When we woke up to another beautiful sunny, albeit cool, day this morning we decided to quit screwing around and just get going. Tomorrow. I just checked the weather forecasts and they're not that much different than they have been. But as we think back to last summer in Newport, as we recalled, this is pretty much the norm all through the season. So, tomorrow morning at about 0700 we'll slip our lines and head to sea. The winds are pretty lax at that time so we'll have a few hours to get out away from shore before the winds start picking up. Of course, since the winds are going in our direction, they shouldn't seem quite as strong although the waves will still be just as big.
We're resigned to being somewhat uncomfortable for the first day or two. No biggie as we know it will pass. We have our scopolamine patches and our non-drowsy Dramamine tablets as well as our Jägermeister (just the threat of having to take a sip of that stuff will be enough to keep us from getting sick). The sandwiches are made, Lulu hard-boiled some eggs and bought a bunch of fruit and snacks today, and our water and fuel tanks are topped off.
So it's early to bed tonight and then tomorrow morning it'll be Hi-ho, hi-ho, it's off to sea we go.
The distance from here to our marina in Martinez (SF Bay, sort of) is about 500 miles. With no stops we can make that in 5 days. Don't start worrying until you haven't heard from us in 7 or 8 days. We shouldn't have any problem making it in 5 days, though. That's only a hair over 4 knots. We'll be sailing but, in the event that our speed drops below 4 knots we plan to kick on the Westerbeke and keep on truckin'.
So, wish us fair winds and following seas and the next time you hear from us we'll hopefully be somewhere besides Newport, Oregon.
BTW, we'll be traveling about 5-15 miles off the coast during this trip. The route is all plugged in to the GPS/Chartplotter. Sorry our SSB transmitter isn't working right so we can't keep you updated as we go, but that's the way the Mercedes Benz.
5 comments:
Steve & Lulu,
This is great news. You are up for some grand experience. I will be watching you closely.
Fair winds,
Wojtek
s/v Namaste
Oh, honey. Have a good trip and we will be waiting to hear from you. Love, Mom & Dad
yo-ho-ho and a bottle of rum, or tiquila, as the case may be!!!! dad
We're all envious!! Sail on!! 'Uncle' Norm
Well it's Saturday morning so you must have taken off by now. We'll be thinking of you this week and look forward to hearing about your experience soon.
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