Southbound again
21 August 2013 | 11 miles NW of Cape Blanco
Pete
Sometimes it seems like we have to acheive escape velocity over and over again. We awoke this morning, had breakfast burritos and coffee, checked weather, made sure everything was stowed, topped up the fuel tank, and headed out the channel. Meanwhile, I keep wondering if going out into the tail end of this blow is the best idea, or should we wait another day for the waves to die down a bit more. But everytime I reanalyze the data, my conclusion is "Go. Go Now!" The weather looks like if we start heading south it'll be a bit lumpy for a day or so between Cape Blanco and Cape Mendecino (It usually is and the forecast is for much more mild conditions than Scott, Mary, Marcus and I saw the last time we were here, but it still doesn't exactly look comfortable. Well, one day of discomfort and two days thereafter of what appears to be some really great sailing, if we go now.
So I pulled the trigger. We motored out the channel and I was struck by the thought that we hadn't checked our propane, so we did. One tank was empty, which we knew, we had switched out tanks 2 days ago, the first we had started in Nanaimo on our shake down cruise, so has been in use for the past month. No surprise there. The tank we were using felt extraordinarily light to me and I didn't want to risk us being unable to cook for the next 3 days, so we spun the boat around and headed back to the marina. We had failed to break orbit. Ugh....
After locating the local propane dealer (which fortunately was right next door to the Marina) we once again got under way, and having only lost about an hour, still had the option to cross the bar before the tide turned, which would seal us in Coos Bay for another day. As it was, while motoring out the channel, there were breaking 4-5' waves at the tips of the jetties, and some 4-8' swells rolling through the channel outside of the jetties. Wind was light, and we couldn't really sail in that slop, so we kept motoring with the main up for stability to the SW until we got into the breeze. This was surprising since the forecast had been for fairly big breeze, even close in to shore. After motoring for about an hour, we were able to pull out the jib and sail. The wind had built to 10-15 from the N, and we were moving right along between 5.5 and 7.5 kts through the water depending on which side of the waves we were on. We have two fishing lines out behind us, and hopes are high to get a tuna to hit. The sun is out, and is warm. There is some sizable swell out here, but is a following sea. It feels great. Escape velocity achieved.
We are roughly 380 NM from SF which should put us in a little over 3 days from now. We are estimating 5kts average boat speed (although I'm trying like mad to make it 6) and at 120NM per day, that makes it 3 days and 4 hours. So, we'll see.
Currently, Scott is on watch, Eric is keeping him company in the cockpit, Rachelle is making beef stew and fresh baked rosemary bread for dinner, and I just woke up from a nap. All is well, knock on wood.