Of the eight hundred plus miles between the Pacific Northwest and San Francisco Bay, the ones around Cape Mendocino in Northern California are likely to cause the most trouble. The heat of the valley makes the winds blow strong and summer gales occur more frequently than not in that area. Our preliminary forecast Wednesday night called for light winds by the time we got to Mendocino. But, we’d have to pay for it in the meantime with big winds and big seas off the Washington coast. What we were going to see wasn’t gale force, though, just “bigger than you’d like”, as the weather forecaster put it. If we didn’t leave on Thursday, though, we’d need to wait until at least the following Tuesday, and by then there was no way to know what it would be like at Mendocino.
Of course by now you know what our decision was – Let’s go for it! With forecast in hand, 6 dinners in the freezer, fuel and water in the tanks, and everything stowed away we headed out into the North Pacific.
And for the second time the forecaster was right on. Unfortunately, the only variance was an underestimate of the winds and seas off the Washington coast! They started building on Friday as expected, and it blew 25-30 with sustained gusts of 35 knots all night and by morning there were mountains of ocean everywhere. Was I afraid? Of course I was at first. Than I realized I had nothing tangible to attach the fear to. The boat was solid, it’s systems were sound and we knew how to sail it. What we lacked was experience in big seas and the ocean, but it looked like our choices were little in that regard. The only twist was the horrible cold I was getting, and the strength it took from me.
There was significant comfort knowing the conditions weren’t going to last long, and they didn’t. Here’s a video Rob shot on Saturday after things had settled down considerably (there was no way we were thinking about the video cam in the huge stuff). We went nearly 100 miles off the coast and found little traffic. I saw a fishing boat on Sunday, but that was all until we got to San Francisco. We learned a ton about downwind sailing and used lots of different sail combinations, including our new spinnaker pole on our jib in the lighter winds, and a combination of our storm trysail and jib as the winds picked up again south of Mendicino.
Are we glad it’s over? Yes, but mostly because it’s just “been there” for so many years. Are we glad we went when we did? Absolutely. The experience was awesome and the passage overall was marvelous. There’s nothing good to be said about the 2:00 am to 4:00 am watch when it’s blowing 30 knots and the boat is screaming along in the dark, but it’s part of this lifestyle that we’re learning so much about and loving. We made quick time getting here in almost exactly 6 days, and only motored about 20 hours the entire trip (past Cape Mendicino and into San Francisco when the wind died on the morning of our arrival). The boat performed marvelously, and we experienced not a single piece of equipment failure or breakage.
Now we’re tucked into a city marina and got some seriously good sleep last night. Toady we’ll clean 3,000 lbs. of salt off the boat and get ready to enjoy the city and San Francisco Bay. Brittney is going to come down next week for a few days for a little pre-college jaunt, so we’ll have fun exploring the city with our neice. We’ve got a few boat jobs to work on (as always) and then we’ll start coast hopping down towards San Diego to get ready for the Baja Haha and our first winter in Mexico!
Today on Yohelah we’re several pounds lighter, as that North Pacific passage monkey is finally off our backs…….
