Ucluelet to San
Francisco: 7 days, 750 miles
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| We didn’t think we would leave for
points south as fast as we did. The idea was to stay in the Ucluelet and Broken Island
group and wait for a minimum 4 day weather window. The window came while we were still
fresh food provisioning and getting last minute chores done for open water sailing. But
there is no way on earth that we will ever start a major passage on a Friday, and so
Saturday August 28, 1999 at noon we weighed anchor and set off for San Francisco. |
| We had decided to stay about 50 miles
offshore to avoid the majority of commercial traffic. We also anticipated the weather and
winds to be more stable at that distance. Leaving from Ucluelet placed us 30 miles
offshore at Cape Flattery which we passed late that Saturday afternoon. There was a fleet
of fishing boats off the Cape that we easily avoided that first night. Our first 12 hours
in the ocean was patchy fog and drizzle, but conditions improved as we sailed further
south and we found we needed to use the radar only sporadically to avoid freighters at
night. |
| We really had perfect weather for the first
three days of the passage. Winds steadied from the west for several hundred miles then
veered into the northwest off the coast of Oregon before disappearing completely off
northern California. Sea life abounded, especially at the beginning of the trip when we
were accompanied by a large flock of sooty shearwaters. There were also big groups of
fulmars and petrels, but our major excitement was caused by several sightings of
blackfooted albatross. One day, as we sailed along, two humpback whales crossed directly
ahead of the boat. We held our breath and hoped they wouldn’t decide to stop but of
course they just kept on their way. We saw other whales rather further off, usually just a
tail or the spume of their breathing. Occasionally dolphins accompanied the boat and as we
got further inshore, we saw mola molas (sunfish – very bizarre creatures which look
like a large shark with the back end and tail cut off) sunning themselves on the surface
and being harassed by gulls. |
| The clear nights were very beautiful. Living
near the city as we have for the past several years, we had forgotten the brightness of a
clear starry night, with the Milky Way lighting the ocean until the moon rises to dim the
stars. On Paula’s late night watch (4 to 7) Orion had risen, giving us reassurance
that we were indeed heading south toward, we hope, warmer weather. There was not much
phosphorescence. |
| While we were well offshore (fifty to sixty
miles) we saw very little traffic, but as we moved closer inshore we saw freighters (very
scary at night) and quite a few fishing boats. Often the fish boats had extremely bright
lights which we could see for miles before we encountered the boat itself. The radar
helped to identify them, particularly later on in the passage when the nights got foggy. |
| On day three the weather fax was predicting
deteriorating conditions further south with wave heights off Cape Mendecino predicted to
be 3-4 meters and 30 knot northwesterly winds. We decided to change course and stop in
Eureka, Humboldt Bay and wait for the weather to settle again. The decision was made 100
miles away from Eureka and we ended up motoring the whole way on day four. |