Seattle to LA in March

[mvweebles]

Originally Posted by maxal1917

I don't really know the skipper well; I will ask more about experience and why March. From my questions so far, he didn't do this particular route, but did sail in Pacific Ocean.

Side question, how newbies like me find skippers willing to take unexperienced crew members? Maybe if I had plan B for how get into alternative adventure on West Coast, that would be easier for me to pass on this one. After reading these posts, I do have some more doubts now. Didn't make my decision yet though.

If you don't know the skipper, then be really careful regardless of the itinerary. Maybe do a shorter leg first to get to know him a bit. Most skippers who have been around a while are decent, but there an occasional Instagram/Facebook yahoo who tell a great story but are downright dangerous.

The Pacific Coast is totally doable, but the strategy for delivery changes with the season. The weather windows right now can be just a couple days. A busy skipper will leave a boat up north, then fly south to move another boat. This limits lay days which does no one any good.

If you find the right skipper, I wouldn't hesitate to do this trip as a newbie. How do you find the right skipper? I can tell you I always had a dance card of good crew who I could call on, some were newbies and excellent. One had built his own boat and was halfway through his second circumnavigation - and was awful crew.

Good luck with whatever you do. Feel free to ping a forum like this one with the name of your captain. If he's good, someone will have heard of him and will vouch for him. Same goes the other direction.

[PNWSalmon]

Based on your experience (zero), the fact that you don't know the skipper or the boat, and that this is March you are talking about, I would absolutely not take on this voyage unless you are extremely tough, have a high tolerance for pain, and have no fear. I.e, have you been an Alaska fisherman for a season or two? Go for it.

If this trip was in August, with all other parameters being the same, maybe, but March? Not the greatest idea that's ever been hatched.

[Don C L]

I too learned on Lasers and Hobie Cats when I was a kid. It is a great way to get the basics down. If I were you I'd consider checking in with these folks, not just for experience and lessons, but to develop contacts to help you find GOOD delivery skippers you could sail with. If you find a good skipper, deliveries can be a great way to learn A LOT!

https://seattlesailing.com/

[maxal1917]

Originally Posted by Don C L

I too learned on Lasers and Hobie Cats when I was a kid. It is a great way to get the basics down. If I were you I'd consider checking in with these folks, not just for experience and lessons, but to develop contacts to help you find GOOD delivery skippers you could sail with. If you find a good skipper, deliveries can be a great way to learn A LOT!

https://seattlesailing.com/

Yeah, taking courses in these clubs is kind of expensive, I looked at that option, but I would really rather just start with spending few days on the boat, helping as much as I can, but getting feel of it, before investing in those expensive courses.

[TrentePieds]

Well, if you have to go south, you have to go south, but outta Seattle the first part of the voyage, as far as Port Angeles, is a piecacake. Straits of Juan deFuca is much more fun, and a wonderful place to find your sea legs. Once you are past Cape Flattery the real fun begins.

If you turn right insteada left off Flattery ("port" and "starboard" north of 49ºN) the west coast of Vancouver Island is also for experienced people. The area off Bamfield Inlet and Pachena Point is known as the "graveyard of ships". For weather reasons, most people who circumnavigate Vancouver Island go north up the inland passage, round the top of the Island and come south on the outside, the west cost of VI.

I can't think of a better intro to long distance cruising :-)

TrentePieds

[maxal1917]

Thank you everyone who took time to respond. After gathering all this information, I decided to pass this time. As much as I want to get myself into this kind of adventure, I need to have at least one of the conditions being solid for the first trip. (Easier route, good weather, experienced skipper), and I don't have confidence I would get any of this in this trip.

I will appreciate any opportunity where I can get at least one of those, will keep looking.

If you have a place on your boat for enthusiastic crew member, with positive attitude, non-judjmental, but also responsible adult with common sense, who can contribute, I'm here.

[donradcliffe]

Probably a wise choice. I have to take a52 ft sailboat boat north from Santa Cruz to Anacortes this spring, but I'm aiming for a weather window in late April to late May.

[Don C L]

Originally Posted by maxal1917

Thank you everyone who took time to respond. After gathering all this information, I decided to pass this time. As much as I want to get myself into this kind of adventure, I need to have at least one of the conditions being solid for the first trip. (Easier route, good weather, experienced skipper), and I don't have confidence I would get any of this in this trip.

I will appreciate any opportunity where I can get at least one of those, will keep looking.

If you have a place on your boat for enthusiastic crew member, with positive attitude, non-judjmental, but also responsible adult with common sense, who can contribute, I'm here.

Good choice. Wait for a better opportunity.

If you come down to the Channel Islands, I'll take you out Wait till June or July though, I've got a paint job to do on the boat and a kid in school

Put a post in the "Crew Positions" forum too. Walk the docks, put notes on bulletin boards and stuff like that. I wouldn't be surprised if someone here can direct you to an excellent delivery skipper locally there who might take you on.

edit: ah I see Don chimed in; there ya go!

[maxal1917]

Originally Posted by donradcliffe

Probably a wise choice. I have to take a52 ft sailboat boat north from Santa Cruz to Anacortes this spring, but I'm aiming for a weather window in late April to late May.

Is there anything I can do to be considered for the crew? How long do you think it will take?

[Bowdrie]

Most every year there are a bunch of boats between SF and Seattle whose owners are anxiously awaiting the end of a cold wet winter so they can get their boats ready to head down the coast to SoCal in middle/late summer on their way to Mexico.
They jam-up the SoCal harbors waiting till the insurance coverage for Mexico can start after the hurricane season ends.
Post some notices at yacht clubs, send some letters asking the office personnel to post them on the club bulletin board.
You might be surprised at your replies from both sail and power boat owners who need/want an extra hand to get down the coast.
It's not uncommon for some owners to head south with a hand or two for that trip and then the wife flies down to join him after the boat is in SoCal and the crew has left.

[mvweebles]

Since OP is on West Coast, try some of the resources from Latitude 38 out of San Francisco.

https://www.latitude38.com/crewlist/crewlisthome.html

Originally Posted by Bowdrie

Most every year there are a bunch of boats between SF and Seattle whose owners are anxiously awaiting the end of a cold wet winter so they can get their boats ready to head down the coast to SoCal in middle/late summer on their way to Mexico.

Not a ton of boats make this migration. Baja Ha Ha has around 100, I'd reckon there are a couple hundred more who do it outside formed groups. The Lat 38 crew-list posted is probably the best way to catch a ride. Lat 38 used to host crew-list parties in Sausalito but not sure if they still do.

Where crew is defintely needed is getting the boats back north, after the fun has ceased and the hangover clears leaving the reality the infamous Baja Bash. I've met a few folks who crew constantly. One guy from Wisconsin I met in Cabo after this years Baja Ha Ha crewed several times a year. Sounds like once he broke into the clique of boats that get moved he was golden. The Lat 38 crew list is probably as good as any way to do that.

[sv_pelagia]

I've done this trip 2x... late August/early September to SF. Even during this reasonably good timing, we had tough weather (including gales). It was never "pleasant sailing".



For a first introduction to sailing: I'd say don't do it.



Even more so as you do not know the skipper or the boat. AND it's March!

[Montanan]

I encourage your engagement with sailing in the Pacific Northwest.
Typically, a summer activity because well, it's a foul climate with few sunny pleasant days, especially out on the cool, breezy water.

I would recommend sailing around the Puget's Sound and the Salish Sea exploring the beautiful islands for a couple of years to learn and enjoy sailing and to get experience before pursuing a long voyage south on a challenging coast. Begin with day trips and then work up to overnighters and thence a week voyage. Chose a moderate sized boat to start with.

There are few places to put in between Seattle and San Francisco. The bars become a real challenge if one feels compelled to get away from a blow or when there are swells running.

Navigating from Seattle to LA is mostly just a lot of ocean miles with little purpose and then one has the challenge of heading back north against a prevailing wind to contend with. The return trip is a subject of another thread and of many other prior threads.

[TrentePieds]

Montanan said: "Navigating from Seattle to LA is mostly just a lot of ocean miles with little purpose.."

IOW, just damn hard work, and unpleasant, with little to be learned of real value for a neophyte.

But Puget Sound, Georgia Straits, Desolation Sound... Oh Wow!

Head north "on the inside", Maybe go look at Princess Louisa Inlet. Check out Sointula.

By the time you get back to Seattle you'll will BE a pilot if you have a skipper capable of teaching, and you practise the craft of pilotage as described in many a textbook.

The joy of cruising is found in the places you visit and learn about, not in the passages you make between those places. Passages are, as someone said of quite another activity, just "...long periods of boredom interspersed with moments of stark terror" :-)

TP

[JPA Cate]

I'm an outlier here, in that I love ocean passages. Not coastal ones, so much, and the challenges are different.

However, imho, the OP has made a wise decision. There's no way in the world I'd be way happy coming around Cape Mendocino in even as little as 30-35 of a March evening. Brrrr! And a long way left to go to the Golden Gate.

Imo, the notion of signing up in the Crew Available section of the CF Classifieds should be one way to conveniently meet some people for whom the OP might crew. I'd also suggest getting involved with a sailing club and sail locally and help out at haulout time.


Good luck with it.

Ann