Some images from the last little while...

I found some more pictures on my camera that I hadn't gone through yet.  There are a few from Hanalei, a few from my passage and a few from here at Neah Bay.

A typical weather forecast for Hanalei.  It was a tough life...

There was a little river that feeds into Hanelei Bay.  I took a trip up the river in my dinghy.  It started wide and got narrower and narrower, until I had to turn around.

I saw Jeanne Socrates leave Hanalei for her passage back to Victoria, BC.  On her return passage she crossed her outbound track and completed her circumnavigation crossing south of the five capes.  Impressive.

Jeanne Socrates on Nereida leaving Hanalei.  July 13, 2012,

I didn't take very many pictures during my passage.  I think I said the same thing on my last passage, the passage from Mexico to Hawaii and promised to take more next time?  Didn't happen.

A little well behaved squall.  Day 8, July 21st.
Around 37° 30'N, 163° 45' W.

A little later than the above picture.  Beautiful weather, although not
much wind.  Going 3.2 knots in 6.5 knots of wind.

A little after the picture above.  I have a log book entry of my doing 6.0 knots in 11
knots of wind with the apparent wind at 8.4 @ 108° starboard - the wind behind the beam
for the first time on this passage!  By the  next day I was going upwind again...

I arrived with a cloudless sky into Neah Bay, which is rare.  There had been no clouds for at least a day which was welcome after all the clouds on the second part of this passage.

Neah Bay, the evening of my arrival.  August 4th, 2012.

By now the weather here has turned more typical...

Neah Bay.  August 7th, 2012.

So, one little story...  A few days ago I was at the fuel dock buying a gallon of gas for my dingy while there was a sailboat getting fuel.  I approached and we got talking, later we had coffee at one of the coffee places here in town.  Aboard Genesis III were Paul, Mary and Derrick.  They are heading south from here to California and Mexico.  I spoke with them about my trip a little and for a few moments there I felt like an experienced cruiser - the Man Who Had Done It.  Later that afternoon I was returning to Luckness and stopped in to visit with Ken on Spindrift, a 28' ketch in the anchorage beside me that I hadn't met yet.  Spindrift looks interesting, well maintained, seaworthy and like it had been somewhere, but its not an imposing boat, I figured it had been sailing around these waters for a while.  It turns out that Ken has been around the world in Spindrift, around Cape Horn, the Cape of Good Hope.  Thailand, New Zealand, Australia, many years in the South Pacific, Brazil and on and on.  He took 18 years doing his circumnavigation and has seen a lot.  Ken is also a single hander. He finished his Hawaii passage two weeks before I did.  He encountered a gale along the way, found out that his engine wouldn't start when he was in the Pacific high and ended up taking 28 days to finish his passage.  He sailed into anchor here at Neah Bay after bobbing around for three days trying to complete the last 50 miles in the entrance to the Straights of Juan de Fuca.  I feel good about my year of cruising, no doubts about that.  However when talking with Ken I remembered that I'm someone who is just starting out in this cruising lifestyle, with a lot still to learn.  I've finished my first year and have learned a lot - but there is so much more to learn!  My sailing skills could be improved a lot, my understanding of weather has barely scratched the surface of what I would like it to be - in almost every area of the skills necessary for this cruising lifestyle I can learn more.  I seem to know enough to get by but I like the fact that I can continue to learn more, that I remain a student of this lifestyle.  Its exciting, as there is so much out there in the cruising world to see and that I want to see.

Anyway, I've been here for not quite a week now.  I'll probably stay around for another day and then leave on friday starting my slow return to Seattle.