Sailing to Oceanside Without an Engine

Sailing from Mission Bay to Oceanside was hard against the wind all the way!

Here's a story where I was really daring and in hindsight - maybe a little crazy (what on earth was I thinking!) I sailed to San Diego and back without an engine.

Okay, sailing to San Diego is one thing but sailing back up without one is just asking for hardship!

I'm guessing you already know why but just in case - here's the answer. You see, when you sail down to San Diego you have the current and the wind on your side. But sailing back - you don't.

I'm guessing that for every 3 miles you go you lose one and it may be worse than that!

 Well, here's a true story about this where you can feel what I was going through sailing back up to Los Angeles.

Sailing from San Diego to Oceanside:

"The wind was up and all seemed well until I got a ways out to sea. From that point it was apparent that the wind was going to continue from the north making it clear to me that I could only sail north-west close hauled against the wind and current. It was going to be a fight - I could feel it now!

 After a couple hours I got about five miles out and then the wind promptly stopped!

So much for getting anywhere today. I watched the sun go down and then darkness came on.

 I could do nothing but take the sails down and wait for the wind. But there was nothing but sheer calm all night!

I took notice of all the land sights and lights around me. Tonight I decided to sleep in the V-birth instead of out in the cockpit. Basically the reason for this was because of the dead calm. The ocean waves were pretty flat too.

Throughout the night I would wake myself up every fifteen minutes or so and look out the hatchway above my head to see if any boats or ships were coming my way. Nothing came.

 I could see the fishing boats bright lights however, scattered here and there over the ocean horizon. For some reason this night is etched in my memory but for what reason I am not sure. Not really anything happened!

 But perhaps it was the feeling of being alone at sea overnight without any stress or adventure that I remember.

The dark night at sea passed peacefully. I remember the faint glow of the candle I had lit glimmering in the cabin, the occasional flicker of my flashlight on the countertop to get a snack.

Slowly through the night I drifted with the current unawares a couple miles south down toward Point Loma.

In the morning I was not aware I had drifted so far as the landmarks had not changed that much. It was only the visit from the Coast Guard that woke me up to the fact that I was further south than I realized!

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After giving them permission to check my boat for drugs and hideaway people - they promptly believed that I was not hiding anything after I confirmed I had nothing and after checking my drivers license. They then decided not to come aboard.

 Revving up their four huge outboard engines, they took off.

I was then left alone to wait for the wind. And I waited and waited.

Usually the wind picks up around 10 am but not today. I waited while the suns heat beat down upon the boat. Thankfully I could go down into the cabin and open the hatches for ventilation and get some relief from the sun!

Finally around 1pm the wind came out and I slowly began to sail north past La Jolla.

But it was a slow ride as the wind was not exceptionally strong an I was fighting the current too. What should have taken a couple hours took all day and I was just clearing the San Diego area by nightfall.

Thankfully the wind kept up nicely till 11 pm and even after this there were enough spells of wind to leave the sails up and I very slowly made my way toward Oceanside.

 I just kept on sailing as long as there was wind and by early morning had made my way to the two big smoke stacks near Carlsbad. It took a while to clear them but by morning I could see the Oceanside area.

I remember the feeling of sailing up the coast that night. The wind was constant but not very strong. Sometimes it seemed like it had completely disappeared but when I looked at the sail it was still full - so there was must have been some wind somewhere!

By sunrise I was closing in on the harbor. But I couldn't see it. In fact only the landmarks I could identify on the map confirmed I was even at Oceanside. Without the map, I could of been anywhere!

The closer I got though, I started to identify a lot of tall masts rising up. But for some reason I couldn't see the harbor entrance.

The wind came out stronger as the morning progressed and I kept heading closer and closer. The thing that surprised me was how long it took to actually get in. By 11am I finally came in through the rocky harbor entrance! I docked the boat at the harbor patrol extra dock and finally got to get a solid hour of rest!"

It had taken me a day and two full nights just to get to Oceanside! Wow! what a struggle. When I left San Diego, I had thought I would arrive there sometime that first night. In this instance, having an engine to motor during all the calms i experienced would have saved me a lot of time!

Thanks for your comments!

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-Albie
http://sailingwithalbie.blogspot.com

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'More Pointers On Sailing without an Engine

You know, it's been about five years since I lost my engine in that big Gale in 2009. Those big waves ripped it right off the transom of my boat. You can read that story in Catalina Gale. Since then I've had a couple different outboard engines but they didn't do very well. It seems that every two or three months there was a problem with them: spark plugs, bad gas, the pull string breaking, carburetor and air filter problems, etc, etc... So I calculated the amount of time I've sailed without an engine and it comes up to almost four years. Wow! Well in that time I've learned some of my hardest sailing lessons. I can tell you it was not intentional that I learned them. If God had just given me a great working engine - I probably would have just taken it and forgot all the important lessons to be learned. In fact, with a great working engine I can almost tell you that I would NOT have learned these. And the question arises - do you even need to? My answer to this is yes - if you are serious about sailing, that is. The reason I believe it is important is because you never know when your dependance on an engine is suddenly going to get broken. The sea loves to get at you when you least expect it and challenge you when you don't want it. I'm not going to go into it as I've covered this story before in another article.

Basically the idea is that even great functioning engines can suddenly stop on you and if it was like anything like what happened to me it was when there was a huge surf and we almost got washed up on these jagged horrible rocks. If I hadn't had the sails ready o raise in a moments notice - it would have been too late and even the rushing harbor patrol wouldn't have been able to save us. Anyway, besides this, learning how to sail in light winds is a lesson most people won't learn because the temptation to just turn in the engine is too great. One night I saw a sailboat just drifting in the windless dead air out on the waves. They obviously had a problem with their engine and didn't know how to use the tide, waves and little bits of wind to make it back into the harbor. I was out at sea that same night and slowly sailed back to the harbor watching their boat drift up and down aimlessly and their sails flogging in the night air. Eventually I saw a harbor patrol boat come out to check on them. So that's a situation in light wind but what about sailing close hauled in a heavy wind coming straight down on you. Yes it is true that using your engine will help greatly when this happens. But what again if there is a problem with that? Have you tried tacking back and forth for what seems like endless amounts of time and face the dangers of getting pushed too close to the shore and trying to just make it another few feet before tacking so that you could succeed in getting where you needed to go. It can be nerve racking, I can tell you! Yet this situation may not even make sense to some. And this is because they've never experienced it and the reason for that is because of the all too wonderful engine. Now don't get me wrong - I am very much in favor of having an engine. I never thought I would hear myself say that but it's true. HAVING AN ENGINE can be the right tool for the situation but you should also study getting by without it because an engine does give you trouble sometimes and it will break down some day - just when you really need it!

     So are there any more lessons to be learned when sailing without an engine? I can think of the patience it gives you. And with this the lesson that at sea you can set a schedule and try to keep it but the sea sometimes will tear up your schedule and spit it back at you while laughing in your face. I say this out of experience. And these are times I had a working engine too. My advise when going on a sailing trip is to set a general time you expect to get back but always give a margin of time that may get stolen from you in case of crazy situations. And make sure to let your family or friends know this could be a reality. So with that I'm going to wrap this up even though there are many more things to say about it.

Thanks for your comments on 'More Pointers On Sailing without an Engine.'

-Albie
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