30 Days to San Diego

We have very few photos of this leg of our journey, as this was the most trying portion of the trip. Prior to leaving Seattle, we only made a few overnight journeys, and those were due to extreme circumstances. Once was due to the fact that we had anchor problems and so had to return to a port, which required traveling overnight, and the other time was because we were trying to outrun a storm. Neither of those experiences in the placid waters of the Inside Passage had prepared us for our experiences on the Pacific.

On October 6, 2005, we departed Shilshole Bay, Seattle, and sailed to Port Angeles, Washington. On October 7, around 10:30 a.m., we departed Port Angeles and intended to stop in Neah Bay, Washington. Instead, we took the advice of some sailing friends and headed toward Cape Flattery and the Pacific. That was the scariest night of our entire sailing trip.

My journal reads, "Cape Flattery was madness! Huge swells, crazy water, foam everywhere. I felt like a tiny ant in the water!! Mark and I both felt the effects of seasickness almost immediately...Water calmed down somewhat after getting out into Pacific, but not much. I was terrified. Robert and I went down around 8pm.

I got sick and laid down with him. He was not happy about the situation, which made it worse. I'm puking, trying to get a bed together, trying to placate him, puking some more. Bad situation. I went up (to the cockpit) a few hours later and Mark and I continued to switch off (at the helm) every 2-3 hours. It was such crazy water that both of us got sick just going from the bed to the helm or vice-versa."

That night, and the next morning the sea conditions did not get any better. We arrived at Gray's Harbor/Westport, Washington at 4 p.m. on October 8. It took us 30 hours to get around Cape Flattery and to the first safe harbor. It was a 165 nautical mile trip. When we pulled in, Gray's Harbor was actually closed to recreational vessels under 40 feet. We radioed the Coast Guard and they allowed us to come in with a USCG escort.

That first leg was definitely the worst, but the rest of the way down to San Francisco wasn't much better. We stayed in Gray's Harbor two days, waiting for the USCG to open the bar again. We traveled 24 hours, about 160 nm, to Newport, Oregon from Oct. 10-11. We stayed in Newport until Oct. 16, waiting for the bar to open. We traveled 25 hours, about 158 nm to Brookings, Oregon. We stayed in Brookings until the 20th, again waiting for decent sea conditions.

On Oct. 20, my journal reads, "Had a pod of porpoises- several pods?- swimming along boat for over an hour. They come like torpedoes from far away. Sometimes alone, sometimes in groups of 2, 3, or 4. Very fast moving. Can't tell how long they're able to keep up with boat."

Below, photo shows a pod of porpoises chasing our boat off of Baja California in November.

We left Brookings around noon on Oct. 20 and headed south to Fort Bragg, California, where we fueled up around 4 p.m. There, the Coast Guard tried to talk us out of leaving due to an upcoming "wave advisory."

We wanted to push on to take advantage of the current favorable conditions and go through the night to San Francisco. Our goal was Bodega Bay, north of San Francisco; we made it to Half Moon Bay, south of San Francisco, in San Mateo County around 2 p.m. on October 21.

We stayed in Half Moon Bay until October 25. It was a great place to wait out the 15 foot swells that were being reported. There we enjoyed a taste of civilization with restaurants, grocery shopping and laundry facilities.  We also enjoyed catching up on rest after a crazy few weeks coming down the coast.

    Below, seals swimming with whales.                                    Two whales swimming in tandem. 

Ahh! Placid waters and whales again! South of San Francisco, the water, weather, wildlife and attitudes all changed. We saw these whales on October 26 off the coast of California, near San Luis Obispo. They were such a welcome surprise. Amy was at the helm, and Mark was napping with Robert below.

At first, she didn't know what all the commotion was about. It looked like about five whales in a feeding frenzy. When Amy slowed the engine, Mark came above deck, and we stuck around for about an hour watching the whales. They were directly in our path at first, but when Amy slowed down and we got closer, they dispersed.

There was also a pack of seals following the whales. So, though the whales were sneaky, the seals gave away their location. It was a beautiful, sunny morning, and the whales added to the wonderful change from the Northern Pacific experience.

Below, porpoises welcome us to Malibu! Southern California keeps getting better! Our arrival into the L.A. area was accompanied by a beautiful sunset and several pods of porpoises.