On the way

Apparently all it took for the weather to improve was for us to leave Seattle; it was gray and miserable when we pushed out of Shilshole yesterday morning, but by the time we were passing Point No Point on the way north, the sun was out and the typical afternoon northerly of the Puget Sound summer pattern was helping push us along toward Port Hadlock. We motor-sailed much of the distance after a spotty start (the winds were spotty, I mean, not us) and made it in about six and a half hours... about average for the Seattle to Hadlock run, for us at least.

Though I'm not one to tout forecasts too much, so far it's looking good for an easy crossing of the Strait tomorrow... or in fact any day this week, should we decide to delay for any reason. Actually, it's looking a little weird right at the moment. The current (1500 PDT 06JUL07) NOAA marine forecast for the east entrance to the Strait calls for easterlies of 10 to 15 knots all day tomorrow. When I looked this morning, it was calling for westerlies of that same strength. Is the current forecast a typo? Or did someone really change the prediction by 180 degrees in the course of a few hours? There may be entirely legitimate reasons for it, I'm no weather guru (and so far my guru of choice, Cliff Mass, has nothing to say on the subject), it just strikes me as odd that a weather pattern could reverse itself so suddenly and precisely. Particularly when surrounding areas retain their standard summerly northwesterly predictions. Our brethren to the north are making the same call, so odds are it isn't just a typo. Either way, it doesn't really matter to us, the wind will be on one beam or the other, but I have to say it doesn't increase my confidence in our local forecasters. I will be pretty curious to see which way the wind is actually blowing when we pull out of here tomorrow... if it's blowing at all.

As long as it's sunny, I'm content to bob along on the current all day long. We don't have any grand destination, though we're aiming to get up into the San Juans. If I floated along as far as Deception Pass and had to hole up there for the night, I wouldn't be disappointed, though. We're experimenting with taking it easy now, so I have to tell myself these things so I don't end up rushing around trying to make it to places I don't ever really care about on any given day.

The general plan, though, is to get into the San Juans, cross over into Canada, and continue up the Strait of Georgia somehow (we haven't decided which side yet, and may allow the weather to decide for us) to Desolation Sound. Then we'll hang around there as long as we can before we have to get back to civilization in mid-August for Mandy to make a trip back to Wisconsin to visit family, and for me to make it to a mid-summer backpacking trip.

For those of you on our SPOT list, we'll be spotting along the way so you'll have a fair idea of where we are, but don't expect daily updates... we're trying to take it easy, so if we spend a few days in one spot we're not going to spam you with multiple reports. If you don't see an update on a given day, you can assume we're sitting around in roughly the same place as the day before, enjoying the scenery.