Log of s/v Willow: December 2006 Archives

“Godspeed!” The parting words from our friend Ryan ended there, and we turned Willow south, in company with Ben and Nikki on “Tara.” We left Punta de Mita on the morning on Dec. 2nd to round Cabo Corrientes and get ourselves further down Mexico’s Pacific coast. It is always a sad moment to say goodbye to people whose company we have grown comfortable with and truly enjoy. The four of us did just that, again. We parted company with Scott and Liz on “Ocean Lady,” Jason Rose on “Bodhran,” Ryan and Shem from “Godspeed.” I cannon recall even one bad moment with any of them, it has been all laughter. We feel compelled to get down into Central America, Costa Rica and Panama, relatively quickly. I am still not sure exactly why, but we go anyway.

Posted by on December 7, 2006 10:57 AM | Permalink

Scott, Liz, Cassie and Rocky. (the latter two being the dogs. They also have two cats on board.)

Posted by on December 7, 2006 11:00 AM | Permalink

Jason Rose and s/v Bodhran.

Posted by on December 7, 2006 11:02 AM | Permalink

Posted by on December 7, 2006 11:03 AM | Permalink

So, we said our farewells, hauled the anchor, and fired up the bloody engine. Now don’t get me wrong, I love the engine, a very handy thing to have out here. The issue is simply that most of us prefer to sail our sailboats. This part of the world, at this time of the year has very light winds. I will stop there on that subject. Eventually, of course, wind we did get. Cabo Corrientes is known as a windy spot, being the furthest west point of land in Mexico (other than the Baja Peninsula). Then we had some good fun in 15-20knots of wind behind us. Willow loves this type of sailing and we go fast. Tara seemed to like it as well, Ben and Nikki were very happy when we spoke on the radio. Then the sunset, the sleigh ride ended and we were back to 2-3knots of boat speed, down from 6-7knots.

The night was very peaceful and warm and the miles ticked on by. Bonnie took over the watch at about 4am, two hours before sunrise, give or take. She milked the fading breeze and there we were, peaceful floating along, headed back north with the current. There is usually heavy thought given to actually starting the engine. Not this time. It is difficult to drift around when you are close to your goal. Our goal was a very beautiful anchorage in Bahia Tenacatita. Fantastic snorkeling, tremendous scenery for the purple, pink and red sunsets we have been getting. So we burn a bit of diesel and make a bit of noise and there we are. Hmmm, it seems like I talk about motoring a bit. The reality is that we sailed 90% of the time on this last 100mile run.

We had a few days of surf at Punta de Mita. Very small and inconsistent, but we really wanted to be out in the water. Here are a few shots Scott took with a very cool wrist mounted, waterproofed, digital camera. Everyone seems to have there own look out there.

Here is Ryan; everyone has agreed that he looks hot in this particular photo, even the guys that have been willing to comment. There you go Ryan….

Posted by on December 7, 2006 11:06 AM | Permalink

Here is Nikki, looking equally attractive to all in her surf gear.

Posted by on December 7, 2006 11:07 AM | Permalink

Nice BonBon's. Bonnie, helping Scott work on his underwater photo techniques. Cool..

Posted by on December 7, 2006 11:09 AM | Permalink

Here is my beautiful one, having a lot of fun at Punta de Mita.

Posted by on December 7, 2006 11:11 AM | Permalink

Eric from s/v Sarana. To tell you the truth, I wish my nose was covered the white stuff on that particular day. The sun gets ferocious down here. I will look for another shot Eric, for now this is all I have.

Posted by on December 7, 2006 11:12 AM | Permalink

That is Ryan.

Posted by on December 7, 2006 11:13 AM | Permalink

Liz and Scott have been surfing most of their lives and are a pleasure to watch ply their craft. Below, I am in the foreground about to take that wave on the top of my head. Liz is next in line, gracefully sliding down a fun wave. They have both been very giving of their knowledge and senses of humor out there, not to mention the beer they always have a cooler of in the skiff, for after the session in the water. Thanks…

Posted by on December 7, 2006 11:15 AM | Permalink

The night before Tara and Willow left we had another gathering on Ocean Lady. That is I with the cool shirt on, then Liz. Ben and Nikki in the red garb. Liz smiles and laughs a lot. We miss here already..

Posted by on December 7, 2006 11:17 AM | Permalink

See what I mean, there she is again, laughing. Jason Rose in the beard, daintily sipping a spot of vino.

Posted by on December 7, 2006 11:18 AM | Permalink

Shem and Jason looking content with that particular spot on the earth..

Posted by on December 7, 2006 11:19 AM | Permalink

OK, back to the sequence of events. I am writing this on Dec. 6, anchored in Barra de Navidad. Which I probably mentioned already. Tara and Willow both sailed into the channel and on back to the anchorage. It is not exactly a death-defying feat, but there was a certain satisfaction in sailing into an inland body of water, via a narrow channel, with only about 4knots of breeze. I believe Ben and Nikki feel the same way. We came in ahead of them and were able to snap a few photos of them in bound with their new genoa (great big sail).

Here we are just entering the breakwater..I know, I know, very dramatic

Posted by on December 7, 2006 11:21 AM | Permalink

Here is Tara sailing towards us after passing safely through the channel leading into the lagoon. Nice……

Posted by on December 7, 2006 11:23 AM | Permalink

Posted by on December 7, 2006 11:24 AM | Permalink

Here is a shot Bonnie took with our tiny camera, held up to one lens of the binoculars, clever girl. There vast number and species of birds swirling around and over us in this anchorage. We will work on the resolution for future shots.

Posted by on December 7, 2006 11:27 AM | Permalink

For next time

Just another random picture of life on Willow. We play our guitars and mandolin a lot. Jeffery and Christine Smith gave us the music stand. Thankyou, we use it every day.

Just got a message from Jason Rose telling us to upload our pictures in a different format to reduce thier size and download time, and I will, just not this time. Thanks again Jason, he set all this up for us. Check out his cool site at www.jasonrose.com.

My project for the next update here will be to get some recent pictures of Willow and her workings..
I realize that there are none to speak of, sorry and promise to work on it. Adios.

Posted by on December 7, 2006 11:31 AM | Permalink

Zihuatanejo is a good place to be.

Willow and Tara have made it safely to Zihuatanejo, although it was a slow trip. The winds in this part of Mexico are very light this time of the year. Sometimes they are fair for us, some times not, but we did make the best of every breath of it. Tara was boarded by the Mexican Navy, we were checked out by them 3 different times by boat and once by a helicopter. The helicopter got so close to us we thought down draft from its rotors would knock us on our side. But it did not, they stayed just far enough away. For whatever reason they had, we did not get boarded. Ben and Nikki said it was no big deal really. All of them seemed to be teen agers, including the captain, who was in braces and pimples.

Oh well, we made it through all that and continued at our stately pace of about 3 knots, southbound. Eventually we made it to our present location of 17*38' N, 101*33" W. Check it out on google earth. Luckily we are picking up a wireless signal out here which allows me to do this in the comfort of our home, Willow.

Posted by on December 16, 2006 2:29 PM | Permalink

Some very sad news reached us a few days ago. Surf dog Cassie, from Ocean Lady, died in her sleep about a week ago. She will be sorely missed by all of us. Here she is getting the belly scratch from Bonnie, Rocky looks on.

Posted by on December 17, 2006 1:14 PM | Permalink

Posted by on December 17, 2006 1:15 PM | Permalink

Pictures taken by Rick on from s/v Guava Jelly.

Posted by on December 17, 2006 1:16 PM | Permalink

Posted by on December 17, 2006 1:18 PM | Permalink

Getting in tune with the rig at a cool 6.5knots. That was a good day.

Posted by on December 17, 2006 1:20 PM | Permalink

Willow with Tara flying her spinnaker. Watch out, the wind is building.

Posted by on December 17, 2006 1:22 PM | Permalink

See what I mean. Rick on Guava was just about to drop the spinnaker, but was a few seconds to late. He really wanted to beat us...No joy, junk rigs rule. He sails a Halberg-Rassey, 35'.

Posted by on December 17, 2006 1:24 PM | Permalink

Bon and I have both been working at our music. She is getting much better at the guitar. We can play a few songs together like this and have good fun.

Posted by on December 17, 2006 1:28 PM | Permalink

Just about to round the headland into Santiago Bay, Manzanillo.

Posted by on December 17, 2006 1:29 PM | Permalink

OK. I have not gotten around to taking some good shots of Willows deck layout and rigging, but I will do that over next few days and be sure to explain things as best I can. It has been requested by several folks interested in junk rigs. Jerry Limber in particular is interested as he is just about to launch his boat, "Piper". It is the exact same design as Willow and fromt the pictures he has sent, he made a very fine job of it. If anyone else out there has any specific questions, I am a full on boat geek and would love to share what I have learned after sailing this boat nearly 15,000miles.

I am still trying to figure out how I can add links to contact us and go to other sites of interest, but I am a slow learner at the computer voodoo. I am banking on the fact that Eric on Sarana will be willing to give me a hand when they get here in a few days. For now you have to do it the long way I suppose.

hawkjunction@hotmail.com
or
svwillow@svwillow.net (very clever address don't you think)

So, please write to us, we like meeting new people, never know what will come of it.

Posted by on December 17, 2006 1:38 PM | Permalink

Boat geek section, perhaps not of interest to everyone.

Here is a shot of the control lines for the main sail. Both sails are rigged the same way. We have found that a yard hauling parrell, a luff hauling parrell and a down haul to be equally useful. The down haul is mostly used when we are lazy and do not want to go forward to haul down the last two panels that gravity does not take care of. However, in heavy sailing it becomes a real bonus for getting the sail down in a nice controled manner. We wrap it in the halyard winch and crank the thing down in all conditions.

The luff hauling parrell is perhaps one we would do away with if we someone told us we had to make a choice. We use it mainly to keep the sail from racking in sloppy, light air conditions. If the wind is blowing, I prefer to leave it slack.

The yard hauling parrell is vital and cannot be done away with. I would add a bit more extra length than I did however. Our passage from Palmyra to Hawaii was close hauled into 20-25knots of trade winds for 13 days on the same tack. The yard hauling parrell nearly chaffed through. Easy enough to remedy if you have the length to cut off. I had to end-for-end the lines as I did not leave enough extra to cut away. No harm done, just a note out of hindsight.

Initially I used half inch line for the sheets and halyards. The halyard is good. Last season I replaced the sheets with 3/8inch three strand nylon and the difference is night and day. The bigger stuff created way to much friction. As a result raising the sail was a bear. Also, due to the friction, we had no sense of when the sails were drawing in light airs. Now, with the smaller line, even a puff of wind will allow them to weather cock and them be sheeted in using feel to find the sweet spot. That was the single biggest thing we did that improved how we sailed the boat.

Posted by on December 18, 2006 5:43 PM | Permalink

Here are the fore sail control lines. Notice the fairleads, very handy in the dark when you want to pull on the correct line. Without them things tended to get a bit tangled up.

Oh, there are a few extra cleats there. Initially we tied off the halyards and sheets there. Could not afford the winches then and was not clever enough to add the line cams for the sheets. We keep the halyard on the winches and the sheet in the cams now. Rarely do we raise the sails entirely with the winches, it would take a long time. Usually they are used to crank the sails back up after reefing, or just topping up in varying conditions. The pressure of the sails on the mast makes it a hell of a pull without them. I highly recommend them. These are single speed, self tailing Andersons, and are completely adequate.

Posted by on December 18, 2006 5:52 PM | Permalink

These deck boxes have been way more useful than I first thought they would be. The larger one against the bulkhead holds a 20lb propane tank, another one on th other side. The other box is a handy seat for party's and visibility underway. Most importantly, they hold the sheets and halyard. Without them, the lines would be a monstrous mess. We just flake them in there, no coiling. When needed, they feed smootly out with very little hanging up. The port box also holds the rode for our stern anchor, plus a bunch of other random, handy things.

Posted by on December 18, 2006 5:58 PM | Permalink

When Willow was launched she had the top access hatch to get below. After our trip to Hawaii and beyond, well, we had enough of that. Both of us had bruised hips from negotiating that one, and we would be considered relatively athletic. Here is the outcome of the new companionway and we love it. Both the upper hatch and the door come off their hinges, and that is how we cruise in the calm waters of Mexico.

Posted by on December 18, 2006 6:12 PM | Permalink

A very, very big fish.

Posted by on December 18, 2006 6:13 PM | Permalink

Looking aft you can see that we added a small transome, deviating from Jay Benfords plans. This did not change the water line shape in any appreciable way, but it did give us a lot more room to work on deck, not to mention the additional space in the lazarette. I had done much sailing on true double enders, and never liked working back there with nowhere to plant my feet or hold on.

Luckily I had acces to a metal boat shop in Bellingham, IOTA Metal, owned and operated by Pete Silva and his son Joquine. Without them I would not have all the cool hand rails and other clever peices of metal all over the boat. The solid rails in the cockpit and up on the foredeck are so useful and secure, I would not want to be out there without them.

The anchor is sort of temporarily, permanently mounted there. I have the hardware to do a proper job of it, but, well, hmmmm, I guess I am tired of working on the boat for now. It is very happy there, and only occasionally does the sheet get hung up on it.

I have received many comments about the fact that my main sheet is anchored off of our stearn pulpit. Most think I am nuts, that it will tear away. Well, that is no ordinary pulpit and it is strong as hell and has held up for nearly 15,0000miles with no signs of stress. The arrangement has the happy outcome of keeping all those sheet parts up out of our way during cocktail hour with friends.

The two bits aft there are exceptionally useful and strong. They are made of pipes that penetrate the deck into the lazarette. The top caps are held there by threaded rod, the result being a sort of dorade ventilator that can be closed off if need be. I put two more of them on the foredeck, adding ventialtion for the v-berth.

Posted by on December 18, 2006 6:30 PM | Permalink

Figured out how to insert an e-mail link. Well, Jason Rose told me how to do it and there it is, I hope. If you write to us, you will be sure to get a response, eventually.

svwillow@svwillow.net

Posted by on December 18, 2006 6:36 PM | Permalink

Jason Rose has a much cooler site than this and here is the link. He is in LaPaz at the moment, and probably much cooler than we are here.

http://www.jasonrose.com

Posted by on December 18, 2006 6:38 PM | Permalink

Posted by on December 18, 2006 6:39 PM | Permalink

This awning, dodger type thing has literally saved our pale white butts, and continues to do so. Cruising without permanent sun protection is something I will never do. It can be brutally hot. This setup is out of stainless tubing for the supports and 1/4inch plywood for the cover. It works brilliantly to mount our solar panel on top, surfboards and other hanging goodies below. I also added two drains at the lower corners, so, when it does rain, I plug a hose in and fill up the water jugs, nice right. Well, Willow has not seen a drop of rain since we left San Francisco about a year and a half ago, but it will work, I am sure.

Posted by on December 18, 2006 6:46 PM | Permalink

Posted by on December 18, 2006 6:48 PM | Permalink

The wind scoop, how did we live without it?

Easily the best recent addition to Willow has been this wind scoop. I have been thinking about it for 3 years or so, perfected my design plans and cranked out two of them in one day, the second going onto "Tara." The wind hits one of the quadrants, gets forced down into the tapered nozzle where it accelerates and wham, instant wind tunnell. Another very useful feature I had not thought of is this: While one or two of the quadrants is shoving air down, the other one or two are sucking air up and out. I do not exagerate when I say it has changed our lives below. Ben and Nikki have completely rearranged their boat to maximize the benefit from this hurricane of redirected air.

We built them out of an old sail Tara had on board, using an old sewing machine we have on board. I will gladly build anyone their own custom sized scoop for about $200 dollars, just give me the dimesions.