{"id":1535,"date":"2024-03-17T15:54:11","date_gmt":"2024-03-17T23:54:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/svrainshadow.com\/?p=1535"},"modified":"2024-06-14T09:22:07","modified_gmt":"2024-06-14T17:22:07","slug":"passage-back-to-the-pacific-nw","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/svrainshadow.com\/?p=1535","title":{"rendered":"Passage Back to the Pacific NW"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

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?<\/p>\n\n\n

<\/p>\n\n\n

Between 2009 when we bought Rainshadow in Port Townsend WA, and 2016 when we did our passage to Hawaii, we cruised the Pacific Northwest from our previous home in Washington to Glacier Bay in SE Alaska. We did around 12,000 nautical miles along the Northwest coast over those 6 years, taking 3-5 month long summer cruises each year.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In 2016, we sailed to Hilo to have Rainshadow closer to our current home in Hawaii. We had planned to eventually continue south and west from Hawaii, perhaps sailing all the way to Australia. But then, each southbound cruising season came and went without our departure because, well, life happened.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In 2017, we were still refitting Rainshadow. In 2018, Kilauea volcano had a massive eruption<\/a> about 6 miles from our home – most people fled the area, but it seemed wrong to sail away when our community was being devastated by a massive lava flow of unknown duration. It was an emotionally stressful and scientifically fascinating time. Twice, we sailed overnight to see the lava entering the ocean along our coastline. It was a sobering reminder of what it means to live on an island with an active volcano.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"2018
Taken from about 1 mile offshore, we could feel the heat. The ocean temperature was elevated by as much as 20F, to 100F offshore. It was an awe inspiring and nauseating experience.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

In 2019, both of us had our last living parent die, which lead to the year of family commitments. In 2020-2022, the world knows what happened. Too many cruisers had stories of either being trapped with their boat in a distant port, trapped at home while their boat was in storage in a distant port, or trapped at sea because no port would let them land. Definitely not the time to sail away. Not even to another island in the Hawaii island chain.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Living on an island, we had first hand experience of the emotions associated with tourists bringing COVID to our shores. So when in 2022 the developed world began to travel again, we suspected people living on remote Pacific islands, who maybe had not yet had access to vaccines, might not be too excited to see sailors show up at their shores after their governments invited tourist dollars to flow in.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

No, the world has changed and so has the climate. Sailors need predictable winds, preferably in the range of speeds their sailboat is designed for. Just like Goldilocks, we prefer winds not too light, not too strong, but just right in sailboat design point range of 10-20 knots.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But probably the most decisive factor is, we’re getting older making us more interested in comfort than adventure. We still love sailing, so in the last years we have the physical ability to do it, enjoying beauty in known shores seems more welcoming than sailing off into the unknown.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

And so, we embarked on our second North Pacific passage, this time with two crew aboard both of whom we found via the Internet. Marius was the most experienced sailor aboard, we benefited from his wisdom. Michael was the youngest sailor aboard, we benefited from his eagerness. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Crew
The crew, taken before leaving Hilo. From left to right: Van, Marilyn, Michael, Marius<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

We had very good passage, characterized by a happy well-fed crew and light winds – too light when we got too close to the stationary Pacific High pressure system that is the dominate weather feature in the North Pacific summer climate. Rainshadow took good care of us, no major failures – well, maybe one failure just as we approached landfall.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"
Rainshadow being towed into Neah Bay by the US Coast Guard. Notice the large boat in the shipping lane in the distance.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

If you want to know about our exciting landfall, read Van’s blog entry for that day<\/a> followed by another one that tells what we learned.<\/a> <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The best lyrical record of our 31 day passage comes from the blog postings that Van made while underway. You can read them all starting here<\/a>. That’s a long, not always interesting to others, diary so let me point you to a couple highlights. The whole crew enjoyed joking about Topology Demons<\/a>. Of course, I would pick this one about cooking<\/a> as one of my favorites. Van even continued writing after landfall, writing another of my favorites, Tea for the Tillerman<\/a>. There are many more gems you can discover for yourself.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The map of our route along with a short contemporaneous commentary comes from the short postings Marilyn made to our PredictWind map page<\/a> and to our InReach map page<\/a>. The latter requires the password “fairwinds”. The former will show PredictWind’s model of the current wind conditions, not the conditions when we were underway.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Thanks to all our friends who vicariously sailed along with us, sending us words of encouragement as we made our way across the vast ocean. It is a truly amazing experience to spend a month at sea. Even when the ocean is “calm” there are swells that pass under the boat ensuring that anything that is not secured down will find its way to a new position, perhaps after first being airborne. That “anything” includes people who fail to hold on. Then there are the skies, the water, and the mysterious world of life we floated over that would sometimes surface to remind us we were not alone. And the birds, some of which enjoyed hitching a ride, either physically on our boat, or getting an air lift from our sails. Or maybe they were just after better hunting because fish sometimes congregate under a boat, even when its moving.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

After landfall in Neah Bay, and the departure of our trusty crewmates, we eventually made our way to Bellingham for a 2 week haulout to do much needed work to the hull below the waterline. Then we spent a month cruising in the Salish Sea. It’s was nice to be back sailing in those pleasantly smooth seas that exist because of the protection of the surrounding land. No swells here, just wind waves that on occasion, in predictable locations, can be so tall and steep<\/a>, a sailor actually misses those giant swells at sea.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

To view an image below as full screen, click on the image (not the caption overlaying the image).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n
\"Lumpy<\/a>
The ocean can get very lumpy when there is a cross-swell. That is, two or more swells approaching from different directions. Lumpy seas are not so pleasant because the boat motion is more erratic.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"Squall\"<\/a>
Squalls are always something to watch for. They can pack a big punch from the down draft of wind that occurs after the rain starts. Before being hit by one of these, the crew must decide whether to change course to sail downwind, adjust the sail trim or maybe even drop a sail. We were lucky in that we never encountered a really nasty one.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"Boobies\"<\/a>
We were entertained by these 3 boobies for a couple days, until we discovered just how much guano three large ocean birds can leave on the deck. Then we scared them off and rigged up sail ties so they could no longer land on the pulpit.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"Marilyn<\/a>
Marilyn swimming with a curious albatross. If we were a fishing boat, it would have been more rewarding for the hungry bird. Not much to share aboard a vegan boat.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"Vast<\/a>
Nothing but clouds, water and the occasional bird. It’s gorgeous. And vast.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"Albatross\"<\/a>
An albatross flies past while we’re doing a sail change.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"Heel\"<\/a>
The person on watch spends most their time behind the helm. Marilyn is actually steering in this photo, but most the time either the Monitor Windvane or the Octopus autopilot was doing the job. Notice the heel angle of the boat. And we’re sailing downwind.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"Raspberry<\/a>
Michael enjoyed flying our asymmetrical spinnaker, though he’s taking a break from sail trim here. We called this large area light air sail our Raspberry Rocket. It’s a great sail when the wind is aft of beam and less than 10 knots.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"Double<\/a>
Our crew was interested in our technique of sailing directly downwind using two headsails. With the roller furling headsail already deployed, we hoist a hank-on sail onto our solent stay. For light air, we can use the roller furling Genoa and the hank-on Drifter. For heavier air, we use the partially furled Genoa and the hank-on jib. A great cruisers trick that can be easy to steer if the sea state doesn’t swing the boat around too much.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"Clearing<\/a>
We did get a spinnaker sheet wrapped around the prop – all 80 feet of it. Ugh. That stopped us for about a day as we decided what to do. Marius dove twice, Marilyn and Michael once each. It was a difficult situation, but with good teamwork we were able to solve the problem and continue on our way with both sail and engine power available to us – with all crew health and safely aboard.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"Mystery<\/a>
This little solo bird visited us for several minutes. I couldn’t identify him as a bird I would expect to see in this part of the North Pacific. I don’t think he should have been so far offshore.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"Life<\/a>
During the overnight\/early morning shift, the person ‘on standby’ frequently napped on the settee. The main cabin is looking OK after weeks at sea. But the garbage is starting to accumulate in the storage box.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"Sneaker<\/a>
Marilyn became mesmerized by the MARPA feature of our radar unit, which tells the direction and speed of approaching traffic. When she finally looked up from the chart plotter, she was shocked at how close the cargo ship was to our position. A good lesson – a good lookout is critical, don’t let the fancy instruments fool you into complacency.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"Routing\"<\/a>
Downloading the weather charts and modelling was a daily task for Marilyn. And then, we would all analyze them trying and decide the best course of action for the predicted conditions.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"Lumpy<\/a>
We’re getting further north and the conditions are rough. But we had nice wind on days like this, making good progress towards our landfall.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"Fog\"<\/a>
As we got further north into colder water, fog was more of a problem. But our radar was working, as was our AIS transponder, so we could see what might be out there (as long as it reflected radar signals.)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"Monitor<\/a>
The large red thing is the wind vane on our Monitor wind vane. When the wind is very light, this large area vane works well to be able to continue to steer the boat via the nifty contraption that operates without electricity. Instead it uses the energy of the wind and water to turn the helm.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"Notetaking\"<\/a>
Our crew was happy to see that Van and Marilyn take the passage so seriously, with our historical logs and constant notetaking about conditions. Here Van is trying to calculate how many more hours we can motor based upon our fuel tank level, and how much potable water we have left (assuming our watermaker broke down that day, which it did not). He also factored in crew fatigue in thinking about our next course of action.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"Sunset<\/a>
First sunset we had seen for a month when land was also in sight. The view is of north Vancouver Island, Canada. Not where we are heading. We sailed along the coast of Vancouver Island towards the Strait of Juan de Fuca for more than a day.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"Landho!\"<\/a>
Vancouver Island, where we are not going. It was so tempting to sail into Barclay Sound and try to clear Canadian customs. But we weren’t certain there was a station to do so there, and that’s not where we wanted go. We continued on for about another 20 hours to approach Neah Bay in Washington State.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"Neah<\/a>
The entrance to Neah Bay. Just where we would like to sail into, but sadly no wind and a dead motor with the nearby danger of the shipping lane meant we requested a tow to make landfall.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"Landfall\"<\/a>
USCG boat nudged Rainshadow right up to the slip in Neah Bay. The friendly and professional crew did an excellent job. They were the first other people we saw in 31 days. They seemed to be impressed we had crossed the ocean and told us ‘you obviously know what you are doing.’ Nice to hear, especially since they just had rescued us. <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[68],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/svrainshadow.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1535"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/svrainshadow.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/svrainshadow.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/svrainshadow.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/svrainshadow.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1535"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/svrainshadow.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1535\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1572,"href":"https:\/\/svrainshadow.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1535\/revisions\/1572"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/svrainshadow.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1535"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/svrainshadow.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1535"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/svrainshadow.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1535"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}