September 07, 2011
Ger spent the day getting some extra provisioning of fresh fruit, meats and doing laundry while John and Mel made the last boat preparations, stowing the anchors, deflating the dinghy and securing it on the coach house roof. Barboleta left at about 1100h and Tahnoo left at 1700h. We were rafted to a fishing vessel waiting to get our diesel tanks topped as Tahnoo slipped out of the harbour with Brenda playing Anchors Away on the bagpipes. Shortly afterwards with diesel tanks full we followed in her wake. We had a 5k and a weak flow tide against us as we headed up the Juan de Fuca. It was a clear night with good visibility. We stayed out of the traffic lanes but saw several ships throughout the night making their way to Vancouver. At about 2300h while Ger was on watch she noticed a small flickering light approaching the boat. As it came closer she could see that it was a rapidly moving large zodiac. Suddenly it turned on all its lights.
“Are you guys fishing!”
“No – this is customs and homeland security.”
“We’ve got a cruising licence,” I holler as they come right alongside the vessel.
“We’re just wondering how you are doing.”
Next follows a series of questions of ownership, number of persons on board, citizenship, last port of call and next intended port of entry. They even asked if we intended stopping at Neah Bay, which we did not. Everything was in order and they bade me a good night but I told them had given me a scare for which they apologized before turning off their lights and slipping away into the darkness.
September 08, 2011
The seas are sloppy as we head out past Cape Flattery and turn to the SW.
By 1000h two of the three crew are seasick and have no stomach for food.
Mel the old salt is unaffected and tactfully feeds himself quietly while John and I
retch overboard at regular intervals. In the meantime the winds pick up to 15k which gives us something else to focus on, so we hoist the sails and before long are cruising along at 6 k with a wind on our quarter. Land has slipped out of sight and we are truly on our first offshore passage as we head for the 126° Meridian.
For the rest of the day the winds stayed at 15 k and the seas were moderate making for near perfect conditions. We had a regular Ham schedule set up with Barboleta and Tahnoo for 1900h and it was great to make contact with them that evening. Our IC 735 needs some adjusting and while we could hear and understand each other my contact was not as clear as the other two boats.
Still everyone was doing well though the distance between the boats was widening.
September 09, 2011
John and Ger starting to get their sea legs and slowly consider the idea of food and liquids. Our watch routine at this point is for Ger to take the 2100h to 2400h watch with Mel taking the 2400h to 0300h and John taking the 0300h to 0600h watch. This gives each of us six hours sleep and Ger who is the chief cook a chance to get six hours rest before breakfast. For the day watches we spell each other off as necessary often with at least two people on watch together. Winds build to 18k and we put one reef in. The seas are also building. We are in for a boisterous night.
The evening radio schedule confirms that the winds are increasing as we move south and west. We have got the high and it’s going to push us forcefully on our way. We reef down for the night and winds of 20-25 throughout the night confirm the prudence of the move. John and Ger have not experienced these rough seas before. Seareach lifts her skirts as large rollers sluice beneath us. We have deliberately kept a very conservative sail plan which keeps us at 5-6 k as we climb the waves but stops us from surpassing hull speed of 8 on the way down. The windvane is doing a terrific job. I can’t imagine hand steering for three hours. straight. On our evening schedule Bill on Tahnoo has downloaded another GRIB and thinks that the low coming up from Mendicino is heading out enough to whip
us. We prepare for a possible hit tomorrow.
September 10, 2011
Ger has been tuning in to Northern Net each morning at 0900h.
Finally makes contact with Barbara through a relay done by Glen on Barboleta. And provide her with our Long. and Lat. We picked up a weather forecast on Channel 03 today from the U.S. weather station. Gale warning in effect for the area covering the next 200 miles. We are slowly making our way on the outside of the zone with winds of 15-20k. Things get quiet as the barometer starts to drop. Ger takes the opportunity to make a hot lunch for everyone. At 1900h make contact on the Ham with Barboleta and Tahnoo. We also phone Jay Bigland on the Sat phone. He is our man on the ground and has been tracking the weather for us. He tells us that it will be over by 0300h and we will loose our wind south of Mendicino. Tahnoo is experiencing 30 k winds ahead of us @ Latitude 42.° Later in the night 0100h-0200h seas get very boisterous again with breaking waves and winds increasing above 25k gusting to 30 k. We change to a trysail and inner forestay with storm gib.
With everything balance the windvane steers a course with little difficulty and no complaints. As Jay promised it was all over at 0300h. We had dodged the worst of it and were being pushed by the high but getting sea state effects from both weather systems. We were glad we had maintained our short sail plan. We are past Cape Blanco.
September 11, 2011
By 0700h the winds dropped from the NW and we lost our high as the SE winds started to slowly take over. We motor sailed for about one hour until things had settled and steadily built to 12 k. With the engine turned off and course set to start taking us slowly inland and work the winds from the SE we once again set the windvane. What an amazing device. Crew voted unanimously to award ‘windy’ the MVP award. The counter weather fronts flattened the seas and we started to have a beautiful calm flat sail at 5-6k. Delightful!
Ger got the pressure cooker out and made two meals of a pork-loin casserole with coconut milk, corn, onions and mushrooms. Delicious. After lunch a very contented crew settled in for a musical afternoon with Mel on lead guitar, Ger on backup, John on flute and ‘windy’ on the helm. In between songs a head was stuck up out of the companionway to check for hazards – absolute magic! The ballad of Seareach was under composition. Now this is what we had all signed up for. By 2300h the winds had dropped to less than 6k. We started to motor-sail and continued to do so through the night.
September 12, 2011
Motor-sailed through the morning then picked up some wind for a couple of hours in the afternoon for some efficient motor-sailing. Later in the afternoon we notice that the engine is over heating. We turn off the motor and check the oil levels. We are below min. We also notice that our exhaust extension has come off and disappeared into the depths. Two litres of oil later the engine is topped up but we are worried. Is it leaking oil, using too much oil or were we not vigilant enough in our checks? Four later of motoring all is well and the engine seems fine. Still with little wind we decide to make a detour Fort Bragg to get break and make sure all is well for the final push south to San Francisco. We clear cape Mendicino throughout the night under calm conditions and are about 20 miles SW of the most southerly tip when at 0430h a strong steam of 20-25k winds comes sweeping over us. The old lady is hurling some abuse at us as we clear her dangerous realm.
September 13, 2011
We plan our entrance into Fort Bragg situated on the Noyo river about five miles north of Point Cabrillo. We do not have a detailed chart of the entrance but have the NOAA sailing directions. As we come within 30 minutes of the entrance bouys we contact the coast guard for conditions at the bar over the river mouth. Conditions are good but visibility is less than 800m. It is a narrow tricky entrance with reefs on either side. The coast guard will stand by and monitor channel 16 in case we need assistance. As we approach the channel marker we hail a nearby fishing vessel that seems to be heading for the entrance and tell the crew that we would like to follow them in. Mel is on the wheel at the time. They agree and slow down (but are still steaming along quite fast) and Mel tries to keep up with them and steer a safe course at the same time. John and Ger are both watching for danger points when we see a sector light flashing. Some very tense moments as we come in but Mel does an excellent job and we round the breakwater and get into the dredged channel area. We make our way up a narrow channel. Ger has contacted the harbormaster who gives us excellent precise directions as to where we will find our designated slip. We dock beside the fishing trawler Audrey and a tired but grateful crew stand down after six days at sea just 120 miles north of S.F.
No comments:
Post a Comment