Long Range Delivery - Seattle to San Diego

[GJH]

A lot of high quality suggestions here.

I understand that Crescent City was torn up by the tsunami, but I THINK the fuel dock is still operational. I'd plan on putting in there or better yet Eureka (Humbolt Bay) and topping off your fuel rather than squeezing it out until Bodega (Spud's). It gives you a much bigger safety cushion. Then, if getting into Bodega doesn't work, you can turn into SF Bay, which is worthwhile any way. Once you get south of Monterey, things start getting very sparse until Santa Barbara, as Morrow Bay can be impassible.

Call up the harbormasters and/or the CG of each port on the way down and get the latest on any issues.

You are going to have a great time. Just two more things from me:
1) The most dangerous thing you can have on a boat is a schedule
2) Buy a good GPS EPIRB for your boat. You need one anyway in the long term. Get an MMSI for your VHF radios to go with it.

[GaryNW]

May 25th ought to work; if it's still wintery then, I am moving to Nome! Although the info can be hard to track down, try to find the crab openings for the tribes in Wa & Or. Last several years, the tribes have had first shot - I believe the non-tribal opening is July 1 for most of Wa.
Might want to consider diving the boat at Neah Bay since you have scuba gear. One last inspection before the big left turn.
Gary

[mike]

FWIW made the run from Vancouver to SF a few years back in our 53MY. Weather windows and clean fuel were the biggest problems; even after having the tanks cleaned the rough passage mixed up the remaining sediment and caused the need for frequent filter changes. Have since switched to dual racors so a filter can be changed without shutting down the engine. You can’t have enough spare filters. Tillamook south of the Columbia bar is also a good fuel stop. As mentioned by others don’t pass up an opportunity to take on fuel early, you never know when bar conditions and or fog will make it safer to stay out at sea. It is an absolute must to get a bar report before entering any port along this coast. Heavy winter weather causes frequent shifts in bar conditions, heavy shoaling is the norm, the CG at each port is your best source for local conditions. When in doubt stay out until you can verify conditions. Also recommend not to attempt cutting corners along this coast, esp. when approaching or entering jetties. Bodega bay can be tricky esp. in the fog, watch out for the partially covered rocks as you approach from the north, when entering this harbor its port beam-on when making the turn to enter the jetty, this is not fun if it’s blowing out of the S/SW. On approaching SF its best to stay out of the potato patches fourfathom bank, the precautionary area and the vessel traffic zones. If you don’t have one, highly recommend getting a copy if the Coast Pilot 7 it’s full of excellent information for the entire coast. The recommendations on portlite covers and tying down everything cannot be over stated the ride can be rough this time of year esp. north of Point Mendocino.

[Boatsb]

I hear Bodega bay can be real bad. Especially if the birds are circling. You may want to skip it if you can.

[Ross Macdonald]

We adhere to the same rule...Don't have any deadlines. Almost all of the boats along the way on these Mexico trips that get there butts kicked had to meet some deadline. We have used WRI weather routing out of New York and have had very good luck with them. I'm sure commander weather is good too. We set our constraints lower than most so we might have to sit longer before they give us the green light, but the boat is too old and so am I to get beat up badly. Those long, ugly runs are no fun until maybe a few months afterward when you're telling war stories to your dock neighbors. We check about 5 different websites and if the "stars all align", we call weather routing for confirmation. The service is expensive but well worth it. We also have an Iridium satphone with external antenna. Which is nice in some remote areas of Mexico, but I would imagine you would have cell service down the coast. As far as the lexan inserts for the portlites, I think the boats of our vintage (1979) all used the fuller brush co. portlites. Not sure about that, but it seems every time I see a Hatt of that era they have those type portlites in the forward part of the hull. Ross