Crew Wanted: San Francisco to Portland, Oregon (area) APRIL 22 Depart 4/22

[capn ken]

I would never attempt your voyage before June . Bonne Voyage

[Don C L]

Originally Posted by Bowdrie

Haha, yes, in my logbook I wrote, "Sea very confused, swells from all directions at once, no pattern".

Not surprising given that the northwest winds often get divided right at Cape Mendocino as will be happening tomorrow:

And if you go to Windy and check the swell forecast, especially "Swell 3," for the same time things get even more interesting.

Buoy data of course is good, but it doesn't tell you which direction the swells are coming from. By the way, it is currently 7' with a period of 10 seconds at Ft. Bragg. Kind of uncomfortable going up wind.

[JPA Cate]

The boat's almost 50 ft. oa, iirc. Still, 7 ft. seas, and it being an average.... We sailors live by max gusts, and max seas, but that's not how they tell us about weather. Here, it is 10 min. averages, if the f/c is correct, which often they are not. Wx is difficult to predict accurately, especially extreme wx. NOAA may average over a different period. The thing is to understand that both tails of the mean will be likely; it is just that we, with our human idiosyncracies, tend not to notice the ones that doen't bother us.

Ann

[Don C L]

yeah I'm just thinking about going upwind at about 6 or 7 knots, in a lightish flat bottom boat with 7' swells at 10 sec.

So, llamadingo, tell us where you are and how it's going!

[Montanan]

The drive from San Francisco to Portland is nice this time of year. Everything has greened up well by April on the Wet Coast.

Meanwhile here in The Last Best Place, today is a Winter Storm Warning, with little to no snow accumulation in the valleys but reasonable amounts over the passes. Passes being similar to bars as to navigability.

As the saying goes: April snow showers bring May snow showers.

Hope your early season trip against the wind goes well. I will be driving to Portland / Vancouver during Mother's Day time period to visit our daughters.

All the best.

[llamadingo]

Originally Posted by donradcliffe

Bookings is described as one of the last bars to close out, but I've never gone in there.

Hi donradcliff -

So Brookings was a great place to tie in and wait. On Wed, April 24 I stopped there in anticipation of the strong northerlies scheduled for Thursday. I arrived Wed about 530pm with another 2 hours of light. I had SW winds, blowing 15 kts and by 530pm (as anticipated) it had picked up 20 kts, gusts to 25 kts. I had a 2 reefs in the main, reefed jib and motor running at 1600 rpms which is reasonably conservative for this boat. Bar at Brookings had zero restrictions. Got a bit wet in the final 3 nm to shore, entrance is well constructed, good protection, straight run in. Again the video cam link I posted appears to be accurate and as anticipated.

I recommend Brookings (even for a night approach) due to the lack of complexity (however, know the limits of your personal ability, your vessel, and weather.) Office of the marina was very courteous and friendly and dock space for transients could accommodate large boats and was easy to access. Fuel, water, power available.

[llamadingo]

Originally Posted by Cpt Mark

Have you ever done this trip before? Doesn't sound like it.

Hi Cpt Mark - No this was my first time doing this route. All of the information shared her (and from my other sources) was welcome.

Originally Posted by Cpt Mark

Cape Mendocino is far worse IMHO that Point Conception and you're going the wrong way... Took me 6 weeks to get from SF to Astoria.

As far as weather sources look at the buoy reports and the bar reports far up the route and track what is coming down. I use surf reports too. Those guys are looking t swell formation from thousands of miles out.

Lastly. Noaa predictions. When they say from point A to point B the prediction is for winds of xxx and waves of xxx, what they mean is that this is the average over the entire area. Meaning some areas can be vastly different than others. Again, Cape mendocino is a prime example of this.

Summertime, flat water yeah, you might make it in your time frame. This time of year unless you are very lucky I would plan on at least doubling it.

There are some good pieces of information in your comment. Here are my take aways:

1. "Cape Mendocino being much worse than Point Conception."

I have heard it both ways - someone's experience being worse than others. IMHO worse is relative to weather and conditions at the time of travel.

2. "...weather sources ... buoy reports ... bar reports.. far up the route and track what is coming down...surf reports... swell formation from thousands of miles out."

Agree on all. I check weather and updates all day long. I'm always checking and recommend that too. I will say that when I get the bar updates announcements on VHF I just refresh the page for the bars UP THE ENTIRE COAST. I look at them all at once. It gives me a good idea of what is happening not just locally, but 11 bars ahead. Now I have starlink and internet onboard (which I bring with me for boat voyages and deliveries) which gives me access to a lot of information. It really gives a distinct advantage (for me anyway) because there is so much usable and actionable intel. I like and use all of your suggestions. To summarize: micro/local intel, regional intel and macro intel.

Also agree that there are differences between what you see and feel vs forecast. My regular occurring scan includes:
1. NOAA updates and forecast (current and forecast out 5-7 days)
2. PredictWind Windmap (current and forecast out 5-7 days)
3. PredictWind Gustmap (current and forecast out 5-7 days)
4. PredictWind Current Map (current and forecast out 5-7 days)
5. PredictWind Wave Map (current and forecast out 5-7 days)
6. BarReport (full report, updated every 4 hours, all bars- easy to glance at as they use a color coded system)

I do look at additional sources, such as tides, etc., but some of the computer modeling already incorporates it. I also state they are just tools you must factor in experience and good judgment.

I would say I have my average time to look at all of the above is on average 5 (up to 10 minutes sometimes) for monitoring. Mostly I look for surprises to my sail plan. I update the sailplan (which takes longer) when I observe changes, but the monitoring I do at first thing in the morning and probably 5-6 times a day.

[llamadingo]

Originally Posted by Bowdrie

Haha, yes, in my logbook I wrote, "Sea very confused, swells from all directions at once, no pattern".

Bowdrie - I think I copied your logbook entry! LOL That was almost my exact comments - but for Point Conception. Timing /weather is everything...

[llamadingo]

Originally Posted by Don C L

yeah I'm just thinking about going upwind at about 6 or 7 knots, in a lightish flat bottom boat with 7' swells at 10 sec.

So, llamadingo, tell us where you are and how it's going!

Hi Don C L -

I wish I could post more here with all of the diagrams, comments and screenshots, decision points along the way but I post elsewhere with my land and sea support crew, but here is he recap.

High level trip summary:
Depart San Francisco April 22.
Travel April 22-23-24 (Wed.)
Port of Bookings (Wed) arrive . Boat docked 18h00 Refuel
Wait for next weather window Thurs April 25 18h00
Delay departure 12 hours
Depart Brookings Friday April 26 06h00
Arrive Nanaimo, British Columbia (Vancouver Island) April 30 13h30
Delivery COMPLETED

10 days travel San Francisco to Vancouver (which includes being in Port of Brookings Wed eve through Friday morning)

This concludes the 33 day delivery (including 8 waylay days) from San Jose del Cabo, Mexico to Vancouver, Canada.

[llamadingo]

Thank you all. I appreciate your comments and opinions on this post looking for crew.

Best of luck on your future voyages.

-Kevin

[llamadingo]

Originally Posted by llamadingo

10 days travel San Francisco to Vancouver (which includes being in Port of Brookings Wed eve through Friday morning)

Correction: 9 days travel San Fran to Nanaimo, B.C

(sorry, counting challenged!) lol

[Kenatsea]

Thanks for sharing this journey and all of the data links. Since this was a delivery, do you mind sharing some details on the boat? Interested in size, weight, sail config. any additional interesting information. Please of course respect the privacy of the owner.

This is a journey I'm looking at completing in a couple of years.

Cheers!

[Don C L]

Good to hear it went well for you!

[JPA Cate]

Congrats on a successful, long delivery.

Ann

[llamadingo]

I'll provide some more information on my voyage to help others who may have questions or see my perspective.

Originally Posted by capn ken

I would never attempt your voyage before June . Bonne Voyage

Hi capn ken-

I can see your point of view based on your past experience. Experience is a very important consideration. Respectfully, from MY personal experience, I take with a grain of salt any comment which have the words, "always" or "never". Not to say it doesn't hold weight, but I always dig in a little bit more to find out why, and then look at supporting data to see if it is congruous.

Case in point:

• I delivered a 40' Beneteau sailing vessel from Grenada to Los Angeles in 2023. The vessel insurance company would only insure the boat if it were through the Panama Canal by July 1st, due to hurricanes in the Carribean. The hurricaine season "officially" begins June 1st. The period of highest concern is usually mid-August to early October.
• I was also told by a number of people, "once you make it past the Panama Canal you are free and clear from hurricanes" and they have "never" had an issue in the Pacific.
• I was also told hurricanes "always" die out over land and I'd be "fine" once I was in the Pacific

FACTS:

• From my own research, I noted that in 2022 Tropical Storm Bonnie formed and made landfall near the Costa Rica–Nicaragua border. Bonnie crossed over into the Pacific basin, surviving the crossover from the Atlantic
• Hurricane Otto also crossed over in 2016
• The 2023 Pacific hurricane season had 10 hurricanes in the eastern Pacific basin, which is east of 140°W. The season began on May 15, 2023 and ended on November 30, 2023

I'll also add that 2023 was the 4th busiest hurricane season on record. 2024 predictions indicate that due to climate change (and corresponding higher that normal ocean temperatures in the Atlantic) the season this year may begin as early as May 1st. This is why I look at 1-2-3-5-7 day forecasts vs. "last year at this time".

I encourage, endorse and welcome advice, experience and comments from others as part of decision making. But, at the end of the day, everyone must make their own choices based on weather, season, boat type, boat condition, direction of travel, personal experience, experience of others, training, preparedness, contingency plans and supporting data. Be prepared to stop a week or two or three if you have to, but if there is a favorable weather window, consider traveling in the window (based on weighing out all of the above factors.)

Again, this is my perspective.

- Kevin