Departure imminent

Day 8 - Neah Bay, Washington, USA

After much discussion, we have decided to wait until tomorrow morning before leaving.  The NW winds are starting tonight and, while we could take advantage of them on an immediate night passage, we thought it would be better for us to have a full day to get used to the seas before doing it in the dark.  And the seas are predicted to be a little calmer tomorrow as well.

We are not as concerned with the Gray's Harbour bar any more as we may elect to just go on by, while the winds are favorable.  With any luck we can be far south of it, and the infamous Columbia bar, in about 2 days - tentative destination is now Yaquina Bay at Newport, Oregon, but we still have the alternative of entering one of the river bars along the way, if it suits us at the time.

Today, the weather turned much nicer.  Lots of sunshine and clear skies .  We took the opportunity to motor over to the fuel dock and top up our diesel.  Now we have a lot of range under power if we should need it.  Note: I do not like to get fuel when it is raining - I don't need any water in the fuel.
With all the sunshine, our solar panels are also back in form, so we just about broke even on our battery level today.  It would have been better but the clouds and fog did not really dissipate completely until early afternoon.

Of the other boats in the anchorage, both of the other sailboats left this afternoon.  A catamaran came in yesterday afternoon and is still here with us.

{GMST}48|22.5|N|124|36.5|W|Neah Bay|Neah Bay{GEND}

Holding pattern

Day 7 - Neah Bay. Washington, USA

The weather has deteriorated again.  Some winds came up in the night and into the morning, calmer in the late afternoon.  But rain, rain, rain throughout.

Dreary day.  Filling our time playing games and reading and eating.  Listening to the forecasts, we are not yet sure about our possible departure tomorrow.  While there are still small craft advisories issued for the west coast, the winds don't sound all that bad.  The real problem could be with the river bar at Gray's Harbour - conditions are being reported as "rough", with the terms "severe" or "treacherous" being used to describe the full ebb currents.  Not encouraging.

One of the problems of just sitting here at anchor day after day, in a totally overcast sky, is that our solar panels are contributing very little to our batteries.  We may soon have to run the engine just to keep them charged - something I just hate to do.  With all of the wind we have been getting, a wind generator would have done wonders.  Something to think about.

Things will no doubt look much better tomorrow.

{GMST}48|22.5|N|124|36.5|W|Neah Bay|Neah Bay{GEND}

OK, It's not so bad

Day 6 - Neah Bay, Washington, USA

What a difference a day makes.

The winds calmed down over night, the anchor held very well as usual, and this turns out to be an OK anchorage after all.

Neah Bay is a natural bay with a long man-made breakwater that stops the prevailing NW seas.  In spite of the winds that we experienced last night, the water remained very calm throughout.

Here is a picture of the marina that we had hoped to stay at.  Maybe it's just as well that it was full; much cheaper this way and there is really nothing we need from the town.  One of the boats left this morning (one of the ones we met in Port Angeles), intending to go well off-shore till they get to San Francisco, the other three (including us) remain.  As yet we have seen no sign of the other boat that left for Neah Bay from Port Angeles the day before us, with a crew of three men on board.  Maybe they skipped right by, or are holed up somewhere in the Juan de Fuca.  Hopefully they are OK - we were a little concerned because, in spite of the fact that they had lots of experience, they had just bought the boat in Blaine about a week ago and were still unfamiliar with it.

Looking at the weather forecasts for the next few days, and listening to the harbour bar reports, it seems our most likely departure will be on Tuesday afternoon, making an overnight passage of about 110 miles to Gray's Harbour, arriving in early afternoon for the most favorable conditions on the river bar.  But nothing is certain at this point - long range weather forecasting seems to be more of an educated guess than anything you can take to the bank.  Basically, we are waiting for the winds to switch from the current S, SE, SW pattern to something coming from the NW instead.

We visited with the couple on one of the other boats.  They are returning to their home in San Jose, after an extended cruise to Alaska.  They agreed with our estimate of the changing weather, but they expect to leave early on Wednesday and take their chances with the Gray's Harbour bar.  Of course, they have a beautiful new Tayana 48, which is probably half again as fast as us - they have more options.

Meanwhile we are amusing ourselves with reading and watching DVDs.  Fortunately, we have lots of time (no deadlines) and want to make the passages as pleasant as possible.


{GMST}48|22.5|N|124|36.5|W|Neah Bay|Neah Bay{GEND}

Discouraged but determined

Day 5 - Port Angeles to Neah Bay

The weather forecast for the Juan de Fuca strait was for a sunny day, with 15 to 25 knot SE winds.  This should make for ideal sailing conditions for the 53 mile passage.  There was some mention of gales and storms out on the west coast, but that probably doesn't mean us.

The morning was dead calm and we were on our way by 7:30 AM, motoring over smooth seas with some sort of ebb current helping us along, making very good time - could be into Neah Bay by 3:30 at this rate.  Sunshine and all was well with the world.  This continued for about the first 1/2 of the trip.

We noticed that the skies ahead looked a little dark, but they seemed to keep well ahead of us as we kept going NW.  Still no wind, but the favourable current had run out and we were soon fighting a full-on flood current, making for very slow progress.  Revised ETA is for closer to 5:00 PM now.  Still OK as it would still be light out by the time we got to the Makah marina in Neah Bay.

At about 2:00 PM, with no warning at all, we were hit with a 25+ knot wind from the south, just as were passing through a fleet of small fishing boats.  We noticed that they all started heading for shore as fast as they could - not an option for us though.

We launched a reefed genoa sail and were able to motor-sail at a somewhat quicker pace, which was good.  What was not so good was the steadily deteriorating conditions.  The seas were actually not too bad but the winds were really gusty, dropping to 6 or 7 knots, suddenly blowing 25 or 30. It started to rain and visibility was becoming a problem.  On with the radar, just in case.

As we approached Neah Bay, around 5:00 PM, visibility was really bad, the winds were howling, and the rain was coming down heavily.  We took a look at the marina (there was no response on either the phone or the VHF) only to find that all the transient dock was full of large fishing boats - no room left at the inn.  Indeed, we saw one of the boats that had left Port Angeles the day before, anchored out in the bay, along with a couple of others we had not seen before.  Not sure what happened to the other boat - maybe they got smart and stayed holed up somewhere else along the way.

So we put down our anchor somewhere in the middle of the bay (took two tries), and are now huddled down in the boat, listening to the storm raging outside.  The boat is swaying from side to side and sailing all over the place, as usual, but now it is dark and we can't see where we are - so I guess there is nothing to worry about. What you can't see can't hurt you, right?

This is probably one of the worst anchorages we have had the pleasure of being in.  Instead of the advertised "fully protected" bay, we find ourselves at the mercy of gale force winds, in a bay that the books warn us are full of uncharted wrecks just waiting to snag our anchor chain.  At least the breakwater here keeps the seas at bay.  We are not likely to get much sleep tonight.

On the plus side, the Makah marina has a free WiFi connection and my spiffy antenna is able to pick it up out here in the bay, so I am able to update this blog in style.

{GMST}48|22.5|N|124|36.5|W|Neah Bay, Washington, USA|Neah Bay, Washington,USA{GEND}

Interlude

Day 4 - Port Angeles

We spent a pleasant day in Port Angeles, just walking around enjoying the somewhat improved weather.  It actually got warm and sunny in the afternoon.

On the boat, we manhandled the dinghy onto the deck and battened it down, we re-fastened the life ring onto the stern (hopefully better secured) I installed a new bungy cord system for keeping the freezer in its place, I repaired an ailing hinge on one of the seat-back compartments, and I re-programmed the Balmar regulator in an attempt to make our charging system more responsive to our battery bank.

There were two other sailboats on the transient dock and they both left for Neah Bay today.  We looked at the weather reports again and decided that there was little point in leaving today - the west-coast forecast is really nasty for the next few days.  At least by staying in Port Angeles, we have a whole town to explore,  I don't think there is much in Neah Bay.

We had supper at an East Indian restaurant - very nice  

 

{GMST}48|7.5|N|123|27.1212|W|Port Angeles|Port Angeles{GEND}

 

Beat Up and Spit Out

Day 3 - Friday Harbour to Port Angeles

The day started out fine.

 The rain had stopped and the day looked promising. It was all lies!  Within 1/2 hour of leaving the marina, at about 8:15 AM, the wind came up, directly on the nose. We had to go SE for a while to negotiate around some outlying rocks and then south through the San Juan channel before we could turn more westerly towards Port Angeles. This meant we were headed right into the steadily increasing winds - not even tempting to put up a sail.

As we were entering the San Juan channel, our speed started to increase dramatically. Soon we were zooming along at 9 knots (our normal speed is closer to 6). This was a nice boost but begged the question: Why?  Sue quickly consulted our Tide and Current tables and discovered that the San Juan channel is a current station. It appears we were entering at a time of maximum ebb, normally not a time we would choose to go through. For a while, all appeared to be ok as the only effect seemed to be that we were going much quicker than we planned. But the wind kept getting stronger, still on the nose, until it was steadily over 25 knots. This produced a condition known as "wind over current", never a good thing.

Just as we thought we got away with it (we seemed to be past the narrowest part of the channel), we hit the big waves. I have no idea how high they were as I am a terrible judge of such things, but they were big enough and close enough together to get us going straight up and plunging straight back down, burying our bow completely, and virtually bringing the boat to a halt. Then they started coming from every direction and a broach seemed more and more likely, as it was difficult to keep enough speed up to maintain any steerage through these mountains of water. Somehow, after an exhausting hour or so, we struggled into deeper waters and the worst was over. The winds kept up, the crew was sick, and we were pooped twice (water over the rails, filling the cockpit), but it seemed like nothing after the pounding we had just taken.

By about 10:30, the winds slacked off (we thought about putting up a sail but the crew was not enthusiastic) and we had a pleasant motor into Port Angeles, arriving about 2:15 PM. In spite of the wild ride, we did make good time on the 36 mile crossing. I am sure I was mistaken when I thought I heard the crew ask if it was too late to ship the boat south and join it there.

It is perfectly calm in Port Angeles, although a bit damp. The boat has come through this day mostly intact. The only casualties were the dinghy (which tried to leave the mothership whenever we dipped it in the water, the life ring that had suddenly decided someone was in trouble and launched itself accordingly, the freezer which got toppled onto its side, and the usual items that distribute themselves about the cabin whenever the going gets rough. The dinghy stayed with us in the end, and we will be putting it on deck tomorrow. We managed to retrieve the life ring (it was still tied onto the boat) and the freezer apparently works fine on its side and has been righted.

The only real beef I have right now is with the new alternator that does not seem to be keeping the batteries up as well as I would like. I will have to investigate further. As for tomorrow, the forecast for the next couple of days appears much the same, not conducive to going down the west coast but probably not a bad time to be going up the Juan de Fuca strait. Since if we left for Neah Bay tomorrow, we would most likely have to wait at least a couple of days there for the weather to improve, we have decided to stay in Port Angeles for a day instead. This will give us a chance to work on the boat's shortcomings that we have identified. Besides, we could actually sleep in, which would be nice too.

We walked downtown, found a great hardware store where I got some supplies for securing the freezer, found a chart store with some tide and current tables for the west coast, and had a pizza for supper. Life is good again.

{GMST}48|7.5|N|123|27.1212|W|Port Angeles, Washington, USA|Port Angeles, Washington,USA{GEND}
{GMST}48|27.6035|N|122|57.0533|W|San Juan Channel|San Juan Channel{GEND}

USA are us

Day 2 - Montague to Friday Harbour

We left at 8:05 AM again this morning, bound for the USA; in particular Friday Harbour on San Juan Island. We chose this port of entry because we knew we could get there by early afternoon, leaving us lots of time to clear customs and such. We have also never been to the San Juan islands, so this seemed as good a time as any to check that off our list.

We motored in dead calm seas for most of the way. We did put out the Genoa for 18 minutes (making a total distance under sail of .7 miles for this trip so far), before the wind died again. We arrived at Friday Harbour customs dock by 1:15 PM. We finished with customs at 2:35 PM (lots of paperwork involved in getting a cruising permit, or so it seems). We are now legally in the US of A, where we will most likely be spending the best part of a month or two. The cruising permit is good for 1 full year, just in case. The weather here today was great, +20 degrees and no wind.

 We took the opportunity to walk around the town and grab a late lunch (early dinner) at a local restaurant. I did find a free, unprotected connection to the internet, but it was so slow it was essentially useless. So back to sailmail for now.

Tomorrow we will press on to Port Angeles, across the busy shipping lanes of the Juan de Fuca strait. This is at the east entrance of the Juan de Fuca and probably the start of the real adventure. So far we have traveled about 54 miles of the approximately 1200 miles to San Diego. We are definitely going to have to speed things up a mite, weather permitting of course.

{GMST}48|32.2035|N|123|01|W|Friday Harbor, USA|Friday Harbor, USA{GEND}

And they're off!

Day 1 - Nanaimo to Montague

We were up early and left our slip at Stones Marina right on schedule at 8:05 AM. A few good friends were there to see us off (much appreciated). Fortunately there was no wind or current in the marina, so we were able to cruise away without making complete fools of ourselves. Susanne shed a few tears as we looked back at our boat's home for the last 9 years.

We motored slowly to Dodd Narrows to catch the slack tide at 9:25 AM, then motored the rest of the way to Montague Harbour. We had the anchor down by 1:15 PM. Dead calm all day. Weather when we got up this morning was a bit rainy and overcast, but as the day progressed, it got better and better. By the time we were in Montague it was about +18 degrees and brilliant sunshine. We knew that heading south was the answer, we just did not know it would work so soon.

All of the systems seem to be behaving themselves for the moment. We even fired up the water maker for 2-1/2 hours and it seemed to work as advertised. All is right with the world. Tomorrow we will attempt to enter the US of A for the first time by boat. Hopefully the next post will be coming to you from a foreign land.

{GMST}48|53.33|N|123|23.6|W|Montague Harbour, BC, Canada|Montague Harbour, BC, Canada{GEND}
{GMST}49|08.1177|N|123|49.06|W|Dodd Narrows|Dodd Narrows{GEND}

Twas the night before...

Stones Marina, Nanaimo, BC, Canada

Monday, our first potential leaving day, has come and gone. Murphy was doing his best to keep us here.

Saturday night I decided to do a final test of the navigation lights.  I test these out every time we leave port, even though we have never actually done any night sailing.  They always work fine.

This time though, the starboard (green) nav light, would not come on.  This is one of my horribly expensive OGM LED lights that I installed several years ago.  Shortly after I put them on, we managed to scrape the starboard light off on the nasty pole that guards our slip.  There was no apparent permanent damage at the time, and the light still worked.  However, it now appears that there was some more subtle damage that has allowed moisture to infiltrate the delicate electronics inside the normally sealed fixture, resulting in it's now untimely total failure.

No problem, I exclaimed!  We have a backup tri-color light at the top of the mast that we can use in a pinch.  The good news is that the light is still working.  The bad news is that when we had some up-mast work done this spring, when the anchor light was replaced with a new, low-power LED bulb, the tri-color lens got put on sideways, showing red and green to port and white to starboard (a great way to confuse other boaters).

Searching the chandlers on Sunday netted me a new, much cheaper set of LED nav lights.  With some quick modifications, I was able to adapt the mount and replace the starboard light.  We will order another of the good (expensive) lights when we get further south.  For now, we will sail with a mismatched, but at least fully functional, set of lights.

On another note, I forgot to get my eye drop prescription filled until Sunday.  Normally not a problem, but I guess they just don't expect anyone to want an entire year's supply at a time.  They were not able to fulfill the entire order until around noon today.

Today, we got one of the boat monkeys to go up the mast and straighten out the tri-color light, so we are now well equipped again.  No doubt the anchor light will stop working any time now.

With all the stress, and amazing number of last-minute chores that seem to be cropping up, we thought it prudent to wait till tomorrow before casting off.  We actually made this decision on Sunday, so we were able to really enjoy a night out with our good friends Barry and Hazel on Devenshire Cream.  Much wine and merriment ensued, as we did not have to get up early this morning.

Tomorrow we expect to get off the dock by around 8 AM, in order to make the slack at Dodd Narrows by 9:30.  With any luck, we will be in Montague Harbour in the Gulf islands by the afternoon - a great, easy destination for our first day out.

{GMST}49|11.33|N|123|56.832|W|Stones Marina|Stones Marina{GEND}

Stocking Up

Nanaimo, BC, Canada

We arrived in Nanaimo yesterday, right on schedule.  Picked up a rental car for a few days so we can start the inevitable provisioning.  We would have actually gotten a start on it too, if we had not run into some great friends at the dock who we had not expected to see before we left.  Somehow the afternoon just disappeared at the pub.

First trip today was to Costco for the things we can get (and stow) in bulk.  After lugging all of that to the boat, Sue is off to Saveco for those smaller items, or items that Costco just doesn't have, with the scary parting words "I may be a while".  Temporary spot for a lot of this stuff is apparently the navigation table.  I'm sure it will all fit somewhere else eventually.

Meanwhile I tackled a last-minute job that cropped up the day we were leaving Nanaimo - one of the bilge pumps was no longer working.  As I suspected, a simple wiring problem, made much more difficult by the awkward position of the pump (oddly enough, at the bottom of the bilge), just about out of my arm's reach.  All is OK now.  I ran the engine for a while to check that all my previous modifications are still holding and everything still looks good.

The weather here was very nice yesterday - about 22 degrees when we arrived.  It did rain overnight, but today was still not too bad.  A little cool but very calm.  The sun actually came out for a short while this afternoon, so I took the opportunity to take some "before" pictures of the boat.  It may never look this good again.

Notice the nicely matching jerrycan and winch covers.

Here is my clever disappearing watermaker installation.

Here is the new home for our freezer, just under our bed.  We are lulled to sleep each night with the quite hum of the super efficient Engel freezer - sort of a comforting sound really.

With any luck, we should be able to get away by Monday or Tuesday, to start the long trek south.  We are almost calm about it too, although we have no idea why.

{GMST}49|11.33|N|123|56.832|W|Nanaimo, BC, Canada|Nanaimo, BC, Canada{GEND}

Mission Accomplished

Edmonton, Alberta, Canada

Yes, our mission to Edmonton has ended.

We have paid our respects to friends and family, tied up legal and health issues involved with leaving the country, and bought a few last-minute items while we were in PST-free Alberta.

Probably the biggest challenge was to sell our car - and it is now gone.  It was a bit gut-wrenching, not so much because of the particular car, but more so because of what it represents - the last vestige of our old life.

Now, we are winging our way back to the coast.  A quick stop in Vancouver between flights, where technology abounds (free Wi-fi Internet).  This is the first update I have ever done from an airport.  Pretty cool.

By this afternoon, we will be back on the boat.
The biggest lesson learned on this trip?  Take enough luggage with you to carry all the stuff on the plane ride back, after emptying the car you drove the other way, and incorporating all the goodies you acquired along the way.

{GMST}53|35.3868|N|113|32.3568|W|Edmonton, Alberta, Canada|Edmonton, Alberta, Canada{GEND}

Ready or not

Nanaimo, BC, Canada

We feel like we have been working non-stop for weeks.  We have crossed off 95 percent of our to-do list, and the rest are not real critical.  So I guess this means we are ready.

The boat has never looked better, thanks to Susanne's tireless efforts, painting the entire deck, repairing and fabricating covers for the winches and gas tanks, etc.  What a trooper!

About the only visible sign of my projects is the new head.  We chose to use a better quality manual head - more expensive but hopefully will last longer.  I plumbed in an extra anti-siphon vented loop, which really should have been done for the old head as well, since it is installed below the water line.

The new watermaker, wash-down system, high-power alternator/regulator, third-reef in the main, etc., are all in and working well (at least when sitting in the marina).  Time will tell how they will all perform in the real world, at sea.

Now we have a further list of things we have to take care of back in Alberta (mostly paperwork), before we can head south for good.  With this in mind, we are leaving today for the drive to Edmonton once again.  We should be back on the boat around the 17th or 18th of September.

{GMST}49|11.33|N|123|56.832|W|Nanaimo, BC, Canada|Nanaimo, BC, Canada{GEND}