The Mainsheet - August 2026
The Commodore’s Compass
I want to give a boat load of thanks to Team Hernandez, ( Regina and Cheyenne), for our amazing Wet Wednesday gatherings this year. Weekly hand crafted cocktail specials, (5 dollar pina coladas just last week), fresh ground burgers, and fresh baked cookies. Regina's Wednesday begins early morning with inventory and shopping. Then setting up the bar, baking, and cooking up the potato, salad. Her day ends after everyone else has left and she locks up the club. It's a lot of work and a gift to all of our members. That effort is paying off with guests and members having the best midweek party around.
Likewise, our race committee of Lorenz, Marshall, Allan , Cheyenne, and Dominic , have been hard at work setting up the starting lines, courses, and computing the results every week. Thank you all. Those efforts are paying off with the highest number of participating boats we have had in 5 years.
Of course, our members on OD, are seeing the results of our success with extra work, and extra fun in our galley. With limited members , I will be calling some of you for extra duties before our final WW Sept. 23rd. Thank you all.
I'd like to remind everyone of our next race, the Wes Goleman race is Saturday, August 22nd. It's Anacapa to Starboard and for folks in the cruising class we will have shorter courses. As most of you know, Wes was devoted to sailing and our club. This race is in his honor. SHOW UP, if not the race then for the dinner after. Skippers will have a free carne asada bbq meal right after the race. I'll be cooking up the marinated skirt steak. Bring your hungry crew.
The highlight of the sailing season is coming up September 11 to the 13th. The Santa Barbara City Race and the Tequila Derby are great fun and doubles as a cruising event as well. AYC is helping to reserve slips. Contact me at chuckmanley@hotmail.com and Ill forward you a link to register. Fees are 2 dollars a foot per night.
Finally, I hope all have been enjoying our incredible sailing weather. We recently returned from a three day weekend at Frys Anchorage with friends. Water temperatures were in the 70s. Wetsuits not required. Don't forget the bug spray.
Vice Commodore's Comment
“One cool thing about coming in last on Anacapa Yacht Club's Wet Wednesday race is that when they announce the results... You are mentioned first !!!!!! What a great time !!! Though some of the crew were opening bottles of wine”
CLUB DINNERS AND SOCIAL EVENTS
Planned for August:
Wednesday- 5- Wet Wednesday Race -Marshall
Saturday- 8 - Club Dinner - Dave Gorney
Wednesday- 12 -Wet Wednesday Race
Thursday-13- Bridge and Board Meeting
Wednesday- 19- Wet Wednesday Race -
Saturday - 22 - Wes Golemon Memorial Raceand Dinner
Wednesday - 26- Wet Wednesday Race
Sunday - - Open Mic & Dinner - Chuck Manley
Mark and Melanie
May 2026 Trip to Two Harbors, Catalina
(part 2, see part 1 in July edition)
by Mark & Melanie Trowbridge
Sixth challenge – How do you get a 75 lb. collie into and out of a dinghy when its floor is nearly 4 feet lower than the deck of your sailboat? Answer – 4:1 Harken block and tackle hung fromend of boom and clipped onto the dog’s durable life jacket fit for such maneuvers (has chest strap/belly band and a lifting handle with eye). Worked great ☺. Tag-teamed, we easily lifted and lowered Clancy. Then Mark (usually) took him for rides to the dinghy dock morning and evening for restroom activities and a walk. Clancy would also get a return trip mid-day when the whole crew went ashore for our daily hike.
Pet transport
We experienced nice weather the whole time we were on Catalina. Low clouds most days but got more sunshine as we moved into the next week. We took different walks; towards Emerald Bay, towards Avalon, over to Cat Harbor and the San Clemente Island side. Saw lots of wildlife, including an Osprey and a Santa Catalina Island fox (Urocyon littoralis catalinae) a larger distant relative of the Santa Cruz Island Fox (Urocyon littoralis santacruzae). The Catalina fox strain was nearly wiped in the 1990’s by canine distemper. Somehow, the people in the Island Conservancy managed to track down and inoculate most of the Catalina foxes and the population is growing again. Because of this, although boating visitors can bring their dogs onto Catalina, you mustkeep the dog on a 6’ leash at all times. There is a limit of one dog per owner, must be spayed or neutered, licensed, and you’ve got to carry certification of health and current vaccinations (rabies, distemper, bordetella). We’re proud that our daughter has just earned her DVM degree, and she made sure we were prepared…we didn’t carry hardcopies of Clancy’s certifications but had photos of the certs on our phones (plus Clancy had tags on his collar). We learned the Two Harbors folks are more low-key about visiting dogs than in Avalon, but we were definitely observed. Just be prepared if you take your pooch to Catalina!
All our meals were cooked on the boat (even though Two Harbors does have three places to eat: The Harbor Reef Restaurant, Harbor Sands Beachfront, and the West End Galley). Melanie created great pastas/grain dishes, salads and soups/stews. We barbecued steaks wrapped in bacon one night and chicken sausage skewers another. Hawaiian Sweet Rolls with deli meats and cheeses were quick pick-me-ups while sailing. Roasted and salted ranch-flavored Edamame snacks was a new surprise for one of us (thanks Melanie!). Most-importantly, French-pressed coffee set the day each morning.
Seventh challenge – This was the first time we lived on batteries powered off of the two solar panels recently installed on our dodger. A solar charge gauge in our navigation station (plus a charging and battery storage app on our phones) allowed us to track that carefully. We ran the engine for 45+ minutes on several days to boost the battery charges. That would get us back into the 80% - 90% level on the bank batteries [we always shut of the draw on the starter battery] and the panels got us up to 100% on every day except one with full clouds and a touchof rain. Turns out the biggest power consumer was an electric water kettle; but Melanie figured out that the running engine automatically heats the water in the hot water tank…so she’d use that hot water from the sink handle to pre-warm the water for the electric kettle. Took only 4 minutes to then bring that water to a boil for use with coffee and only 3 to 4 amps of draw! Two learnings: First, our electrician warned us not to let the house bank of batteries get below 50% charge level – takes much longer to recharge and debilitates the batteries long term – and we never got below a 65% charge. Second, when not running the engine, we turned our starter battery switch to “Off”. That way, even if we ran down the house battery bank we would always be able to start the diesel. Note – we’ve asked our electrician to install an additional walkable solar panel on deck to increase our charging ability. Melanie also has secured a 600W electric kettle in exchange for our 1500W longtime friend.
Eighth challenge – Standard Starlink coverage in roam mode is fantastic. We were able to watch a movie or two, keep up-to-date on emails and have instant access to mobile phone calls. While near the northern Channel Islands, standard Starlink covers up to a 12 mile distance offshore from all USA land masses…so sailors around our marina and surrounding areas are pretty covered. But guess what?... out between Anacapa, Catalina and Santa Barbara Islands is a big zone that is beyond 12 miles from the any island and the mainland. No Starlink. No cell service (logical). Side note – Cell reception near Two Harbors was actually pretty good but seemed to lag when fog filled the harbor. Not so great on the Cat harbor side. So we just relied on Starlink and our private WIFI zone. We did not activate Starlink’s Ocean mode (probably won’t do that unless we venture way up the coast or decide to explore below the border) since switching into that mode takes you out of the standard plan rate and starts charging per GB for excess minutes used for all data usage (in and out of the standard coverage area ☹).– Note, you need Internet access in order to turn on Ocean mode, so plan carefully.
Ninth challenge – How best to encourage Clancy to do his business the morning of departure, if the dinghy was deflated and stored the night before? Hmmm. The trip back took place onThursday May 7 th. So our solution was to drop our mooring around 6:00 a.m. and take the boat over to the fuel dock. Mark manned the dock lines while Melanie took Clancy for a final tour of his favorite business spots and dropped off a final trash bag. THE TRIP BACK TO CHANNEL ISLANDS HARBOR - We departed Two Harbors at 6:30 a.m. and powered out past the west end of Catalina. A light wind filled in after a while and we sailed for two hours staying on course for our waypoint near Anacapa Island. We saw what appeared to be the same turtle as our trip out (what are the odds of that happening?!?).
THE TRIP BACK TO CHANNEL ISLANDS HARBOR - We departed Two Harbors at 6:30 a.m. and powered out past the west end of Catalina. A light wind filled in after a while and we sailed for two hours staying on course for our waypoint near Anacapa Island. We saw what appeared to be the same turtle as our trip out (what are the odds of that happening?!?).The wind dropped to around 6 knots again though, so we furled the jib and got the diesel running again. Further towards Anacapa, the air temperature dropped as we powered through gently-rolling seas. We saw several larger sharks circling in one area (our crew unanimously agreed not to try any man-overboard drills there). The entire time between Catalina and close to the entrance of Channel Islands Harbor, we did not pass another pleasure boat…pretty lonely out there on a Thursday. Later, a little bird (a warbler) flew up behind the boat and landed on the stern. It rested for a long time. Then it hopped into the cockpit and began looking around. It walked up one of Mark’s socks and hopped across his legs. Then it visited Melanie, who kindly shared fresh water with the little girl. The two became friends and it sat and rested for 45 minutes or so. Then after going down in the cabin and visiting Clancy (twice), it flew away, only to return back to the boat to rest again several times.
When we could finally see the mainland in the far distance, it took off in that direction. The wind picked up mid-afternoon to around 10 - 12 knots and we turned off the engine again. The boat was sailing close-hauled at 6+ knots and we were pointed pretty close to Channel Island Harbor, cutting the corner off of our prior tip-of-Anacapa waypoint. That seemed like a great move - - - until a large fog/haze bank began moving towards us, the wind backed and headed us back down the coast, and windspeed passed 20 knots apparent. We furled the sails and got the engine going, to power towards Channel Islands Harbor. Through the fog, we could faintly see the marine ship Liberty anchored offshore from Port Hueneme but then it disappeared.
Tenth challenge - Mark thought he could see the Mandalay power plant on shore to the starboard side of our bow. It was to the right of the Liberty ship (but we figured the Marines probably re-anchored their Liberty ship after our departure). So, without checking our location and course on the chart plotter ☹. Mark brilliantly (his adverb) decided to dead reckon to the right of the power plant where he thought the Channel Islands breakwater must be located. NOT! We now had 25+ knots of apparent wind and pretty good 3’ to 4’ chop with frequent whitecaps. We turned back out towards the Liberty ship to figure things out. Back to the chart plotter and radar, which showed us where we actually were and we got back on course. Mark recalled having read in Fagan’s book that there is another power plant to the south of Port Hueneme (we’re not from the Ventura County area – so still learning local landmarks) so we realized our mistake. Not a good place for a pleasure craft to be heading either, between Port Hueneme and Point Magu – military bases. We were well offshore but still…Duh. Lesson learned – always confirm your position with available electronics.
ARRIVAL BACK HOME - We motored parallel to shore past Port Hueneme and along Silver Strand Beach until we happily saw the Channel Islands Harbor breakwater. Felt wonderful to re-enter the familiar calm waters of the harbor and coast into our slip a few minutes later! We had arranged a rest day following our return. Slept in, drank coffee, did some boat cleanup, and had a nice dinner out before driving home the following day.
(1)Our marine electrician is Mike Cheresnowsky of Boatyard Electric – he’s excellent.
(2)Cruising Guide to Central and Southern California (Copyright 2002), Brian M. Fagan, International Marine/McGraw Hill
Rear Commodore’s News
The first Wet Wednesday in August…
