Recap: Newport to Eureka

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!

 Newport to Eureka Album