[Goodbye, Neah Bay!]
Hello from somewhere off the coast of Washington! The Pacific Ocean welcomed us yesterday with wind (20-30 knots south), waves (15 foot swells plus steep wind waves from lots of directions), and rain. We expected that introduction, from our weather due diligence, but it was quite something to see those little arrows and pastel wave colors from the gribs turn into something real!
Here's a quick synopsis of our first 24 hours at sea....
wind to 30 knots and waves like a washing machine;
biggest waves and most wind I've ever sailed in, all day and night;
Eric set up the wind pilot and it steered us like a champ;
we each experienced some "gastric awareness" after having to spend time below;
a whale spout, shearwaters, and fulmars;
rain, then a beautiful, starry night with a moon;
three ships in our area, at 3 am, one passed within a mile, eek! (it all turned out OK);
a beautiful sunrise;
the wind stopped
That's it for now. I'm on watch and Eric is taking a nap. More watches tonight. We won't stop till we reach San Francisco. We're currently motoring south, waiting for the north wind to fill in and push us the rest of the way home.
One amusing note: our ship's clock, which usually plays from 1 to 8 dings, depending on the time, has suddenly gone nuts. Now, at random times, it plays a jaunty little ditty composed of many dings. "Ding-da-ding-da-da-ding-ding-dinga." One time, it chimed the equivalent of 31 o'clock. We think it's happy to be at sea. (More likely, the pounding it received last night knocked it silly.)