Our first leg was so much better than we could have imagined. We motored for two days and sailed for four days, with fair winds! I’m so grateful to have experienced this trip with my son and two great guys.

For the most part, the wind blessed us by allowing us to sail efficiently towards San Francisco. The four of us each took a three hour watch every twelve hours: Herman 12 – 3, Meredith 3 – 6, Mark 6 – 9, Jefferson 9 – 12. When we were off the coast of California, we turned towards the west before night, because the wind would have taken us too close to the coast, where the wind was predicted to die off the next day. Instead, we headed west during the night so that we could catch a better wind at daybreak to prepare for our approach into San Francisco.

Our second day out Jefferson put out a fishing line and within a minute had a fish on! He reeled in a beautiful tuna and we enjoyed ceviche, baked tuna, and fish tacos for the next few days. Other than a mahi-mahi that fought him for a few minutes the next day, we didn’t catch any other fish.

We intentionally stayed far off the coast, which kept us with decent winds away from the shipping lanes, crab pots, and fishing fleets. For FOUR days, we didn’t see any other signs of human life. The afternoon before we arrived in San Francisco, we spotted a freighter off in the distance. It is a huge ocean!

We were blessed many times with dolphins swimming alongside and off the bow of Tieton. One day we had a huge group of dolphins swim with us for at least 20 minutes. Here’s a link to the video of a few minutes of their antics.

We saw a few more whales, including two that came fairly close to the Tieton.

We can’t express enough gratitude to Doug, Bob and other facilitators of the CoHoHoHo group. Because of my daughter Kader’s wedding, we departed a couple weeks after other fleet members. We still benefitted tremendously from the many seminars, gatherings, and shared wisdom of the CoHoHoHo gang. We can’t wait to see them along the way.

Below are a few more photos from the first leg.

We will rest awhile at the Richmond Yacht Club and then continue on our way.