Fort Bragg to Eureka

4:30 am tea and toast

5 am out of the dock and into the scrum; a dozen salmon fishing boats straining to reach a sea we can barely see. 

6 am and we've been in the ocean for 45 minutes. The 5-6 foot swells are gentle enough but Jim and I are sore all over from resisting random jerks and tossing of our vessel. The fog horn is blaring. 

It's amazing that we have incurred so many bumps, bruises, burns, banged heads, splinters, jammed fingers, etc. In fact, just sitting in the chairs while being thrown about by waves bruises your legs and back. Sheesh. 

We have just listened to Benny Hill singing Ernie (The Fastest Milkcart in the West). We are about 100 songs into Bob Dylan. And we've heard 90% of our music already. Boats are SLOW.

 When does the fun start?

11 am and now it's fun. Here come the marine mammals. We see dolphins. 

We run into a couple dozen whales in freight train formation off Cape Mendecino. The Air is still and the Spouts hang for minutes. 

Then we slow down to avoid a whale swimming in front of us. He gets curious, turns back around, and we have a close and personal encounter with a humpback for 40 minutes! 

Finally we shake him, restart the engines and continue northwards. 

Alas, the good times come to an end and the water goes crappy. Waves, currents and swells! 

We had stuff rolling, flying, twisting, spinning! It was like a 5-hour, 50-mile car crash. 

I had no time or interest in taking pictures of the terrifying channel entrance, but we did finally make it in. Mostly intact. Ouch, groan. 

We celebrated with crackers and cheese. We considered shopping, or going out to dinner, then thought "what the heck!"

We dug into the back corners of the food locker and cooked up a main course of spam sandwiches with chili and cheese garnish. 

That's it for tonight, we're exhausted. 

Here's the obligatory "Jason at the dock" photo:

Looking good (feeling sore) in Eureka.