SVSTX

We were able to sail most of the day, it is so nice and quiet! Weather was beautiful, blue sky, sunny and in the 60's. The winds were in the 20s and we were able to run at 6-7 kts. Very nice!

We are currently docked at the Woodley Island Marina in Eureka, CA (Humboldt Bay). There was a small craft advisory that was supposed to start this morning at 9:00, which it did, and last until 5 this afternoon and blow up into a full scale gale with 40 kt winds tonight. Didn't care for 40 kt. winds at night and timing worked better for our arrival in SF, due to currents, so elected to see Eureka and leave tomorrow early. Weather is to return to a small craft advisory sometime tomorrow which works since we can use the winds.

Running the bar here in Eureka was exciting. The NW swell/wind waves that we had coming in filtered into a 250' wide channel which shoaled on both sides, therefore the waves became even larger. We had gotten a bar report a few hours earlier and it was about what we thought we had when we left Astoria, which we didn't consider much. At the time they told us that it should stay pretty much the same, it didn't! It is very hard to interpret and sometimes even understand what the Coast Guard is saying, teaching them to speak clearly would be a help. When queried they usually pass the answer back to the Captain, as in "The safety of your vessel is up to you Captain". We have heard this over and over again coming down the coast, not only with us when we called today, but with everyone else that calls. Anyway, one off wave caught us but other than that we did fine. We then had to fight our way against 27 knot winds up the channel to the marina we initially thought we would stay at. When we saw that there were no breakwaters and that we were to dock on an outside finger that waves were slapping against we decided to go to the next marina. It has a bit more protection, thank goodness, otherwise we were heading back out.

Enough of that. Saw a gray whale today surfacing as we sailed by, they are so distinctive and big.

Comments

Vessel Name:	STX
Vessel Make/Model:	Kalik 44'
Hailing Port:	Juneau, Alaska
Crew:	KC & JoLe Wilson
About:	In 1995 we were reviewing our lives, the things that we missed doing and what we still wanted to do in our lifetimes. Upon reflection we realized that most of the things we missed and still wanted to do had to do with the ocean and traveling. [...] More
Extra:	Our Kalik, STX, is a fiberglass hulled, flush deck, cutter rig designed by naval architect Gary Mull of San Francisco, California. It was built in Belgium in 1981 and sold by the Sovereign Yacht Company. As Mr. Mull died in 1994, at the age of 55, specific information concerning the boat is [...] scarce. From what we have been able to gather the boat was built in Belgium in 1981 and sold in the US by Sovereign Yacht Company. Due to the down turn of the economy at the time there were very few of these boats produced and Sovereign Yacht Company went out of business after only two years. We believe there may have been only about 20 Kalik’s built. She is 44’ long with a beam of 14’, has 3 double staterooms, 2 pilot berths, a salon table that seats 8 and 2 heads. She now carries 100 gallons of water and 200 gallons of diesel. We redesigned the galley with additional cabinetry, a new refrigerator, a separate freezer and Corian countertops. We added a water maker, Single Side Band radio, generator and a Webasto hot water heating system throughout the boat. The 42hp Nanni (Mercedes) diesel was replaced by a 55hp Volvo Penta diesel, an Autostream 3 blade feathering prop replaced the two blade prop and the battery bank was increased to 800 AH. All electronics, wiring, plumbing, hatches, ground tackle, rigging and sails were replaced and the fuel capacity increased to 200 gallons in three fiberglass tanks. More