Notwithstanding the chaos described in the previous post, it has been a remarkably placid passage so far. That might sound a little contradictory, I admit, but there are different levels and sources of chaos. The chaos described in yesterday's post comes from the motion of the seas as they relentlessly wrestle with the hull. They are seas we don't find in Puget Sound: large, rolling swell sliding in from some storm a thousand miles out in the ocean. The swell reflects off the land mass under water and on shore, combining with incoming waves to create a jumbled, confused, chaotic mixture that tosses the boat about as she plows on through it all.
By placid I mean there has been very little wind or weather. As much as I'd like to be able to say we have sailed the whole way down the coast, as I expected we would do, the truth is we've been motoring along at roughly six knots, bouncing, rolling, punching and pitching our way through calm air and no weather.
I'm not the kind of sailor who sits around waiting for the wind to show up. I've got places to go, people to see, miles to put under the hull. If there's no wind, I fire up the diesel and get where I'm going regardless. Even if it means motoring for days on end through still air. It's better than sitting still in still air.
In retrospect we could have found more wind further off shore, but that would be hindsight. The forecast was for a mixture of light air and perfect sailing. So far we're seeing a lot more of the former than the latter. I don't mind playing a little conservatively. Had we gone farther out, we could have found better wind and smoother seas. We could also easily have been beat up by too much of a good thing and much bigger seas. Ya pays ya money and ya makes ya choices. And maybe you learn from them.
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