Monday, August 15, 2011: Harmony left the dock in Eureka (public marina) at about 8:30 am, under blue skies (Yay!), no wind, and crossed the bar with no problem, it was like a millpond—glassy. Our AME customer Randy Peterson piloting m/v Hank crossed just in front of us on his way to SF as well. Beautiful sunlit balmy morning! Lunch was chips, cookies, crackers and cheese—too lazy to fix anything else. We laid around in the cockpit reading and soaking up the rays. Terry spotted a whale very close and I managed to get some good pics!.
We tried sailing (headsail, poled out on starboard side) for awhile. The winds had increased enough, but then shifted, which put our pole on the wrong side of the boat. Brought in the sail.
Between 2-3pm winds built to about 20 knots and we changed from shorts to jeans and sweatshirts. No more sunbathing today! By 3:45pm, light fog had moved in, “goodbye blue skies, we hardly knew ye”. Wind increased to 28 knots gusting to 35, seas building likewise for a rolling ride. NOAA weather service had predicted 10-15 knot winds. That’s the second time they have lied to us. No, I’m not bitter, I’m not, really.
When my turn came we had clear skies, lots of stars and our friendly waning moon-beautiful! By midnight we were socked in the fog, winds were still high, and seas were very rough. It was not a pleasant night. I was so sleepy. I had one of those brain spam things where the same song keeps playing over and over in your head. Then I made a boo-boo on the chartplotter, messing around with it because I was bored. I accidentally erased our route and alarms were going off everywhere! Had to wake Terry up to fix everything. Note to Furuno: The chartplotter needs one of those ‘undo’ buttons like they have on MS Word. I really like that button. As for me, I may get fired from further overnight watch duty—a girl can always dream right? Actually, I mostly really enjoy night watch, and I will learn how to fix my plotter errors and run the thing properly.
While on watch the Coast Guard out of Eureka was issuing a pan-pan for a vessel that had yelled “help!’ over the radio, but the CG was never able to hear more or figure out where the boat was. They eventually called off the pan-pan until further notice. Sure hope it worked out ok.
Because of my little fiasco, I let Terry sleep longer before I called him up for his turn at 4:30am. I went below and slept like a rock.
Tuesday, August 16, 2011: Woke up to fog, but there was less wind and things had calmed down a lot. We were slowed down a bit last night, looks like we won’t get in to SF till between 5 and 6pm. Breakfast was scrambled eggs with onions, bacon, cheese, sour cream, salsa and cilantro, Lunch was left-over spaghetti. Still foggy at lunch time.
Went under the Golden Gate Bridge (at least we’re pretty sure it was the GG bridge) at 5pm in thick fog, had a spot o’ Ron Zacapa Rum (thanks again Craig and Kelly) to celebrate! Docked at Schoonmaker Marina, their office was closed, so we just took an empty slip. All we can think about is dinner and bed. Went to the the restaurant at the head of the dock to have dinner, but at $20-25 per plate, we changed our minds. Had Costco hamburgers onboard and tried to watch a movie (Dear Frankie), but fell asleep halfway through. Went to bed and slept like a rock. (I need some new sleep adjectives, any input will be appreciated.
All pics for our cruise from Anacortes to San Francisco are viewable by clicking here. (by Diane)
