Botany Bay Continues Heading Home

 Midway Island To Los Angeles

 
It is 8am on October 8th, 2001. Rick and I are ready to put to sea, we don't expect to see land again for about five weeks. We leave behind good friends and a wonderful island!
It is a beautiful day to head for Los Angeles!
Rick waves to our friends at Midway Island and prepares to raise the mainsail and start our five week journey to Los Angeles
Clearing the breakwater at Midway with 180 gallons of JP5 in the tanks, a full load of fresh water, fresh vegetables, sails repaired and ready for sea. 

The first sunset after leaving Midway, it is a good omen, "Red Sky At Night, Sailors Delight"!
Fish! On October 10th Rick catches his first fish. We have been trolling ever since leaving Midway. Our new found friend is escorted to the Foredeck for instruction of proper etiquette aboard a sailboat! What a bloody mess though. Turned out some of the blood was Rick's! He got bit by the fish bringing it aboard and did not realize it until later.
We must be in the right place for fishing because later that afternoon we encountered what appeared to be a foreign fishing trawler. We wondered why they were skittish and did not respond to hails on the VHF. Later we noticed they were some miles inside the fishing exclusion zone.
Just about the time we start getting hungry for more fresh fish another wanders onto our hook. It is October 21th and Rick goes forward for "Fish Etiquette Instruction".
Our first freighter pops up above the waves on October 13th. Amazing how close they can come before you happen to see them in large waves. We saw quite a few freighters at sea as we got close to 40 degrees north.
October 26th was a gloomy day in the north pacific.
First sight of "Lord Jim" since their departure from Kwajalein some two and a half months before. They left Kwajalein about a month before I departed and did not stop in Midway so it has been a long time since they have seen another friendly face. They are nearly out of water (less than a gallon left) and we are here to help. They have come a little farther south and we went a little further north than our planned course to meet up.
A bit closer view of "Lord Jim" as we get ready to transfer 55 gallons of fresh water to them. We have been communicating daily on the Marine SSB to bring our courses together.
A beautiful picture of "Lord Jim" under sail. The seas look much flatter than they actually are. The pictures on the page about the transfer at sea show that the wave action is quite significant and made the transfer quite interesting. About 6 hours of work to complete the process.
After leaving "Lord Jim" to work their way back up to San Francisco we started motor sailing across the Pacific high. We spent several days with seas like glass and a bit of an overcast. Since the motor was running we has lots of power, watched several movies, ate lots of microwave popcorn, and in general enjoyed life. This picture was taken November 4th
While in the Pacific high we spent several days sailing through seas covered with what I have been told are baby jellyfish. At the time we thought they might be young Portuguese man-o-wars.
Sleep is an important consideration when at sea for long periods of time. Eventually you get to the point of being able to sleep at a moments notice.
About two days away from the coast (180nmi) we started seeing freighters coming out of the fog periodically. I find that the near coastal sailing takes more out of me than long distance offshore sailing. There are things to run into, things to run you over, and less room to run when things go wrong with the weather.
First sight of land! November 9th!
Now I can see Santa Rosa Island clearly, we are definitely close to home! It will be our last night at sea. Sorting out what lights are ships and which are the oil platforms is always interesting in the Santa Barbara channel.
The winds lighten up as evening approaches and we are sailing dead downwind! It is one of a few days with the wind aft of the beam since leaving Kwajalein and is a real treat.
At 6:12 AM on November 9th, 2001 Botany Bay arrives back home, King Harbor Maria, Redondo Beach, CA. It has been dead calm since last night as we motored the last half of the Santa Monica Channel. Botany  Bay has not been tied up in a slip since leaving on December 29th of 1999, I wonder if I still remember how!
Tani came down to see Botany Bay arrive from Midway. She brought down Champagne and orange juice and we had a bit of an arrival celebration. Rick as you can see is very happy to back on dry land!
I look pretty salty in this picture, it has been a long time since I have had a hair cut and I grew a beard while I was at sea.