November 1, 2015

Happy November all!! Well, the update is...we were in Coos Bay, Oregon from October 20 to the 29th! We all got a little stir crazy... we were waiting on a 24 hour solid weather window.. finally got one..so the 59 hour adventure began on thurs at 1010am... we left under beautiful skies... nice bar crossing... life was good! Underway... we all took our daytime shifts just fine... with the men planning to stay up all night and run. We had little wind...enough to put up mizzen sail and small head sail... still had to motor though.. first day out, we saw at least three whales.. spouts and tails! Jeff got some pics.. first night was great! Next day.. tired fellows, but all in all.. fine. Then came the fog... I got fog on both of my 3 hour watches... 9a to 12 noon and 3p to 6p.. then... very confused seas and cross currents as we passed points... ugh.. happy to turn over wheel and know I didn't have to go at it again until 9am Sat!! Nancy maintained quite a while in the dark, but even she had to relinquish early on Friday eve to Cap'n Ernie... Then after a very rough night... dawn broke, Sat am... things stayed rough until about 10am... then the fog came back... yay... NOT. But we all knew we were going to come in to San Francisco...
Now.. Charlie's Charts advises of the only times to come in to San Francisco... so we being the rule followers that we are...
We found ourselves disobeying every last precaution Charlie put out there! It was at the end of the day.. tide coming out and serious fog!! We had wonderful guidance from VTS (Vessel Transit Service) per radio that let us use the big shipping lanes... saved at least an hour or more and was Heaven sent! Some big vessels crossed our path... we didn't even see them until they were upon us.. we got heads up about every one! Then as we were traversing the precaution circle (where incoming and outgoing vessels decide which turn they are taking)...the fog thickened even more... We could barely see past the bow..we needed to find the 4 red bouys hailing the entrance to the main ship channel to go in to the bay, under the Golden Gate Bridge...At the point of almost turning around (Cap'n tells us later!)... there one was sighted by "eagle eye Nancy"... whew... we think it was the 2nd one... but it was the only one we saw... we had to navigate in by latitude and longitude trusting the GPS and plotting every 3 to 4 minutes on the paper chart.. (Entrance to San Francisco)..from 1615 (4:15pm) to 1935 (7:35pm)... at that point... the fog broke enough to see that we were almost underneath the bridge... right on target ... thanks to Cap'n Ernie's skill at the wheel...wow!! Ernie says "we passed another test tonight" as we were reviewing our Kamakaze entrance to the bay over our meal once safely berthed at dock. Nancy brought us in across SF bay like an expert! Jeff encouraged us all along the way with his happy spirit and expertise at the wheel... he loves driving from outside steering station by GPS (God's Positioning System) as he calls it.."the stars." 
Ernie says he was praying about whether to turn around (rough seas, hard to handle the boat and more shallow water according to the depth meter only he seemed to be watching)...he says he was asking God if he should turn around or stay the course...because it was getting too dangerous...then we got the answer...Nancy called out...there's a bouy... we got our answer (and for those who know about 'red right returning' you can guess which side of the bouy we were on when it appeared!!
THANK YOU, LORD!
Then this morning after an extra hour of needed sleep, I might add...(daylight savings..)..when we went to check in at the Harbor office (South Beach Harbor).. Misa told us the only reason we were able to dock here last night was because they got a cancellation yesterday...otherwise there would not have been room! Now, on Friday when we were miles away... Ernie picked this harbor out of the book (Charlies Charts) of where to head to stay!!
Can everyone agree that God is guiding us every step of the way!! Thank you again all for supporting us, loving us and most of all praying for us! We are a bit dismayed that it is taking so long to get to Santa Barbara area... but we know God is in charge.. and everything is going as planned on other levels that we don't even see...
Will catch you up as things happen!!
please comment as you read... we love to hear from you all!!
With love,
the crew of Liberator II