Hank asked me to help him get his Cal 39 Mar Querida around the corner and down the coast. I wanted to make it to San Francisco and fly back for work and Jim and Deb planned to go all the way to San Diego. Eager to catch the tide we left before 5AM, and refueled in Port Townsend. I've never seen the Boat Haven entrance that narrow and low. We went out close to Pt. Wilson, napped and enjoyed the coast, anchoring just after sunset at Pillar Point. Monday morning sunrise with smoke was red with blue skys above. Jim battled the kelp on the chain and anchor, and we drifted, refilling the modest tank while we had flat water. Deb made good big meals, drove too, and soon we were passing Tatoosh and the stacks that look like Easter Island statues. Ask Jim about the anual migration and reproductive cycle of the kelp snakes! By the Tuesday morning it had rained, we were in the the morning fog which got darker after sunrise and then there was a fog bow. That was good, but waves were building, networked instruments went out; Chartplotter, AIS, Radar, VHF. Hank hadn't managed to get the Iridium and PredictWind working so "all weather is local". Wednesday was a tough day with lots of water and pumps sloshing back and forth in the bilge. Hank and I must have bailed at least 40 gal. pumping and dumping a bucket at a time into the sink. Hank and Jim were both sick and not their positive bouncy selves. Deb hung on in the violent upwelling waves, and we turned downwind back across the Astoria and later Gray's Canyons. We had some high 30's and maybe a few 40 knots of wind with wave-tops blowing off, rain and spray blowing under the bimini. In an almost whiteout Fellini moment, we crossed in front of one of the big blue & white-toped, high-side roll-on/roll-off ships. Impressive moment, but almost no pics Wednesday, just a tough day. With everyone exhausted, I rolled up the jib a bit more, tied off the wheel and crashed too. It was a mess below! Thursday when I woke at 3:30AM and checked my iPad, the wind had shifted to the North and we were heading out to sea again. Soon we turned and motor-sailed with the main up and Hank driving for speed. Everyone was feeling better as we got closer to Gray's Harbor, spotted the green entry buoy about 4:30, and docked at 6pm. I had managed to text Kathleen via my inReach and she came down to Westport get us, all grateful to be there and safe, a good trip. As usual, I try to get shots of the crew, sails and scenery to share. Please enjoy these snapshots - these pics are good therapy for me, and it's always a good to be on another boat, especially with such gracious good people! Thanks all! (Click on any image below for a much larger image "slide show" - arrow keys work well.)
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