15-30 August (1/3)
"TO ALL STATIONS, TO ALL STATIONS, TO ALL STATIONS. THE SAILING YACHT 'O DADIS' HAS JUST ARRIVED IN ENSENADA. PLEASE BRING US 4 CERVECAS IMMEDIATELY. OVER."
After sailing along the Pacific Ocean for 15 consecutive days and nights, having seen the land for only a few hours after our departure and before our arrival we entered Ensenada, Mexico, on Sunday 30th August. I just cannot express in words the experience I had from this trip. As a conclusion it is the only trip that had a duration of 2 weeks, was felt like 2 hours and left experiences of 2 years.
We were four people on-board. I mentioned John before but not Bernd because he came inside the last time. Bernd is a lovely old experienced sailor that eased a lot many difficult tasks.
I would devide the whole journey in three 5-day long periods:
Days 1-5: hours after our departure I suffered from motion (sea) sickness. The first couple of days I was not being able to do nothing except a little steering. We headed SouthEast into the ocean and reached a distance of about 250 NM away from Cape Mondecino, Oregon. The reason for that path is a huge under-water mountain extending about 1000 km along the ocean that produces difficult sea conditions. Fortunately, no storm and no bad weather, only some waves of maximum 3 meters high. That was the most difficult and dangerous part of the trip because in case something happened we must have approached the hostile coast of Oregon.
Days 6-10: during that time we passed San Francisco and turned SouthWest to come closer to the coast. I was already feeling better and started to make long shifts on the steering wheel of about 12 hours a day! The others just kept on during the night and prepared food. The weather started to become milder, the sea turned from black to blue and the sun showed us its warmness and beauty.
Days 11-15: at that time that we started missing the land we felt it coming closer. We saw dolphins and segals and spoke to container ships. Unfortunately no one was greek, the greek ship owners have left the region because of the financial crisis. The busy coast of California Bay was only 100 NM away and the weather and sea became calmer. We continued down along the US's southeast "belly-coast" partly sailing and partly with the motor and entered Ensenada's Marina in 11.30 am, 30th August 2009.
We were four people on-board. I mentioned John before but not Bernd because he came inside the last time. Bernd is a lovely old experienced sailor that eased a lot many difficult tasks.
I would devide the whole journey in three 5-day long periods:
Days 1-5: hours after our departure I suffered from motion (sea) sickness. The first couple of days I was not being able to do nothing except a little steering. We headed SouthEast into the ocean and reached a distance of about 250 NM away from Cape Mondecino, Oregon. The reason for that path is a huge under-water mountain extending about 1000 km along the ocean that produces difficult sea conditions. Fortunately, no storm and no bad weather, only some waves of maximum 3 meters high. That was the most difficult and dangerous part of the trip because in case something happened we must have approached the hostile coast of Oregon.
Days 6-10: during that time we passed San Francisco and turned SouthWest to come closer to the coast. I was already feeling better and started to make long shifts on the steering wheel of about 12 hours a day! The others just kept on during the night and prepared food. The weather started to become milder, the sea turned from black to blue and the sun showed us its warmness and beauty.
Days 11-15: at that time that we started missing the land we felt it coming closer. We saw dolphins and segals and spoke to container ships. Unfortunately no one was greek, the greek ship owners have left the region because of the financial crisis. The busy coast of California Bay was only 100 NM away and the weather and sea became calmer. We continued down along the US's southeast "belly-coast" partly sailing and partly with the motor and entered Ensenada's Marina in 11.30 am, 30th August 2009.
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