Closed Captions (CC):
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so

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well we're underway crescent city was a

nice stop for us

didn't do much there but got a couple

things done

fog's uh lifted up about 200 feet above

our heads

this is round rock that's where emma

caught her

first fish in california that was a nice

little

black rock fish made a wonderful meal

okay do south

about 45 miles is trinidad head that's

where we hope to anchor tonight

beyond that eureka another

it's about 20 miles after that

conditions are looking great out here

you can't ask for better condition it

feels like a lake

there's only a two to three foot rolling

swell seven seconds apart supposed to

build tomorrow

but we'll be in eureka by then

okay

making way our passage was pretty

uneventful

with times of limited visibility so the

light and variable winds was just fine

for us

this gave us a chance to try out

different sail configurations

and get to know basic a little better

the wildlife was

out in full force as we saw dolphins

molas and quite a few pods of humpback

whales

we didn't have far to travel so there

was no rush

this was a calm and leisurely sail down

the coast

that is until the last 10 minutes

so here we are tucked in behind trinidad

head

i hate it and i love it i love it

because it's picturesque

it's beautiful it's got this

sea of boats here i wasn't anticipating

you know on all the charts that show

this

this is a a nice anchorage but

not a lot of room in there that's all 20

and 30 foot deep

out here is 50

60 foot deep

so i went around over here around this

little island

and i was going to anchor over there

where there was a little bit of

clearance and it shows that that is a

good anchorage over there on my charts

dropped the anchor

and that rock down i could feel it just

skipping across big boulders i mean

so instantly i pull it up and we're

looking for a new spot

and we catch a nice big rock

in the rocna so

i'm struggling trying to get that out

the wind's blowing 20

and blends at the helm

and we lose steering the hydraulic ram

blows now we have no steering

rudders are kicked sideways we have a

rock

stuck in our anchor and engines are

still on

so i grab the helm uh get the anchor

up as tight to the boat as i can and

steer with the

just the engines only just to relocate

get out of that situation

with the rudders kicked it was a little

tricky took us a minute to get over here

okay i'll admit it took a little bit

more than a minute but let's take a look

at this here's our path coming in

this pink line represents our entrance

into the anchorage you can see it's

coming up

nicely right here we decide there's not

enough room in this anchorage

here so we go around prisoner rock and

this is our path coming over

and we try setting the hook here

this is where everything went crazy we

lose control of the steering

we get the rock stuck in the anchor

and you see the wind is drifting us back

at this position here

you know look at this we have exposed

rocks i can see these and

rocks are awash all around us i take

control of the boat

uh with engines only and we limp back

around prisoner rock

over to this mooring field over here

we'd make one attempt at one mooring

ball and i didn't have a good shot on it

and the wind's drifting us over

but lynn was able to grab the next one

but there's all these mooring balls here

so i figure okay let's just

i'll get up to one of these lynn runs

forward she grabs a mooring ball

we tie off and the mooring field

operator comes out and talks to us says

hey look these are small mooring balls

they're not intended for a boat your

size

but it looks like it's the wind's gonna

be dying down i told him our situation

he said okay but

get out of here before tomorrow it's

gonna start blowing

we'll see it feels like i hope we don't

drag this thing

i mean we're a light boat but

anyways so the steering we have no

steering

so i disable the ram

and i put on our temporary steering

system

and this was just sketched out by me

uh when we're designing the steering and

in theory

it looks like it would work but i didn't

like it

it's all rigged up and it was too

difficult

to pull both rudders over manually

i'm gonna have to come up with a better

way for a backup system

well for sure i'm getting an extra ram

i'll tell you that we can swap out ramps

pretty quick

so that will be our backup but for now

i latched the rudders

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straight so at least we could steer with

engines

so we're going to hightail it out of

here first thing in the morning at

daybreak

uh the winds will be calm and we'll get

down to eureka

we'll have to cross the eureka bar and

get

up into humboldt bay and into the marina

uh without rudders so it'll be

interesting i

i feel pretty confident uh steering with

just engines

and most of time when i come into a

marina i don't use the rudders at all

regardless but i've never gone

20 miles without rudders we'll see how

this works tomorrow

so for now i'll put a anchor alarm on

make sure hopefully we don't drag this

guy's mooring ball

i've got double lines on it i'm not too

worried about

moving too far if uh if we start moving

start dragging alarm will go off we'll

kick on the engines and figure things

out

but for now i guess we just enjoy the

view have some dinner

and hit it first thing in the morning

start heading south

we'll see how this goes

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okay bright and early the next morning

the wind died down

this uh mooring held us all night

ran an anchor watch system and we just

kind of rotated and bobbed around it all

night

a little bit of fog this morning

but a lot of hustle and bustle in this

little anchorage it's time to get out of

here

we'll uh limp on into eureka this

morning it's about 22 and a half miles

we'll see how things go steering with

just the engines

you know i've done that going in and out

of a slip in a marina

just never this long a distance so we'll

see how it works

rudders are secure i've lashed them

in the straight position so in theory

this should work

i guess we'll see

well seemed like uh it's running pretty

good so far

took me a minute to balance the rudders

i set it up so i could actually

adjust it slightly back and forth to

find the center point

you could see right here as we're

leaving the anchorage

it was difficult to keep the boat

on its course and about right here is

where we got the

rudders balanced enough that look at

this

we could just keep a nice heading

once we found that i could just use the

engine controls

to somewhat navigate a straight line you

know we're varying

five degrees above and below uh

our course but i think that's pretty

good considering

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humboldt bay coast guard humboldt bay

coast guard

humble bay coast guard this is sailing

vessel

basic over

this is coast guard station humboldt bay

yes we would like to inform you of our

situation

we are a 43-foot sailing catamaran

we lo had a malfunction with our

steering and have

no control of our rudders we are on

limited steering as we enter the harbor

cellar vessel stacy coast how many

people do you have on board

three pob over

roger captain stational bay are you in

any need of any assistance ever

uh we are under power right now uh

making way at five knots with limited

steering

i feel comfortable but uh

what is the bar condition over

captain allen coast guards coast guard

station

has a 0-800 in the bar channel two to

four feet rolling

and the instant channel wanted to see

drawing

middle ground 160 volume

and flying vegetable visibility to

nautical miles

copy thank you have you put those on

everyone

and can i get your exact gps location

copy we have a life vest on at all time

our gps location as of now 40 degrees

50.850 north

124 degrees 13.706

west over alice before you enter the bar

and once you get through the bar

copy sv basics standing by on 16.

thank you for your assistance

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we're seeing a lot of these sunfish out

here

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molas

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fun fact the ocean sunfish or common

mola is one of the heaviest known

bony fishes in the world adult molas can

grow

over 2 200 pounds or 1 000 kilos

they are an odd looking creature that

resemble a large head

with no body and a tail

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kinda fun okay we're about

two miles from entering

the harbor things are running smooth

still

conditions could not be better except

for the fog but

oh we could live with that

should be interesting in the narrow

channel though you know i've been

practicing trying to keep this boat

straight

out here in the open sea but it's gonna

be a narrow channel

and uh i think we'll do okay

i'll just have to slow the speed down a

little at speed it's

it's tough to keep it in a straight line

slower speed i'll be able to maneuver a

little easier i think

basic over

selling vessel island coast guard coast

guard fishing

we are updating you with our position we

are

crossing the bar and entering the

channel

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spelling now faces fifth fish all day

roger

whatever as we approached the harbor it

was really cool to see the sheriff boat

at the entrance

they overheard our conversation with the

coast guard and wanted to be there if we

needed any assistance

it's about a three nautical mile trip to

the marina

and they escorted us the entire way

these types of situations don't worry me

because my parents

always have a great handle on things

we made it to the marina without

incident because my dad kept basic

under control

thanks again

not bad

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you