Let's back up to what seems ages ago at Neah Bay. We waited on Tuesday for the weather to clear and planned to depart Wednesday morning. Within 10 minutes of leaving the dock, we realized our alternator was not working. We headed back to the dock and took a look.
Yep, it was shot. This would typically mean waiting for an overnight delivery from Fisheries Supplies in Seattle. Neah Bay is the most northwest town in the continental US. Its WAY out there. However, we have awesome friends!!! Marc and Erin Beverly came to the rescue! They drove to Seattle to get the part and then all the way to Neah Bay - 4 hours each way! Can't say thanks enough to them for keeping us on schedule. Oh, our "schedule" is all weather related - we wanted a good weather window to head south.
On Thursday, we headed out again. Immediately, I realized that 15 kts of wind in Puget Sound is not the same as 15 kts of wind in the North Pacific. These were the biggest waves I've ever sailed in!! I went to the foredeck to ready the mainsail and that did me in... That combined with my nerves led to me woofing over the rail... I've never been seasick and took Stugeron and Zofran but it didn't help. As this was happening, Jeff went about setting us up to sail. I rallied to help with the jib but felt pretty bad. I can see why folks who have this for a long time consider jumping into the sea to end it all! It sucks. However, after we got sailing, I lay flat on my back for a bit and felt much better. Within an hour or so I was fully functional; not feeling great but able to do my part. So, I was pretty jacked up with sailing on big seas. Jeff, of course, felt fine and even took a nap in the cockpit. He is completely in his element.
We sailed like this for hours and rounded Cape Flattery! Yay - the BIG LEFT TURN was done! Hours later, I was watching a sailboat, on AIS, ahead of us and all of a sudden it stopped and went in circles. What the heck? When we hit that same area, it was as if someone turned off the wind. Literally, within a minute, the conditions completely changed. We sailed a bit more then turned on the motor.
When I came up to take the watch from Jeff later that night, it was pretty freaky (ok, I was terrified at first). We were motoring along at 7 kts, with big following seas that rolled us 35 degrees each way, you can't really see anything. You just blindly go along and watch radar, AIS and keep a good lookout. It's a hard feeling to convey but everything seemed really big to me - water, speed etc... After a bit, you get used to it. Well really, you have to get used to it!
Four hump backs surfaced behind our boat and it was a thrill to see them. They must have been laughing at us as we rolled back and forth across the swells. Two dolphins raced in front, under and on the sides of us to entertain us, too.
The next day brought a mix of sailing any wind we could find and motoring. The 9' swells continued to give us a very rolly ride. The constant motion of the boat is amazing to live within. Every step is thought out and if not... well, you will find yourself pinned to a door, wall, anything that catches you. Pretty hysterical to try to function normally! Another night of motoring with a full moon! As has been said by many others, the ocean makes you feel so small. I also felt incredible gratitude that we were able to be out there experiencing the beauty.
We had been watching the weather and knew we were trying to stay between two storm systems. Early in the day, using NOAA weather from the radio and Predict Wind software, we had decided to slow down and head for Cape Blanco. This is just south of Coos Bay and from the Cape to the California border was deemed hazardous with 40 kt winds and steep seas. Nope, not what we want to be in. There was forecasted a calmer weather window from Sunday 5am to Monday night. The plan was to sail slowly overnight to Cape Blanco, then take advantage of that small window to head to Brookings OR and make the 6:30pm bar crossing. (more on bar crossings in a bit). So, we spent the day sailing in light winds and sunshine. A beautiful day to relax.
That all ended when we got an updated weather briefing. The window was getting much smaller and we decided to head to Coos Bay to wait out the storms. There are little to no places to "duck in to" on the Oregon coast and heading further out to sea put us square in the eye of the next storm system. A great lesson learned was that small weather windows in the North Pacific are too small to count on - don't take them unless its an emergency.
Ok, not as dramatic as the below clip but I wanted to keep you interested!
We had 1 significant issue with heading to Coos Bay - the bar crossing!! Any port to pull in to (and there are not many) on the Oregon Coast has a river coming out of it. When these rivers are ebbing (they have a tidal flow to them), and they hit incoming ocean swells conditions can be deadly. (You Tube is full off scary bar crossing videos). The key to a successful crossing is timing - you wait until slack before flood to cross. Unfortunately, we were going to miss the by an hour. We motored at full speed and put the jib up for extra pushing us along at 8+ kts. The wind and swells also picked up and we were surfing our way to the bar! (that sounds like fun if we were on land!). When we got to the bar, it was twilight and raging. Jeff took the helm as we surfed the breaking waves in and I watched the course. At one point, I looked behind us and heard then saw a 15' breaking wave heading for our stern. Its a sight I really never want to see again. Its a long 10 minutes to cross to calmer water.
Then the fun started of navigating in the dark, an unknown harbor that has a small channel dredged in the middle (where we have enough water) and finding a dock space. The wind increased and we grabbed a spot among big fishing boats. We slept soundly for 10 hours!
We are now looking at a few days exploring Coos Bay. The storm systems have to pass. We will not venture out into known gale storms on the North Pacific. We're not in Kansas anymore...
Thanks for reading our update and the next blog will have boat information and answers to questions.
On course,
Fran and Jeff
test
ReplyDeleteSuch an amazing adventure already! Can’t wait to hear more about it.
ReplyDelete