Off We Go

Motored up to Port Angeles on Juan De Fuca Strait. Not much wind and in our face anyway. This was the first try at a sea trial calibration for the autopilot. Kept trying to let it auto learn the performance characteristics of the boat, but it just sailed in circles each try. The manual says repeat until successful, but 4 or 5 circle jerks was enough for me. Having left at nearly PA was a good stopping point  at about 7 p.m. There was a steel drum band playing on the town pier when we dropped anchor. The anchorage was an amazingly bumpy nights ride. Harbor was funnel shaped with the west end open to the strait, but well protected from the westerly winds. Unfortunately the shape gathers up all the ship wakes and bounces them off the sides onto each other and us.
Set out at 7 or so after trying to contact the autopilot makers with no success. As we left the harbor, I put the autopilot on standby and used its course adjustment buttons to maneuver past the incoming ferry from Victoria. It was obvious that there was a problem when I would add 10 degrees to the course setting and the boat would steer counterclockwise. Before the sea trial, you run through some dockside exercises to verify that the setup is correct. One of them is to adjust the course and verify that the tiller turns. They say +10 to the controls should move the rudder 10 degrees to starboard. Simple enough if you realize the actual motion of the rudder is the opposite of the motion of the tiller. Joan had verified this little test at anchor Wed. night, and I had reversed the polarity of the drive motor after I had initially set it up. Alas once you get past the distinction between rudder movement and tiller movement, it had been correct the  first try and just required switching the wires back to the original config to make it work perfectly.
Had a mixed day just riding along with the pilot. Very little wind and pretty large ocean swells running up the strait. When the shape of the strait has abrupt changes, like bays or points protruding into it, or even tide rips, the swells get rather erratic and bumpy. We were very happy to enjoy the protection of the dodger as some of the lumps slapped side of the hulls and sent spumes of icy saltwater up in our direction. After 10 hours motoring, we arrived in Neah Bay, the last port on the strait before the Pacific. Better anchorage, but lots of fishing boats sharing their wakes with us, late and early. Woke up in the morning to find that there was no  WiFi signal and no AT&T service.

Beautiful fog enshrouded morning in the anchorage. Neah Bay is a native american fishing village and very small town with lots of fishing boats. They are having a heritage festival this weekend with canoe races and all sorts of small town carnival type activities along with traditional arts and crafts and dancing.
Everyone in town had Verizon and I guess they don't share much with AT&T We had to use a pay phone to make our last few calls and were lucky to find one. Managed to get online sitting on the steps at the marina, but very spotty and we spent hours updating our navigation software and charts, and registering our EPIRB. Emergency Position Indicating Radio Beacon pretty much says it all, except that there is now a satellite network to intercept these messages and notify the proper authorities in a timely manner. Registering it means that if any thing happens and it is set off, they know it is us and will call all the Stevens I know to ask if we are really out there and might need help. Do tell them to come get us if you should receive such a call(hint, hint). We finished pretty much all our scheduled tasks and headed back to the boat. Behold there is a better WiFi signal on the boat than there was in town. Go figure.
 Not much fog so far this evening, so the plan is to go take showers at the marina and set off as soon as the fog clears enough. Plotted a course on the laptop today and it thinks it will take 5 days and 3 hours at  6 knots. The boat can do it in half that time without pushing it if there is decent wind. Should be an adventure as the wind and seas are all forecast to be pretty favorable for a good trip. We are expecting 10 to 20 knot wind from the nothwest and our course will mostly be due south with a 3-4 knot Japan current pushing us along. Wish us luck....send out the mounties in a week if we don't show up.