Chapter 6 - Preparing to Cruise - Part 2, Coho-Hoho
In a previous post I mentioned that an instructor colleague of mine in Grenada, Andy Van Zyll (who received an ASA Instructor of the Year award in 2023 BTW...hats off) suggested that a read a book by Hal Roth called Two Against the Sea.
I found the book in a trilogy that he wrote with his wife and finally finished all three. Combined with teaching and reading The Art of Seamanship
I feel like my sailing and seaman skills continue to evolve...and hopefully always will.
Two Against the Sea recounts a 19,000 mile voyage Hal embarked with his wife from San Francisco in the 1960s on a 30 ft sloop. They sailed to the Marquesas Islands, into Indonesia, up to Japan, over to the Aleutian Island Chain in Alaska, and back down the coast. They used every skill and more that I have ever learned and it brings home why we teach what we do as sailing instructors. I have used the stories from these adventures more than once in my class to bring home a point.
In the trilogy there were two other stories. Two Against Cape Horn is the stories of how he and his wife go around Cape Horn. The final story is about the first Vende Globe race -- single handed racing has come a long way since then. I highly recommend all the Hal Roth books as both entertaining and educational to the sailor and offshore cruiser.
In early march I signed up for the Coho Coho seminars in hopes to either crew or captain a boat down the coast from Port Townsend to San Francisco in August. Doug Lombard puts the Coho Coho together with Bob Vizenor in an effort to teach people all the ins and outs of offshore cruising. This is accomplished by holding a series of 13-14 seminars every year on a variety of topics from March to June. This years events were on the following topics, all extremely educational. I will watch each of these again prior to heading offshore.
Cruising the WA, OR, and CA coast down to Mexico and inside the Sea of Cortez
Communications Equipment
Windvanes
Sailing through the Panama Canal and into the Carribean
Offshore Sail Repair
Water makers
First Aid
Offshore Readiness
Weather Forecasting
Offshore Rigging
Rigging a Preventer for your boat
Safety and Security for your boat
Crew Logistics
This last weekend was a field trip to Port Townsend. I had only attended one of the sessions in person and the rest either via zoom or the recorded event. Getting to know all the other folks actually participating in the voyage was really great -- one can't build real relationships virtually. I hope that a crew or captain opportunity will come out of this weekend.
Aside from building relationships -- which really is the crown jewel of the weekend -- and getting to know Port Townsend a bit we got a personal tour of three marine vendors and their shops:
Port Townsend Rigging (PTR) - offshore rigging shop.
Port Townsend Sails (PTS) - offshore sailing makers.
Port Townsend Shipwright Co-op (PTSC) -- everything to do with boat building, equipment, engines, fiberglass, machine work, wood working, etc.
All three of these shops opened up their doors on a weekend and gave a tour of their shop. PTR gave away a free rig inspection to one of the boats in the fleet and walked us through the inspection for 2 hours. This is now something we know how to do ourselves at sea.
PTS spent an hour walking us through how to take better care our our sails, what to look for in terms of wear, and potentially how to prevent it. They also have a great offshore repair kit which I plan to purchase before heading out.
PTSC has a huge facility in the boat yard for working on all types of boat small and large.
If I plan to have any kind of work done that I'm not going to do myself, I have absolutely no doubts that I will have one of these three outfits do the work -- PTR for rigging, PTS for sails, and PTSC for boat work. It will be expensive and I will have to schedule it out 6-12 months in advance but it will be the best spent money to purchase peace of mind of my entire life. None of these outfits cut corners at any stage of their work and that is so refreshing to find these days. They also just seem like really great people.
The next 2-3 months of the Coho Coho are primarily for captains taking their boats down. Unfortunately I won't able to participate in those sessions because I'm not taking my boat down...but next year!