My sailing friend, Enrico called for help. He was buying a very nice big Jeanneau 53 in Marina del Rey, and looking for crew to help bring her North. Scrambling, Jim and I joined Enrico, Martin, and Sally, and quickly started to help with last minute projects, like mounting the anchor, and running jacklines. Sally got to replace the decklight, we had an entertaining dinner, and tried on the survival suits. I sure don't want to need one!
The next few days were a bit of blur, as we sorted out our route, got used to the boat motoring and each other. We passed whales, sleeping seals and the Channel Islands, and sailed and motorsailed around Point Conception, mostly in the dark. The poripose even came to play with the pirate crew, thanks to Enrico with all the toys. Up the coast, we made it into Monterey in the dark, where Enrico did a super job squeezing the boat into the slip. The barricades were to keep the sea lions off the docks. There was a bit of a storm so we stayed an extra day.
From Monterey we steamed up the coast, past San Francisco, outside the Farallon Islands. We stopped in Fort Bragg for fuel, four jerry jugs and five trips, on a busy fishing day. All fueled up, we continued North, stopping in Crescent City, entering in the dark. Lots of rocks there. We fueled up, Alaska style, passing hoses, clipboards and lines almost 20 feet up, at the old fuel dock - there isn't a new one.
We had just passed Brookings, when the waves got bigger, the weather deteriorated and whales jumped close to the boat, so we tucked in, and spent another day there. It was a good stop-over, with lots of grins and good times. We got by the dock goose, even got a ladder to get back onto the boat. We headed up the Oregon coast, stopping in Newport for fuel, dinner at Rogue, and a little more sleep. By now we were on a roll, headed to WA, but it was not to be that easy. Off Grays Harbor, we snagged a crab pot, at about 4AM of course. It took a while to pull enough slack to free the rudder, the Coast Guard was alerted, and tow companies were clammering for business. We sailed back toward Westport in the dense fog, spotting lots crab floats. We were picked up by the little Crowley tow, and at Westport, a diver quickly had the floats off the prop. Back on the home stretch, we rounded Tatoosh before dawn, and after Port Angels could easily walk around the deck. Dodging crabpots around Magnolia, we had only one more hiccup, a fuel valve to flip and soon we were back in Seattle again. Over 1700nm, with a delightful group of friends, I hope to sail with again.
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Photography © Lee Youngblood 2014 All Rights Reserved
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