Sailing Route from the Philippines to US West Coast

[Alan Mighty]

Originally Posted by darren_bowls

Sula Channel, however, is gorgeous and the best refuge from any storm. It's narrow with high hills on both sides offering the best storm protection you can ask for. It's been used as a typhoon hole since the Spanish galleons sailed these waters back in the 1500's. Lots of history here. It's also fun to explore all the back channels in your dinghy or paddleboard.

Most impressive.

[darren_bowls]

Originally Posted by wingssail

Crossing the Pacific is a HUGE commitment, there is no easy way back.

I've known several people who have returned from Asia to North America via Japan and North Pacific Route including some close friends we cruised with in Papua.

They all reported similar experiences:

1. Japan is delightful but bureaucratic and difficult
2. From Japan to the Aleutians and further it is cold and stormy, even in the summer, fog is endemic
3. you will not get much solar and winds will be from zero to 60kts, and sudden.
4. You will be covered in gooseneck barnacles by the time you reach the west coast.
5. it is a very long trip
6. water, fuel and provisions are all issues.
7. small crews will be at each other's throats before arrival on the west coast.

Sailing eastward along the equator (in the ITCZ) is ardous but possible, at least it is warm

Sailing from South Pacific against the trades is also possible. Once you get to Hawaii it all becomes easier.

My advice, work your way east to Hawaii the go around the North Pacific High.

Very good post! Is there anyone I could contact in regards to the northern route?

I will explore the equatorial route further.

Thanks,

Darren

[Alan Mighty]

Wingssail is not wrong.

One of my sailing mates tried to do the Urdaneta Route 2-handed. Ended up porting in Nippon and putting his cruiser on a freighter.

Cost money (and perhaps a loss of pride, but balanced by admiration for him making the right call) but was faster in the long run. Crew and hull made it to the US safely.

All depends on how you price your own time and risk.

[darren_bowls]

Alan, I agree Wingssail is not wrong.

I have one major concern about that route, and that is Covid protocols at each island stop along the way. When I sailed over to the Philippines I took the northern route above the Marshall Islands. Inquiring before I left, the Marshalls would not let me stop there for any reason, even an emergency. So I went first to the US military base at Wake Island where I had a preapproved stopover.

On my next leg to US Guam, one of my two rudder tube supports sheared off to the hull and the tube was flexing back and forth from the rudder pressure. SCARY. Had the tube sheared, I could have sunk or lost steering at best.

The closest island with a safe harbor was Enewetak Island, 180 nm south, and you guessed it, in the Marshall Islands. When we arrived, they greeted us with a police boat and waved at us. We thought they were welcoming us, so we went towards them. They retreated in fear! haha.

We then got a radio call from a woman with broken English warning us to leave immediately. We told her our problem and explained we needed calm water to do a fiberglass repair, and that we could anchor a few miles away. She said, leave now. We said we could die. She said she didn't care. The military will chase us away with a gunboat from Majuro if we didn't leave now. I'm thinking that's a little cold-hearted.

We motored a couple of miles away and anchored in a gorgeous spot. The police boat followed and anchored nearby. Within a few hours, the problem made its way all the way to the president of the Marshall Islands, who told them to give us time to fix the boat.

After that, the woman on the radio was super friendly, welcoming, and cracking radiation jokes. Enewetak is a former nuclear bomb test site. It turned out, the islanders had no cases of Covid and were terrified we would infect them. They had no medical services to deal with Covid.

So, that is what concerns me about island hopping my way back to Hawaii. At least along the northern route, Japan is friendly with prior approval to stop, Unalaska is in the US, and I can skip Canada or avoid major ports requiring check-in to fuel up and resupply.

Darren

[capn_billl]

I've boated off of Oregon coast, winter storms at that latitude can be severe.

Not to mention ice storms. Early summer would be the only time I would even think of the roaring 40's.

[Pelagic]

[QUOTE=darren_bowls;3497673.

So, can anyone offer their experiences in any of these routes? I do not want to be beating into the tradewinds the whole way.
![/QUOTE]

Welcome to CF Darren!
I've made the East bound passage from Japan and Asia a few times since the 1980s.

I would only recommend the northern route for your limited motoring range.

Ocean Passages generally describes a sailing route of 50% Rhumb Line, 50% Great Circle, from Japan, but I have always modified that depending on weather systems encountered.

In 2020 when Covid began, we considered taking Stargazer from Subic to Victoria in 2021.

So from April 2020, I've been monitoring upper and lower wind directions and systems daily.

This has given me a much better insight into favorable patterns for different route waypoints and passage plans.

Even though we changed our mind and will keep the boat in the Philippines, this is what I would consider in your place.

Be ready by April to leave and be prepared to make a long and flexible home run from Philippines to West Coast, especially if the uncertainty of Covid regulations makes foreign waypoints complicated.

Maximize the use of Predict Wind and long range system forecasting services to see when the more southerly family of Lows start to come out of Mainland via southern Japan/Taiwan and use them to get North Easting out of the Philippines by connecting with one of those Lows east of the Kurishio current.

From then on, keep positioning yourself in the SE quadrant of lows as you approach a hopefully developing Pacific High that will get you down towards California.

You'll need a good crew and a solid boat, both storm and lightwind sails and communication means to stay ahead of the weather.

With this flexible plan and weather intelligence, you should have a good trip.

[luckyone]

Originally Posted by wingssail

Crossing the Pacific is a HUGE commitment, there is no easy way back.

I've known several people who have returned from Asia to North America via Japan and North Pacific Route including some close friends we cruised with in Papua.

They all reported similar experiences:

1. Japan is delightful but bureaucratic and difficult
2. From Japan to the Aleutians and further it is cold and stormy, even in the summer, fog is endemic
3. you will not get much solar and winds will be from zero to 60kts, and sudden.
4. You will be covered in gooseneck barnacles by the time you reach the west coast.
5. it is a very long trip
6. water, fuel and provisions are all issues.
7. small crews will be at each other's throats before arrival on the west coast.

This list made me smile and took me back to when I sailed non-stop Singapore to Vancouver via the northern route. Mostly I remember the cold and the fog. Plus being ****-scared when we entered the Pacific through the Bashi Channel in mountainous seas and I wondered what I had gotten myself into. I learned celestial for that trip, pre gps, and then never used it ‘cause we went something like 45 days with such overcast we never even got a sun sight. Jesus it was grey. Yes, it was a long trip. Yes, by the end we were out of fuel, low on water and down to canned ham, day after day. It still makes me ill to contemplate eating canned ham. And yes, by the time we hit BC we were pretty well done with each other. . . That said, it got us where we wanted to go and nobody died.

[Alan Mighty]

Originally Posted by darren_bowls

It's also fun to explore all the back channels in your dinghy or paddleboard.

I note a warning from BFAR today on box jellyfish in the Albay Gulf.

Typically associated with areas with mangroves not far away.

Take care. Box jellies can be difficult to see. In waters known to be frequented by box jellies, wearing a stinger suit is the usual precaution.

https://newsinfo.inquirer.net/150269...-in-albay-gulf

https://www.ecostinger.com/

[wingssail]

Originally Posted by Alan Mighty

I note a warning from BFAR today on box jellyfish in the Albay Gulf.

Typically associated with areas with mangroves not far away.

Take care. Box jellies can be difficult to see. In waters known to be frequented by box jellies, wearing a stinger suit is the usual precaution.

https://newsinfo.inquirer.net/150269...-in-albay-gulf

https://www.ecostinger.com/

Our experience with Box Jellyfish, (none personal, thankfully) is that they are often associated with heavy human related pollution and warming waters. Many places in Australia have the problem and not necessarily mangrove areas. Some were seen in Patong, Thailand (which fact the Thai tourist authorities tried to keep quiet) also a place of sandy beaches and no mangroves.

[Alan Mighty]

Originally Posted by wingssail

Our experience with Box Jellyfish, (none personal, thankfully) is that they are often associated with heavy human related pollution and warming waters. Many places in Australia have the problem and not necessarily mangrove areas. Some were seen in Patong, Thailand (which fact the Thai tourist authorities tried to keep quiet) also a place of sandy beaches and no mangroves.

Indeed. You've likely read Michael Kingsford & Christopher Mooney, The Ecology of Box Jellyfish (Cubozoa). Springer. 2014.

Of the dozen or more species that Kingsford & Mooney surveyed, a goodly number were clearly associated with estuaries or mangroves in some way. The data is missing on the others. Box jellies are quite active swimmers. And can be found quite some way from where the medusa form, the jellyfish form, 'recruited' into the stock.

K & M tell the story of one species that has been recorded off the sandy beaches of Magnetic Island, in the Queensland, Australia. So do the box jellies come from or prefer to hang around off the sandy beaches? Or do the medusa stage originate in estuaries (likely including mangroves but not always noted by field collectors as 'mangrove'), mangrove forests (the fairly obvious feature) or somewhere else? Some are found off shore, but did the medusa stage develop offshore or did the jellyfish swim (perhaps with currents) from a coastal setting (such as an estuary which may have a few mangrove plants)?

I'll let K & M tell the story of Chironex fleckeri, based on earlier research by others:

[dcruz99801]

Originally Posted by Shoalbay

Re “Anyone tried the northern route up past Japan, then over towards Alaska, then down the west coast? This is the shortest route but obviously colder than the tropics.”
I did this route - according to the pilot charts the wind doesn’t exceed 30 kts in mid summer. That was my experience leaving Kushiro for Attu in mid June. 5 ℃ at night.

Pilot charts are 'percentage plays' -- most of the time you'll be OK, but a previous poster mentioned lots of commercial (big) boats damaged. I worked in Juneau, AK with a guy who got the short end of the stick, as an Aleutian storm bashed in his cabin-to-cockpit join 6" and he bailed for hours until rescued by a Korean freighter. He got to watch her (a beautiful Lapworth 36) sink.



The Pardeys, OTOH, spent 80 days in fog and faint winds...YMMV.

[darren_bowls]

Originally Posted by Alan Mighty

I note a warning from BFAR today on box jellyfish in the Albay Gulf.

Typically associated with areas with mangroves not far away.

Take care. Box jellies can be difficult to see. In waters known to be frequented by box jellies, wearing a stinger suit is the usual precaution.

Thanks, Alan! That was just the excuse I needed to avoid cleaning the bottom of my boat last week. Hehe...

We get other jellyfish regularly, but none that sting. I will keep a lookout.


Darren

[darren_bowls]

Originally Posted by dcruz99801

Pilot charts are 'percentage plays' -- most of the time you'll be OK, but a previous poster mentioned lots of commercial (big) boats damaged. I worked in Juneau, AK with a guy who got the short end of the stick, as an Aleutian storm bashed in his cabin-to-cockpit join 6" and he bailed for hours until rescued by a Korean freighter. He got to watch her (a beautiful Lapworth 36) sink.


The Pardeys, OTOH, spent 80 days in fog and faint winds...YMMV.

To be clear, I will not attempt this crossing during the stormy fall, winter, or early spring. My target is to arrive near the Aleutian Islands in late June or early July.

Do you know what time of year the Lapworth was damaged? Was it a freak summer storm?

Regarding the Pardey's crossing, it was 49 days of fog and an unusual series of storms during July and August, unless you are referring to another crossing the Pardeys made that I am unaware of.

I post the following quotes as a resource for future readers.

"FIFTY DAYS at sea. Lin and Larry reckoned that’s how long, at the outside, it would take to traverse the long span of North Pacific Ocean that split two distinct worlds, East and West. As it turned out, their estimate was nearly spot on. The forty-nine-day trip took on a life of its own, with a distinct set of challenges and rewards. The couple later said that if the voyage had been their first long sail, it would also have been their last."


"The worst part was the persistent fog. Lin’s scrupulous at-sea records noted thirty full days when the visibility was lower than 150 yards. As she later wrote, “Our whole world became a drizzly, damp gray cocoon, its floor a dull green sea, its ceiling the same color as its walls.” When they weren’t socked in, however, they were coping with the other dominant weather-related feature of the journey: an unprecedented series of nine separate fronts that rolled over them packing gale-force winds."

*McCormick, Herb. As Long as It's Fun, the Epic Voyages and Extraordinary Times of Lin and Larry Pardey. Paradise Cay Publications. Kindle Edition.

I appreciate the input.


Darren