August 19, 2007

We left Astoria on 8/14 and again tried to sail - and again there was no wind. But, we are going to experience another first - our first overnight on the Pacific Ocean.  So far, cooking on the boat has been fairly easy due to the calm conditions.  And, Ralph is using the grill which makes for some simple, but, delicious fare.  Tonight, after dinner, we saw a whale up close as it swam through the water, breached, and then thumped its tail on the ocean many times. That was quite the sight!  When we are out on the open water over night, it is necessary to have someone looking out for freighters, fishing vessels, and whatever might come our way at all times.  We are being casual during daylight hours with no official watches.  But, at night, our watches are:  Ken 10 p.m. to 1 a.m., Ralph 1-4, and me 4-7. Ken had just started his watch when the fog rolled in.  It enveloped the boat, indeed, and visual sight distance was non-existent.  He and Ralph successfully dealt with that using radar, GPS and careful lookouts, and it was long gone by my watch, I am happy to say. The morning of the 15th, porpoises swam by the bow of the boat right at daybreak. What a way to start the day! We arrived in Bandon in the afternoon and relaxed the rest of the day.  Hot showers on land were the highlight. Thursday we went to Brookings and Friday night we spent in Eureka.  We fueled up in Eureka (Inspiration has one tank with only 55 gallons).  The fuel dock was made for larger boats and so we really had to maneuver the boat and the lines in order to secure us to the cement wall.  That made for a pretty exciting time and we were glad to get the boat off it without doing any damage to it or us.     

After leaving Eureka, we were able to sail a bit and we ran with the wind for a time. The north wind is supposed to be the one that blows this time of year and it was great to finally find it-however short lived. Our second overnight was last night and there was no fog. The sky was jammed full of stars and so, of course, now I will want to read the book Ralph bought that will identify some of them.  It was so reminiscent of camping because there is no light out on the ocean so the stars are visible from horizon to horizon. 

We arrived in Bodega Bay, just north of San Francisco, early afternoon on August 19. It is a beautiful day here - sunny and warm - and we are going for a walk into town. We'll see if we have developed sea legs yet and see what there is to see on land.  We may do a bit of provisioning before returning to start another discussion where we solve the world's problems one cocktail at a time.  Maybe we'll have the energy to do that tonight.