Here you will find tales of voyages past and present on our trusty Pacific Seacraft Dana 24, "Sockdolager," and our Bigfoot29 powerboat, "Raven," from Port Townsend, Washington, USA. In 2009 we sailed north from Puget Sound up the west coast of Vancouver Island to the Queen Charlotte Islands (now called Haida Gwaii.) In 2010 we went back to the west coast of Vancouver Island. In July 2011 we left the Northwest, sailed to Mexico, and in March 2012 we crossed the Pacific to French Polynesia, then on to the Cooks, Niue and Tonga. We spent several months in New Zealand, and in May 2013 loaded Sockdolager (and ourselves) on a container ship for San Francisco. In June and July 2013 we sailed north along the California, Oregon and Washington coasts, and in August we arrived home. In October 2016, Sockdolager found new owners, and we began cruising on Raven, a unique wooden 29' powerboat. In 2018 we cruised up to Glacier Bay, Alaska, and back. But in 2024 we had the chance to buy Sockdolager back (we missed her), so we sold Raven. We hope you enjoy reading about our adventures as much as we enjoy having them. (And there will be more.)



Tuesday, April 3, 2012

Ground Hog Day

Pacific Crossing, Day 22: Despite our best efforts to sail, we drifted 16 miles backwards toward the Northeast in the last 24 hours. There's no wind and an enormous NE swell from some big winds far away has been giving us the irony of motion so violent we have to hang on with both hands, in a flat calm. Even sleeping we have to use the leecloths. Crikey! The gods must not have heard the word "flat" in our unsailorly longing the other day. Anway, here we sit, a bit less happy than yesterday about going nowhere, but prepared to tough it out for as long as it takes.

Jim jumped into the water yesterday to clean off an astonishing amount of goose barnacle growth from the hull. He scraped, flopped around like a fish, the marine life chummed the water, and I kept a very sharp lookout on deck for fins slicing through the water. No fins were seen.

Yesterday evening gave us the classic "painted ocean" sunset. There's not much else to report.

Sent via Ham radio

Posted by at

1 comment:

  1. tracy lorraine smithApril 4, 2012 at 1:41 PM

    Not having any luck emailing. winds should pick up slightly, going from 0-5 kts to 5-10 kts the next few days out of the east/southeast.

    ReplyDelete

Subscribe to: Post Comments (Atom)