July 26-On our way, at last.

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On Thursday morning, we were so eager to get on the boat and leave Newport that we had to keep talking ourselves into waiting until noon, so we’d end up at Neah Bay 40 hours later during daylight hours, instead of before dawn. It was hard, but we stuck it out.

I may have mentioned here that I don’t get seasick. Usually the first day out or so leaves me feeling a bit queasy, but nothing that I’d consider taking a remedy for. In our first shocking bit of news, I was urping over the side of the boat within an hour of leaving Newport. Clearly, I’d forgotten to appease Someone. Harry and Shayla had both put on the patch the night before, and were bopping around like eager bunny rabbits. I, on the other hand, was laid out for the rest of the day. Harry put the patch on me right after I lost my cookies, and I seemed to feel a little better for a while. But the quease never did go away and I was forcing myself to eat bits of cracker because we were headed into an overnight passage. Also, the cotton mouth side effect was truly abomidable. Every time I swallowed, I felt that I was going to throw up, so thick and heavy was anything in my mouth.

Watching Shayla as we crossed the bar at Newport and headed into the open ocean was a true treat. The biggest swell she’s ever seen is in the Sound, when a ferry passes by and we get to surf their wake for a solid 15 seconds. Here, we had very moderate swell of 2-4 feet and almost no wind. As the swell reached us, Shayla “woo-hoo’ed” over every rise, like this was the best roller coaster she’d ever been on. After a while of this enduring excitement, she realized that these waves were going to go on forever, and so then she just let her eyes say “woo-hoo” every time we rode a swell.

The weather on Thursday was perfect; overcast but not terribly cold, mild seas and calm winds. Shayla took her first watch shortly after we left Newport, and promptly steered us in a circle. This is a fair thing to do in a space the size of an ocean.

We headed into our night watch, tucking Shayla into the forepeak berth where she was rocked to sleep. I snuggled all night with nausea, and tried to imagine why, why, why I’d gotten seasick when I’ve never been seasick in my life. The night flew by, so intriguing were these ruminations.

J

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Photos

Harry plumbs the depths.
Just one tuna would have fed us for weeks.

Shayla acts as the antidote to seasickness.
It's something in the way her hair smells.

Shayla takes the helm.
You never did see such a sea-worthy girl.