Day 7: Newport OR (with pics/vids!)

After sailing for 51 hours straight, we arrived in Newport OR last night from Neah Bay.

The departure from Neah Bay was pretty busy, getting the boat sorted and ready for the strong winds and large wind waves that we expected to meet on Tuesday night off the northern coast of Oregon. We rigged the storm jib and reefing lines, and had the para-anchor and line readied just in case it became necessary (for anchoring ourselves in the waves if the wind is too much). We departed around 3 PM and rounded Cape Flattery for our big left turn (!!) around 5:30 PM.

The ocean swells make it very hard to stay in the cabin for an extended amount of time without getting queasy, aside from sleeping. Monday night was a lot of in and out of the cabin for preparing dinner. We are trying to keep to regular meals and regular meal times to keep our bodies going. Monday night shifts went pretty well, since we decided to do 4 shifts of 3 hours, from 9PM to 9AM - this allows us each to get about 6 hours of sleep per night, and we resume breakfast together at 9AM. The boat did a lot of rolling in the swells and we found that all the little things that were shoved into cabinets at the last minute were banging around constantly - we will need to readjust how those things are sorted before the next leg. 

Tuesday morning, winds became light and shifted to southeast and then east, so we motored until early afternoon when the northwest wind filled in, and then we switched to a downwind sail configuration. The afternoon was extremely pleasant sailing, shown in the video narrated by Matt. The winds and waves started building late in the afternoon, and I attempted to get a video of the swells behind the boat (shown in the second video), but I don't think the full effect comes through.

 

By evening we were running a tight sail plan with double reefed main prevented to port and roller reefed to roughly 50% genoa poled out to starboard, with the Monitor windvane helming bang-on running dead downwind.  As forecast, the wind and seas increased further to 30 kts with eight foot breaking wind waves on top of the six foot NW swell.  By 9:30 PM we were consistently surfing consecutive waves, and the boat was overpowered.  We had to reduce our sail plan, so we worked together to drop the main and get the genoa reduced down to just a scrap pulling us along.  Being relatively comfortable, we ran through the night with this configuration until mid-morning when wind and seas began to subside. 

By mid-day on Wednesday, we were back to pleasant down-wind sailing, with the full jib poled out, and only hours to go to get to Newport. We found this little fish who had gotten his head wedged between the cap rail of the boat and one of our blocks (pulleys for control lines to the sail) - poor little guy!

Some final reflections on our first leg of ocean sailing: everyone says that the boat can take anything, much more than you can - and I definitely observed that on Tuesday night. AEOLI is a slow, ambling vessel, and she continued to amble slowly on, the large waves and fast winds not seeming to affect her. I never doubted her abilities. Our puke bucket remains unused! We've been taking a vitamin C drink each day, since one of our books suggests that helps with sea-sickness. We also keep candied ginger next to the puke bucket and I found that nibbling on pieces of that when I wanted to throw up really helped to keep everything down. We ate regular meals, even though it felt like forcing down food sometimes, but I think that helped to keep us going. Oh, and also, one hand always for the boat is good advice - bashed my forehead on a ledge in the cabin to learn that one. Getting back on land was pretty trippy - it felt like we were still rolling around and our stomachs are still adjusting. Guess we'll have to spend a couple of relaxing nights in Newport :D

It is so rewarding to appreciate all of the preparations that we have spent the last year making for the boat - she is working so well thanks to all of Matt's fore-sight and our dedication to the plan.

Neah Bay to Newport Album