Treacherous Catalina channel crossing
Posted: Sun Nov 27, 2005 6:02 pm
This relates to The Perfect Storm. Had a great turkey day in Catalina after a smooth, fast 16 knot crossing over in light air and swell in my 90 horse 26x. Saw one other 26m(blue) there with a 60 hors Yamaha. Woke up Saturday to stiff breeze, heard weather forecast of 20 knot breezes increasing to 40 later on, decide to head for home.
My intuition told me to leave the ballast tank full, and I'm glad I did! The first five miles protected by the southern lee of the island , I'm doing a smooth 14 knots, then-- all hull broke loose! Conditions deteriorate to a strong 25 knot west gale producing 3-4 foot chop and 6-7 foot swell beating on my beam as well. My dodger/connector bimini help but I am soon drenched from this sideways assault. Wife and kid go underneath but soon return up top-- they rather be a little wet(they are fairly protected in top starboard cockpit seat) than seasick. The only thing positive was that the sun was out.
Although it was holding a steady course, I finally relieved the auto pilot and slowed down from 12 to 9 knots-- this did the trick as I obviously was able to anticipate swells better and "kept us dry" the rest of the way.
2 hours and 45 minutes we were back from definitely the scariest ride I've had to date in my Mack.
Most of the worry came from having my family aboard and uncomfortable, but I must say the boat handled like a champ. I had a slight amount of c/b down, and and the boat tracked and broke through swells and chop admirably. Main worries centerd on something breaking (steering) or engine cutting out-- you never know.
20 minutes after we arrived at Cabrillo launch, the 26m showed up! He also said it was roughest he'd seen, and had 5 other people on board with no cockpit protection! I did not see any other trailerable make the crossing.
Rolf
My intuition told me to leave the ballast tank full, and I'm glad I did! The first five miles protected by the southern lee of the island , I'm doing a smooth 14 knots, then-- all hull broke loose! Conditions deteriorate to a strong 25 knot west gale producing 3-4 foot chop and 6-7 foot swell beating on my beam as well. My dodger/connector bimini help but I am soon drenched from this sideways assault. Wife and kid go underneath but soon return up top-- they rather be a little wet(they are fairly protected in top starboard cockpit seat) than seasick. The only thing positive was that the sun was out.
Although it was holding a steady course, I finally relieved the auto pilot and slowed down from 12 to 9 knots-- this did the trick as I obviously was able to anticipate swells better and "kept us dry" the rest of the way.
2 hours and 45 minutes we were back from definitely the scariest ride I've had to date in my Mack.
Most of the worry came from having my family aboard and uncomfortable, but I must say the boat handled like a champ. I had a slight amount of c/b down, and and the boat tracked and broke through swells and chop admirably. Main worries centerd on something breaking (steering) or engine cutting out-- you never know.
20 minutes after we arrived at Cabrillo launch, the 26m showed up! He also said it was roughest he'd seen, and had 5 other people on board with no cockpit protection! I did not see any other trailerable make the crossing.
Rolf
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