Pacific Sail

Hello my fellow sailing enthusiasts, Darci here. The harbor mouth is now open and steadily improving every day thanks to the hardworking dredge crew of the Santa Cruz Harbor. Yes, there is scattered rain here and there due to it being early spring but there are no fair weather sailors here at Pacific Sail. Our love for…

We chartered the Catalina 35 yesterday and I thought I would give you a little feedback about the trip. We encountered one Orca on the way out to the Monterey trench to do some whale watching. He only stayed for a brief showing. About 8 miles out we encountered a pod of several hundred Risso’s dolphins. We had never seen them before and thought they were very amazing. We knew nothing about them except for what we saw on the trip and then looked up later after the trip. We were able to heave-to and stay with them for 30-45 minutes. Although we do have pictures and video, they don’t show up great except for the dorsal fins and a few leaping in the distance. We also saw more jelly-fish than I had seen before. We had one 2 mile…

Thank-you to everyone concerned about the Pacific Sail fleet and Santa Cruz Yacht Harbor after the Tsunami caused mass devastation and chaos this past Friday, March 11th, 2011. Fortunately, with the help of many of our captains & boating neighbors, we continued to replace breaking dock lines and fend off floating boats as much as possible during the event (over 6 hours). Often, it was far too dangerous to actually be on the docks, making it terribly frustrating. The scene was jaw dropping, intense, treacherous, and gut wrenching. To watch the strong possibility of our entire fleet almost get washed out to sea and have no control of what was happening was quite trying. The currents were similar to watching white water rapids, charging through the harbor with the strength of 10 locomotive trains. Fortunately for us, the upper harbor…

Humpback Whale Hanging Out in Santa Cruz An adult Humpback Whale has been seen in about 40 feet of water near the Main Beach in Santa Cruz. Apparently, this beautiful mammal has been feeding on anchovies & sardines which are plentiful this time of year. He has been putting on a show, breaching close to…

“Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things you didn’t do than by the ones you did do. So throw off the bowlines. Sail away from the safe harbor. Catch the trade winds in your sails. Explore. Dream. Discover.” —Mark Twain Dreams come true; without that possibility, nature would not incite us to have them. —John Updike (b. 1932), U.S. author, critic. Self-Consciousness “What is liberty? We say of a boat skimming the water with light foot, ‘How free she runs,’ when we mean, how perfectly she is adjusted to the force of the wind, how perfectly she obeys the great breath out of the heavens that fills her sails. Throw her head into the wind and see how she will halt and stagger, how every sheet will shiver and her whole frame be shaken, how…

Pacific Yachting is a charter broker with the Moorings Charter Company. They charter yachts around the world in some of the most ideal sailing locations. We use the Moorings because they have an excellent reputation. Their prices may be a slightly higher than some of the other foreign charter companies but we figure that if you are going that far you don’t want to deal with any major problems. If you want Pacific Yachting to book your next sailing vacation, we can save you money. Just go to the Moorings web site at http://www.moorings.com, pick a location and give us a call or e-mail.

Pacific Yachting & Sailing graduates continue to prove that they are quite proficient at docking in our berthing area. We’ve observed our graduates are really skillful at resolving those conflict- resolution, docking issues. Thank-you for actually following all of those Pacific Yachting & Sailing Instructors, philosophies. “Slow is good, slower is better.” If there’s an uncomfortably tight docking situation that you find yourself involved in, relax, – put the boat in neutral, take a deep breath, ask your crew to stand by with a fender or boat hook to gently fend off; at this point you should only be drifting so no damage could possibly happen. Access the situation. Ideally, if you’re backing up, going stern to the eye of the wind is ideal. If the wind continues to push you beam to other boats, just leave the helm and…

Most of our charterers are doing a great job of properly securing the boats at the end of the sail.  This becomes even more important during the fall and winter months when the harbor can experience strong surge due to storms offshore. The surge really moves the boats around in their slips and puts added…

On numerous occasions our Pacific Yachting charter customers & students say: “Do you think the wind is even going to come up?” The answer is yes! If it looks dead out there, please realize that Mother Nature is just taking a breather first thing in the morning. That gives you time to pull the mainsail up at the dock and put a single or double reef in. Practice this with your crew. It sometimes takes a bit of adjusting to get the new tack and clew right. The most common mistake I see people doing is: 1. The main sheet is not released enough. 2. The main halyard is not released enough. Look at the leech of the sail. If it looks tight, let the halyard down more. 3. The boom vang is cleated or pulled too tight. 4. Head…

There are times when the harbor entrance can have plenty of depth from the continual winter dredging, though we still can get fairly large swells at the harbor entrance. First, there’s a live web cam showing the harbor entrance, 3 weather prediction sites, tides, and swell height prediction. Please do your homework before coming over to…