Monthly Archives: August 2019
Jumping Rays! Mobula Edge Out Mantas.
Although we are securely tied to a marina in Long Beach, CA, the memory of the jumping rays we saw in Los Frailes, Mexico is still fresh and vibrant. As we headed south toward La Paz, we stopped one afternoon to anchor in Los Frailes and were greeted by the distinct sound of belly flops.
Most folks who have spent any time near a public swimming pool would recognize the sound of a belly flop. This day in Los Frailes we heard that smack over and over and over again.
Wings up for a smack of a landing!
Ray after ray after ray was launching out of the blue sea and slapping back down into the water! Of course we anchored as quickly as we could, then lowered the dinghy and slowly approached the rays.
Wait for the slow motion jumping – they are beautiful!
Our haste was unnecessary as the rays jumped and splatted for hours – literally!
There were so many rays jumping that we feared one would land in the dinghy and we weren’t sure how we would manage to get it out without injuring it or us. So we returned to Ticket To Ride and enjoyed the show from the boat.
Hours later the rays were still jumping. In fact, when we went to bed we could still hear the repeated plops through the open hatch. Even when we awakened, the rays were still jumping.
Mr. Ray mid-flight.
There are a few theories about why rays jump out of the water like this:
- They are trying to remove parasites. (Yuck)
- They are excited about food in the area.
- This is a form of communication.
- This is part of a mating ritual or dance.
Personally, I think this was a combination of numbers two and four since the jumping lasted for well over 12 hours! Either that or these rays were particularly talkative or especially dirty. 🙂
I was trying to determine if these were Mobula or Manta Rays, but according to Dive Magazine, UK, there are no more Manta Rays, only Mobula, at least when determining scientific classifications. This combination of Mantas and Mobulas comes after a DNA study that reclassified Mantas into the Mobulas species.
While the DNA may classify these rays as one group, there are some physical differences. The primary difference is that the Manta Ray has its’ mouth in front of the body and the Mobula’s mouth is positioned a little further back, but still in front of the body.
My favorite picture of the rays.
Regardless of how the rays are classified, they were an excellent source of entertainment that day in Los Frailes. Every once in a while the slapping sound would stop and the bay would quiet. But soon enough the rays would begin their jump and flop once more and the sound alone would bring a smile to my face.
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Alluring Alamitos ~ Lovely Long Beach ~ Cushy California
Ha! Enough alliteration in that title?
So we have been back in Long Beach for two weeks now and we are having a blast! We have enjoyed an excellent mix of sailing, re-supplying and social time.
In the last two weeks, we have had many guests sail with us on TTR and other folks who have just stopped by to welcome us back or simply ask about our boat.
Needless to say it has been busy, but it has also been a ton of fun.
The sailing conditions in Long Beach Harbor cannot be beaten. There is a long break water just outside the marina that creates a large, calm area of water but the wind still blows nicely there. It is behind this break water that we first put TTR through her paces back in January and February when she arrived by container ship.
Once you leave the break water area, there is plenty of room to sail and the Channel Islands reduce the waves in the water.
Finally, if you want an easy destination sail, Catalina Island is a quick trip aboard TTR.
As an informational aside, we have the performance polars for TTR loaded into our B&G navigation system and on our nav screens we can see how well we are doing compared to the polars. This number is expressed as a percentage of optimal performance and is what we most often use to determine how well our sail configuration and sail set are working.
My view while helming TTR under double headsail.
Frank and I spent one afternoon last week sailing TTR using a variety of sail configurations for downwind sailing because we anticipate a decent amount of 140 port-140 starboard degree sailing when we head south again to Mexico and when we cross the Pacific Ocean toward the Marquesas Islands (spring 2020?). We are planning for times when the wind direction and our course cause our wind angle to move between 140 to 180 and we want to stay on rhumb line.
While sailing our last boat, Let It Be, we had an asymmetric spinnaker in a sock that we used for light downwind sailing. However, we think deploying that type of sail on TTR would be too powerful for the two of us to handle alone. When outfitting Ticket To Ride, we bought a cable-less reacher from Doyle sails and they cut the sail a bit fuller than usual so we can use this furling sail instead of a socked spinnaker.
TTR flying the Doyle cable-less reacher.
In an effort to test our downwind sailing options, first we put up our cable-less reacher only and tried sailing between 140-170 degrees. Sailing with only the reacher was simply delightful! The sail flew well and the motion of the boat was perfectly smooth. TTR moved along at about half of wind speed.
Using our reacher only, we were making about 80 percent of polars which translated into a boat speed of 6 knots in 12 knots of wind.
Not bad, 79.8% of polar with only one sail up.
Next we left our reacher up and added our jib on the windward side to fly double headsails. With this sail configuration we tried sailing through about 35 degrees of wind angle – say 155 to 170 on the opposite tack.
Frank walking the deck while sailing double headsails.
Sailing at these deeper angles and edging slightly from a port to starboard tack, we were again making half or a little more of wind speed. The boat was extremely comfortable and the sails were staying full. We maximized our sailing results by using an outboard jib lead on the jib sheet to help keep the clew to weather.
Using the reacher and jib we managed to meet 95-100+ of our polars which translated into a boat speed of 6.3 knots in 11.6 knots of wind.
Very happy with TTR’s performance under reacher and jib.
Based on these results, we have decided that we do not need to buy another sail for downwind, light wind sailing situations. We will work with the inventory we have and hope it takes us comfortably and relatively quickly to our destinations.
Our first round of guests back in Long Beach included our son, Clayton, and 9 of his friends who are sailing instructors at a camp on Catalina Island. These camp counselors don’t have a ton of time between camp sessions, so we picked them up on Catalina and went for a fast but short sail on TTR. As instructors, these kids are very good sailors and I think being on board a performance catamaran was a fun change for them. We were easily clipping along between 10-11 knots on TTR and they were loving the speed and comfort. They also enjoyed staying dry while sailing . 🙂
After a quick sail, we provided a home cooked, hot lunch which was enthusiastically consumed – probably it was a far cry from a summer of camp food! “Nomad” dubbed our marinated chicken “10 knot chicken” since Frank fired up the grill and cooked it while we were sailing back toward camp at 10 knots!
We really enjoyed sharing the afternoon with these young people. They were polite, appreciative and full of energy and cheer.
Laura, Lisa and Mary Grace
Our next guests were sailing friends we met in the Bahamas in 2017. We met Laura and Chris when they were volunteer fee collectors for the Exuma Land and Sea Parks. We ended up buddy boating with Laura and Chris off and on in the Bahamas, Turks and Caicos, Dominican Republic and Puerto Rico! This is the 2nd time we have met up with Laura and Chris while in California because they regularly fly here when taking a break from their sailboat.
Lisa and Chris at the helm.
Happily we have also become friends with Lisa and Dave, who are long time friends of Chris and Laura. We took the four of them out for a long afternoon of sailing on TTR. It was fun to have experienced sailors on board and have everyone take turns at the helm and handling lines.
Chris, Don, Frank, Mary Grace and Laura (Thanks for the photo, Val.)
The next foursome who sailed with us are new friends we met while traveling in Mexico. We met these two couples in different parts of the Sea of Cortez, but soon realized they are both from this general area and know each other through sailing here. So of course when we realized the overlapping friendships we invited all four to come to TTR for an afternoon of sailing and dinner on board.
Seven out of eight of the people we took sailing this week have only monohull sailing experience. It is always interesting to hear the reactions of monohull sailors when they go out on TTR. First they are concerned that we have left too many items unsecured in the boat when we leave the dock. Next they are surprised by how high out of the water we are and how much space there is, without going down a companionway.
Once we are sailing, our monohull guests quickly appreciate the comfort of not heeling and the speed of TTR. Many times I have heard jokes between spouses that perhaps a cat is in their near future.
Gratuitous picture of TTR at anchor in the Sea of Cortez
Returning to Alamitos has been great. We love seeing our kids, meeting up with friends both old and new, and having access to so many conveniences. Frank is working hard to accumulate all the spare parts we might need when we leave for Mexico, then cross the Pacific. While in Mexico we ordered a couple of items that never arrived because they were held up in Customs, so the ease and speed of ordering on-line and having things delivered is greatly appreciated! I am spending time updating documents, looking for reference materials for our future cruising grounds, lining up a safety course and planning annual doctor visits (oh fun).
So there you have it. This is how we are currently spending our time in Alamitos Bay. Due to marina rules, we can’t stay on this dock long term, so we hope to explore a few of the Channel Islands when our time on this dock ends.
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