sailing casita

We are currently sitting in Astoria and will be crossing the Columbia River Bar in the morning. Our first destination is Neah Bay and then the San Juan Islands. We crossed the Bar once before but we didn’t go anywhere so this will be our first passage. We are excited and a little nervous, but mostly excited. It looks like we have a pretty decent weather window, winds are forecast to be 10 to 20 knots for the next 48 hours with a 4 to 6 foot swell. We may have a south wind for a little while but mostly we are expecting NW winds, this puts the wind right on our nose but that’s to be expected for this trip. At least we won’t be in the river where the wind on your nose means tacking every 5 minutes! Plus we finally have a dodger so we will be able to get a bit of shelter in the cockpit. We are hoping for at least a little sunshine (it is July after all) but we will probably have lots of clouds and at least some rain with highs in the low 60s. The important thing is the nice wind speed and swell so any sun is just a bonus.

The dinghy is lashed to the deck, the jack lines are ready, and the cabin is secure so here we go….