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Sailing De Novo

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Landfall in California!

Sailing under the Golden Gate Bridge Hello everyone, Life is good aboard De Novo. The "Big Left Turn" at Juan de Fuca Strait finally happened, and after years of anticipation and hard work, we're celebrating. The Oregon and Washington coasts can provide extraordinarily challenging conditions; in fact, several cruisers who've crossed the Pacific warned us this leg would be among the hardest. The horror stories are out there: boats lose their steering; sails rip; sailors grow seasick and weak. So naturally, we were nervous. But with nerves comes preparation. Lots of preparation. Oh lordy did we prepare. Or in Brian and Lauren's words on SV Griffin, we "frontloaded the hard." Because honestly, this leg felt good. Sure we saw some high winds and confused seas, but De Novo and her crew handled it. Shockingly, we didn't get seasick. We had only relatively minor breakages (a functional part of our whisker pole broke and our fuel gauge sending unit packed u...

In Defense of the Shoulder Season

April is a cold time to sail. I should clarify: this April has been a cold time to sail. We've seen more snow from the cockpit on this cruise than on any of our winter ones, with the most recent flurry just a few days ago. Most nights have fallen below freezing. De Novo doesn't have a diesel generator or big battery bank. We've always relied on our array of solar panels and the rare boost from our engine alternator to keep our batteries charged. And in the past, this has been enough, even in summer in Alaska. But we've relied on our forced air heating system more on this trip than others. Its electrical draw has been challenging at anchor, especially on days with a lack of sunlight to power our panels. This means allocating heater use and often sacrificing comfort for precious battery hours. So you can imagine our frustration when, on a frosty morning in Porteau Cove with full cloud cover, we turned on our engine and our alternator stopped working. We found it wasn...

French Polynesia Part 3B: Leeward Islands

If you're interested in the downsides of sailing into other countries by private boat, this is the blog post for you. If not, it will feel long and tedious...much like learning the bureaucratic red tape for every country we've sailed in. Feel free to just enjoy the pictures instead. We'll have a "Too Long; Didn't Read" [TL;DR] message near the end. For those hoping to do a passage through French Polynesia, let this post serve as a reason to get a long-stay visa. We opted not to because we were already busy enough before we left Mexico earlier this year, and the process was ridiculously complicated. Although we had no intention of staying a full year in French Polynesia, having flexibility around our departure date would have made all the difference. The First Domino (by Denise) Once in a great while, this life is straightforward. Weather cooperates, the bureaucracy is simple, and nothing onboard breaks. It's like the universe conspires to give De Novo a b...