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}