Man and Dog Rescued off Baja

[Butler]

Similar sort of storm hit farther south... I think just last month... according to dockmates who got caught in it the reported weather window allowed enough time but the storm came on really fast and ahead of schedule. He reported that one minute they were in 15 to 20 everything under control and then got slamed out of nowhere... they thought it was just a squall the way came on but it lasted 2 days... they lost their mast and another local sailor here lost his boom in the same storm. I wasn't the rough weather that shook them but the suddenness.

Was going to leave the day before and sail south for SD but a fuel pump failure kept me in... I'm in the slip walking through the boat as if I was out out and my neighbor reported 17 degrees of heel in his slip. I'm on deck checking lines and getting that stinging pelt of rain through my waterproof anorack.

He and his dog must have been getting their butts whipped out there!

[hummingway]

His sails looked pretty rough and I'm guessing the engine wasn't able. Good video footage. Dog took the whole thing well

[SaucySailoress]

Originally Posted by Butler

S It wasn't the rough weather that shook them but the suddenness.

It always is, which is why we should always be prepared for squalls. Which are sudden by their nature - it's why we use "waiting for the squall to blow over" as a metaphor for teenage tantrums!

Originally Posted by Butler

He and his dog must have been getting their butts whipped out there!

You know, one thing that struck me, was that this guy and his dog clearly belong on the water together, but were overcome by the storm - and I wonder if he was able to cope with the heavy weather... Well, clearly he couldn't. Why didn't he heave to? And whilst the look in his eyes nearly killed me... but hey... what can we do?

[hummingway]

His jib was in tatters, I thought some of the rigging looked rough too. It's hard to say what happened. He seemed weak getting off the helicopter and I wondered if he'd lost his motor, had his sails blown out and been been drifting a while; a long way from home, maybe little food on board? I don't know. 'Tis hard to say but I'm glad everyone is OK.

[zeehag]

fin keel and spade rudder donot like heaving to. kali does not get squalls. we get frontal storms. they are many times fast moving, sometimes slow. there is nothing sudden about them unless you donot know one is coming. they may move faster than anticipated, but therwe is nothing sudden or squall- like about them them. SQUALLS GO AWAY. THESE DONOT. these can last for 3 days or a week. is not a squall here. lol. sorry for the laffter, but ye have to understand weather here. is not like in gulf . isnot like in east coast. these come down coast like freight trains , growing as they come. fun stuff.
isnot like in england or anywhere else-- everywhere has its own particulars--kali has storms. they come from pnw and make coldness. they come from hawaii with lots of rain . we donot have squalls. we do have fog. we also donot get lightning here in socal-

[John A]

Originally Posted by zeehag

fin keel and spade rudder donot like heaving to. kali does not get squalls. we get frontal storms. they are many times fast moving, sometimes slow. there is nothing sudden about them unless you donot know one is coming. they may move faster than anticipated, but therwe is nothing sudden or squall- like about them them. SQUALLS GO AWAY. THESE DONOT. these can last for 3 days or a week. is not a squall here. lol. sorry for the laffter, but ye have to understand weather here. is not like in gulf . isnot like in east coast. these come down coast like freight trains , growing as they come. fun stuff.
isnot like in england or anywhere else-- everywhere has its own particulars--kali has storms. they come from pnw and make coldness. they come from hawaii with lots of rain . we donot have squalls. we do have fog. we also donot get lightning here in socal-

Your absolutly correct Zee, and there is one more condition we on the left side must contend with. It is a LEESHORE! Everything from logs to containers and dead whales wash up on the beach in the best of times.

If one were to heave-to, sooner or later you'd be on the beach!

I've lost count of the number of boats who've left their homeport here on the west coast without cleaning the crud out of their fuel tanks, and the open ocean conditions cause this crud to work its way into the fuel system. This is not the first time a boat has had engine problems coming down the coast nor, sadly, will it be the last.

[zeehag]

Originally Posted by John A

Your absolutly correct Zee, and there is one more condition we on the left side must contend with. It is a LEESHORE! Everything from logs to containers and dead whales wash up on the beach in the best of times.

If one were to heave-to, sooner or later you'd be on the beach!

I've lost count of the number of boats who've left their homeport here on the west coast without cleaning the crud out of their fuel tanks, and the open ocean conditions cause this crud to work its way into the fuel system. This is not the first time a boat has had engine problems coming down the coast nor, sadly, will it be the last.

folks sailing this coast need a good healthy respect for reality and need to keep AT LEAST 10 miles off shore-- more like 40 miles. make sure storms are more than 7 days away--lol--and reliability factor does not exceed 3 days..LOL... this coast is a scary one. commands respect.

[Wainui]

This boat was a coastal cruiser with limited fuel and water and not really set up for blue water sailing. He did not take the boat out once before he set off for the South Pacific with limited food on board. He lasted 10 hours before he ran out of fuel and radioed vessel assit for more fuel. They called the CG because he had no idea where he was or where he came from and they came out and towed him in to San Diego. He has limited knowledge of sailing and is not running on all cylinders. This was a one way trip. Very sad!

[rebel heart]

People think California doesn't have a real winter and that our storms are nothing special. These things come through in winter (when many of you New Englanders, which I was one, have their boats on the hard) and the wind jumps from 5-10 knots to 40-55 within six hours. And after the primary front passes and the wind starts to adjust you get nasty clear-sky squalls that you can't see coming but jump back into the 40's again. Maybe for a few minutes, maybe for a couple of hours. Only the big ones have enough reach to make a dent south of Point Conception.

It's not exactly Cape Horn around here but until someone has sailed through our low pressure systems and Santa Ana's, I'm taking your opinion with a grain of salt.

If you read Two Years Before the Mast by Richard Henry Dana, he said the worst weather they experienced (including rounding Cape Horn) was in 60+ knot low pressure system with zero clouds, in the middle of the night, off of what is now Southern California.

[Blue Crab]

Originally Posted by boatman61

ROFL.... wot a bunch of pussys... try hand steering solo Bermuda to Azores...
Then you can complain...

Pussies indeed!

Why back in ought 9, I sailed solo around Cape Horn (not that easy cape), 100' breaking waves, 200 kt gusts that mellowed after 6 days to 160Kts. Hand steering I tell ye! Never shut an eye, never ate, never could let go long enough to pee, I tell ye! Me and a damned parrot I tell ye! Couldn't get the parrot to take a turn at the tiller I tell ye!

O' for a life on the rolling sea I tell ye.

[rebel heart]

Originally Posted by Wainui

This is a sad story!
The old man is a doctor whose wife died and her kids did not want to have anything to do with him. He is partly deaf, cranky and very smelly. He has a dream to sail to Tahiti so brought a yacht in Seattle and set off down the coast. He was found washed up on a beach half buried in the sand after one night. He made his way down to Ventura and brought a 21' yacht. He spent a month living on it and never took it out sailing, or even hoisted the sails. He set off in January 17 and headed south when there was no wind. The Coast guard responded to a VHF call just past Catalina Island where he had run out off fuel and was disoriented not noing where he was or where he was headed. They towed him into San Diego. He should not have been alowed to leave but how do you stop him? This is a photo of him leaving Ventura to go straight down to Tahiti.

That's a sad, sad story. I didn't see him or hear anything about it when he made it into San Diego, but it's a huge harbor over here with thousands of boats. Takes all day just to get from one end of the bay to the other.

I honestly blame a lot of this on the "cruising" magazines and some brokers. They sell people on this idea that all you need to do is buy the boat, install a chart plotter, learn some meaningless nautical triva (never mind real seamanship) and you can safely plow the world's oceans.

I know there are some dummies out there like the Raw Faith debacle who somehow remain oblivious to reality despite it rearing its head many times. It seems like there's a dangerous mix of too much money, too much reliance on technology, too little care for seamanship, and too little respect for the ocean.

I would have treated the conditions that boat was in (+15' waves with 50+ winds) as extremely serious, where simple mistakes can result in dismasting / injury / death. For a guy with barely any experience to be out in those conditions is, frankly, stupid.

[John A]

Rebel Heart, good points.
Surely you are aware that in the US many people consider stupidity a constitutional right? Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Happiness means you can do anything you want to.

[S/V_Surya]

Hey get off the guys back the dog was in command.

[perchance]

Originally Posted by zeehag

until your sail blow out and the seas overpower your fin keel and spade rudder boat. they dont heave to well at all in pacific ocean storm conditions.

A good argument in favor of a full keeled heavy weight slug.

[sww914]

I'm glad it's still legal to be really stupid. I'm glad he had the freedom to at least try. I don't want any new laws that say you can't even sail off without the proper authorizations.
Sometimes something bad will happen, sometimes not.