Friday, September 18, 2009

The California Beating

We have limped into Crescent City, California after taking a beating last night. We had hoped to leave Coos Bay with the northwesterlies blowing 10-15 kts, which would carry us for a few days deep into sunny So-Cal. At about dusk, the weather forecast changed to gales 30-40 kts! By the time the forecast had officially changed, we had already stripped all the canvas down to a reefed staysail. The building wind waves combined with the large westerly cross-seas pounded us. Everything inside IO was being tossed about. Everything that was not inside a locker was on the floor and everything inside the lockers was trying to get out! I searched three times for whatever it was that was being flung about inside the seat locker and kept banging into my back as I tried to sleep. Finally Hyo found it during her off watch –  it was a huge jar of jam that had dislodged. Good thing it did not break. The worst weather we encountered so far was coming down from the Charlottes, but last night I think we set a few new records for IO.

Distance covered: 135 nautical miles

Max speed 14.7 kts

Moving average 6.2 kts

The haul speed of IO is 5.7 kts. That is a lot of surfing!

Of course, when we finally decided to head in to harbor, the weather abruptly turned from clear northwest winds to light foggy southeasters. We motored for 4 hours in pea-soup fog to harbor where we dropped the hook adjacent to the coastguard station in a whopping 12 feet of water. We are currently anchored in the protection of a large breakwater in a flat calm mill-pond surrounded by the very boisterous California sealions (and all their associated flies).

Today we are just tired and need a good nights sleep. We have not even gotten off the boat and are picking up wireless from our nearby benefactor!

We are also starting to form some strong and not necessarily positive opinions of how one should approach sailing here on the North American coast. But for now, to borrow Iwaasa’s words, let’s just say the fun to suck factor does not exactly tip the scale.

 

Good night

 

m

1 comment:

  1. "We are also starting to form some strong and not necessarily positive opinions of how one should approach sailing here on the North American coast. But for now, to borrow Iwaasa’s words, let’s just say the fun to suck factor does not exactly tip the scale."

    I'm looking forward to an expansion on this some day!

    ReplyDelete