Two Years Before The Mast - SoCal climate change.

[Panope]

Two Years Before The Mast. SoCal climate change.

Its been several years since I have read Dana's book, but I recall him describing frequent strong onshore wind events that resulted in his ship needing to up-anchor and put to sea for safety.

Question: Do these same weather events occur today? Has the climate changed? Did Dana exaggerate the wind speed? Were ship anchors so shitty that they were dragging in a 10 knot - onshore breeze?

I reckon Beau will be the go-to person to answer this, but all comments welcome.

Steve

[BeauV]

Steve,

It has been far too long for me to remember what time of year Dana was hanging out in S. California. A quick squint at the chart and you'll see that in S. California the coast runs North/South down near Mexico, but turns in a big sweet and runs almost East/West from Santa Barbara west to Pt. Conception. This makes the entire area south of Pt. Conception into a sheltered area of calm winds and flat seas (relatively) during the 9 months of the year that there aren't many storms of any kind (other than hot offshore Santa Ana winds). The existence of a chain of 8 large islands, actually a submerged mountain range, that run from Richardson's Rock which is out West near Pt. Conception, all the way down to San Diego makes the entire S. California basis an area that the Square Rigger Captains referred to as the Catalina Harbor.

The problem with this "Catalina Harbor" is that in the winter when the storms arrive they can be preceded by extremely strong southerly winds, which you obviously know as we're in the N. Hemisphere. Those southerlies often reach 30-40 knots with gusts above that. Indeed, we just had a series of them blow through with winds in this range and seas reaching 15-20 feet on the S. Calif. beaches. In these conditions, the entire Catalina Harbor becomes a massive lee shore and unless on shifts from previously safe harbors on the mainland to the N. side of one of the Channel Islands, it can be a death trap for ships. Many of us start seamanship talks around here with one comment that wakes up the audience: All of the California Coastline is a lee shore. In the summer nearly every mile of it is a lee shore to the NW winds in the winter the same happens with the SW winds in gales.

To make matters worse.... along the large bays of Dana's time (which would include San Diego, Los Angeles, Santa Barbara, and Monterey) there is great sand and mud bottom to be found all along the shore. Within these Bays the coast shoals relatively gently, almost like the E. Coast which square rigged ship sailors were accustomed to. Everywhere else, the shore is extremely steep to and rocky with foul anchorage except in small holes which were inappropriate for boats/ships that can't sail to weather when then need to. The sand/mud bottom in these big Bays exists because the 9 months of prevailing NW winds and strong California Current running down the coast pushes all the silt, sand, and mud down the coast until it settles in one of them. The typically windward side of the Islands that make up the Catalina Harbor (Catalina, San Clemente, Anacapa, Santa Cruz, Santa Rosa, and San Miguel, going from SE to NW) is scrubbed clean of sand/mud and and typically quite steep to; meaning that depths about 100 yards off shore are well over 200 to 250 feet and rocky. Thus, when the winter Southerly winds come on the front of the gales, the natural place to anchor, in the lee of these islands, is quite difficult for a ship of the 1800s.

Finally, during the fall S. California receives its famous Santa Ana winds, which howl down the canyons and blow out to see at speeds of up to 70 and 80 knots. While these are off-shore winds when one is anchored near the mainland, and the waves don't have a chance to build up, with the windage of a Brig or Full Rigged Ship and old anchors with rope rode, it might be hard to hold even in sand. They arrive quickly, without warning, and as recently as the 1950s washed dozens of boats ashore in the normally protected harbor of Avalon on Catalina Island. Ships of the 1800s were probably ill equipped to deal with hurricane force winds with 10 minutes notice while at anchor.

In this news media pic you can see the configuration of the islands, where the Santa Ana winds come from, and why the Catalina Harbor could be so dangerous.



Here's a picture of Avalon Harbor after a Santa Ana, this was a mild event. In prior years all the buildings along the waterfront have been destroyed in a matter of an hour or two.

[BeauV]

Steve,

There is one event in Two Years Before The Mast which I do remember in some detail, but it has nothing to do with anchoring. They were attempting to sail N around Pt. Conception and up too Monterey. Of course, they couldn't drag one foot on the beach while powering the way we just did last fall. As a result, they were tacking back and forth through at least 110 degrees or more.

I believe Dana describes it as a "Clear sky gale". The winds reached 40-50 knots, there was no rain, there were no clouds, and it blew them about a quarter of the way to Hawaii before the wind abated. His ship spent two weeks, if I am remembering correctly, before they could finally make it back to Monterey.

This weather pattern is quite typical of our coast. Near shore the wind is NW, but if you sail offshore on port you'll find that you get lifted and the wind veers to N and then NW. The seas are crazy given what we call "reinforced trade winds" which are now running at 45° or even 90° to the NW swell. In addition there is a 1 to 1.5 knot prevailing current from the NW which can build to 2 knots when the wind gets strong. It's easy to believe that Dana's ship would be blown a long long way offshore.

[Chris Chesley]

Beau has given a very excellent recap of what Dana and California sailors have, and still do, face. The difference is better breakwatered harbors and better forecasting, not to mention, perhaps, better understanding of the conditions and seasons.

Short answer to your question, if I understand Beau correctly-- To date, global warming* has not notably changed the conditions sailors experience in SoCal between now and R. H Dana's time.

*Disclaimer - Climate change continues as it always has, altho somewhat more incrementally than what is usually noticed in a few centuries--except when it doesn't.

[BeauV]

Chris, thank you for actually answering Steve’s question. (I feel a bit of a dolt not explicitly answering)

My opinion on Climate Change is that it is real. However, the places that evidence of that change will show up are initially on the fringes. That’s what we’re seeing now with glaciers receding and ice caps melting. I’ve no idea when we’ll see the major forces change, like the average path and velocity of the trade winds etc..., but reading the Ocean Passages books and various sea captain’s reports from the 1800s indicates to me that the major patters haven’t changed very much.

One place on the fringe where I do think we see change was exhibited by how tough it was for the old classics to get around the Horn in this most recent race. I’m not yet certain, but I think that the series of gales visited on those competitors was much more severe than it was “back in the day”.

Sorry not to answer your question directly.

[Panope]

Thanks, Beau, Chris

I should have clarified that when I wrote "climate change" I was not necessarily meaning "human caused global warming".

I remember reading Dana's book and being tremendously fascinated by how different he describes that coast compared to what it is like today. Obviously the addition of a few bazillion people is the big change, but he also described the place has a cold, barren, dismal place that he looked forward to leaving.

I myself would consider an un-populated Southern California to be paradise. Perhaps, it was simply the lack of civilization that gave him the unfavorable impression.

That said, another historical account of that time period also depicts the west coast as colder and more miserable than today - The Lewis and Clark expedition. Specifically, they describe their winter (of 1805) and the mouth of the Columbia river as being in a nearly constant blizzard. We know today that that coast is certainly a miserable place to camp in the winter, but only rarely snows.

I just peaked at the "Little Ice Age" Wikipedia page. Looks like it may have been significantly cooler then.

[BeauV]

That’s an interesting graph.

San Francisco temp measurement only goes back to 1875. In taking a squint at the data it doesn’t seem there has been much change at all. Source: https://www.ggweather.com/sf/temp1.html#jan

Los Angeles temp measurement goes back to at least 1884. It looks like most of the record lows were before 1900, but the change since doesn’t seem to be much.

I can’t make any comments about the methodology of the graph from Wikipedia vs what was happening on the Pacific coast.

[Chris Chesley]

Steve, the So California coast's dirty little secret is that it's often cold.

I remember delivering a 37'er from Oxnard to Newport for the Newport/Ensenada race which occurs end of April. Freakin' froze my....! Also, having worked the coast for a number of years there off LAX and also up to several hundred miles offshore, I can tell you that it's cold out there. I can only imagine RH Dana, and his compatriots, trying to keep warm on a night watch in clothing far less effective than what we have today. The winter's can send some pretty foul weather in and the NW'lies in the summer are cold and constant. Those Santa Anna's are warm, but sudden, in the fall. We would know when the forecast was for the potential but seldom really knew just which canyon that would be the funnel 'this time'. Very minor differences in pressure change when/where the Santa Anna's effects are going to be felt and a couple miles away can be flat calm.

As for the changes in temperature? I hope my disclaimer is sufficiently 'milk toast' in nature to keep me out of that discussion...

*Disclaimer - Climate change continues as it always has, altho somewhat more incrementally than what is usually noticed in a few centuries--except when it doesn't.

I keep trying to figure out where they tied the ship alongside cliffs so that they could throw cow hides down onto the deck.....

[kimbottles]

I keep trying to figure out where they tied the ship alongside cliffs so that they could throw cow hides down onto the deck.....

Palos Verdes?

[Panope]

I guess I hit the weather just right during my ONLY winter visit to that beach:

Carlsbad CA December, 2005. About 30 miles South of Dana Point, the site of Dana's cow hide Frisbee tossing.

[BeauV]

Steve, So Cal can be lovely in the winter. But at 1,200 ft where my Dad's house was in Northridge we would get light snow about twice a decade. Averages don't leave the impression that extremes do Similarly, I have cross country skied across the quad at Stanford in Palo Alto on 6" of snow.

All that said, for the vast majority of time in So Cal I could drive my Morgan around (the only car I had) with nothing but a wind breaker and a sweatshirt. It has no top, no heater, no wind screen (other than those tiny aero things), no windows, and the doors only come up the passenger's waist. When it rained, typically about 8 days a year, I'd wear foulies.

It's really one of the most benign climates I've ever seen outside of the tropics. But it is a desert and the real danger is heat not cold.

[Panope]

I have re-read Dana's book and found a source for my previous thoughts on this thread's topic: Dana himself.

My copy of two years before the mast has the added chapter "Twenty Four Years After". In it, Dana is reunited with an old ship captain from his early time on the coast. He writes:

......But Captian Wilson tells me that the climate has altered; that the south-easters are no longer the bane of the coast they once were, and that vessels now anchor inside the kelp at Santa Barbara and San Pedro all year round. I should have thought this owing to spending his winters on a rancho instead of the deck of the Ayacucho, had not the same thing been told me by others"