Day 17

July 19

Ran engines last night with light winds nearly directly behind us. 

Monitoring weather and traffic closely as we approach land and prepare to navigate the Straight

Expecting to hit the entrance Thursday about dawn, and transit to Port Angeles in the late afternoon. 



Day 16

July 18

Full sail, headed east toward the entrance of the Straight of Juan de Fuca.

 

A bit of blue sky. Not much traffic. 

A good calm day.

Day 15

 

July 17

Changing tack. Literally and figuratively. We have decided to engage Option B where we make landfall in Washington instead of British Columbia. 

I feel good about this decision!

I have cousins on an Alaska Cruise and they are going to be in Seattle next weekend. We're gonna try to meet up with them.

Day 14

 

Cool sky... what is going on?! 

Day 14

…

I know I whine about the chill. And I know that it's high sumer and I should be grateful. Here are the stats: sea temp is about 62°F Ventusky reports perceived air temp (w. Windchill) to be in the low/mid fifties. I can & do dress for that. But my blood has been running tropical thin for years now, and overcast damp windy 55 is not the bees knees.

We are experiencing a little anxiousness about our approaching landfall and navigating new tricky coastal waters.

Day 13

July 15

It is a lumpy gray morning out here. Moderately large mixed seas bullying us around. Lumpy low gray cloud ceiling. Not lovely.

But, we have everything we need, plus warm dry clothes and beds, and a bright red kettle on the stove. 

Spinnaker sailing

 

So, hey, y'all, we got to fly the spinnaker! First time ever! We had a window of nice light tail wind conditions so we experimented with hoisting and opening & furling. We made a couple adjustments and then we sailed with it. Aaah, proper downwind. 

Day 11

July 13

A pretty uncomfortable night shift started with a 30+ knot crash gybe on my watch. I got too deep, wth too much sail & the autohelm got into a aggressive pattern of overcorrection, and I couldn't settle it with hand steering in time either.  It was all hands on deck to manage the aftermath. Fortunately, no body got hurt and nothing got damaged! Yay, angels! (thanks for the prayers) anyway, it made for a stressful start to the night… (which other than being kinda chilly & a little wet, was fine.)

For a few hours early mid day, we had a beautiful respite, blue skies, light winds, calm(ish) seas. We all found a sunbeam to bask in, got some "housework" done and relaxed a bit. 

Later when it turned gray & wet again, we warmed the cabin up making a big pot of soup and warmed ourselves up enjoying it.