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A few months ago my friend Rod, who is an experienced sailing Captain, asking me to join him on a 10-day sailing trip from La Paz, Mexico to San Diego, California. Well, he called me the other day and said: “How about continuing your trip up the coast and be part of my crew to bring a 40-foot brand-new sailing catamaran up from Ensenada to San Francisco?”.

With 3-days notice, I cleared my schedule for the week, and said yes. I’ll be spending new year’s eve on the ocean, can’t beat that!

Notes from Rod: “The plan is to drive directly to San Diego. Spend a night there then drive in the morning to Ensenada. Board the vessel and load gear. Provision boat and then departure. The weather window supports a relaxed departure time since weather will be clearing out ahead of us the entire trip. If we rush in too soon we will fight mother nature the whole way. We will make as stop in Santa Barbara for fuel and plan our departure for Pt. Conception based upon the current weather forecast at that time. Once we round Point Conception on Saturday we will have significant swell which will be decreasing as we approach Monterey and San Francisco. Our arrival window to SF is Monday / Tuesday due to high winds expected Sunday at 45kn outside the Golden Gate. We will plan against this scenario should the conditions to the forecast model change we will adjust our plan accordingly”.

Starting date: Dec. 30th, 2020 / Estimated time: 5-6 days / Vessel: 40-foot sailing Catamaran/ Total Mileage: 600 Nautical miles / Daily Mileage: approx. 100 miles / Crew: 1 captain + 1 crew member (me) / Day shifts: every 4 hours / Night shifts: every 3 hours.