Trip Summary - Part 1

Here are some more photos and a summary of the trip.

We had been checking weather forecasts and even doing our own weather modelling and were pretty aprehensive about what was ahead. The forecasts all agreed that we would be seeing moderate to strong southerly winds, getting worse as we went down the coast. Since we were southbound, southerly winds would make things slow, wet, and miserable, quite the opposite of what we imagined the delivery might be like with more common northerlies. But, the boat had to get out of Canada and preferrably all the way to San Francisco. We had options of stopping at the west end of the Strait of Juan de Fuca, Astoria, Newport, and other smaller harbors if we had to. Conditons were calm when we left Victoria at 7:15AM on Monday, Memorial Day bound for a scheduled stop in Port Angeles to clear customs, get diesel, and buy groceries for 6 people for 5 days.

Conditions continued to be calm as we left Port Angeles just after noon and stayed calm throughout the day. For most of the trip out the Straits it was so calm that we never raised the mainsail or even took the cover off. The only excitement of the day was our first orca sighting, and while it's clear we aren't wildlife photograhers we tried to get photos.

As we neared the western most part of the straits we finally had enough wind to raise the main. We rounded Tatoosh Island at 8:30PM in very calm conditions and enjoyed a beautiful calm view of what can be a pretty rough spot.

Soon after rounding we had our first sign of trouble with the motor. After troubleshooting for a few minutes we were surprised to see we were already low on diesel. Our burn rate was higher than expected, so after adding more diesel from the cans on deck we resumed at a slower pace. Sometime that night the wind came up enough to hoist the jib and shut off the motor. This was welcome, of course, on many fronts, but especially since it is the ultimate way to conserve fuel. Unfortunately the sailing only lasted a few hours and we had to start up the motor again before we would have liked. Even at our reduced speed we continued to burn diesel faster than expected. It soon became clear we would have to stop at Newport to replenish fuel no matter what weather conditions we faced.

We enjoyed a hot meal that Kate had pre-cooked for us, but had to put up with constant beeping from the propane sensor while cooking. The sensor had gone bad, but for awhile we were concerned about a leak and even thought that we may have run out of propane for a few minutes. The thought of continuing onward with no hot food or drinks wasn't very appealing.

As second day drew to a close we watched the weather closely and started thinking we would have to stop in Newport and continue the trip later in the month. As Newport slowly approached the next morning, we were down to our last diesel can and running barely above idle to make sure we made it. Luckily we did make it with 2 gallons to spare. As we were entering the harbor, the whole crew was making plans to get home when John emerged from the cabin with the news that he had studied the latest weather faxes and thought we should continue. Things looked uncomfortable for 20 hours or so, but nothing we hadn't experienced in Swiftsures of past or other deliveries. After talking it over with all the crew we decided to continue on just as we pulled up to the fuel dock.