Glen, Judy and I had another sailing adventure yesterday. This time it was on Monterey Bay off the small boat basin at Moss Landing. We had two main objectives. The first was to test Glen’s new Android phone app It draws charts of the area and places a marker on the chart to tell where you are. It worked well until the battery went dead. Second objective was to test out the new bottom paint that we put on two weeks ago. Boy, talk about fast. Well I guess it was more a response to the 10 mph winds than to the bottom paint. Then again, no sea-life attached to the hull to slow us down. There was nary a barnacle on the bottom.
We started for the town of Monterey and as we approached we ran into fog. Bad sign! We turned around and went to Moss Landing instead. There was a thin layer of fog there also. It was lunch time, so we pulled out the picnic lunch and climbed aboard Regal Jug, (still on the trailer,) and had our lunch. Half an hour later it looked as though the fog might break up, so we determined that we should set up the boat and get ready. About an hour later we were ready to launch, the fog had cleared and a 10 mph sea breeze had set in. About 2:20 we got underway and dodged a few dozen zodiacs and kayakers As soon as we cleared the entrance buoy we raised the sails. At 2:38 pm we set off on the port tack for Santa Cruz. After about an hour we changed course and headed back to the marina. We were perhaps 15% of the way to Santa Cruz.
Shortly after turning about the Skipper Emeritus began to feel the need to be on dry land again. It isn’t often that you can be hard on the wind and still have a following sea, but that is what we had. I tried every trick I knew, but to no avail. The fish got my lunch and then I felt fine again.
Landing again back at the launch ramp was a bit tricky. Again we were inundated with zodiacs and kayaks. To make things interesting, however, the motor would not idle back. It would run half throttle or more, but as soon as you idled back it would stop. I was at the helm with Glen on the fore-deck ready to get a line ashore. I finally got a bead on the float and no kayak’s between us and the float. I got the motor running and made a high speed run at the dock. I only idled back when I was sure our momentum would carry us to the dock. Glen was able to step off onto the float with the bow line and then snag the stern line from Judy. It wasn’t pretty, but as they say in airplanes, “Any landing you can walk away from is a good landing, If the airplane is still usable it is a fantastic landing.” Well, Regal Jug suffered nary a scratch and the bottom paint is still all in place. It was a fantastic landing.
When we returned to Gilroy, we put the motor on the test stand and did a little tuning. Yes, it had been professionally serviced just a couple weeks ago, but a little twitch of the idle jet was all it took and the faithful old Honda would once again tick over at a dead idle without a hiccup.
Be sure to check out the website at
For a photo gallery of the adventure.
Gary and Judy