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 is now the Bieker Brackett Barckert posse, the B team. Paul brought the guys to PT and took this photo right before we pushed off. Their dog, Pip, hilariously fell in the water a few times in all the excitement.
Tuesday had very light winds in the straits so we ended up motoring the first 24 hours. Leo and I both got seasick, Griffin held it together and crashed out on the leeward bench. We decided on a watch schedule that would alternate with 5 watches a day with switches at 2, 6, 12, 18, and 22. One day you’d have the 10p-2am, the next day you’d have the 2am to 6am shift, both equally brutal. The first night was okay, the second I didn’t know I could be so tired. Standing and driving or watching the auto pilot drive and barely being able to keep my eyes open was challenging. Leo and Gavin were good at sleeping whenever they weren’t on watch and seemed to keep it together better than I did.
Highlights the first few days were awesome sailing seeing albatross and lots of other cool sea birds, a bunch of pacific white sided dolphins playing in our wake speeding along, and a huge group of false killer whales (I think?) that the dolphins joined in with heading northward. They were about the same size as the dolphins but dark and with almost no dorsal fin. Bioluminescence varied in intensity but it streamed behind us whenever it was dark. Sometimes just a few bright spots sped by and others you could see a deep stripe from the keel bulb and more along the hull and rudders. The clouds and water are ever-changing but always beautiful, the expanse of the sea and sky meeting is a full 360 degrees. Riding up and down on the swell is mesmerizing.
The boat felt great, like it was doing exactly what it was wanting to. We had our furling cruising kite up the first few days and were sailing along pretty comfortably in up to 22kts of breeze and 8-18kts of boat speed. We used a little water ballast at times to steady the boat when the seas were rougher. We ran the engine a bit on Thursday to top off the batteries, not much solar charging with grey skies.
After that initial day of seasickness we ate pretty well with a decent meal or two together each day and some breakfast smoothies in our mini-blenders. We finally finished up a bag of meatballs (boring) but had some pretty yummy tom ka gah and bagel sandwiches with an added fried egg by Leo, yum.
Saturday evening Greg went to top off the batteries and when the engine started the exhaust was totally different than normal. It was a dense white/grey and didn’t change after stopping to check things over and re-starting and getting up to temperature. We were about 130 miles northwest of San Francisco and decided a stop in the bay was a good idea to make sure nothing catastrophic would happen.
More photos: Cleo really sleeps around, no moon and clouds made some dark nights, and a new headsail configuration for stability and speed. Thanks Gavin and Leo for all your work on the bow.
Glad to see you are under way. Best, Todd