Author: svtrance

Sunday May 31- yesterday was the finale of the 2019-2020 Panama Posse. Joining is a really great deal! Discounts at participating marinas in Mexico, El Salvador, Nicaragua, Costa Rica, Panama, as well as with sponsor vendors. Not to mention all the wonderful people we’ve met and friends we’ve made! Awards were given in specific categories, we won the “Speedy Gonzales” award, sailing from Maryland to Oregon in 6 months!

The winds and waves built as the morning progressed, 24 knots true, 30 knots apparent. Around 1 pm we tucked in this cove at Point Orford, Oregon. The air was very fragrant with the smell of Pine trees! We paused for the winds to calm before rounding Cape Blanco.

Dan and Rick both took naps, I baked banana bread. Joy, I got vetoed on the banana scones, next time I won’t ask.

We stayed there for 9 hours, then headed north. It was a nice break from the 24 knots of wind and waves going against the current. The first hour out was a bit rough but when we rounded Cape Blanco, as predicted, the wind calmed down. Which is always a good thing for sailing through the night.

Monday June 1– Sand dunes and pine trees line the Oregon coast with miles of beaches. Photo below is near William M. Tugman State Park.

Heceta Head Lighthouse Bed and Breakfast (above) Heceta Head Lighthouse (below)

We were dodging crab pots all day, the wind and waves made it more difficult. The crab pots have two buoys on them, one on the trap, the other egg shaped that’s attached to the float.

We ran over one and the engine made a grinding sound then it went away. Dan said there was a vibration he was feeling from the engine. Newport, Oregon was the closest marina, 8 hours away.

Tuesday June 2- We entered the harbor at Newport, Oregon 2am, tied up at South Beach Fuel Dock for the night. In the morning, owner Gary Cole, did not charge us for staying there, we did however top off the fuel tank.

Gary recommended a local diver to look at our prop. Ben’s Diving Service. He arrived in about an hour. Look what he found! Cost us $60 plus he removed barnacles from a couple thruhulls as well checked out the prop, and zincs, all was well!

We departed Newport 10:30 am.

Just north of the Newport jetty stands the Yaquina Head Lighthouse.

Wednesday June 3- another day of big winds, waves and dodging crab pots. This morning we were 100 miles from the Salish Sea, that separates Washington State from Canada. We thought about tucking in somewhere, but decided to just go for it. By 10pm the wind will calm down a bit which gives a nice weather window towards Seattle.

Passed by a couple lighthouses, really weren’t close enough for good photos.

The winds increased as the day progressed, the forecast changed, by night fall we had 25 knots of wind, 30 knots apparent, with waves bashing over the bow. The sky was dark as rain storm approached. This lasted for about two hours, then the wind calmed till morning.

Thursday June 4- continuing our path to the Salish Sea to Port Angeles Boat Haven Marina.

Cape Flattery Lighthouse at the entrance to the sea. To the left Canada, to the right Washington State.

Pasta with a meat vegetable sauce for dinner.

Thursday May 28- at 5am, we left Bodega Bay, heading north to Arena. It’s 48 degrees and foggy with less than 1/4 mile visibility.

The fog remained with us the entire day, winds were much less than predicted. We decided not to stop, just keep going.

Rick taught me how to tie a serpentine knot, made a bracelet and a zipper pull.

Our entire day has been in the fog.

We anchored at Shelter Cove mid afternoon, will stay here till Saturday. Big winds out there today and tomorrow.

Friday May 29– This is our view.

Had left over Jambalaya for dinner, I added a Creole sauce to add to it.

Saturday May 30- 6 months ago we started this journey.

6am the anchor is up. We had a visitor come up with the anchor, took his photo then we put it back in the ocean. She was about 6” in length end to end.

It will be a damp rainy day!

sv Forever and Ever was anchored near us yesterday, he is sailing by himself with his dog, they’re from Canada. He attempted to round Cape Mendocino but Coast Guard advised him not to. Today we are traveling north together. It’s a dreary gray rainy day, we plan on pushing it through the night and possibly do 4 nights all the way to Puget Sound if our weather window holds.

Sunday May 24- We left The anchorage by sunrise as wind was predicted to increase in the afternoon.

Another lighthouse we passed, Point Reyes Lighthouse

Arrived at Bodega Bay by 12:30pm. Alfred Hitchcock filmed The Birds here as well as parts in San Francisco.

Monday May 25- Memorial Day

Another lazy day waiting for calmer wind.

I made a ham and cheese quiche for breakfast.

Dan stripped the Cetol off the companion way, added teak sealer. Rick did laundry.

In the afternoon I baked lemon brownies topped with a lemon glaze.

Grilled hamburgers for dinner, picnic on the boat.

Tuesday May 26- while in Central America, we put insulation blankets inside to cover the refrigerator and freezer compartments.

It works great at keeping the cold in, with the exception of produce, which always seems to slide into the cold plate and freeze or gets lost for days till it’s no longer good.

I had this great idea! I placed all the refrigerated produce in mesh bags, place them on top of the insulation, creating a sort of “crisper” for longer last vegetables, as well as it’s easier to remove them all when going into the refrigerator.

We did take out for lunch from the Spud Point Crab Company. We all ordered a crab or shrimp salad sandwich as well as their World Famous Clam Chowder with a loaf of local Sourdough bread that we saved for dinner.

Marina drama. A local fisherman has a dog, a brown and white pointer named Rusty. Almost a daily occurrence, Rusty jumps from the boat into the water chasing the sea lions, only to have his owner run up and down the dock yelling “Rusty, get over here”! The first time we saw this we were quite concerned the dog would drown. Dan and I lowered the dinghy and Dan went after the dog. Turns out Rusty is a very good swimmer.

Wednesday May 27- laundry day. i baked another quiche for breakfast, the pie shells came in a 2 pack. This one was Ham, Swiss Cheese, Scallions and Broccolini.

Also from the galley today, blueberry squares. It was use them or lose them kind of day, like when you “have to” bake banana bread.

Friday May 21- Dan and Rick walked about 3 miles to a car rental store. They drive to Sausalito to the North Sails loft to pick up our Code 65 sail North repaired. 3 hours later they returned to the boat, we all went food shopping. First to Costco then to Shop Rite. Shopping days are always exhausting. Why can’t all grocery stores be as organized as those back home?

For dinner I made Creamy Tuscan Chicken, served over egg noodles, yummy!

Saturday May 23- goodbye San Francisco! We left Marina Bay Harbor at 11am, slowly made our way to the Golden Gate Bridge so we could go through with an outgoing tide.

sv Adjudicator 8 came flying by us as we slowly sailed out. Couldn’t find any info on this boat, I figured it’s probably owned by lawyer and or someone who thinks they are never wrong.

Point Bonita Lighthouse, the guiding light for the Golden Gate.

We anchored for the night at Drakes Bay.

For dinner, Chicken Cacciatore over Rice, M&M’S for dessert.

Rick was entertainment for the night with his Ukulele.

Wednesday May 20- walking day. 4.3 miles round trip to West Marine to get parts we ordered yesterday. On the way back I stopped in a Burger King asked if I could buy 2 tomatoes from them. After much discussion I walked out with 2 sliced whole tomatoes for $2.00. Only because we have a couple ripe avocados and thought I’d make some guacamole tonight. Thanks BK. (The closest food stores is over three miles away.)

Dinner. We often try to support the locals. We did take out at place called Assemble. They are located on the pier next to where the ferries are, in an industrial park where an old Ford manufacturing plant once operated. On our walk there we passed their garden. It is on the corner of a vacant field.

We all got clam chowder with sourdough bread, Dan and Rick also had a hamburger, we shared a pint of homemade vanilla ice cream too. Also purchased a produce bag.

We stopped at employee picnic tables and had dinner.

Thursday May 21- teak scrapping day. The cockpit wood was scrapped and sealed. Cetol is a varnish, Semco is a teak sealer. Love the Semco so much better!

Dinner was leftover soup with a salad made in part from the produce bag purchase.

Monday May 18- It rained a bit last night, the morning was still misty. A brilliant rainbow, shining over John Henry High School which is located next to the marina.

Laundry day. There are two laundromats at the marina, one is close to the boat, the second is on the other side of the basin. Each facility has two washers and two dryers. I gathered up four loads of whites, darks, sheets, towels. We pack a cooler, bringing drinks and snacks along with lawn chairs all in our wagon. I load up the first machine all is well, the second was unplugged. Credit card operated machines, no coins. Also one of the dryers was not working. Rick stayed at laundry #1, Dan and I walked to #2. Same issue there, only one of each machine working. We both did two loads at each place. Dan feed the geese while waiting.

While I was waiting, I played trivia on Zoom with family.

From our boat, it’s 0.4 miles to laundry #1 and 0.8 miles to laundry #2. The walkway is part of the San Francisco Bay Trail, a planned 500 mile walking, biking trail around the entire Bay.

Tuesday May 19- boat project day. Both of heads on the boat have been having issues. The aft one, Dan and Rick rebuilt the pump, we ordered a kit from West Marina for the bow head, tomorrow’s project.

The wind is quite strong off the California coast, we may be here a while. Unless we decide to crawl up the coast with short passages. We’re checking the wind often.

For dinner I made pasta with sautéed zucchini, yellow squash, red onion and garlic with a can of diced tomatoes for the sauce.

Sunday May 17

Scrambled eggs were on the menu for breakfast today and Spam, thanks Sue and Al, bet you thought we wouldn’t eat it.

Charlie joined us too! He’s Joys friend she met at a J24 regatta last year in Mexico. Charlie let us use his house to shower and borrow his truck when we were in San Diego. (while he was in San Francisco).

Our friends, fellow Thistle sailors, John and Joy arrived on Trance March 19, in Puerto Vallarta, Mexico. Today May 18, in San Francisco, CA, they departed Trance after a wonderful 60 day journey with us. Sisters of Another Mother!

It was boat cleaning day, along with trying to figure out why the engine wasn’t charging the batteries. Upon investigation, Dan found a broken blue wire under the alternator. After a splice, the charging voltage was back up to 14.2vdc.

Rick arrived around 8:30pm last night after flying into San Francisco, tried to Uber, but it got cancelled, ended up on the BART, then another Uber to the marina.

Saturday May 16

We left Santa Cruz by 7am. It will be a 10-11 hour sail to San Francisco. We are all hoping there will be no fog when we sail under the Golden Gate Bridge!

Santa Cruz has two lighthouses. Walton light on the Breakwater , and the Santa Cruz Lighthouse.

Along the way we also saw the Pigeon Point Lighthouse, on Wednesday we saw it by land.

We watched the fog roll over the hills coming from San Francisco Bay spilling into the ocean.

Just before 6pm we sailed under the a Golden Gate Bridge! The tide and current were briskly flowing into the bay, our SOG (speed over ground) was greater than 8 knots. Then we rounded Alcatraz.

Thursday May 14- the majority of the day was spent on boat jobs. Joy and I scraped and sanded the little wood trim on the port side of the boat. Later Dan and I added teak sealer.

Dan and John installed wheels on the dinghy. The wheels, when flipped down, give you a mechanical advantage when getting the dinghy out of the water on to a beach.

Later we took the dingy across the channel to Crows Nest restaurant for take out.

Friday May 15- Dan went up the mast today to re-run the halyard for “Cody” our Code 65 sail. Hopefully we’ll get the repaired sail back from North Sails next week.

Back in Mexico we lost out Thistle Class Flag, attached to our flag halyard, in high winds. Joy had a new one sent to us. In the afternoon, we had a Thistle flag raising ceremony complete with “Scotland the Brave”.

Dinner was ordered again from Crows Nest, Joys family joined us too. Elise will be sailing with us to San Francisco tomorrow.

Tuesday May 12- We spent the night at the gas dock at the Monterey Marina, as we arrived after hours that’s where they put us. We were serenaded all night long by Sea Lions. All night long!

Our destination is Santa Cruz, the other side of Monterey Bay. It was a pleasant 4 hour sail. Along the way we encountered more Sea Lions, Dolphins and several Whales.

At the entrance to Santa Cruz, on the break water stands the Walton Lighthouse.

Joys sister lives a half hour north of Santa Cruz. She along with her daughter Elise came down to the boat this afternoon. Joy and John went home with them for the night.

Wednesday May 13- Joy and John picked us late morning, for a drive up the coast. We stopped for lunch at the Davenport Roadhouse, take out only. It was a bit misty in the afternoon, and all the beaches were closed the scenery was great! We drove through a grove of Redwoods on our way to Jills house.

We stopped at a local organic vegetable market.

Jill and Steve made pizza with homemade crust and made chicken wings for dinner.