Choosing our Weather Window

Posted 17 August 2010

After all our little tasks were done during our week stay in Tofino, we got all our weather faxes and text weather forecasts. We noticed that Friday's 48 and 96 hour weather faxes show good conditions and that the text weather forecast is calling 10 to 20 knots of wind in a N and NW direction for the 4 days. We decided that according to our route planning this was perfect weather to leave on Saturday morning 14 August. This weather window came faster than we expected but we rather error on lighter winds than stronger.

Our first days at sea gave us a mixture of variable S, SE, SW and at times N winds all well below 10 knots. We motor sail but started to think that if the winds do not pick up we might have to re-think our route to San Diego and possibly go to Northern California, maybe San Francisco instead. We got our weather faxes through out the first couple of days and it were still calling for 10 knots of wind, but our actual conditions were much less, blowing 3 to 6 knots from the South and eventually from the North. In the end we decided that with our relatively small diesel tanks (can do about 700 nm including the containers on deck) we will change course to northern California instead, where we will refuel and wait for more consistent winds. We are heading for Crescent City (a suggestion from the Greater Northern Boater's net) and should arrive Wednesday morning 18 August.

In Tofino, I prepared at least 5 days of meals ahead of time and this came in handy. Both Dinis and myself were feeling good with no seasickness. I suppose the calm seas had everything to do with that.
For the first two days both of us were felling lethargic and we did a watch system as in who feels the most tired and that person gets to sleep. Both of us felt much more energetic on the third day and the watch system became more consistent of 2 hours off and on during the night. During the day we have a more informal watch system with overlapping time.

We saw many whales and our first onboard visitor is a small brown bird. It was noticeably tired and is hitching a ride with us. We gave her food and water, which she is eating and drinking. She has been with us for a day and night and I assume that she will stay until closer to land. Now we got little bird poop all over the deck.

During this trip we have to give praise to our little Raymarine automatic tiller pilot and the AIS again. We did learn how to fine tune the radar and use it in conjunction with the AIS. It has been a great help especially during the fogging nights.