Landfall on Nuku Hiva
The bay of Atuona is south facing and it was a lovely midday sail coming down the east side of the island- until a cell signal from the island kicked in, the time of day jumped back 2.5 hours, and it turned into a lovely morning sail. We gave up the watch schedule, the extra […]
Proper Seafarers
The poofy tropical clouds and stronger breeze are back. Glad for the sun to lift our spirits after not much sleep and so much difficult sailing in the lighter winds. However, now we are at a steeper angle to the breeze and the heel and motion of the boat makes it unappealing to do anything […]
Magic Mahi
We have entered an area known as the convergence zone or doldrums. Since we left San Francisco we’ve been looking ahead to see where the best place to cross was going to be hoping a big dead zone would move further east. Unfortunately, it’s been a stubborn low so instead of leaving some westing to […]
Champagne, Mud pits, and Passersby
Sailing has so many forms. We were so lucky for the first leg of our journey to San Fransisco to have the nicest sailing conditions we could have hoped for. The crew has repeated back and forth to each other “champagne sailing, champagne”. Incredibly, since we left SF it’s been mostly the same except some of […]
Night Watch
Turns out I like to write when it’s quieter and dark and I’m alone. Tonight/this morning is different, the clouds are lower and moving so fast that it’s harder to use any brighter spots in the sky as points of reference for steering. Right now I can see one planet or star off to port […]
Oceanic
The moon is shining behind the glowing clouds and it’s not too dark out. Where the layers are thinner the light splotches are reflected on the ocean all around us. They look like little private parties- some we are dashing towards, others we run from, and others we just nod too as they brighten and […]
Wharf Rats
Keeping with the Grateful Dead song titles while we’re in San Fran (which we learned no local would ever call this city), we have certainly been wharf dwellers this last week. We haven’t seen any rats here at Emery Cove but there are cute and friendly California ground squirrels around. The squirrel families are so […]
Broke Down Palace?
Well, not exactly broke down but that’s the best Dead song to title our visit to San Francisco. We sailed southeast for about 24 hours back towards the coast without much energy or thoughts towards what the problem might be, at least on my part. At sea the basic necessities are really all I can […]
Southward!
We pushed off from Port Townsend on Tuesday at about 10am a week ago. Paul decided he needed to stay to work with the foiling ferry design but the awesome Gavin Brackett slipped into his spot with all the experience and brilliant attitude anyone could have to go on adventure like this. Our delivery team […]
Departure
We cast off from Shilshole at about 3pm today after checking off the last things from the to-do list. The boat is tidy, produce is fresh, holding tank is empty, and the fridge and freezer are packed to the gils. Griffin got to visit with his cousins Allie and Tessa, Greg had butterflies and felt […]