The agreed upon plan was to be ready to pull out at our
first weather window, starting the weekend of August 15/16. Sadly, the weather down the coast was not
cooperating on Saturday, and we did not want to start out and have to hold up
for 7-10 days somewhere … so we opted to wait ….
However on Sunday morning,
surprisingly, a low settled in off the coast of Northern California (Mendicino),
giving us our weather window to start out and likely hold up in Brookings, Coos
Bay or Crescent City but only for a few days. We quickly gathered our crew (our son, Brian, and our
friend Cam Cleveland), and headed off, hoping that Northern Ranger (with Talbots
who were still needing to pick up parts) would be not far behind us.
Loading up ....
and sadly saying good bye to our beautiful Vancouver Harbor.
Perfect conditions through Active Pass .....
Our first night was spent at the RVYC Outstation on Salt Spring Island.
From there we headed to Roche Harbor WA, to clear customs, get our cruising permit (which we were told back in May when Cam checked, we did not need !?! …. go figure !! ) and meet up with Colibri ( Christopher and Diana Dent’s Nordhavn 50 that we circumnavigated Vancouver Island with) .
The next morning we headed off down the Strait of Juan de Fuca and out to the Pacific Ocean … for our first “all nighter".
Beautiful sunsets just never get old ....
Driving in the Dark …. It’s going to take some getting used to
Our overnight watch schedules run with 2 people on, changing
every 3 hours starting at 9pm. We run
these shifts until 9am and then switch to single operators changing every 2
hours. This schedule worked well, but
driving in the dark TAKES GETTING USED TO.
On top of staring out into total darkness, the seas can be (and were)
very “swelly” which slewed the boat around and made moving through the cabin
very difficult. The first night was a
bit touch and go … too tired and way too much wave action for my liking …. But
by the second night, we had it more or less figured out.
We had been well advised to just SLEEP / REST when off shift to alleviate getting too tired …. Which
for a non-napper, takes some discipline.
The tendency is to “carry on” with regular daily activities … but then
you feel like you’ve been “hit by a truck” after the first night. So we followed our watch schedule closely and
when we were off shift … we were OFF SHIFT…. and laid down for a sleep.
For those of you who know us (and I assume that is all of
you, otherwise, why else would you be reading this ?!?!?!), you will get a
chuckle out of our watch schedule ….. YES …. written on a napkin !
…. VERY out of
character for the laminating king and queen !!!
Ha love it...all that preparation and updated on a napkin. Well done, we have discussed the fact that getting used to night navigation will be on a learning curve...I guess it is more than becoming accustomed to your equipment, its really being able to put your faith into it! Cheers. xoxo
ReplyDeleteYes overnites take some getting used to. It is certainly easier to do when you're not being tossed and turned like we were on our first leg. The rest of the trip down to San Francisco has been dead calm !!! ( And that's been the Cape Mendocino to Point Arena area which can be the WORST weather !! ) Lets hope this follows us all the way to San Diego !!!
ReplyDeleteKim