We left Eureka this morning around 6:45 a.m. to run the bar by 7:41 (slack tide). It was much less harrowing than yesterday's run over the bar coming in! Large rollers and breakers at the mouth but manageable. We headed West to get offshore as quickly as possible due to weather, although we still had/have quite a bit. After turning South about an hour after crossing the bar the wind dropped from 30 - 40 mph to 20 - 25 mph and we put the jib up partially. After we passed Cape Mendocino though the winds came up again and we are currently in steady 30 - 40, with gusts of 45. The jib at this point is out only about 10% and we're still going anywhere from 6.5 - 8 kph; it's acting more as a wind vane than anything else. The gale is supposed to be abating by 9 p.m. tonight and the waves by tomorrow. We are keeping our fingers crossed.

KC has finally outdone me and has not only taken a wave off the side of the boat, hitting me just as I laid down to rest under the dodger, but he has also taken 2 into the cockpit from the aft, the 1st just touching him, the 2nd running down his neck! At least he didn't save it all for me!

KC spotted a whale about 200 ft. off the starboard side of the boat slapping his tail and giving us quite a show. Hopefully our pictures will turn out. He was kind of hard to see due to breaking waves.