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Ship’s Log

Notes on our adventures aboard Rainshadow

Cruise 2026 Ends in Shearwater

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We departed Bellingham June 21 after our arduous haulout work. We were exhausted from that effort, so we took our time heading north.

Trip to Haida Gwaii

Summer of 2024 had some memorable moments – some good, some bad, some terrifying.

Passage Back to the Pacific NW

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Rainshadow has done another long passage, this time from Hawaii back to the Pacific Northwest. The most common question we get is, why sail her back across the North Pacific to where we already spent so many years cruising?

Getting a 49 y.o. boat ready for a passage

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Rainshadow has undergone a refit while moored in our current Hawaii homeport. But Hilo is where wind goes to die so it’s past time for Rainshadow to have a new homeport, which means another passage.

How a 42 y.o. Nic 38 faired crossing the East Pacific

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Rainshadow safely took us on our first passage from the Seattle area to Hilo Hawaii, but not without some failures. Here’s the list of things that broke while we were underway.  [Editor’s note Dec 2022: I have updated this original posting with how we addressed each failure.]

2016 Passage to Hawaii: Days 10-19

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At this point in the passage, we are in the Horse Latitudes – that is between 30-40 N. Exhaustion is really setting in, and we are not jovial.

2016 Passage to Hawaii – Days 0-9

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We finally did it! We made the “Left Turn” that sailors in Puget Sound talk about over beers with fellow sailors, and while sitting at home poring over old Pilot Charts and Jimmy Cornell’s World Cruising Routes. That “Left Turn” means we sailed to Neah Bay at the west end of the Strait of Juan de Fuca and turned southward to the shockingly blue waters of the open ocean and to warmer climes.

Repairs and Updates Spring 2016

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For months as we considered our upcoming passage from Seattle to Hilo, we worked on a list of things that HAD to be done before we set off. The list varied in size throughout the spring, but once we reached the boat, pragmatism and schedule reduced the list to a more manageable size.

Here is the short list of what we actually completed before setting off in late June. I’ve also added some notes about the usefulness of the repair/update during the passage.

Southeast Alaska Cruise Summer 2015

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Yes, we finally made it all the way to Southeast Alaska. We traveled through B.C. as fast as we could on the northbound trip, reaching the Alaskan border in 3 weeks – we cleared US customs on June 21st.