Harbor Report: Catalina Flyer in good hands with Forbath

 

BY: Len Bose

The Catalina Flyer's overall length is 124 feet with a 40-foot beam, her draft is 9 feet, 5 inches and she cruises at 30 knots. She is powered by twin 2350 Caterpillar turbo diesels and can make the trip to Avalon in 1 hour, 20 minutes with more than 500 passengers.

The Catalina Flyer is Newport Harbor's ride to Catalina for the general public. I had a chance to interview Capt. Steve Forbath of the Catalina Flyer this week.

Forbath grew up in Costa Mesa and was first introduced to the harbor by attending Newport Beach's recreation sailing class in Naples Sabots at the age of 7-8.

He graduated from Estancia High and then proceeded to UC Santa Barbara for his bachelor's degree, then UC Irvine for his master's.

Forbath started working aboard the Catalina Holiday when it opened in 1978. By 1980, he received his captain's license and then took the helm of the Catalina Flyer.

Captain Steve Forbath

Because of the Flyer's size, the vessel has two captains on board at all times while underway. The first captain is in charge of the wheel house, announcements and the helm. The second captain is in charge of the engine room and passengers. Should the vessel encounter limited visibility, both captains are in the wheel house.

While underway, the first captain is constantly monitoring the sea state, engine gauges, GPS, auto-pilot and radar while all the time keeping a visual lookout for small recreational boaters and marine life.

Forbath recalled a couple of years ago when a large 90-foot blue whale had died and drifted into one of the jetties off Newport.

One of the lifeguard boats was towing the whale back out to sea when a couple of 18-to-20-foot great white sharks picked up on the whale. The sharks came up from behind the whale, then jumped out of the water, biting into the whale then spinning violently, thrashing back and forth, until they broke a large piece off.

There have also been times when the Flyer has come upon an unsuspecting Fin Whale on the surface and had to dodge it, giving the passengers the opportunity to go eye-to-eye with the whale as the two went their separate ways.

I asked him what had been some of the most interesting flotsam he'd seen over the years.

"While departing Avalon, about three miles off the island, I noticed what first appeared to be a rather large person on a Jet Ski heading straight for us off our starboard side," Forbath said.

"The next moment I realized it was too big to be someone on a Jet Ski and tried to hail the object on the radio, channels 16, 13 and 14. Just about this time the Coast Guard started to question my inquiries over the radio, when a very strong U.S. Navy voice came over the radio and said this encounter never happened, and the periscope of the submarine quickly submerged under the water."

I asked when the weather might be too rough for the Flyer to make the crossing.

"This winter we canceled more days than I can remember because of wind and swell," Forbath said. "We are concerned about the passengers, we just don't want to hurt anybody. It's all about our passengers' comfort.

"People get scared, they suddenly stand up and try to run and fall down. The boat, knock on wood, can handle anything in this area. We have to keep the passengers comfortable so it becomes more about the sea state rather than wind strength. There have also been times when the winds will come out of the Canyon of Avalon and we cannot get into harbor and I have had to return to Newport before because the harbor has been closed off.

"Some of you might recall the fires in Catalina over the last 10 years," he said. "One night we had to stand off Avalon all night in case we had to evacuate all the residence from town because of the fire danger."

I asked if there was anything he'd like to say to the recreational boater that would make his day easier.

"Keep a safe distance, we move much faster than you would think we do," Forbath said.

The captain and I talked more about our deliveries up and down the West Coast and shared similar stories of challenges while at sea. Forbath can talk the talk, and for someone who has been around as long as he has, I am quite sure he can walk the walk.

We are all very fortunate that he is one of the captains that runs the Flyer here in Newport Harbor.

I am headed out on the Santa Cruz 50 Horizon again this next week down the coast of California in the California Offshore Race Week. It is a three-race series starting from San Francisco to Monterey, then from Monterey to Santa Barbara and Santa Barbara to San Diego.

Please wish us luck again, it always helps.

Sea ya.

LEN BOSE is an experienced boater, yacht broker and boating columnist for the Daily Pilot.

What are those red crabs you have noticed in the Bay

Pleuroncodes planipes

By Len Bose

February 27, 2015 | 4:58 p.m.

Not sure how many of you were on the harbor last weekend and noticed all the Pleuroncodes planipes, or red crabs, doing their thing. By Monday afternoon, it appeared that they had little to no life left in them.

I contacted Michelle Clemente, Newport Beach's marine protection and education supervisor, to get the scoop (no pun intended) on all the red crabs.

"They are typically associated with warm water," Clemente explained. "It's a type of mating ritual, and they got cooked when they landed on the sand. It's a little bit warm for them to be out of the water."

Clemente informed me that this was not unusual and happens during the El Niño years.

6-13-15 I was in San Diego in Mission Bay and the bay was full of them.


05-18-16 I first wrote this story almost a year ago. This round with the crabs are a little different, they do not go away with a simple shampoo, just kidding. This time the Sea Gulls are eating them and popping and pooping red crabs all over the boats and docks nasty stuff yesterday.

Lori Bowman Fernandez Photo Taken in Huntington Beach

The Harbor Report: Yacht clubs celebrate traditional Opening Day

Opening Day is a celebration and tradition to welcome members to the yacht clubs' facilities for the upcoming season.

This Saturday, I plan to attend Opening Day at the Bahia Corinthian Yacht Club with Commodore Sandy Mills, who will be opening the 2016 yachting season.

The tradition of opening day started many years ago, where yacht clubs would close down for the winter and, of course, re-open before each summer season.

Tradition plays a big part in every opening day, starting with the inspection of the fleet.

I am a big supporter of the inspection process because it leads to the boat owners' preparation and maintenance for the upcoming season. Fleet inspection normally starts early in the morning, with the inspection chairmen and their committee assigned to the different boats for judging.

The judges will then head out to the fleet and meet with the boat owners who have entered into the inspection.

Judges are looking at overall appearance inside and out. They will then head into the bilges of the boats and take a look around with a boat surveyor's eye toward integrity of the vessel.

Some judges might even know Coast Guard, National Fire Protection Assn. and American Boat and Yacht Council standards.

This would cover everything from batteries being boxed and properly secured, looking for fuel leaks, making sure a set of tapered soft wood through hull plugs are leashed to each through hull and to make sure there is a corkscrew for happy hour in the galley.

I have known more than one boat owner who could tell me how many door hinges they have on their boats because they have polished each and every one of them. For the boat owner who has taken the last week off work and has gone through the inspection checklist themselves, I salute you for a job well done.

The odds of you having an equipment malfunction this season have been greatly diminished because of their hard work. If you happen to know this type of yachtsmen, send me a note; I would like to interview them.

*

Let's talk flag etiquette

This is when I start my yearly rant about flag etiquette. Now, the bottom line is you are enjoying your boat, and are having fun doing so, and I should stop here.

But I have a hard time with people flying pirate flags and thinking that the more flags you fly the better. I noticed one boat last weekend flying a set of plastic flags from the sign shop.

The guy could not have been any happier and said, "Look at all the color I have flying."

I replied, "Looks like you are going to have a fun opening day."

As I turned away, I suffered from acid reflux, but, hey, people on the boat were having a great time, and that's all that really matters.

So, yes, I am a type of snob when it comes to flag etiquette. I wrote a story nine years ago on this topic. You can find it on my website, lenboseyachts.blogspot.com.

Here is the Chapman, book of seamanship, recommend list for dressing ship:

"On the Fourth of July and other special occasions, yachts may dress ship when at anchor. The international Code Flags are displayed from the waterline forward to the waterline aft, using weights at the end in the following order arranged to the effect color patterns throughout: Starting forward:AB2 UJ1, KE3, GH6, LV5, FL4, DM7, PO 3rd repeater, RN 1st repeater, ST0, CX9, WQ8, ZY 2nd repeater."

Now, if you do not have your signal flags in this order, and you get marked down, you can ague that this is only a recommendation for a color pattern, and there is no official pattern.

I have to take Tums every time I see boaters dress ship a week before and still have their signal flags up a week after opening day.

One last bit advice for the upcoming season: Make sure your first mate understands how to read your GPS and how to work the VHF radio and call for help.

Let this person engage and disengage the auto-pilot and let them hand steer to or from Catalina once this season.

It's summer and the sun is out!

Sea ya.

LEN BOSE is an experienced boater, yacht broker and boating columnist for the Daily Pilot.

Its all about Karma with the wine you serve

Its Thursday April 21st 2016 and the main thing on my mind is the Newport to Ensenada International Yacht Race. I will be aboard the Santa Cruz 50 Horizon, the boat is ready and looking like she is doing ten knots of boat speed just sitting in her slip. Hope you all noticed Hannah Fry story “Newport to Ensenada yacht race sets sail Friday” in the Daily Pilot on Thursday the 21st.

I just sent out my final email to the crew reminding them to bring their passports and reviewed the food menu with them. Now our menu is not even in the same league as the Tres Gordo Sailing teams vessel It’s OK with its five course dinner and wine pairing. Their menu looks like it has been printed at Newport Stationers and handed out to each crew member on their arrival to the boat in the morning. The It’s OK menu  Lunch C'est Si Bon assorted sandwiches. Dinner Small Plates and Appetizers. Gulf Prawns with horseradish cocktail sauce. Spinach and Feta Cheese phyllo triangles (spanakopita), Bacon wrapped jalapeno “poppers”, Muldoons "Sindi Rae's" gourmet sliders, Warm pastry cheese sticks a la Pacific Club, Gilroy Valley Fresh Artichokes with spicy aioli, Assorted domestic and imported cheeses with gourmet cracker selection.

Wines are listed below (actual wine pairing with each item an ITS OK! secret)

2015 Fragile Catalan Rose

2013 Mer Soleil Santa Barbara Co. "Reserve" Chardonnay

2013 Beran California Zinfandel

2014 Runquist "Salman Vineyard", Clarksburg, Petite Syrah

Our crew receives an email and reads as follows  “I am headed out to provision the boat in a couple of hours, Great Mex breakfast burritos, C’est Si Bon sandwiches for lunch, home made Pasta Bake for dinner. For grazing food I will stop by Trader Joes for dried fruit, trail mix, chocolate covered espresso beans and a couple of others things that catch my eye. We will have instant coffee and hot chocolate along with a handle of Mount Gay Rum for our arrival.”

As I travel around town today the excitement level has been high with the two big trimarans in front of the Newport Harbor Yacht Club, Marina Park has fifteen race boats in their guest slips and Bahia Corinthian Yacht Club docks are filled to capacity. The talk around town is always about the weather and this year looks like a better than average race. The true test on these participating yachtsman will not be the race it will be the delivery home. Looking into my crystal ball, the weather will and should make the big boats have their crews jump off the dock on their arrival and head for the barn. We call that turning and burning, for the smaller boats don’t even think about coming home until early Wednesday morning. So for all you people that have love ones, friends doing the race and the delivery home. I would not be surprised if you get a phone call informing you that they will be a little late coming home.

For use on Horizon the race is looking pretty good that we can three-peat for the overall win but that would be bad luck for me to say. As most of my readers know I am very superstitious and I have found the perfect karma ingredient. On the day of the race I will pick up three pieces of plastic out of the water. That could be anything from a plastic water bottle or a grocery bag while walking down the dock. I even try changing course just a little bit, while racing, to pick up that plastic ballon out of the water. You should try this sometime and see if it as lucky for you as it is for me. I still do not know why the race committee does not give a time allowance to the cruisers, who are allowed to run their engines during the race, for picking up plastic along the race course.

So if you are reading this story on Saturday morning we should have finished the race before 3:00 AM and we are probably checked into our rooms talking about where we messed up our how good of sailors we are. I am sure there will be plenty of conversation on how spectacular it is to sail at night under a full moon and how gnarly that last jibe was in twenty knots of wind was.

As always the competitors need to give a big shout out to the Newport Ocean Sailing Association for all their hard work finding participants, sponsors, cleaning trophies and coming up with new ways for making this race better for everyone. If you are looking for more reading about the race head over to my blog site at lenboseyachts.blogspot.com I wrote a story for the race program “Reflections on Winning” and I posted what our strategy will be on race day.

As always wish us luck.

Sea ya

Thunder and lighting on the harbor this weekend.

BY: Len Bose

The mooring balls have been removed from in front of the Newport Harbor Yacht Club and there are a lot of really good sailors in town this week. Must be time for some 25-cent beers and the 2016 Baldwin Cup.

The three-day NHYC Baldwin Cup, which has J.P. Morgan Chase as its presenting sponsor again, sails Friday through Sunday just off the main dock of the yacht club in Harbor 20s.

This year's teams come from as far away as West Itchenor, England. Five of the teams are from the East Coast of the United States, while four teams are from the West Coast. The West Coast teams hail from Seattle, San Diego and Newport Beach.NHYC has two teams entered named Thunder and Lightning. Team Thunder seeks its third straight Baldwin Cup victory.

Justin "Lawman" Law, the Thunder captain, knows what makes the championship team so great.

"Team Thunder is a solid squad made up of Newport Beach locals who get to spend the most time in the boats and know what the Lido Lift is," Law says on the event's website.

Skipper Michael "Big C" Menninger with his father, five-time Harbor 20 champion, Bill "Dollar Bill" Menninger as his crew are on the Thunder roster. Also for the Thunder are: skipper Brian "The Cruise Missile" Bissell sailing with his wife Perry "Peronicus" Bissell; skipper Jon "Ropes" Pinckney sailing with his wife Gale "White Thunder" Pinckney; and Lawman will be sailing with Jeff "Gordo" Gordon.

The regatta is fantastic not just because of the 25-cent beers. For an especially unique perspective you can almost give your favorite team members a high-five as they sail past the dock during the racing.

The real excitement actually comes from the regatta's format of 4-v-4 team racing. It's best described from the Baldwin Cup website: "Team racing, like most traditional team sports, involves strategy, advanced skill, and teamwork. However, unlike other fleet racing, team racing pits a team of four against another team of four boats. This added dimension forces players to have tremendous boat-handling ability and quick reactions.”

The key to watching these races and understanding if your team is winning the race is counting the place of each of your team's boats and if that number is less than 18 your team is winning the race. This is why you will see leading boats turn around and try to slow down the opposing team's boats making an effort to have their teammate pass an opponent.

Another fun aspect of attending this event is just hanging out with your friends and informing the umpires of their bad calls. Yes, team racing has umpires on the water similar to an umpire on the baseball field.

Quite often you will hear from the gallery, "Come on, ump! Make a call!”

The sailors are the players and they also can hear all of your comments from the bleachers.

Now just blend in the cost of beers and you can almost hear Harry Caray singing "Take Me Out to the Ball Game."

Who knows, maybe the Baldwin Cup play-by-play announcers might start playing this tune after the seventh heat each day?

There always needs to be a big shout-out to all the volunteers. This list appears to be over 100 people. From boat owners, race committee, pit crew and housing it takes a whole lot of people to run an event of this caliber.

Make sure you visit www.baldwincup.com for team information and other important features. The short interview with each sailor is a good read. If you want to check the weather conditions, go to the regatta cam link and you will be able to see what's going on at the main dock and across the harbor.

You will be able to find me at the event for some of Saturday and most of Sunday for the final series.

Newport to Ensenada

It's time to wrap up the preparations for this year's Newport-to-Ensenada race. We will be back this year aboard Horizon, and with your luck again we will be trying for a third consecutive overall win.

I will be making my predictions for the class winners in my next column and give you a hint about our strategy.

Sea ya!

LEN BOSE is an experienced boater, yacht broker and boating columnist for the Daily Pilot.

FOR SAIL: Santa Cruz 50 # 25 FLACA asking $ 225,000

ALL PHOTO SUPPLIED BY Joysailing.com

There has been a tremendous amount of time and thought placed into Flaca to keep her at top performance. When viewing this vessel please note the freshly painted hull and deck tops, sail inventory, standing rigging, and up dated rudder. This boat has always been known as one of the magical SC 50’s!

There was 28 Sc 50’s built, two have been destroyed, eight have been made into cruising boats, five are are now charter boats, six are in disrepair. That leaves you with roughly seven boats that are in very good condition. Flaca makes it into the top four SC 50’s that are still around and for sale.

If you and most of your crew are over forty years old and you want to race and win offshore there is know better boat than the Santa Cruz 50.

Specification sheet

This weeks Traffic Report around the harbor

The Harbor Report: Turn-in program demolishes aged vessels

By Len Bose

There's lots going on in the harbor in the upcoming weeks, along with a few topics on which we all need to stay aware of.

It's always good when a plan comes together and shows proven results. Harbor Resoures has received a grant from the state referred to as the Vessel Turn in Program or (VTIP).

This allows recreational boat owners to surrender to the city their unwanted boats for demolition.

Twenty boats have been removed from our harbor over the last year using the VTIP grant. I watched an old Islander 30 sailboat being towed by the reaper, a commercial mooring barge, last week, and it's kind of sad because I can remember when Islander 30s were new.

Our harbor is becoming more attractive every day with the removal of these unwanted boats.

***

The Harbor Commission will recommend to the City Council a trial run for a secondary anchorage in the turning basin in front of Lido Village, or what I refer to as next to Z Mark.

The trial could start as early as the Memorial Day weekend and run through Labor Day. Special attention will be given to the amount of activity the anchorage draws, along with the noise level.

Do we need a second anchorage? Yes, we do. This trial is good for the harbor, and I look forward to reporting this summer's findings.

***

While we are near Lido Village, next to the Elks Lodge, the city is making plans for a guest dock at the end of Central Avenue. It just so happens that the Newport Harbor Yacht Club membership is deciding whether to build a new clubhouse and, as part of that agreement made with the Coastal Commission, NHYC is to provide more public access to the harbor by building this new public dock.

Should membership vote not to build a new clubhouse, the city is making funds available to build the dock anyway. The concept for the dock would be for small boats and dinghies providing access, from the water, to Lido Village, and the conceptual walkway that could wrap around Lido Village to Mariners Mile.

***

By now most of you have heard that the Adrell properties were sold earlier this year. The investment group that purchased the properties has purchased much of Mariners Mile.

Will anything happen soon? I would guess not, although I can tell you what my gut is feeling.

My greatest fear is we will have a continuation of similar structures like the Balboa Bay Club extending down the mile resembling Marina del Rey. This could lead to further noise restrictions on the harbor, particularly from increased waterfront residences.

This has to be paid attention to.

***

I wish that more of our harbor's powers that be would address the old-style channel markers and do something with these obstacles to navigation.

You might recall the old No. 8 channel marker and how a larger vessel ran into and crushed it in half. You also might recall how long it took, with the Coast Guard, to remove this old marker and replace it with a much smaller floating buoy marker.

Just before the boat parade last Christmas, a larger boat rammed into the No. 11 channel marker and broke it in half. The Coast Guard quickly replaced the channel marker with a new floating buoy.

The concern is that the old channel maker, mostly obscured under water, is still in place.

Why do we still have these old-style channel markers in the harbor? And do we have to wait for a larger vessel to crush these markers before we have to replace them and let a year pass before we remove the old pilings?

What many of you might not know is how many smaller vessels run into these old markers and how much damage the markers make.

***

The new RPG 54 and Newport Beach Eelgrass Mitigation Plan has been in place now for a couple of months, and the good news is that people are now starting to inquire about dredging their slips. Forty residents have picked up information packets on how to start the dredging process.

The concern is how many people will actually be able to get a dredge in front of their slips. One of the big parts to this puzzle is where you place the sand if you do not have beach in front of your house. Without a beach, one has to place the sand on a barge and take it out to a dumping area.

This can be cost-prohibitive. The question now is how to find ways to more effectively remove and dispose of sand.

Sea ya.

“What goes on at sea”

Horizon Dream Team.  Back Left John Busch, Stan” The Man” Gibbs, John Shulze, 

Craig Chamberlain,  Len Bose, Gunner “ Pistola” Torre: Not seen Jeff “Elivs” Thrope, Grant “Spuds” Wooden,

Len Bose

At the end of my last column I asked you for luck and good winds as we raced the 1,100 miles from San Diego to Puerto Vallarta aboard the Newport Beach-based Santa Cruz 50 Horizon.

Now it is my turn to thank you for all the well wishes because we won our division and the race overall.

Rather than bore you with all the fine details on how we won the race I thought it might be more interesting to answer the frequent question I get from the general public when we do these offshore races.

We sailed the roughly 1,100-nautical-mile race from San Diego to Puerto Vallarta in four days, 13 hours, 52 minutes and 19 seconds. We won on handicapped time which is far too difficult to explain other than larger boats owe smaller boats time at the finish line most of the time.

One of the first questions I get is: What do you do at night?

We race through the night and the day until we reach the finish line. There is no stopping at sunset and sleeping until 9 a.m. the next day.

Our crew consisted of eight sailors, of these eight we would keep four members on deck racing the boat. Every two hours two new crew members would come on deck, so if you do the math that is four hours sailing and four hours off watch.

If you are lucky you can get a good eight hours of sleep a day. After the first day this routine becomes easier on you.

How do we see at night? We were very fortunate this race to sail under a full moon. It was like the police helicopter was behind us with the search light on. Not that I know what that is like.

This is always a good question because I have sailed on those moonless nights, when you cannot see what's in front of your hand, and that changes the game completely. When this happens you rely on your wind Instruments similar to how an airplane pilot flies with zero visibility.

What do you eat and how do you prepare your meals? Some race boats take this to the extreme in both ways. One boat might only bring frozen dried food and a single propane burner to do everything to save on weight on the boat. While the other boats are serving four-course gourmet meals with wine, with all the galley appliances.

Aboard Horizon we have a full-size galley, refrigeration and a three-burner stove top and oven. We ask each of the crew to bring a frozen casserole that will feed eight, lunch meats for lunch and yogurt with granola along with the fixings for a couple breakfast burritos for breakfast.

I also provisioned the boat with a lot of grazing food, for example different types of trail mix, dried fruits, beef jerky, chocolate covered almonds, espresso beans, and cherries. Our navigator kept asking me where I was hiding the rest of the food, but we made it and no one else was questioning me if we brought enough food. Not to forget there was also plenty of instant gourmet coffee and hot chocolate.

If you are wondering about water, most, if not all the boats, have water-makers installed on their boats. We stored 15 gallons of bottled water in case of an emergency, another four cases of 12-ounce water bottles just to get started and for luck 5 gallons of water in one of our water tanks. We made about 8 gallons of water a day the last half of the race.

Back in the day the only way to communicate with home or the race committee was over the single sideband radio SSB. We still keep these radios aboard for your last go-to should the world end.

Today, our daily position reports are transmitted via satellite emails or satellite phones. One of the biggest area of change over the last 10 years is the weather information that you can obtain over the Internet. This data is very expensive and the good navigators are very good at getting the information they need quickly and getting offline ASAP.

To my advance readers that have done many of these offshore races, still wondering how we won? I can explain it in one word: "preparation."

This race was the 32nd time I have raced down the Baja coast. Now blend in the 10 times I have raced to Hawaii, and I have never sailed on a boat that was so well prepared for an offshore sailboat race as Horizon was and is.

For this I have to thank our skipper Stan "the Man" Gibbs and of course the owner of this sailing team, John Shulze who resides in Singapore.

Lots going on in the harbor and will update you in my next column. Thanks again for the luck.

Sea ya.

LEN BOSE is an experienced boater, yacht broker and boating columnist for the Daily Pilot.

Harbor Report: Still a need to be prepared for El Niño

Deputy Ron Reyes

Len Bose

It baffles me how often boaters will see a threatening weather pattern approaching and do nothing to prepare for it. I felt I was prepared for the forecasted weather that was coming on Jan. 31 and Feb. 1, and yet I made some rather big blunders that cost me time and money.

While observing the harbor late afternoon on Feb. 1, just after the wind storm had subsided, I quickly noticed who had not read my column, "Plenty to do in El Niño prep," on Dec. 5. Looking up the harbor I could not help but notice all the sails that had come unfurled or untied due to the high winds.In the dying breeze these sails make soft flapping sounds. I can somehow see the dollar signs flapping from their torn edges. While driving off the peninsula the cars on the road looked like they where covered in a light layer of snow, which was actually sand.

The following day I started to hear about the damage that had occurred across the harbor, so I touched base with some of my best sources to get their observations.

This is what can happen when you don't take down your canvas 

One of my first stops was with Dave Beek from Island Marine Fuel, located next to the ferry landing on Balboa Island.

"In the late morning [that Monday] I was on the fuel dock with my father, Seymour Beek, and we were seeing winds at a solid 50 knots with gusts into the 60-knot range," Dave Beek said. "My dad commented that he had never seen the wind stay that steady for that long."

Dave Beek also brought up the fact that he had never collected so many kayaks, paddles and boat fenders that had floated up to his docks.

"The breeze was kicking up well over 40 knots late afternoon [Jan. 31]," said my good friend Matt Stanley, who is a dock master on the east end of the harbor. "The wind waves were coming up and over into the shore boat and in that type of breeze there is not a lot I can do to help people with their boats."

Stanley also reported that one of the boats in his mooring area had broken free because the chafe gear had slipped down and sawed through fresh mooring lines.

There was another boat nearby that broke free because the mooring lines were old and just blew apart.

While we were talking I noticed a powerboat, in a nearby mooring field, that had all its canvas up surrounding the fly bridge. The fly bridge enclosure looked like it had a bomb go off with the canvas bow, the stainless steel frame that supports the canvas enclosure, left unrecognizable.

I also had a chance to talk to deputy Ron Reyes from the harbor department. Reyes has been a deputy for 17 years and has been assigned to the harbor department over the last 6 1/2 years. Reyes felt the breeze start to pick up early on [the morning of Jan. 31] and by late afternoon felt gusts of 45 knots. During this time the harbor patrol made 60 service calls, 20 of which where boats that had broken free of their moorings and one sunken boat.

Photo by Pete Penso

"We were overwhelmed by the amount secondary boats that broken free such as dinghies, kayaks and other small boats, Reyes said. "It consumes a lot of our time sweeping up all the smaller vessels."

While talking to Reyes I learned that there is an old tattered, red storm warning flag that is framed in the harbor patrol office with all recorded wind strengths inscribed on it.

In 1974, there were recorded gusts of 50-plus.

In 1978, we had recorded wind gusts of 90 knots.

In 1982 and '83, we had wind gusts recorded at 60-plus.

Reyes and I both believe that El Niño is by no way over; rather it is just winding up for its next punch. My gut tells me we will have at least four more of these big clearing westerly winds this winter and spring.

Reyes was quick to remind everyone to head out to their boats this week in this warm weather and check on them.

My mistake this round was not going to my boats, berthed in slips, just before the breeze came through with a vengeance. My dock lines were too tight and I could have called more of my friends and reminded them to check on their boats.

I decided to stay inside and watch the harbor web cams from my desk. I have to give it up to our harbor patrol. I know I watched them on both sides of the harbor at the same time from my monitor.

For a quick review of El Niño preparations, go to newportbeachca.gov/trending/projects-issues/el-nino-preparations.

I am headed out to sea Feb. 19 in the San Diego to Puerto Vallarta Yacht Race aboard the Santa Cruz 50+ Horizon. This is one of the best teams we have put together and we are very excited about the race.

You can follow us from the San Diego Yacht Club's website, pvrace.com. Also, look for a link to the race tracker or on Facebook SantaCruz 50+ Horizon.

Wish us luck and good winds.

See ya.

LEN BOSE is an experienced boater, yacht broker and boating columnist for the Daily Pilot.

Video taken by Pete Penso