SV Delos
| Vessel Name: | delos |
08 July 2008 | Shileshole Marina
Day 20- Home sweet home!
The rest of the night through the straits was uneventful. There was a lot of shipping traffic but it clearly showed up on the AIS and radar. We pulled into Port Townsend just before 6:00AM to a beautiful, sunny, clear morning. There wasn't a breath of wind and the water was like a mirror.
07 July 2008 | Straits of Juan de Fuca
Day 19- Land Ho!
At 1:40PM we spotted the mountains of Vancouver Island off our port bow! Initially they were hard to tell apart from the clouds on the horizon, but slowly they began to take shape. It was a very emotional experience for everyone to see land after so many days and miles at sea. About the same time [...]
06 July 2008 | North Pacific, 47 N Latitude
Day 18- 110 miles and counting.
110 miles to go until land fall! We're estimating 3PM tomorrow to reach the straits. The winds were light and their direction unfavorable so we started motoring at about 6AM and continued through most of the day until about 5:30 when the wind finally shifted and came up. Motoring wasn't unwelcome [...]
05 July 2008 | North Pacific, 45 N Latitude
Day 17- Happy 4th of July!
Wow! Only 290 more miles until we get to the straits! From there it's another 80 or so to Pt. Townsend, then another 30 or so to Shileshole Marina. We're getting closer and you can sense the anticipation of seeing family and friends on everyone's mind.
04 July 2008 | North Pacific, 44 N Latitude
Day 16- 1900 miles under the keel.
The winds were moderate and the seas relatively flat today. We ran under the asymmetrical chute for most of the day making good speed of over 7 knots. Great sailing! This morning while Kurt and I were in the cockpit we saw a pod of porpoises. They stayed with us playing in the bow wave just long [...]
03 July 2008 | North Pacific, 42 N Latitude
svcapaz.com
I meant to link to this a few days ago but it slipped my mind. The other guys have been posting to svcapaz.com. I think they have been uploading pictures. Be sure to check it out to get a different perspective on the trip!
Day 19- Land Ho!
We sailed along on very long, slow, rolling waves. Brad commented on how the closeness to land affected the wave patterns, and after paying attention I saw what he meant. They really couldn't even be called waves because the period was so long, and the motion so gentle. When on the top of one of these you had a clear view of the horizon. As the roller passed you and you moved into the trough nothing but water was visible again.
We sailed for 3 more hours before officially entering the straits around 5PM. We celebrated on deck and took photos as we officially left the Pacific Ocean. About 1 hour into the straits we saw something we had waited for all trip. Eric and I were chatting in the cockpit when less than 100 yards off our port side a huge humpback whale breached the surface and came crashing through the water! We could hardly contain ourselves as the whale continued to breach every minute or so. By this time Kurt and Brad were also on deck and we snapped a ton of pictures. Pretty amazing to travel over 2500 miles across the ocean and then see a breaching whale in your own backyard. We figured it was a good omen welcoming us home.
It's still about 80 miles to Pt. Townsend where we'll tie up just long enough for Erin, Abby, PJ and all kids to join us for the last leg to Shileshole. With poor winds and unfavorable current our ETA is 5:30AM. We're shortening watches to keep people more alert because we are now in a major shipping area and cargo ships and tankers are everywhere.