Somewhere off the Oregon Coast

It was quite early when Cathy and I both woke up IN Port Angeles and decided that since we were awake anyways, why not leave? So we left at 03:00. The winds were 5-10 knots from the west so we pulled up the main, put a couple of reefs in and motor sailed out of Juan de Fuca. We had a bit of fog when we left and that soon closed in to leave us about 50-100 meters of visibility. We had a lively discussion with a tug operator coming out of Crescent Bay. As it turned out, he was more worried about another sailboat that had left about an hour before us bound for Portland. We had listened to the forecast and Environment Canada and NOAA both had small craft advisory (NOAA) and a gale warning for Vancouver Island South (Environment Canada). Both calling for strong NW winds. As we got closer to Cape Flattery, the winds turned more to the SW (no, NOT a typo!!) and stayed light. Eventually by around 21:30, the winds came up from the NW and were able to shut the motor off and sail on a close reach as we headed SW on a line for longitude 126W where the plan was to turn south on a broad reach and sail in 15-25 knots of NW wind. Hah, again Hah. The sail to 126W was great. The windvane worked beautifully and we had a great run on mizzen and headsail at around 4 knots. Our first night out so we decided to sail conservatively. We turned to head south and the winds eased to around 10-15 knots. We managed a good turn of speed (5-6 knots) but there was no way we could get the boat balanced with 2-3 meter seas on the starboard quarter and light winds. So hand steering was the order of the day. That lasted through until this morning around 08:30. The winds eased to 5-6 knots from the NW and we were unable to maintain 3 knots so headsail in and motor on. We have been motor sailing since and from the forecast, we will likely have to maintain this for another day until more wind is forecast. Given the choice of getting hammered by too much wind and motor sailing, we are both quite happy to motor sail. The highlights so far include a whale sighting by Cathy Saturday evening, using the new whisker pole (which works brilliantly) and watching fishing boats do slow circles in the night, oh and I saw a beer can float by. Not much else out here except sea and sky. Lots of sea, not much sky. We had some sun yesterday but it has been completely overcast since last night. Comfortable temps around 19-20C. We are both adjusting to life on watch. We are 3 on 3 off and it seems to work OK for now. Basically my life has been in 6 hour segments, 3 of which I get to sleep in. Now on day 3, it is getting more normal. We are currently around 80 miles off the west coast and around 295 miles north of Cape Mendicino. At our current 5+ knots we will arrive at our waypoint (between two seamounts) sometime before midnight Wednesday. We see how that goes………..

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