gale warning, gale warning, gale warning. The story of my sea trials life. Yes, being exposed to those kind of conditions is good for me, but I need to ease into them, and I cannot be exposed to that kind of wind so close to land.

The weather forecast is calling for a gale this afternoon, tomorrow and Tuesday with seas in the 2 to 3 meter range. This is supposed to be summer with winds peaking at 15 knots and seas at 1 to 2 meters – that is what I signed up for! Frustrating.

Clive and I have decided to take it slow and ease into things as the weather allows. I’m out here for more than a week, so I have plenty o time to gradually build up to some overnights out at sea which is really the focus of this trip.

I am tied up to Theodora right now and had an awesome sleep last night. The gentle rocking knocked me out and I am getting very comfortable in WiTHiN’s sleeping cabin. Very cozy. Today we leave the marina at Ucluelet and we are going to the Broken Island chain of islands. We will find a nice anchorage and I’ll raft up to Theodora for the night. Then on Tuesday, we will spend the day touring the islands. If the weather forecast improves, perhaps we will head to sea on Wednesday or Thursday.

After we launched WiTHiN yesterday, I spent a few hours and pedaled out to the channel leading out to the Pacific past the entrance to the Ucluelet inlet. The water was fine – a bit bumpy with a small 3 feet swell – nothing compared to what I was in during the last trip out here. Winds were between 10 to 15 knots with a gale warning in effect. The T rudder does not seem to result in the bow swinging out to follow wind, and it is slowing me down by about a full knot. I will put the immersion suit on this morning and try to remove the T wing before heading out.

You can see where I am and where the broken island chain is by ollowing me on the live tracking map:

http://www.pedaltheocean.com/follow-greg.php

Later,
Greg

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