Sorry to leave you all hanging with us about to head down the coast.
It looks good again, so we try it again. Still some fog but much better and we keep going. Weather is predicted 5-10 knots from the North, perfect. Unfortunately, prediction did not match reality very well. We motor out as yesterday, still foggy in the straight and around Cape Flattery, but passable. Visibility improves after that. The ocean is a bit rougher than forecasted, with 6 foot seas from the northwest. Our boat tends to wallow in following seas without the sails up for stability. The promised north winds are not there. We set the auto pilot and start the watch rotation. Doug goes below to try to sleep. Eventually we give up on staying on the off-watch bunk, and put cushions on the cabin floor. Squishy is not impressed with this, either. At one point Cindy seas foam in the water, we must be passing some rocks that are churning in the waves. Yes, Destruction Island.
The wind starts to build about 6:30pm. We hoist the main, motor sail for a bit, then are able to turn off the engine and sail downwind until midnight. Then the wind quits. We keep the mainsail up and motor. About 2:00am the wind starts up from the west (beam reach), then clocks around to the northwest. We still have the full main up, making 5+ knots. We pass several fishing boats, one of which seems to be swerving back and forth in front of us. We alter course a few times, finally head well out to sea of him. Turns out he's got a huge searchlight on the front of his boat that he's been turning, probably trying to locate his crab floats. Ocean swells are coming from the west, interesting to look and see white foam off your beam and just above your head. About 4:30 we decide it's a bit much for us, so we drop sail and motor until daylight. Normally we would have put a reef in the mainsail, but that's not an easy job on this boat, even without the bouncy seas. We're now off of Gray's Harbor, but we've gotten to sail enough we don't need to refuel, and altering coarse would have been a rougher ride than we were already on. The weather forecast also doesn't indicate any improvement for tomorrow. We keep going.
At daylight we unfurl the headsail part way and kill the motor, and make great progress for another 5 hours. The wind dies down again (the seas don't) and we motor the rest of the way in. The wind did build back up as we rounded Cape Disappointment into the Columbia River, we could have sailed in the rest of the way (it probably would have been a smoother ride), but we were tired and chose to motor. The coast guard reported conditions that were better than we were getting on the ocean, so even though we were a little early for optimal crossing (slack tide before the flood), we forged on. About this time we get a phone call from Cindy's mom (who really didn't want to know where we were until after the dangerous part was over). What's the first thing she asks? “Where are you?” In the Pacific ocean for another hour, mom. We make plans to meet up with them for dinner in Astoria.
We had made better time than our estimates getting down the coast. We also arrived with 8 gallons of fuel in reserve. We tie up, get showers, and have an enjoyable dinner with Cindy's folks, her sister, and our niece. Then back to the boat to turn in. The cat is appreciating the boat being relatively level for a change.
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