08/16/2008 Left Newport, OR

Nice Sailing...But fog again as we left Newport in a windless sea. Motoring for four hours, we were delighted to settle into winds of 15-20 kt NW. Whales passed us in the distance and then one surprised us to breach before us five feet from the side of the boat. The camera of course would have caught the famous black dot of this once in a life-time closeness. A wonderful sail under a poled out jib in sun had us thinking "so this is what it's about".
Our tuna fishing line of 300 lb test went out, jerked and produced a spring salmon of 20 lb! No chance this fish would break the line. Our gourmet chef, Cam, prepared a wonderful barbequed salmon later that night. We settled into our night watches with winds of 10-15 kt and a lumpy sea. The next day gave us fog again and winds of 10-15 NW. Our speed was good and we were definitely bundled up in our full floater suits (Our dress attire for every day). We settled into our first night out from Newport.

Our second night out from Newport brought fog and slowly growing winds as we prepared to round Cape Mendocino from 10 miles out. The forecast was for 5-10Kt NW. However, we headed 30 miles out as winds were obviously building. Sail was reduced to the smallest the headsail has ever been (one third) as we faced high and confused seas. The Monitor windvane worked hard as our eyes got bigger and bigger and so did the seas! The true wind was 40 kt. and lasted for about 6 hr. We were safe but how could this have happened? Aren't we novices to be gently lulled into downwind sailing! Or is it because we are novices, it did. Actually, we feel it was unforecast winds and that staying in close among undersea valleys and mountains would have been worse. We stood our watches; however, still felt tired and decided to rest at Fort Bragg, Noyo River, California. Nice sailing through the rest of the night and then eventually found no wind. Would the motor start? Of course not! Bleeding it etc.didn't work so we called the Coast Guard for a tow from two miles out. The tow was so disciplined and smooth that we did not feel we were under tow. Identified the motor problem later as a fuel blockage from junk in the tank (which had been polished!) and its now fixed. Tied up safely now at midnight, we sure had a good sleep.