We made it.!! Arrived in San Fransisco last night after a non-stop trip down the coast from Neah bay in six and a half days. Anchored off Sausalito in Richardson bay 5:30pm Friday night. We did hardly any sailing all summer and the 3 days to Neah bay were dead calm and motoring, so next day when we entered the real ocean with a good breeze blowing the ocean was quit boisterous especially heading out from Cape Flattery, It was a fast change and Dorothy got sea sick by the evening. and never really recovered fully until San Franciso.
After rounding Cape Flattery the sailing was perfect, a 10 to 20 knot West wind all day and well into the night. The wind vane of Brent Swains design (a $100 dollars worth of parts) did a sterling job, just as well as the $4000 models. Decided not to go out as far offshore as had planned since Dorothy wasn't feeling great. After 1 in the morning got the engine going when wind died to nothing. We motored all the next morning then sailed again with a light North wind sailing wing on wing. Just after dark the wind started getting stronger after a hour I put our almost never used 3rd reef in the main as we were getting over 7 knots and only 6ft of genoa out. But soon our heavy steel boat was going 7 knots again, it was pitch black, no moon and I could only here the large seas breaking around us and for someone new at this it was getting scary. In the daylight I could judge how the boat was doing, but not in the black. So I hove-to and this felt safer and just drifted along until about 4am and then started sailing again as wind died a bit, with same sails up but at a more sedate 3- 5 knots.
We dont have a wind speed indicater so can only guess at wind speeds, the forecast was for n wind in the 30+ knot range. Next couple of days we sailed and motor sailed off and on saw sea lions following us and one surfing the waves. For the night sailing it was real nice having the radar with the guard band to help keep watch as I did the night watches by myself.
At Cape Mendicino there was a dangerous seas and gale warning on vhf weather radio beyond the 10 mile offshore mark. We were about 15 out so started angling in. As soon as it got dark the wind started (never in the daytime) and we had a repeat of 2 nights ago. this time I took the main down completely and left 5 or 6 ft of genoa out and ran through night like this with N wind dead on stern. Wind vane did great. This worked good but rolled quite a bit. side deck often awash.
In the daylight you could see the large breaking crests and steep waves. Late in day we were back to motoring Friday was foggy as we approached San Fransico 1/4 mile visiblity and then it started to lift as we passed under bridge. Chart plotter and radar again handy.
We are really enjoying Sausalito, lots to do here. Yesterday, did a hike into the hills behind Sausalito and over to the Golden gate.