Home Waters aboard Limelight

Limelight has sailed this coast once already, heading south on the delivery last summer.

Now she turns for home: past the great headlands of Mendocino and Blanco, up the Oregon coast and across the mouth of the Columbia, to the waters where she lives.

This is the sailor's leg. Spring fronts roll in off the Pacific, and ahead of each one the wind swings into the south. Catch it right and Limelight rides those southerlies north a day or two at a time, a downwind run up the coast toward home. Picking those windows from San Francisco is half the fun.

Tatoosh Island and its lighthouse off Cape Flattery, surf on the rocks — Tatoosh Island, off Cape Flattery. Turn right for home.

The last stage · Cape Flattery to Shilshole

Back where she started

Somewhere past the Columbia River the water turns that deep, cold Northwest green, and it starts to feel like home.

Cape Flattery, Neah Bay, the Strait of Juan de Fuca, and the last run down Puget Sound to Shilshole: more than 4,000 miles after she left, Limelight is back where she started.

The plan

Five stages, about six days

Stage	Route	Distance	Highlights
01	San Francisco to Cape Mendocino	~190 nm	Out under the Golden Gate and north past Point Reyes.
02	Cape Mendocino to Cape Blanco	~145 nm	Past the Redwood Coast and into Oregon.
03	Cape Blanco to the Columbia River	~205 nm	The full length of the Oregon coast.
04	Columbia River to Cape Flattery	~130 nm	The Washington coast, and the first sight of home waters.
05	Cape Flattery to Shilshole	~115 nm	Round Cape Flattery, through the Strait of Juan de Fuca and down Puget Sound to Shilshole.