A Bit of Harbour Hopping After All

After interviewing a bunch of sailors that have already done this trip and having countless discussions about the best way to go about it, we had decided to head about 30 nautical miles offshore and just make a beeline for San Francisco.  However, throw some gale force winds our way and it was a pretty easy decision to head to port and wait the bad weather out.  Fortunately we had perfect timing to run into Newport on Tuesday night and then Coos Bay on Wednesday night.  Both have relatively friendly bars (most of the ports on the Washington/Oregon coast are up-river and there can be very nasty conditions at the mouth of these rivers due to wind and current over relatively shallow depths).  So now we are settled in at the dock in Coos Bay looking forward to going out for a nice seafood dinner this evening and hoping that the wind will settle by tomorrow morning so we can get back out there.  The entire fishing fleet seems to have come to the same decision as us, so there are a ton of boats holed up here.

We've had a great journey so far.  A bit more motoring on the first day than we would like, but yesterday we sailed the entire leg in 20 kt winds, averaging about 7.5 kt/hr.  Not that bad!  The sun was shining, and although it was a tad chilly we were all having a good time.  The night watches also went well.  Tony and Tanner managed to avoid a very large freighter. Tom basically had nothing happen on his shift and so he just played around with the radar. Kathy seemed to have the most fun with the wind speed doubling and shifting, requiring a change in the sail plan, and an AIS target heading straight for her, requiring a change in course.  Lucky girl!

By far the most exciting thing to happen on the boat occurred about 12 hours after leaving Neah Bay.  We took Rizzo out on the front trampoline and told her to do her "thing" on the green carpet provided.  However, while we were watching her there was no way she was going to break any rules, despite our pleading with her to do just that.  Hmmm......what next?  We decided to give her a little time and privacy and left her out there for a bit (leashed to the trampoline lines) and low and behold, pretty much as soon as our backs were turned, she soaked that poor old carpet!  We were as excited as we were the first time Bryn and Lea were successful with their potty training!  We have yet to manage the "nether-end" business......but this is a great start.....

So we hope to leave tomorrow and if conditions are as forecast we should be arriving under the Golden Gate Bridge sometime in the afternoon on Aug 27th.  Wow......what a trip so far.

It's not all fog, cold and crazy seas

A man's gotta fish when a man's gotta fish

Completely out of sight of land...weird...

The Princess of Pee

Once your watch is over it's time to relax

Heading into Newport, Oregon