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!

Position: 48 degrees, 21 minutes north; 127 degrees, 55 minutes west 148 nm day

Definitely still a couple hurdles though. Rain and fog are in the forecast.

Rainbow leading us to port.

And the wind is also forecast to drop. If it goes too low and we have to motor while still off the coast, fuel will become an issue. We’re down to what we need for the 50 miles down the Strait of Juan de Fuca, but not much more. Oh well, we’ll see.

The last 12 hours has been great sailing. Blue sky, blue water and plenty of wind from behind us, so fast going. Since late morning though the wind has swung in front of us (again!) and we’re now close hauled and trying to keep our course to the strait. The wind should lighten and back in the early morning, so cross fingers, but fog! Yuck! And right outside one of the busiest shipping channels on the west coast.

OK, the good part: last night the sky was almost completely cloud free and the moon came up just before sunset, affording us a stunning view of the almost full moon on one side and a beautiful sunset on the other. Ann had a cloud free watch and enjoyed infinite stars and a nearly full moon. She was one happy camper as I came up for my watch.

Such colors!

Today marks three weeks, twenty one days out of Hawaii. Whew, a long time. I’m very ready to be tied up to a nice, stable dock! We’re hoping for a Sunday afternoon arrival pending all the usual “what ifs” that arise to keep plans flexible.

Position: 47 degrees, 54 minutes north; 131 degrees, 28 minutes west 135 nm motor-sailing

It is 11 am on Thursday and I have just finished taking a shower. Not just a shower but a luxurious shower. You are probably scratching your heads or chuckling to yourselves thinking how can a shower on a moving boat be luxurious. How? You get to use a whole tea kettle of hot water and the sun is shining and warm! So warm that I did not have to shower as fast as possible and hide quickly under my towel. Nope, I even stood naked in the cockpit and let the sun and gentle breeze dry me off.

Luxury is also Charisma time!

Two days ago I was using cleaning wipes to try to clean some of the collected odors off of my body. I had even changed into clean clothes afterwards pretending that I had showered. That felt wonderful. I even washed my hair in the sink using two water bottles of warm water. I was feeling good. But today I luxuriated in the ability to enjoy getting clean. Not just performing a function. And now I smell really good.

Luxurious is always relative. I would normally classify the bathrooms in the Westin suites complete with a Jacuzzi tub (ok, who really uses those when you have the choice of the beach, a few swimming pools and a couple of hot tubs) as luxurious. When we were cruising the islands luxurious was being able to suds up on the side of Charisma and then jump in the water to rinse. Even more luxurious was getting to use the warm water nozzle off the back of Orcinius after floating lazily in tubes. I felt spoiled then. (No boat envy here, but I do have to say that Orcinius made landfall two days ago even though they left Hawaii at the same time…lucky dogs…those bigger boats move faster.)

The weather today is what we had hoped for on this passage. Clear blue skies. Just enough sun to stay warm, not melt. (Too bad we are motor sailing and have to hear the engine but hopefully the wind will fill in from the south tonight as promised.) Last night was full of stars twinkling their hellos and encouraging us ever onward. The layers of clothing have been slowly peeling off. No longer do we feel like kids going out to play in the snow when we go into the cockpit.

So today luxurious is a full tea pot of warm water in a relaxed shower. Soon it will be a hot shower in Victoria. Kind of like food porn only cleaner!

Evening update: Bob caught and landed our first fish of this passage! Albacore.

Albacore!

Yay! We have had several jump our lines on this passage and have been frustrated. No longer. Five minutes after I closed my eyes for my afternoon nap Bob wiggled my leg and proclaimed, “Fish on!” And we got it reeled in and finely filleted. Sashimi at sunset with Charismas graced by an almost full moon rising as the sun set to an electric green flash. As the clean shirt I am wearing proclaims….Life is good!

Green flash.

Position: 47 degrees, 05 minutes north; 134 degrees, 41 minutes west 125 nm day

Last night we entered the center of the low and ran out of wind.

Motoring through the center of the low...

...hard to believe it's so smooth and calm in the middle of the Pacific.

So, around 0330 I started the engine and we’ve been motoring since (it’s now about 2000). I expect we’ll motor another 12-24 hours if the weather stays true to the forecast. Then (again, if the forecast…) we should get some south winds to drive us into the BC area.

Today was a nice day for a change. The sun even cooperated for a few hours, so I had a chance to take a bath in the cockpit. Nice to get clean! Also nice to have a relatively flat sea/calm winds after the last days of squall, after squall, after squall, each bring high winds and often rain.

So, the plan here – hoping the weather holds as forecast – is to motor another day through the low and pick up some south winds on the other side. These are from a new low coming down from Alaska. It will likely bring some poor weather with it, so we’re racing to get in before it gets here. Cross fingers please!

Position: 47 degrees, 26 minutes north; 137 degrees, 49 minutes west 123 nm day

Guess what? I had a night watch with a glorious moon and stars sprinkled all over! How I had missed them. I was set for a great watch. The winds had calmed enough to make it pretty comfortable 85% of the time. But when we rolled back and forth just enough the “Tayana River” would produce a new tributary. That is the water that rushes from one side of Charisma to the other through a hole in the cockpit combing. The net effect is that unless you notice the roll at the very start you are going to end up with a wet butt. Wet butt cold body. No bueno.

And then there were those rogue waves that come barreling across the water like a freight train, slam into the side of Charisma and leap up into the cockpit. But they are rogue and don’t happen THAT often. Because of these 15% occurrences I decided to “stand watch” last night. Literally, I stood in the companionway on the stairs and did my 360 lookout from there. If anything looked more interesting I would step out into the cockpit and study it further. Not much happened.

Until it did. And I think I need some research assistance here (JHamm?). At about 12:45 Hawaii time (we don’t change our clocks until we get into port…too confusing) I was standing looking forward when a spotlight lit up from behind. My first thought was that the moon had come out from behind some clouds but I quickly dismissed it when I recalled that the moon had set an hour earlier. I turned to see a light that looked bright enough to be a ship about to run us down directly behind us. LOOK OUT! And then it exploded and fizzled downward to the ocean with a green glow. HOLY MOLY! I was trembling.

What was that? Did any of you see it? Of course we were 600 miles off of the coast so maybe you missed it. No, I did not get visited by a small boat transporting little green people later, nor did Bob on his watch. I turned on the iNavix application on the iPad to see if an AIS signal from a passing ship would show up. Nada. It did not look like the meteors we had seen a week ago. It exploded and fizzled and was green.

I was still pondering this event when I woke Bob at 2 am for his watch. He laughed at my iNavix thought. I babbled non-stop for about 10 minutes…the pent up adrenalin pouring out of me. Poor Bob was still breaking through the sleep haze. Maybe he thinks he dreamed it.

Well, please let me know what research says. It was at 12:45am Hawaii Time at about 48 north latitude, 140 west longitude. Meanwhile it is so very nice to see the stars and moon and today, the sunshine again. It’s like reconnecting with old friends!

Position: 48 degrees, 09 minutes north; 140 degrees, 38 minutes west 134 nm day

Grey, grey, grey. That’s all we see. You have to look out for the dark grey though. No bueno.

You have to watch out for the dark grey bits!

Last night the “all grey” started with my watch at 0200 local. Ann had some stars and an early look at the moon before the clouds came in, but by my watch – grey. Not much to do until about 0400 when a squall came up that was bigger than the others we had all night and threatened to blow the jib, so I furled it. The rest of the morning and afternoon was 25 to 30 plus winds, rain and 9 foot waves. All we had up (thank goodness) was a double reefed main and at times that was too much but once you’re in it, going downwind there’s not much you can do. So, we chalked up some good miles. We were hitting 8 and 9 knots and topped out at 10.9. That’s pretty fast for just a double reefed main.

Our weather forecast led us to believe we would have moderating winds turning to the north by noon. But noon came and went and it seemed windier than ever. Sit, wait and hang on! Ann went to sleep at 1300 which started my afternoon watch. At about 1430 we sailed into the blackest, meanest looking squall we’d seen with heavy wind and rain. I thought we’d never come out when suddenly I sensed a wind shift. Sure enough the wind went from west the northwest in the blink of an eye. I tweaked the Monitor to make sure we didn’t start to go those big waves the wrong way and suddenly we emerged from the crap into sunshine! Phew, just in time – I was getting exhausted just worrying if the weather was getting worse.

So we’re in the new wind heading due east. We’ve got a day or so as the wind clocks to the north and then northeast at which point we’ll be in the center of a low with no wind at all and have to motor a while. We’re trying to beat another low that’s coming down from Alaska, so that’s OK, I’m all for getting in as fast as we can.

Stay tuned. We’re 630 miles from the entrance to Straight of Juan de Fuca which is the entrance to the San Juan Islands. Victoria is about 40 more miles from there.

Position: 47 degrees, 32 minutes north; 143 degrees, 42 minutes west 118 nm day

Just clouds and up and down wind. One minute it looks promising at a solid 20 knots on our stern quarter, then the next it drops to 10. The waves are getting bigger though up to six or seven feet now no doubt being blown down from the system up north of us. They make things a bit chaotic when the wind drops and we get rolled around quite a bit. I wish the wind would just settle and fill.

Not much else to report except it’s getting even colder! Three layers and I even put gloves on last night. Oh, we caught a skipjack tuna, but then I lost him when I tied him on to drag him, he slipped the line. Bummer. We haven’t figured out how to cook them right – the meat turns quite dark and heavy – but as sashimi they are one of the best. Very much prized in many areas – tender and full flavored, not at all fishy or oily – and we were really looking forward to some. Oh well, there’s always tomorrow.

(OK, one add now that it’s evening. There’s a little patch of clear sky above us and we can see the half moon and a few stars. First time in four nights we’re been able to see the moon. Doesn’t look like it will last long, but it’s the little things…)

Position: 46 degrees, 46 minutes north; 146 degrees, 20 minutes west 109 nm day

We had just settled down for lunch in the cockpit when Ann stood up and said, “Look, look, look!” My first reaction was that we might be close to getting run down by a cargo ship, but when I turned around there was a great big shark cruising about 50 yards off Charisma. He must have smelled the very lovely and delicious pizza that Ann made on the stove (email her for the recipe – it’s made in a skillet, but tastes just like the real thing. Yum!)

Anyway, I’m guessing Mr. Shark was about 8-10 feet long. There might have been two, but we only caught a glimpse of another fin and it might have been his tail. Kind of eerie to see the fin slicing through the water. We’re seen a lot of sharks (smaller than this one) diving, but rarely have we seen one on the surface. He was just meandering along… Sorry, there was no leftovers to offer him.

That was today’s entertainment. Now on to reading our emails…Thank you to all who send them.

Oh, forgot to mention last night was cold and rainy. There’s a low pressure system to the north of us and it’s throwing “crap” down our direction as well as slinging very cold air down from the arctic. Brrr! We wore three layers plus our foulies last night. Tonight doesn’t look a lot more promising. I just hope it doesn’t rain again. I was hoping for a nice downwind slide into BC, but the low has other ideas. Oh, well.

Position: 46 degrees, 26 minutes north; 148 degrees, 45 minutes west 131 nm day

We started motoring through the NW corner of the high yesterday early morning around 0300. After 27 hours we made it to the north side and are now sailing again with SW winds. So, we’ve turned the corner (the barometer has dropped 4 mb in the last 12 hours) and are headed east. We are going wing and wing in 15 to 20 knots.

Sailing toward the sunrise.

It’s not all “downhill” from here though. We’ve got a low pressure system to the north we need to avoid. It looks like it’s going to dissipate before getting to us, but it’s going to leave some “dumpy” weather in its wake including some adverse wind directions and maybe fog. Ugh. Oh well, welcome to passage-making. You take what you get and make the best of it.

At 0800 I stood up to have a look around for traffic and noticed a funny “slick” on the water. Hmmm. I continued to scan and sure enough a pod of whales was about. They were different from ones we have seen for these past years. They had a fairly tall dorsal fin with a curved back side, were very large, color was a mottled grey, size in the 25 plus foot range and most distinctively a very tall blow – looked like about 15 feet.

As I was considering the pod of six or seven, two headed toward Charisma. OK, this might get interesting and just as I said that to myself a huge one going really fast surfaced 10 yards off the starboard side. That got my attention! Another one came up on the other side and as I went down to get the camera, poof, they disappeared back to their pod. I had one last look at the pod about 200 yards behind us, then all dove and I didn’t see them again.

In looking them up in our whale book, I believe them to be a fairly rarely sighted species called the Sei Whale. The coloring, dorsal and “tall blow/spout” were all consistent and the kicker was that one of the listed habitats is the Pacific Gyre – which is exactly where we are.

Fun to see a rare species. I have never seen one like this before. At first I thought it was an Orca because it was so fast and sleek, (although the coloring was all wrong) but then looking at all the detail I realized it’s almost surely the Sei.

Fun.