Day 4 - July 3

We cleared the entrance to the Juan de Fuca straight at about midnight last night - it was brutal to get through!

Although we are wearing  patches, Steve and Brian have been very sick, but nobody else seems to be effected by sickness. Brian has been down in his bed all day. I (Steve) tried getting some sleep last night but the motion kept me up and I wasn't able to sleep much. The others stayed up at the helm.

Anything that could go wrong, has gone wrong. The alternator is out, which keeps all batteries on board charged. This includes starting the engine. We try to not use the engine as one tank of gas wont get us to Hawaii, however, when the wind is low and the boat wont sail, we do use it. So we are using the Genset, which is kind of a back up, to keep things charged for know. From what we can tell, the alternator has to be replaced. We are working on getting the newly installed solar panel to work, along with the autopilot, and GPS. The handheld GPS is working and that is what we are using for now.

Last night the anchor had come off of the side of the boat, where we store it, and started to slide across the deck. Rick and Steve ran up to get it hooked back onto the boat. Just as they were securing it down, they hit a large swell and they fell to the ground. Steve thought he had broken both of his legs. They are just bruised up.


We are under sail about 50 miles off of the Washington coast. We are about half way through the State taking a South Westerly route. It is mostly cloudy but the sunshine is poking through here and there.