Vancouver to San Francisco in December

[CPseudonym]

Send a pm to GFC if he doesn't chime in soon. He shipped his Sea Ray 55 to Washington from the Great Lakes and had to remove the bridge.

I "believe" but am not certain he flew his reinstall man out to oversee and photo document the removal.

 

[BandB]

Send a pm to GFC if he doesn't chime in soon. He shipped his Sea Ray 55 to Washington from the Great Lakes and had to remove the bridge.

I "believe" but am not certain he flew his reinstall man out to oversee and photo document the removal.

And camera is the most important tool in the process. Perhaps multiple cameras in use. Much better than memory. i would definitely want the person responsible for re-assembly to be there for the removal.

 

[Ahan]

I have a question along the same lines as this but not quite. I am in the process of purchasing a GB 42 in Tacoma, WA and plan to transit it down to SF Bay. I want to do the cruise down myself, but am by no means a master mariner. I'm wondering what people feel the safest time of the year to do this is, and how long I need to allot for the cruise.

The boat has twin Ford Lehman 120's and has had new tanks installed to carry nearly 500gal of diesel, so just about enough range to do the whole trip without refueling (although I plan to make several stops). Greatly appreciate any advice anyone has!

 

[Ka_sea_ta]

The summer is the best time, but you get to choose your poison.... Early summer (late June, July) can have winds... Especially the area off shore around Coos bay seems particularly susceptible... In August the winds tend to subside and replaced with fog..

Places to get off the ocean can be can be a challenge in either winds or fog...

I've done the trip a couple of times and with good planing and no time line can the trip can be a great adventure.

The best thing is you can troll for long fins on the way down....

 

[78puget-trawler]

I have spent a lot of time on this ocean mostly in the summer and have seen flat calm days with not a breath of wind to swells running at 30' and winds of 80 knots, again, in the summer time! Years ago when my dad, a very experienced tugboat man of wide experience starting in WWII lost two friends on different occasions when they went against his advice to NOT take yachts down the coast in winter. Both went and all that was found was wreckage of their boats. The coast can be very nice going right up until it isn't. Mistake many people make is heading in instead of staying out offshore and waiting it out. The bars are very dangerous. It sounds like the OP came to his senses and I am glad of it. Go in the summer, any summer month is likely going to be better than Oct-March.

 

[Lepke]

I fished the waters and also passed thru on ships. From about April to August the usual summer pattern is 3-4 days of strong west to northwest winds making 20'+ swells with seas on top. Then you have a couple days of the weather coming down to about 5-10' swells followed by a few days of flat (to a fisherman) weather. About a 2 week cycle, repeating thru summer unless a strong low pressure area comes thru.
I usually run 20-25 km offshore to avoid the ground swell caused by the bottom becoming shallower. The swells get steeper and closer together. Stay away from shallow areas.
I made the run to Astoria in late January in a small craft warnings or above without problems in my current boat. But it was designed for the ocean. 83' x 17', twins.

 

[Mako]

From about April to August the usual summer pattern is 3-4 days of strong west to northwest winds making 20'+ swells with seas on top....

That's pretty much what I experienced first week of May some years ago, except by nighttime they got a whole lot bigger!

Edit-This was running about 20+ miles offshore, except when rounding Flattery where I increased to about 34 miles.

 

[Ken E.]

You are making the right choice to transport the boat rather than running it down the coast in the winter. Trucking is certainly the low - cost solution compared with putting it on a ship. I used Yacht Path (no longer in business) 15 years ago to move a boat from Ensenada Mexico to Nanaimo BC. it cost around $15k but it avoided taking off the flybridge, which is no small thing. I like an earlier poster's comment of somehow having the same people removing the flybridge involved in its reinstallation. This eliminates finger pointing that the other guy created the problems you may have when putting things back together.

 

[dhmeissner]

In economic terms, it's usually cheaper to ship it vs hiring a captain. We went the captain route and had a blast, but it was not winter.

 

[JDCAVE]

That's pretty much what I experienced first week of May some years ago, except by nighttime they got a whole lot bigger!

Edit-This was running about 20+ miles offshore, except when rounding Flattery where I increased to about 34 miles.

Wonder what it would look off Solander Island (Cape Cook) today. It's nasty out there!