The wisdom we gleaned from friends, books, acquaintances, and good old hearsay was that the Washington and Oregon coast would be among the most difficult part of our multiyear voyage. So we decided that our still very small kids would not come on the water route of this part of the trip. Tom promptly went about putting together a crew of sailing friends who were ready and excited to be beaten up with long days, heavy winds, and high seas.
Two of Tom’s oldest and dearest friends, Ian and Lucas, came out from Seattle and Edmonton to help take the boat from Anacortes out to Neah Bay at the tip of the Olympic Peninsula. They helped not only with the delivery to Neah Bay, but also with organizing the boat, completing the final to-do and to-fix list, and keeping Tom calm. Ian and Lucas said their farewells as four new crew members came out from Bellingham, Whidbey Island, Anacortes, and Utah to make the passage down the coast to San Francisco.
Their weather window was mostly good, but it was not an uneventful passage. They rounded Cape Flattery under good conditions and had fair winds the first few days to allow everyone to get their sea legs. The wind then began to increase dramatically, and they sought shelter in Newport, Oregon for a night. Wanting to catch a good weather window for getting around Cape Mendocino, they headed out again, only to be met off the coast with an un-forecast gale. They decided to tuck into the nook of Port Orford for the night to escape the wind and seas, but it meant spending an hour and a half sailing up into 37-knot winds before the shelter of the point allowed them a respite and a good night’s sleep.
After that, it was just a tired slog down the California coast, motoring, sailing, and motor-sailing as the wind dictated. For most of the trip, they generally stayed between 10 and 20 miles offshore, with the greatest distance one night at 30 miles off and a few times coming in as close as 5 miles. The abundance of sea life was unforgettable: sea lions, dolphins lit up by the water’s bio-luminescence, and so many humpback whales that the boys lost count after 50. They were thrilled to pass under the Golden Gate Bridge at 5:30 p.m. on the 7th, tie up at the first marina on the right, shower, and go out for dinner on their swaying legs.
The boys learned the ropes quickly (and there are a lot of ropes, ahem “lines,” on this boat), figured out the hard way the best sail combinations after being overpowered a few times, and generally had a good – but exhausting – time. In Tom’s words “We didn’t break anything expensive,” so that’s a success (the steering wheel did break a few times, but they fixed it underway and then more securely while at dock in Newport, and we do have three back up methods of steering after all!). Everybody contributed, and everybody learned – whether it was how to best use a mizzen sail, how to read radar, or how to cook in 8-foot seas. It will no doubt reserve a special place in the memories of all aboard.
Our trek in the land yacht down the coast was no less rocky and exciting. We began our journey in the evening and spent the first night at a noisy rest stop off of I-5. The highs of the following day were visits with Tom’s aunt and uncle in Vancouver and my cousin in Portland (pictures below). The lows of that day were losing the cat not once but twice! Luckily, she was also found twice, but not before there were considerable tears and heartache. A post shall follow eventually.
Getting used to the RV, learning a new environment, and controlling their excitement and overwhelm was difficult for the kids, and therefore also difficult for us. It was not easy to get used to a smaller space (yes, the boat is small, but it is 40 feet long and 13 feet wide to the RV’s 32 foot length and 8 foot width). Every night, both the couch and table had to convert to beds, and every morning convert back. None of us was necessarily on our best behavior because of the newness and the stress. And for my parents, this was the beginning of an 18-month North American journey, so they also had the stress of a new beginning in the same way we did way back in June when we started out on the boat.
But the upside was all the amazing places we got to stop and see. My mom did a phenomenal job planning some wonderful places for us to stop – with beaches and forests for the kids to play in and plenty of space to ride their bikes. Cape Lookout State Park with its phenomenal beach, Honeyman State Park with its sand dunes, Jedediah Smith State Park at the Redwoods with its hikes and visitors centers, and Chabot East Bay Regional Park in the Castro Valley with its beautiful eucalyptus trees.
So, where are we now? After a whirlwind stay in the Bay Area cleaning up the boat, visiting friends and family, and waiting for our weather window, Tom and I left Alameda (San Francisco Bay) at 5:00 a.m. on Friday the 14th. We had overnights in Santa Cruz and Pebble Beach, neither of which offered us comfortable night’s sleeps due the surge and ocean swells. We’re currently in the beautiful, funky, and incredibly friendly Morro Bay (where we slept a deep and peaceful 11 hours last night!) and plan to leave early on Tuesday morning to head down the coast and round Point Conception, the “Cape Horn of the Pacific.” Wish us luck!
Garberville, California may hardly be on the map, but this little town tucked into the hills of the Humboldt Forest was the stop we needed. At first sight, it smelled entirely of weed and stale alcohol, and I was concerned about all the people loitering about on the roads and on the porch of our little motel. But a short walk into town for dinner revealed the real side of town: smiles and hellos abounded from everyone we walked past, and the friendliness and spirit of the staff and customers of little Calico Cafe set my nerves at ease. The bartender gladly gave my kids some paper umbrellas (which they are still playing with this morning) and put Happy Feet on the TV for them. I also realized that it’s California, it’s warm, and therefore everyone hangs out outside.
We hadn’t planned a motel stop on this leg of the trip, but a difficult 6-hour trip in the RV on Friday induced us to think of a better option than tackling an 8-hour drive down to San Francisco on Sunday. So, I took off in the car with the boys, aiming to split the trip in two. We made it 3.5 hours – to Garberville – before their whines and loudly voiced discomfort became untenable. I was read for dinner and a beer, too. And it’s been a long time since I’ve visited that road-trip joy of settling into a hotel room and just enjoying TV and a change of pace.
It was hopefully a respite for my parents, who have had myself, two spirited boys, and a nervous cat to contend with in a 32 foot RV, and it was a chance for me to steal away to a corner of the motel room to finish up a video while the boys took baths and watched TV.