At this point we are a good ways down the coast, almost to San Francisco, and we have had no significant problems. Perhaps we have been overly cautious with this "duck in, duck out" harbor-hopping approach, but no one has been hurt yet, and we are still friends. We have had some bad weather, some very strong winds and some rainy days, but we have managed to stay tuned to the weather forecasts and be in port for the nasty stuff

Things got really very stressful during the last couple of weeks before we left. We were still finishing fairly major construction projects on the boat, trying to move our belongings out of our house to the barn for six years' storage, and sell the house at the same time. We got it all done, but what a chore!

It was wonderful to see so many of our friends at our goodbye dock party. We both wish we could have had more time to talk with all of you, but it seemed we just kept trying to show the boat and answer questions. Thank you all so very much for the cards and many bon voyage gifts. The food was great too. Did you all know we collectively sank the dock? Yep, the next morning when we woke up, there had been so many of our friends on the dock that the Port of Poulsbo marina office houseboat rode up over the (sinking) dock and got stuck there. We had to find some people to walk to the back of the houseboat office so we could pry the bow free from the dock. We are sorry that we did not get to talk enough with many of you, but thank you again for the gifts of wine, books, cards, and food. We will remember you in our hearts as we go along our way.

The very day of the dock party we received two offers on the house, the first one came through and a week ago, in Newport, Oregon, we finished signing the escrow papers, so we are no longer homeowners. We are both glad that worry is over. Special thanks to our dear friends Jim and Carol Haskins who loaned us their extra car for that entire two weeks. We don't know how we would have gotten it done without that car.

 We went to Edensaw Lumber outside of Port Townsend and bought a HUGE 9/4ths plank of purpleheart, a wood so heavy it sinks in water. What a chore we had wrestling that plank around, but we finally got it beaten into submission and fashioned into new super-strong rudder cheeks. Oddly, when the raw purpleheart was varnished, the color came out very close to the cranberry sheerstripe and bootstripe we have already. It is nice to have the tiller more tightly gripped by the rudder cheeks, too. We can feel the smallest vibrations of the rudder through the water when Active Light is sailing well.

We performed many other refit tasks as well at Fleet Marine, . . . new lifelines, reattached the dorade vents, new running lights, new zincs, greased the Luke feathering prop, made tie-downs for all four of our anchors, put the acrylic glass in our new homemade dodger (we used Lucite-Tuf). We made new wedges for the mast step, a new mast boot, tuned the rig, and Nancy stowed and stowed and stowed and . . .

 And on Sunday morning, August 20th, 2000, at a bit before 6:00 am we left Port Townsend to begin our journey. Coincidentally, our friends from the Louie Louie Yacht Club (of which we are proud members) toasted us on our way the previous night. Special friends Larry & Sue Stine were up on the docks at 5:45 am to wave us goodbye. We will miss them all.

That first day of motoring to Neah Bay set the tone for every subsequent leg so far in that we are continually repairing, installing, bringing into functional duty, more and more systems and pieces of equipment as we go. It has not been sufficiently stated how unprepared we are as we begin this trip. The day before we left, we had no running lights. Motoring down the straits, we obtained first a depth meter, then the knotmeter, and finally the wind gauge. At this point, these were just barely hanging in there electronically. There were wires everywhere, . . . everything thing open to the elements. But, thanks to our pretty successful hard dodger, everything stayed dry. We got our old Autohelm electronic steering to working and even attached the new ship's bell. When I retired over a year and a half ago, I never imagined we would be so unprepared for this beginning, . . . I have worked full-time at nothing else but boat preparation since that time!

We are traveling in company with Mike and Mary Curry, also of Poulsbo, aboard a Waquiez 43 named "Two M's". They are Mexico bound as we are. We both anchored up in Neah Bay for the night. We took on diesel the next morning. Neah Bay has changed so much in the past three years since we were last there. They have new docks and a stone jetty to protect against rolling, . . . much improved over the old facilities. But the bay sells the same due to the continued practice of discarding fish cleaning scraps into the bay.

Motoring out of Neah Bay next morning, we rounded Tatoosh Island and finally headed South. Winds were light out of the North, so we motored all day and night to arrive at Gray's Harbor about dawn. We had no trouble getting past the bar, really a piece of cake. Nancy and I began our custom of alternating two hours on, two hours off for the watch. It seems to take about 15 minutes to make the watch change, so we don't start counting the time for the off watch person until he/she is down in the bunk trying to sleep. Our hard portside bunkboard we built is working out very well as a sea berth. Even when it is lumpy, you can always shove pillows between your tailbone and the bunkboard to stay stable enough to sleep.

Nancy's Mother, Betty, and both sisters, Merle and Linda, and Linda's husband Gary drove up to meet us in Westport. They brought us the boat awning material we had ordered from SailRite, and we decided to off-load a number of things, including our little TV/VCR because we are really low in the water. It was great to see them and we had a good visit and lunch together.

After a day's rest we set out for Newport, Oregon. We typically wait in port until a low pressure cell passes by, then we poke our nose out for a day or two run to the next port. This technique has worked well so far. You do not get down the coast very fast, but it is safe. This leg was another overnight motorsail. We seem to be burning about 0.45 gallons of diesel per hour at a speed of 5.8 knots, that's at 2100 RPM.

 Two comments about making these coastal passages at night; the roller furling jib really makes sailing easier and safer because it is so fast to deploy if a breeze pops up, so fast to reduce sail if the wind gets too strong, . . . and you don't even leave the cockpit. You were right, Carol Hasse. Secondly, I don't see how you could safely make these nighttime legs without radar. It gets so foggy and dark, we wind up just staring at the radar screen on the six-mile range throughout the night. And when we close with the coast, we put it on the 24-mile range to pick out the bay or the entrance jetties. It really makes the trip much safer. Again, you were right, Carol!

We stayed a couple of days at Coo's Bay, it blew pretty hard one day, drizzled the next. Even the fishermen didn't go out. Marina charges were $11 per night and we could get a great breakfast of two eggs, links, hashbrowns, and toast for $2.95 at the head of the dock. The fishermen here were a particularly scruffy-looking lot, would not speak to you for anything. I wore my karate tee shirts and we had no problem.

In Coo's Bay we picked up a third traveling companion. Peter and Terri aboard the 36-foot motor trawler "Anna B" asked to accompany us down the coast and they have been with us ever since. They are good people and we three boats have had many good pot lucks together in port. They are from the Vancouver, WA area. We are meeting lots of people Mexico bound, . . . mostly sailboats, most of them intent on doing the Baja Ha Ha race as we do.I am impressed by the camaraderie amongst these cruising folks. Everyone seems so willing to help, so out-going and friendly. Of course, we all talk about boats all the time, which is alright by me.

From Coo's Bay to Crescent City, CA was a long leg that started off poorly. We left around noon in a drizzle with overcast skies and found SW headwinds to be stronger than expected, 15 knots right on the nose. With the lumpy head seas, our boat speed was reduced to 3 knots or less for several hours until the wind lessened. The NOAA marine weather forecast predicted the wind to swing around to the West, but it never did. There was a beautiful sunset as the skies gradually cleared. Nancy requested a beans and rice supper. She adheres pretty closely to the "BART" system of stomach control when offshore, . . . that's supposed to be Bananas, Apples, Rice, and Tea, but she substitutes Beans for Bananas. We lit the Dickenson Antarctica diesel cabin heater and were dry and comfortable below. We watched a million brilliant stars overhead. We arrived to an almost deserted Crescent City around noon on Labor Day. We tied up to a fish boat workdock and hiked into town about a mile to find a Safeway store.

In Eureka we continued to work on the boat. We finished installing new running rigging, installed the lazy jacks to help in furling the mainsail, and rigged a double handy-billy as a combination boom vang and jibe preventer. That should give us safer offshore mainsail control. In every port we get a little safer and more ready to sail offshore. We still have the problem of being overloaded, . . . and we haven't taken on provisions yet for a long trip! The boat is especially down in the bow. We left in such a panicked state of hurriedness, we just threw everything into the forward bunks. We are not even certain what all is up there. We will need to get rid of more stuff to get the bow up. We have been going through all the tools and hardware, moving weightier items to the bilge in ziplock baggies where possible, trying to get the weight out of the ends of the boat.

So that's our story thus far. Our new floating home is dry, warm, and comfortable. The most unpleasant things are that many times it is awfully rolly motoring downwind in the very light north winds off the coast and it is hard to get around without a car once we get to port. In Newport, it took most of a day to catch bus to go to the Helly Hansen outlet store only 22 miles away. Here in Eureka, all six of us made a trip to Costco, two miles away, . . . we went there by municipal bus, for which we waited for half an hour, came out of Costco loaded with junk, . . . split the fee for a cab back to the marina. It all takes more time to shop.

We have decided to stay yet another day here at the Woodley Island marina in Eureka because the winds are forecast to peak at 25 knots from the north tomorrow (Sunday). We plan to push on around the somewhat foreboding Cape Mendocino Monday. For those of you from Esquire Hills school where Nancy taught, Charles Bonntrager and his wife were in this same marina a week before us. He is doing well, has had some weather and mechanical problems but seems to be coping well.

This has been long and chatty letter. They will probably get shorter as we get down the coast and the novelty of this sort of communication wears off. We have discovered that we can log on to the Internet for email at the marina office. Thanks for the email from many of you. We'll try to get this posted Sunday night and send an email notice to you all on how to get here and be writing to you later.

Thanks for your love, your concern, and for being our friends!

Nancy & Neil
S/V Active Light
Eureka, CA