By John – Page 9 – Caro Babbo

An Unexpected, Unwanted Flight Home

UA334 HNL-LGA, 1-DEC-2019 – It isn’t often I let down my guard. I have an elderly father, Jennifer has children. We travel with satellite communications so that we can always be reached.

But yesterday, because we had spoken to the kids and my dad, who is the Babbo of Caro Babbo, when everything that was in imminent danger of failing on Caro Babbo was repaired, when both VRBO properties had paying guests and all the airline holiday-season tickets had been booked and paid for, we did relax. Continue reading “An Unexpected, Unwanted Flight Home”

Cascading failures, Repair Story #2

Ala Wai Small Boat Harbor, Honolulu, HI, 25-Nov-2019 — Ever since Jennifer learned that the failures on Caro Babbo are not unusual, she has been reading more about equipment failures while cruising.

The idea of cascading failures has grabbed hold of her and sometimes awakens her from sleep.

Repair stories, #1

Iridium GO, won’t. Yoda saves us.

Ala Wai Small Boat Harbor, Honolulu, Hi, 22-Nov-2019 — For every story of breaking something, there is a story of fixing it. Most repairs on Caro Babbo are solitary endeavors, hopefully carried out on a dock with a reasonably priced chandlery near by. Many are carried out underway, and under pressure. All successful repairs are points of pride.

Bravery, Preparation and Sailing, pt2

Hilo, Hawaii, 10-NOV-2019 – After the preparation and finally leaving, there is being in the place that we’d read about: offshore, no land in sight, and, by some lights, nothing but danger.

As we were repeatedly told by our offshore sailor friends, who have been our biggest fans and supporters, we were now members of the family of Bluewater Sailors. Continue reading “Bravery, Preparation and Sailing, pt2”

Bravery, Preparation and Sailing

Hilo, HI, 9-Nov-2019 — One evening, while we rigged a spinnaker aboard a T-Bird sailing out of Dorchester Harbor in Boston, I confessed to the skipper of the vessel that I was not very physically brave. I could see his face, and he looked at me dumbfounded and said “you sail a T-bird from New York to Boston? If that’s not brave I don’t know what is.”

Life on a Caro Babbo passage, but first…

Hilo, HI 7-nov-2019 — I think I may have redeveloped a caffeine addiction. By 2009, I was up to twelve espresso a day, and then quit, cold turkey. It took two years before I no longer got that heavy dentist’s x-Ray blanket feeling from no caffeine.

The ocean as background

17-oct-2019, 24° 06.53N 138° 27.58W — I think to make this work, this being sailing across large bodies of water, the ocean and the weather must become the background to life… the canvas upon which life is lived, rather that the central uncertainty upon which life hangs.

We have been offshore a total of nineteen days so far this trip.

The first seven days, the segment from neah bay to bodega bay, are a grayed-out trauma, from which we gleaned our readiness and preparation to go offshore. I think time ashore will let us recover that memory.

On this leg we have enough time and continuity that we less fear we will die, than our navigation choices well unduly lengthen the trip. Yet, we are not living life in the context of the trip. The trip is first and foremost in our life. Continue reading “The ocean as background”

It will be night soon

15-oct-2019, 24° 39.75N 135° 28.78W — We’re about halfway there. In ten days we should arrive in Hilo. Stronger winds of the trades will push us wing and wing across the last one thousand miles and there.

The Predict Wind software we have been using for routing takes us on a dog leg keeping us on a broad reach, while our friend and guardian, Ray Penson has lobbied for the typical run-before-the-tradewinds route. Jennifer wants to try that, so we are changing our course southward to join the trades in the next three days or so.

Jennifer and I have been talking about whether we’d ever do this again. I’d put together a ten-year plan to sail through the canal and up into the great lakes before jumping over into Europe. Continue reading “It will be night soon”

Night time and watches

Three weeks or so ago – To the left when heading from Catalina to San Diego is continual early morning. Just beyond the thickened marine layer Los Angeles’ false morning promises an end of the inky moonless night. The dark impenetrable cloud south of Los Angeles is no cloud at all, it is lightless Pendleton marine base.

The artificial morning returns with San Diego’s north county, culminating with the city itself.

The dark night waters are busy with military activity.

From more than twenty miles away, we could see a very white glow on the horizon: tankers, warships and lighters gathered together. As Caro Babbo approached, the group disbanded. Continue reading “Night time and watches”

700 miles from land

11-oct-2019 – In the moment I am fine. The waves roll under us, the weather routing software keeps us away from strong winds and big seas, and above all our guardian angel Ray Penson watches over us.

But those words, 700 miles from land terrify me. Last night we saw a ship on AIS one hundred miles from us, but those are probably the nearest human beings.

Things break and we recover. I fret about things that could break that we can’t recover from. Continue reading “700 miles from land”