I have a
huge soft spot for Don Anderson and I am deeply saddened to hear of his passing.
He has been our mainstay weather guru throughout our cruising
s/v Tao over the
past 5 years. I actually have a little guilt as well, because I am angry. Our
time with him was not finished. I was actually not-so-patiently awaiting a
reply e-mail from him regarding general weather routing in the next month from
Hawaii to the South Pacific when I found out. I know he does not like contact via e-mail, but we
are currently preparing to leave and in a harbor that is too noisy for good
reception so were trying to set up a time to be able to bug him via HF radio with his beam antenna pointed our way. Rather
solitary out here in Hawaii, without the cruiser connectivity (as Don had warned us, this is not considered
a good cruising ground and after spending a year here we think it deserves more of a chance, though most cruisers don't give it the time), we did not hear of his passing right away. Luckily, before we sent a second e-mail, we heard the disturbing
news when talking with Midnight Blue, cruising friends from Mexico, who had heard via the PacSea net. And I am angry still, because after this
season’s cruise we had special plans to stop in Oxnard to present him with a bottle of
scotch, give him a hug, and talk story with him about what a huge impact he has
had on our lives.
Chris and I
finally threw off the dock lines from Berkeley, CA in November of 2008. We
slowly moved down the California Coast toward Mexico and unfortunately did not
know about Don until we were way downwind of Ventura. If we had known him yet,
we would surely have made it a priority to stop in and say hello. We slowly made our way down the Outside of the Baja and found one of the nets he forecasted on. As we neared Scorpion Bay,
where we hoped to set the hook and surf for a few days we finally got up the
courage to ask for a weather fill. He was happy to report (we were to find that the bigger the storm, the more excited he was to report on it) that a big low was
coming down, and winds were going to be from the south all the way down to our
intended anchorage. His advice, he would not be caught in there! We took his
advice and continued on to the protection of Bahia Santa Maria. The southerlies
did not end up making it quite that far south, yet we were grateful to have had
his fill, were content with our conservative decision, and happily hunkered
down from the strong northerly flow that set in. From then on, we listened to
Don religiously. He provided us relief and knowledge and education (about both
weather and radios) from there on.
Through our
first season in the Sea of Cortez in 2009, we were entertained as we listened to his weather reports and learned
about squash zones, northers,
coromuels, adiabatic winds, and iCom 802 clipping. Then he talked
us through a second season in 2010 which included several unexpectedly
motorless long distance passages as well as us being early season cruisers in the
Northern Sea of Cortez where he patiently explained to us what
Elefantes were the
morning after we had encountered a blessedly small one, forecast
Chubascos as they
began to menace, and the
promontory effect, of which he often spoke, suddenly became clear. Most of our time
in the Sea of Cortez we tended to be away from the bulk of cruisers, so we frequently
chimed into nets for weather fills in “off the beaten track” areas. Don was always
willing to provide us fills and often times we got way more than we asked for. We
trusted his advice all the more as over and over again his predictions were spot
on. Then in 2011 we decided to jump from Mexico to Hawaii. Without fail, Don
was there standing watch before the Amigo Net every morning of our 26-day
passage (except Sundays) logging our track, ushering us in the right direction, allaying our fears of hurricanes, and providing us special weather routing. One morning when
I questioned him about squalls we were seeing he replied "South of 22-deg
N, you are in the tropics, my darling, squalls are everywhere and are
impossible to forecast. You forecast them with your eyes and your radar. They
always travel NE to SW and you will see an increase in local winds of 5 to
10-knots". Yup, this was exactly what we saw (though we don't have radar).
Lovingly, get used to it, was written between the lines. He further educated us about
trade winds, channelized winds, and warned us about the channels between the islands as we approached Hawaii.
We were unable to reach him via radio through
the noise once we landed in Hawaii but were able to thank him via e-mail and expected
we would have more contact once leaving the Hawaiian Islands. We are profoundly distressed to imagine never hearing his soothing voice discussing weather over
the radio waves again. We learned so much from him and feel lucky to have known
him at all. Thank you
Don, for the tireless service that you provided the cruising community, we are forever
grateful.
As we continue to chip away at getting Tao prepared for another long journey, we would like to take a moment to sit back and bask. We each look around at our little floating world, and realize just how much we have put into this boat. Not only money, but sweat equity, time, and love. And we both understand that we have already gotten 10-fold in returns. We have learned about and attempted to adjust nearly every part of her. The education has been immense, gaining knowledge and experience (sometimes the hard way) as we go. Tao has been a patient teacher, solid in foundation, she has put up with us learning by trying different things. We have all grown together. So currently, as we weigh her down with provision after provision, we are grateful that Tao, Nor'West hull #10, found us so many years ago, excited and with a dream. And as always, with nervous anticipation, we think about the new unimaginable adventures unfolding before us. We enjoy each moment in safe harbor even more knowing it will soon end, and all the while, Tao strains against her mooring lines, eager to head out again to sea.
