Next to the Last Day

From Dave today:

> Hey everybody,
>
> We have a treasure trove of pictures and video that we will weed through and get posted to the blog as soon as we get back. So, all the text that has been going up will be supported with the pics that go with it.
>
> It is interesting at roll call everyday to see how the boats going to San Francisco are making out. Green Buffalo has done a great job conducting the radio net everyday. At first, they thought that we were going to San Francisco with them. Green Buffalo said that he had latitude envy as we were always 3-4 degrees latitude further north then they were. A couple of days ago, I mentioned that we were going to Astoria and then on to Portland. He then understood our continuing north far past the point where everyone else would have turned down towards the Golden Gate.
>
> Today is the next to the last day of our trip. The wind has died down to 14 knots, but more importantly and finally backed and we are on a beam reach doing a steady 8 knots. We have a full jib and a single reef in the main. Tom's watch shook out the second reef last night when our speed began to fall to around 7 knots and the wind abated.
>
> As we near the coast, it is interesting how the weather has changed. The water temperature is now 55 degrees. Night watches consist of temperatures in the low 50's with almost constant fog and mist. Everything on the deck is dripping wet from all the moisture. Hopefully this will help remove the salt encrustation that we accumulated while in the warmer weather. We now keep the hatch closed to try to keep it relatively dry below. One really beautiful aspect of the fog is that we get to experience fogbows in the mornings. Fogbows are like rainbows, but they are more of a whitish glow with pastel undertones. They don't have the brilliance of a rainbow formed by rainshowers. We think it's because of the size of the water droplets. We will try to find out why when we get home.
>
> We have seen nothing but birds out here. It is amazing that at the farthest point from land that is possible (in the world?) there are birds. There are these little fast ones that we called batbirds. There are very large brown ones that someone said could be albatrosses or shearwaters. We saw birds that flew backwards (it looked like some mating dance). And of course, we had dingy and his buddy camping out on the boat for a day or two.
>
> Yesterday was supposed to be a feast of pork tenderloins, scalloped potatoes, and broccoli. I opened the tenderloins and it was easy to decide that they were well past their prime. I hope fish like the other white meat because they were the recipients of a fine meal. So, instead we had chicken and mozzarella ravioli with a light sauce of garlic, onions, and stewed tomatoes. No complaints from the crew.
>
> Everybody is excited about our prospects of reaching our destination. We are currently on a track that should have us arriving at the Columbia River Bar at 1:00 a.m. on the morning of the 8th. I figure if we cross the bar at about 3:30 a.m., we should arrive at the dock at about 5:30 a.m. Once we have cell phone contact, we will let everyone know in real time.
>
> The Columbia River Bar is considered to be a piece of water that should be avoided when conditions are less than ideal. The entire Columbia River flows out through the mouth of the bar. On top of that flow, that area also experiences 9 foot tidal range. When you have a strong ebb (outgoing) tide the currents are strong enough to produce short period very steep waves that make it prudent to wait a couple of hours until the tide goes slack (period between tides). Our arrival time coincides with the beginning of a slack tide. Getting to the Bar any faster that we are proceeding would find us waiting for slack tide anyway. So, our present course and speed are just fine.
>
> We are still standing watches on Hawaiian Standard Time. This is convenient for watch purposes and for the daily radio roll call. What is nice is that I usually stand the 12 - 6 a.m. watch. Now the sun is rising at about 3 a.m. It makes it nice to have daylight for at least half of our watch. The crew have discussions now regarding our arrival time. Is it HST? or UTC? or PDT? I ignore them and will let them figure it out.
>
> Greg is still under the weather a bit. He is eating more now but doesn't have too much energy. I am not sure if it is the mal de mer or the teenager thing.
>
> We got the pancakes that Stephen didn't make yesterday. They are a great way to start the day out here.
>
> We will be there soon!!!!
>
> Dave
>
>
> Spirits are so high because we are coming to an end that nobody really cares to know the true time, haha. All we want to know is when are we going to see LAND. This trip has been amazing in all aspects. The conditions have been contrasting from day to day, the crew is still all safe and sound, and I personally have learned an enormous amount of sailing knowledge as well as other facts that i will keep with me an continue to use for life. We have all grown a bit on this trip and I believe will continue to speak with one another once the trip is completed. That was the biggest prediction that i was concerned about...whether or not i would drive these boys crazy over the span of the trip, haha. I am truly grateful of the experience and beleive it could not have gone better! Lots of love to everyone, and we'll see you all very soon!! Ryan
>