All entries under Seattle

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

Today is a wonderful day to be out on the water. The sky is a crystal clear blue and the water looks like a field of dancing diamonds. In the backdrop we have the Trinity Alps of northern California. To complete the picture, they are dusted with a brilliant white snow. Everything seems surreal, pure and clean out here.

The winds are calm, so we are using the veggie oil engine and making good time toward Seattle. Seattle is the first stop of our 5 year journey to help raise awareness about climate change and show that it is possible to live sustainably, by our example on this great boat.

I feel privileged to be out here with such a fine crew of people who, like myself, care about this magnificent world of ours. The crew for this leg of the journey are a fun bunch. Jake, our new deck hand is a great help onboard. He has picked up any task given to him and done a fine job with it. Not bad for someone with little sailing experience — especially since we are bashing upwind in 30 — 40 knots true wind on the nose. Hannah, our cook has been awesome, turning out some fine, healthy meals to keep us going. She also does a fine job on deck. Maura, our communications person, did an incredible job yesterday fixing our ship’s computer. We lost all of our navigation and weather info, as well as the satellite phone. She dove in, hanging upside for hours in a tight little space under the floorboards to fix it. Three cheers for Maura.

Brent, the first mate is a fine sailor and really knows the systems of the boat. It was great fun to watch him go forward in 35—40 knots of wind to tie in a reef. Waves were crashing over the bow, covering him in water, and all you could hear was him laughing.

After 2 days of bashing upwind, it is a welcome break to be motoring in calm weather, drying out our gear and warming up. I must tell you all that ‘2041’ loves to go upwind. I have never seen a boat that can drive through waves like her. She is amazing — not ladylike at all – just 50 tons of steel going like a banshee through tons of water. It is awesome to be a part of her furious ride north.

Until next time, this is Skipper Mark signing off .

Mark Kocina

Land ho! Wait, we have only been sailing for three days; it is too early to be saying that. After a couple of rougher days of sailing and a few mechanical problems, this morning’s weather took a turn for the better.

We all spent some well deserved time lounging on the deck enjoying the sun and it was calm enough for Hannah and Maura to whip up an awesome lunch which beat the hell out of the previous day’s diet of Clif Bars and crackers. Having just a little sailing experience before this trip I finally feel like I’m starting to get a hang of things on the boat and everything is sailing smoothly.

Jake Barrett