March 10-14, 2013
Cabo was fun, except for the spring break mayhem. Tim and I had been here several times before, but this was new territory for the boys. They enjoyed playing on the beach and crashing a hotel pool. We weren’t quite ready for marina life, so we anchored out, which meant dinghy rides for laundry, shopping, and other onshore errands.
Logbook – March 10, 2013 (Turtle Bay to Cabo)
Passage Log Highlights
March 7-9, 2013
While the passage from Ensenada to Turtle Bay was calm with a lot of drifting and motoring, this passage gave us strong winds from the North, but since it was from the stern, it was no problem.
Logbook – March 7, 2013 (Turtle Bay to Cabo)
Passage Log Highlights
(Edit: I could tell something was different with the steering and I didn’t want to leave. Tim convinced me there was nothing we could do at Turtle Bay, better to press on to Cabo.)
Logbook – March 8, 2013 (Turtle Bay to Cabo)
Passage Log Highlights
(Edit: I’m loving the precision of the time index of our log entries while noting the action was done “earlier”)
Logbook – March 9, 2013 (Turtle Bay to Cabo)
Passage Log Highlights
March 4-7, 2013
After the boys got over their initial letdown (they were expecting a resort town for some reason) we ended up having a nice time at Turtle Bay.
Logbook – March 4, 2013 (Ensenada to Turtle Bay)
Passage Log Highlights
Email to family and friends dated March 4, 2013
Subject: Test
Hi, I’m testing sending an e-mail through our SSB radio. If you get this, send me back a brief text-only e-mail. Love you all.
-Deanne
Email to family and friends dated March 4, 2013
Subject: Looks like it worked
I’m amazed, the e-mail through the SSB radio worked on the first try!
The inReach isn’t working right now, so if you check it when you get up, don’t panic. 🙂
I suspect the batteries died, but Tim’s asleep in our room, so I don’t want to wake him rummaging for batteries.
Love you all.
-D.
March 2-3, 2013
The highlights of this passage were whales, whales everywhere, and our first catch. I didn’t get good photos of the whales this time (but stay tuned).
Logbook – March 2, 2013 (Ensenada to Turtle Bay)
Passage Log Highlights
Edit: This was a Bonita that we thought was a Skipjack until we learned the Skipjacks are really yucky
Logbook – March 3, 2013 (Ensenada to Turtle Bay)
Passage Log Highlights
Edit: Eventually, when I was actually able to hear all of the SSB nets, I stopped logging this type of crap in our main logbook and kept a separate notebook for it.
March 1, 2013
Our visit to Ensenada was brief. When we arrived in the harbor it seemed like a ghost town, and we had no idea where to dock the boat so we could clear in. The Harbor Master, Rojelio, at Baja Naval helped us out. We cleared in, had lunch on the boat, then headed out. There is no anchoring allowed there, and we were pretty done with Marina life for awhile.
Logbook – March 1, 2013 (San Diego to Ensenada to Turtle Bay)
Passage Log Highlights
Edit: Not sure how I possibly “listened” to the Amigo Net, because it took us a good while to hunt down all of the SSB radio noise sources on the boat to actually be able to listen to any of the cruising nets.
February 24 – 28, 2013
Our stay in San Diego was hectic and way too short. We continued trying to pack everything into every nook and cranny of the boat and ran around running errands. Most importantly we got to spend time with family before heading south.
Logbook – Feb 24, 2013 (MDR to San Diego)
Passage Log Highlights
Logbook – Feb 25, 2013 (MDR to San Diego)
Passage Log Highlights
Daily Notes
Edit: I have absolutely no memory of Alex ever doing yoga. These are the gems that live inside this logbook.
Logbook – Feb 28, 2013 (San Diego to Ensenada)
Passage Log Highlights
Daily Notes
December 29, 2012 – January 3, 2013
Shakedown cruise is a term referring to when a vessel is taken out for performance testing and or crew familiarization. It’s used in the nautical community for vessels of all sizes and also used prolifically within the sailboat cruising community when someone gets a new boat or does major repairs or upgrades and wants to test it out before venturing too far offshore. We did what we called a mini-shakedown cruise with Exodus, getting off the dock for a few days and venturing out to Catalina Island, which is part of the Channel Island chain off the coast of Southern California. We spent the first two nights at our favorite spot, Emerald Bay, and then also took a day trip out to Santa Barbara Island. The boys and I went ashore at Santa Barbara Island, and the dinghy drop off and pick up was quite adventurous, since we basically had to grab on to a ladder which was hanging down while the dinghy was bouncing around in the swell. We had a nice walk around the island, and the guest book at the visitors center showed that they don’t get too many guests this time of year.
We left Santa Barbara Island a little late and ended up arriving at Cat Harbor (the backside of Two Harbors) after dark on New Year’s Eve. We carefully navigated the forest of mooring balls until picking up one that turned out to be set up for a boat a bit longer than ours. The boys were ready to rally and go ashore, but Mom was the party pooper. We all ended up in bed before midnight.
The next day we headed to Little Harbor, which was the highlight of the trip. There was one other boat there with us, a young couple on a small monohull, and they went for a hike and took some great photos of Exodus from up on the ridge. The boys fished, tried out the new blow-up kayaks, and practiced driving the dinghy. It was cold, and we were all very much looking forward to the warm weather when we went south. (There will be days in the tropics where we will long for this weather!)
Logbook – Dec 29, 2012 (Marina del Rey to Emerald Bay)
Passage Log Highlights
Daily Notes
Edit: The anchor alarm is basically just an iPhone app. You set a waypoint where the anchor is located and then set a distance threshold, and if the iPhone GPS location exceeds that distance threshold from the anchor waypoint then the alarm goes off. The alarm is intended to be an indication that the anchor is dragging. The trick was always setting anchor waypoint accurately, so you don’t get false alarms. Eventually, later on when we were in Mexico, we developed a procedure where I would drop a waypoint on the boat chart plotter at the helm when we were dropping anchor, so we would have a more accurate anchor waypoint. Then I would transfer that waypoint location into the app and it became quite a reliable indication of anchor dragging.
Logbook – Dec 30, 2012 (Emerald Bay Day Sail)
Passage Log Highlights
Logbook – Dec 31, 2012 (Emerald Bay to Santa Barbara Island to Catalina Harbor)
Passage Log Highlights
Daily Notes
Logbook – Jan 1, 2013 (Cat Harbor to Little Harbor)
Passage Log Highlights
Daily Notes
Logbook – Jan 2, 2013 (Little Harbor)
Passage Log Highlights
Daily Notes
Edit: Our dinghy engine was a 20hp 4-stroke, which had a pull cord starter. It didn’t take Alex long to master the mechanics of getting it started. It took Brenden and I just a bit longer.
Edit: Running out of water is a rookie move. It won’t be our last.
Logbook – Jan 3, 2013 (Little Harbor to Marina del Rey)
Passage Log Highlights
Daily Notes
Edit: A pan pan is a distress signal one step down from a May Day. It basically means there’s an urgent situation, but no one is in immediate danger.
.
December 1, 2012 – February 24, 2013
We took possession of Exodus in San Diego on Dec 1, 2012. It was a long, overnight sail from San Diego to Marina del Rey via Emerald Bay (Catalina Island). We weren’t official owners yet, but we took possession in order to have time at home for final outfitting and preparation.
When we left San Diego we were intent on sailing (not motoring) but the winds were light and from the wrong direction, so after many hours of going further and further off course we finally motored up. We arrived at Catalina island while it was still dark and although Avalon was the closest anchorage, we weren’t that familiar with it, so we kept going to Emerald Bay, where we felt comfortable anchoring in the dark, since we had previously spent a few chartering weekends there. We got a few hours of sleep and then started the second leg to Marina Del Rey. We were able to sail most of this leg and pulled up to our end tie at Marina Del Rey Marina in the late afternoon.
Logbook Entries from New Boat Owners
Our logbook format evolved over time, and eventually we settled in on one section for passage log (indexed by time) and another section just for daily notes. But in the beginning, it was a bit of a mess.
Logbook – Dec 1, 2012 (San Diego to Emerald Bay)
Passage Log Highlights
Logbook – Dec 2, 2012 (Emerald Bay to Marina del Rey)
Passage Log Highlights
Edit: From the beginning, we used 24 hour military time for the logbook.
We had Exodus in Marina del Rey for almost 3 full months before our big departure. During that time we practiced navigating and docking; completed cleaning and maintenance work; and did a ton of provisioning and preparation. There was a lot to do but we also had a little fun.
Logbook – Dec 9, 2012 (Day Sail)
Passage Log Highlights
Daily Notes
Edit: Being a catamaran, Exodus has two engines, one at the back of each hull. This makes maneuvering a catamaran infinitely easier than a monohull.
Edit: The harbor at Marina del Rey is quite small compared to places like San Diego and Long Beach, so it was easy and quick to get from the dock out to open ocean.
Logbook – Dec 16, 2012 (Day Sail)
Passage Log Highlights
Gresham Family Exodus