Monday, August 15, 2016

Whales, but no wind

We had a wet, windy and cold last 36 hours, which made for some painful night watches but some great boat speed. In the 24 hour period leading up to this morning we had our best run of the trip (172.5 nm), and in the previous 12 hours maintained a respectable average speed (7.7 knots). The windy conditions and mixed seas last night made for some white-knuckled driving -- which included a high speed of 13 knots when surfing down the larger waves.

Today brings finally in sight of land. We caught of first glimpse of California when we spotted the Farallon Islands (pictured, part of the City and County of San Francisco). Our first view of the mainland was Point Reyes. Unfortunately today found us without wind, so now we are motoring along as fast as we can go -- which is not as fast as we could with the wind blowing. Our new ETA at the Golden Gate Bridge is 10 pm tonight.

We had a last cooked meal aboard -- Mike made us Quesadilla Pizza, and we found four relatively chilled beers at the bottom of fridge. Not a bad last lunch at sea.

Entering Northern California waters brought us some new wildlife. We were surrounded by a pod of whales and gang (?) of sea lions, so must have been some good eats down below. Some of the whales got quiet close, as pictured.

Looking forward to seeing our friends and family on land!

-TBC

3 comments:

  1. While a slow day you had some excitement. Counting down the hours.

    BTW unless the sea lions were all female (hence a harem) the group was a raft. Apprpriate name for the high seas!!

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  2. I sent them out to welcome you in ;) See you all very soon!!

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