Follow Up On Sabra

As I was typing up Sabra's Log I was filled to the brim of memories and savoring every word  and photograph. She was a wish full filling boat. In addition to our trans pacific crossing, we sailed her inter island to Maui with 7 ladies on board, crossing at night going up the slot between Molokai and Lanai and having a blast with our friend Ben in Lahina who lived aboard his Crescendo. This was our shakedown cruise before the crossing and the main halyard broke on our return trip back to Honolulu just before we took the western tip of Molokai to our stern. It was good to have this happen before the pacific crossing. The Molokai channel is a rough section to cross as it is shallow and the NE trade winds and seas can pack a wallop. Inter island sailing  in Hawaii  is not for the novice sailor.

Sabra took us on the annual 3-day race around the island (Oahu) race, sponsored by the Waikiki Yacht Club. This time we had the fun-ist race ever, laughing ourselves silly with Jean, Bambi, Mike and his sweetheart, Lynne on board. It was a light wind race but we took to tacking through the NE Trades after leaving Diamond Head with the first night layover in Kaneohe Bay at the KBYC.  The next leg took us around Kahuku Point where we had a nice wing and wing downwind run  to Kaena Point. The second night we anchored in Pokai Bay on the western side. The third day was the slow, tacking slog back to Honolulu on the leeward shore of Oahu. We had the best time (fun) and not winning time.

Sabra at anchor Hanalei Bay

Hanalei Bay, Kauai
Google Images

Mike and Lynne followed Sabra to Kauai in his CAl 29, anchoring in Hanalei Bay. From there 7 of us took a fabulous day sail down the exquisitely gorgeous, windward Na Pali coast and back with lots of wind and catching ulua for the BBQ. That was such a memorable trip.

Na Pali Coast Kauai
Google Images

I had a self tending jib put on Sabra for when I was sailing her singlehanded or for short trips. Short tacking back up the Na Pali coast was primo and easy. I would call out, "tacking" and over she'd go and no one had to handle a line. Don't you just love it? Well not everyone did. There were a few sea sick folks who, upon entering the calm waters of Hanalei, cried out, "what a difference a bay makes" and "terra firma--the more firma, the less terra".

Speaking of  terra or terror. Sabra was my final potion that cured me of my fear of sailing and being in rough seas. When I stepped aboard her, I was never afraid, nor sea sick. Thank you Sabra, Sparkman/ Stephens and Nautor for making such a therapeutic boat that fit me to a tee.

My latest update on Sabra. In June 1987, I sold Sabra to Tami Oldham (Ashcraft). She is the famous lady mariner who got pitch-poled in the south pacific ocean during a hurricane, losing her fiancee, but being able to jury rig the boat and sail her back to the big island of Hawaii. She wrote the book, Red Sky in Mourning, about this experience. She was living in Friday Harbor at the time I sold her Sabra. She kept her for a few years and then sold her. A few weeks ago I called her to see if she knew the whereabouts of Sabra.
She had a hard time recalling specific information, but this is what she said. She thinks she sold her to a lady in Port Townsend, Wa. The lady may have been Jewish as she recalls the lady liking the name of Sabra. All this is new information for me. Another piece in the puzzle in my efforts to find Sabra.

Somewhere a Swan 36, hull number 74, built in 1969 is berthed in the Pacific North West.. Anyone with information about this boat, please notify me.

Sabra Log: Interesting Stats

Repairs:

1. Autopilot-6.5 hrs
2. Vane-4.75 hrs
3. Belts on alternator starter generator- 4 hrs
4. Sails/cushions- 1 hr
5. Wiring- 5 hrs
6. Engine bleeding air- 3 hrs
7. Water filter and alcohol tank- 1.5 hrs
Total: 25.5 hrs

Winds/Speeds/Miles
Westerly winds: 72 hrs from Hanalei to Cape Flattery
Wind speeds- 00mph to 50mph- 3 gales
Boat speed- best 7.7k on 11 July. average boat speed from Hanalei to Cape Flattery- 5.068k
Day’s run- best- 167.5nm, least 89.5nm
Estimated Seas- 0ft to 25 ft.
Deepest sea- 20,400 feet
Water taken on- 90 gal
Fuel- 61 gal, used 40
Alcohol- 7 gal, used 3 gal
Miles- Hanalei to Cape Flattery-2554.5nm  Average- 121.64nm/day
            Honolulu to Tacoma- 2812.5nm
Fish Caught- 44; 24 Albacore, 5 Ahi, 5 Aku, 8 Mahi, 1 salmon, 1 long, skinny (?). 3 flying fish, squid found on deck, 1 bird.
Largest urinary output-  950cc

Ships sighted: 
7 July-3 fishing, 1 freighter
13 July- Freight
15 July- 5 fishing
17 July-1 vessel
20 July- Freighter
23 July- freighter
26 July- Matson Container Vessel
27 July- 2 fishing canneries, 2 freighters,
Total- 18

Total engine hrs from Hanalei to Neah Bay- 130hr, 36 min or equal to 5.43 days of motoring.

Celestial Navigation- 4 noon sights,  and on one day only we took 2 LOP+noon sight, no star sights

Saw only: 1 sunrise, 1 lunar eclipse, 4 star lighted nights, 3-4 days of sun, 2 sunsets and 17 days of cloud cover/or fog.

Sabra Log 28-31 July 82

28 July- Up early for breakfast. I slept on Sabra, warm and toasty, down bag, 2 wool blankets, wool cap, fog horn all night. The people in Neah Bay are really nice. Big salmon run, lots of fisherman, campers.

1135- finished a pot of coffee, overcast with light fog but clearing. Engine on without bleeding. Have 163 poled out to port+ full main moving right along 5k wind out of west. Hurray, here come the westerlies. We had 30 liters in aft tank when we departed today. Have preprogrammed 4 waypoints to Port Angeles. Bambi takes the ferry over to Port Angeles and we arrive at 1630. My friends Midge and Rosie are meeting us. I called another friend Pet, as she will be meeting us tomorrow in Port Ludlow, in her 30 ft trawler.

Hira plots course from Neah Bay to Port Angeles

A beautiful sail downwind to PA, caught one salmon but threw him back. Met up with friends, had a wonderful Mexican dinner, saw their lovely home, They washed my Sabra shirt, as somehow it didn’t get washed yesterday at Neah Bay. Back on board I got a radio call from Bill Birchfield for tv coverage of our arrival into Tacoma.

29 July- Another beautiful sail from PA to Port Ludlow where we will rendezvous with some old Army friends. Bambi on board with us as of yesterday pm.. It is so great to have her join us, as she is always such a support on land and on sea. She has done many an hour sailing with us in Hawaii on Sabra, Double Trouble and the Josephine P. (Mike’s boat) Arrive PL at 1900 hrs. Pet, Davey and Retha have arrived on the 30 ft Trawler, Pet’s Toy from Gig Harbor and everyone is happy to see us.

30 July- Fogged in and finally depart at 1115 hrs. Pet can’t believe she has to go so slow to stay side by side with us and finally make Gig Harbor at 2015. Other friends join us for a late dinner at the local restaurant. I had fried shrimp. Delicious.

Sabra in Colvos Passage
163+ full main

31 July-  We have a leisurely morning with friends and I now don’t want this trip to ever end.
Depart at 1230 and motor over to Tacoma at Tyee Marina and my new slip.

Celebrations in Tacoma

Confident and Seasoned  Sailors
Honolulu to Tacoma: 2812.5nm

I write in my journal:
This trip has been the most remarkable, the most difficult, the most beautiful, the most rewarding, the most exhausting, the most valuable learning experience in my life as to this date.
“Let the stars guide me and the winds carry me through the waves of my life” written in the late 1970’s by me. A dream come true but never completed. There is always a beginning, but never an ending.

Oh yes, now its time to head back to work.

Sabra Log 27 July 82 The Long Awaited Landfall- Cape Flattery

27 July- At midnight 0000hrs we all decide to be up, one to steer a very accurate course, one to be lookout as we have lots of fog< 1/6th of a mile and no one can catnap.  Zero wind, drop the main and 130 lashed to port. Our auto pilot gear stripped at 2100hrs so having to  hand steer.

0200 hrs- Mike called Seattle Traffic control and they turned us over to Tofina Traffic Control for the strait. Tofina is on Vancouver Island. They pick us up on radar and will track our course and speed of 4k at 82TC. They alert us there are 2 fishing boats adrift ¼ nm north of us and we will pass south of them in 1 hour. They were tracking all ships north of 48 degrees and the strait.. There were 2 cruise ships Fiord and Royal Viking Sea approaching Cape Flattery during this time. 2 Russian vessels and 500 fishing fleet vessels. It was very interesting to listen as he moved ships around. Fog continued and at daylight we had and lost 2 salmon and landed one. We are having poor visibility and the place is crawling with lots of recreational fisherman. They appear out of no where and we are dodging them left and right.

0800 hrs we are 7.5nm from the cape. We are all excited, to say the least, however we stand vigilant..
0942hrs. Our Loran alarm goes off telling us we have reached our waypoint at Cape Flattery, but everything is shrouded in dense fog.  We are putting all our faith into our Loran fixes and Dead Reckoning Positions(DR) and continue to hold our course for Neah Bay.

Mike quickly computes our real ETA and compares it to our estimated ETA from Hanalei.
We miss our estimated ETA by 6hrs, 57 minutes and 39 seconds. Mike writes in the log book. 98.67% Accurate. AW SHUCKS!

1000 hrs-we move out of the fog bank which is a wall stretching from Cape Flattery to Vancouver Island. The sky is blue, the trees green and the snow capped Olympic mountains take your breath away.

Flags go up
Mike fixes SSB antenna

1200hrs we arrive at Neah Bay entrance buoys. We tie up, get motel room, do tons of laundry, sleep, eat and make lots of phone calls.

Well Done, Well Done
A happy Captain and her crew.

Hanalei Bay to Cape Flattery
21 days, 18 hours, 42 minutes, 10 seconds
2554.5 nm

Sabra Log 25,26 July 82

25 July- 0800hrs- winds are dropping and at 15mph, we shake out  2nd reef and at 1000 shake out 1st reef.
1415hrs- unable to start engine on aft tank again, so went thru process of bleeding fore tank and then switching. Winds are very lite so ran the engine and motor sailed 2040 hrs.
At 1600 hrs we were able to make contact with KMI for the first time in daylight hours. I got a call through to my boss, Joyce in Honolulu, Mom had call in for us so we talked to her and finally located where Bambi was and talked to her. She is in the San Juan Islands and will take the ferry over to Port Angeles and meet us there. My mother said the PAO( personal affairs officer) at Madigan/Ft Lewis, WA. Has been trying to call me as they
want to to meet us upon docking in Tacoma for a story. Our transmissions are not always clear but we hear them well. KMI really works the antenna for clarity for each ship.
Around 2000 they started picking up Neah Bay on VHF radio. This is encouraging. 137nm to go to cape.


Ghost sailed all night. Well I am happy, we got our storm to move us along. Now about that Cape Flattery Fog that is so present this time of year.
Total engine hrs-102

 26 July- at midnight I took watch from Jean. As she went below I heard a pin drop. At first I thought it was something Jean had dropped. NO, I said to myself, I’d better check the vang. It was a good thing as the “o” ring had come out of the snap shackle and the spring and pin had fallen on deck and the shackle and vang were just hanging, swinging. I jumped forward lying over the winch on my stomach and grabbed the pins. After Mike helped me take the main down I rewired the fitting.
0200 hrs- wind veered only making 3k. Dropped main and ran 130 to port, steering 070CC. Had to tack downwind all night.

Over the past 1000 miles we have observed strange brown coiled objects in the ocean with a line running off them and they have nobby heads on them with a tail part coiled about 10-20 ft long. The reddish brown wavy stuff hangs in the water for quite a distance.( giant kelp)

2 Orca whales showed up and played with us for about 30 minutes. I took movies of them. Such beautiful animals.

0830hrs- Mike and I put 38 more liters10 (gal) in the fuel aft tank Engine started without bleeding fore tank. We now have 50 liters in aft tank and 8 gal in fore tank. Engine hrs for this trip are 102hr 6 min.This is the most the engine has run and it just purrs along. We are now using the cold start button.
Fog has prevailed since yesterday and visibility is about a mile. We have pre-programmed 2 waypoints on the loran. We are now having it on for a direct course to 48.27N, 124.45 W which is 2nm north of Duntze Light, off Tatoosh Island and Cape Flattery. At 0830 hrs we are 99.2 nm away.
1039- Just finished another repair of the auto pilot. During the storm a fuel can shifted and broke off  the male dc connector of the auto pilot. Took a male from the spot light. After doing this Humpy still wouldn’t work, so took him apart again and traced a loose connection.. all is well and back on Humpback steering our course 070CC at 4.1 k without wind and light fog. Spotted Matson container ship off port at 1130 hrs, coming thru fog about 3 miles away. Eerie.

1000hrs- I cooked pancakes, coffee for breakfast and switched into pacific daylight time zone-8th at noon. Cleaned cockpit and straightened out 2 fouled hand lines. Started running a salmon lure. Played with Radio Direction Finder(RDF) picking up Neah Bay radio beacon. As of 1600 hrs we have 75.4 nm to go.
Out of paper plates, butter. We never ran out of water that day I noted such. It must have been an air bubble or those sneaky gremlins again. Catching up on light lists, charts, locations, tide tables and currents for the Strait.
Jean is cooking up a rare, non fish dinner- chicken, mushrooms, green beans, onion, garlic and soy. Cloudy all day, no sun, fog cleared. Have to stop and eat this wonderful meal. I can’t sleep awaiting Cape Flattery.

Sabra Log 23,24 July 82

23 July- I write, today is 25 July and I have not had time, energy or desire to write. The winds begin to pick up around 1000hrs from the north 15-20 then to 25mph.  Unable to start engine from aft tank fuel, and get a lot of air out of line and start from forward tank.

1500hrs- Winds pick up 30 mph. We put in one reef in the main, take down the 163 and bag it. The 160 was lashed on deck from earlier use, so we bagged her and put both below. Then brought back up the 130  and hoisted her. Each bag is as big as Jean and I and they are very hard to move in this wind. We both are moving slow to get this done and Mike is hand steering. It is a tiring 1.5 hours to get it all done, but this has to be done to get ready for a gale and darkness. We have just gotten our storm and Sabra is kicking up her heels. You go girl.  At 2200hrs we are 394nm from the cape.

24 July- Winds-north- have increased to35mph at 0100hrs.
0400 hrs- We are all up to put the 2 reef in main and leave the 130 up. The seas are huge and daylight is beginning. Sabra is doing very well, then some beeg rollers come thru perhaps 20-25 feet high. We had some 45 gusts  and once the anemometer was pegged 2x at 50mph, but mostly stayed 30-35. We had to take the vane off, as the gaskets slipped on that lower mounting bracket. Back to hand and bungee steering. Have switched to 2 hrs on and 4 off. We are very wet, it is cold, the condensation is running off the cabin walls.
1300 hrs. We have re-bled the engine to start on forward tank and then switch to aft tank. We can’t get engine to start on aft tank even with bleeding it.  We are eating little for day and half, no cooking.
Electric bilge pump also acting up again. Now hand pumping q 2 hrs, depending on the amount of seas crashing on us. Thank heavens for that new dodger extension and weather cloths. They keep most of it off us.
2200hrs-240nm to Cape.

Sabra Log 21,22 July 82

21 July- 0001 hr- no wind, sails down, engine on 340CC, making 4k.
Mike fixed breakfast- great eggs, bacon, toast, hash browns and coffee.
I slept til 1300hrs after breakfast.  Got up cleaned and put on new long johns as it is colder. If only the sun would come out. No wind.

The 1900 weather update does not look good
The high is at 48N and 145W.
There are 4 ridges:
1. Extending northeast to 60°N Lat.
2. Extending southwest to 30°N
3. Extending south east to 45°N
4. Extending south east to 25°N
Our DR is right in the long ridge that goes south east to 25° We are at 46N and 140W.

We have had engine on and off  and have had to tack too numerous of times on headers for a sane mind to consider.
We take the 160 down as she gets back winded and is getting a chafed place at spreader bar. Will tape and sew. Will switch to my 163% when we can as it is a lighter sail. Wind fluctuates from NE to NW and is 5.

We have added 10 gallons to aft tank at 1600. I am trying to keep up with mileage to go/fuel consumption/ fuel remaining. Also this liter aft tank drives me crazy as I can’t compute it in my head so always need the calculator.  We have enough fuel for 596nm and at noon we have 689.1nm to go. Where are the westerly’s? We need a storm!

Transferring fuel to aft tank.















This is frustrating. Our total run for 24 hrs noon to noon was our worst- 89.5nm-ugh. We floated thru the time zone and we will now factor in our max variation of 22E. Our autopilot went out at 1800hrs, the port micro-switch stuck. It took me 1.5 hrs to fix so all is well. I am pleased we have been  able to make all our repairs. It is rewarding to be able to do that at dock, but when one is underway it is even more rewarding.

The engine is doing well, using about a liter and hour and the batteries are staying up. We have all lost weight. 

At 2040 hrs, Jean is on, Mike off. I’m at nav station so with the engine on, the cabin is warm, the red nav light creates an inviting picture from the cold cockpit. Mike and I discuss the high and fuel consumption. We 3 toast with some hot chocolate-another Windsong gift+ 3 postcards from Annie, Leslie and Nancy. We sat down and wrote them all cards and will mail them when we reach shore. Windsong is a Cal 25. 

I still believe that we will ride this high out and have my 20mph winds and 4 ft seas to take us to Cape Flattery without fog. In the meantime we are all praying for wind.

At 2100hrs the electric bilge pump stopped.
I place a note in logbook:

At end of each watch, hand pump bilge at aft cockpit pump--handle is located in engine control locker.  Will fix in morning. Total engine hours 85.75.

22 July- Awoke this AM about 0900. Jean and Mike had set the 163% with 10 wind and engine off at 0830hrs. It is a beautiful sail and one that I have never used as it is very light. In Hawaiian waters I only used the heavy sails. 

Jean repaired the 160.  I rewired the electrical connection to the electric bilge pump. I cooked 2 meals today, the last of that wonderful cabbage. Still have a few onions and potatoes left. Made corn bread muffins tonight and they were really good. 2nd day without fish.

Winds held NW all day. Hope we can get underway. The vane is doing well, the wind goes from8-20 which means the tiller needs trimming constantly. Winds pick up we head up, winds down and we fall off. Compass swings from 30-70. I could just scream at times. It is so frustrating. I don’t think that we will ever get there. I’d just soon wake up from a good night’s sleep and be there. This is ridiculous. The high is still stationary with ridges going to Alaska, Cape Flattery and all the way to Baja. Gales are sandwiched in between the ridges. We still might be 2 days late reaching Cape. Will try to notify Bambi tomorrow depending on my watch.

No sun again, but not as cold. The weather said a cold front is moving across the north. So far we are always dry which is a relief. I guess the weather could always be a lot worse. I re-read the loran book. Mike kisses the Loran 4X a day. 

Tonight it is so dark that I can’t see the coaming on the other side of the cockpit. Sabra is moving nicely with full main and 163, 10-12 wind. Getting good loran fixes and near our DR. The days go fast and these nights are long. I  do not like the 4 hr night watches, much too long, especially the midnight to 0400. The 2 hr dog watches that Mike made up on his computer and printed out, are nice but they are at 4-6 and 6-8 pm. It is 2230 and only 1.5 hrs to go. Hope I can stay awake. We have steered pretty much a course of 045CC all day and night. At midnight 535.4nm to the Cape.