Reunited and It Feels So Good

Victoria, BC, Canada

August 27, 2010

The boat and Brad arrived at 1:00 am and the mom and kids got through Canadian Customs by 11:00 am.  We are all very happy to see each other.  The boat was right in front of the Empress Hotel.  One quick laundry so that everyone has clean sheets and the search for warm clothes and bedding stowed into the depths of the boat (it’s really not that cold, but we have really thin blood) and we are ready to continue on. 

Long time family friends who live in Victoria, Ruth and Steve, shuttled me to Costco for a re-provisioning run  (which except for the perishables) is still waiting for stowage.  The boys did a really good job of eating all the fresh fruits and veggies.  There is still quite a bit of frozen meat, since there seemed to be an virtually endless supply of mahi-mahi and tuna.  We are looking forward to taking part in the record breaking salmon run that is currently in progress.

Brad and the boys put on their tourist hats and visited Miniature World in the basement of the Empress Hotel (always a favorite).   We rounded out the day with a visit to Victoria’s version of the Spaghetti Factory.  Right as we finished, we got to meet Third Mate Dave’s son, Reef.  He was drawn to Capaz’s steering wheel – gaptta start early with these little guys.

The McWhirter Family

We have grandparents arriving for the weekend so I will have to keep it short as that stuff on the boat will not stow itself!

Day 16: Arrival

Augus 26, 2010
17:34 HST, which is 8:34pm Pacific Daylight time (03:34 UTC August 27)
Lat: 48 19.7 North
Lon: 123 52.6 West
Distance to go: 22.5 nautical miles

We entered the Strait of Juan de Fuca earlier today and truly are almost there!  Before getting to Cape Flattery, we realized that something was wrong, either the engine was having issues or more likely the prop was having issues. I noticed that we weren't even coming close to the speed we should be doing given the RPM's when I turned on the engine. So, I ran the throttle at medium to see what RPM's we were making. The engine wouldn't even turn at 2000 RPM's much less the 3200 it should have at max throttle. Suspecting a problem with the prop, I taped our underwater camera to the boat hook, turned on the movie function and took a video of the prop. Hopefully we can add this video to the blog at some point. Anyway it showed clearly that a net had snared itself to the prop. We limped into Neah Bay where courageous Dave got in the water and removed the net from the prop. I took a video of this as well. Ever since then, we have been motor sailing making good time. The tide is now ebbing and will likely be in our face pretty much the rest of the way. This means when we reach Race Rocks (just outside of Victoria Harbor) there will be significant current against us which will make for slow going. We should arrive in Victoria before the end of the day though! We are all excited to be here. It has been a relatively easy trip so far, lets keep it that way (touch wood).

Brad

Day 15: Happy Crew, Happy Boat

August 25, 2010
15:51 HST (01:51 UTC August 26)
Lat: 47 29.6 North

Lon 127 44.5 West
Distance to go: 190 nautical miles, (132 miles to Cape Flattery)

We are all getting pretty excited about making landfall tomorrow and arriving in Victoria later in the day! For the first time in well . . . . 15 days we heard chatter on the VHF. Yes, we left the VHF radio on all the time. We heard a Canadian naval plane contacting vessels inbound to the strait of Juan de Fuca. That reminds me of a joke: Do you know how Canadians spell Canada? (for the answer go to the bottom of the email).

In any case, there have been other signs that we are nearing land. Clumps of kelp have started appearing in the water. I haven't seen that for a while. The water color has changed. It has more of a green tinge to it. I saw what looked like a seagull earlier this morning. We are getting close!

After motoring for what seemed like forever, we finally got the wind shift that I had been predicting. You see, a front was supposed to overtake us bringing a shift in the wind from the SW to the NW. It also was supposed to bring an increase in wind. Well, it didn't happen yesterday, and we started the watch schedule with the engine running. I had the last watch from 3:30am to 6am HST. Since we are still on Hawaiian Time and it really was 6:30am Pacific Daylight Time, the sky was already light. I poked my head out the hatch and it was misty and cold. The front was upon us. About 1/2 hour into my watch the wind abruptly shifted and started to build. Game on. I unrolled the headsail and waited for one of the crew to wake up about 1.5 hours later. Randy surfaced and we hoisted the main and turned off the engine. One thing I neglected to mention was that the boat speed was about 1 knot off of what we should have been doing with the engine RPM's we were running. Really there were only two likely causes. The first one that came to mind was that we had picked something up on the rudder or keel, like a net or a shark, something like that. The other option was that something was wrong with the prop itself. Anyway, we backed down the boat which took care of the problem. Thank goodess it wasn't the prop (touch wood).

Right now, it's blowing about 20 knots on the beam and we are making about 8 knots of boat speed. Making good time! By this time tomorrow we will be in the Strait of Juan de Fuca and in cell phone range. I guess it's back to civilization. Since April 1st of this year I have sailed about 8000 nautical miles at sea. I think that's enough for a while. Strangely I'm not really burnt out on the whole thing, it just isn't holding that magic for me that it used too. I never thought I'd say that, but there you have it.

Well it's getting to be that time where we all gather in the salon and watch a bit of TV and Randy cooks dinner, then I get on the SSB and talk to my friend on Mulan, we watch more TV, then hit the sack. Tonight we will reef the main and mizzen before it gets dark, so we don't have to do it in the dark of the night were it to get stinky. We are almost there!

Brad

Answer:
C, eh, N, eh, D, eh
(joke courtesy of Dave)

That reminds me, Dave told me a little lymeric. Here's how it goes:

There once was a man from Nantucket, who's Di.........ok, maybe that one isn't appropriate.

Day 14

August 24, 2010
16:40 HST (02:40 UTC August 25)
Lat: 46 22.1 North
Lon: 131 01.5 West
Distance to go: 340 miles to go

The last 24 hours have been spent motoring in less then 10 knots of wind from the stern. When conditions are like this, we all sleep really well. The boat glides along in a calm, but undulating sea, rocking us to sleep. The engine noise drowns out any other noises that might keep us awake. I can't remember be so well rested on a long passage like this. Nothing much has happened since the last blog.

I know that we are all looking forward to getting there. I personally haven't been out of the company of my family for more then a few hours for almost a year. It's hard to be that close for so long and then to not have them there. So it will be a big relief when once we are re-united.

As I type, I saw something out of the corner though the pilothouse window. It was an albatross, flying, skimming, just above the waves. We haven't gone a day out here with out seeing a bird. It amazing to me that we were about as far away as you can get from land and still there are birds out here. I know that several species of bird inhabit the skies above the oceans, not touching land for years. When they do come to land it is only to mate and raise young.  Then they return to their solitary life out on the big blue.

It's massive out here, water for days and days on end. Sailing like this really brings home how much of our planet is covered with water. Earth is not a land world. It is a waterworld, the "Blue Planet". Being out here, seeing this seemingly ending expanse of water, it's hard to believe that we, mankind could fuck it up. But we are. Doing some motoring through the high gives you a glimpse. For days, in the middle of this leg, we couldn't go more then a minute or two before coming across some sort of garbage floating by. Plastic. I don't mean to go all environmentalist on you all, but we as a species need to come around, wake up and figure out how to live more harmoniously with the planet. Otherwise, our kids or our kid’s kids are going to pay the price.

Yes, I'm rambling, but as I said not much has happened over the last day. Plastic aside, it's beautiful out here. If you haven't seen it, I recommend you come out here sometime and see for yourself.

Well, about 2 days to go!

Brad

Day 13: Almost There

August 23, 2010
15:11 HST (01:11 UTC August 24)
Lat: 45 04.4 North
Lon 134 22.2 West
Distance to go: 500 nautical Miles

Well, I'm back. Now that you have heard from the rest of the crew, I'm back on the job as the Capaz Blogger for the Hawaii to Victoria BC leg. It has been a pretty typical 24 hours. Yesterday, was beautiful as we motor sailed in light winds. We had Fish for dinner, again. Randy whipped up another one of his fabulous meals. And, again, we watched a few more episodes of "The Big Bang Theory". The joke is that we have to check in on how Penny is doing. Jorge (the autopilot) has no problem steering in motoring conditions, so our watches were very routine. I'm not sure how the rest of the guys spend their watch, but with the cooler weather I stayed below for the most part and monitored the radar and AIS all the while watching 2 episodes of Stargate SG1. It's a tough existence out here, the intrepid sailors braving the harsh seas, but someone has to do it.

This morning, we unrolled the headsail and put up the main to do a bit of motorsailing. The wind picked up out of the south, enough so that we hoisted the spinnaker. We have been flying that sail for the last 5 hours, but the wind is starting to dwindle and the crew is dousing even as I type. So, the chute comes down (live play by play). I will go check the engine room look at the oil level and then start the engine for some motoring. So hang on a moment, while I go do that. Be right back...............I'm back. I checked the oil and asked the guys to do a line check to make sure we didn't have a spinnaker sheet or other line in the water. Wouldn't want to wrap a line around the prop:  that would be bad.

I cooked up some eggs and bacon and put them in a wrap with some cheese for breakfast. We all fended for ourselves for lunch. With the spinnaker up it was nice to play the stereo and hang out in the cockpit. After lunch we watched a movie, "Michael Clayton", which we all enjoyed. Tonight I'm sure we will watch some more Big Bang Theory and the process will start all over again.

The day before yesterday our friend Andrew set sail an Mulan from Hawaii also bound for the Pacific Northwest. Andrew had planned to leave about the same time as we did, but got stuck waiting for an engine part. It was good to touch base with him on the SSB last night to get a report. It sounded as though all was well aboard Mulan as they sailed north from Hawaii.

I really don't have any more news for today. It looks like we should be in Victoria late Thursday evening or early Friday morning, but time will tell.

Cheers!

Brad

Day 12 motoring in the calm after the storm

August 22, 2010
16:09 HST (02:09 UTC August 23)
Lat: 43 56.5 North
Lon: 137 8.2 West
Distance to go: 636 nautical miles

Today's crew blogger is Harold

This is “Hunt and Peck Harold” with a veery brief outline of the last few hours. Last night, we saw another episode of our TV family "Big Bang Theory".  We get worried about what Penny has been up to. We have become one in our nerdness. Twenty-five knots of wind and big seas made even brushing our teeth a challenge and flossing was optional for last night only. We were greeted this morning with a spectacular sunrise calm seas and 10 to 15 knots of wind off our beam. Sweet! The water temp has dropped from 80 to a refreshing 65 and we felt that the tuna should be ready for our BBQ.  We deployed the tuna jig and shortly after hauled in our dinner. Albacore tuna on the BBQ tonight. Taking a 360 degree view makes me realize how BIG the Pacific is: how vast and powerful and beautiful.  Helps me realize how small and insignificant we all are. This is a gas!
Peace and Love Harold

Day 11: Big Wind Last Night, Making Good Time

August 21, 2010
17:37 HST (03:37 UTC August 22)
Lat: 42 48.8 North
Lon 139 52.9 West
Distance to go: 774 nautical miles

Today's crew blogger is Randy

The wind and waves built gradually last night, and by sometime past midnight, Jorge the autopilot had gone on strike. Brad and Harold broke-out the foul-weather gear and had steered for a few hours, giving our friend a much-needed siesta. By morning, we had a North Pacific version of mixed chop, where small waves play with these school bus-sized things in a fairly random order. You can admire the top of your rudder off the stern while a small breaker lightly cleans the windows on the coach house. The boat slaloms across the mix in a surprisingly graceful way, and we spent the morning watching the parade of peaks and troughs like some kind of maritime parade. It's a busy existence. All speculation now is on when the motoring will start later this evening, as the weather patterns change yet again on our route.

Randy