Position: 48 degrees 22 minutes north; 125 degrees, 34 minutes west 94 mile day
Rain, fog, 3 meter seas and winds 30-40 knots kept us very busy last night. Not fun.
OH, no bueno!
Finally eased late morning and the day has been OK, but we’re really racing a gale coming down from the north so have decided to stop just inside Strait of Juan de Fuca on the US side at Neah Bay. It has a marina and fuel so a much safer choice than the extra 40 or so miles to Victoria in what will be deteriorating conditions.
Ahhh, passage making. You never know, three weeks earlier when you leave, what you’ll get when you get there.
On a more inspiring note, Ann saw so many whales today that she lost count. If you know Ann you know she never losses count, so that’s a lot of whales! We are in the “seamount” area off Vancouver Island where the water goes from thousands of feet deep to more like 400 or so. This makes for a very rich feeding ground and we passed through literally multiple pods of whales as the afternoon progressed who were oblivious to us as they were in a virtual feeding frenzy. We had to alter course several times to avoid sailing into a pod of five or six whales that were feeding. Crazy!
Congratulations and Well Done! You made it back to the good old USA! We’re very impressed and enjoyed following your journey sitting here in Melbourne. Way to go Bob and Ann.
So glad you made it through that nasty foggy weather. Weather issues make for such challenges when making passage, to be sure. But, look a little south; Friday there were 3 hurricanes in the lower Pacific — 2 between the mainland and Hawaii and one just to the east of Hawaii. I have no idea if they would have been troublesome to you any other part of this journey home…..but just goes to show how quickly weather develops.
Welcome back to the mainland. Hope your reintegration into the real world is kind. I’m sure it will be a bit surreal. But, I’m also sure you two will manage it in Charisma style!
Overall, the way this trip has gone, it is not surprising that you had to fight your way through the last part of it.
The whales, the whales…that’s the way it has been off the NorCal coast now for weeks. Not only massive numbers of those big guys but sharks and salmon as well. The fishing boats have been catching limits of just about everything.
May the final approach to the strait be reasonably smooth.
Sail on, sail on sailors….