My O’Day 22 Sailboat Blog

Last Saturday Andre and I sailed out of Ventura once again. I sufficiently have Andre hooked on sailing. That is until last Saturday. He learned some memorable lessons on our day outing that sailing is not all fun and games. Unfortunately I forgot my camera so I didn’t get to take any photos of the trip. This post will have to reply completely on my abilities as a wordsmith and your collective imaginations.

We got an earlier start than the weekend before because I knew I had to be at a baby shower for my friends Justin and Isabella at 3 PM. Marlene clearly told me that I need to be back at 1 o’clock so I can get ready and leave the house by 2. Justin lives just a few minutes away from us so I negotiated it to around 1:30 2 PM. I knew we didn’t want to be the first ones there so I thought we’d have plenty of time if we got the boat in the water by 9:30 AM.

We managed to get going around 9:45 or so and it was a nice day with fairly good winds. The only draw back was that a thick marine layer has been around the area for a few days and today was no exception. We decided to head south towards the Mandalay Power Station this time since last weekend we sailed north and pretty much knew what that was about. It was a nice and easy downwind sail for most of the way with an occasional beam reach towards Anacapa Island (part of the Channel Islands off of the coast of California). In no time we were past the power station and Channel Islands Harbor was almost within sight. We decided that it would be a cool place to sail into and check out what’s going on in there.

Map and diagram of the Channel Islands Harbor.

The last boat I owned was slipped at a nice marina in the Channel Islands harbor and I haven’t really sailed in or out of that harbor since except for the little test sail I did on a West Wight Potter 19 while shopping for this boat. The inside of the harbor has a large main channel that divides into 2 fairly roomy smaller channels. You can sail inside the harbor all day if you wanted to when the waters are rough and winds are too strong outside. We sailed towards Anacapa Island on a beam reach until the harbor entrance was within sight. I set a Goto destination on my handheld GPS (I use the Uniden Mystic VHF Radio/GPS) and turned downwind to head straight into the harbor. At that point I noticed on the GPS that it was already 12:45PM! Marlene is gonna kill me. Time flew by so quickly that we have already been sailing for nearly 3 hours by the time we were at the entrance of Channel Islands Harbor.

I should have just turned around and fired up the motor and headed back at this point but I could not help myself but to sail in for a quick look. On top of that, Andre hadn’t had anything to eat all day and he wanted to know if there was any place we can tie up to real quickly for a bite. I didn’t seem to remember a fast food place that’s very accessible without a car but we went in for a look anyways. The wind seemed to have picked up a bit by now as it usually does in early afternoon. We were sailing at a brisk 5 knots inside the calm waters of the harbor. After doing a quick loop without much success in finding food I decided we needed to get back. Andre reluctantly agreed to go without food for another while longer as we started to sail out of the harbor entrance.

We still had the motor raised up at this point since there is plenty of wind to sail out. As usual, the wind direction is directly blowing into the harbor entrance so we had to tack numerous times to get back out of the harbor. On top of that, we had to avoid traffic a bit since the sun is starting to peak its head through the marine layer. At one point, we lost too much speed and fail to tack the boat around and had to make a last second move to fall off around and gybe. We got with in a few feet of the rocks and Andre had a little bit of a scare. It was the first time he had experience any close calls on a sailboat and I can tell he was a bit shaken up.

We finally got out of the harbor and started to head back to Ventura. Of course we needed to sail directly into the wind to get to where I needed to be half an hour ago. The swell has definitely picked up due to the increased winds and we quickly lowered the motor and dropped the sails to begin motoring back. By this time it was already past 2PM. We were motoring directly into the wind and the swell so water was basically spraying up from the side of the deck constantly. We were effectively drenched with water within the first couple nautical miles out of Channel Islands Harbor. We were able to hit hull speed at about 1/3 throttle but were only able to make about 4 knts VOG because of the swell against us. As if I didn’t already know I was late, Marlene calls on the phone in the middle of it all and says she was leaving without me to the baby shower. “Fine”, I said. I am trying to get back but there’s not much I can do to expedite the trip.

We finally made it back to Ventura harbor in about an hour. I had arranged for a guest slip at Ventura West Marina but I needed to first go home to get my check book and register before I was able to slip the boat. Andre thankfully agreed to chauffeur me around as I tied the boat to the launch ramp dock. After acquiring the keys for the guest slip dock and paid for the night’s stay I was dropped off at the launch ramp once again to motor the boat to its home for the night. Being in a hurry, I decided that I could just do a quick 180 degree turn instead of backing out of the launch ramp dock. Unfortunately I missed by just a few inches and clipped the dock with the trailer eye ring mounted on the bow of the boat. I didn’t even notice it until while I was doing a quick rinse off. Luckily, these O’Days were built rock solid and there was no real hull damage. In fact the only damage was to the steel bolt that holds the eye ring to the bow. It was easily bent back using a screwdriver. I now just have to do some minor fiberglass patch work to smooth out around the hole where the eye ring is mounted before reattaching it.

While on the way back from Channel Islands Harbor, Andre jokingly said that he was no longer hooked on sailing. Obviously sailing is not always going to be perfect and relaxing. Every once in awhile you will have some excitement and close calls. It just makes you a better sailor. Every once in awhile you need a reminder of what you are up against. The ocean is capable of dealing some nasty blows to any sailor and sailboat if you are not careful and paying attention. Another lesson to learn is to never cut any corners. It pays to take your time to do everything right and safely. You may get away with it every now and then, but it just takes one careless moment to ruin your day.

I was 90 minutes late and the last one to arrive at the baby shower. Andre finally was able to eat something around 4PM. At least we survived and had a blast along the way. I’ll post another synopsis of my sailing trip on Sunday in a little while. It was not quite as exciting but it was fun and I have some photos and video to show.