Hello from Crescent City, California, where we've ducked in to wait out yet more gales at sea. Climate change combined with the strong El Niño this year have really played havoc with the Pacific Ocean, and we are seeing unseasonably stormy seas out here.
Sadly due to these weather delays our original crew, Sandy, John, and Mike all had to leave us in Newport, Oregon to head back to work. Luckily we recruited two other friends, Vanessa & Mark (who have an Ericson 38' on Bainbridge Island), to join us. They arrived in Newport on Wednesday afternoon.
We had originally planned to leave Newport by 1500 hours on the high tide (cuz apparently that's when you enter/exit bars, at high-tide...learning all sorts of new tricks on this trip! :-) But after listening to the WX report on Wednesday morning, the forecast had changed again, and this time Thursday looked like the day to head south. There were three other boats all waiting out weather on the same transient dock, and we were all comparing notes.
Kirk battens everything down as we head out the bar early Thursday morning. Shortly after this shot, the seemingly calm looking seas quickly changed to 10' sharp, steep seas on the bar just as we passed the big incoming barge, which gave Heidi-driver a shot of adrenaline better than any caffeine to wake her up.
Seas were big and rolly all day. The forecast 10-15 knot northwester-lies with following seas never materialized, instead we had 5 knots on the nose with confused seas. Not enough wind to even motor-sail. NOT fun for anyone especially Vanessa who succumbed to mal-de-mer. Oh, and our RayMarine Radar/Chart-plotter,
Marianne, continues to have issues such as randomly losing Radar, AIS, and/or GPS contact at the most inopportune times. She may have to have a visit with the factory brain-doctor.
Potentially heading for Coose Bay, we didn't want to enter that crazy bar at night. When it became apparent that we couldn't get there in daylight, we switched to plan-B, Crescent City another half-day away.
Kirk, Heidi, and Mark adjusted the watch schedule and did double-duty through the night, and luckily the seas calmed a bit in the early morning. The moon, stars, and a few planets were out in full force to keep us all company. SO beautiful out on the ocean, even in big crazy seas.
Morning dawned with beautiful blue skies and Caribbean colored seas, complete with too MANY humpback whales to count. Vanessa was feeling much better too. Welcome to California!! We even had our first pelican sighting on our way into Crescent City.
And for those of you who've been asking how Tosh and Tikka are faring with all this weather, here's your answer. Tosh woke us up at 0300 this morning to FEED THEM, because we'd neglected to put out food last night in the big waves, rolling seas, and since they were both tucked away in their hidey-holes, we didn't bother. They both chowed down in spite of things flying around the galley, and then they wanted to play!? They are AWESOME boat cats, we couldn't ask for better.
Current forecast recommends not heading south 'till at least Wednesday, so guess we'll be sitting here at the dock for a few more days. Hoping that Heidi's sister Kari and cousin Sharn will both make a trip to visit us, since they aren't too far away.