[ARGold]

Got a great Email from a friend experienced on this coast:

Allen: Yes, I have heard the info on the band of wind at the drop-off.
It is fairly hard to find the gulf stream waters on the east coast and it is 10 degrees warmer than surrounding waters and you can actually see it. And can monitor it with temp sensors, etc.... As far as this west coast band goes, I wouldn't search too hard to find a small difference in wind speed.
It's alot easier to motor a tuna boat upwind in a 1-2 mile band width than
is is to tack a sailboat every acouple miles, 24/7 to stay in it. I also
have heard that there is ususally a 1 kt current flowing southerly along the
entire coast. However: It's been my experience that all this
planning/plotting/etc is just like what we may do before a local puget sound race. Then comes the actual race and we may do the exact opposite and win.
On a ocean trip there is so much to manage..... crew sleep, wave action, wind direction, boat/shipping traffic, vessel conditions, ships systems management, sea sickness, radio/radar/weather imput, water/fuel burn rates,
etc. A crew has to be ready to adjust to the conditions that will make
the trip as safe and fun and enjoyable as possible. With this vessel it
would appear that perhaps the slowest route with the minimal seas would be the best. I'm betting that you find yourselfs following the coast line quite close, maybe even only 3-5 miles offshore especially in Calif. waters.
I wouldn't worry about sea room/ leeshore too much if the vessel sails
nicely. Most boats can be headed offshore with even a make shift rig if
the worse happens and there isn't alot of traffic that close, or if there is it's usually the same size. Make sure that you leave S.F. before the Delta heats up for the day and causes the big afternoon westerly to flow in the
gate. It's more pronounced than the Straits westerly up here. We have
left at nite before to avoid just these conditions. After acouple hours,
it's easier to get the off-watch to go to sleep, get in the routine, and the newbe's don't turn around all day to watch the shore line disapear! It takes most of a 24-hr day (depending on your starting point) to get out the
gate and out the sea lanes before turning north. You can keep just outside
the lanes going out on the right side and reduce the likely hood of having a close encounter. Like I said before, keep sharp eyes out for traffic, as it
comes from all 360 degrees of the compass.

Judy and I know a local pnw
sailor who got run over by a container ship upon his approach to SF.....
they lost the boat in a matter of 2 minutes of impact. And it might not
have been a happy ending if the cook hadn't been standing of the aft deck of the cargo ship, throwing dead cabbage off the stern, and saw the holed Buchan 37 go by the stern, going down, and used the phone to tell the wheelhouse that they had run someone down. The sailboat only had one person on watch, while 4 slept below, entering one of the largest ports on the
coast!!!...... they got lucky.

...(snip)

On another note, we
cut the corner going down to SF one time and got within sight of the potatoe patch and suddenly found that while the patch was fairly flat, right where we were the waves suddenly started breaking and we found ourselves surfing
at 16kts down the waves with only a small jib on our SC50. Not the fun
thing it sound like, when your just trying to start/finish a delivery...
We leave tomarrow for more work on our cabin in the San Juans, and no
e/m....... HAVE A GOOD TIME! Gordy--