What do you get when you take a sailing couple with their classic schooner, the ship’s cat, and a tag-along bird watcher out into the North Pacific Ocean to sail from San Francisco, CA to undefined “points North” in March?

First–lots of advice not to do it. Then…underway…

Wind. Lots of it.
Gales. Three.
Rainbows. At least one a day.
Birds. Whales. Porpoise. Fishing nets. Big waves.

We motored off the Sugar Dock in Richmond, CA Monday morning March 24, put up the sails and motorsailed until we passed Cape Mendocino. Then we shut down the engine and sailed. And sailed. And sailed. Some more. North. 700 miles and 5.3 days later, on Saturday afternoon of March 29th, we pulled into Neah Bay, Washington.

We know, you weren’t supposed to be able to DO that, right? Sail north? as in “use the sails, not the engine” North? really? Well common wisdom isn’t what it’s cracked up to be. You really CAN sail up the coast (at least to the Pacific Northwest) from San Francisco. In March.

While we’re here in Neah Bay for a couple days, I’ll try to post some of “the story.” In the meanwhile, here’s a teaser photo taken by Sharon, our birdwatcher friend who joined us this week. We just bid her farewell and are now feeling a little “empty” aboard the schooner Mahdee.