10 Aug - Slack tide at the bar was due around 7 so we were up and away, in lovely weather around 6.  As we got towards the bar though the weather closed in and we could see some fairly significant breakers on the north side of the channel.  We avoided these thankfully but still ended up in some pretty serious steep waves.  As we went through the worst of it the motor boat that we had spoken with last night came through.  It was sobering watching them get tossed around like a toy in a kids bath tub and then realising the same was happening to us! Once through the bar the sea state did settle down a bit but it was still very lumpy.  As we headed down towards Cap e Mendocino this lumpy erratic sea kept up throwing us about quite a bit.  To add to this we ended up with 10 - 15 knots right on the nose meaning no chance of using the sails to help reduce the rock and roll with the waves.  The wind, combined with the left over swell from the storm that had passed made for a very uncomfortable time as we rounded the cape which took us until well into late evening.  It wasn't until we altered course more southerly that things started calming down a little but by then, I was definitely a bit green around the gills.

11 Aug - After midnight the wind died down to almost nothing and we found ourselves motoring along at night in fog with still some considerable swell to contend with.  By early morning through thankfully the swell had settled down a bit and we were still motoring through glass calm seas.  Around this time two small birds found us in the fog (we were at least 30 NM off land so they must have been very lost!)  one found his way into the cockpit and I spent an eventful half hour trying to help him get out again. 

Our feathered stow aways

These two birds  kept us company on the boat until we got to land again - even then, after visiting shore, the came back for a little while to say goodbye (or maybe they were just very confused as to where they were (some 100NM on from where we had picked them up!) As we had expected today there was almost no wind so we ended up with the sweet sounds of the engine until mid afternoon when finally some wind filled in from the west and were able to pole out the Genoa and sail downwind for the rest of the day and through the night

Benjy off watch in our sea birth