Second Wind Voyage: LEG ONE: US West Coast

Offshore

Since conditions off the coasts of Washington and Oregon are notoriously dicey, my biggest concern was getting far enough south before any large storms hit. We left in early September and had an outstanding passage! We chose to be about 60 miles offshore, where there was very little freighter traffic. Dolphins visited daily, and most of the time the wind and waves were about as expected (6-8 feet and not too lumpy).

Art was excited about bringing in a 3' albacore tuna. Thank goodness for a fridge, as that as a huge fish for just 3 people! I cooked it in a variety of ways, but our favorite was when the water was calm enough for Art to put a big slab on the grill. Mmmmmm.......

One of my favorite days was when the wind picked up to 25-30 knots. The sky was still clear, but the water started to really kick up. Fortunately the wind was behind us, so we sailed with just a triple reefed main and still flew along at 8 knots.

By nighttime the winds held and the waves had grown to about 12 feet. It was a challenging and memorable night--and those aren't negatives. With the low roar of rumbling avalanches of water all around us and the occasional yet frequent "off angle" waves rolling us and/or slamming into the side of the hull, there was plenty of noise and excitement! The full moon lit it all, so not only could we see most of the waves, but their frothing whitecaps and breakers seemed to glow in the dark.

Both boat and crew took everything in stride. Since this wasn't our first time to experience similar conditions, we weren't anxious at all, and --though tired--genuinely enjoyed it! (Thank you, Katelinn, for helping us through our initiation to Big Water two years ago, and Nicole adapted quickly.)

Another favorite was a day with no wind, when we were stopped for a while. The surface of the water was littered with by-the-wind sailors (a type of jellyfish), and when we looked down into the still water, we could see lots of small iridescent blue lights--clearly some kind of bioluminescence, but nothing we'd ever seen before. I loved watching the petrels come out in the early morning, skimming their wingstips low over the water--and we even got to see petrels and tuna "fishing" in tandem (tuna chasing smaller fish to the surface, with petrels scooping the catch from above). Dolphins playing around the boat (sorry I haven't been able to get a good photo of that yet, but I'll upload one when I do!) and leaping out of the water together was a frequent pleasure, and once I even saw tuna leaping completely out of the water as well (fishing, no doubt!).

Here we are, just off the coast of Oregon, and we've already seen plenty of things that were new to us. After all the frenzy and even discouragement of the last few months, I finally feel like myself again: centered and content.