Making this kind of things happen is often a team thing. I couldn't have left on time without the help of Serge, Nathan, Brian, Jason, Gordie and many more. I am so lucky to be part of such a great sailing community.
Huge thanks to all of these people.
Left Friday afternoon around 330 to go out with the tide. Was blowing 25+ knots. Had a reefed main and a #4 jib
Elise is proud and ready to go.
Photos courtesy of Serge and Lucie. You can see the cassette for the emergency rudder all set up at the back.
Good bye land. Tacked up the San Francisco channel as usual, went north where I found even heavier wind and huge potato patch waves, so I tacked back South crossing the channel at the third set of cans. Saw pilot boats and several ships. Then headed South West about 240 degrees for long tack offshore.
Deck and Skipper got drenched within 10 minutes of exiting the harbor because of spray...
First night was a bit rough so I avoided going below to make sure that there would be no seasickness problems but after that, no issue with that at all. I take the scopalamine patch and it seems to work just fine. Elise is a very very wet ride (but fun).
Wind calmed down a little bit to the high teens as the evening set in and stayed around 20 knots throughout the night. Nice and steady conditions are great for single handers as it means that whatever sail configuration you have doesn't need to be changed! At 20 knots, the #4 wasn't really required but as it was at night a sail change is even more work and since this was a cruise, a bit more comfortable sailing was welcome.
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