We spent three nights moored in San Francisco at South Beach
Harbor, which is located about half a mile south of the Ferry Building on the
Embarcadero. We ate plenty of good food and saw the sights of the city.We rented a tandem and biked across the Golden Gate Bridge to Sausalito.
Our last multi-day leg of the journey from Everett to San
Francisco was definitely the fastest (205 nm in 43 hours) and most comfortable
so far. We crossed the bar at Eureka CA around 5PM on Thursday with light 5-10
kt winds and very calm seas. We set the light air C-0 sail which pleasantly
carried us downwind at around 3 kts towards Cape Mendocino. It was such a calm
ride that we were able to grill on the BBQ for dinner, and enjoy our very own
sunset dinner cruise.
Approaching Cape Mendocino
After rounding Cape Mendocino under these calm conditions
around midnight on Thursday, the wind began picking up as expected. We
replaced the C-0 sail with a quarter of the jib around 3AM Friday morning, and
had a nice downwind morning sail.
Both waves and winds picked up Friday afternoon, forecast
was 15-25 kts with 7-9 ft waves, but we were still able to read our Kindles
(thanks Neel!!) during the day watches.
Friday night watches were the easiest that it has been – no sail
changes required and no fog. We alternated shifts (Rachel on watch 9PM-midnight
and 3-6AM instead of Matt, who has been doing those shifts most of the time),
since reading a Kindle all day had made Matt a little on the queasy side around
the start of first shift – we might not have our sea-legs enough for reading
while underway yet! Although we had very little motion sickness otherwise, a
very good sign of our sea-worthiness!
Saturday morning arrival at Point Reyes was spectacular under
blue skies and light wind, and it was odd to see land so close to the boat,
instead of just water all around. We anchored in Drake’s Bay and took a down
day to sort the boat and ourselves.
We took the opportunity of being near the Redwood National Park to rent a car (sweet mini-van!) and do a nice 6 mile day hike around some huge redwoods in Prairie Creek Redwoods State Park. We also made a reasonably big provisions run at Target, since we had a sweet mini-van and are in the suburbs!
Our second leg out from Newport OR to Eureka CA was 235 nm
over 72 hours.
We left Newport on Saturday just after lunch, waiting for
the slack current at the bar and having spent the morning sorting the boat. We are getting
much more efficient at stowing everything beforehand and even prepared a bake-able
dinner of roasted veggies and sausages before departure, so we wouldn’t have to
spend too much time in the cabin making dinner on the first night out.
After getting across the bar, we found calm NW winds, so put
up the light air C-0 sail to pull us along downwind. It was at first slow
progress, but the wind filled in and we had this sail up until the middle of
Saturday night (around 4am) enjoying speeds of 5.5 to 6.5 kts under a clear
night sky. Eventually the wind began to overpower the sail and we took it down
and ran downwind with about 50% of the jib out instead. We continued to run
this way all day Sunday as the winds built, eventually reducing to roughly 30%
in the evening as winds peaked at 30 kts accompanied by heavier breaking following seas.
Sunday night was windy, foggy and extremely cold, so we did
watches from inside the cabin with the radar on, poking our heads out the hatch
every fifteen minutes or so to peer through the dodger.
THE ARCTIC FU!
Fortunately this time
out, we seemed to gain our sea-legs much faster and had less queasiness being
inside the cabin. We also established a pretty good schedule of having dinner
finished by 8PM, so that Matt could sleep for an hour before his first watch
starts at 9PM, then continuing to alternate 3 hour shifts until 9AM. We also
found that snacking through the night was required to keep warm and alert,
especially good were fatty snacks like nuts and cheese.
Early Monday morning, the winds unexpectedly died down, so
we tried to put up the light air C-0 sail again, but were simply not moving and
decided to motor for a few hours Monday morning after having been becalmed for three hours. Early Monday
afternoon, the wind developed into a light south wind, and we decided to sail
upwind (versus motoring). It was actually comfortable to be consistently heeled
over while beating, versus all the rolling that we’d been experiencing when
running downwind. After beating and tacking all of Monday night, we decided
that we would go into port at Eureka, since the forecast was for continued light
south winds with NW winds forecast to fill in again later in the week. We
arrived in Eureka around 1PM Tuesday afternoon.
Reflections from our second leg out: our bodies are
definitely better at dealing with this being-at-sea business. We adjust much
faster when we start sailing, but also when we return to land. It was great to
actually have an appetite while we were out sailing. We also started taking
naps during the day to supplement the loss of night-time sleep to watches, and
that seemed to help keep us going. It’s really necessary to warm up inside the
cabin after being outside on watch for an extended amount of time, otherwise
the exposure can really wear you out.
Also, I would like to provide some clarification of the
sailing technicalities that probably make this blog pretty boring for some
people who don’t know much about sailing. We have 2 sails and one mast (sloop), the main sail (behind
the mast; 3 sizes by reefing) and the head sail or jib (forward of the mast; genoa
(135% roller furling), light air (C-0) or storm jib). Since we are mostly heading
south, a northwest wind (wind coming from the northwest) is pretty ideal, since
it is behind us and we can sail downwind (as we have been doing much of the
time). The south wind (coming from the south) is more difficult because we have
to sail directly into it to make any headway. For that situation (where you are
trying to sail in the direction that the wind is coming from), you basically
sail a little bit off the wind in either direction with the sails close in, and
this gives forward force, but it also has a huge sideways component which
causes the boat to heel (lean over at an angle to one side). It’s also much
slower because you can’t sail a direct path towards your destination, and need
to alternate the side of the wind you’re on, making a zigzag pattern in the correct
general direction. I hope this offers enough explanation so that the rest of
the blog is a little more readable!
Mukilteo Bear did not head south for more grey and clouds!
