SOCAL Passage Story
After a 51 hour passage, Summerwings arrives in Southern California on Tuesday,
October 11. While Admiral Kim suffered a case of mal-de-mer a good portion of the trip, her spirits will buoyed by several
whale sightings and numerous dolphin encounters.
0600, Sunday 10/09/05: Summerwings departed the Loch Lomond Marina to a wonderful
farewell from friends. Most of our dockside neighbors arose early to see us off. As we exited the harbor,
George and Sandy gave us dual full moons as a send off. Several marina residents reported hearing Kimmy laughing at
the sight of George and Sandy's hanging BAs at us.
By 0730 we passed under the Golden Gate Bridge and by 0830 turned south. With the wind less than
5 knots we motored south and at 1206 we stopped in Half Moon Bay to top off our fuel tanks to insure we had enough fuel to
make it all the way to Southern California. During the stop Kimmy felt well enough to down some lunch (a bowl of grits).
Unfortunately, as soon as we hit the ocean swells again, her tummy began to bother her. In her defense I must state
that the seas, although only 7 to 9 feet, were hitting the boat on the starboard stern causing us to shimmy and yaw a bit
more than we thought it would.
Sunset on the 9th saw us off of the City of Monterrey. Nights shifts had
been assigned as follows:
Brad: 6 PM to 10 PM
Ken: 10 PM to 2 AM
Kim: 2 AM to 6 AM and so on.
Due to the way Kimmy was feeling, Brad and Ken split Kim's shift with Brad covering 2 AM to 4 AM and
Ken covering 4 AM to 6 AM.
0100, October 10th: We passed the light at Pt. Sur and were amazed at the incredible
number of stars visible. At 0800 Kim insisted on doing a shift to allow Ken & Brad to get some rest. She had
not been at the helm for more than 10 minutes when a grey whale should its flukes then "waved" at us with its pectoral fin.
While Ken slept, Kim witnessed two whales leap from the water and slap bellies. Throughout the day several groups
of dolphins buzzed the boat and played between the hulls. Kimmy still felt ill so spent the afternoon lying
down. She insisted she was not feeling as bad as the previous day. Dale lasted 24 hours before insisting on trying
to get off the boat to pee. Unfortunately, we were 5 miles off the coast. We finally convinced him it was OK to pee
in the cockpit which he did with abandon then took a nap with a satisfied grin on his face. Ben lasted 36 hours and
then did the same. At around 1900 we passed Pt. Conception, turn southeast and entered the Santa Barbara Channel.
0230, October 10th: Ken awoke with a start due to changes in engine RPMs under
the bed he was sleeping in. Upon entering the cockpit he discovered Brad watching the radar intently as Kimmy steered
the boat through a thick sea mist which limited visiblility to about 100 yards. A check of the starboard engine confirmed
we were having problems with RPM drop and Ken proceeded to shut down the engine and check it out. He quickly determined
that the fuel filter gasket was not seated correctly and rectified the situation. However, in doing so, ahe llowed
air into the fuel system. Brad spent an hour or so trying the bleed the system to no avail and we proceeded onward on
one engine. Throughout the rest of the night we monitored the radar and chartplotter to assure ourselves that we would
not hit any oil rigs.
0630, October 11th: Sunrise found us about 15 miles from Oxnard and we continued
on one engine. We finally entered the harbor at 0930. We took on fuel and discovered we only had about
3 gallons of fuel left. This meant that if the engine had not been shut down, we might have run out of fuel. A
lesson learned and Ken finally agreed to carry additional jerry cans of diesel fuel. We then got the boat secured, picked
up our rental car and took Brad to his home in Huntington Beach where we visited with his wife and kids and spent the night.
