thelongtack

THE LONG TACK

After Cabrillo's death at Santa Rosa Island in early 1543, his successor Bartholome Ferrelo planned the most audacious sea voyage in California's maritime history. Ferrelo sailed the two ships southwest out into the winter Pacific for more than 300 miles looking for a winter storm. When a winter storm passed overhead, Ferrelo "wore ship," letting the wind pass around the sterns of his two ships, and then headed northeast to Point Reyes. Point Reyes is the big landfall just north of San Francisco that Cabrillo had discovered the year before.

NORTH OF PT REYES

To the author's understanding, this is the first dead reckoning plot ever published of the Cabrillo expedition's winter voyage north of Point Reyes. The two ships battled winter storms to fight their way up to the latitude of the Oregon border. But as one can see, the two ships were well off the coast.