Dave signed on for an adventure with his buddy Joe that took all summer to prepare for: the Coho Ho Ho rally from Seattle to San Francisco.
A flotilla of sailboats head up & around the Washington coast and sail offshore — no stops! — down the coast. This annual trip takes so much planning & coordinating that it’s a summer-long set of educational seminars too: prior participants shared their knowledge while everyone geared up for the 1-2 week trip.
After much consultation and discussion about winds and weather, the crew headed out early on Wednesday, August 20. The plan was to get to Port Angeles for a last stop for supplies. After that, out to sea! Each of these folks is taking a shift to helm the boat, about 3 hours out of every 12, or all hands on deck as needed.
Here’s how they did over the first day. Dave was at the helm from after Port Angeles to just about Neah Bay, motoring to avoid commercial tankers.
Then, after an attempt at sleeping, he took another watch as they turned to go offshore. Bye-bye, cell coverage, hello sails!
Thursday the 21st was spent getting down the length of Washington; now it’s Oregon’s turn to host Tango off its coast. Here’s where they’ve gotten to, by mid-morning on the 22nd, below. I’m hearing that they have lots of rolling, and winds gusting to 28 knots from the north, so they’re running downwind, making good time.
I’m also hearing they’re down a crew member! Joe was feeling under the weather on Friday; so glad there are three people to cover shifts, and I hope he feels better soon.
Saturday morning has the boat getting closer to California, but not yet. They are now thinking they’ll be in San Francisco around Monday or Tuesday.
On Sunday morning, the tracker shows them opposite the big redwoods in California, though still well off the coast, with all four crew members in good shape to handle their watches.
Monday morning update: they are in reach of San Francisco Bay today! They are hoping to go under the Golden Gate bridge in daylight. Unfortunately, that was a bit of a push. They arrived at the dock in San Francisco early on Tuesday morning, looking forward to a calm sleeping opporunity. Congratulations to the whole crew!
