Journey of a Lifetime

Sounds like and exciting trip Mike! Thanks for the tremendous thread, as always! Stay safe out there!
Smooth waters....
 
Looking like a really nice trip !

Also nicer to view it on my computer rather than the ipad. 1) I can see the photos, Yeah! 2) They look really good on the 27" Screen
 
Very cool! When I took the 320DA to Monterey, we had a following sea and went as slow as 12 knots and as fast as 27knots without touching the throttles. Surfing down those 6' to 8' swells was fun!
 
Thanks for taking us along GFC! The pics and videos are great!
 
No pics or video today? I see that you made it to safe harbor so hopefully you have some nice shots. Stay safe and have fun!
 
We’re now in Coos Bay, OR after a 13-hour marathon run that covered about 175 miles. We crossed over the bar to get in here around 6:30 or so and this was a very long day. Much smoother than the day we had getting into Ilwaco, but still pretty lumpy. It started out fairly smooth again, then the swells picked up to about 4’-7’ with about a 1’-2’ wind chop on top of them. I'm learning a lot about ocean navigating and about ocean swells and wind waves and how the boat reacts to them.

I spent much more time at the helm today, having apparently beaten down the Gods of seasickness. I may have spoken too soon though because tomorrow we pass Cape Blanco and that area is notorious for being rough.

So here are some pictures from Ilwaco. It’s not much of a town so there aren’t many pics of it, but here’s what I shot….
The main street of Ilwaco
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The harbor
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Same....
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Our chariot...
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AKBASSKING stopped by with is Admiral and brought us two boxes of Klondike Bars! Way to go Tom and Kay! From left to right, me, Stuart, Tom and Doug
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Red skies at night..... This was the sunset we enjoyed before we headed to bed.
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It’s Thursday, coming up on 0600 and I’m the first one up. That’s not been the pattern because I haven’t really felt like dragging my butt out of the sack. I think yesterday’s run, being so much nicer than the one before when we were headed to Ilwaco, has made me feel better.

Last night’s dinner was a beef roast along with corn on the cob that was cooked on the propane grill. That was preceeded by some taco chips, guacamole and salsa for an appetizer. The cook (me) is feeling a lot better and a lot more like cooking, and everyone benefits from that.

Yesterday was fun and different. Oh yeah, we rocked and rolled in the swells but nothing like the last run. The sun was out much of the day as the clouds burned off and it made for a more pleasant day. We were cruising along about noonish with me at the helm when Doug and I heard a strange sound. We couldn’t figure out what it was until a USCG chopper went by us on a parallel course about a hundred yards off our port side and about 200’ high. I was tempted to call him on CH 16 and see if he’d swing around to give us a Kodak Moment but resisted the urge.

I was napping on the salon couch when the whales made their appearance so I missed that one. Darn, I hate it when that happens. We’ve established a pattern of sharing the helm duties and when we’re not on the helm one of us is usually standing watch nearby and the other is on the internet or napping. We only ran across a couple of crab pots yesterday but that’s snaps us to attention because where there’s one there’s usually a second one and third, etc. We spent most of the day in water too deep for pots so that was a good thing. The depth finder reads down to 500’ and it was not reading for a couple of hours yesterday. The charts showed we were in 200 fathoms (600’) for awhile so that’s what happened.

One of the things I’ve been impressed with is the immensity of this ocean, and yet how close we can be to other boats at some times. The AIS is a great tool because it identifies who is around you and can let you know if there’s any chance of a collision. I was watching one such track yesterday long before we could identify the target. It was almost on a head-on course with us and I suggested to Doug (he was at the helm) that we might want to change course to stbd a bit to give a little more room between us as we drew near each other. He didn’t and we passed by about 100 yards or less from this vessel….
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It’s amazing that 11 miles offshore we’d pass so close to another boat…and a big one at that.
Here’s a shot of the AIS screen that we watch all day. There are three screens to keep an eye on…AIS, radar and the GPS/Plotter. It doesn’t take but a second go give all three a quick scan and it’s a comforting feeling to know they’re there.
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Here’s a shot of what it looked like yesterday with the sun shining so nice. That sure does warm up the day a lot.
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As we were coming into Coos Bay and crossing the bar I got this shot of the north breakwater. Those things sure do keep the waves down when it’s blowing and they’re nice to have when entering a bar. Knock on wood, but so far our bar crossings have been non-events. As you can see we’ve lost the sunshine and this morning it’s still heavily overcast.
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Here are three shots of what the south side of the channel across the bar looks like at Coos Bay. Interesting rock formations here and very pretty to look at. They would be fun to explore in a dinghy.
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So here we sit waiting for the fuel dock to open. Our destination today is Eureka, CA, a jaunt of about 162 miles. That’s a bit shorter than we did yesterday and that puts us close to the first of two notorious rough spots…Cape Blonco. The second, at Cape Mendocino will be in Friday’s run, then we’ll be in San Francisco….and near home.



Feelin' Better GFC
 
Reading your reports is the next best thing to being there, thanx. Bon voyage.
 
Awesome trip so far......Is Doug sharing the Klondike Bars?? :grin: I must say this Bayliner is a beautiful boat and now has the Admiral all pumped up.....Thanks Stuart for the tour.
 
Day 6

We just arrived in our first California marina, here at Eureka. What a beautiful day it was for being out on the ocean. The temps were probably in the high 60’s to 70’s, there were almost no winds, the clouds burned off by around 10:30 and it turned out to be a great day.

We left Coos Bay around 0715 after taking on a full load of fuel and it was about 7:00 p.m. when we got here, covering about 170 miles in that 12 hour period. I don’t think it could have been a better day. We saw a couple of whales, had some dolphins playing around the boat this morning an got to dodge some crab pots here and there during the day.

We cruised around 14-15kts and this afternoon we had a following sea pushing us along at times at speeds up to 16+ knots. I don’t have any pics of the whales; sorry but they were there then gone too quickly. I do have some photos and videos of what was just a beautiful day on the water. I’m going to make this short so I can add some comments to the forum comments and questions.
This is what it looked like all day long. What a great day on the ocean.
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Some clouds over the CA coast.
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USCG Station Eureka, CA
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Following Seas at the dock in Eureka
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I'm loading some videos to Youtube and will post them when they're loaded.
 
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Thanks Humph. It's good to be here and knowing we've come well over half way. We're probably going to be holed up here tomorrow and maybe the next day as there are some small craft warnings for then. That's what we were running in between Neah Bay and Ilwaco and we decided that wasn't much fun.

I have some serious vertigo (spatial disorientation) issues that have prevented me from being on the keyboard while we're moving so I haven't been on here as much as Doug and Stuart. Being holed up here tomorrow will give me a chance to spend some time on here and get caught up. Not necessarily a bad thing.
 
Gofirstclass said:
Thanks Humph. It's good to be here and knowing we've come well over half way. We're probably going to be holed up here tomorrow and maybe the next day as there are some small craft warnings for then. That's what we were running in between Neah Bay and Ilwaco and we decided that wasn't much fun.

I have some serious vertigo (spatial disorientation) issues that have prevented me from being on the keyboard while we're moving so I haven't been on here as much as Doug and Stuart. Being holed up here tomorrow will give me a chance to spend some time on here and get caught up. Not necessarily a bad thing.
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Yeah, looks pretty snotty up there for a couple of days. The problem is it is coming my way! May be a wet ride back to my marina on Sunday afternoon but that's okay.
 

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Fantastic pictures. Thanks for taking the time to post the updates. Very interesting reading/ viewing for me. That flat water you had today is more my speed. Fighting those 4-7 footers, sea sickness & having to hold on to something all day is just not for me. Really glad you guys had a good day. Thanks again for the posts.
 
You guys should rent a car and go see the redwoods while you're waiting.
 
Special

Thanks for taking the time to share.

What kind of GPH/GPnM you making knocking down 10kts?
 
rcon said:
Special

Thanks for taking the time to share.

What kind of GPH/GPnM you making knocking down 10kts?
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American Express will not allow him to release this information...... They were averaging 14-15kts so the fuel bill..... well don't have to worry about fuel burn, just an extension on the credit line..:grin:
 
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