Journey of a Lifetime

Well here we are, cruising merrily along at 10kts. We got an early start out of the marina right at 0500 and after a short wait to get into the Ballard Locks we went through without any hitches and now we’re in salt water.

I suppose I should start this with a mention of our trip over to Seattle. I was just a bit anxious to get there so I kicked up the speed a bit and we had a great trip over the Cascade mountains and got to Seattle ahead of schedule. We got to the boat, unloaded all the food and gear and had plenty of time before our “briefing” that Stuart had arranged. We were fortunate to have a neighbor of Stuart’s who was a career USCG officer give us some insight into what we could expect as we went down the coast. Rolland also brought along a stack of paper charts of the entire trip that he left with us. Nice guy that Rolland is. Thank you sir.

Following the briefing we started our dock party. We had friends, relatives and business associates of Stuarts show up and wish us well. A good time was had by all as we shared some funny tales about our boating experiences. I had my first screw up as chef ….I didn’t plan anything for last night’s dinner. I hadn’t even thought about it until the dock party was in full swing and someone asked what we were eating for dinner. Oops. I completely forgot about dinner. I hate it when I miss something like that. No big deal though. We borrowed a car and went up to a pizza joint and had a great pizza and a pitcher of PBR. Nice way to start the cruise.

It’s now about 7:30, we’re well out into Puget Sound (I know, the “new name” is supposed to be Salish Sea, but I ain’t a PC kinda guy!!!) heading toward Port Townsend. It’s sunny, calm, no wind, high thin clouds and just about as perfect as one could ask. LIFE IS GOOD!!!

It's 0900, we're abreast of Port Townsend cruising along at 10kts. If you're interested in watching our progress you can go to...

http://www.marinetraffic.com/ais/def...px?level0=100#

Look in the lowest of the three windows on the upper left side and type in Following Seas. It will automatically find us and show our track.

We're now in about a 3' chop that's right on the bow. We have some spray coming over the bow and we're bouncing around a bit. Doug has a 'sea sick watch' that I'm going to put on because of my vertigo issues. I'll let you know how it works.

This boat is beautiful. It has lots of room, as you would expect on a boat of this size. The staterooms are about the same size as on my boat but the galley and salon are larger. More on that later.

I'm going to quit for now and get this posted. It's hard to type on a keyboard that is bouncing.

Bon voyage, fair winds, calm seas, all that other stuff that sounds comforting. A 55 SeaRay is a lot of boat. Somehow you managed to post while bouncing around and without a single misplaced letter or semi-colon. Thanks for staying in touch and allowing us to be part of your Journey of a Lifetime.

Keep us abreast of your journey.

Which 55 Sea Ray do you have? Sounds nice.

GFC is not in his Sea Ray 55. He is part of a delivery crew for a Bayliner 5788 that belongs to a member named StuartT. GoAweigh2452 and Stray Cat are the other members of the crew. They are all TF'ers helping get Stuart's Bayliner from Seattle, WA to Stockton, CA.

The genesis of this can be seen at this thread http://www.trawlerforum.com/forums/s3/rub-dub-dub-four-men-10500.html#post163146

My bad

A 5788 Bayliner!? I thought SeaRay people didn't speak to Bayliner people. In the meantime, the 3 ft chop you reported shouldn't be much for that to handle, no?

Sunday 5:15 p.m. We made Neah Bay and are taking on fuel then headed to a dock for the night. Rough as all get out getting here. 5'-6' waves and spray going all over the place. The boat did well but in that kind of water you're going to get bounced no matter what you're on. We finished fueling and some guys on a fishing boat that pulled in across the dock from us gave us a halibut filet. Tomorrow night's dinner has just arrived!!! Not that we needed it because we already have more food than we'll eat. I guess this just means we'll have to take an extra day or three on this trip.

Looking good, guys. Have a great trip, and don't let those little 6 ft waves bother you. The watch will sort you out.

Sounds like a comfortable boat.
When you stated: "The staterooms are about the same size as on my boat", I thought the same, but I was comparing to my entire boat.

Have fun!

GFC-wish I had known you were going through the locks this morning-we are just down the road at Shilshole, would have run down and given you a wave through!

Have a great trip, as Larry said-Fair winds and all that stuff!

I've taken some crap about the amount of food I bought for this trip so I thought I'd post this picture of our first dinner aboard. The menu....

Marinated Pork Tenderloin slow cooked with spices and served with cooked potatoes and carrots
Fresh green salad with grated cheese and a Bacon French dressing.



You don't see any frowns on this crew, do you?

Just a few notes about today's Journey. This is about the roughest water I've been
on. That's why our track has been a bit of zig-zagged. We started off this morning with very calm seas but as we ventured up Puget Sound and turned into the Straits of Juan de Fuca it got rougher. We had planned on cruising just outside the VTSS lanes but because of the water condition we turned in toward the coast. It worked for awhile but as we continued west toward Neah Bay it just kept getting rougher and rougher. By the time we were almost here we were running in 4'-6' seas with some higher. Add to that the waves from the commercial ocean boats we passed and it was not a comfortable ride.

I was wearing Doug's sea sickness band and it seemed to work to minimize the effects of the bouncing. As I'm typing this it's almost 9:30. We're comfortably at the dock and looking forward to a good night's sleep. We're planning on pulling out at 0500 again and running down to the Columbia River and stopping at Ilwaco.

That's all for tonight. I'm headed to bed, so see y'all tomorrow a.m.

Thanks for posting. I'm looking forward to following your progress down the coast.

GoAweigh2452 and Stray Cat are the other members of the crew. They are all TF'ers helping get Stuart's Bayliner from Seattle, WA to Stockton, CA.
Actually Stray Cat couldn't join us on this trip. He's ready to take delivery of his 4788 so had to bag out on this trip.

A 5788 Bayliner!? I thought SeaRay people didn't speak to Bayliner people. In the meantime, the 3 ft chop you reported shouldn't be much for that to handle, no?
Hey, how about knocking off with the brand vs brand comments. This boat is beautiful and I'd be proud to own it. The 3' chop I mentioned quickly turned into a 5'-6' chop and with the winds that were blowing we had spray coming up over the boat just about all day. It made for an interesting ride but also made it difficult to move around inside the boat. They just never put enough grab handles inside these things any more.

Looking good, guys. Have a great trip, and don't let those little 6 ft waves bother you. The watch will sort you out.
The watch seemed to work well. I had developed a motion-sickness-induced headache before I put the watch on. I had the headache all day but it didn't get any worse so I'll credit the watch with that. It finally went away after we got in here last night and I feel great this morning.

GFC-wish I had known you were going through the locks this morning-we are just down the road at Shilshole, would have run down and given you a wave through!
That would have been nice, but most sane people aren't up that early on a Sunday morning!

It's 0630 and we're going to be shoving off soon. The goal today is Ilwaco, a run of about 180 miles and we'll overnight there. The Columbia River bar looks to be very placid today and that's a good thing 'cause it can be a bugger.

See y'all later.

Been fun watching these guys throughout the day. They have a SPOT messenger with them and their position is updated every 10 minutes via satellite at:

SPOT Shared Page

Quite an adventure they're on.

Seas are increasing a bit as the morning wears on. Was just about to take a nap but getting bumpy. Should arrive the Columbia River Bar around 8pm, Ilwaco marina soon thereafter.

SomeSailor said:

Been fun watching these guys throughout the day. They have a SPOT messenger with them and their position is updated every 10 minutes via satellite at:

SPOT Shared Page

Quite an adventure they're on.

Click to expand...

The Spot page is working well. I haven't been able to locate them on the Marine Traffic AIS page. Hope they are in smooth seas today.

Vic

Looks like their weather might get more fun after this evening:

Weather looking good up this way... but chunkier as you head south.

P
The bar may be be chunky:
Looking even more fun down toward Pt. St George and South towards the California / Oregon border:

SEAS GIVEN AS SIGNIFICANT WAVE HEIGHT...WHICH IS THE AVERAGE HEIGHT OF THE HIGHEST 1/3 OF THE WAVES. INDIVIDUAL WAVES MAY BE MORE THAN TWICE THE SIGNIFICANT WAVE HEIGHT.

Pretty snotty out here right now. GFC Mike is at the helm. Getting pitched around a lot on these SW swells with a moderate chop. Not dangerous fortunately but no fun either.

A September voyage would probably be easier. But hang in there!

Stuart;

You guys keeping good connections with your MyFi?

Lost your AIS tracking after that big left turn you made (heading south), but the SPOT is tracking you very nicely.

Any pics of the sea state?

How does the spot work? Is it off the new VHF radios? Does it cost?

It's a small satellite transponder. It transmits every 10 minutes and for $49/yr you can tell the world where you're at.

You can track them here:

SPOT Shared Page

The SPOT itself costs about $100.

They transmit in the UHF band @ 1610.73 to 1620.57 MHz, Receive @ 2484.39 to 2499.15 MHz

I love the pictures and hoping for the best of journeys!!

Land on the left navigation right now. lol

Hey-if the land is on the left, at lest you know you are headed in the right direction!

What's next for you guys after this one?

markpierce said:

A September voyage would probably be easier. But hang in there!

Click to expand...

Now you tell em!!

So to recap, you've got GoAweigh, GFC and StuartT on board, right? Who's who in the picture at the table?

FlyWright said:

So to recap, you've got GoAweigh, GFC and StuartT on board, right? Who's who in the picture at the table?

Click to expand...

GFC (Mike), GoAweigh (Doug), GFC and StuartT (Stuart)

Well we FINALLY made it to Ilwaco, WA. This has been a heck of a day. We started out about 0730 from Neah Bay under sunny skies, flat seas with no winds and just a beautiful day. We passed inside of Tatoosh Island rather than go around the outside and we headed down the coast of WA. This is an area where there are almost no roads so the only ways to see it are by boat or by air.

It stayed calm for a couple of hours but then the seas started to build. By lunch time it was getting REAL nasty with the marine weather saying 4’-7’ seas and I believe every bit of that. We were running about 9-10 kts as we headed south but after awhile we stepped that up so we were doing about 12-13kts. The seas continued to build so we had to slow back down a bit.

To make a long story short, this day seemed like it would never end. The seas were on our stbd bow so we were rolling a bit and at times it seemed like we were going to drop into a hole between the waves. Spray going everywhere, the wind blowing the spray over the boat, and nobody on board could stand up without leaning against something or hanging tight to something.

But all good things must come to an end and finally it did. As we came down the coast and got into the channel to cross the infamous Columbia River Bar, we were taking the seas on our stern. They calmed down a lot and as we crossed the bar we were in about a 2’-3’ swell with a light chop on top. We crossed the bar in the calmest seas we’d seen for hours.

So here we are, tied to the dock and it’s time for a toddy. For dinner we’re having the halibut filet that the Indians gave us last night and as soon as my head and stomach settle down a bit I’ll get to the cooking duties.

I have some photos but the internet service here is pretty spotty and it will take some time to upload them. I’ll post them as soon as I can.

Bruised and battered GFC

Having fun yet?

Remember when they say 4-7 foot out there, they're talking about "significant wave height".

Significant wave height is the average of the highest 1/3 of the waves present. Not necessarily the highest. You might catch a few 10 footers.

Watch that forecast for tomorrow. The bigger stuff is always south of ya. It can get real chunky from the Oregon border south. I've never been on anything that small, but made that trip dozens of times. It's big water that deserves to be paid attention to. Be safe guys.