Blog Entry – August 23rd 2008
Exodus finally from Sidney – it was lovely to spend time with our friends and family saying goodbye – it took quite a long time – about a month in all, but now its done and we left today at 12.00noon 23rd August – Tony, Johnny and I – we motored all the way from Sidney to Friday Harbour.
Expecting that we would have to give up - and probably throw away some of our fresh - food I cooked most of the way over – we had potatoes and bacon for lunch - and then remembering that perhaps we’d have to give up our fruit we ate oranges, peaches and I made apple sauce from the apples.
We arrived at 16.00 hrs., tied up to the customs dock and called on the cell phone. They asked that we call on a different phone which is on the dock with a camera attached. We had been warned ahead of time that it would be too bad if we got this particularly difficult customs agent, a very large imposing man. Well we must commend Customs Agent Moltar; a very large imposing man who made our entrance into the U.S. so pleasant, plus we got to keep all of our food.
He issued us with a Cruising License – didn’t check over the boat – made pleasant conversation and shook our hands.
The crew – Tony and I, Nancy and my son, Johnny – last minute picture on Sidney North Saanich reciprocal dock.
We left Friday Harbour 25th to face the Juan de Fuca Strait – already receiving weather warnings on VHF. But I’ve never really known the Strait to be anything but ‘orrible (a word we will use often for the next few days), so we progressed slowly and very bumpily. One of the things I’ve always expected of the Juan de Fuca Strait is that the conditions usually ease at night – not this night – well actually they did eventually ease at about 0100 hrs or perhaps its just that the waves always seem better in the dark, so we kept going through the night to Neah Bay – which of course we arrived at in thick fog and calm. While Tony slept Johnny and I crept along in the fog debating whether to keep going out (which was one of our plans – tentative). There were many fishing boats out, lots of sea birds and this was where we saw our first Pelicans. Definitely in foreign waters. So why are there no Pelicans further up the coast? – funny eh!
We went into Neah Bay the morning of 26th under radar and GPS and stayed overnight.
We spent this day hunkered down, caught rain in our rain catcher and checked weather fax. We all wanted very much to be on our way. Speaking for myself, I was very nervous about heading out into the Pacific Ocean with my head full of all of the stories of people getting ‘clobbered’ by bad weather on the way down – so I just wanted to get going before I lost my nerve.
Weather faxes showed us that the wind was blowing South Westerly (on the nose of course) BUT if we headed offshore about 130 miles or so there we would find the perfect North Westerly blowing at about 15knots. That seemed like a good thing to go for. So we started motoring west out past Cape Flattery. What a spectacular, magestic, foreboding – stay away from those incredible rocks – which of course means that our pictures do not do it justice – Cape Flattery. We were hoping that according to our reading of our faxes we would be able to head South Westerly and as the wind veered around to North – which it would be doing forthwith – it would carry us down on those lovely even rolling rollers which all of the good stories prepared us for.
From 1600 hrs 27th to our first tack at 1800 hrs 28th we went from N48 21’ W124 41’ to N48 13’ W126 13’. Not what we’d hoped for, and these are some of the comments in our log. (We used the Sailing Log Bluewater Weather 07) sheets and as each of us came off our watch we logged our position, heading, conditions, barometric pressure, engine hours and made whatever comments we wished – profanities included. “saw a puffin, very bumpy ride – started sailing, Yay!, 2 large ships, glowing cool sea - @#?ing Bull#@ - Horrible Rain – Foggy 1 – 2 mile viz, full sail close reach (albatross) – Shark!!, less albatross, less bull#@?!, motored.
At 1800 hrs we tacked back in towards land and started moving South East, heading 120o
(got no degree symbol, so ‘o’ means degrees). We are starting to settle into our watch system. Thanks to Sean Peck for the watch he suggested from his Hawaii trip. This worked pretty well for 3 of us and we all got to see the different times of day and night; 3 four hour watches during the day 0800 – 1200, 1200 – 1600, 1600 – 2000, one 3 hour watch 2000 – 2300, then 3 two hour watches, 2300 – 0100, 0100 – 0300, 0300 – 0500, another 3 hour watch 0500 – 0800, and then it all starts again.
This seems like an appropriate time to introduce our other crew member, without whom again speaking for myself I would not have been able to manage any of this ……………
Mr.Chubbs.
Mr. Chubbs – named for his obvious endowment, which seems to point so perfectly into the wind – so far no matter what the strength, and does a way better job that any of us could possibly do. He stands so proudly without any fear or trepidation and just eggs the wind on.
We all love Mr. Chubbs.
For the next 24 hours we sailed mostly South about 50 miles off the coast – fairly uneventful – sometimes fog, rain – fairly typical swells which we are all getting used to – me needing a regular dosage of Stugeron ( I take ½ pill per dose as I do not want to fall asleep), we’ve even had a smooth night where we all admired the bio luminescence in the water – we’re still doing our best with SSW winds running about 10 knots. Barometer has dropped a little and the wind is starting to pick up. By 1600 hours 29th, we are seeing 25 knots gusting to 30 NW,(what we’d been wishing for all along except not 30) and are now running with a double reef main only – big wind and big seas – Oh My God is what I was saying most of the time in my mind, and every now and again screeching out loud, when the hind quarter of the boat including our ‘very well strapped on’ extra fuel tanks disappeared under the water. Thank God I can remember what our hull looks like under the water – because sometimes I actually started to wonder what it would take for this wind and these bloody huge waves to push us over.
Just holding our bodies upright, standing or seated was becoming a challenge – we had a regular joke going as to how pumped up our oblique muscles were getting.
Being the consummate mother and wife I was constantly thinking I should cook something to keep up the crew’s morale – so the joke extended as to how we would be fat people with huge obliques. It was a credit to all of us that we were still able to joke.
We were regularly reaching 6 ½ - 7 knots with just this double reef main, and actually clocked 9.3 knots surfing down waves. Johnny said that standing up on the aft cabin roof before the mizzen mast holding on the back edge of the dodger was like surfing on a 15 ton surfboard. YIKES.
I’m writing these notes after the fact, using the log to prompt memory – and still do remember that night – which is just as well because the only person who made any log entries from 2000hrs 29th – 0800hrs 30th was Johnny – I guess that’s why it was a good idea to have someone young on the boat – after each of our watches Tony and I just staggered into bed – or whatever space was able to hold us still enough to sleep in.
Why is it that a squall has the whole sky in which to do its nasty business, but no – they just always seem to be just above us – either slightly behind sucking the waves up and making them more menacing – or in a line ahead of us beckoning us along into the waves its already sucked up into a fervour.
Though the barometer is rising gradually – which I hold out as hope that its getting better we are regularly seeing 15 – 20 knots which should be good – and would be except for the size of the waves and the irregularity of their direction. It seems that the overall weather system creating the size of the waves coming with the wind was interfered with by the smaller local squalls which were happening all over the place and whipping up the waves in different directions. Our sea state descriptions are becoming quite descriptive – choppy swells, mailto:f@%23!ing large swells, confusing and annoying, breaking, horrible, big mothers, YUK, PLEASE STOP IT. But we are really trucking now, for us 120 miles in 24 hours is very good.
Its 31st August, and the weather fax has been showing stationary gales hanging around Cape Mendecino for the last week. We are all exhausted - sleeping has been very difficult for all of us and we’ve decided not to keep going to San Francisco, but to pull in. The gales are moving north and we don’t want to be out here having to cope with more bad weather in our weakened state, so we decide to head in. We were thinking Crescent City but that would mean another 24 hours out. We check out Coos Bay Oregon and decide to head in.
A good decision made, our spirits lifted. We’ve reconciled ourselves to continuing to run with the double reef main – its keeping us moving at about 5 knots in the right direction.
We were visited by a huge pod of dolphins – maybe 50, charging at us, flipping 360 spins up in the air and slapping their tails on the surface. We couldn’t believe it. They stayed with us for about 15 minutes, and it was like being visited by playful angels. That day we saw albatross, a huge shoal of tuna, dolphins and birds – a marine biology extravaganza.
Having decided to go into Coos Bay, we started to hear on VHF the local Coast Guard giving Bar Reports – no its not a critique on the bars in town – but the condition of the bars heading into the various ports. The Coast Guard is extremely helpful – will even escort a boat across the bar if the skipper needs help. We figured the best way to cross the bar into Coos Bay would be at slack tide turning to flood, so we timed our approach, set our sails to slow us down. We put up our newly acquired Stay Sail which kept us moving at about 3 knots throughout the night and inched our way into Coos Bay. We wanted to arrive there at 0900 hours – now Sept 01. Mostly this night was crisp, cool and bright with an incredible firmament of stars, the clearest night so far. Still corkscrewing along in very large waves.
On approach to Coos Bay Tony called the Coast Guard and they told us the condition of the bar was good to cross, told us where we would be able to moor once inside. We tried to call the Harbour Master, who was not there because it was a public holiday. But an American boat leaving the harbour heard our call and responded, giving us all of the information we could possibly need.
Here we now sit in Charleston Marina which is just inside the estuary. We are paying $18 per night to be here including power, we are surrounded by fishing boats and liveaboads who are all interested in us, extremely helpful. The town of Coos Bay is about 13 miles away – we could take Moondancer up the river, but it will only make the leaving a little more difficult. We’ve been offered a lift to town on 3 different occasions by the people around us on the dock. Also the information from other sailors and fishermen around us who know the coast is valuable.
Today we repaired our genoa, which came apart on all of the radial seams along the leach and ripped along the foot. We scrubbed off all of the winter grime, did some laundry, found downtown Charleston, and a posh bar where we had posh drinks.
We like Charleston, and we’re very impressed with our dealings with the authorities and the local people. Authorities – as we had already been issued a Cruising License in Friday Harbour we just had to call in to Homeland Security for Coos Bay, just to let them know we are here. They welcomed us and gave us a few phone numbers for future destinations.
Exodus finally from Sidney – it was lovely to spend time with our friends and family saying goodbye – it took quite a long time – about a month in all, but now its done and we left today at 12.00noon 23rd August – Tony, Johnny and I – we motored all the way from Sidney to Friday Harbour.
Expecting that we would have to give up - and probably throw away some of our fresh - food I cooked most of the way over – we had potatoes and bacon for lunch - and then remembering that perhaps we’d have to give up our fruit we ate oranges, peaches and I made apple sauce from the apples.
We arrived at 16.00 hrs., tied up to the customs dock and called on the cell phone. They asked that we call on a different phone which is on the dock with a camera attached. We had been warned ahead of time that it would be too bad if we got this particularly difficult customs agent, a very large imposing man. Well we must commend Customs Agent Moltar; a very large imposing man who made our entrance into the U.S. so pleasant, plus we got to keep all of our food.
He issued us with a Cruising License – didn’t check over the boat – made pleasant conversation and shook our hands.
The crew – Tony and I, Nancy and my son, Johnny – last minute picture on Sidney North Saanich reciprocal dock.
We left Friday Harbour 25th to face the Juan de Fuca Strait – already receiving weather warnings on VHF. But I’ve never really known the Strait to be anything but ‘orrible (a word we will use often for the next few days), so we progressed slowly and very bumpily. One of the things I’ve always expected of the Juan de Fuca Strait is that the conditions usually ease at night – not this night – well actually they did eventually ease at about 0100 hrs or perhaps its just that the waves always seem better in the dark, so we kept going through the night to Neah Bay – which of course we arrived at in thick fog and calm. While Tony slept Johnny and I crept along in the fog debating whether to keep going out (which was one of our plans – tentative). There were many fishing boats out, lots of sea birds and this was where we saw our first Pelicans. Definitely in foreign waters. So why are there no Pelicans further up the coast? – funny eh!
We went into Neah Bay the morning of 26th under radar and GPS and stayed overnight.
We spent this day hunkered down, caught rain in our rain catcher and checked weather fax. We all wanted very much to be on our way. Speaking for myself, I was very nervous about heading out into the Pacific Ocean with my head full of all of the stories of people getting ‘clobbered’ by bad weather on the way down – so I just wanted to get going before I lost my nerve.
Weather faxes showed us that the wind was blowing South Westerly (on the nose of course) BUT if we headed offshore about 130 miles or so there we would find the perfect North Westerly blowing at about 15knots. That seemed like a good thing to go for. So we started motoring west out past Cape Flattery. What a spectacular, magestic, foreboding – stay away from those incredible rocks – which of course means that our pictures do not do it justice – Cape Flattery. We were hoping that according to our reading of our faxes we would be able to head South Westerly and as the wind veered around to North – which it would be doing forthwith – it would carry us down on those lovely even rolling rollers which all of the good stories prepared us for.
From 1600 hrs 27th to our first tack at 1800 hrs 28th we went from N48 21’ W124 41’ to N48 13’ W126 13’. Not what we’d hoped for, and these are some of the comments in our log. (We used the Sailing Log Bluewater Weather 07) sheets and as each of us came off our watch we logged our position, heading, conditions, barometric pressure, engine hours and made whatever comments we wished – profanities included. “saw a puffin, very bumpy ride – started sailing, Yay!, 2 large ships, glowing cool sea - @#?ing Bull#@ - Horrible Rain – Foggy 1 – 2 mile viz, full sail close reach (albatross) – Shark!!, less albatross, less bull#@?!, motored.
At 1800 hrs we tacked back in towards land and started moving South East, heading 120o
(got no degree symbol, so ‘o’ means degrees). We are starting to settle into our watch system. Thanks to Sean Peck for the watch he suggested from his Hawaii trip. This worked pretty well for 3 of us and we all got to see the different times of day and night; 3 four hour watches during the day 0800 – 1200, 1200 – 1600, 1600 – 2000, one 3 hour watch 2000 – 2300, then 3 two hour watches, 2300 – 0100, 0100 – 0300, 0300 – 0500, another 3 hour watch 0500 – 0800, and then it all starts again.
This seems like an appropriate time to introduce our other crew member, without whom again speaking for myself I would not have been able to manage any of this ……………
Mr.Chubbs.Mr. Chubbs – named for his obvious endowment, which seems to point so perfectly into the wind – so far no matter what the strength, and does a way better job that any of us could possibly do. He stands so proudly without any fear or trepidation and just eggs the wind on.
We all love Mr. Chubbs.
For the next 24 hours we sailed mostly South about 50 miles off the coast – fairly uneventful – sometimes fog, rain – fairly typical swells which we are all getting used to – me needing a regular dosage of Stugeron ( I take ½ pill per dose as I do not want to fall asleep), we’ve even had a smooth night where we all admired the bio luminescence in the water – we’re still doing our best with SSW winds running about 10 knots. Barometer has dropped a little and the wind is starting to pick up. By 1600 hours 29th, we are seeing 25 knots gusting to 30 NW,(what we’d been wishing for all along except not 30) and are now running with a double reef main only – big wind and big seas – Oh My God is what I was saying most of the time in my mind, and every now and again screeching out loud, when the hind quarter of the boat including our ‘very well strapped on’ extra fuel tanks disappeared under the water. Thank God I can remember what our hull looks like under the water – because sometimes I actually started to wonder what it would take for this wind and these bloody huge waves to push us over.
Just holding our bodies upright, standing or seated was becoming a challenge – we had a regular joke going as to how pumped up our oblique muscles were getting.
Being the consummate mother and wife I was constantly thinking I should cook something to keep up the crew’s morale – so the joke extended as to how we would be fat people with huge obliques. It was a credit to all of us that we were still able to joke.
We were regularly reaching 6 ½ - 7 knots with just this double reef main, and actually clocked 9.3 knots surfing down waves. Johnny said that standing up on the aft cabin roof before the mizzen mast holding on the back edge of the dodger was like surfing on a 15 ton surfboard. YIKES.
I’m writing these notes after the fact, using the log to prompt memory – and still do remember that night – which is just as well because the only person who made any log entries from 2000hrs 29th – 0800hrs 30th was Johnny – I guess that’s why it was a good idea to have someone young on the boat – after each of our watches Tony and I just staggered into bed – or whatever space was able to hold us still enough to sleep in.
Why is it that a squall has the whole sky in which to do its nasty business, but no – they just always seem to be just above us – either slightly behind sucking the waves up and making them more menacing – or in a line ahead of us beckoning us along into the waves its already sucked up into a fervour.
Though the barometer is rising gradually – which I hold out as hope that its getting better we are regularly seeing 15 – 20 knots which should be good – and would be except for the size of the waves and the irregularity of their direction. It seems that the overall weather system creating the size of the waves coming with the wind was interfered with by the smaller local squalls which were happening all over the place and whipping up the waves in different directions. Our sea state descriptions are becoming quite descriptive – choppy swells, mailto:f@%23!ing large swells, confusing and annoying, breaking, horrible, big mothers, YUK, PLEASE STOP IT. But we are really trucking now, for us 120 miles in 24 hours is very good.
Its 31st August, and the weather fax has been showing stationary gales hanging around Cape Mendecino for the last week. We are all exhausted - sleeping has been very difficult for all of us and we’ve decided not to keep going to San Francisco, but to pull in. The gales are moving north and we don’t want to be out here having to cope with more bad weather in our weakened state, so we decide to head in. We were thinking Crescent City but that would mean another 24 hours out. We check out Coos Bay Oregon and decide to head in.
A good decision made, our spirits lifted. We’ve reconciled ourselves to continuing to run with the double reef main – its keeping us moving at about 5 knots in the right direction.
We were visited by a huge pod of dolphins – maybe 50, charging at us, flipping 360 spins up in the air and slapping their tails on the surface. We couldn’t believe it. They stayed with us for about 15 minutes, and it was like being visited by playful angels. That day we saw albatross, a huge shoal of tuna, dolphins and birds – a marine biology extravaganza.
Having decided to go into Coos Bay, we started to hear on VHF the local Coast Guard giving Bar Reports – no its not a critique on the bars in town – but the condition of the bars heading into the various ports. The Coast Guard is extremely helpful – will even escort a boat across the bar if the skipper needs help. We figured the best way to cross the bar into Coos Bay would be at slack tide turning to flood, so we timed our approach, set our sails to slow us down. We put up our newly acquired Stay Sail which kept us moving at about 3 knots throughout the night and inched our way into Coos Bay. We wanted to arrive there at 0900 hours – now Sept 01. Mostly this night was crisp, cool and bright with an incredible firmament of stars, the clearest night so far. Still corkscrewing along in very large waves.
On approach to Coos Bay Tony called the Coast Guard and they told us the condition of the bar was good to cross, told us where we would be able to moor once inside. We tried to call the Harbour Master, who was not there because it was a public holiday. But an American boat leaving the harbour heard our call and responded, giving us all of the information we could possibly need.
Here we now sit in Charleston Marina which is just inside the estuary. We are paying $18 per night to be here including power, we are surrounded by fishing boats and liveaboads who are all interested in us, extremely helpful. The town of Coos Bay is about 13 miles away – we could take Moondancer up the river, but it will only make the leaving a little more difficult. We’ve been offered a lift to town on 3 different occasions by the people around us on the dock. Also the information from other sailors and fishermen around us who know the coast is valuable.
Today we repaired our genoa, which came apart on all of the radial seams along the leach and ripped along the foot. We scrubbed off all of the winter grime, did some laundry, found downtown Charleston, and a posh bar where we had posh drinks.
We like Charleston, and we’re very impressed with our dealings with the authorities and the local people. Authorities – as we had already been issued a Cruising License in Friday Harbour we just had to call in to Homeland Security for Coos Bay, just to let them know we are here. They welcomed us and gave us a few phone numbers for future destinations.
Comments
lOVE DICK & ANNE
Fair Winds,
Kevin and Betty xoxo
Hugs Anne & Dick
I must have sent 4 messages. But never mind I think this is it!!Nancy, I must commend you on the Blogger you sent to Val & I. Hope things are going well for you, also I must say hi to your new man, Mr,Chubbs,keep your weather eye openMr, C.Going to send this off, (I hope1) Love Ernie&Val
Good to see you are finally on you way to wherever the wind blows.
If your ever in Australia give us a call.
Your mate,
Australian Paul (ex crewmember)
68 Kiekebusch Road
Gulfview Heights SA
Australia 5096
0430172850
thespookman@hotmail.com