It is the third day of our trip from Seattle to Portland. I have to say that the sail has been surprisingly smooth. None of us felt sea sick during this whole trip, and there was no need for the buckets. I hope I did not speak too soon. There is still a few hours left before we reach Portland.

A few of us learned to tie knots from Capt. Mark. I learned the bowline knot, and with Maura’s help, can do it with my eyes closed. I hope I have done it enough times to not forget it. The second knot which I learned, but not practiced much is the water knot. I am sure these will come in handy.

Yesterday, we spotted some whales at a distance. Unfortunately, the sound of the motor did not bring them any closer. Maura, our unofficial photographer was responsible for most of the pictures we have from this trip. I have seen Jeremy take some, and I took some videos with my camcorder. There isn’t a whole lot of exciting things going on around us to keep us busy taking pictures!

One of the highlight’s of this trip is Hannah’s cooking. It is amazing how she can prepare wonderful meals for 9 of us using bare essential camp-style stoves. I should say that I have not had such healthy and nutritious food for three days in a row!

Right now, we are sailing along the Colombia river. It is going to be a long journey to get to Portland, and I am sure we are all eager to get to land. Overall, this would likely be my smoothest sail ever. I still remember the last time I went fishing in the pacific- it was not a pretty sight! I will definitely miss the crew- Capt. Mark, Brent, Maura, Hannah, and Jake), and my fellow passengers, Andy, David, and Jeremy. I hope I will have an opportunity to get onboard 2041 one more time before the voyage ends in 2012.

• Vasanth Mohan, U.C. Berkeley Haas School of Business

I find naps to be much more satisfying than long hours of sleep. It was about 4:30 this morning when I decided to get out of my bunk. We haven’t quite made it into open ocean yet, that won’t be until around noon. I find the trip relaxing though, and that may be in part due to the fact that there’s not a whole lot to do if you aren’t part of the crew, but I’m enjoying myself. We watched Mad Max last night after dinner, or at least part of it. It’s a pretty good movie and I think I’ll be watching the rest when I get back. The crew is such an interesting group of people! There are so many interesting stories they have to tell, especially the Australian. I’m going to try to catch some pictures of the sunrise in a couple minutes, so I’ll be on my way!

• David Green, University of Portland

After an incredible chicken burrito bar dinner last night (thank you Hannah), we anchored just offshore of Port Angeles for the night. The temperature dropped throughout the afternoon, and by the time we pulled in for the evening, Mark was getting snowed upon up top. After dinner, Brent made an executive decision to watch Mad Max 3- Return to Thunderdome, and we were all a bit disappointed when the computer file it was stored on cut out about three quarters of the way through. We all called it a night and went to bed around 10pm.

Mark and Brent woke at 3 am and pulled anchor. When I woke up at 9 am, we were just pulling out of the sound and raising sail. The wind was light and the seas calm. The clouds from last night had drifted off and it was a beautiful day. The rest of the day was a tour of the rugged Washington coast off the port side, and a beautiful open blue ocean off to starboard. A great day for sailing.

• Andy Boespflug, University of Portland

This morning, the crew of ‘2041’ welcomed our very first passengers onboard for the leg from Seattle to Portland, OR. We are very excited to finally have guests and be able to share this experience with them. We have four student passengers onboard (that makes 9 of us sleeping on the yacht) and you will be hearing from many of them in the next few blog entries. The weather has been ultra cold, with intermittent sleet and snow and yet all of our spirits are high and we are really excited to be back on the water! I will sign off now, so you can hear from our guests.

Cheers, Maura

20:00: Today we departed Seattle and are on our way to Portland, OR. Currently we are in the Strait of Juan de Fuca and are making our way out to sea. The ship is amazing and the crew is great. There are 3 other students onboard and we are having a blast. Tonight I believe we will make a very brief stop in Port Angeles, before heading out to sea very early in the morning. I am looking forward to the rest of the voyage.

Jeremy Fisher, University of Portland

As each day blends into the next it’s all of a sudden time to set sail again. Three days in Seattle and the only Seattle flavor we got to experience was a quick sneak away to the famous Pikes Place Market where Brent, Jake and I grabbed a cup of Joe at the first Starbucks ever and then bought some fresh produce for the next leg of the journey. I could have spent hours picking fruit, smelling flowers and watching freshly caught fish get thrown across the crowd but we absorbed the smells, sights, and sounds and got back to the boat where there is always work to be done. Cleaning up from one journey and preparing for the next takes a lot of energy and leaves little room for free time so I think it is safe to say that we are all ready to get back to sea where the solitude and (often) the madness of the open waters is therapy for the soul.

At each port we give tours of the boat and today Maura handled the tours and surprise radio interview with grace. I was running around trying to stock the boat with enough food for 9 hungry sailors! This afternoon, in the midst of it all, 300 gallons of soybean oil was fed into the belly of 2041. She’s a hungry beast and the task took over 4 hours but she’s full now and ready to take us where we need to go. In the middle of the daunting task my dad and stepmom arrived with fresh Washington grown asparagus….enough for every day of the voyage. Yummy. I snuck away to a delicious seafood dinner while Brent and Jake stood in the surprise spring hailstorm that Seattle so graciously bestowed upon us and with freezing fingertips they filled her up. Thanks guys.

So….Round one- Success. Round two- here we go. Happy Sailing.

Hannah Huntley

We arrived in Seattle yesterday after 8 days straight at sea. Living in close quarters with 4strangers on a 67 foot yacht in rough weather conditions is no small feat. I am proud to say we all survived and are better and stronger for it. The yacht held up like the champion she is – braving up to 40 knot winds and all sorts of weather. Each of us on board could learn a thing or two from this boat. She is steady, confident and silently goes about her duty. She seems to be clear about her mission, having traveled around the world spreading hope for future generations. She may have a fresh coat of paint these days, but her soul shines through and speaks loudly to all who are near. I feel like after these eight days, the crew is really coming together as a team. We come from very different walks of life – we are a fabulous mix of Americans and an Australian, naturalists, biking fanatics, sailors, kayakers,stunt men, biologists, business people, world travelers, students, activists and dreamers. The one thing we all have in common is that we are dedicated to making a difference in this world. Here is to a fantastic start to the voyage! I look forward to all that we can create together as a team during Phase 1 of the Voyage for Cleaner Energy.

Sweet Dreams Seattle.

Cheers,

Maura, ‘2041’ Communications

Good Day to all,

Its a crisp cold morning here as we enter Admiralty sound inbound for Seattle Washington . We have been at sea for eight days now and have traveled across 1023 nautical miles of the Pacific Ocean to reach this place. Up topside alone on the dawn watch, as I look out at the grey light filling the overcast sky and feel the chilling bite of the wind on my hands and face, I am reminded of how far we have come since sunny warm San Francisco , CA . It is a good thing to get out and stretch the soul, get a little uncomfortable, see something new, reconnect with the earth, and really feel what it is to be alive on this planet. For me sailing up here in the cold latitudes was never part of the dream. I have always been drawn to the tropics, flip flops, shorts, palm trees and coconuts kinda cruising.

It is beautiful here! What I would have missed had I not come this way. Funny how we can get trapped in our ideal of what is enjoyable or not, comfortable or uncomfortable, thriving or suffering. It feels wonderful be bundled up sipping coffee and admiring the snow capped peaks from the deck of our good ship 2041. Watching the light slowly win out over the grey of dawn as if a master artist was adding color to the palate of their painting that is being created before me now. Had I stayed home safe and warm I would missed all this and what is to come next.

Our vessel is running on vegetable oil, solar and wind energy but mostly it is powered by us – our bodies with muscles and tendons to pull on lines that control our sails and our imaginations to give us the will to get out here. It takes us and we take it to these fantastic places. The need for clean energy is so very visible at moments like these, when one can see clearly that an environment which has been slowly evolving for millions of years must hold that course. If we change course to quickly in our boat we loose control, we crash jybe.

Yesterday we entered the Strait of Juan De Fuca turning off the wind for the first time on our voyage. Running before a good size sea I wanted to have some fun, run wing and wing strait down the waves to feel the boat surf along with the swells. I have done this many times before, never losing control (confident in my knowledge and skills, like the humans who are so confident they can do what they want with the atmosphere). I turned too far ,the wind shifted off the land a bit and boom we crash jybed! Will it be the same for our planet? What will be broken ?What will be lost? Had I been a bit more cautious, taken a little more time and set a preventer(a line run forward from the boom to keep it from slamming across the boat during a accidental jybe), nothing would have broken. We were lucky only a batten car was broken. Will we be so lucky with our earth?

Today this very morning it became clear to me as crisp and clear as the dawn that the voyage for clean energy is about taking the time to set that preventer, minimize the potential for damage to our good ship earth.

From an enlightening moment that cost nothing more than being out in clean fresh air…

• Skipper Mark

I woke up this morning in the hammock bunk to the now familiar sounds of ‘2041’ – the creaking and popping sounds that the lines make on deck as the wind pulls at the sails and constant rush of water along the hull only inches from my head. I did a Navy roll out of the bunk and threw on my wet weather gear for our 7th day in a row at sea. Today is a relatively calm day – the water and sky are grey and mellow with scattered light rain and fog. Each day has been so different out here– the sea changing from emerald green to deep blue and then grey-green. At night it is a field of black silk, reflecting the golden moon. Yesterday Jake called to me from on deck, “Maura, come check out this rainbow” and I rushed up the stairs to see a perfect double rainbow only 70 yards off our starboard side in the open ocean. What a great sign!

We are nearing Seattle now and hope to make landfall tomorrow if all goes well. We just rounded Cape Flattery and are headed east in the Strait of Juan de Fuca, which divides Washington state and Canada. We can see miles and miles of forest and rolling hills lined up on land like Japanese screens in the distance. The fog sits low in the valleys and our fingers get numb on deck from the biting wind. Up close on the shore, the forest scene comes into focus and we realize that the land is more than peppered with clear cuts along the shore. This puts us in a bit of a somber mood, but we are all buoyed by the mission of this project and the promise of a shower tomorrow. See you soon Seattle!

Good night, Maura Fallon-McKnight, ‘2041’ Communications

It is day 6 on the Voyage for Cleaner Energy and all is going well. We’re sailing due north at 8 knots with 15-20+ on our port side. We’re all counting down the miles to Seattle and a refreshing beer. The weather is becoming brisk and we all looked more like bank robbers than sailors in the wee hours this morn before the sun broke to an Aussie breakfast of Vegemite toast and sausages. The old girl is holding down well after her initial shakedown. All systems are GO! Thank you Ini and the retrofit team.

The new crew is coming together well as our roles diversify and our knowledge of the vessel, each other and our ultimate goals broaden. We look forward to the legs ahead with our guests and sailing some warmer waters.

Until next time, good night Australia…

Brent Taylor, Mate/Engineer ‘2041’

Days like yesterday are the reason why people sail away into the sunset. I woke up to blue skies and calm waters and out of habit I put on my layers of foul weather gear (a ten minute process) but I quickly realized that the day was a day for t-shirts and bare feet. Five of us now call 68ft. of steel home so we decided to make her ‘shipshape’ (forgive the pun) and clean up after the last 3 days of windy, wet weather. That took all of…an hour so the rest of the afternoon we had to keep ourselves busy with relaxation. The guys fiddled with the sails and I befriended the cutest little stow-away in the world. A tiny little yellow warbler managed to fly her way to our boat. We are about 15 miles off the Oregon coast right now so that was one long flight but I think she is out for adventure just like the rest of us and she’s catching a ride to Seattle. With weather like that it wasn’t a bad ride to catch! We are putting the veggie oil system to the test without any winds to raise the sails though! Hey, I was at least able to cook a proper meal upright and not heeled over at 30 degrees!

Every night we rotate watch duty and last night when I was on watch the night sky was the icing on the cake to the rest of the day. I could hear nothing but the hull of the boat slice her way through rippling waves. I’ve seen stars from the top of a mountain but the stars that reflect off the moonlit ocean are something else. I couldn’t help but fall into my imagination and conjure up images of pirates sailing the seas through celestial navigation…. Aarrrgghhhh.

Hannah Huntley