First day at sea and that "big left turn" southward. Sept 5th

The first day at sea was calm; virtually no wind and less than 2 foot wind waves with a steady barometer. We motor sailed with the mainsail lazily slapping back and forth as the boat rolled from side to side. We could feel large swells filing in from the north, a reminder that in the Gulf of Alaska there was a big storm wipping up the seas. Cloud cover increased during the day as porpoise played in our bow wake.

 

I was so focused on meeting our scheduled stop at Neah Bay that I didn't give enough attention to the weather forcaste. I knew the forcast for the next two days and heard something about a big storm in Alaska but didn't give it any further thought. I'd looked at grib files of winds off the west coast for the last year and didn't think a storm in Alaska would factor largely in our near-term weather picture. Meanwhile the storm was moving south at about 26 knots.

Since we were motoring most of the way so far, I decided that we should stop in at Gray's Harbor for fuel.

We entered the harbor in fog so thick that we needed RADAR to find the entrance bouys. I called the USCG to help us locate the bouys but they we not very helpful. By the time they plotted our position we were long past that point, so their directions were of little use.

After fueling we called our wives and each took a shower aboard. Refreshed, we headed out past the bar Winds from the north were picking up to 15 to 18 knots, swells at the bar were growing to 6 or 8 feet. We could imagine how trecherous the bar could get during a good blow. Brian made salmon and ham sandwiches on toasted ciabatta bread for all, very tasty! We spotted two ships during watch that evening: one a freighter and one white myster ship.