pears

the crew john nic and dan

Northbound

Hi all. We actually did it. I'm sorry if my patience or sanity wore thin, but it worked, we actually made it off. Yes, Sula is now only 25 miles from Seattle, but it's a larger distance than just as the crow flies it. We're now tied to the town dock in Port Townsend. The crew is split up. John is in the local fly shop trying to piece together a serviceable tuna/salmon rig. Dan is wandering the town looking for local color. I'm at Sirens, the bar with Wi-fi. The party on saturday was an unqualified success. Much life was lived in a very small space. I didn't get too many pictures because I was too busy with the festivities but I'll post what I've got. Then yesterday we did make it through the locks and into the saltwater. I feel farily filled up with gratitude right now for all the people who have offered so much support and encouragement to help me out on this little project. I could name a lot of people, but most of all mom and dad, I can't ever explain how convinced I am that I have the coolest parents in the world. Tutu, grandpa, and all the crosetto/rumpeltes/thornton /sutton/williams /smith/palmer/dojny/welty/maury clan. Thank you guys so much for everything. Thanks also to everyone who came to the party and provided such a nice sendoff. You guys are fun! Thanks to all the lovely ladies at Creekside Dental of Issaquah, for being the voyage's only sponsor, and providing state of the art ultrasonic waveguide technology for the crew's dental needs on the way south. Join the wave. Ultreo!

This morning we woke up at 0430 and left Ballard at 0510. 10 minutes behind schedule. We had a beautiful sail to PT, and the anchor was fast at 1230.

I can't say enough about my crew. Internet dating has been a disaster for me, but what a time for the internet to pull through! Dan is absolutely the best crewmemer I could imagine. He is diligent and intelligent and patient. What luck. John, also..... can barely tie his shoelaces, but be makes every moment light and put in its proper prospective. I'm so happy to have him aboard.

standby for some pics. I don't know when I'll have internet again, but I'll report on things as soon as I can.

My Buddy Boat

Meet the original sailing odd couple, and Sula's possible buddy boat for the the way down to SF. Greg (left) is a retired police detective from Barrow Alaska. Kevin (right) is a yacht broker, and the most dangerous man on Lake Union. They do seem to get along for some reason.... and if you look closely at the left side of the picture you will notice that the name of their boat is.... yes,.... Passing Wind II. Greg insists that this refers to the fact that his craft is speedier than her heft might suggest. We'll see what happens if we reach the ocean together. I'd like to hope that Sula's slight figure will help her in anything but the strongest breeze to move a bit faster. I look forward to reporting on the actual rusults of this epic matchup. Their destination is Mexico as well, so hopefully at times we'll have a compainion out there on the high seas.

here's how to look at the weather in any place where there is a NOAA buoy

http://www.ndbc.noaa.gov/maps/Northwest.shtml

look at the satellite wind maps for a buoy in any area you want to check out.
I'm not sure how its done but they can actually measure wind speed from space across large swaths of the ocean. So the plan is I will call someone with internet and you can tell me what the wind is doing!