Posted on Sat 24 September 2011 in Weather
As promised V1.2 is available in the App Store and it supports WAVES allowing you see the height, direction and period of forecasted waves… It’s just plane awesome and its now my favorite weather app on the iPAD!!
You can see screen shots of the new version on Weather4D’s web site http://www.weather4d.com/news (French) http://www.weather4d.com/en/news (English)
If you have an iPhone or an iPad buy Weather 4D HD now!!
Posted on Fri 23 September 2011 in Geek
We’re back in planning mode and waiting for a weather window in Charleston to jump down to San Francisco which made for a perfect opportunity to play around with weather Apps for the iPad.
A first rate weather application should allow you to see both wind and sea state information simultaneously. Air Temp, Water Temp, Cloud Cover, Precipitation are nice but not super critical for my needs, but may be for others. I’ll first go over some of the common functionality of these applications and then review how each app did at implementation.
All of the apps use public weather data either directly from NOAA, Saildocs or some other such relay service. If you’re familiar with receiving GRIB files through SSB or the web then you will be familiar with the way they are visualized in the apps. Each app adds a lot to the presentation of the data and making it easier to understand. Some of the apps support more than one data model (read about the GRIB data models on SailDocs). Since I don’t have a ton of experience interpreting data models, I am unsure which data model is better than the other or which is better suited for which route planning. It would be useful to look at more than one data model to see if and where they differ. The assumption that agreement between data models means a higher likelihood that the forecasted conditions are what you’ll actually see out there.
All of the apps allow you to visually select the area of the forecast model by selecting an area on a map. Additional selection information includes the following options: forecast to retrieve (and hence the file size), number of days in the forecast, number of forecasts per day, and the weather data to be retrieved (wind, wave, temps, cloud cover, precipitation, etc.). After selecting the data you want to include the GRIB file is then downloaded by the application.
All of the applications have the ability to play, or animate, the multi-day forecasts. This is similar to watching a time-lapse RADAR image on the web or on the local TV news, but in this case it shows the evolution of the forecast in your selected area.
Keeping the above information in mind and the disclaimer that I am at best an amateur neophyte weather forecaster, here are my reviews of the following applications.
WeatherTrack (iTunes) only allows you to see one weather data model at a time. Animating the data requires an extra step after download and there is some pause while it is generated. The other apps generate animations on the fly or by default; in this case the extra step makes the implementation feel less polished.
Weather 4D HD (iTunes) has some stunning graphics and not only are they are sexy, you can understand more information faster. With a two finger tap on the screen controls can be accessed that allow you to change the information displayed. For example, you can choose to mask forecast data over the land (or water) so it is hidden. You can also change wind display visualization from traditional wind barbs to color gradients. This can also be done for temperature data. Another nice feature allows you to visually display sunrise and sunsets data by changing the background display map from day to night making it obvious to tell if you’re looking at a day time part of the forecast or a night time forecast. This is VERY intuitive and when you’re trying to plan a multi-day passage it again makes understanding what will be happening at day or night on your projected route more obvious because you are visually prompted to see the end of each day.
This is by far the best app due to its visualization and its ease of use. However, it only supports the NOAA GFS Model which does not contain sea state information, which as I mentioned earlier was a must-have feature.
NOTE: I have spoken with the author of Weather 4D HD and he told me he just submitted an update which does include wave data. YAY!! I’ll update this review when I have actually used it.
PocketGrib (iTunes) is the only application that currently displays multiple types of data and does contain sea state information. Visually it is not as sexy as Weather 4D HD, but it is functional. Some things need work, like the date selection on the bottom takes all of the real estate on the screen and thus covers up the icons legend. This is especially problematic since I had a hard time deciphering the different sea state icon sizes. The red sea state icons are like carrots (or arrows) of differing sizes based on height pointing in the direction of the wave\swell. I don’t find the sizes of the icons to be considerably different. So if you have three icons represent three states the one in the middle isn’t different enough from the one above or below. Adding color gradients, wave gradient height would help, or even better, providing the option for both.
PocketGrib only supports one data model and the file name indicates it’s a GFS model. However, GFS models don’t contain sea state information. I contacted the author and they are merging in WW3 data, but don’t mention it. Probably not a big deal to an average user, but I think they miss out on getting credit for it.
Of the apps that I reviewed, PocketGrib is the only application that meets my primary requirements to allow me to visualize both wind and sea state information simultaneously. I am selecting it to use for future passage planning. Since I really liked Weather 4D HD, I will be using it when I in port and want to see normal land lubber weather.
I’m stoked for the new version of Weather 4D HD to come out, I keep checking for app updates looks like that will have to wait till we’re further down the coast.
Posted on Fri 23 September 2011 in Coastal Explorer
Systems - Electronics Slug: nmea-data-sharing-across-applications-and-platforms Status: published
With a Maretron USB100 NMEA-0183 Gateway and an Actisense NGT-1 NMEA 2000 gateway I was struggling to get the NMEA data to all the applications on my PC, iPAD and iPhone. Many applications can not only connect to the an NMEA data source but also share the data on another TP Port or Virtual Com Port. Originally I was using a complicated stack of software all connected to each other to get data to some of the applications but couldn’t really use them all at once. More importantly which ever app I felt like using at the time might require starting up two applications!
Well in comes GPSGate Client (\$40) which lets you connect to a data source and then share it with many other applications.
You can see in the graphic below that I’ve dedicated the Actisense Gateway to Coastal Explorer. GPSGate is then connected to the Maretron Gateway and then it is used to serve up the data to 7 other applications some on Windows and some on my WiFi iPad and iPhone.
Also of note is that my preferred iOS navigation application Navionics works fine on the iPhone since it has a built-in GPS, but on the WiFi iPad there’s no way to get the NMEA data into the application. I’ve contacted Navionics about this and we’ll see if they add the functionality.
This is greatly simplified from the way I was doing it before and I’m very excited to not only have all this finally working but to have it working simply! \$40 for GPSGate was worth every penny!
Posted on Tue 20 September 2011 in Systems - Electrical
We’ve hinted at bits and pieces of this along the way, but I wanted to write up a more formal review of the changes we made this week while we had the engine out to replace the fuel tank.
Our original battery system was 2 banks of 4 and 2 6Volt batteries that were combined to make two banks of 220Amp Hours and 440 Amp Hours each. This was proving to be a bit limiting. I also suspect our batteries are waning and we’ll replace likely replace them further down the road. However, for now what we’ve done is create on large house bank combining all of these batteries into one 660 Amp Hour bank and we added a second 12V dedicated starting battery.
The new positive post of the new battery is wired directly to the starter and the negative joins the common negative bus in the house bank battery trays (i.e., they are wired together).
We already had a Blue Sea Automatic Charge Relay which combines both banks whenever it sees an adequate input charging current on either bank. For us this means that when the alternator is charging the starting battery it will combine and also charge the House, or when the solar and\or AC Shore Power Charger is charging it the House it will also top-up the starting battery. This second possibility is called a dual sensing ACR and is somewhat less known about, read the Blue Sea Page on ACRs for more on that.
The battery changes should give us adequate power to not have to run engine for charging as frequently. However our alternator was only 65Amps and it had an internal single-stage regulator.
We upgraded our alternator to a 100amp Leece-Neville 8MR2401UA which was a physical drop-in replacement (same size, bolt pattern etc.) as our smaller 65Amp Leece-Neville. This was the maximum size we can run our engine with a single 1/2” belt.
We also replaced the internal regulator on the new alternator with a Balmar MC-614 three-stage or smart regulator.This regulator senses the voltage of the battery, temperature of the battery and the alternator and adjust the output of the alternator to provide the best charging current given the state of the batteries and the environment conditions.
The process seemed like it was going to be:
Seems pretty straight-forward and in fact all of that took a few hours. This is where easy goes crazy…. I was doing this over the weekend and all of the pre-tests Balmar says you should run using your voltmeter were not working properly. I spent at least a day tracing wires all over the engine compartment, under the cockpit floor and the lazarette to ensure I was wiring the thing correctly. But despite seeming to be wired correctly, in the end it wasn’t working right and the problem had to do with how much the new alternator and the old alternator differed from each other. The old alternator was case-grounded which means it was grounded through the way it was bolted to the engine. The new alternator was externally grounded which means you need to run a wire from the negative (-) post on the alternator back to the negative (-) on the batteries (our your common ground).
It took about an hour on the phone with Rich from Balmar and his patient troubleshooting guidance (and an emailed picture of my wiring) for him to come to the conclusion about my ground problem with the alternator. We borrowed a jumper cable from the always helpful Kyle Cox at Tarheel Aluminum Fabrication (he made our tank) and we tested our theory… BINGO! Everything was working yaay!!! Phone support, let me restate that. Knowledgeable, technical, skilled phone support is awesome thank you Balmar!
Now our alternator and regulator are working properly!
Posted on Mon 19 September 2011 in Fuel
We're still in Charleston. Still trying to get all systems back online. The main part of the project removing the engine and putting in a new fuel tank are completed. Friday we along with Kyle from Tarheel Aluminum Fabrication lowered the engine back through the companion and set it on its new mounts! Saturday we finished hooking up the engine, new 100amp alternator and external three-stage regulator. This morning we start the engine for the durst tine and it fired right up, but the regulator is not coming on, which means we can't charge the batteries without shore power. the engine is also running a little hot.
I spent most of today working on the regulator with the voltmeter checking how things were hooked up. I won't bore you wight the details on that, but I think it's a problem with the ground and a call to Balmar tomorrow should resolve that.
As for the engine temp, we need to make sure there's no air in the cooling system which seems pretty straightforward.
In addition to all that Dawn has also been working n some teak projects, stripping the cetol from the hand railings in the cabin top and she sanded down the campionway hatch boards and trim. It's going to look amazing when she's done!!!
We are definitely feeling the need to head south, but also seeing that the immediate weather patterns aren't looking great either. When the engine is 100% we'll start looking to pick our window to jump to SF or maybe another intermediary stop like Port Orchard or Eureka.
Posted on Thu 08 September 2011 in Systems - Engine
This morning we motored over to the yard docks so we could start working on removing the engine so they can pull it tomorrow, pull the old tank, make us a new one and then we can put it all back together.
Dawn and I spent the day removing hoses and wires, labeling everything and taking pictures. The idea of helping to remove the engine sounded very daunting to me at first, but now I think its pretty easy. Things have gone well and very few extra surprises yet. All of the bolts on three of the four engine mounts turned very easily. I think the fourth is going to require some special yard magic. The foot at that location is also cracked so a little welding repair will need to be made as well. I’m not really worried about that, this yard is mostly for fishing boats, they seem to do a LOT of welding here.
If we weren’t here then tomorrow would have been our next chance to jump down the coast. It’s looking line the next opportunity won’t be until Tuesday or Wednesday next week so being here isn’t too bad.
I’ll be sure and take pictures of the engine coming out as well as a review of the yard and the people here when it’s all over. I’ll also do a technical write-up on pulling the engine so all you who are going to have to do this yourself someday can get a feel for what’s involved.
Posted on Tue 06 September 2011 in Living Aboard
Today Pea and I took a little walk through a boatyard (I will not note the name the boatyard in this post). I love to walk through boatyards and look at the many different boats and appreciate the work being done by the owners. I find each and every boat to be so interesting, each has her own personality, an individual soul with a story to tell. Sometimes when you walk through a boatyard you can see and feel the level of care and love that each vessel is receiving from her owners. Sometimes…not so much, as was the case with this boatyard. I called it the boatyard where boats come to die. I started to feel depressed as I could feel the weight of sadness from each vessel as we took in the scene. As many of you know, each boat is referred to as a “she” and as you all know, we (the female collective) desire to be loved and cherished.
Here is a boat that was gutted from a fire.
Here is another “project” boat that I am pretty sure won’t be making into the water again any time soon. Note the grill, bicycles and the new “addition” around the keel!
This was definitely the most intriguing boat. Pea and I weren’t sure if it was a fishing vessel or a sailing vessel. A cutter rigged fishing vessel?
This steel boat has now become a welding workshop for her owner. Note
the high-quality welds holding up the “addition”. 
The vessel that I felt a very strong connection with was s/v Manu Kula from Honolulu, HI.
I am certain she was once a beautiful wooden ketch that was obviously loved at one point. She still has her lovely name painted on her stern. She must have some stories to tell of the adventures she experienced out on the open blue ocean. But now, she is sitting here in this yard with two broken masts, dry rot and missing her caring owners. I wonder what happens to these abandoned boats; where did the owners go and why would they leave her in such a state?
I can’t imagine leaving Deep Playa. She is
such a part of us now, a family member, a cherished and beloved soul
that will reveal more and more of her stories to us as we sail onto new
adventures together. 
Posted on Fri 02 September 2011 in sv Deep Playa
I have to say of all the destinations to be forced into a weather layover, Newport has definitely been very hospitable and then some! Our original plan for heading down the coast to San Francisco was to head out around 100 NM and sail into San Francisco about 7 to 10 days later. However, like so many sailing plans, things changed pretty quickly due to the lack of safe weather window so we decided to hug the coast and head to Newport, Oregon. I am happy to report that we have really enjoyed our stay so far!
The Port of Newport Marina on South Beach Newport provides some really accessible and reasonably priced services including showers, laundry (only a \$1.00 a load), huge boat launch, pump out, fuel dock, fishing pier, fish cleaning stations (which are all over the place) and a small store. The location is just beautiful too. It is situated in the shadow the Yaquina Bay Bridge and the North and South jetties of the bar entrance. The beaches here remind me of New Jersey Shore beaches without the obnoxious locals (although the local sea lions are very boisterous even into the early morning hours). The sand dunes that line the beaches are the perfect environment for well-groomed running trails, bike trails, and equestrian trails. The trails usually end in well-labeled signs so you can easily make your way back to the jetty or back to the beach. There are camping grounds not too far from the beach and are an easy walking distance down to the water. The views are breath-taking and picturesque with high cliffs, beach grass-covered dunes and rugged coast line with Yaquina Head Lighthouse as a backdrop. A really tasty way to wet your pallet is the conveniently located Rogue Brewery and Rogue Distillery just a hop skip and a jump from the transient dock. S/v Bella Star has joined us in a tasting of their Gins (I had to try the Pink Gin, even though I don’t like Gin), Rums, and Whiskeys. So far Pea and my favorite amenity has been utilizing the FREE city loop bus that takes us through the city. This service is awesome! We get dropped right off at the R/V Park/Marina office. It does take some time since it is just a loop so the trip back from Fred Meyer takes almost an hour. The bus stops around the city are sometimes not well marked so you have to ask around to make sure that you are on the correct corner. The Old Bayfront is very cool. It has an interesting mixture of active fishing industry with a few fisheries (including Trident Seafoods) that sit along the same block as tourist traps including Ripley’s Believe It or Not and a wax museum. Our two favorite stops were Rogue Brewery and the local sea lions! We spent several minutes watching the silly antics of the sea lions that have a float and a cage that sits in the middle of town. Watching the sea lions sleeping, scratching, nuzzling each other and fighting each other is quite entertaining. Our other fav is the Bayfront Rogue Brew Pub which serves up some tasty items like Kobe beef burgers, pizza and pasta and of course, some really yummy beers. The Double Chocolate Stout is an excellent dessert beer that practically needs a fork and a knife. I enjoyed the I2PA which is super hoppy! One caveat, absolutely NO cell phones or Kindles allowed at the bar. A short walking distance from the bayfront is Englund Marine which has a nice selection of marine supplies and knowledgeable staff. Vince, who helped us out by lending us a battery tester (only a \$700.00 tool) with just a hand shake and our word, is a valuable resource. Besides, Oregon doesn’t have a sales tax so for us, coming from Seattle, that’s a near 10% discount! The one thing we have yet to partake of is the Oregon Coast Aquarium which has gotten rave reviews.
The past couple of days have been beautifully clear but super blustery (right now we are rocking in our slip with 20 knot N winds) that have flared up mid-morning and lasted into the evening. The weather forecast for the coast has gale force and rough sea warnings all the way down the Oregon coast and northern coast of California. We are hoping to make an exit to Coos Bay on Sunday morning. There is one other nagging issue that has been weighing on our minds that we need to get cleared up before departing. Apparently we have a leak in our fuel tank that recently sprung up after our trip from Neah Bay. We are looking into our options and hope to at least get us to San Francisco. We will probably need to order a new tank and have it delivered to San Fran where we can then install it before heading down to San Diego and onto the Baja Ha-Ha.
Posted on Wed 31 August 2011 in Living Aboard
I decided to write a blog post about the things that people don’t really tell you about sailing offshore cruising. I am going to talk about the nitty gritty of my personal experience of my first offshore overnight sail aboard Deep Playa. In addition, I will discuss some interesting commentary of some good and bad experiences.
First off, I must preface this post with a huge disclaimer after reading several of our fellow sailors who are taking the same trip down the coast on or about the same time that Pea and I are taking. We did not experience the following on our trip from Neah Bay, Wa to Newport, Oregon (knock on wood):
These are the following conditions that Deep Playa and her crew experienced:
Some things fellow sailors seemed to not openly write about or discuss in person (without some prompting).
If you don’t know me, let me first tell you that I am a Type A personality with somewhat of an anxiety disorder. I am a little bit of a perfectionist and worry wart (thank you Mother!) I get anxious about pretty much everything! So for my first offshore trip I was anxious about my short comings. Would I like sailing offshore? Will I desire to continue this journey after all of the blood, sweat and tears of several years? Would I get violently ill and be completely useless to Patrick? Would one of us get badly injured? Would a whale breach our boat and sink her? (Yes, I have seen the pics)
Here is a recount of my experiences for the 55 hour journey aboard s/v Deep Playa from Neah Bay to Newport.
First Night Shift: It sucks. Don’t sugar coat it. It sucks. You are totally exhausted and rocking back and forth and all you can think about is that warm cozy cocoon of lee cloth and settee below. The world is a completely different place then it was just a few short hours prior. Everything seems sooo much smaller and all things in the distance look like they will be an imminent danger to you and your boat. Luckily I did not get seasick. Patrick and I both applied a Scopace patch prior to leaving Neah Bay. He, however did puke, at twilight, once. He seemed fine after for the remainder of the evening. In general, I felt complete malaise. I didn’t want to do anything but sit in the cockpit and watch the waves go by. I thought I should be reading and enlightening myself to the new worlds I will be soon experiencing, but no, it didn’t happen. Accept it and move on. I did see an amazing moonrise though! It looked a HUGE golf ball on the horizon. I could see the details of it using my binoculars. And the bioluminescence was so incredibly cool!
First Night’s Sleep: The sounds of the boat, rigging and the wind kept me awake most of my down time. That sucked. Exhausted for my shift.
Second Day: Woke up to a very warm and pleasant husband telling me that he needed to take a much needed nap. I slept great after my 0600 shift ended and took a quick couple hours nap. Hopped out of bed and up into the cockpit with my jacket, foulies, PFD and tether in a couple minutes flat.
On and off throughout the day we would take shifts and naps and it seemed to work pretty well.
Second Night Sleep: I slept much better and awoke again to Patrick stating that we needed to jibe to stay on course. Jibing at night in very rolly seas and not quite awake is much more difficult than you can imagine. Self-steering the boat while trying to stay on course is much harder if you don’t have a reference out in the distance to sail toward. It increased my anxiety and it stayed there throughout the night.
Second Night Shift: Patrick got sick again at twilight. We figured it must be the inability to differentiate between the sea and the horizon and that he should nap during this time frame on future expeditions. This shift was much better. I slept a bit during the day and we decided to put on the Sirius XM Radio to keep us awake. What a huge difference that made for me. I listened to the 1980s top 40 countdown with the original MTV VJs! The horizon this night was light up with 5-8 fishing vessels just past the horizon. They threw off this amazing orange glow that seems to be right off your bow but you could never quite catch up to them. I started referring to them as the cockroaches because you can never actually catch them and as soon as day broke they seemed to scatter and run toward their safe havens.
By the third day we started to feel a little better about our experiences and looking forward to a good night’s sleep in our bed in port. We were both relieved that we had made the decision to head towards Newport, Or instead pushing all the way to San Francisco.
Some things I learned:
Posted on Tue 30 August 2011 in Destinations
<Dawn and I both wrote this post>
After staying in Neah Bay for a few days we were itching to start heading south. Neah Bay isn’t the most hospitable of towns to stay for more than a few days. We were originally going to leave Neah Bay and head for San Francisco, but the weather in Northern California was looking rough. Aaron and Nicole on s/v Bella Star suggested heading down to Newport, OR so we could at least bite off some of the sail down and we thought that was a splendid idea.
We left Neah bay around 4pm in thick fog, light winds and low swell. Knowing that we were going to need it we switched on the radar. Not too shortly after that, in thick fog, we came port to port of a fishing vessel squeaking by within one hundred yards of each other. I believe that we were both equally surprised to see each other as we both veered to starboard to keep clear. Immediately Dawn was screaming it wasn’t on the radar! So we deduced that she was too close in our vicinity when we switched on our radar for it to pick the fishing vessel. Lesson learned! We spent the rest of the time calling out visible vessels to hone in the radar. We hailed Bella Star who was about an hour ahead us on the VHF to see if it was clear after the Straits. We were going to head back to Neah Bay if it was foggy on the coast! They said it was clear to horizon at Cape Flattery so we pressed on.
We rounded Cape Flattery, which was absolutely stunningly beautiful. The view was spectacular with high cliffs and strong imposing coast line. Once we hit our mark around 15 NM offshore we did the big turn left. Dawn marked the occasion by signaling a left hand turn signal just to be safe. We were very excited to finally be free of Puget Sound’s grasp. We headed offshore sailing about 5-7 knots with the wind over the starboard quarter and the swell not quite exactly on the beam, but enough so that every 4-5 minutes we rolled from rail to rail which could have not be more uncomfortable. Have you heard the fisherman’s rule: “The 7^th^ wave of the 7^th^ set”? It’s true… very true. Just as the boat settles down after the first few swells another set is lined up to toss you around. But we pressed on through the night with triple reefed main and furled jib as we had to put in the reefing lines anyway, and being new at the whole offshore thing we decided to play it safe. We setup the Hydrovane and sat back for a long night.
Have we mentioned how much we love the Hydrovane??? If not, we do…we are in love with the Hydrovane. As the night wore on the winds died but we stuck with the sailing. Pea took the first watch to 0200, Dawn the 2nd at 0200-0600 and then Pea from 0600-1000. After morning broke we pretty much swapped turns taking naps and kept an eye out for crab pots and fishing vessels. Oh yeah, did we mention crab pots…yep, they suck. In 30 fathoms of water below the keel we had two close calls!
The second day and night we sailed in light winds making 3-5 knots again with a swell approaching the beam. We seemed to be just outside the fishing areas, and we were hoping to stay well outside until south of the Columbia River where we were planning to jibe in and start to make some distance eastward heading in to Newport. At 0200, the start of Dawn's watch we were well enough past Columbia River so we jibed east and remained so until all the night watches were over.
With the day upon us and many miles to go and very light winds we committed to motoring and made a rhumb line course for Newport about 70NM away. The motoring was pretty easy in increasingly fickle winds and dying swell. The water was beginning to flatten out (thank god) and the swells were more aft. The weather was calm and cloudy and the water took on this thick glassy oily texture. It became difficult to differentiate the horizon as it all looked the same mercury gray color. We took up one of Dawn’s favorite past times and began referencing all of the sea birds that were gracefully skimming along the very edges of each swell. We spotted Black Footed Albatross and Short-Tailed Albatross and several others throughout the evening. Albatross are such beautifully elegant birds with long powerful thin wings and short thick bodies and a nubby long beak.
Around sunset the sky darkened and fog rolled in, but it wasn't so thick you couldn't see things close-by. It was just enough to make the things in the distance lose their depth. So in this blur we were looking for our first mark off the channel entrance to Yaquina Bay. Coastal Explorer showed a Yellow light and our charts showed a Red & White light and Charlie’s Charts (which we love) was calling it yellow! We started to get a little nervous thinking that we missed the mark. Because the night was so calm, Dawn was able to make out the whistle of the buoy! But where the hell is it? Oh, it was right off our port side and guess what, it's WHITE!! In Coastal Explore the light descriptions are turned off by default (now fixed) and while the little navigational buoy icon has a yellow light, the description is correct. Not a huge deal, just caused us to do a fly by before we double checked our navigation and headed in the channel.
Dawn’s anxiety level was building because we had difficulty seeing the green buoys. There was this weird large orange light that seemed to be causing our night vision to get out of wack. Dawn had her eyes peeled with the help of the binoculars and soon realized that the orange glow was a fishing vessel trying to leave the very channel that we were trying to enter! After the fishing boat cleared and veered off to port we were able to see the markers much clearer. At 11pm at night in pitch dark with the lights of Newport behind it the channel looked about 20 feet wide. (We both remarked today that after having seen it in the daylight it's about 50 yards or more wide but yet looked soooo very small at night.) It’s definitely still tricky, as the currents rush through at blinding speed. Dawn kept asking why I wasn’t slowing down, we were doing 7.5kts with the engine at idle! After we went under the Yaquina Bay Bridge, we had to make a very fast turn to starboard right in front of marina breakwater at the green buoy in 7.5 knots of speed into the Port of Newport Marina fuel dock. Patrick did an amazing job at handling that turn under such conditions, even though they were probably close to perfect for the seas and weather were calm. I can’t imagine trying to navigate this at night in anything other than perfect conditions. Once we tied up at the fuel dock, we exchanged a quick hello with Aaron and Nicole from s/v Bella Star who were trying to tell us that we were docked at the fuel dock and not in a slip. We told them we were needed fuel and were going to pass out for night and handle it in the morning. We quickly passed-out in our nice and warm cozy v-berth.
The trip was great, it taught us a lot about our boat and our systems (more on that to come) and about ourselves. We both wore Scopace patches for the entire trip. Pea was fine all day and then at twilight on the first two nights he instantly got nauseous, puked and then was fine for another 24 hours. Dawn was fine and was able to eat and quickly warm up the stews and soups she froze for the trip. We both loved having Sirius XM Satellite radio to keep us company and awake at night.
Deep Playa is on J dock (funny we left J dock behind us at Shilshole) docked next to Bella Star and relaxing in Newport for probably at least 5 days or so before we head down the Oregon Coast. There is a nasty low over Northern California right now and gale force warnings. We liked this short hop and thinking we'll stick with this strategy if the bar conditions allow. Our next stop may be Coos Bay if the weather behaves.