West Coast Trip Logs
July 6-19, 2002
(Jeff)
July 5, 2002
Left Marina in Seattle
July 6, 2002
Subject: Day 1
We've made it to Port Angeles on a gloriously sunny day. Had to spark up the motor because the wind was on our bow all day long and we never got more than an hour with the sails fully up. Most of the day was spent with only the main and the motor kicking away. Oh well, that's life going through the Straights. We'll sit out the evening in PA and head off to Neah Bay tomorrow.
Subject: Neah Bay
We arrived at Neah Bay tonight around 5:00 after departing from Port Angeles this morning. The weather forecast is good and I suspect we will leave Neah for the big blue tomorrow (Sun) afternoon. We're dropping off Cathy who has friends coming to pick her up and see us off. Neah Bay is quite the little town -- not much to see except the whale exhibits and the coast guard station where we went to check on the weather forecast. We stocked up on groceries, had a wonderful BBQ'd fajita dinner, and are eagerly awaiting what tomorrow brings.
The weather coming up the straits was nothing short of incredible! Sunny blue skies, 75 degrees and not a wave or swell to be seen for most of the trip. Around Sequim we had some swell kick up to about 3-4 ft, but it was short lived and nothing to worry about. By the time we arrived in Neah, it was back down to 1 ft, and not a puff of wind to be seen anywhere. The Coast Guard guy said it was the calmest he has ever seen here.
July 8, 2002
Subject: Day 1 at sea
Ahhh we finally made it offshore! Left Neah Bay around 1:00pm with what looked like a good weather window. Ha! No sooner did we leave the sun went away and the rain dumped, and I mean dumped! No wind --ack! We've been motoring since we left and have covered about 38 miles averaging about 5.5 knots and getting a little current boost. Can't even fly the main because there's literally zero wind. Oh well, we've seen 2 sharks (small) circling the boat and eyeing our fishing lures. Had one hit on the salmon lure but no takers, and nothing on the tuna lure. No salmon dinner tonight -- shucks. Lots of fishing boats to avoid however and we're staying about 15 nautical miles off the coast but will give it some sea room as we drop South. Saw one Puffin which was surprising as well.
Gotta run for my 10:00pm watch.
July 9, 2002
6:20 AM
Subject: Lions tigers and whales Oh My!
Day 2 under.... motor.
We've unfortunately been stuck smack dab in the middle of the Pacific high all day today. The weather is incredible, but hardly a puff of wind to save us from the heat. We've seen pods of whales including some that breached in the middle of the night not far from the boat. You could hear the tail slam and see a shadow but that was all. Caught three tuna! Landed one. That's okay though because at about 35 lbs, it's wayyyy more meat than we could ever eat. Fish tacos for dinner -- yummy! What a mess on deck though because there really isn't much room to gut and clean a VERY large fish. You should have heard the one that got away! My gosh, it took almost all the line on our real and then snapped the lure off. Couldn't set the drag high enough to stop the reel from spinning.
The watches are getting brutal and the first three days are killer. So far I think we've both slept a scant 2-3 hrs in two days. The body starts to revolt a little, but you catch catnaps when you can. We're doing three hour watches so the time in between is limited.
All for now -- by the way, we're approximately 30 miles off the Columbia River mouth right now. Good run for a little over 24 hours straight.
Oh forgot to mention something really weird. We had a Coast Guard chopper make several passes at us and then they almost set down on our deck. The chopper hovered not 100 yds from us about 25 feet off the deck and just had a stare down for about 5 minutes. We hopped on the VHF and hailed them and they explained that they were just doing a routine training mission. Yea right. They asked how we were doing and we mentioned we had just caught a large tuna to which they laughed and said they only wished they had!
July 13, 2002
4:52 PM
Subject: Foggy days
I'll apologize in advance for not communicating over the past couple days as we've had a few slight technical difficulties, namely a laptop casualty. Mine bit the dust . I wish there was a good story to tell but it just went late one afternoon and took a couple days of reports with it.
Soooo where was I? The last few days we've had everything from gales to dead calm, fog, rain, sun and even lightening. Suffice to say it's been bizarre and we've done about 90% motoring, which is driving us insane. We had brief moments of wind followed by hours of dead calm. Highly unusual for this time of year. A couple days ago we took a 24-hr hiatus in Eureka, CA for some well-needed rest and to wait out further gales offshore. We encountered one gale and had winds in excess of 40kts as best we could tell. Our wind generator is designed to shut down at 35kts and it shut down repeatedly that afternoon. We weathered it with no problem whatsoever and in fact had a blast! It's been the only decent wind we've had the whole trip down the coast. After departing from Eureka we've motored almost non-stop which means hand steering the whole way . Over the past two days we've had a heavy marine layer (fog) lingering well into the night with about 5 hours of stars to be seen before it shrouds over again. Night shifts are quite interesting since we play constant dodge ball with fishing trawlers and have to watch them on radar, never seeing them unless they are within 1/4 to 1/2 mile through the fog.
Speaking of weather -- IT'S COLD! We've been bundled up in polypro long underwear for days and haven't seen the sun for more than an hour a day or so. Suffice to say all the shorts I brought along have gone unused.
We are currently just off Fort Bragg, CA which is about 110 miles north of San Francisco. We've covered roughly 650 miles so far with about 500 left to go and hope to arrive in Newport, CA around Thursday.
Please sing the wind song to give us a lift.
July 15, 2002
4:45 PM
Subject: Whopper of a blow!
The last couple days have been interesting to say the least. So far every weather forecast we've had has been dead wrong. If they say 15 knot winds we've gotten 30, if they say small craft advisory we get nothing. Hmf, so much for accurate weather forecasts.
A few days ago I wrote that we had experienced dead calm for several days running and had to motor most of the trip down the coast. That all changed two days ago when we encountered our second full force gale of the trip. After days of flat wind and hand steering, the wind started kicking up around 7:00 pm two days ago. By 10:00 pm we were under a single reef in the main and had abandoned hope of flying a headsail because the wind was dead off the stern. In wind like that, it is nearly impossible to fly a jib because it flops back and forth self-jibing and causes more havoc than good. By midnight we realized we were in for an all-night blow and considered reefing to the second reef point in the main, but were making outrageous speed and the boat still had good control. At a notch past 2:00 am we succumbed to the forces of the boat and decided to reef down. Oh my!
For those that don't sail, reefing simply means reducing sail by a given amount (the reef point). In our case, the main's first reef point is a reduction of about 30% of the total surface area of the sail. The second reef point is about another 25% reduction leaving you with not much more than a small section of cloth. The big challenge lies in the fact that it is necessary to point upwind to successfully reef meaning that you are exposed to the full force of the storm on your bow, causing breaking waves and swell to fly directly at you. This was no different. I ventured up on deck, prepared the lines and yelled at Marc to execute the turn into the wind. Giant waves crashed over the bow and sprayed water everywhere. At this point we estimated the seas at around 10 ft with very chaotic wave patterns coming from several directions. The boat would often pitch beyond the 60 degree heel point, then reverse and go 60 degrees the other direction. Being on deck means hanging on for dear life at times but it's a hoot! One particularly large wave tossed the boat and Marc. He ended up on the far side of the cockpit as I was pulling up the halyard for the main. This caused me to go flying forward where the deck rose up to meet me right in front of the mast base. As the boat pitched wildly to the other direction I hung on to the base of the mast while Marc frantically clamored for the tiller. As a result of the wave, the halyard decided to wrap itself fully around the mast steps and required about 30 minutes to clear before we could once again be under way.
The gale lasted until about 8:00 am, with winds still pumping beyond 11:00 that morning. As you can imagine, sleeping in those conditions is just not possible as one is being tossed in your bunk from one side to the other. Due to the desire to wait out another predicted gale and the need for sleep, we headed for a safe harbor just South of San Francisco called Half Moon Bay. En-route we saw some Orcas breaching and sea lions surfing down giant waves right next to the boat. What an incredible and fun experience even though it was taxing beyond imagination. Hand steering under those conditions is a physical and mental challenge, especially in the dark of night.
This morning we awoke to a nice foggy morning and departed south-bound around 8:30 am. Both of us slept for almost 14 hrs but felt very refreshed and ready for the push past point Conception, our next hurdle before the seas calm down and the weather improves. They call Point Conception the "Cape horn of the Pacific" since everything changes south of there for the better. Beyond that point we expect only 3-4 ft seas and light winds but most of all "SUN". We're getting tired of the gray marine layer that has been with us since Washington.
July 15, 2002
8:33 PM
Subject: Poop!
One addendum to the last report -- a story of pooping.
Late last night while Marc was at the helm, a wave decided to board us from behind. We'd had a few smaller waves splash us, but this was a rogue that hit hard. I heard a thump from below while sleeping and upon looking out the hatch, saw Marc with a shocked expression on his face sitting in a cockpit full of water. He was literally almost up to his thighs in mucky seawater and yelled at me to start bailing with anything I could find to keep from getting a second boarder. In my haste I grabbed what I could find -- a small bread loaf pan. As I poked my head out, again producing the bread pan, his look was of disbelief and laughed me darn near to tears. Hey it was the first thing I could grab. The cockpit scuppers did their job slowly but surely and drained the water with no intervention, but as a safety measure we turned on the motor and sped up a tad to keep better pace with the waves.
All part of the fun.
July 16, 2002
7:45 PM
Subject: Fair weather and calm winds
SUN! For the first time since leaving Washington we've encountered sun and the warmth it brought was wonderful. We've had heavy overcast since leaving the San Francisco area but the sun parted ways with the clouds today for several hours leaving us with the ability to finally strip out of our polypro and fleece for a few scant hours. As I write this, the clouds are once again closing in as the sun is getting ready to set.
Today has been mostly uneventful with calm weather, easy seas and a nice sail early on in the day. For the better part of the last 24 hrs we've had the menacing engine silent, but were forced to spark it up again earlier this afternoon when the winds died out. We currently are preparing to round Point Conception in a few hours which will mark a significant turning point in our journey South. From this point on, it is reportedly fair winds and calm seas not to mention the prospect of awakening to sun every morning. At our current pace, we should be making landfall in Newport Beach on Thursday morning with a total of over 1100 nautical miles under our belt. After a short respite of sleep, we hope to catch some surfing and dine on something other than canned food.
Speaking of fine dining, today's menu included a morning concoction of eggless omelets composed of tortillas pan fried with refried beans, Cougar Gold cheese, salsa and who knows what else (Marc was cooking). Our afternoon snack was just as inspiring with a plate full of sardines in tomato sauce, skipjack tuna, more cougar gold cheese and triscuits. Mmmmm yummy. Unfortunately without refrigeration we are forced to eat minimal amounts as leftovers are impossible to keep for very long. Any canned item opened is invariably used for the next meal when possible to avoid waste. Not a cullinary delight, but we get by and creativity is definitely the key.
Here's to continued calm seas and future sunny weather.
July 17, 2002
11:59 PM
Subject: Last night under sail
Tonight will be the last night under sail before we reach Newport early tomorrow morning. It's been a flat sea since we rounded Point Conception, which has been nice for sleep. Granted we've also had little wind, but did try to fly the spinnaker today for fun. However traveling at 3 knots was not overly acceptable to make land by morning so the chute was snuffed and the motor once again sparked up.
Overall the boat has fared exceptionally well like the seasoned veteran that she is. We've had little issue with anything except a few small screws that managed to shake themselves loose during the gales, which is to be somewhat expected.
As I write this note, the moon is out and shining gloriously upon the water, and I see the lights of LA on the distant horizon a mere 15 miles away. We are winding our way down San Pedro channel towards Newport which lays less than 40 miles away. Our expected landfall will be shortly after sunrise which is perfect timing.
Tomorrow brings a whole new chapter and surfing to boot! Looking forward to getting onto dry ground again and getting some well needed exercise playing in the California sun.
July 19, 2002
10:00 AM
Subject: Land Ho!
On Thursday morning at approximately 5:00am we made landfall in Newport, CA where the boat will reside for a few weeks until Marc moves it down to San Diego later in the month. He is staying aboard to attend a local class for work, while I will be flying home this weekend.
The trip overall has been terrific and the boat held up very well sans a few little things which we discovered along the way. They don't call it a 'shakedown' cruise for nothing and we shook down a few things. Along the way we had a few things become loose, lost a bolt holding part of the dodger up, and generally found that things within the cabin tend to launch at mach speed when certain waves hit the boat. The same can be said of unrestrained humans and I have the bruises to prove it.
Our fishing system worked well and consisted primarily of a heavy line (300lb test) with a 'Mexican Flag' squid looking thing on the end. The albacore was fantastic but we wished that we'd been able to cook more of it before it went bad.
Generally speaking we were able to keep the cabin in a relative state of chaos throughout the trip. Granted at times we had wet foulies lying around, but overall it was fairly easy to keep things organized, albeit a tad soggy.
Take a look at the slideshow of our departure.
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