Rolling right along

First the weather report. Like politics, all weather is local, and when Paul and I rolled out of our bunks (well, my bunk—he decided to use the enclosed cockpit for one of its highest and best uses—a lovely tent on the water, so he came down from the cockpit), Snow Shoo was pointed south-east on her anchor. We had south-easterlies all morning until we came around Point Reyes, where the winds flipped to northwesterlies. Conditions at time of writing are 10-15 kt northwest winds, 2 foot wind waves and 4-6 foot swells from the northwest. Visibility has been typical spring bay-area marine layer, so we’ve been at 1-2 mile visibility, so no pictures.

We pulled the anchor, and demonstrated the value of a windlass. Pulling up a 50-lb. anchor and 70 feet of 3/8” chain at the push of a button is just about magic, says someone who has been pulling up a 20-lb. anchor and 70 feet of 1/4” chain on a regular basis for a long time.

With that south-east wind behind us, we made between 6 and 7 kts over ground at our cruising 2200 rpms on the “iron jennie” (that’s short for “genoa”, the large jib that Snow Shoo, as a cutter-rigged boat, doesn’t normally carry).

But all good things must pass, and the tail winds turned into head winds when we came around Point Reyes. We are now bouncing about, with a destination tomorrow morning at Fort Bragg. We are hoping that winds around Cape Mendocino will continue to slacken, and if they do, we will grab some fuel, grab some supplies, and head right back out. With any luck, the next day’s blog entry will be off Eureka.

All systems are working fine, except that it’s a challenge to keep five geeks’ electronic toys charged. So we find ourselves running the inverter to charge laptops and cell phones (and an occasional blast on the microwave). We’ve taken some good splashes, and it looks like our hatch work is holding.

‘Till tomorrow, this is Snow Shoo heading north. Track us at Vessel Finder.