Days 13 and 14

July 27-28. Hey all. Cindy's version for a change. Leading with we are praying for all of you as you endure this awful heatstroke. We would have loved to have had some of your heat last night and I'm sure you would all have gladly given it to us.

Weather changed and so did the bar report shortly after we returned to Tongue Point/Mott Island on Sunday. So the natural question was “What time tomorrow would we need to leave to be at the bar for best crossing window?” We were under way about 7 and making great time...until we got into fog. We pulled off to the side of the river and dropped anchor until we could see again. Smooth and safe travels over the bar. A great day and interesting night with lots of lessons. We'll have lots to talk about and find better ways of dealing with it before we continue but after we catch up on our sleep.

It was an awesome day and night. Gods creation all around us as far as one can see and all unharmed by human intervention. Only one other boat to be seen all night. Very small moon but sky full of stars that made up our light for the night. It was quite glorious despite being very cold, think 10 knots of wind. No we are not coming home yet, but I will be shopping for warmer layers before we do.

Like the pelican, I tried to capture the night, the forever openness, and the ocean spray in pictures. I was not very successful. Imagine trying to time action photos and guessing when to push the shutter for best action and the right bob of the boat. I take dozens of pictures basically hoping something good runs through on time. Then Doug looks for any worth posting.

Don't let the guys have all the fun. Doug has always really enjoyed steering and tuning the sails for best performance. I really am OK to sit and visit, do nothing, etc. As we had to “do something” with our night we thought we would take turns sleeping and continuing to sail. When winds got light and variable, I didn't have the experience to figure out what was necessary and make it happen quickly enough. So much for Doug's slot to sleep when I saw a really big boat, a long ways away, but still she was coming towards us, so it became important to MOVE! We moved, then it turned. Huge tug towing en even more huge barge on a very long tow chain. Still glad to be gone.

We “hove to” which overly simplified means tying the tiller and the sails such that the boat goes slowly by itself in a programmed direction and all the person on watch needs to do is look up every 20 minutes to make sure nothing is coming at us. Then go back into hiding in the protected cockpit corner under blankets. Doug finally got to sleep since I could do this on my own.

While we were getting it set up and all was quiet and clam little miss Squishy decided to come on deck for the first time. Fortunately she is easily spooked and ran back to cover before we could freak out. If she goes over at night we would never find our little monster face.

Then he woke up and began sailing in the almost dark while I crawled into the sleeping bag with those chemical hand warmers to thaw my feet. No microwave on board means no rice bags. Bummer.

We thought we would get into the area very late last night and wait for the sun to enter Grays Harbor. Wrong. We got here and came straight in about noon for food, showers, and a nap.

We'll talk it all out to learn from the experience but we both feel it was great with lots of room to improve. Love to all,
Cindy & Doug