After almost 3 years of preparation, we’re off! All the last minute grocery shopping, boat packing, med kit organizing, boat cleaning, saying goodbye, returning marina keys- I hope that we remembered it all.
I even remembered to decorate my V-berth bunk with some great art from Arlo and Nayeli, and we picked up our windpilot paddle that Dani and Sky from SV Bangarang down the dock decorated with a megaladon and octopus. Sky promises that the megaladon might be friendly, but we’re not sure about the other sea monsters.
Monday morning, March 4th, Kuaka pushed off from our slip at Ballard Mill Marina to start heading south. On board were my dad, Peter, and our friend Bryce, who had helped to sail Kuaka from Homer to Seattle in 2021.
Little did we know that we’d forgotten to give Sophie the potted jade and cactus to keep in Seattle. Luckily the jade was in a hanging pot that we could pass off as we tied up in the large locks. We waited until the lockmaster was looking the other way and dangled it from the end of a boat hook. Here we are waiting for the lock keepers to look the other way.
With a good weather forecast we took the “lets go as far as we can” approach. We waved to friends in Port Townsend as we motored past on the last of the ebb and I took a zoom call as we we close reached in 15kts of cold breeze past Port Angeles with a setting sun over the Olympics.
Sunrise found us off of Cape Flattery motoring south with light northerlies. Both gray and humpback whales surfaced nearby and a surprising number of albatross skimmed the low swell. The forecast looked good for at least 48 hours so we set a waypoint off Coos Bay and turned up the volume on our audiobooks. We kept checking updated weather files and forecasts, hoping that the light northerlies would hold as we moved further south.
By midnight we were off the Columbia River and seeing increased fishing and shipping traffic. Despite being over 30nm offshore the crab pot buoys kept us on our toes.
With a forecast that showed the light northerlies following us south, we decided to keep going. After 3 days we finally had good sailing. A north wind of 15-18kts piped up just south of Point Blanco and gave us an overnight wing and wing sail to just off Crescent City.
Despite our best efforts to slow down overnight, we ended up off of Crescent City about 3am. We motored the last few miles at about 3 kts in a light southeasterly breeze, waiting for sunrise to enter the harbor. Don’t worry, it wasn’t actually 22.2 ft deep off Saint George Reef.
At first light we dug out the docklines and fenders, slurped down another cup of coffee, and passed the local crabbing fleet out to pick up their last few crab pots that we didn’t manage to run over. The only true tragedy of the morning was Bryce’s accidental consumption of decaf coffee – he may never forgive me.
We took advantage of the last good weather to rent a U-haul pickup truck and head for the redwoods. Despite the curious look of the other tourists, we were not in fact out there to steal redwood burls in the U-haul, it was just the easiest and cheapest rental car available in Crescent City. If Bryce can figure that out on decaf, imagine what he’s like with caffeine!
And now we’re oscillating between staving off boredom and worrying about A) the sea lions eating us on the dock, B) the 40+ kt gusts breaking our dock line C) when the next tsunami will hit Crescent City and D) whether the wing foiling will be good tomorrow.
Until later – that’s all we’ve been up to!
-Ben and the Kuakites
