Waiting
Yes, we need more voyage sagas on this net. Speaking of which, I took my 410 down the coast last month, ran through two gales on the way down and beat into one on the way back. Next time La Nina comes for a visit this kid is staying inside the bay! Was nice to see how BUOYANT, my H410 stood up to the seas, however. Way nice. Also nice to see how Hunter dealt with us breaking our new toys. On the way down we busted the mainsail furling drive, and Hunter had Seldon ship a replacement cross-country in 24 hours, with their LA dealer helping facillitate things even though I'd bought the boat from the SF dealer. Sweet. On the way north, we burnt out the motor on our windlass, and via the Hunter service dept Simpson Lawrence sent me a replacement motor overnight. Kudos to Greg Emerson for greasing the skids with the various Hunter vendors. Also to the Hunter design team for putting together a boat that can handle big seas. We went 48 hours between Pt Sur and Pt Arguello where the wind never dipped below 35 knots, and never once did the boat forget its manners. We had to hot-berth the crew since some of our bunks were unusable in heavy seas, but that tended not to be a problem once exhaustion set in. Only problem was that they closed down our intended landfall in Morro Bay because 18-footers were breaking over the harbor bar. Oh well, who needs sleep? Santa Barbara, here we come... When we finally made it back into SF bay, we went up to the Sacramento/San Joaquin river dealta to hang on the hook in fresh water for a couple of weeks and warm up. Even in 90 degree temperatures the boat stayed cool thanks to all these hatches. Sigh. So now we're home, and we spent yesterday waxing the hull to reward BUOYANT for a job well done.