The Taco Traveler

This isn't really a "log" since I didn't keep one on this trip, but I'll provide a run-down, anyway. I'm sitting on Chemistry at the moment in Avalon Harbor on Catalina - that big island off of L.A. where the stars used to play. More on Catalina in a bit.

First, I want to talk about how much I love my AIS receiver. Where Radar helps in fog or night or really any situation where you want to map any item that could be out there at all, AIS (Automatic Identification System) helps map out every boat of any significant size that could create a problem for my navigation (or my life). Here's what the AIS screen (the overlay on my Nobeltec charting software) looked like on the night before arriving in SLO: [here]. I'm the little green boat closest to shore. And those are like 8 big ships around me.
 
Okay, back to SLO to Catalina: The trip was definitely eventful. I left San Luis Obispo around 3pm. I was in no hurry to get out of there because I expected another 24-hour run, and I prefer to arrive in the daylight. One thing - I took a lot of screenshots on my computer because I thought some things were interesting. Mainly the AIS system and how it displays the traffic, but also this, just a pic and 2 zooms of the anchorage and the anchor alarm radius with the boat set to store its track all night:
SLO Anchorage 1
SLO Anchorage 2 (zoom)
SLO Anchorage 3 (zoomier)
Basically, what you're looking at here is the roaming area of Chemistry overnight while I slept. If she would have crossed outside of that boundary, it would mean that the anchor was dragging and a really ugly noise would have come from my computer, waking me up.
 
So when I woke up 14 hours later, I worked for a while and delivered some key stuff, sent some emails, etc.... Then I left SLO about 3pm and ran into a big bunch of wind. I had about 20-30 knots on my beam, and we were flying. It was fun, but eventually I started to worry that maybe I should get out in the ocean before I put up 100% sail. Duh. Anyway, I was able to reef no problems, so had a reasonable amount of sail up.

The real excitement started as I approached the Santa Barbara Channel and started seeing how much traffic from all over the world goes into that channel towards the ports of Long Beach and Hueneme (Oxnard). It's insane. One way AIS helps significantly is I know the name of the ship I need to communicate with, if communication becomes necessary. In this first image from the series I call "Frogger," you'll see a ship called "CF Campbell." I had to radio this ship because at first I was going to slow down and let him pass ahead of me, but it turned out he was a tug towing a really big load with a 200M cable and was only doing 6 knots, so it made more sense for me to go ahead. It's so nice to be able to call someone by name, switch to an appropriate channel, and take care of business. So much easier than describing his position and my position and hoping he's paying attention. In this screenshot you also see the track I'd planned but had to abandon (the thick black line that goes straight down from my current position, which would have run me right in front of the Cosco Hamburg).
 
So you see in that initial picture that even after I passed CF Campbell, I still had loads of traffic to contend with. I wanted to go outside of the Channel Islands to keep my wind, but so much traffic forced a change of plans. Just like in Frogger, sometimes you have to run along the highway before you find a good spot to cross... [Frogger2]. By Frogger 2 CF Campbell had caught up to me again because I had gone outside of the oil platforms (those black symbols with lights all around them) and he had gone inside. And basically I'm just sprinting along the side of the road waiting to cross....

And finally, at Frogger3 I had found a break in the traffic, hopped behind Maersk Teal, zagged along the Northbound lane a bit, radioed CSL Cabo (a Carnival Cruise Line ship) to tell him not to worry, I was crossing the separation zone but I'd cross in his wake, and then went for it. I won! Well, I didn't die so I made it to the next level.

Hm, "Soldier Boy" again. Gotta love Top 20 radio. That must mean I've been writing for an hour now. Maybe two? Jeez, it's time for bed.

Anyway, I ended up going between Santa Rosa Island and Santa Cruz Island, having another close encounter with a tanker which I'll add to this entry later.... But you know, I just realized I haven't slept more than 20 minutes at a time for about 36 hours, so.... g'night. :)

TT