After a wonderful road trip back east with the kids, Tami and I returned to the boat and took it up to Friday Harbor where we spent a couple days visiting with our friend Susan. We made some final preparations and picked Susan's brain for every piece of sailing information that we could. She gave us a few necessary charts and some sage advice. The morning of the 16th found us all standing on the dock getting a little misty-eyed as we said goodbye to our good friend.

Having said goodbye to Susan, we motored Andiamo back across the Straits to Port Angeles where we picked up our friend and third crewmember, Marcy. We spent the night at the public dock and enjoyed a hearty breakfast at The Haven restaurant. The morning of the 17th, we began our 55 mile trek west to Neah Bay, WA. It was foggy and the wind was off the nose, so we motored the entire way and monitored the radar closely. We finally made it into Neah Bay around 2100 that night. We enjoyed a good dinner together and went to bed eagerly anticipating the next day.

The weather forecast was good on the morning of the 18th, so we committed ourselves to heading out into the north Pacific Ocean. The sun was shining and the winds were calm as we rounded Tatoosh Island and Cape Flatery. It was 1500 hours. We were excited but a bit nervous. We motored for a couple hours until the wind filled in and we started making good headway toward our offshore waypoint. Our initial course from Cape Flattery was southwesterly (192 degrees magnetic) for about 125 miles. We settled in on a nice beam reach. The sun began to set and we realized we were getting ready to spend our first night at sea.

Our watch schedule worked out pretty well. We began 3-hour watches with a little overlap. Each person stood a 3-hour watch and the first and last hour were spent with someone else, but the middle hour was spent alone. This seemed to work great. The first night was nice. The winds picked up to about 15-20 knots from the north/northwest and the waves grew to about 10 feet out of the north. The boat sailed along nicely under reefed main and staysail. The moon set early so it got dark pretty quick. However, once our eyes were adapted, we were still able to see pretty well. We were all alone. Not another ship in sight.

The next 3 days seemed to progress the same way. The winds were anywhere between 10-25 knots. Sails were full, then reefed, then full again. Seas were always following and ranged from 4-12 feet. The boat handled them nicely and we saw consistent boat speeds between 6-8 knots. The crew seemed rested and well-fed and remained in good spirits. Our route kept us about 100nm offshore so the wind and waves were solid and remained fully developed. We enjoyed these conditions for quite some time. Our anxiety was still high, but we were settling into a good routine. On a side note, we have been working with our SSB and weather fax for the past two months just trying to get a good weather printout with very little success. Nonetheless, I still tried it at sea. Ironically, the only good printout I got, was the 96 hour surface forecast. It showed "Gale Developing" near Cape Mendocino directly between us and San Francisco. This of course put a giant lump in our collective throats.

As we pressed on, we enjoyed sunny skies and favorable winds. We read poetry, played card trivia games, tried some fishing, dabbled with some celestial navigation, and silently worried about the weather that lay ahead.

As we passed our waypoint which marked our turn to the southeast, we began experiencing increasing winds and larger seas. Our nerves stood on end. The mainsail came down to its deepest reef and the staysail was rigged ready for heaving to in case it was needed. The sun went down and the wind and waves grew intense. The boat was approaching 9 knots as she surfed down waves so we did our best to slow her down. The wind rose to gale force (35-40 knots) and the seas seemed monstrous. We estimate they were between 12-20 feet and following. We tried not to turn around in fear of what we would see building behind us. It was a long night. No one slept and we all stood watch together hoping to make the right decisions concerning boat handling. The boat continued to float as we watched the clock tick by. We took several boarding waves from confused seas but the water drained quickly. It wasn't much fun.

Sometime during the night, we heard a distress call on the VHF. A small sailboat had lost its rudder in the heavy seas and its single crewmember was calling the coast guard asking to be rescued. The coast guard issued a call asking for any mariners in the area to lend assistance. After plotting the position of the vessel, we saw that it lay directly on our course line about 15 miles ahead. Even though we were struggling ourselves, we called the coast guard and let them know we could be to his position in about 3 hours and would be willing to offer any assistance that we could. We had no idea how we could help this man, but we were obligated to try - it's the rules of the sea. Fortunately for everyone involved, the coast guard was able to rescue the lone sailor with a helicopter before we made it to his location. We were all relieved.

The sunrise was a welcomed sight. The wind began to decrease and the seas grew smaller as we continued our southeasterly run towards San Francisco. We were all in one piece and the boat was in good shape. We discovered some leaky portholes and some gear that could have been secured a little better, but other than that, our nerves were the only victims of the gale. Later, we would come to learn that this "gale" lives off the coast of California near Mendocino and most sailors experience it sooner or later.

We finally rounded Point Reyes, CA on the evening of August 23rd. It was too late to try and make it into the bay area so we anchored in Drake's Bay for the evening. We all enjoyed a great dinner and some much needed deep sleep.

The next morning we weighed anchor and pointed our nose towards the Golden Gate. The wind and seas were calm so we motored under the Golden Gate Bridge at 1245 on 24 August 2010. Andiamo and crew finally came to rest at the Clipper Yacht Harbor in Sausilito that same afternoon. We had traveled 786 miles in 6 days. Walking on land was a bit of a challenge but we adapted quickly. Our arrival was exhilarating. We were so happy that we had made it. It was a great day!

All said and done, we had a great trip. We learned a lot. We gained some much needed confidence and are eagerly looking forward to our next leg. We plan to remain in the San Fran area for a couple more weeks. The kids should be here next Tuesday and we can hardly wait. In the meantime, Tami and I are enjoying our time together, meeting some wonderful people, and enjoying the California scenery.