Arrival Day 1, May 15, Eureka

Well I need to catch up. We did leave about 5:30am on Thursday and were as prepared as we could be. We had read and heard of the very rough, but passable conditions that occur around Cape Mendocino. We had stripped NuMoon of all her eisenglass and canvas. We had duck taped every possible inlet for water. We covered all the electronics in the flybridge and we removed all cushions from the flybridge. We had bought and placed those micofiber super absorbent towels in strategic places. To my good friend Carl back home, we did not get more than a tablespoon of water in the boat!!! With enough duct tape and good seas, she can be more like a submarine than a water logged boat. The good seas helped.
We headed out into good seas and had a very pleasant ride around the cape. When we left Fort Bragg seas were 6-8 feet at 11 seconds and winds 5-10 miles out of the north west. Winds and seas came from the same direction making going very comfortable. It was simply a very long, but pleasant day. I was able to actually make us a turkey sandwich while underway. I had prepared bowls of grapes, cheese and salami, knowing we might not get a chance to eat or move about easily for 12 hours, but they were not necessary and we had those as a light snack at around 3pm. We arrived into the channel entrance at Eureka at 5:30pm so we made great time.

We have never entered Humboldt Harbor and like San Francisco and other river channels, they have bar conditions that can be tricky. You also are best off to plan your arrival into the bar at a flood tide and we did. You have to call the Coast Guard on channel 22A before you enter the bar for the conditions as they may close the channel. We did and also since it was our first crossing here we asked for an escort in when we were about five miles out. The Coast Guard was great! They met us at the channel maker buoy and we followed them in. They took us all the way to Woodley Island Marina, which wasn't necessary, but I don't think they get out much.
To our surprise they also came aboard after we docked and did an inspection. Since we used to live across from Coast Guard Island in Alameda, and have a Coast Guard Auxiliary boat on our dock, we are very familiar with the regulations and we keep our documentation in a binder, just for the Coast Guard.
We welcomed them aboard, and Alexus took great pride in the look on the young mans face when she handed him the binder with all our docs, waste process doc, previous Coast Guard inspection sheet, ditch bag, flares, personal floatation devices, etc.. So we had a great conversation with them, thanked them for the escort and off they went.