Captain David is at Sea

Pat Anderson

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Nov 2, 2003
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C Dory Year
2005
C Dory Model
25 Cruiser
Vessel Name
Daydream
I thought Anna Leigh David might have posted by now, how could a 54' Ocean Alexander not have satellite internet? :lol:

Anyway, David flew to San Francisco yesterday to deliver the above mentioned Ocean Alexander back to Anacortes (I think). I am not sure whether he is actually underway yet or not. Not a bad use of his captain's license! It will be really interesting to hear about his Pacific adventure!

He will be back in time for Friday Harbor, never fear, there will be beer, oh yes!
 
Hope he missed the wind we had here last night. It was a blowing.
 
Yeah, Tom I noticed it too. That front moved up from the south and w/ it the wind and rain. Was pretty decent all day though. May the weather hold for the journey.
 
Wow! Now that's cool to us simple trailer boaters. I hope Goldie Hawn doesn't fall overboard if he stops in Newport, OR. Who all is with him to do the trip notes and picture taking? This is going into the Grand Adventures forum for sure. Neat, neat, neat.
 
Very cool - it will be interesting to here all the details! :D
 
Does anybody know if he took the Alyssa Jean 16 Angler with him as carry on luggage, just in case he needed to make a shore stop along the way?

Sounds like a great trip, would have carried his suitcase on this one for free :wink Anxious to hear how it goes.

Harvey
SleepyC
 
Hopefully they tucked in somewhere, 41 knot winds with gusts to 55 off the Southern Oregon coast forecast for tomorrow with 14 to 15 foot seas.
Eric
 
It should be an great adventure, the weather service interupted our tv program the other day at Depot Bay to warn of high winds and steep seas. The seas didn't look to terrible bad out our window though, but nothing you'd want to play in.

I thought I read that David has an Inland license, that will work about as good as a Costco membership card offshore, perhaps that's why he hasn't posted...I hope they have somebody with an offshore license or it's just a fun trip with no compensation
 
He may need to park the boat for Tues and Wed. We have swells of 15' on Tues and up to 22' on Wed. After that things look OK.
 
OK, I just got off the phone with David, they are in Brookings, OR, and crossed the bar last night in the dark! They have had cell coverage most of the way but no internet on board except his boss's Blackberry. He is "Third Mate" on this voyage, or as he says they have "Two and half" captains! It is a 1986 Ocean Alexander, very well maintained, which the owner is repositioning to the San Juans. They each do three hour shifts at the helm, David did the midnight to three a.m. shift this morning. They are following an 80 fathom contour, about 8 miles off shore, and so far the seas have been about 10 feet. They are waiting out a gale warning right now in Brookings, but he expects now that they will be into Anacortes on Wednesday. I am sure he will have lots to tell when he gets in!
 
They do have appropriately licensed captains on board (2), and it is an uncompensated learing experience for David! Wave as he goes by, I'm sure he'll honk!


B~C":2iitsw8u said:
I thought I read that David has an Inland license, that will work about as good as a Costco membership card offshore, perhaps that's why he hasn't posted...I hope they have somebody with an offshore license or it's just a fun trip with no compensation
 
What great experience for David - we'll look forward to hearing more about it.

Best wishes,
Jim
 
Pat, Brookings has one of Oregon's best entrances, open 90% of the time and even a fairly easy approach at night. I think he will have plenty of time to explore Brookings as there is a hazardous seas warning in effect through most of Tuesday, would probably be moderately unpleasant to be out there.
Eric
 
I talked to my brother in Coo's bay today and the wind is blowing. He was down at brookings this morning and said that you have to hold the car door when you open it or it gets yanked out of your hand. From one of his cell towers he can see out to sea and the waves are running 13 ft. Not a good day to be out.
 
13 ft...yowza! :shock:
 
Looks like today might be a good day to make a break for it from the S. Oregon coast. Wonder if they will be stopping anywhere on the way into Juan de Fuca, (PA maybe)?

Harvey
SleepyC :moon
 
I'm back. It 's Saturday, 8 days from when we left on what in good weather would have, or could have been, a 4 day trip.

The boat is a 20 year old, very well maintained Ocean Alexander 54. No satellite TV or other connections, but did have an extensive VCR library and TV. The nav gear is Simrad. Chart plotter, radar, depth, wind, about 10 years old, but still very serviceable. Auto pilot was used extensively. The Capt's favorite saying as he pressed the engage key was "and the monkey presses the button". No AIS or radar overlay, but the split screen with radar and chart did us well. There is a large stateroom in the bow with head/shower and an aft stateroom. The aft head also serves a smaller bung room which also houses the washer and dryer. I was given the aft stateroom with the king size bed.

The owner wanted to move the boat up to the San Juans because of the great cruising available from here. Duh... The Captain was Colin Emsley, 100 ton Near Coastal, at 46 he has been doing this since high school and is the third generation in the maritime profession. The first mate was Mike Cregan, with a 50 ton Near Coastal. Both have boat delivery businesses.
I was 2nd mate and along for the ride, all expenses paid, but no compensation. (I have yet to actually receive my 50 ton Inland in the mail, although I am constantly assured it is very close)...So 2 1/2 Captains on board.

We left SeaTac Airport at 11:30 on Sat the 2nd for Oakland. The owner picked up up at the airport and took us to the boat. He had stocked the boat with all the food and beverages we would need. (No alcohol was consumed on this trip other than the 1/2 gallon that was in the freezer that was ejected out into the galley floor and broke during a rather ugly session with some weather). Full sized refer, microwave, electric range in the galley. Ice machine was in the solon under the full wet bar. We were not lacking for food.
We left the marina about 4PM and cleared the Golden Gate Bridge and hung a right. 3 hour helm watches were spent on the first leg which ended up being 32 hours to Brookings, OR. We took hourly lats and longs and other info and entered them on a log and kept a plot of our position and course on the 8 or so charts we had for the trip up the coast. We got to Brookings at 11PM Monday and entered the somewhat narrow( 60 ft as I remember) channel between the break waters. If you follow the range marker you are in good shape. We had radioed the CG Station there and obtained bar conditions and they asked if we wanted an escort in. It was dark and only Mike had been in about two years earlier so we told them that if they were offering we were accepting. At this point we only had fuel left for about ten hours. They changed their tune and said they would stand by, so in we went. My first, and not last, bar crossing. No problem, and several Coasties were out giving us a welcome wave as we entered the marina basin.

We were expecting bad weather the next day and were ready to stay a night. The first bad news the next morning was that the fuel dock was broken down and they were not sure when it would be fixed, the second was when the weather started looking like it was going to stay around for a few days. The CG closed the bar to all recreational vessels. The fuel dock was repaired on Wednesday late morning and we took 460 +- gallons of diesel at $2.05. Let me say that during our 3 1/2 days in Brookings we watched about 10 movies, had some nice meals at various restaurants,(thank you boat owner) and that it takes exactly 16 minutes to walk to the nearest grocery store. It also rained a lot for two days.
The CG opened the bar at 0730 on Thursday. Our engines were started at 0731, power disconnected and lines in by 0740 and we were out of there.

Mostly we followed about an 80 fathom contour which put us out about 8 miles from the coast. Colin, even with all his experience, likes to keep one foot on the sand. (He has also spent a lot of time on 1500 ton vessels) We pretty much could depend on getting 15 MPG on the 2/400 HP Detroit diesels at 10 kts. About 1350 RPM. WOT is about 1800. We went through close to $3000 in fuel, I learned how to change the dual fuel filters on one of the engines while in port. (all the rocking and rolling washed gunk off the insides of the fuel tank.)

The real fun started when leaving Westport in Grays Harbor after the second fuel stop. The best time to cross the bar is at the top of a flood tide. We missed that and were coming out in an ebb tide. And then the weather changed and started coming out of the NW. We got a fly over and hover alongside for about 15 seconds from the CG about here. Nice to know they are out there. Then the weather got progressively worse with the winds shifting to the NW. Rollers came from the west and the northwest at about 6 seconds and we were in the washing machine. We took a few waves over the bow and over the cabin area, and the wipers quit. So for the rest of the trip we struggled to have a visual of what was ahead. The weather and seas calmed down about 2-3 in the morning of Saturday and I came on watch at 3am. As we approached Tatoosh Is. to make the turn east into the Strait of Juan De Fuca the skys were just showing the first glow of the up coming sunrise. Now with the seas behind us we could kick up the speed from the 7 kts we had been doing for 24 hrs back to the mind numbing speed of 10 kts. The seas became calm within an hour and the last 93 miles to Anacortes was on flat calm water.

As we approached Cap Sante Marina the Captain gave me a $100 bill and instructed me to take Kate out for dinner. She doesn't read the C-Brats site, so she will never know that another $100 went into my boat fund at the bank.

That's my story and I'm pretty much sticking to it.
 
well told, helluva an adventure...on that late night watch, did you see any mermaids or one eyed sea monsters?
 
Great story, I am sure you loved the Adventure. I should trade my motorhome for one of those......at 15 MPG....grins.
 
I meant 15 GALLONS PER HOUR. We were doing NM10 miles an hour. So more like .66 MPG or to put in in wallet terms, $35.00 and hour.
 
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