Northern California Westsail Rondevous

Hello All,

How has everyone been, I know its been a while but since Jon left its been all business at the marina. We just took delivery of 2 new dock systems at our facility to replace 40 year old docks that were falling apart. In order to do that that the old ones have to be moved to make room for new ones and all the boats tied to them have to be moved as well. So we have had our hands full working overtime and 6 days a week for now. The projest should be completed by the first few weeks in November.

In all the busy work I found time to take last Saturday and go to the next Marina over from us , about a 15 minute run and attended the Northern California Westsail Rondevous. I attended one here in 2009 on my tour and had a great time. 9 Westsails showed up for the event so it was a lot of fun to see what everyone else has done to their boats. Saturday morning to afternoon was the time everyone spent boarding other peoples boats and visiting.

Bud Taplin, so called the God Father of Westsail was there visiting as well. He has a parts company in New Port Beach California that services the aging fleet of boats. He worked for Westsail Corp for a spell in the early 1970's He is a hoot to visit with and a wealth of knowledge. He boarded my boat and stayed for an hour just having a nice chat.

Saturday night we had a really nice dinner at the Trade Winds Sailing Club house and we had a few raffle prize give aways and I managed to win 3 different items. I havent been that lucky in a while, maybe I need to try Las Vegas again. I had to work on Sunday so I said my goodbyes after the event and left early Sunday morning.

Sunday I missed out on a Westsail Parade on the bay. A film editor Mike came up from Los Angles to film the parade from a chase boat. It looked like they had very good wind for it. Mike is friends with one of the Westsail owners, Randy and they are working on putting together a documentary film of the history of the company that built the Westsail boats and got so interviews of the owners them selves. They even interviewed me for a few minutes on board Freestyle. Im excited to see how the film comes out. They have a lot of research to do yet so may take a little time.

Thats what I have been doing in a nut shell. I will up load a few pics below and at some piont I will post all my going south travel pics, sorry for the delay.

I will talk to you soon.


PEACE

Settling into work

Hello All,
Started off being a lonely week here with out Jon. He left back to Basque on Friday and is starting work tomorrow. It was so cool to hang out with him again after all these years and I'm so glad he gave up all of his vacation time to help me sail the boat down, now thats a good friend for sure.

We went out sailing in the bay for one last time with the go pro on a kite and got some awesome birds eye videos of the boat in front of the golden gate which was very cool. I have the video posted on the videos link on my website.

For me it has been business as usual with work and all. Jon and I got to do a few things together while he was here but for the most part he went out on his own exploring. He had my jeep to drive around so he made a few road trips down the coast to see a few places here. I hope next time he will be showing me around his place in Basque.
Since he left I have been sorting through all my stuff I brought down. The marina gave me a locker to use so I have been slowly but Shirley filling it up with things I don't need bay sailing. The boat still needs a good cleaning inside but at least all the extra things are put away.

I will post a few pics here and in the next few days I will post more on my photos page.

Thanks to all that have followed me through the trip and from time to time I will post a blog to explain what I have been up to. For now the boat is staying put till I get some things sorted out but will be out there again soon I hope.

Have a good evening to all and I will talk to you soon.

PEACE

P.S. Enjoy the pics below

San Francisco Bay California

Hello All,
We arrived in the bay at 2 pm yesterday afternoon after spending the night at Drakes Bay anchorage. It was a 4 hour trip to get here in flat calm seas. Going under the Golden Gate Bridge is always amazing. I did it 6 years ago and was still a lot of fun a second time. A light breeze picked up as we entered the bay so we got to sail all the way into the harbor. I was greeted by my boss Erik as we pulled into the slip. It is really great to be back, I start work again tomorrow.

Today Jon and I will go into the city and do the tourist thing, Cable Cars and so on.

I will write more later and recap all the travels.

PEACE

Drakes Bay

Hello All
We are anchored 25 miles from the golden gate for the night, we are timing a tide to go under the bridge. The last 70 hours we spent out in a gale guesting 40 knots off shore. We are so glad to see the wind and sea come down. We have seen in a North sea anomaly happen the last few day and don't care to see it again .

Our last 50 hours of sailing were more than I want to explain but I will say Freestyle, performed well for our well being, like Jon says she's a turtle, slow but strong. Anyway, anchored and safe, will be in San Francisco Bay tomorrow night. Will talk about it more when I'm home.

Talk to you soon

PEACE

Sailing off the Coast of Oregon

Hello All,
We have been sailing only since yesterday afternoon and have been making good time. We did 130 miles in 24 hours under sail so needless to say we have had great wind. We have been so happy to finally sail consistently, It has been a lot of fun, reminds me of the old days.

The weather looks like it may hold out for us to keep sailing, at least the next few days, we will take it.

I was telling Jon this morning that we should try fishing, we are off shore 65 miles so I thought there would be some Tuna out here. We drug the hook behind the boat and in 3 hours time had a 15 pound Albacore Tuna on the hook. We got him aboard and filleted him. I don't know how we will eat all of it but we will be starting tonight with a nice salad.

We should be in California waters sometime late Sunday of all goes well. We will still have a ways to go but at least we will be by the state we are trying to make land fall in.

Anyway, I am going to get busy and cook up some fresh Tuna for dinner.

PEACE

Sailing the Pacific Coast

Hello All,
We left Port Angles at 6 PM last night and made it out to the Pacific at 7 AM this morning (8-13-15). The wind was against us the whole way out the Strait of Juan De Fuca and a few times I was wondering if we were going to make it out the same day. It was a slow and painful process but here we are. The wind is a light west wind but we are managing to make it work. It comes up enough to tease you a little but for the first time since I can remember the boat is moving without the engine. We have been sailing between 4 and 6 knots, it kinda comes and goes.

Anyway it's not a bad day out here, warm and not raining, as least so far. I hope the wind keeps up the good work. Sure is nice and peaceful. Now I remember why I like this way of travel.

That's all for now, will chat at you soon.

PEACE

Victoria BC

Hello All,
We made it the south end of Vancouver Island at 6 AM this morning and made port at the Capital City of British Columbia, Victoria. We are staying at the docks of the Coast Hotel. A very nice place and the folks here are as nice as they can be. We took a few hour nap this morning and after we got rested we walked into the city. Its pretty close by so didn't take long. It is a very clean place with flowers everywhere and beautiful buildings and architecture.

We thought we would play tourist and took a double decker bus tour around the city. Its not a big place but the neighborhoods and the views of the water are beautiful.

We will be leaving early in the morning for Port Angles Washington. Its a 4 hour trip due south of here across the Strait of Juan De Fuca. I will be meeting up with my cousin Toni, she is driving over from Sedro Woolley to bring me a part for my engine and to say hello. I haven't seen her for a year so looking foreword to seeing her.

The weather looks real good off shore in the Pacific so as soon as we get done in Port Angles we will head on out and down and with any luck land in San Fran in 6 days.

Enjoy the pictures, a few are from the Canadian Inside Passages and the rest are Victoria.

I will talk to you soon.


PEACE

Comox, BC

Hello All,
We made it to Comox last night about 5 PM. We got a slip at one of the marina's and took a little walk around town. We found a grocery store near by and got a few things we were out of. We then found a really nice restaurant over looking the water front and Jon bought me a nice dinner. Its a pretty good size town but being Sunday night was pretty quiet. It was partly sunny most of the day which was a nice change from pouring down rain the days before.

We left this morning at 8 AM and are headed for the capital of BC, Victoria, on the very south end of Vancouver Island. It should take us about 24 hours to get there running all night.

WE have been watching the weather and looks like we will get to go south to San Francisco by Saturday, thats the plan anyway , we will see.

I will keep in touch and as soon as I can get good internet I will post some pictures.

PEACE

Otter Cove

Hello All

We anchored 10 miles north of Seymour narrows, Mike and I in 2009, We were clueless of the narrows at the time, we just knew that as we went along we kept picking up speed, the long and the short of it is, it was a fools errand and we paid for it making land fall in Comox, wind apposed the current, made for a long night any way we are not that program this time. We will leave the anchorage on an ebbing tide and hope to make Comox BC before it turns. We need a few things fresh to eat and I need diesel for the engine to get us to Victoria, which is our destination. Then to Port Angles to check into the country of the US and so on.

Our crossing across the Queen Charlotte Strait turned out to be wind in our favor, we sailed some and that got us to the main land of Vancouver. It's been raining a lot lately, we saw a lot of the views of the island.

That is all I know for now

Anyway we are in safe harbor and as the British say and all is well.

Talk to you soon


PEACWE

Safety Cove B.C.

Hello All,
We are at an anchorage on Calvert Island BC. We got in here at 0400 this morning in the poring rain. The last few days have not been very nice but we have been moving right along. Our next leg of the trip will get us to Vancouver Island. We have to cross a body of water called Queen Charlotte Sound, which can be tricky if the weather is not in your favor. We attempted to leave this morning but the head winds were just to strong for us so I turned the boat around and returned back to the anchorage. It took us almost 2 hours to go 5 miles, we turned around it took us 45 minutes to get back, I told Jon, I think we are trying to go the wrong direction.

All is well here, the sun just came out so maybe we will get a break. The wind is suppose to come down this after noon and we only need about 6 hours to get to the other side so we will try again in a bit.
That's all I know for now.

I will talk to you soon, hopefully from Vancouver Island.

PEACE

Traveling British Columbia's Inside Waters

Hello All,
We left Prince Rupert at 6:00 AM yesterday (08/05/2015) and started down the passages of Canada. This is the first time since we left that we have really traveled inside at all so it has been wonderful with the boat staying mostly still. We had a beautiful day yesterday, it was in the mid 70's and no wind. We made some great meals and got to get some good rest. Today is calm but overcast, not a bad day just not as pretty as the day before.

We should be making land fall in Northern Vancouver Island by early Saturday weather permitting. We have to cross a 5 hour piece of open water and right now its blowing the wrong direction but is suppose to be in our favor by the time we get there.

Jon is enjoying the views and we have seen a few whales along the way. We have some good pictures of it all so I will post when I can.

I will take to you later.

PEACE

Arrived Prince Rupert, British Columbia, Canada

Hello All,
We made it into Canadian waters at 0900 this morning. The trip was a mixed bag of weather and seas. We had light winds leaving Sitka in the Gulf of Alaska and as the trip progressed we got a very good west wind, just enough to sail and run the engine. What I failed to think about was being close to shore there are huge tidal currents that effect our speed and the state of the water. At times we were moving right along and when the tide turned the waves would stack up and made us feel like what it's like to be in a washing machine. We didn't get a lot of sleep needless to say so we are here in Prince Rupert to get fuel and a little rest. We went from Sitka to here in 52.5 hours, seemed like a week.

Jon and I walked into town after getting checked into the country and took a look around. We grabbed some breakfast and did some shopping here for bread and what not. They have a really nice Safeway here so that was a treat to see all the goodies. We also got the boat topped off with fuel and I did some light maintenance this afternoon. My old Yankee sail got ripped the other day so that needs to be repaired as well. I will do that under way tomorrow.

We are going to travel the inside passages all the way down to Port Angles Washington where we will check back into the U.S.A. and plan our trip off shore down the coast to San Francisco. All is subject to change as usual but we won't be effected as much by weather inside so should make good time.

I will be in touch.

PEACE

Sitka Alaska

Hello All,

We arived in Sitka this morning to a beautiful day. Im not sure but I think thats rare here. Its the weekend but everyone was out playing and having a good time. I would love to spend more time here but we are leaving at 5 am in the morning to catch the tide out of here. The weather outside is suppose to be good so we will miss some of the inside to get south as fast as we can.

We did have a nice dinner in town tonight,Jon treated me , it is a very nice place to see and someday I will return but for now I will have to make that wait. All is well here, having the best time we can with the time we have.

I will post more when I can.


PEACE

Leaving Yakutat

Hello All,
It looks like the weather is going to finally let us leave. The weather here in Yakutat has been to bad, rain and sun off and on. when it rains though it pours. We got fuel this morning from the mobile truck and we are waiting for the tide to push us out into the gulf. We didn't meet a lot of people here, seems most are pretty busy working but we always got a wave from everyone that past.

We have a 30 hour crossing ahead of us to get to Cape Spencer and then inside, we hope the weather will treat us better this time around. We have changed our visiting ports plan because of our delay, we don't have any solid plan as of yet but I will let you know when we do.

Well we are going to cast off and get on out of here so I will talk to you soon.

PEACE

Yakutat Alaska

Hello All,
We are still in Yakutat waiting for a weather window to get to Cape Spencer and to the Inside passage. It looks like Thursday afternoon is our chance to get out of here. In the mean time we have walked to town several times. It is about a mile walk from the small boat harbor to the city proper. I will use the word city very loosely. It has 2 very well stocked grocery stores a post office, an Ace hardware store that has just about everything you may need and a bar. The main industry here is Commercial Fishing. It also has a nice size cannery to buy the fish. Everyone has been very friendly and helpful.

Outside of doing some exploring I have been doing a few boat projects that I didn't get done before we left, nothing to major, mostly organizing things inside and maintenance. I got the oil changed yesterday and changed out the fuel filters. I also retightened my rigging for the mast.

It has been raining off and on, mostly on. We did get some sun yesterday afternoon, what a beautiful place when the sun shines.

Well I need to get busy here and make arrangements to get fuel today. They have a fuel dock but they bring the fuel by a truck so I will figure out the program as to how to make that happen.

I will keep in touch and keep you up dated on our plans. Talk to you soon.

PEACE

Tied up in Yakutat

Hello All,
It's been a long time coming but we finally made a port. Not really the one I was thinking of but we will take it. We got in at 10:30 a.m. and walked to the end of the dock and back. It is a little out of town but peaceful and the water is still.

We are going to take a nap so I will keep this short. Just thought I would let everyone know all is well on Freestyle.

PEACE

Retreating to Yakutat

Hello All,
Well we got only 40 miles from going into the inside passage of Alaska when the wind that was suppose to help us ended up turning right on the bow and not just 20 knots like they said it was but 30 knots. So I am back tracking 95 miles to wait for this weather to make up its mind. We have been getting a little beat up the last 12 hours so we just want to stop.

All is well outside of that ,so far anyway I need to get outside and get the boat on coarse, I'll let you know when I get into Yakutat.

PEACE

Gulf of Alaska

Hello All,
We have been out in the Gulf of Alaska for about 36 hours now. The wind has been light thus far so have had to use the engine. The sea and swell has been tolerable with it being mostly calm. I have been watching the weather and it looks like this will hold for the next few days but I will still be holding my breath. Jon and I are making the best of the somewhat comfortable boat motion and getting some good rest. Daren gave us some Sockeye Salmon so I think we will treat ourselves tonight to a good meal.

It has been sunny off and on since we left but completely over cast as of this morning. We have not seen a drop of rain yet but I'm sure we will get our fill down the road. I just checked the temperature this morning and it is 56 degrees. I think yesterday it got to 70.

That's all I know for now, I will keep you posted

PEACE

Heading To Gulf of Alaska

Hello All,
After making it through the Northern Gulf I was watching the weather and it was calling for south east 30 knots, so before the wind hit us we ducked into Prince William Sound to let it pass. My fishing friend Daren and his wife Robin were in Main Bay in the western sound so I thought I would look him up. We arrived there at 5 pm and got there just in time as the wind started to pick up. We found a good anchorage in the bay and Daren came over to tie up to us. We had an awesome Salmon dinner and a few beers and did a lot of visiting. Our mutual friend Jason also joined us, I had fishing boats tied to both sides, I looked like a salmon tender. Funny thing is it was my tender, they topped me off with water and gave us some fresh red salmon filets.

This morning the wind had come down and turned out to be a beautiful morning. Robin fixed breakfast of pancakes, bacon and toast that was very tasty. Daren put his gillnet behind us to let it fish while we ate. He said I never get fish in this little bay, but to his surprise he did very well when he picked it back up. Jon was enjoying himself watching Daren work. He was only 10 feet away from us so we saw the whole process up close. Daren talked to his fishing tender that he has been selling fish to and asked if they could sell me fuel and they said no problem come on over and we were topped off with diesel. That was very handy indeed.

We are now heading out the Eastern Entrance of Prince William Sound continuing our trip south. We are supposed to have a few days of light winds so we will see how far we can get before the next weather system comes.

PEACE

P.S. We sailed for about 6 hours today crossing the sound, it was a good day.

Freestyle Sailing again

Hello All,
I know it has been a very long time since I wrote anything on my blog so I will get you all caught up in a nut shell as to what I have been up to. 3 months ago I took a job at a marina in East Bay San Francisco as a maintenance man. I got the job through some cruising friends I met while sailing the Pacific. We have kept in touch over the last few years and my cruising friend is the Harbor Master of the marina. He called me last winter and asked if I wanted to go to work for him. The job sounded to good to pass up so in April I packed a bag and flew out to go to work. They put me up on a loaner boat that was abandon so I could stay at the marina with the agreement that I could take some time off in July to bring my boat down to live on.

So all that being said, here I am in the gulf of Alaska on Freestyle once again. My crew is Jon from Basque. He was my crew for 6 months from Tahiti to New Zealand so I am happy to have him along. We flew to Anchorage a week ago and have been running a marathon (meaning very busy) to get my boat ready to go and also have Jon see some of our Alaskan sights. He has never been to the United States so he has been awe struck as to how Americans live.

This cruise is going to be a fairly quick one as to I have to get back to work as soon as I get into the Bay.

We have been on the water about 24 hours and the weather has treated us well so far.

I will be keeping everyone up dated as we move south so stay tuned, Freestyle is on the move once again.

PEACE