Pacific NW

Expeditions

The seas are a raging inferno of sloppy swells and steep wind waves. Squall after squall after squall snuck up on us, looming above the horizon before unleashing torrential downpours and 35-plus knot winds. Fortunately, we are are going with the wind! Like a demented metronome we tick-tock into the troughs and launch off the swell faces. We are making fast progress however, another 150-plus miler. At least we’re getting somewhere fast.

The Beguine came over the horizon today and we passed within a mile of each other. They’re headed toward the same waypoint as we are, and it’s nice to share a bit of rough sea with fellow mariners. Taz took a bath today in his inflatable tub, down below on the cabin sole (floor). He loved the sloshing water. But he stayed in for one wave too long. The boat took a pitch in a sudden squall and all of the bathwater sloshed right out of the tub and into the bilge! It was a very definitive end to the bath-time. “Don’t throw the baby out with the bathwater” is the phrase that came to mind.

Tomorrow the winds should lighten up just a touch and we will jibe the boat over on starboard tack, and come up on the Great Barrier Reef slightly from the south. Just one more day on the bouncy ocean and then we’ll have flat (& shallow!) water from the Raine Island reef entrance to Thursday Island, for another 131 nautical miles onward from the reef entrance.