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Subject: [world-cruising] Dockwise Yacht Transport - LONG - Sorry!
cmckesson@XXX.XXX
Date: Mon Apr 07 2003 - 20:29:19 EDT
San Diego to Blaine or Bust
(with dartings into other countries)
Just the facts: Dockwise Yacht Transport, www.yacht-transport.com
Our boat: Columbia 36.
Shipping cost: $4000 + $250 for insurance.
Sorry for the length...Here's the story as told in my wife's journal:
(abridged)
As cruisers we try not to have deadlines, but this jaunt was an exception.
SUNDANCE had a date with Dockwise, the sinkable ship designed to
transport her smaller sisters to ports all over the world. We were
scheduled to load on Sunday for a lift clear up the west coast to
Vancouver, B.C., where we would finish off our three year cruise with a
few months back in the quiet, pine-scented waters of Puget Sound. With
our speed history we were leaving ourselves plenty of time to cover the
sixty-five mile run down the coast by beginning Thursday morning.
?
Eventually we rounded the final headland and Ensenada pulled into sight,
her white walls gleaming in the early afternoon sun. An enormous Mexican
flag flew from atop her solid breakwater and the city spread out along the
white beach that stretched south, shimmering in the heat haze. We doused
the spinnaker, turned upwind and followed several fishermen into the
harbor.
Cruiseport Village Marina answered our VHF broadcast while we were making
our approach and seemed to be expecting us, although we hadn't made any
reservation. It seems Chris had asked the Dockwise representative where
we might stay, he had suggested Cruiseport, and had taken Chris's
noncommittal answer as an indication we would indeed pull in there. Fine
by us. The harbormaster, Gabriel, had our paperwork ready, walked us
through immigration, and generally was a gem over the next few days. He
was the same for all of his clients, handling three or four tasks at once
with dash and efficiency.
Wow! After we pulled into our slip and tidied up, the three McKessons
looked at each other dazedly. SUNDANCE had just completed her last
journey on the Pacific Ocean for at least the next three years. Chris and
I intend to move back aboard when Heather finishes high school and flies
away to wherever, but there are a lot of days between then and now.
Saturday night we visited with our new friends Lee and Linda of Odyssey, a
Grand Banks 36. After an incredible journey around the loop of the U.S.
river system they had shipped their boat from Florida to Ensenada on the
same vessel we would be boarding next day. We took a word of warning from
them. Their flying-bridge bimini had been blown to shreds on the journey.
We decided to completely strip the deck, knowing that the
Oregon/Washington coast could be, if anything, windier.
?
Sunday was the big day! The crew spent the morning stripping everything
off of our decks. Jibs, various covers, dodger, all the small things like
hoses and dinghy seats, everything went down below to clutter up the main
salon. Dockwise had also warned us that as the ship chugged up the coast
it could experience as high as 50 knot winds off of Oregon, conditions
that we had some experience with. Chris wrapped our jib sheets around the
mainsail to keep the flapping there down to a minimum, stowed the gas cans
in the cockpit and the generator under the dinette and we were ready.
Unfortunately we weren't supposed to load until four. What to do after
lunch? We jittered around, nervous and excited, until roll call at three,
then jittered some more until we could motor over to the industrial dock.
Nineteen boats, some small, some huge, circled between the docked fishing
fleet and the rear end of the Dockwise vessel, jockeying for clear space,
backing and drifting, waiting for the go signal to begin to board. There
were three uncaptained sailboats that had to be maneuvered on first. In
two small inflatables the Dockwise crew began to tow the first one on
board. Very quickly it became obvious to the circling crowd that
something was amiss. The little boat skittered sidewise, refusing to tow
anywhere near it's destination. It cannot have been pleasant for the
sweating crew as they backed and pushed, first on one side and then the
other, to know that a whole passel of impatient yachties were watching
their seemingly inept work. They even tried backing the boat in stern
first, with no better result. Finally several crewmen strung a long line
from the middle of the ship to the bow of the recalcitrant yacht and they
cranked her in by main force. Later we found out that the rudder had
frozen sidewise. After 45 minutes of agony they had to reel her in like a
fighting fish.
The rest of the loading progressed smoothly. By now the sun had sunk
behind the tall breakwater and the waiting yachts circled in the brilliant
lights of the larger ship. As each passenger's turn came the Dockwise
crew radioed on the VHF, directing us to motor into our assigned space for
the journey. SUNDANCE was called fairly early. In we glided over the
sunken stern, up the starboard side to toss lines to waiting crew members
between a large catamaran and another sailboat. It was rather like
motoring into a very crowded marina, or maybe a narrow lock. Over on the
port side other crew members were wedging in the larger power boats. We
felt dwarfed by the longest, it had to be at least 150 feet. The crew is
a polyglot mix of Russians, Mexicans and Koreans, very interesting to
listen to as they shouted back and forth, tossing lines about with
abandon. The inbound skippers helped, or sometimes hindered, their expert
work. Once we were tied off to everyone's satisfaction we gathered up our
goods and clambered over the catamaran to the narrow walkways lining each
side of the ship. With a grasp and a vault we climbed up onto one of
these, luggage dangling from every shoulder, to pick our way precariously
forward, hand over our ship's papers to the waiting representative and
step ashore.
It's an odd feeling, having our home for the last several years completely
in someone else's care. I snapped several photos as a good-by to our
faithful friend and we headed out for our hotel, tired but satisfied with
the first stage of our trek back to Washington.
On Monday Lee and Linda kindly gave us a ride back to San Diego and our
daughter's house. Today, in a whirlwind, we will pick up a rental car,
scoop up our cats, grab some groceries, and head up the highway to
rendezvous with our vessel in the great Northwest.
Our chariot for the drive up the west coast was a Hertz-rental Ford Taurus
station wagon; long, bronze, and roomy enough for all of our contraband.
If you are caught with even a fish hook on board your boat and don't have
a license you can end up in big trouble with the Mexicans, so off of
SUNDANCE came all the fishing gear. Then, Canada charges a stiff premium
for any liquor on board over a certain minimum amount, so off came the
four cases of wine we keep on board. And thirdly, we didn't have the
correct papers for transporting animals across the borders, so the cats
were off-loaded in San Diego. All of this had to be moved up to
Washington where it would stay with my sister, Christina, until we could
bring SUNDANCE back into the States.
We crammed the Taurus full of wine, luggage, cats and poles, stuffed the
humans in on top of the heap and pointed the car North. Shooting up I-5
makes this kind of drive very simple, if a little boring. We stopped in
Sacramento for a good night's sleep, smuggling the cats into our motel
room where they howled and hid under the beds (poor kitties), then drove
through increasingly mountainous terrain most of the next day before
winding our way down to the coast, through Portland and up to Seattle.
Our stay at sister Christy's house was lovely. She is such a fine
hostess. Although I wonder if we didn't strain her hospitality a bit,
filling her living room with our junk, taking over her beds and invading
her house with cats. Also Dockwise called us on Friday, twice. The first
time they delayed their arrival one day, to Monday. The second time they
delayed their arrival two days. Now we weren't to pick up SUNDANCE until
early Tuesday morning. So we changed all our train reservations, extended
our rental car, and settled back to wait. Heavy weather off the Northern
California coast could mean heavy weather further north as well. Ah,
well. The ship would arrive when it would, we could only hope all was
well with our small home riding piggy-back over the rough water.
Very early Monday morning three sleepy McKessons drove their rental car
back to the airport, hopped into the sister's car and zigzagged through
Seattle to the Amtrak terminal for the next leg of this seemingly endless
journey. I haven't taken a train for years and was really looking forward
to the day, especially since this train chugged along the edge of Puget
Sound, with some of the best scenery in the country. The deep blue water
glittered to one side; fir trees, suburban residences and meadows fresh
with morning dew flew past on the other. While eating a delightful
breakfast in the dining car we trundled past Everett, Mukilteo, into some
farm country, and past Bellingham. Chris pointed out several peaceful
looking coves we may visit later in the year, when things warm up a bit.
After crossing the border our train detoured inland through more and more
civilization, and finally into the heart of Vancouver, B.C. All too soon
the journey was over. We pulled into the concrete train station just as it
began to rain, cleared customs and glanced around for the fellow sailor
meeting us.
Chris had sent out a cry for help over the internet to our Columbia
Cruising Club buddies, and a Vancouver local, Jay, had volunteered his
time and home for the 24 hours we had before we collected SUNDANCE. Jay
spent his entire afternoon ferrying us around. Thanks so much for your
kindness! We located the terminal Dockwise would be pulling into later
that day, wandered around Granville Island for awhile, had lunch, and
stopped in at one of our favorite stores - Popeye's, a used boating goods
warehouse. And, amazingly, just as we crossed the Lion's Gate Bridge off
of Stanley Park, what should hove into view but the very bright orange
ship we are waiting for!
?
After a scrumptious dinner with Jay and Theresa, their two dogs (Casey and
Digger) and two cats (Kapra and a phantom cat named Po-Po that I only saw
once at 3:00 in the morning), we fell into bed, exhausted but excited to
be here at the other end of our journey, and just a few short days away
from finishing the long trek.
The thermometer read 31 degrees on Tuesday morning. The snow level had
dropped down below a thousand feet, and Debbie was Cold. Very Cold. Here
we were in April, for heavens sake! The month of new green grass,
daffodils and crocus, scotch broom blooming golden all around, and
hopefully some milder weather, not this frozen whiteness. Jay dropped us
off outside the shipping terminal and we trudged shivering down the
concrete dock, clambered aboard the ship and dumped our heap of luggage on
the deck to go in search of the local Dockwise representative and a warm
room, not necessarily in that order. Both were located quickly, thank
goodness.
Then we waited. And waited and waited. First we watched the ship slowly
flood, the water creeping up under the yachts sitting in their stands.
Second, apparently after Canadian Customs finished checking all the boats
the day before, two owners had climbed down and spent the night on board
their vessels, a real no-no. What do you do with people who disregard the
rules, holding all the rest of us up for over two hours because of their
selfishness? Sigh. Anyway, finally Customs did whatever it was they
needed to do, all the milling yachts-folk got the go-ahead and we
traversed the rickety catwalks, clambered back over the catamaran and
stepped onto SUNDANCE's decks after 10 days of travel.
We had parceled out tasks before we arrived, knowing that we might not
have a lot of time before unloading. Chris stepped right to the motor to
make sure we had power. Heather dug out our flags, grabbed a jib and
hauled it on deck, and tossed our luggage out of the way. Debbie turned
on the VHF, patrolled below for damage and leaks, checked the bilge,
unwound the jib sheets from the main and looked over our lines so we would
know what needed to be cast off when the time came.
The other thing we all did right away was put on about three more layers
of clothes and all of our foul weather gear. It was still freezing. Hey
- last weekend we were in Mexico!
We were somewhat impeded in our duties by the billowing masses of diesel
exhaust coming from all around us. Once again I was proud of our small
electric motor, as smoke belched from sterns to the right and left and
noxious smells drifted everywhere. We coughed and cast disgusted glances
here and there, retreating below occasionally for a breath of surprisingly
fresher air.
Chris noticed that we were missing one of our shore lines and one of our
large fenders. Both were located on the catamaran next door. The poor
fellow who owned her looked with suspicion at the two errant goods; he had
bought the boat sight unseen and now was taking delivery, and so had no
idea what belonged to him. I don't think I would buy something as large
as a boat without personally inspecting it first.
And then it was our turn! We cast off the web of lines holding us tied to
the boats around us and slowly backed out the stern of the giant orange
ship, waving at the other yachties still waiting their turns. In drifting
mist we slid out into the steel grey waters of Vancouver and SUNDANCE
officially entered Canada. Hurray!
We didn't go very far. Just around the corner from the shipping terminal
is Coal Harbour, tucked into the lee of Stanley Park. Several days
earlier I had called the Royal Vancouver Yacht Club and they had provided
us with a berth for Tuesday night, H-13. I thought we might have to put
up a sail to reach Coal Harbor since we were motoring against the flood
tide, but SUNDANCE putted along just fine. We glided past two gas docks,
past most of the Yacht Club docks and up to H-dock, swung around and
neatly touched down. After plugging in our electric heaters we all
climbed into bed. All of us had been up at 4:00 a.m. and we were beat.
[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]
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