Hello everyone,

I am so sorry it has been so long since my last post. We had a bit of a tough time about 45 from Neah Bay when we had no wind (again). We decided to motor, but didn't really know if we had enough gas to do so. This complicated by the fact that we ran out of wind at about 11 PM, and it was a cloudy night with not much visibility. It was a little scary, as we could see boats funneling out of the Straits but almost none had AIS and since our radar was broken we were sort of sailing a bit blind, it was really tough to see how far away they were and whether we needed to worry about changing course! Add to that it started to drizzle so we had to keep walking around the boat keeping the dogder dry so we could see, very stressful!!

We were both up most of the night, thankfully did not run out of gas, and arrived at Neah Bay just about daybreak! We were so happy to have the dawn!! We stopped to get fuel, then were on our way once more, and arrived in Port Angeles about 4:30. We treated ourselves to a room at the Red Lion and a great dinner.

Next morning, Thursday, we were up early to catch the flood to Shillshole, where we arrived right at 6 PM, to our kids and Craig and Kelly. Home never looked so good!

This has been an awesome trip and thank you all so much for coming along with us! I will get all the pictures posted soon for you all to see, I promise!

Hi all,

Been a while since I touched base. We left Honolulu 19 days ago and have had a slower passage than we might have hoped. Ran into light wind and complete calm for days and days. At times, we took the sails down altogether and drifted, because without any wind and a swell running, they just slap and drive us nuts. Well, more nuts. My excuse is that the weather pattern in the North Pacific is unusual. And I'm sticking to it. Traded the swimsuit and flip flops for fleece about a week ago. Even had my boots on last night when the sea came up. We've been a breeze for the past day and a half and are making progress toward home. We're 500 miles from Neah Bay and another hundred or so to Seattle, so 4 or 5 days till we make landfall in Neah Bay, if the wind keeps up, though it does look from the weather files like we could have another very light day tomorrow (Sunday).

On both our passage down the west coast and again from California to Hawaii, it was pretty much just me, Lori and the deep blue sea. This time around, we've seen a lot more stuff. So far, we've seen 14 ships, compared to zero on either of the other two passages. We've seen a bunch of whales, more than ten. The ones that have been close look like the drawing of sperm whales in one of our books. We had a hundred or more dolphins swim with us for a half hour, some of them playing in our bow wake. There have been birds around since we left Honolulu. Albatrosses and a bunch of others that I can't identify. The sky has often been clear, so beautiful star shows. Venus so bright you could read a book by it. The Milky Way bigger was crystal clear. Lots of falling stars, especially the last few nights as we get into the Perseids Meteor Shower.

During our two weeks in Honolulu, we got friendly with a couple on the boat next to us, Storm Along. Originally from Chicago, Brian has been cruising her pretty much since the early '90's. Nell started cruising about the same time on another boat. Not sure what the story is about how they got together. Anyway, they left Waikiki a few hours behind us and we were within a hundred miles of each other until yesterday. We talk to them every afternoon on the short wave radio and we all look forward to hearing another voice. Not that my lovely wife ever gets on my nerves. We stayed ahead of Storm Along, even legged out, early in the trip. But when the breeze got light, they motored a lot more that we did. They left Hawaii with 120 or 140 gallons of fuel, compared to our 60, so they were able to rely on the iron genoa a lot more than us. As they overtook us, they came alongside and gave us 10 gallons of diesel. After we swapped books and magazines, they motored off, leaving us bobbing along. They are now 150 or maybe more miles ahead.

Not much else exciting aboard. After more than two weeks at sea, I had Home Makeover, North Pacific edition a few days ago. Took apart the bedding, shook it all out, shined up the galley and heads, cleaned out the salon. Not quite sure what I'll do today. Maybe just focus on bothering Lori.

Hi everyone,

Remember that Doors song?

Sorry you have not heard much from us in the last few days. We have been almost dead in the water; this damn North Pacific High seems to follow us; if we go North, It goes North, if we go east, It does too. Now it is predicted to go WAYYY North over the next several days and also east, which means that no matter where we sail, every day we are in the middle of it with no wind. Sunday we made only 61 miles and drifted backwards about 7 miles for 4-6 hours overnight when it was so light we had to drop all sails to keep them from banging. Yesterday we made only 56 miles, same story, but after taking all sails down at sunset, were able to hoist them again and sail (slowly) when the wind came up after only about 3 hours. At least we didn't lose ground, that is really demoralizing.

So, this is quite frustrating, and all bets are currently off as far as an arrival date for us. We do have plenty of food and water, so no worries there. We had used up all available fuel (we need some to get into Neah Bay and shipping lanes if they are foggy; we have kept that in reserve). I bet it will take us at least 8 more days (unless the wind really blows on the other side of the High) to get to Neah Bay.

At 2 am we got a call from our guardian angels, fellow yachties we meet in Honolulu on Storm Along, Nell and Brian. They have been cruising continuously for the last 20 years and are going the same way as us, but had been about a day behind us. Brian said he has never seen in be so calm for so long in the North Pacific, and offered to give us 10 gal more of diesel. We said hell yes!! So at first light, about 5 am they motored alongside us and gave us to 5 gal jerry jugs of diesel. It was no easy feat transferring jerry jugs full of fuel from one boat to another in the middle of the Pacific, I can tell you. Now we have a cushion and can motor when it gets calm for 10 more hours, hopefully we can get out of this high for good in a couple of days. We will "Break on Through to the Other Side!!!"

We have seen several whales (we think blue whales) and dolphins on this trip, all in all it is such a different trip than our way over to Hawaii!

We really miss you all, this on day 15 with at least 8 more seems like a long sail.

Hello everyone,

After 5 days or so of too light air, we are now sailing along between 6-8 knots and have been since yesterday afternoon. At this speed, we were able to cover 145 nm yesterday, with approximately 1150 to Neah Bay. The chartplotter says that will take us another 7-8 days, but he can't be trusted quite yet; his opinion waxes and wanes with our boat speed, so it is still too early to predict.

The weather has changed too; it is much colder and cloudy now. We are out of swimsuits and into long pants and windbreakers. I am drinking tea now instead of beer (oh wait; I forgot, we are out of beer)! It was drizzling this morning and John and I were both happy about it, are we warped or what!!! It is also cloudy and overcast, which we read to expect, and will probably be for the rest of the trip.

It is so nice to feel like we are making some progress, but we are sailing as close to true north as we can in this wind, still trying to get up and over the North Pacific High, which is supposed to also move farther north in a couple of days. That would mean little wind for us again, if we get into it So we are sailing into the wind, which is a little like trying to walk after too many beers with a peg leg that's too short!! The boat is heeled between 10 and 25 degrees so we stagger and sway around the cabin, hoping (mostly fruitlessly) that whatever we are carrying won't spill, fall, etc. For someone like me that is "positionally challanged " (read damn clumsy) in the first place, it can make for some comical careening!

We saw another container ship today, about 8 miles away, man those suckers are big! I think that makes 8 now, in start contrast to the two we saw on the way over to Hawaii. I decided to see if our poor beleaguered radar still works (as you may recall, the top, or radome was knocked off when we had OUR knockdown right before we got to San Francisco in April. As it is 26 years old we decided not to spend $200+ on a new cover, or much more for a new radar system. So it's been exposed to the element all that time and guess what--it still works! Hopefully we won't need it, but it might come in handy in the Straits if there is fog as there has been lately in Seattle in the mornings!

Hi everyone!

Well, after several frustrating days with almost no wind and going almost nowhere, we are now in a breeze going 4-6 knots and the weather grib files look like this wind should hold for us the rest of the way home. I know the Captain explained to you in the last post about the North Pacific High and why it is so crucial in determining the wind in the North Pacific. Well, we ended up sailing right smack dab into the middle of it, as it changed position and moved essentially right over us! This is one of the risks of sailing too close to it. Fortunately it has moved again, and by the end of today we should (we hope) be well above it and able to sail continuously. Sounds like a good theory, anyway, right?

We had to motor a lot for 24 hours total over several days in fact,now we are as low on fuel as we dare go. With only 45 gal of diesel on board, we have to make sure we have enough to run the engine and charge our batteries all the way home, so we can have the fridge, computer and running lights all the time. And a pretty good cushion to get into port, for emergencies like Man Overboard, etc. But we are consistently maintaining about 100 miles per day, and although that is down from our more usual 150 miles/24 hours, we are still getting there!

Way out in the ocean, we take watches at night, from 10 PM to 2 AM or from 2 AM to 6 AM. Being on watch means setting our timer and getting up once each hour to have a look at the computer for nearby ships, look at the horizon to confirm no one is around, make sure the sails and course are OK (well, usually we are sailing). Then you go back to bed. It's pretty safe because there are very few ships out here. And normally the wind is very steady, so the boat pretty much keeps doing the same thing without any help.

But we HAVE seen many more boats on this return trip, a total of 7 as of this morning, all container ships, and the closest was 3.5 miles away. What this tells us that as we near the mainland, we will have to change our watches to every fifteen minutes and remain awake, to watch more closely for vessel traffic, as we did on the trip down the coast and just after we left the mainland for Hawaii. Remember the guy that was on a collision course with us in the middle of the night while we were going down the coast of California by the Santa Barbara channel? (see May blog entries) Between that and the oil rig, we don't need any more drama!!

Anyway, for the last few nights, we've had a flock of little birds that follow us for hours. In the dark, we can only see them once in a while, when they fly very nearby. But we hear them chirping to each other all around us. Last night I got up about 3 AM and when I went into the cockpit, I saw one of the birds on the floor by the steering wheel. He wouldn't shoo away, so I thought he must have flown into the boat and broken a wing, because he kept jumping up against the side of the cockpit. I picked him up and threw him overboard, expecting to hear a splash. But he flew off just like all his friends. My guess is that his species, which lives in the ocean, isn't good at launching into flight and he just didn't know how to climb out of the cockpit. Birdbrain, I guess :).

The Admiral is taking a day off today, so we have a guest author, able-bodied seaman John.

We've been heading north since leaving Honolulu a week ago. Our trip, since leaving Seattle, has been a big circle around the North Pacific High pressure, the dominant weather feature in the eastern Pacific. The wind circles clockwise around the high, so we went (generally) downwind as we headed south from Seattle to California, again downwind when we went west from California to Hawaii. Now, we're heading north to get above the high, where we'll pick up a westerly breeze to ride home, and will ride that generally downwind. Our weather maps show light wind for the next two days, then maybe a day after that, we'll begin to see the westerly breeze. That's the theory, anyway.

This passage has been just delightful so far. The breeze is light, ranging from 5 to 15 knots. As opposed to our other two long passages, the sea is almost flat. Reminds us of sailing on Lake Washington, except we can't see Mercer Island. The boat just has a gentle motion, barely enough to remind us that we're moving. We go 2 or 2 1/2 degrees of latitude per day, or 120 to 150 miles. The weather has cooled a just a bit. We're still in swimsuits and barefoot during the day, but we have broken out a windbreakers to wear on deck after it gets dark. We've seen four ships so far, which is four more that we saw on either of our other passages. We keep seeing birds and flying fish. Mostly sunny days, beautiful sunsets and a trillion stars at night. The boat's working fine and we appear to have water and fuel to spare. Like always, we have enough food to sail to China, then give everybody lunch when we get there. Even have a few cold beers remaining.

We met a couple in Honolulu who have been cruising for many years. They've been around both capes, to Scandinavia, South America, New Zealand and everywhere else you can think of. They were in the slip next to us for two weeks and left 4 hours behind us. We've had a nice time corresponding via email and keeping track of each other. They're on their way to Uculet, B.C., so from this far away, essentially the same destination as us. Their Nordic 44 looks similar to our boat and we're going the same speed. They've headed a little west of due north while we've headed a little east, so we are about 150 miles apart at this point, but we continue to be the same 30 miles north of them that we've been since Honolulu. We'll see who gets better wind as we get around the top of the high. Not that I'm competitive about this, but it would sure be good to leg out on them when our wind fills from the west before theirs.