Good evening from Chez VALIS. Tonight’s dinner menu started with a crisp and spicy Mexican Salad, followed by a Chili main course. The meal was completed with Peanut Butter Slices for desert. A hearty meal for a hearty crew!
But it wasn’t all fine dining aboard VALIS. Today we passed Cape Mendocino and Punta Gorda. We began the day with a tack offshore to clear the point. Eventually the wind and seas were building to what may have become a repeat of our previous offshore excitement, so we jibed back in before things got too interesting. With that jibe we cleared the Cape by a comfortable margin in good winds and slightly lumpy seas. Once around Punta Gorda (a southern part of Cape Mendocino) we sailed into smoother water and lighter wind. Indeed, once we had sailed south of Shelter Cove the winds dropped to around ten knots. While we were waiting for wind, a gull landed on the solar panels, and later mover over to the Lifeslong attached to the stern rail. The bird seemed to be having a good conversation with Rich. But our new friend flew off once we started to hunt for more wind. We jibed back out and almost immediately found a nice 20 kt wind. We have jibed again, pointing slightly east (but mostly south), and should reach Point Arena tomorrow morning.
Today was another sunny one. We played with sail configuration, shaking out some of the deep reefs we had been carrying. We had sliced meat, cheese, and lettuce sandwiches for lunch, and I think I can safely say we have our appetites back.
Radio stuff: 8:00AM – nothing heard. 8:00PM – brief contacts with Nomadness (Friday Harbor) on 4A and 8A. I heard Med Viking calling VALIS on both frequencies, but he couldn’t hear me. The signals were generally weak.
At 9:00PM our position is 31d 51.9m N, 124d 23.4m W (20 miles north of Ft. Bragg, 20 miles offshore). We are sailing 6kts @ 145 deg mag. Wind is 20 kts from 340 deg mag.
We are getting close!
Regards, Paul / VALIS