Thursday 27 September 2012

Some Photos from San Francisco.

We are anchored in the Aquatic Park in San Francisco and have decent internet access today so we have uploaded a random collection of photos from the last few weeks.

A typical picture on our AIS - the black triangles are contacts that set off our CPA alarm

Bencia CA to get our fuel tanks cleaned

Lego time

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Dave the Rigger and Dave the Sailmaker (Island Planet Sails) making Fluenta healthy again.



Entering San Francisco under the cover of darkness.  Golden Gate Bridge in the background.  A long night with 27kts of wind and fuel issues.


Anchored in the Aquatic Park in San Francisco

One of the AC42 crews that cut rather close to our boat


The shuttle flew over to welcome us to San Francisco.



Crew for Port Angeles to Newport OR

Dirty Fuel Tank: Red=good, Black=bad

Um, you are the overtaking vessel therefore you are the burdened vessel

Wednesday 26 September 2012

Funny to see us referred to in other blogs.  These are nice folks we met in Sausiltio:   http://twoifbywind.com/

Wednesday 19 September 2012

Around Cape Mendocino and Almost to San Francisco

A short update via HF as I am supposed to be offwatch and it will likely be a busy night with increased traffic and building winds.

Liz, Frank and I are still offshore sailing in a nice 16kts of wind heading towards San Francisco. We left in the fog of Brookings OR 17 Sep and should be into San Francisco 20 Sep.

Thanks to sage advice from Totem our rounding of the infamous Cape Mendocino was in glassy calm conditions.

We beat to windward for most of the first day, motoring in the middle and now on a broad reach to Pt Reyes. The engine is cooperating although not unsurprisingly the primary filter pressure is increasing slowly - to be swapped before motoring into San Fran. Wildlife sighted include blue whales and lots of friendly dolphins.

Quick call with Wendall and Jean confirm that the shore party are doing well and the kids are now excited to be Junior Rangers after their visit to Redwood National Park.

Cheers,

Max
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At 19/09/2012 20:10 (utc) our position was 38°27.00'N 121°11.00'W

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Thursday 13 September 2012

Update

Liz, Frank and I are motoring through the thick fog about to go around Cape Blanco. Lots of radar practice for all as we pass through the fishing fleets.

The diesel tanks have been cleaned so hoping we are past those "lessons learned" and it appears that the refer is cooperating.

Wendall and Jean are graciously driving the motorhome to our RV point in Brookings, OR.

Will be happy to get out of the fog. It looks like Nova Scotia here ...

Max
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At 14/09/2012 01:40 (utc) our position was 43°35.00'N 124°35.00'W

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Saturday 8 September 2012

Heading Offshore

Update via SSB radio ... Now at 47 39.7N 124 11.8W.

We had some great sailing but alas the wind has died overnight as we thread our way through a fishing fleet. Heading further offshore to try to get west of the gale force winds forecast for Mon/Tues.

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Friday 7 September 2012

Seattle to Port Angeles

There were times over the last few days and weeks that each of us wondered if this day would come ... but here we are.  Max and Frank delivered the boat from Seattle to Port Angeles on Wednesday, where they met up with Joe from Victoria (and proceded to work on our somewhat cantankerous reefer throughout the evening).

Back in Seattle, my parents loaded the kids in their RV (that they had driven out three weeks ago from NS) and headed for Port Angeles by road, while I made a last couple of runs to Fisheries Supply and West Marine, packed the station wagon (and our roof box) with as many groceries as I could buy in 40 min at Costco (turns out that that was a lot!), picked up Eric and Henry late in the evening at the Seattle airport, and then drove to Port Angeles.  We all worked from sunrise til suppertime on Thursday to tie up the loose ends, install two new Groco heads (more on that in another post), stow crates of provisions, double-check the rigging, tiddly up the electronics that Max had installed this week, attach the jack lines, etc etc.  Someone asked me at suppertime what our summer had been like, and I told him that every day had been like that day - a flurry of activity followed by exhaustion!

The beautiful thing is that our boat is now actually sailing, which is what every sailboat wants to be doing.  Weather during the last couple of weeks has been wonderful, and our friends and family have been super helpful.  Here are a few pics to give you a taste of what it all looked like ...



The herons were our dawn and sunset neighbours - they came to pose like clockwork at the same time every day.




Max and Frank setting off on a still dawn morning headed from Seattle to Port Angeles


Making way for Port Angeles

This is the view from the spot where my parents parked their RV - FLUENTA is mid-photo heading out from Seattle.



A sunset photo of the shore party in Seattle just before we left.


FLUENTA slipping from Port Angeles heading for Neah Bay.  The kids ran ahead to wave, and the two heads that we replaced are just outside the frame on the dock.  After 30 years they had had their day.


Sailing off into the sunset with a crew of five.

 Corn on the cob with our cousins in Victoria.  We have come over for the day to pick up our home-schooling material, leave our car (not sure how *that* will work when we walk-on to the Coho ferry tomorrow morning with yet more boxes), and visit.  Sooo nice to have such good family support from everyone.  Internet access and a big monitor help too.

Mom, dad, the kids and I will head the RV south towards San Francisco tomorrow.  I got an update from FLUENTA this evening and here is a link to where the boat is tonight -- http://fms.ws/9YAOs/48.16797N/124.92751W.

Fair winds to all,
Liz

Thursday 6 September 2012

First SSB Update for our blog

Frank and I delivered the boat to Port Angeles today. 75 nm of mostly motoring - very scenic with the mountains and a few jumping whales.

Since alongside we have flushed the watermaker for the first time and got the cantankerous refer working again. Joe has joined us and Liz is delivering Eric and Henry up from their late flights into SEATAC.

Tomorrow the new heads get installed.

This is our first update via the Single Side Band (SSB) HF radio using Sailmail.

Max
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At 27/08/2012 06:18 (utc) our position was 47°37.79'N 122°23.68'W

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