Rod,
That's one bad piece of water with nowhere to take shelter north of Bodega Bay and reefs breaking the surface some 5 miles offshore in some places. If you reach the Columbia River Bar you will have reached the consistently roughest patch of water in the US, home to the USCG Heavy Weather School because they can literally practice every day. A strong adventure going north from SF Bay is to go up to Tamales Bay. Going south is quite a bit easier. Half-moon Bay is quite doable as long as you can navigate. You can't do it safely as a visual approach and a friend from Intel proved that even with a GPS, you can sink a boat there rather easily if you don't know navigation. Santa Cruz and Monterey are also doable but you will be exposed to an area known for rouge waves. It's not an everyday thing but you have to sail closed up as if it is just in case. It's best done during daylight hours in deep water. I've only seen one from a beach and the 100 feet of dry sand to the cliff wound up under 2 feet of water. Entering Santa Cruz you have to deal with a small bar which takes some local knowledge or high tide. At low tide waves can break across the entrance and stuff you on the rocks. And a couple of friends successfully proved wave counting doesn't work. Certainly as dangerous as the GGB south tower devil. South of Monterey things get tricky again. There is a rock pinnacle a half mile off shore near Carmel that's comes up 60-70 feet to just break the surface at low tide. Even daylight doesn't help as it just looks like a white cap. Off Big Sur is sea mount central which really tears it up. Occasionally it will sink a heavy ocean cruiser in there off what the locals call hurricane point. Phil Agur <http://www.catalina27.org/public_pages/profile270.htm> s/v Wing Tip C270 LE #184 MMSI 366901790 From: [email protected] [mailto:[email protected]] On Behalf Of RobAdkins Sent: Sunday, August 22, 2010 7:06 PM To: [email protected] Subject: [IC27A] Re: sailing north why, a catalina 27 of course --- In [email protected] <mailto:IC27A%40yahoogroups.com> , "Phil Agur" <pja...@...> wrote: > > Rob, > > What kind of boat? > > Phil > > > > From: [email protected] <mailto:IC27A%40yahoogroups.com> [mailto:[email protected] <mailto:IC27A%40yahoogroups.com> ] On Behalf Of > RobAdkins > Sent: Sunday, August 22, 2010 10:37 AM > To: [email protected] <mailto:IC27A%40yahoogroups.com> > Subject: [IC27A] sailing north > > > > > > hi all, > > has anyone sailed the route from sf bay to portland? what are the conditions > like? thanks in advance -rob >
