Sailing Down the West Coast – No Picnic

Getting from Victoria to Mexico (Ensenada) was just the start of our 5-year odyssey. Add to that the political situation in the US, and we were not keen to loiter for long on the west coast. In the end, though, we spent over two months transiting the US west coast, which had both its high points and lessons to be learned.

Victoria to Eureka

Our original plan was to make this journey as quickly as possible. The aim was to take an offshore route (about 100NM offshore) with stops only in the major ports of San Francisco, Los Angeles and San Diego, in large part to avoid tricky bar crossings. In addition, we were driven by the desire to save on moorage fees and to get this part of the journey ‘out of the way’. With this plan in mind, we didn’t have many US west coast cruising guides, or detailed advice for the first stage of our journey. We started early in the season, leaving in July instead of waiting for September, as we figured this would give us a good buffer if we needed to accommodate for weather, etc.

The plan, as all plans do, soon changed. We had sailed up to Ucluelet in early July, planning to spend a couple of weeks there to both unplug and get into ‘cruising mode’. This was an idyllic time. It was our second visit and we experienced some great cruising around Barkley Sound, tempered only by the foreboding knowledge we were going to be heading off soon. Watching the weather in those two weeks, there were a series of systems that brought in strong winds, so it was not until July 21 that the first decent window appeared. But instead of too much wind it was now showing very little wind for our first passage. We decided to leave anyway, and headed off with our hearts in our mouths.

Two days later we had done more motoring than anticipated and with light wind forecast for the next few days, we decided to cut our losses and head into Astoria on the Columbia River. This was an unplanned stop and involved learning how to cross a bar (the Columbia River bar no less!) with no forward planning or research. Bar reports are available from the US Coast Guard, but in Astoria they will not provide any additional information/guidance (they have recently been successfully sued for giving advice that didn’t help and so are mandated to not provide anything beyond the bar report information).

Once in Astoria, we were committed to an inshore route. Our next stop was Coos Bay (another bar crossing) and then onto Crescent City in California to avoid another bar. Pulling into Crescent City, the harbour was shallow and approximately 9 ft deep. We didn’t find the harbour especially appealing, so we headed down to Eureka overnight.

As we were departing Crescent City Harbor, we heard a tsunami warning over the radio; you have got to be kidding – right?! As we were already leaving, we headed for deep water, as advised, to ride out the ‘wave(s)’ – visions of the Perfect Storm  in our heads. In the end, when the tsunami hit at midnight, we were in 300 feet of water (incidentally apparently deep water to ride out a tsunami is considered anything greater than 150 feet) and it was a bit of a non-event with no noticeable surge. The sea state was a real mess for the rest of the night though as we motored down to Eureka. We learnt later that even if there is no major obvious surge with a tsunami, it will play havoc with the sea state for up to 48 hours after by interfering with any natural swell patterns.

Getting into Eureka was another bar crossing, however we completed this one in the early morning with reassurance from the Eureka Harbor Master that all was well inside the bar (the coast guard couldn’t help as they had been evacuated for the tsunami). After a couple of days to rest, we found ourselves stuck in Eureka (there are worse places to be stuck) waiting for a weather/sea state window to get around Point Mendocino. We dropped into the NOAA office in Eureka a couple of times during our stay and they were very happy to share their knowledge and forecasts to assist with planning our exit. In the end we stayed for ten days before we got a break in the weather and left for San Francisco.

Eureka to Southern California

We expected that rounding Cape Mendocino would have been the turning point for us, hoping that the weather would now improve and the sailing and harbour entrances would get easier. As we entered San Francisco we were hit by 25 knot winds, a very confused sea state and another bar crossing (note to self here – avoid crossing a bar late afternoon as the wind always builds later in the day).

Heading under the Golden Gate Bridge

San Francisco was a great experience but not anchor-friendly (either very shallow or not protected) and, for us, not that relaxing. The combination of constant wind and rolling anchorages was very wearing. Pushing on to Half Moon Bay, Monterey Bay and Carmel-by-the-Sea, the conditions did start to improve but we were definitely not in the sunny, comfortable cruising weather we expected. This was confirmed by the locals all down the coast who said we were early for their summer, which is typically in September/October.

The next big step took us to Ventura and Los Angeles via Point Conception. We passed the Point, again in the late afternoon, and were met with the worst seas we had encountered since leaving Victoria: very confused, steep and choppy with 25+ knots of wind. Once past the Point we finally made it to sunny California.

From here on most of the challenges of the North American west coast were now behind us. Our ongoing sails down to Los Angeles, San Diego and Ensenada had less drama (apart from a fuel problem around Ensenada), and we finally found ourselves enjoying the good weather we had hoped for.

Berthed among the palm trees in Southern California.

Key Takeaways

In summary, the US west coast was definitely a challenge for us, with a steep learning curve. If we were heading off again the following would be our key takeaways:

• Even if you don’t plan on crossing bars, do the research so that if you need to, you can with confidence.
• Cape Mendocino is hard to get around but you are not out of the woods until you round Point Conception, some way south.
• Avoid pinch points and headlands mid-afternoon – local knowledge (borne out on our journey) is that the wind always picks up and can make things very uncomfortable with confused sea states.
• Even if you plan on few stops and long offshore runs, be prepared to take your time if the weather doesn’t cooperate.
• Leaving earlier in the season does not necessarily mean the weather will be better. The traditional plan of leaving in September seems to hit a sweet spot for covering this journey with more consistent winds and better weather inland.
• Think how you would manage in the event of a tsunami – you never know!