bargaining them down. While Kate and Eric were on the diesel can chase, the rest of the crew ordered a warm lunch (and some bottled beer) to go from Rogue Brewery. We ate food as we motored out of Newport bay. We didn't know it then, but it would be our last food for awhile.As soon as we cleared the jetty the wind started to blow. It also started to rain, but it was the wind that was important. We hoisted the sails, shut off the motor, and headed southwest to the open ocean in an indirect path to San Francisco.
It got wet pretty quickly, not only from the rain, which became heavy, but from the water coming over the deck. We put on all of our foul weather gear and safety harnesses and settled in for what would be a long haul. It got uncomfortable sooner than we had expected, but it wasn't cold and the boat was powered up under the number 3 and reefed main and sailing well. Being down below was tough with the angle of the boat and the pounding of the waves. Soon even everything below was wet. Just getting around in the cabin was challenging, sleeping was very difficult, and preparing a meal was out of the question. Nobody had much of an appetitite anyway, except for the Davis brothers who never stopped eating cookies. When John mentioned it had gotten bad earlier than expected and that we could make it back to Newport very quickly, noboby said a word but we were thinking how nice it would be to get back to flat, dry ground and our families. We kept going.
We sailed all night, and while it was not pleasant at all, the sailing was good. It was tiring though and and the lack of sleep over the past few days started to take it's toll in the form of hallucinations. There were gremlins, a non-existent cruise ship paralleling our course, and an appearance of a a Tillamook cheese loaf where there really shouldn't have been one.The next day and night were more of the same, but we got into a routine of 4 hours on, 4 hours off and were so tired that sleeping was now possible despite the uncomfortable conditons below. We don't have many pictures of this part of the trip, but the scenery, other than hallucinations, didn't change all day or even at night, it was just different shades of gray. We finally tacked towards San Francisco 82 nautical miles off of Gold Beach in Southern Oregon.
We eventually had to motorsail to keep our heading reasonable. All of the pounding must have loosened something up in the diesel tank as we started having problems again. Changing both filters didn't help much and it was sure discouraging considering how much time and money John had put into making the motor as sound as possible. Finally he resorted to blowing the fuel intake hose, clearing a blockage, and leading to a trouble free motor the rest of the trip.
Sometime in the early hours of Friday morning we saw the first break in the sky and a few stars. It was a welcome respite from what we had seen for the previous 36+ hours. 
As the other watch came up on deck they were surprised to see us starting to dry out a little and all spirits and appetites began to pick up. Friday wasn't nearly so bad as we saw bits of sun and started eating again. It was a long day with light wind and the rumble of the motor, but we were making good progress and the end was in sight. Kate and Doug even found some time for Yoga.We finally saw land again Saturday morning as we approached San Francisco Bay. The weather had turned beautiful and we had following winds and seas all Saturday morning. The sight of the bridge was really cool and made us all feel like we had really accomplished something.
Sailing through the Bay with hundreds of racing sailboats and the views of the bridges and city made us quickly forget how miserable things had been just a day earlier. As you can see by this picture, things were pretty nice, but be glad you can't smell it as nobody had showered for 5 days...We found our marina and hotel in the early afternoon. Some of us went for a swim and we all showered, man was that nice. After that we took everything out of the boat to dry off. Finally John treated all to a very nice dinner followed by cocktails in Jack London Square. We felt right at home in the First Chance Last Chance Saloon where the floor still slopes dramatically due to damage from the 1906 quake.
It was a tough trip, but we're glad to have it done and the boat in San Francisco in good shape. We are all looking forward to the Pacific Cup - but are sure hoping for following winds most of the trip.
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