View Single Post
Old 06-11-2013, 07:50 PM   #4
GFC
Guru
 
City: Tri Cities, WA
Join Date: Nov 2012
Posts: 4,406
Flywright--8-days of food? I suppose you can re-provision along the way if needed. How much beer and booze are you carrying? Meds? Spares parts? Filters? Oil?

Well I just found out there's going to be 4 of us on the trip and I'm glad to have Doug along to join in the fun. We are going to make the first day's (16th) run to Neah Bay, WA. From there (17th) we'll try to run non-stop the ~800 miles down to SF Bay with only a stop at Coos Bay for fuel.

I'm bringing my ditch bag that has my EPIRB plus a lot of other supplies including meds for seasickness, extreme pain, nausea, a great first aid kit, etc.

We should be able to make that ~800 mile run (at 11kts) in about 75 hours, or about 4 more days. I'm planning on 8 days worth of food so we should be good to go.

Here's some additional notes I've scribbled since this whole thing started...

May 19. Along that same line I must admit that I’m going on this ocean voyage with a bit of apprehension. I’ve never been on a boat on the ocean for any length of time. In my book, day long fishing trips don’t compare to something like this. I have had a problem with spatial disorientation for many years. That does not usually lend itself well to being on a rocking boat; it can quickly lead to sea sickness. I’ve scheduled an appt with my doctor to see about a prescription for something to take care of that. I also am going to talk with him about a prescription for a strong pain killer for the ditch bag. That’s a “just in case” thing to have in the event of an emergency where one of us got hurt. More on that later.

May 25. OK, this is driving me nuts. When I started typing this it was around the 6th of May. It’s now 20 days later and this waiting for something to happen is driving me flippin’ crazy. I’ve got my ditch bag all set, the menu is planned and I’ve studied the weather websites until I’m seeing them in my dreams…and there’s still 20 days to go. I’M TIRED OF WAITING!!!

June 10th. GW and I are in San Diego on a vacation that had been planned for several months. While we’re having a great time down here doing all the touristy stuff I am anxious to fly back home tomorrow so I can get started getting things together for this cruise.

Stuart has been busy for the past 3 weeks getting the boat outfitted for the trip. We’ll have redundant GPS and chartplotters (upper and lower helms), AIS and he added air conditioning to Following Seas. He also picked up a 4-man life raft and survival suits for each of us. I have an EPIRB in my ditch bag so we should be well equipped for a very short time in the raft if that even becomes necessary. Keep your fingers crossed that it doesn’t.

GW and I fly back to WA tomorrow morning and I can’t wait. It’s not like I want this vacation to end, but I can’t wait for the next one to begin.

For those of you who are not familiar with our PNW waters and West Coast Waters, I put together three maps to give you an idea of where we’ll be heading. The trip officially starts in the city of Ballard, WA, a suburb of Seattle. The boat is located on the North side of Lake Union and we’ll be there loading up NEXT SATURDAY!!!! WOOOOOOOOO HOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!

That first day’s cruise will take us about 140 miles to Neah Bay, WA. Five miles or so from the dock we’ll pass through the Ballard Locks (Official name is Hiram Chittenden Locks…don’t ask). Then it’s into the salt waters of Puget Sound as we head north toward the Straits of Juan de Fuca. There we’ll enter the VTSS (Vessel Traffic Safety System) where they keep the inbound and outbound traffic separated to avoid any close encounters. That adds a few miles to the trip but also adds a HUGE safety margin. Here’s 2 maps of the first day…..




The second morning (17th) we’ll head out of Neah Bay and go around the corner of the Olympic Peninsula and point the bow south for the ~800 mile trip to San Francisco Bay. Weather permitting, Stuart wants to do it non-stop so keep your fingers crossed for us.



For those of you who want to follow us as we travel, go to the website shipfinder.com. Find the area where you can put in an MMSI number and copy/paste this MMSI number in there… 338149406 .

Also, if you want to see what sea conditions we’re enjoying (?), navigate to passageweather.com. On that site you can go to the west coast areas and see an animated display of wind, waves, sea temps, etc.

You can also go to the NOAA website (National Data Buoy Center ) and look at the buoys along the west coast to see the wave height, time between crests, air temp and sea temp.

June 11, we’re back in WA sitting in the airport in Seattle waiting for our flight home. Three more days until we drive back to Seattle loaded with groceries and other stuff for the trip. Tomorrow starts the shopping and food prep. Some of it will go into the freezer, some to be refrigerated and some will be cooked then frozen for later use. The next couple of days are going to be busy but I’m sure they will drag by.
__________________
Mike and Tina
1981 Boston Whaler 13'
GFC is offline   Reply With Quote