US to Isla Mujeres, Mexico

We ended up spending 2 and 1/2 weeks in Marathon. While we were there we made some improvements to the boat. We repaired our boom vang, which had ripped out of the boom on our sail to Marathon. We installed lazy jacks, patched a tear in our jib sail, restitched the sacrificial canvas on our roller staysail, and installed 2 new house batteries. We also waited for some supplies in the mail and our Coast Guard registration. We provisioned the boat with plenty of food and water. While in Marathon, we met some wonderful new friends, Linda and Larry on Enchantress, Brenda and Dennis on White O' Mornin', and Bill on Anticipation. We left in the morning on Nov. 29th, as our friends waved us fairwell. Our first leg of the journey was to Dry Tortuga, our final stop in the US. From there we would make the passage to Isla Mujeres in Quintana Roo, Mexico. It took us 3 days to sail to Dry Tortuga. The first day we had very little wind and it took us most of the day to go the 25 miles to our anchorage in Key Lois. However, each day the wind grew stronger and by our third day we were flying at a broad reach in 20 knot winds all the way to Dry Tortuga. Unfortunately, our beautiful trip sailing was met with tragedy. Our second night we anchored in the lee of Boca Grande. We had had an excellent day and spirits were high. Kate decided to go outside and enjoy the wind. We went out after about 20 minutes to check on her and could not find her anywhere. We scoured the entire boat and looked in the water around the boat. The moment we looked into the water, we knew there was no hope. The water was rushing past with a strong tidal current. She must have fallen in and quickly been carried out to sea. There was nothing we could do. That night Sue could not sleep. Every time she closed here eyes, she imagined Kate´s terror as the current carried her further and further away. We will miss her greatly. We have now come to appreciate that Kates new found freedom on deck was the path that she had chosen to live. We could have protected her more and not allowed her out, but it would have resulted in a battle of wills and she would not have been happy. Her short life aboard Chandrika was a good one. We had never seen her more happy.

Kate and Squeak cuddling below decks

Captain Kate at the helm

Squeak spent the next week looking around the boat in all the nooks and crannies for his sister. He still looks around for her from time to time. We are not sure how much he understands. However, he must have a sense of what happened, because he has expressed zero interest in going outside since Kate disappeared. We have decided that if he starts wanting to go out again, we are going to throw him in the water and teach him to climb back aboard with some netting thrown over the side. We stayed in Dry Tortugas for a couple of days waiting for the strong winds and seas to dissipate. Dry Tortugas is a US National Park in the Florida Keys that can only be accessed by boat or by plane. Dry Tortugas was much different that any national park we have ever visited and would be much better classified as a national monument. The island has an old civil war era fort called Fort Jefferson, which is built out of crumbling brick made from coral. The fort is not nearly as solidly built as the other forts from the same era up in Casco Bay, Maine, since Florida lacks granite. We enjoyed exploring the fort and snorkeling around the outside of the moat.

arriving at Dry Tortugas

Chandrika at anchor at Dry Tortugas

On Dec. 3rd the winds had subsided and were coming out of the north at 10 knots. We left Dry Tortugas and 07:30 and headed out to sea. Once out to sea, the winds quickly dropped to 0-2 knots. We spent most of the day attempting to sail before finally deciding to motor. We motored through the night. Part way through the evening we hit the strong east bound current of the Gulf Stream. We ended up fighting the Gulf Stream currents almost the entire way. The current varied in places from 1 knot to up to 3 knots. Much of our trip the wind was too light to allow us to make significant headway under sail against the current. We ended up motoring and motor sailing much of the way. However, the positive side was that seas were calm much of the time. We did have a few days with some excellent sailing. On our second day, we watched a wall of clouds approaching as a cold front moved southward sending us 15 knot winds from the NW with gusts of 20 knots. We sailed at a beam reach the rest of the day. The wind also kicked up the seas and we had 5 foot swells from the side. Chandrika handled the seas beautifully until part way through the night when the winds stopped, slowing down the boat so much that the swells began to knock us broadside. Again, we were back to motoring. The following day the winds picked up again and we were able to sail once more. This time we had a headwind straight out of the SW. We close hauled under full sail in 15 knot winds with 20 knot gusts. It was exhilarating sailing. While we felt as if we were over canvassed for 15-20 knot winds, because we were fighting cvurrent we could not make headway and actually lost control of the boat under reduced sail. Chandrika sailed wonderfully and pretty much sailed herself with only occassional corrections at the helm. Along our passage to Mexico, we had dolphins swim alongside our boat 3 times. One evening as the sun was setting, we had a school of about 100 dolphins swimming alongside us, playing, doing flips and twists, and enjoying the gorgeous reds and oranges of the setting sun. On December 6th, after spending the day motorsailing and pushing our was through 2-3 knot north-bound current, we finally exited the Gulf Stream. That evening the winds increased from the South at about 15 knots. No longer fighting current and having favorable winds, we were able to sail at a close reach in the dark. We had only 20 -25 miles left until we reached Isla Mujeres and we were able to sail almost the rest of the way at 5 to 5.5 knots. It felt great to be out of the currents so we could finally move at a decent pace again. About 2 miles out from the flashing green light marking the North entrance to Isla Mujeres, the winds stopped. We decided to drop sail and motor the rest of the way. As soon as we dropped sail, a huge squall hit us unexpectedly and out of nowhere. Blinding rain and 40 knot winds destroyed visibility and made steerage of the boat difficult. We could no longer see the flashing green light, which according to the GPS was less than 1 mile off our bow. We decided it would be crazy to make our entrance into Isla Mujeres at night in such conditions, but at the same time we did not want to go back out to sea. Using the GPS to guide us, we motored to an open area to the NW of Isla Mujeres where it was shallow enough for us to drop the hook. The area offered little protection from the elements, but it provided a place where we could sit still and not worry about hitting something in the dark. Soon after we anchored the rain and the wind eased off. A fishing boat with 2 Mexicans pulled up to make sure we were okay. We told them that we were fine, planned to stay there through the night and would make our entrance in the morning. We did not want to risk another squall hitting us if decided to go further. We managed to get a couple of hours of sleep before the winds switched kicking up swells that were hitting us broadside. The boat was rolling so uncomfortably, it was impossible to sleep. In the morning of Dec 7th at first light, we saw 2 sailboats anchored 200 yards away from us in the lee of Isla Mujeres and therefore out of the swells. One of them was our friends Mark and Lori on Aeolus, who we´d met at Dry Tortugas. We had been unable to see their anchor lights the night before. Wishing to get out of the rolly seas and to finally get some sleep, we quickly weighed anchor and motored into Isla Mujeres´ somewhat protected harbor. Overall, Squeak did very well on our passage. Sue gave him one-twelfth of a tablet of Bonine (similar to Dramamine) for motion sickness two times on our passage. Sue gave it to him early to prevent sea sickness. It seemed to have worked. The only trouble was trying to get Squeak to eat. We fed him 2 cans of wet cat food mixed with chicken broth and tuna juice, as it was all we could get him to eat. Later that day we cleared into Mexico, which involved a random hocus-pocus of meaningless paperwork and beaurocracy, where we had to travel between multiple buildings spread out all over town. Watching other cruisers wandering around town trying to clear through, made the whole process more entertaining. The whole process took us half the day. Afterwards we headed back to the boat and ate and slept. Isla Mujeres is a touristy Mexican town with some Mayan ruins on its Southern tip and lots of restaurants and shops in the town center. The anchorage has poor holding ground and lots of Mexican boat traffic that flies through sending big wakes. We´ve seen a number of other boats drag anchor, some of them repeatedly. But fortunately, our anchor has been holding well in winds of up to 40 knots. We luckily chose a good spot to anchor. We plan to spend a few more days here before heading south, while we wait for the seas to subside from the strong Northeasterly winds that we´ve been experiencing. December 12th, 2007

Precruising Refit

We’ve been in the Miami/ Fort Lauderdale area for the past few months working obsessively on the boat, getting her ready to go cruising. We’ve been working so hard, we haven’t taken the time to update this blog for a very long time. We send our apologies to those who have been checking regularly and waiting to hear from us.

The first night we spent on the boat, it rained heavily. To our dismay, there was water dripping (and in some places streaming) inside the boat. Our first boat repair projects were to fix the leaks which involved rebedding almost all of the deck hardware. We also added backing plates, where they were lacking to add structural integrity. Repairing the leaks also involved treating a few areas were the plywood deck had begun to rot. We now have a dry boat and the few rotten areas of wood have been repaired.

Our next large project was to install a toe rail along the edge of the deck. The toe rail provides structural support to the hull to deck joint, as well as providing an edge to catch someone’s foot or a kitty cat (preventing them from falling overboard) if they should happen to slip. We purchased two 34 foot long sections of aluminum toe rail from a consignment store up in Fort Lauderdale. The first challenge was transporting the sections of toe rail to our boat in Miami. We borrowed a friend’s 16 foot long van, strapped the 34 foot long pieces of toe rail onto the top, tied three orange life vests onto the ends (as flags) and drove through the crazy Miami traffic to our boat. The next challenge was the installation, which proved to be quite a difficult project, as we soon discovered that the trim on the boat (which was cored with wood) was completely rotten in some places with some areas having large voids. We treated the rotten wood with Dr. Rot and filled in the voids with epoxy. We ended up using almost 1-1/2 gallons of epoxy! While we were fixing the deck trim, a beautiful dove landed on top of Sue’s head and nibbled at her hair. The dove allowed us to pet her and hold her, and stayed with us all afternoon. After filling all of the voids with epoxy, we now had a solid deck trim into which we could drill to install the toe rail. Using the lines from our rigging, we surprisingly had no trouble bending the toe rail into place. We also added a beefier rub rail to the side of the boat to protect the edges of the deck from bumping up against docks, etc.

The dove landing sitting on Sue's shoulder

The Love Dove

Installing the Toe Rail

We also made numerous other improvements to the boat, such as rerigging some of the halyards and sheets (lines for the sails), rewiring the cabin lights, cleaning the forward water tank, removing two leaking water bladders that were in the aft water tanks and replacing them with water jugs. We wanted much better anchor gear, since we are planning to live “on the hook”. We purchased a 15kg Rocna anchor, mounted it onto the bow with a new bow roller, installed a new deck pipe fitting for the chain to feed through the deck into the chain locker and divided the chain locker. The boat came with 3 other anchors and we were given a few anchors from a friend. We now have 9 anchors aboard. We figure it never hurts. If the wind really starts to howl, we have no qualms with throwing them all overboard. The largest project of all however was repowering. The boat came with a 1985 36hp Volvo MD3B marine diesel engine. The engine was in need of a major rebuild. We decided to replace it with a brand new (never been used) 2006 28hp Beta Marine diesel engine, which we purchased on Ebay. We found a boat yard in Fort Lauderdale where we decided to haul out for the engine installation and for some other repairs to the hull. The day before we left for the boatyard, we opened up the engine compartment to check the engine. We discovered that during our last sailing excursion on Biscayne Bay, the alternator had managed to tear loose and fly off the engine, ripping the alternator belt and breaking the metal fittings that hold it to the engine. Not having time, nor wanting the headache of doing a proper fix, since we were about to replace the engine, we decided to strap the alternator onto the engine with wire and replace the belt with a spare that we had aboard. Our cranking battery designated for starting the engine was completely dead, so we had been starting the engine off the house batteries (designated for the electronics and lights). We would have to try to use as little energy as possible and hope that our crude fix for the alternator would be able to charge the batteries enough to get us where we were going. We would definitely need our engine to navigate through the tight waterways to and from the Atlantic Ocean. We headed to the boat yard the following morning on September 23rd. Because of one bridge that is too low for our mast, we were unable to head north up the Intracoastal Waterway, which meant heading out onto the Atlantic Ocean instead. We first had to motor south down the Intracoastal Waterway to Government Cut, where we were able to cut out onto the Atlantic Ocean. The sailing on the Atlantic was wonderful and provided an excellent relief from all of the work that we had been doing. The wind was coming straight out of the East at 10 knots allowing us to sail at a beam reach the entire way to Port Everglades, and the entrance to Fort Lauderdale from the Atlantic. We spent one sleepless night anchored in a narrow waterway in the Fort Lauderdale area just outside the main channel. In the morning we turned on the Volvo and motored down the New River to the boat yard. The New River is a very narrow waterway with several low drawbridges. Fortunately, the bridge tenders who open the bridges were very responsive and opened the bridges quickly. It would not have been fun to try and back up or turn around in the river. One of the last bridges that we had to go under, required that we pass under it at low tide. The bridge clearance at low tide (when we passed under) was a hair over 54 feet. Our mast height (including the VHF antennae) is 54 feet. The next bridge was a draw bridge that requires 24 hours advanced notice for an opening. We had called them the day before we left. After passing through this draw bridge, we were looking on the left for the sign for the boat yard. There was another bridge a short distance away. Not seeing the sign for the boatyard, we figured that the boatyard might be past the next bridge. Unfortunately, since the bridge was “under construction” according to our chart from 2003, the chart did not show a clearance. As we approached the bridge, Sue was on the bow looking ahead for the minimum clearance sign. When we were only about 100 feet from the bridge, Sue was able to spot the clearance sign hidden behind a motor yacht. It read, “45 feet”. If you recall, our mast clearance is 54 feet (49 feet if you do not include the antennae). If we passed under the bridge, we would most certainly be demasted! Sue yelled to Graham to back up and turn around. Seeing as the current from the river and the 10-15 knot winds were pushing us directly into the bridge and that the river was only about 50 feet wide between the expensive motor yachts docked on either side (our boat being 34 feet long), backing up or turning around was not an encouraging prospect. With Graham at the helm and Sue kicking her feet on the expensive motor yachts trying to fend them off, we somehow miraculously were able to turn around, our aft stay coming within 15 feet of the bridge. When we turned around we saw the sign for the boat yard temporarily get blown up into the air, just enough so that we could make it out. There were two pilings in front of the boat yard. We were unsure if we could pull in between them because we did not know how deep the water was that close to shore. We decided to pull up alongside the pilings rather than pull in between them. It turns out that this was a wise option, as we later measured the depth with a stick and discovered that it was definitely too shallow. The parallel parking nature of the situation combined with the wind and current being against us, made Sue diving into the water with the lines the most appealing option. Fortunately, it was a Sunday and there was no one at the boatyard to witness our dramatic entry.

Graham, hard at work at the helm, sailing up to Fort Lauderdale

The following day, we began removing the Volvo. While removing it, we discovered that one of the mounts (that secures the engine to the boat) was completely broken in half. The engine had essentially been standing on three feet instead of four. Perhaps this was the reason why our engine managed to shake off the alternator? Disassembling the engine was no small project. It took us about 4 days to remove it. It barely fit through our narrow companionway entrance. We hired someone with a crane to help us pull it out of the boat. Next we put the new engine inside the boat and began the installation process. We hired a consultant to guide us through the installation process. He would come by the boat periodically and tell us what we needed to do next and then loan us the necessary tools. Other than his guidance, we installed the whole thing by ourselves. It was one of the most stressful and overwhelming experiences we have ever been through. Getting the engine to fit into the engine compartment was no small task. We had to extend the forward fiberglass beds (that the engine sits on) back using fiberglass cloth, matte and polyester resin. We had to then grind away part of the aft beds coating every square inch in the cabin with fiberglass dust ( as well as much of our lungs). Then we built up all four of the beds with white oak, all of which required custome fitting, and fiberglassed them in. The installation also meant putting in a new shaft, buying a new propeller, getting all new hoses including a new wet exhaust system with a high rise elbow to the top of the lazarette with a shut off valve for protection in extremely heavy seas, cleaning and painting the engine compartment, draining the fuel tank and cleaning the sludge sediment off the bottom, rewiring the starter cable and battery selector switches, restuffing the stuffing box, installing a new cutlass bearing and various other odds and ends. After 3 and a half weeks we put the boat back into the water and bolted the engine in place. It was time for the final alignment of the engine with the propeller shaft. Amazingly we discovered that we had bolted the engine down in exactly the correct spot and no further adjustments were needed. Now the question we had been wondering for the past few weeks...would she run? She runs great. Despite all of the difficulty of putting in the new engine, we are happy that we chose to repower. In addition to having a brand new engine, we learned tons about diesel engines, fiberglass work, etc. While the boat was on the hard, we also had some fiberglass work done on the hull and we painted the bottom of her hull. Also while we were in the yard, we got to see our friends, Dale and Regan, and had a visit from Graham’s mom. It was wonderful to see them; however, we were sorry that we didn’t have more free time while they were here. Hopefully they will come visit us again in a more relaxing environment in some beautiful place.

Out with the old

In with the new

We also must mention our huge appreciation for our friends, Leti and Christoph. We stayed with them the entire time our boat was on the hard and for a few weeks before we purchased the boat. Before we discovered that they had moved to Miami, we had been camping behind a neighborhood in Miami in a patch of mosquito-ridden tall grass. We do not even want to imagine how horrible this whole experience would have been without them. They took us into their home and made us feel like part of their family. They have three beautiful children, Stephan (6 yrs), Erica (just turned 5 yrs), and Lucas (about 1-1/2 yrs). It was wonderful playing with them and getting to know them. Lucas loves climbing anything and everything in sight and one of his favorite words is "Arriba" which means "Up" in Spanish. It is no surprise that Lucas and Graham really hit it off. We will miss spending time with Leti, Christoph and all of the kids.

Stephan (Luke Skywalker) battles his father (Darth Vader)

Leti and Erica

Erica finishes her dance performance

Lucas (the Arriba Man) in his Halloween costume

After leaving the boat yard, we took the boat back to Miami. The trip out the New River and out to the Atlantic was uneventful. Unfortunately the wind was coming directly from the south, so to avoid a long overnight sail on the Atlantic, we decided to motor back to Miami. We spent the next few days relaxing and doing absolutely nothing in Biscayne Bay. It felt great to be a vegetable after working everyday, 10+ hours a day for 3 and ½ weeks straight. It also felt wonderful to be at the end of our boat refitting process. There will always be boat maintenance, but we were finally done with the initial start-up phase. It was finally time to go get the cats, sell the car and get out of Miami. Just as we were about to drive to Alabama to get the cats, we learned of the approaching tropical storm Noel that was heading straight for Miami. We decided that it would be best if Graham stayed in Miami with the boat, and Sue drove up to Alabama alone. Unfortunately the whole trip was quite rushed, and Sue had very little time to spend with her family. Having the cats back however has been absolutely wonderful. The first night the cats (especially Kate) had a hard time and were pretty nervous that their new home was bobbing around. However, the cats have settled in quite quickly. We were surprised that Kate was the one who adapted to the boat first. She absolutely loves it! Since both Kate and Squeak are indoor cats, being allowed outside on deck is a new and thrilling experience for them. Very soon after moving onboard, Kate was jumping up on top of the boom, running around the deck, rubbing her checks on Graham and Sue and all of the rigging and purring away madly. She hasn’t been so frisky since she was a kitten. She even somehow managed to be the alpha cat for awhile. (She eats first when given tuna juice and makes Squeak wait). Squeak also enjoys the boat, but has settled in more gradually. He prefers to stay inside and cuddle with us in the V-berth.

Kate and Squeak settling in

Captain Kate, climbing the boom

After getting the cats, we sold the car and headed down to Marathon in the Florida Keys. We spent three days sailing down. It was excellent sailing with a steady 15 knot wind at our backs most of the way, except as we headed westward towards Marathon, we sailed at a beam reach. Chandrika absolutely flew. We sailed her from 6 to 7-1/2 knots most of the way and at times were even surfing on top of the following swells. It was a blast. Being in Marathon has also been wonderful. The people here are extremely friendly and welcoming, and it is nice to be around so many cruisers. We plan to stay in Marathon for a couple weeks while we wait for a few things in the mail. We will be spending Thanksgiving here. There will be a Thanksgiving dinner at the marina for all of the liveaboards. It will hopefully ease the blow of not being with our families for Thanksgiving.

We have decided to sail to Isla Mujeres off the Yucatan peninsula in Mexico. We will most likely depart sometime in early December (depending on weather and our packages in the mail). From there we will work our way southward along the eastern coast of Central America.

November 17, 2007

Chandrika

Sorry it has been so long since our last posting. It took us over a month to finalize the purchase, but she is finally ours. We settled on a 34 foot Creekmore cutter built in 1982. She is a very solid and seaworthy vessel and we are happy to have found her. Her name at the time of purchase was Bald Eagle, but we have decided to change her name to Chandrika, which means Moonlight in Hindi. Below are several pictures from the haul-out during the survey and from the original advertisement. We will be keeping the boat here in Miami, Florida until the end of hurricane season.

hauling her out of the water inspecting the hull

the main salon

the navigation station

the galley

the head

the forward V-berth

the aft berth for our future guests

Since buying the boat, we have been working hard fixing her up.

Graham climbing the mast to inspect the rigging. Sailing on Biscayne Bay in Miami, Florida

August 27, 2007

Sailboat shopping

Hey everyone We've spent the last 2 weeks boat shopping in Florida and, if all goes well, have settled upon a 34' custom Creekmore cutter, fully equipped and ready to go. We're trying to think of names, as the current one is 'Bald Eagle'. Any suggestions? please email them. We'll post pics after the deal closes. June 30, 2007

from Zion to Yosemite

We spent a few more days in Zion and climbed one of our favorite routes there, Shunne's Buttress. It is a phenomenal route with a taste of every style of climbing.

Sue on the overhanging finger crack pitch on Shunne's Buttress

We also made an attempt on Spaceshot. We climbed the first 4 pitches, but were scared off by some threatening weather. We decided to crag at the Cerebrus Gendarme area instead, where we could escape much quicker should the sky decide to pour down on us. Bad weather was on its way, so we headed off for Yosemite Valley. Upon arriving in Yosemite Valley, we did a little cragging at Chapel Wall. Sue decided to revisit an old arche enemy called Hedonistic Pursuit. Unfortunately she didn't fair any better, but she did manage to struggle her way to the top. Next time.... It rained the next couple of days. When the rock dried up, we did some cragging at the base of El Capitan. Staring up at this beautiful monolith, we realized that the time had finally come to tackle one of our dreams, to climb a route up the 3,300 foot face. We chose to climb Salathe Wall. The route took us 6 long days of climbing and we spent 4 nights sleeping on the cliff.

Salathe Wall on El Capitan

(asteriks indicate each nights bivy)

Day 1: The first day we climbed the first 10 pitches (about 1000 feet). This portion of the climb is often called Free Blast. At the top of the tenth pitch, we did a short rappel to Hearts Ledge, where we fixed 1000 feet of rope from this ledge to the ground.

looking up from the base of Salathe Wall

Day 2: The next morning we carried 65 pounds of water, 30 pounds of food, and lots and lots of heavy climbing gear and camping gear to the base. Then we ascended up the ropes we had fixed the day before and hauled up the "pig". The pig is a term used to describe the fat, heavy haul bag used on big wall routes. It is appropriately named, because our "pig" was even fatter and heavier than Graham (if you can believe that one). Anyway, we had to lug all of our water, food and equipment up the climb with us. Once arriving back at Hearts Ledge with our equipment, we proceeded to climb the next 3 pitches. The third and last pitch of the day is called the Hollow Flake pitch, a 5.8 chimney. Due to Sue's intense love of chimneys, she made Graham lead this lovely and terrifying pitch. Graham climbed up to a fixed piton, where he lowered down and then pendulumed (aka swung) across the face and into an offwidth/ squeeze chimney. He then climbed the squeeze chimney without protection for the next 100 feet. Placing protection would have created heinous rope drag, not to mention that the chimney was too wide to protect. We spent the night on Hollow Flake ledge, a small one and a half foot wide ledge, where we squeezed in like sardines (with our feet next to the other person's face). We slept like rocks.

getting ready to spend the night on Hollow Flake ledge

filling up on fig bars

Day 3: We awoke at first light, ate breakfast, packed up the pig and continued climbing. Lucky Graham got to start the day off with another chimney. This chimney, however, was nowhere near as terrifying as the chimney that he would encounter later that day. Later in the day he led a pitch known as 'the Ear' which according to Royal Robbins is the 'most terrifying 5.7 in the world.' Negotiating this traversing downward flaring squeeze chimney brought enough terror for one day. Fortunately, the remaining pitches for the day were fairly relaxing and low key. We ended the day at the most incredible bivy on the flat 10'x10' top of El Cap Spire which stands about 100' tall and is detached from the main cliff by about 3 feet.

looking up from Hollow Flake ledge on the day's climbing

Graham, stemming his way up to El Cap Spire

looking down on El Cap Spire

our comfy bivy on El Cap Spire

Day 4: The next day we climbed several more nice pitches. However, one of the pitches known as 'the Sewer' was not quite so enjoyable. To climb this pitch one must negotiate a disgustingly wet, flaring and steep chimney/ corner coated with slippery and slimy moss. Graham got thoroughly soaked leading this pitch and even Sue following got partially wet. After one more short pitch, we came to the top of a sloping ledge, where we decided to bivy for the night. Having some remaining daylight, we decided to climb the next pitch and fix a rope that we could quickly ascend in the morning. This pitch involved a pendulum, but otherwise was fairly straight-forward. After returning to our sloping bivy ledge to settle down for the night, we discovered that somehow we had managed to drop our topo map of the remainder of the route. Knowing that a retreat this high up on the cliff would be extremely difficult, this was fairly disconcerting. I doubt we will ever climb another multiday route without bringing an extra copy of the route topo.

the first beautiful pitch above El Cap Spire

Day 5: Luckily after pitch 26 which we had fixed, the remainder of the route is fairly straight forward. This in combination with people climbing on the upper pitches (the first people we had seen since day 2) allowed us to mostly relax with confidence we would find our way to the top. There were a couple dihedral pitches which were then followed by a giant roof pitch. This lead to the Salathe headwall pitches which brought us to Long Ledge for the night. With the slight unknown and some daylight remaining we again fixed the next pitch. We went for the free climbing variation which is a 12a bolted face off the left side. Long Ledge is about 30' long and 1.5' to 2' wide and slightly concave as it cradled us to sleep about 3000' off the ground.

a view of the route from the sloping bivy

Graham aiding out the giant roof pitch below the headwall

Waking up on Long Ledge

Day 6: In the morning we jugged up our fixed lines. The next pitch was a thin 5.10d crack that wouldn't have been anywhere near so hard if we hadn't been so tired! The following pitch had a short 5.9 squeeze chimney, which was the last challenging section on the route. The last and final pitch was a short 5.6 to the top. We topped out around 11am, happy to be on 'terra firma.'

On the summit of El Capitan

But then again, we still had 3500' to descend. We loaded up with about 70 pounds of gear on our backs and headed for the East Ledges descent trail. Unfortunately we took a 2 mile round trip detour trying to find it. This was just a little more exhaustion like icing on the cake. Once we got on track, we made it down without any problems. We made it down to our car with just enough time to swing by the grocery store for some good eats before collapsing in our tent.

We took four days of rest after which stir craziness set in.

Graham's rest day art

It was time to climb again.

We decided that we needed more time with El Cap, so we decided to climb the West Face Route. This route begins with a long approach followed by about 2000' of climbing. We planned to climb it in one day. We awoke at 4am, ate and began the approach. At 6:45am, we were at the base and climbing. The first couple pitches were 2 of the 4 most difficult pitches on the entire route. This 19 pitch grade V, 5.11c was a push for us. We got off track a couple times which brought upon the threat of getting benighted on the route. We pushed on as fast as we safely could, combining pitches whenever possible and were at the top in the dark around 10:00 pm. We headed for the decent route and after getting lost in the thicket a couple times decided to bivy for the night. This was a known possibility so we brought the emergency equipment, a.k.a. a lighter . We curled up around a fire at about midnight and stayed as warm as possible with ever a couple short periods of dozing. First light came and we were headed down very hungry and slightly dehydrated. A quart of chocolate milk each and a large batch of home made chili was breakfast followed by a nap in the tent. Tis the simple things that make life so good!

We did some cragging in Yosemite and headed back to Alabama where we reside for the moment. On the way back we did some climbing to make the drive tolerable.

May 2007