This week we focused on all of our safety equipment. We took this week to inventory all of our jack lines, lifejackets, medical kits, emergency radio equipment, lifeboat, along with going on a test run in the ocean overnight at half moon bay.
I have to tell you that this week was a learning lesson for me along with reassurance that this is actually doable. We started the week going to Sal's Inflatables and blowing up our life raft. It was a great having all the kids there and Sal was amazing and patient. He really got all the kids involved to show them what needs to be done and what is packed in the life raft. He had us all climb in and then talked us through what we will be doing step by step in terms of deploying the life raft and what it will be like out there.... Hopefully we will never have to use this but it was nice to be able to visualize for us and the kids.
Sal was wonderful and also gave us some rations that would be packed in our life boat for the kids to try. He said everyone gets one bar in the morning, one bar in the afternoon and one bar at night... can't imagine living on this for very long...
The captain (hee hee) picked the best day ever to go out on the ocean on Wednesday. We took our first ocean trip with the kids.... YES, I did say first ocean journey. We have to start sometime. The kids did fantastic. We only had to remind them once or twice in 2 days to wear their life jackets.
We were all harnessed in at all times and if we went outside of the cockpit we wore the lifejackets. It was a VERY mellow day, almost like a lake out there, a very good way to start and to do some training. We had about 5-11 knots of wind, which we were pleasantly surprised at how well the boat moved in light winds. It took us about 5 hours to get down to half moon bay because we had to tack back and forth... there was an unusual wind coming from the south so we were heading into the wind. When we got there it was amazing.... there were quite a few fishing boats in the harbor, then we saw for the first time a humpback whale! The kids were so excited. Of course you keep looking in hopes of seeing it again, and we did. The whale was circling our boat. We were in about 30ft of water and it kept coming up for air. Really amazing to see! The next morning Amaia and I looked up humpback whales in our book and we discovered that the whale was creating a bubble net to catch fish. No wonder there were so many fishing boats. The whale was doing all the work.
It was a really beautiful evening. We chose to anchor instead of dock because where the dock was located it smelled so bad from all the bird droppings on the wall break. There were so many pelicans that took up home there, I couldn't believe it. Once anchored we went to dinner, great food and really nice people at Ketch Joanne's...
On the way home in the dinghy it was dark, so I was using a flashlight to guide our way. I shined it up on the wall to see the pelicans and I guess I startled them. They were like bats flying out of a cave and diving right over our heads and into the water in front of us... This wall had at least 100 or more and as we went by with the dinghy motor they would fly off the wall and zoom right above our heads or land in the water by our boat... I didn't expect that, after the initial shock and fear of being hit the kids were really enjoying the chaos. Don't worry no birds got hurt in this venture.....
The ride home is not as pleasant as on the way down. We all got sea sick, we were heading down wind with barely any breeze so we were just bobbing out there... the swells were a little bigger, but the problem though is that it was confused seas so there was no rhythm to get used to... but it is this feeling that we will eventually need to get used to. Fun Stuff... NOT!
Congrats on your first family sail in the Pacific. Fun to hear about your dinghy adventure in the dark. Sorry about seasickness on the way home. Did you try anti-seasick meds?
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