Port Angeles Welcome

WindWatcher greets Comocean as we approach Port Angeles.

We arrived at Neah Bay on Wednesday, July 27th around 11pm. Our journey is complete. Our voyage from Hawai'i was 3,174 miles. Neah Bay was empty of anchored boats this time and anchoring in the dark was fairly easy. Finally we could sleep all  night. Thursday was a day to clean up the mess from a three-week passage and then rest.

Friday morning at 6:15am we were under way to Port Angeles. A few miles from Port Angeles Greg noticed a vaguely familiar boat. It circled around and approached us. Lo and behold, there were our friends Chuck and Jan on WindWatcher -  another Catalina 42. They had sent an email, which we hadn't received, telling us that they were starting their adventure and would try to intercept us as we passed in the Straight of Juan de Fuca. What a pleasant surprise! They joined us at the public dock  in Port Angeles for the night and we shared dinner on Comocean. Chuck and Jan are headed to San Diego where they will prepare their boat for a cruise to Mexico, the Caribbean and beyond. We shared our new cruising knowledge and said goodbye in the morning.

It was so nice to share our regular bed. Our passage berth was the aft starbd berth. The cushions, abandon-ship bag and various bags of stuff kept us in place. Cinnamon was a frequent bunkmate. I had to be very careful when I rolled over because would end up under me. Once we were at anchor and back in our regular bed he didn't need us for security and we sleep without him now.

Cinnamon picked up some unusual habits while we were at sea. When he didn't eat or drink during the first week I had to resort to some unconventional methods to encourage him. He developed a fondness for drinking his water from a tumbler in the bathroom. I guess it was the traces of toothpaste that made it so special.

We visited the NOAA center for the Olympic Coast Nat. Marine Sanctuary in Port Angeles. It was smaller than the Hawai'ian center in Hilo but filled with lots of interesting exhibits and two knowledgeable workers. I gathered some materials to share with my Semiahmoo friends and the next C42 Rendezvous.

Now we are headed to Dungeness Spit which is a little southeast of here. We have our fishing/crabbing license in hand and we are eager to get back at it!

Land Ho!

On July 27 we are starting to see boats on the AIS. 50 miles off shore and there 8 ships around us. At 7pm, 25 miles out, I climb into the cockpit and see land - Vancouver Island. By 11pm we should be at anchor in Neah Bay. But, as they say on the Pacific Seafarer's Net, "It's the crunchy bits around the edges that are the dangerous parts." I don't anticipate a problem though. We will be arriving after dark but we have been there before and know what to look for.
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At 7/27/2011 4:31 AM (utc) our position was 48°29.63'N 128°45.56'W on course 091T at 6.6 knots.

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1,000 Miles to Go

Another nice day, zipping along at 6-7 knots we are cranking out 150 mile days like clockwork. But, lest we get complacent, there are 3-4 days of heavy wind/sea coming day after tomorrow from a low moving down the coast. We're past 2,000 miles with about 1,000 to go. Cool enough at night now that we've reassembled the Pacific-Norwest configuration with an enclosed cockpit. Still on spinnaker but that comes down tomorrow p.m. unless Sonia turns off the power earlier**. She is prep'ing meals ahead for the bad weather.
Greg

**
The other morning I was at the end of my 6 hour watch and hungry. I sat down on the settee across from the sink with a bowl of cereal. The next thing I know the boat rounds up and chaos ensues! Greg wakes up and we both rush out to the cockpit. I couldn't get the rudder to respond and the instruments were all off. I wondered how we could have blown a 300A fuse. First Greg checked the steering to make sure it was okay and then started to work on the electrical problem.
Once solved he demanded to know where I was when all this happened. I told him that I was sitting down trying to eat my cereal. AHA! What? "You turned off the master switch"! The switch was right under me and apparently I kicked it and didn't realize it. Oh, well. That was better than something breaking and besides it gave Greg something to raze me about.
Sonia
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At 7/20/2011 12:05 PM (utc) our position was 46°38.13'N 151°07.09'W on course 087T at 6.7 knots.

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Flying the Spinnaker

4 am on a beautiful cloudy early morning; 1300 miles north now. Fishing is good under the full moon and the birds (I can't tell if they are storm petrels or shearwaters) are flying around the boat while keeping up a lively conversation. They have Cinnamon's attention.

We deployed the spinnaker yesterday and then we ran out of wind in the afternoon. I knew it was too good to continue. From 8 knots to 3, and then zero is hard to take. The spinnaker kept collapsing so we finally dropped it and motored for a while. Sometime during Greg's watch he deployed it again, BY HIMSELF, and probably without his vest and tether. We are flying again - 6.6 knots in 11K of wind. My spirits are lifted.
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At 7/15/2011 9:28 AM (utc) our position was 41°36.95'N 164°47.17'W on course 007T at 6.6 knots.

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1000 Miles

There's a full moon hanging over a bank of dark clouds to the southwest this evening. The wind is soft and the seas are rolling gently with less than a one foot swell. It's a pleasant night watch.

We have passed the 1,000 mile mark and tonight we will start heading northeast as we round the Pacific high. Less than 2,000 miles left. There are at least four boats making their way back to the Pacific Northwest now and we each seem to have our own unique idea of how to do it. One poor captain was congratulated last night for finding the exact center of the high when he reported his position, wind (0)and boat speed (0)to the Pacific Seafarers' Net - he apparently doesn't have access or understanding of GRIB files. They have really made a difference for making safe and faster passages.

This passage hasn't been as bleak as the passage from Baja to Hawai'i. We see birds everyday - maybe only one or two shearwaters, but two nights ago we were surrounded by a flock of over a dozen black-footed albatross. The flying fish are plentiful out here and are amazing to watch. One flew into the cockpit and smacked Sonia on the leg - he was a beautiful little thing but none the less, he became cat food.

We are enjoying this brief calm before we start the sleigh ride across the high in the next day or two.
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At 7/14/2011 9:19 AM (utc) our position was 39°30.79'N 164°56.79'W on course 356T at 7.8 knots.

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Chasing the High

A squall blots out the almost full moon to the west. We plow north through the waves around the ever-moving high. Hawai'i lies 850 miles to the south now. I wonder if we will encounter the "garbage patch" as we make our way around the north Pacific gyre.

Made visual contact with the ship "Huian" yesterday, 7 miles off our port bow - the second ship we have crossed paths with since leaving Hawai'i.

We are making 150 miles per day and are on track for a 20 day passage.
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At 7/12/2011 1:16 AM (utc) our position was 33°08.92'N 164°11.72'W on course 009T at 6.1 knots.

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Leaving Hawai'i

Our last stop in Hawai'i was Kane'ohe Bay on the east side of O'ahu. Kane'ohe Bay or Chinaman's Hat (named after a rock in the bay) is a large shallow bay that grows coral rapidly due to the good water conditions. Because of the extensive coral and a very long sand bar it is challenging to navigate. In daylight its fairly easy to see the coral but at night a US Marine escort boat is called upon at times to help boats safely navigate into the marinas.

We stayed at the Kane'ohe Yacht Club; Med moored only feet from the beautiful lawn, pool and club house. After securing our boat we watched, along with our neighbor Cadence, as a sailboat full of inept young sailors tried over and over again to place their boat between us. They were probably tired and I'm sure copious amounts of beer played a part in it. I really got worried though when the young man at the helm told me he was afraid to back the boat up. They were finally successful, but in a very ungraceful manner. After a brief recovery they proceeded to party loud and hardy into the late hours.

This did build a relationship between us and David and Beth on Cadence. They have sailed to Hawai'i several times from Newport Beach, CA. David is a long distance swimmer (they travel all over the world so he can swim things like the English Channel). They graciously offered to drive us around in the SUV they had rented for hauling his surfboard around. David swam every day in Kane'ohe, as well as surfing at Waikiki, and told us that he had seen a baby hammerhead shark which was about a foot from eye to eye. We were latter told that the area around the Kane'ohe YC is a hammerhead shark nursery. Early on our last day there we heard a very loud crash beside our boat but couldn't figure out what it was. Later that morning while standing on deck I heard it again (like someone jumping into the water) and saw a large bubble-like disturbance next to Cadence. Several people saw it but no one knew what caused it. I think some large fish had just had his breakfast.

We left on Wednesday July 6th and had a rough first 24 hours, 8-10 ft seas, but we made 150 miles. The second day wasn't any more comfortable and we found out that Cadence had had a terrible passage to Kaua'i and had broken their wind vane. Their return home would be delayed. At 1pm we were hailed by a Coast Guard plane and advised that the military was going to do missile exercises in our area and wanted to know our intentions. We thought it was pretty obvious but I didn't get smart with them - they had missiles! We were on a NNW course and they told us to change our course 5-10 deg to N. Not comfortable but we did it. They were trying to contact another boat but weren't successful. They hailed us again and told us not to go west of our current longitude. "This will insure your safety". Great - that meant that we were going due north until 6pm. It was horrible - but hey, we didn't get shot! In fact, we didn't see any planes, boats or missiles. My guess is that they couldn't contact the other boat so they made us line up with them so we were easy to shoot around.

On my watch last night the wind hit 33 knots and Comocean was screaming along at over 10 knots - a little scary. If all goes well only 18 more days of this.
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At 7/8/2011 9:53 AM (utc) our position was 24°35.80'N 160°02.86'W on course 318T at 6.8 knots.

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