On the Edge of the High

2 p.m. Thursday, The First of September
Lat 44, 85 miles off Siuslaw River mouth, OR

Since we rounded Tatoosh Island, two days ago, the Northerlies have sped us along. At first the waves were steep and mixed up causing a rough first night and a midnight challenge for Paul and me as we double reefed the main in 25 knots by the starlight (and flashlight).

By the next morning the wind settled to 15-20 and a beautiful, warm, sunny day ensued. We were pretty tired as we made the adjustment to sleeping 2.5 hours out every 6 and lolled around drowsily during our watches. We wanted to try out the Hydrovane a bit more but decided to wait a bit til we were rested. Eric spotted a squad of Pacific white-sided dolphin playing around the boat in the morning. The next day we had a couple of dozen early in the morning surfing down our wake in 10 foot waves. We are still trying to sort out the shearwaters and petrels, but for sure see fulmar, terns and phalarope fishing. Lots of sea life along this section of the coast south of Newport.

During the night the wind veered a bit and we found ourselves tacking downwind to stay on course. Our southerly heading has taken us about 80 miles offshore, staying at the edge of the Pacific High. We can see cloud banks forming behind us but mostly they pass us by inshore. We're averaging somewhere around 6 knots in these unexpectedly pleasant conditions.

Charlie was happy to connect with WOJO and Chuck Steward on the NW Boaters Net this morning and has used the computer successfully to email and download GRIB files so we can see the wind predictions over the coastal area.

Techie notes: We had drawn down the house bank to 70% and wanted hot water for showers, so Charlie ran the engine this morning. He was pleased to see the alternator combination put out 220 amps. This is exactly as predicted, having set the regulator to 72% of rated output. We may bump up that setting later. The solar panels are helping, but shading by the sails and clouds early have kept output low. All in all, everything is working well. We'll enjoy it while it lasts!