I'll go first. We sure are lucky to survive our youth.
An old friend, Mike, is writing his memoirs of attending UCSB in the mid and late 70s. He is going to include the following article about the maiden voyage to Santa Cruz Island on board the Tremolino trimaran, Sweet Thang, that another other old friend and I bought together. We took delivery of it during Spring Break of 1980 and owned it for 13 years. So, here is Mike's description of that trip. HIs nickname for me is Zeke .
Probably the last trip I made out to the islands during college was with Bob (aka ‘Zeke’) on his new ‘Tremolino’ kit boat. The kit contains a center hull that is like 23’ long and the associated hardware to add it to a Hobie 16 catamaran.
As I mentioned, weather forecasting was pretty primitive back then and we were surf-crazed anyway. It was during spring quarter (probably April or May) which is always the WORST time to go across the channel because of the wind. There was a big swell running and we decided to try to make it to Chinese for a surf between wind events. So we took off from SB harbor early one morning with nothing but a compass and a wrist watch for navigation. No VHF, maybe a portable weather radio, and a 4hp auxiliary motor that we ran on the way out in the fog before the wind came up. At one point in the fog we heard a ship’s fog horn. It sounded way off in the distance so we didn't worry about it. A few minutes later we heard the fog horn again. But this time, it sounded much, much closer. So, we did start getting a bit concerned. Then we heard it a third time and it sounded like it was right on us at which time we got downright scared. But, seconds later, we sailed into a clear patch (out of the fog) and there was a tanker passing by in front of us about 300 - 500 yards away. Sheesh! By the time we approached Santa Cruz island the fog lifted, and the wind started ripping so we changed course and dove into Pelican bay for shelter.
That afternoon it was full whiteout, NW wind conditions in the channel and here we are on a little trimaran. Stuck, nothing to do but settle down and wait for a weather window to try to get back to SB. We nicknamed the boat the ‘Coffin’ because to sleep there were two hammock style berths one in the front and one in the back in the center hull just wide enough to slide into thru a deck hatch. That night I was in the back ‘coffin’ and I heard a thump on deck. I stuck my head out of the hatch and there was a little seal sitting on the back of the boat like 2 feet from my face. Scared the crap out of me.
We got up the next morning and the channel was still all haystacks so we just went hiking and goofed around on the island, partied and ate tons of food. Hunkered down again that night in the anchorage while it raged out in the channel. Then it started raining on us overnight. Perfect.
The next morning we got up at dawn and the channel was still ripping and overcast and drizzly but it looked a little better so we decided to give it a try. We reefed the main down but as soon as we poked out around the point and into the wind the reef points started to rip out since we didn’t do a proper job securing them, rookie mistake (note: you can see the repairs on the reef points done later in the pic above). So we flipped back around into the anchorage, shook out the reef, and headed back out into the storm under full sail.
There were like 6-8’ combo wind/ground swells rolling down the channel and full whitecapping conditions with probably 20 -25 knots of wind and we were broad reaching and just about literally flying in the multi-hull. We are huddled up on the high side on the trampoline with no harnesses just hanging onto the shrouds with the proverbial white knuckles. We were essentially beam to the swells and we would charge up the face diagonally, hit the crest, and fly down the back side as the swells crossed us. At one point I had to take a dump from all the food we were eating and climbed down and hung it off the low side transom. Lucky I didn’t fall overboard with that stunt because no way could Zeke have turned the boat around and picked me up!
Long story short, after a thrilling and terrifying ride we didn’t capsize and coasted back into SB harbor safe and sound. We eased up to the dock at the launch ramp (the boat was trailerable) in the early, gray and drizzly morning and there was one old crusty commercial fisherman tied up on the other side of the dock working on his gear. He took one look at our motley crew and growled “where the hell did you guys come from?” We told him from Pelican bay and he couldn’t believe anyone would be nuts enough to go across the channel in that weather. We asked him what time it was and he said “8 am!” We had woken up at ‘first light’ (like maybe 5:45) and by the time we left the bay for the second time it was probably about 6:00 at the earliest so we had made the transit in about 2 hours max. We didn’t have a speedometer of any sort, but I’m guessing we hit 20 mph several times and averaged an amazing 13 mph for the transit. The last third of the way the wind backed down significantly. So, on the outside part of the channel we were probably averaging around 15 – 17 mph. That has to be some kind of record in a Tremolino??? Where’s Guinness when you need them?
That is one of my many stories of surviving being young and stupid, what do you got?
An old friend, Mike, is writing his memoirs of attending UCSB in the mid and late 70s. He is going to include the following article about the maiden voyage to Santa Cruz Island on board the Tremolino trimaran, Sweet Thang, that another other old friend and I bought together. We took delivery of it during Spring Break of 1980 and owned it for 13 years. So, here is Mike's description of that trip. HIs nickname for me is Zeke .
Probably the last trip I made out to the islands during college was with Bob (aka ‘Zeke’) on his new ‘Tremolino’ kit boat. The kit contains a center hull that is like 23’ long and the associated hardware to add it to a Hobie 16 catamaran.
As I mentioned, weather forecasting was pretty primitive back then and we were surf-crazed anyway. It was during spring quarter (probably April or May) which is always the WORST time to go across the channel because of the wind. There was a big swell running and we decided to try to make it to Chinese for a surf between wind events. So we took off from SB harbor early one morning with nothing but a compass and a wrist watch for navigation. No VHF, maybe a portable weather radio, and a 4hp auxiliary motor that we ran on the way out in the fog before the wind came up. At one point in the fog we heard a ship’s fog horn. It sounded way off in the distance so we didn't worry about it. A few minutes later we heard the fog horn again. But this time, it sounded much, much closer. So, we did start getting a bit concerned. Then we heard it a third time and it sounded like it was right on us at which time we got downright scared. But, seconds later, we sailed into a clear patch (out of the fog) and there was a tanker passing by in front of us about 300 - 500 yards away. Sheesh! By the time we approached Santa Cruz island the fog lifted, and the wind started ripping so we changed course and dove into Pelican bay for shelter.
That afternoon it was full whiteout, NW wind conditions in the channel and here we are on a little trimaran. Stuck, nothing to do but settle down and wait for a weather window to try to get back to SB. We nicknamed the boat the ‘Coffin’ because to sleep there were two hammock style berths one in the front and one in the back in the center hull just wide enough to slide into thru a deck hatch. That night I was in the back ‘coffin’ and I heard a thump on deck. I stuck my head out of the hatch and there was a little seal sitting on the back of the boat like 2 feet from my face. Scared the crap out of me.
We got up the next morning and the channel was still all haystacks so we just went hiking and goofed around on the island, partied and ate tons of food. Hunkered down again that night in the anchorage while it raged out in the channel. Then it started raining on us overnight. Perfect.
The next morning we got up at dawn and the channel was still ripping and overcast and drizzly but it looked a little better so we decided to give it a try. We reefed the main down but as soon as we poked out around the point and into the wind the reef points started to rip out since we didn’t do a proper job securing them, rookie mistake (note: you can see the repairs on the reef points done later in the pic above). So we flipped back around into the anchorage, shook out the reef, and headed back out into the storm under full sail.
There were like 6-8’ combo wind/ground swells rolling down the channel and full whitecapping conditions with probably 20 -25 knots of wind and we were broad reaching and just about literally flying in the multi-hull. We are huddled up on the high side on the trampoline with no harnesses just hanging onto the shrouds with the proverbial white knuckles. We were essentially beam to the swells and we would charge up the face diagonally, hit the crest, and fly down the back side as the swells crossed us. At one point I had to take a dump from all the food we were eating and climbed down and hung it off the low side transom. Lucky I didn’t fall overboard with that stunt because no way could Zeke have turned the boat around and picked me up!
Long story short, after a thrilling and terrifying ride we didn’t capsize and coasted back into SB harbor safe and sound. We eased up to the dock at the launch ramp (the boat was trailerable) in the early, gray and drizzly morning and there was one old crusty commercial fisherman tied up on the other side of the dock working on his gear. He took one look at our motley crew and growled “where the hell did you guys come from?” We told him from Pelican bay and he couldn’t believe anyone would be nuts enough to go across the channel in that weather. We asked him what time it was and he said “8 am!” We had woken up at ‘first light’ (like maybe 5:45) and by the time we left the bay for the second time it was probably about 6:00 at the earliest so we had made the transit in about 2 hours max. We didn’t have a speedometer of any sort, but I’m guessing we hit 20 mph several times and averaged an amazing 13 mph for the transit. The last third of the way the wind backed down significantly. So, on the outside part of the channel we were probably averaging around 15 – 17 mph. That has to be some kind of record in a Tremolino??? Where’s Guinness when you need them?
That is one of my many stories of surviving being young and stupid, what do you got?
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