Shortly after midnight the Tiki God began playing his lively tune: VALIS had crossed the halfway point. We are now closer to the entrance to Puget Sound than we are from the entrance to Kaneohe Bay. As of now (7:00 AM PDT, Auguat 6) we have 1182 miles to go to the Strait of Juan […]

It’s about time to lift the veil of secrecy that has until now covered VALIS’ mystery crew. We come from all walks of life, but the less said about that the better. We are: Rich (from Portland Oregon), Carl (Camas, Washington), and Dick (from San Francisco). Rich and I have been sailing together for several […]

Yes! We’ve got wind! (at least for a while…) Thursday, August 5, 2:00PM PDT Position: 39-43N, 151-47W After a day and a night of motoring across a mirror-smooth sea, we now have wind. The forecast is for ten knots from the west, but we have 16+. We are running nearly downwind with the genoa poled-out […]

It finally happened. This morning the wind was around six kts, which was letting us sail at 5 kts towards the north (the two-foot swells were also giving us a slight push). Around 11:00AM the wind dropped to less than three kts, and our speed dropped well under five. This looks like a long-term pattern, […]

Tuesday, Aug 3, 11:55 PM PDT Another lazy day here. We sailed about 43 miles from 8:00PM yesterday t 8:00 PM today, which is slightly better than the day before, and a little suprising, since the forecast was predicting much lighter winds for today. The wind has dropped off, but not by much. Perhaps tomorrow. […]

Monday, Aug 2, 8:45 PM PDT Position: 33deg 56min N, 153deg 40min W Course: 010deg magnetic Speed: 6.5 kts It’s been a pretty lazy day aboard VALIS. The wind had been steady, the seas moderate. Last night the waves picked up for a while and it was quite bouncy below, but we’ve become used to […]

We’ve been sailing more or less north over the last couple of days, with good wind and moderate seas. We should soon be hitting the light aiir surrounding the Pacific High, which is still looking very confused. Oh well, we will sail (or motor) with what we get. Early Saturday A.M. we spotted what looked […]