Author: sailoregil

Our last crew member, Colette, left us today to return home. We will miss her and all the help she gave us as well as Matt and Jeff. We couldn’t have done it without them. There has been a heat wave in Northern California and its been quite warm so we decided to take the foot ferry “Sonoma” from Saucalito to San Francisco today. The reason I say it was crazy is there was black limo’s and men in black suits wearing headsets surrounding the hotel I wanted to visit while I was in SF . We tried to go to the Top of the Mark but the elevator was not going to the top today. Hmm, why not? We finally asked what was going on and we were told Queen Máxima and King Willem-Alexander from the Netherlands were in town to discuss the environment and urban challenges. Unfortunately, we didn’t get to see the beautiful view of SF from the Top of the Mark but we did have a nice cruise on the ferry across San Francisco Bay passing Alcatraz and Treasure Island. I got a new phone while I was in town so now I feel connected to the world once again. I will post in a few days once we change desitinations.

We woke up to a bustling harbor this morning. People were out early in the sunshine on paddle boards and kayaks (lots of them). When we arrived in San Francisco harbor yesterday we looked through the binnoculars and couldn’t believe what we saw . . . there appeared to be more boats than water! This is a crazy and busy place. A paddleboard yoga class was going on close to where we are docked. I was impressed with their poses on a paddle board in waves. The day ended with Sun Downer’s on Queso Grande II (Lance & Sherri’s catarmeran). This is the Coho Group that made it to San Francisco. Some will be departing tomorrow to head South down the California coast and for others they will be flying North to return home as San Francisco was their final destination. We will hang around for a few days and tour San Francisco and Saucilito until we decide where to go next. Also, I (Bev) will be getting a new phone because mine is now living at the bottom of the ocean. Note to self: when putting my phone in my jacket pocket on a tossing and turning boat zip the pocket up! I got tossed around and it flew out of my open pocket . . . ugh!

We made it to San Francisco Bay about 3pm! After 2 years of preparing for this journey and 7 days of sailing we arrived under the Golden Gate Bridge. They are having a record heat wave so we started stripping off all our offshore gear as soon as we arrived. The plan is a shower, dinner and then a full nights sleep!

While SV Island Summers is making passage, the crew aboard are working to stay safe day and night. Notice the yellow tethers that keep us from falling overboard. At night we will also attach a man-overboard beacon to our offshore life vests. The 5 of us have staggered watch shifts that are 4 hours long. Two people are on watch at all times. Nobody is in the cockpit alone at night. My recent shift was midnight last night to 4 am this morning. When I went on watch, crew members, Jeff and Matt were on watch but Jeff had finished his 4 hour shift and Matt still had 2 more hours. Before leaving, Jeff pointed out any conditions to take note of (like ships in the area, current, wind speed and recent sail adjustments). Now I am primary watch and Matt is now 2nd. Two hours later, Colette came to the cockpit, Matt went off watch, and Colette is now primary and Bev is 2nd. Now its 4 am and I’m off watch and I’m going to try to get as much sleep as I can before my next shift in 6 hours. Sometimes the waves roll me back and forth from one wall to the other. Other times it’s big gentle rollers that rock you to sleep as the waves slap against the hull of the boat and water splashes up on the windows. No matter the sea conditions, we all manage to fall asleep.

Even though we are surrounded by ocean with no sight of land the view never gets monotonous and time doesn’t seem to exist. We were greeted this morning by a pod of Pacific white-sided dolphins (aka Hookfin Porpoise). They entertained us by swimming back and forth under the bow of the boat. We were so excited we didn’t even get a picture. There will be more dolphins as we move South down the coast. Shortly after that performance, we looked back over the stern and saw a whale gracefully swimming on the surface not even bothered by us sailing nearby. The sunsets have been amazing and so beautiful! The night watch is one of the most fascinating times to be outside on the deck. As darkness falls upon us we can see an occasional ship in the distance with lights appearing out of the darkness. As the bow pushes through the swells the phosphorescence illuminate like someone sprinkled glitter in the water. The sun has gone down and we continue our 4 hour watches through the night as we wait for sunrise and another day to enjoy.

Monday night sometime our radar quit working. We seemed to be able to see a radar screen but even with a fishing boat within a stones throw – nothing on Radar. Now there are things to try to fix that – reset the Nav systems, re-install firmware, change settings, and power cycle the system. Only a few of these things are reasonable to do while underway, since a possible outcome is no Nav system at all. So we were mostly just suspicious and pretty certain that the radar wasn’t right. Coos Bay lined up with a daylight arrival to take on fuel and look into Radar problems. The plan was fuel up, get a shower and a dinner and leave. We were prepping to leave when we remembered to look into the radar – sure enough no radar. That pretty much sucks. We’d just spent two nights in fog apparently with no radar. We discussed options in a crew conference and finally decided to stay the night and walk to visit the Englund Marine Electronics (Raymarine dealer) in Coos Bay in the morning. There was no suggestion that they had a radar in stock but as we prepped to go to bed Jeff Stewart commented that it would be awesome if someone had just swapped out a Raymarine radar and there was a used one laying around. Kevin got up at 5:30 am and spent a couple hours with Raymarine tech support concluding that my radar was not radaring and needed to get replaced. Fog, fishing boats, and darkness made the no-radar scenario seem unattractive.

We trudged to Englund Marine and talked to Josh – possibly the most helpful and coolest guy in the world. First ,he put Kevin in touch with the Seattle Raymarine rep, to whom I provided my information. We bought some fishing gear and discussed our destinations and _then_ Josh said ” You know I know a guy that just replaced his Raymarine system – I could call him” A meet up was arranged and a Raymarine radome appeared -Model E70210 same unit as the one that we had. We agreed on a price installed the unit (20 feet up the mast) and tested the radar – It worked. I can’t emphasize how awesome this was. We were giddy – ecstatic, overwhelmed that we had radar again. We went and thanked everyone involved, paid for the radar and got on our way. As I type this were sailing pleasantly away from the Oregon coast.

Since our departure on Sunday, we’ve had only a little time with favorable winds, which means we’ve done mostly motoring and motor sailing. We have seen sharks and many dolphins along the way. Diesel tanks are getting low and we ruled out a stop in Newport as our ETA to Newport was in the middle of the night. Our next option was Coos Bay and the timing worked well. Our arrival timed perfectly with the best time to cross the Coos Bay bar; we entered toward the end of a flood tide. We fueled the boat, took showers and had a nice dinner at Miller’s on the Cove. Time to pull out of the harbor. . . it’s 6pm. Engine is on; chart plotter on; AIS (Automatic Identification System) is on; radar is not checking out to be working well. We would feel vunerable sailing in the dark and fog without radar so we are going to have to spend the night here at the dock while diagnosing the problem. On the bright side, we have 3 engineers aboard so rest assured they will fix the problem.

Jeff and Matt circumnavigated on a boat called SohCahToa 15 years ago. Jeff’s had some experience bringing a tuna aboard, and he shared his cautionary tale. Yesterday he took the lead and saved the deck and our clothes from a gruesome mess…

.Jeff hauled the tuna to the side of the boat, where Kevin was waiting with the fish net. After a quick dispatch with a sharp knife, right there over the side of the boat, the line was securely tied to the tail of the tuna. We then dragged the tuna behind us, letting the sea do the cleaning.

Bev has well-provisioned Island Summers. The fridges and freezers are full to the gills with everything we need. A 25 pound tuna would not find a place, so after an artful filleting of the tuna, we filled two gallon bags with the best parts, and marinated with teriyaki sauce. Bev worked some magic and found room for those two bags in the freezer, and the parts we didn’t keep went back to the sea.

Bev’s menu tonight was grilled tuna, a lovely brown rice and cranberry medley, and pineapple and cottage cheese. Kevin perfectly grilled the flaky fish, and we thanked the sea and the tuna for a wonderful meal.

We motored out the Strait of Juan de Fuca with rolling glassy seas for half the day and made the turn South at Neah Bay and Cape Flattery around 2am while Kevin and Jeff were on watch.. Once we hit the Oregon coast there was enough wind to shut off the engine and hoist up the sails. The waves are building higher as we sail South. We put out a hand line this afternoon with a tuna hook and caught a tuna within 15 minutes. We each have a 4-hour watch schedule every 10 hours. Mine (Bev) starts at midnight tonight until 4am. I’ve never seen a place so dark as the Pacific Ocean at night. Right now the moon is at its smallest so the only light is Venus shining brightly.

We left Port Townsend at 6am after a blessing from Bob Vizenor who said flattering words to the four winds and the ocean gods. Calm, glassy seas and motoring at 5 kts. Not enough wind to sail yet.