Crew
Copernicus with crew Bryan and Carey left Vancouver on September 11, 2011 to go sailing. This is us.
No blog, just photos of our travels.
The following galleries and pictures are in order of most recent first. You will see a few are taken by Bryan.
First Leg
Bryan and I left Vancouver on Sunday, September 11, 2011, cleared into the US, at Friday Harbor, WA on Wednesday. That's in the San Juan Islands. Then out to sea on Thursday. 12 days later we pull into San Diego at 9:30 Monday night. That was 2 nights ago (hope to get onto wifi and this out to you on Wed). In between, many mini adventures, some scary (what the hell am I doing out here scary), some fab, some amazing. It was hard work, mentally and physically. Majority of folks sailing offshore say the ride down the NW coast is the worse. We had either strong winds or none at all, but nothing that was not beyond our abilities despite our limited experience in blue water sailing. The boat was fantastic, she was dry (meaning we did not get waves on board) and rode thru the worse crap very well.
Because of the rough conditions causing more strain on the boat equipment than usual while sailing in English Bay or Georgia Straight, we broke a few things but were able to effect repairs. Amazingly we managed to scrounge together the spare parts etc. We'll be doing a few more longer term fixes while in SD.
The fantastic stuff was pretty awesome. One night I was doing a midnight watch, Bryan was catching 3 hours of sleep. Stars were everywhere, more than I have ever seen even up in Desolation Sound. The milky way was a brilliant belt across the sky. Then I saw an orange light on the horizon, I first thought a deep water marker, there were a number of them off of Washington and Oregon coast to mark the approaches for freighters etc to places such as the Columbia River. Or it could have been a freighter, but I could not detect it on my electronic navigation.....oh oh, not good. Then it started getting bigger and brighter. It was the moon rising. A half moon, I could see the contour between the light and dark side, the rough terrain emphasising the spherical shape. It rose and rose, still orange like a cheezie ( not very romantic, but that was what came to mind). As it got higher, it rose pass the layer of haze and became the yellow we're more familiar with. I could not help think of what someone from a time pre Kepler, Copernicus or Galileo may have thought, someone of the era of the ancients. You can get the sense of how they can come to believe in the gods of the sun, moon, wind. It was that magical.
Whales, close and far. The close one was a small, 25' grey coloured something, not sure what. It had a small dorsal fin. Came up from behind and passed us easily. Far away were orcas off of Washington coast. And further away from the boat, did not see the beasts themselves, just some very high water spouts. The spouts were so I high I was very glad they were not any closer. Big whales, big trouble.
One night, again my night watch, we had some strong winds and waves and no stars nor moon, dark, dark, dark. The only light was the waves and our wake which can be seen as they glowed with bio luminescence, eerie white green light. Suddenly I noticed that the glow was increasing, getting more wide spread and going in a more erratic pattern, a bad sign, could mean more rough waters. But then I noticed that some of the glowing streaks made u turns, were in pairs and 3's. Porpoises! Dozens and dozens all around the boat. Because were we going quite fast though not as fast as they can swim, it was fun for them to ride the wake, cross the bows, etc. They swam with us for about half an hour. I could not see them directly, just the glow of the water around them as the swan, jumped and dove, at times I could even make out their fins. It was high on the omg scale.
Lots of bird life off of the Washington and Oregon coast. Elegant terns that took turns trying to land on the top of the mast. Murres and murrelets, shearwaters and petrels. I think we were too far off shore in northern California to see many, though Bryan did see an albatross. A young tired finch landed on the boat a day out of SD, while we were going past the Catalina Islands. He stayed until we were about 4 miles from land. Hope he made it. As we pulled into the customs dock on arrival, we were greeted by a night heron and a great blue heron.. ... Not so much as greeted, but tolerated as we interrupted their fishing. Bryan spotted a black skimmer in the marina. Look him up.... Amazing looking bird.
Sailing is a busy endeavour, so I have not quite worked the photography into it yet, but I think once I get more adept at it all, you will be getting more visuals than blah blah blah.
Read MoreNo blog, just photos of our travels.
The following galleries and pictures are in order of most recent first. You will see a few are taken by Bryan.
First Leg
Bryan and I left Vancouver on Sunday, September 11, 2011, cleared into the US, at Friday Harbor, WA on Wednesday. That's in the San Juan Islands. Then out to sea on Thursday. 12 days later we pull into San Diego at 9:30 Monday night. That was 2 nights ago (hope to get onto wifi and this out to you on Wed). In between, many mini adventures, some scary (what the hell am I doing out here scary), some fab, some amazing. It was hard work, mentally and physically. Majority of folks sailing offshore say the ride down the NW coast is the worse. We had either strong winds or none at all, but nothing that was not beyond our abilities despite our limited experience in blue water sailing. The boat was fantastic, she was dry (meaning we did not get waves on board) and rode thru the worse crap very well.
Because of the rough conditions causing more strain on the boat equipment than usual while sailing in English Bay or Georgia Straight, we broke a few things but were able to effect repairs. Amazingly we managed to scrounge together the spare parts etc. We'll be doing a few more longer term fixes while in SD.
The fantastic stuff was pretty awesome. One night I was doing a midnight watch, Bryan was catching 3 hours of sleep. Stars were everywhere, more than I have ever seen even up in Desolation Sound. The milky way was a brilliant belt across the sky. Then I saw an orange light on the horizon, I first thought a deep water marker, there were a number of them off of Washington and Oregon coast to mark the approaches for freighters etc to places such as the Columbia River. Or it could have been a freighter, but I could not detect it on my electronic navigation.....oh oh, not good. Then it started getting bigger and brighter. It was the moon rising. A half moon, I could see the contour between the light and dark side, the rough terrain emphasising the spherical shape. It rose and rose, still orange like a cheezie ( not very romantic, but that was what came to mind). As it got higher, it rose pass the layer of haze and became the yellow we're more familiar with. I could not help think of what someone from a time pre Kepler, Copernicus or Galileo may have thought, someone of the era of the ancients. You can get the sense of how they can come to believe in the gods of the sun, moon, wind. It was that magical.
Whales, close and far. The close one was a small, 25' grey coloured something, not sure what. It had a small dorsal fin. Came up from behind and passed us easily. Far away were orcas off of Washington coast. And further away from the boat, did not see the beasts themselves, just some very high water spouts. The spouts were so I high I was very glad they were not any closer. Big whales, big trouble.
One night, again my night watch, we had some strong winds and waves and no stars nor moon, dark, dark, dark. The only light was the waves and our wake which can be seen as they glowed with bio luminescence, eerie white green light. Suddenly I noticed that the glow was increasing, getting more wide spread and going in a more erratic pattern, a bad sign, could mean more rough waters. But then I noticed that some of the glowing streaks made u turns, were in pairs and 3's. Porpoises! Dozens and dozens all around the boat. Because were we going quite fast though not as fast as they can swim, it was fun for them to ride the wake, cross the bows, etc. They swam with us for about half an hour. I could not see them directly, just the glow of the water around them as the swan, jumped and dove, at times I could even make out their fins. It was high on the omg scale.
Lots of bird life off of the Washington and Oregon coast. Elegant terns that took turns trying to land on the top of the mast. Murres and murrelets, shearwaters and petrels. I think we were too far off shore in northern California to see many, though Bryan did see an albatross. A young tired finch landed on the boat a day out of SD, while we were going past the Catalina Islands. He stayed until we were about 4 miles from land. Hope he made it. As we pulled into the customs dock on arrival, we were greeted by a night heron and a great blue heron.. ... Not so much as greeted, but tolerated as we interrupted their fishing. Bryan spotted a black skimmer in the marina. Look him up.... Amazing looking bird.
Sailing is a busy endeavour, so I have not quite worked the photography into it yet, but I think once I get more adept at it all, you will be getting more visuals than blah blah blah.
