Sept 7th update. Offshore heading SE, SW, SE, SW, ...

Date Sept 7th, Time 12:20pm
45° 52' N 126° 00' W <Link: http://maps.google.com/maps?q=45+52.8+-126+00.2>
Wind speed 19 / wind dir 209, Sea State: building wind+swell, moderate, Heading 195, Speed 6.7
Barometer 1022, Water Temp 59.9, Sky Partial cloud
Log 947.1, Engine Hours 1218.3, Batteries %80 down 77Ah
After leaving Neah Bay I tried to sail for a while but the wind died and I wanted to get out of the traffic lanes and get offshore so I motored on and off until 9pm. The wind was light but I was in a good area and I was satisfied to have the motor off. The wind was 5.5kts and variable strength and direction. The swell died down until it was almost like a lake. The weather reports are for light winds monday and tuesday - this turned out to be true.
Tuesday was light wind and I spend it drifting around until around 8pm when it strengthen and finally reached 12 knots. By the time it reached 4 I was moving nicely, 5 knots had me going 2.5 knots and finally at 12 I was making progress south. Overnight the wind strengthened to 16 knots. This was in line with the text forecast for this area. Spending most of the day bobbing around was interesting - lots of quality time thinking about this and that. I also found time to actually do a bit of work and moved 5 gallons of diesel from a jug into my tank, so its almost full again.
Wednesday (today) has been good. I'm now varying between 75 and 100nm miles off the coast. I'm south of the Columbia river, currently heading on a tack offshore making good time. The monitor is steering perfectly.
The batteries started today down 55Ah as there was cloud yesterday all day and the solar panels weren't generating much. This morning the batteries were down 92Ah (out 400, around 200 usable) but there is more sun and its recovering somewhat. If I get one sunny day I think I'll get back to energy neutral, still waiting.
Jibed last night at 300 at 100nm offshore to head in and again today at around 11 going offshore again. The winds are nice.
The text weather forecasts from yesterday had the winds building again today, which is fine. The boat is handing this nicely. So far (touch wood) no seasickness and I feel good. I'm well rested, which is a little bit of a surprise. Sleeping in 20min increments has been fine so far - when I tried that at home for two days I was shattered and hated it. Now I want to get up every 20min to check things up and its going well. I'm up most of the time, but need to get some sleep.
Everything working well, spirits are high.
There may not be a post for a while (until I arrive?) as I want to minimize SSB usage as its an energy hog.
S/V Luckness, signing off for now.