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}