One of the highlights of Santa Cruz Island was meeting our first Cruising Couple Tim and Leah. They now split their time between their boat and their RV. Our dream! They also spent a few years cruising around the Sea of Cortez. They invited us over for dinner to share their stories. We eagerly accepted. They so kindly served us a feast of salmon, steak, salad, and sweet potatoes. We were low on supplies but managed to find a hidden bottle of wine. The evening carried on with stories after stories that peaked our curiosity and ignited that drive to explore. We could not wait to get there.
As the evening drew to a close they gave us a quick lesson on local weather and more pointers than we could remember. We said our goodbyes and returned to Hiraya to dream of all the experiences we were going to have. The next morning we checked the weather from on top of the hill. Tim and Leah below in the bay sailing out toward Santa Barbara. It appeared they were heeled over and both jib and main up. Meaning there is enough wind to sail. We made a hasty return to Hiraya and with in 20 minutes we were sailing off our anchor and toward Anacapa Islands. Thick fog soon enveloped us but did not detour the determination to sail around Anacapa Islands and toward Catalina Island. Lucky to have enough wind to push us along we weren’t going to have to use any fuel. Nine hours in we had sailed just over 4o miles. We had made it out of the fog and around the Anacapa Islands and headed toward Catalina Island. It seamed that we were going to make it just fine. With the current in our favor we were enjoying a comfortable sail as the sun began to set. Just a few moments later the wind went to bed. Literally stopped. Not even a puff. We would spend the rest of the night trying to catch any little puff that would come. Our tracker begins to look like a figure eight, a pigs’ tail, a crescent shape. Are we actually floating backwards toward Catalina? Yes! our stern is pointing toward Catalina Island and we are floating back wards. We made a pact to just enjoy it. We were not in any danger and this is good practice for our larger passages we plan to do in the future. But the floating backwards toward our destination did not set well with Sam and he had enough. He would start the engine and motor for 30 minutes or so to reach what appeared to be a wind line up a head. But a few seconds later the engine makes a kind of bogging down sound and he shuts it all down. There was no way he was going to let the engine run out of fuel. We spend the next day floating and drifting and trying to figure out why we are so low on fuel and why our math was not adding up. We carried on bobbing up and down. We will just have to stay this way. The wind did start to pick up and we managed to sqeeze sometimes two knots out of a puff.
We watched for dolphin and fish and imagined shaped out of the clouds. Evening was approaching and we had gotten so close to Catalina Island. It stood there in front of us like a gigantic piece of cake we so desperately wanted. We have about 10 miles left to go but at this rate we wont get there until the next day. The thought of bobbing another night out just wreaked us. Why are we not considering the dinghy? Why are we not using the dinghy motor? Light bulb!!! So yes. We lowered the dinghy into the water. Lowered the motor onto the dinghy. Then with the dinghy strapped to the side of Hiraya Sam steered us into Cat Harbor like a triumphant Skipper he is! We moved along at 4 knots and made it into Cat Harbor with enough light to dropped the anchor, start the diesel for a few minutes to set the anchor and we watched the sunset off the hook. But still perplexed as to why we were so off on our fuel and how we got there. We planned to go into town the next day with the fuel can and get diesel. We enjoyed the evening and slept so well that night.
The next morning sam and his fuel can walked into town. He makes a trip back to Hiraya and puts it in the tank, there’s five gallons. It is about a quarter mile hike in one way. He plans to make another trip and returns to Hiraya with the second can. After about two gallons poured it begins to over fill. How can that be? There must be an air bubble or foam. We wait patiently one eye peering down the hole with a flash light in hand and realizing the fuel line is not moving. It is absolutely full! How could that be? 7 gallons and it is full? We go over our math over and over. We even go as far as to reach out to the previous owner to get burn rate and tank capacity. We review the manual.
The manual states that the fuel tank is 26 gallons and the engine should burn 1 gallon/hour at 2500 rpm. The old owner verifies the 26 gallon tank and states he burned .45 gallon/1 hour at 5 to 5.5 knots. Well we have been running the engine at 2000 rpm. She just likes to be there. We know when we last filled up. The time traveled is still not accurate. Confession, we had accidently left the key on a couple of times. Unknown how long or really how many times. Thinking back we think it might have been left on the entire “nap” session that took place after our over nights. Could have easily added up to all night. Lucky for us leaving the key on doesn’t run the battery but it does keep the hour meter going. DUH! There you have it. The combination of mishaps that lead to us drifting and bobbing for days only to find out it was all unnecessary came down to our own stupidity. So to counter balance that stupidity we now keep a detailed log book. We admit this is what we should have kept all along. Lesson learned!