We left the Charleston Boat Basin in Coos Bay at first light Monday morning. Small craft warning flags were flying, but it was flat calm and the weather forecast was calling for NW'ly 15 to 20.

We hoisted the main with the first reef in it, but that was only as a steadying sail. There was not enough wind to actually move us under sail power. So we headed down the coast with Mr. Volvo's assistance. Around 10:00 the autopilot alarm sounded. "Drive Failure", read the message. So Janie hand steered while I crawled in the space under the cockpit to investigate.

The hydraulic ram that is the muscle for the autopilot had somehow come unscrewed from the rudder quadrant. So out came the tool box and ten minutes later, Otto was back on watch.

Around 1230 we were visited by a pod of Pacific White sided dolphin. There were about a dozen of them. They came zooming in at us from the port side and played with us for about 15 minutes or so. They seemed to be competing with each other for the best surfing spots around our bow