin county coastline, but there was a thick fogbank obscuring the shore. Offshore it was sunny, and again getting warmer.

(Image courtesy NOAA website)

Once home I found that McArthur II is a NOAA research vessel:
http://www.moc.noaa.gov/mt/index.html

At Noon, we were about 32 nm west of Point Reyes. We had some peanut butter and jam sandwiches, then jibed the boat, pointed towards the Golden Gate Bridge, and set our colorful light-air spinnaker for the run home. We each took turns steering, and getting used to the interplay of wind, sail, swells, and rudder. Windspeed was around 15 kts.

Daniel at the Helm

This is what happens when you don’t pay attention

Back in the groove

Around 2:00PM we were approaching the North Farallon Islands. You can see how the big Pacific waves crash against the western face of these rocks, scrubbing away the otherwise white guano color.

The North Farallons

As we passed these rocks, a fogbank moved in from the west. Limiting visibility to less than a mile. We were getting into crab-pot territory, and had to keep a sharp lookout for the floats and retrieval lines. Around 3:30PM we doused the spinnaker, putting up the genoa in it’s place. We sailed on a deep reach, and as the wind shifted we ran wind and wing, poling out the genoa to port. We were nearing the shipping lane approach channels into San Francisco Bay, so we kept a vigilant watch for other traffic. We were monitoring ship traffic via AIS, but this doesn’t track smaller vessels so we used our eyes and our radar as well.

Keeping watch in the fog (L-R: John, Daniel, Alan)

During our approach we found ourselves on a slowly converging course with “Gas Oriental”, a 568 ft tanker. She was invisible in the fog, so we watched the situation on AIS, listened to her foghorn, followed her on radar, and eventually decided to turn north and cross behind her stern. This maneuver completed, we sailed south of Four Fathom Bank, over the bar and into the north side of the channel.

The channel is dredged to 60 ft, but the bar is only 40 ft (and Four Fathom Bank is only 20 ft). The Pacific swells can really stack up when they reach this shallow water, but the seas were small and the flood current helped keep the waves manageable. Still, what had been three-foot swells turned into four-footers with churning whitecaps on top. At Point Bonita, the incoming current and perhaps an outgoing countercurrent created a confused “washing machine”, with wavelets coming from all directions, and eddies that swung VALIS slightly from time to time. The fog began to lift and we could see the Pt. Bonita light and the bases of the Golden Gate Bridge’s north and south towers.

Point Bonita

The bridge deck and above were still obscured by fog. We crossed paths with a tugboat, then dropped the pole, furled the genoa, and sailed under the bridge into the bay as the sun began to set. One jibe, one more freighter, and we were heading towards Richardson Bay and our Sausalito slip. We tied up at 8:00 PM, washed the boat and stowed our gear.

There’s still plenty to do, but this was a good start.

VALIS track (yellow), tracks of McArthur II and Gas Oriental