Finally reached California - no not San Fran
Coos Bay is a nice little place - but not for a week. We don't really believe that this coastline is ever anything but wild. We left Coos Bay at 08.15 Monday 8th. During our 6 days there we met a few other boats who were sailing down the coast, all of us were concerned about the weather conditions and were pursuing various sources. Its amazing how many weather sites there are on line. So - we made our decision to leave - as did 2 other boats. A couple of hours into this leg and about 10 miles off the coast and Coos Bay was looking way more attractive, but we plodded on with building wind and seas.
The first vindictive sideways wave I took full in the face was the beginning of the very difficult night that followed.
We finally reefed down to our third reef - which UK Sails had just put in for us before we left Sidney, and flew down the biggest waves I've ever seen. We clocked over 12 knots surfing down one behemoth. After rounding Cape Blanco and its very impressive rocky shore in huge breaking seas we made a decision to go into Brookings which is about 100 miles south of Coos Bay. It would take us a few more hours to get there, but I was really scared. Tony was for keepin on until Crescent City and if conditions improved just keep going.
We had some radio communication with 2 other boats who were out - Julia Max, an American boat from Portland with George, Sue and Bill on board - they'd left a few hours ahead of us.
They were looking to go in as they heard the weather was building to 45 kn. Morgana, a Canadian boat from Campbell River with Ernie, Lionel and Mark on board went out a bit further than us. They radiod us in the evening to see how we were doing and said they were going into Brookings anticipating 0100 arrival on Tuesday morning. We probably weren't likely to arrive until about 0300 hrs.
It became disappointingly obvious by 0100 hours that getting into Brookings wasn't a good idea - to do so would have meant motoring in sideways to 12-15' waves. Another 30 odd miles would take us to Crescent City. We arrived here at 12.00 today - Tuesday 9th.
We jibed 6 times on that leg, many of those in the night in seas that it was best not to look at, all of us totally sleep deprived.
Anything that was not in a cupboard or bungied down was on the cabin floor, the water coming over the decks found its way in, not to mention the stuff that just came in through the companionway.
So here we are in Crescent City Harbour. We've slept most of the day and are now watching a Fish Called Wanda.
This trip to San Francisco sure is taking a long time.
The first vindictive sideways wave I took full in the face was the beginning of the very difficult night that followed.
We finally reefed down to our third reef - which UK Sails had just put in for us before we left Sidney, and flew down the biggest waves I've ever seen. We clocked over 12 knots surfing down one behemoth. After rounding Cape Blanco and its very impressive rocky shore in huge breaking seas we made a decision to go into Brookings which is about 100 miles south of Coos Bay. It would take us a few more hours to get there, but I was really scared. Tony was for keepin on until Crescent City and if conditions improved just keep going.
We had some radio communication with 2 other boats who were out - Julia Max, an American boat from Portland with George, Sue and Bill on board - they'd left a few hours ahead of us.
They were looking to go in as they heard the weather was building to 45 kn. Morgana, a Canadian boat from Campbell River with Ernie, Lionel and Mark on board went out a bit further than us. They radiod us in the evening to see how we were doing and said they were going into Brookings anticipating 0100 arrival on Tuesday morning. We probably weren't likely to arrive until about 0300 hrs.
It became disappointingly obvious by 0100 hours that getting into Brookings wasn't a good idea - to do so would have meant motoring in sideways to 12-15' waves. Another 30 odd miles would take us to Crescent City. We arrived here at 12.00 today - Tuesday 9th.
We jibed 6 times on that leg, many of those in the night in seas that it was best not to look at, all of us totally sleep deprived.
Anything that was not in a cupboard or bungied down was on the cabin floor, the water coming over the decks found its way in, not to mention the stuff that just came in through the companionway.
So here we are in Crescent City Harbour. We've slept most of the day and are now watching a Fish Called Wanda.
This trip to San Francisco sure is taking a long time.
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