story time

Hello everyone who follows this blog…. It is I, Big Max. I come to you today barring a story, a story of big seas and dangerous storms, a story of an adventure.

13/8/13- I said my good byes that day, to my best buds in Seattle that is…

14/8/13- it was a brisk early morning, I awoke knowing not of what was to come but I did know I wasn’t prepared. Regardless, I boarded my land vessel and embarked on a 6 hour drive to Neah bay. Then when I thought it couldn't be worse I unloaded this land vesicle and found myself in the belly of the beast we call Appa, with! 5 old sailors with hygiene that had escaped them quite a long time ago and in their place questionable drinking habits arose. But on the brighter side we ate fresh salmon for dinner!

15/8/13-day-we started the trip to Cali that morning and with the absence of wind, waves and rich, who was dealing with his hangover in the forward head, we were left with the droning purr of Appa

15/8/13-night- 50 miles out and clear skies, the only source of light we had was the moon, after the moon went down you could see all the stars in the sky, at least that’s what they told me because I went down below to get some shut eye before me shift in the morning.

16/8/13-day-we started this day with the gentle purr of Appa, but around noon we turned her off and raised her spinnaker. It flew for the whole day, we were making a constant 10 knots SOG; there was a smile on everyone’s face.

16/8/13-night- I made lasagna  for dinner that night. It was a damn good If I do say so myself. I had never had a better meal. We all enjoyed it. But when it was time to fall asleep, it was hard, without the motor the cabin was so quiet… to quiet.

17/8/13-day-I woke up early for my shift… and when I poked my head out of the cabin I noticed we were just getting into it… 10 foot waves and 30 knots of wind, they had taken down the spinnaker and put up the jib. But the wind was building and so were the waves, we decided to put up our storm jib and put some reefs into the main. By the afternoon we were in 40+ knots of wind and 30 foot seas 50 miles of shore with nothing but a tether keeping us from falling of the boat into the cold icy grasp of the Pacific Ocean were we would slowly die. Lucky for us the wind and waves were going in the direction that we were. So every wave was like surfing on a huge long board.

17/8/13-night-we were still in the storm and sleeping was almost not going to happen. Every wave was like climbing a mountain and coming down from them was like a free fall. Needless to say sliding from one side of your bunk to the other is not very relaxing.

18/8/13-day-the storm had calmed down a little but we were still in it… we went on with our shifts knowing we were making good time.

18/8/13-night- we had plenty of food… good fresh food, but for some reason our chief papa fox had to use the vegetable out of the bilge for a curry… and it was great! It was the best food I had ever eaten out of a compartment that is used to store water that comes in the boat…

19/8/13-day-we made it…. we fricken made it. we got to the golden gate bridge and into the san Fran bay… we tie up at Encynal yacht club and are done… we all get off the boat and use a real toilet and head off into town, but something isn’t right… no one is walking straight and we all look like we are going to fall over… but being on a constantly rocking boat for 5 days will do that to ya.

Sorry I haven’t been posting lately… I have been way to busy with swimming in a pool and sun bathing to get online and share this story. Miss every one back home.

-Big Max

Ps. Sorry for the horrible grammar and spelling, it’s been a while