Cruising the Pacific Northwest

After a few weeks of repairs and preparation for our first voyage, we assembled a crew in Sausalito and waited on a weather window to head north. I’d been watching the weather at Cape Mendocino for weeks and it had been howling winds and towering seas. We saw a brief period of calm weather in the forecast, but realized we would have to leave San Francisco under pretty harsh conditions in order to cross the Cape in calm weather.

The crew was up for the task and we departed at 05:00 on Sunday morning (6/16/2013), heading out under the Golden Gate Bridge, over the San Francisco Bar and turning Northwest into 8-10′ seas that were only 8 seconds apart. Sea Eagle was not worried about the weather, but she was bucking and pitching as she pounded her way into the head seas for 24 hours until we rounded Point Arena.

Conditions calmed as we approached Cape Mendocino and the crew collectively sighed with relief as we turned the corner and headed North!

Cape Blanco in Southern Oregon lived up to its reputation and we briefly considered ducking into Coos Bay to ride out the storm, but elected instead to push on north. Sea Eagle was riding well and most of the weather was out of the SouthWest, which is much more pleasant than the usual Bashing one takes from the prevailing North Westerlies.

From Coos Bay, we headed far offshore on a Rhumb line for Cape Flattery. Losing Cellular Signals for a couple of days, but saving almost a half-day of travel. We had fairly calm conditions 40 miles off of the Columbia River and as we proceeded up the Washington Coast, the weather switched to the North West and became rather nasty.

Sea Eagle soldiered on, and we eventually sighted Tatoosh Island and turned the corner into the Straits of Juan de Fuca. We listened to the weather and found out there were Gale Force winds in the Straits (Oh Boy)! Local knowledge saved the day, with both Mike and Scott having years of experience running charters out of Neah Bay. We hugged the South Shore of the Straits and had very moderate conditions, even though it was blowing 40 knots over at Race Rocks.

Sea Eagle arrived in Tacoma, safe and sound on Friday, June 21st (the first day of Summer), having traveled 850 miles in 5 days on her very first cruise with her new owners. Not a bad way to start summer and our adventure!