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September 1, 2007: We cast of the lines at Anacortes after a couple of quick good-byes. Over to the fuel dock, and then to Stuart Island to catch our breath after the hectic week in preparing the boat.... and to finish some additional projects before heading out into the Pacific Ocean. It's Labor Day weekend and the San Juan's seem to be wall-to-wall boats, and all the weekend captains are making sure they get their share of time squawking on the radio.

After the anchor was set at Reid Harbor (Stuart Island), Mike and Nita from SV Odessa came over to visit. We had said our goodbyes a week before at the Perry Design Rendezvous- but it was great to see them again. I think our 'humorous misfortunes' started at this point, when I was still wearing my inflatable lifejacket- I tucked my head through the lifelines to help with their dinghy line, the lifejacket inflation line snagged,and inflated. There I was, stuck... inflated lifejacket trapping me between the lifelines. Instead of sympathy and help, all they could do was laugh at the scene.

Port Angeles was the next stop. For the first time, we really feel like we're becoming cruisers. Instead of the stares we get when we tell folks what we plan to do, the conversations with other cruisers now relate to passage plans and weather windows . We spend the evening with Jim from SV Orinoco, who is also heading south to Mexico. We decide that the best plan is to bypass Neah Bay and head straight out from Port Angeles, and then make a run for San Francisco.

9/4/07: We leave Port Angeles around 3:30 p.m after refueling and making our last minute checks. The fog is bad- we have very limited visibility and no wind. So we motor blindly (OK, with the radar, plotter, and AIS) westward towards Cape Flattery, which is the entrance to the Straits of Juan de Fuca. After several hours, SV Orinoco radios back to advise that he's broken out of the fog and the wind is picking up. Woo hoo!! We're off. About 3 a.m. we pass Neah Bay and Cape Flattery. Cindy is on watch while Steve's asleep. The seas were rough and minimal wind. All we could do was pound westward, as any turn towards the south put us in 45 degree rolls. Cabinet doors were coming out of their tracks, and anything that was even the slightest bit loose was either rattling or on the floor. We hope the rest of the trip isn't going to be like this. The good news is that Steve's new seasick medication (Stugeron) is working fine. After several hours of this slop, SV Orinoco radios back that he's finally hit decent water 60 miles out and is now veering south. We had a decent sail the next day on 9/5.

9/6/07: About 4 a.m. when Steve came on watch, we notice that our radar mount (a Questus mount) had sheared a bolt and had rotated on the backstay, rendering the radar useless and has the potential to damage it as well as the backstay. So we stabilize the mess and alter course to Astoria to make repairs. Our position at sea created good timing for crossing the Columbia Bar... it would be afternoon, no fog, and slack tide. All good things.

Repairs were made, but a storm front was coming in, so we stayed for a few days in Astoria. Because of the series of storm fronts and Buddy's unwillingness (at this point) to pee on the boat, we opted to harbor hop down the coast.
On 9/7 while sailing to Newport, we saw our first whale. After an overnight passage, we pulled into the marina for a Buddy rest stop and to cook breakfast. We meet another boat who is heading south, and the weather forecast calls for calm winds. He's going to stay docked until the winds pick up and cooperate. We decided that we could pay for fuel instead of dockspace, so we headed out. At this point, we have shrubs tied to the lifelines, in hopes that Buddy would think that we brought the yard with us. No such luck. Next stop: Eureka. We spent a few days there, again waiting for a break in the fronts to allow for an easier passage around Cape Mendocino. We were a bit anxious about this, due to stories from others that have described this as the roughest part of the trip. As luck would have it, it was flat calm as we motored the several hours around the cape. Yep, motored. No wind at all. The locals told us that: "you can count on one hand, the number of days in a year that conditions are like that." Then to the Noyo River (Fort Bragg), where we would have breakfast, let Buddy run for a bit, and time our entrance to SF Bay just after sunrise. We were concerned about the depth of the river, so we radioed the Coast Guard boat who was just getting ready to enter. We asked if we could expect 10' depths in the river. They said we could expect 6-7' if we stayed in the middle. So we followed them in, they advised that they would signal us if the depth dropped below 7' No problems. The trip has been good so far, and we wanted to finish this first leg by entering the Golden Gate at dawn, under full sail. But, as luck would have it, we had minimal wind- so we motor-sailed under the bridge. While in SF, we would visit family, get some repairs made to the boat (we found that we needed to replace our chainplates and attachment knees), and we would get a radar arch built. Because of the time to schedule the work, we would also venture up the Delta region to Sacramento as a week-long side-trip.