Bright Angel

Bright Angel

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Bright Angel is a 1990 Mason 44 cutter, built in Taiwan at the Ta Shing boat yard for Pacific Asian Enterprises, a Dana Point, CA company that now builds the Nordhaven ocean trawlers. She was designed by Al Mason, and has a very traditional look about her; but, more importantly, she is a great sea boat and a comfortable home.
 
Bob & Linda Hargreaves bought Bright Angel in Seattle in 2003, in anticipation of blue water cruising after retiring; their first boat, a 1979 Ericson 29, was much loved, but not up to ocean sailing. Bob worked as an attorney for the Washington State Attorney General's Office, and was a commissioned officer in the Washington Army National Guard; Linda was a business development manager for L'Oreal's Redken line of salon professional hair care products.

In 2010 Bob & Linda left their home port of Olympia, Washington, and set sail for Southern California and Mexico. After two seasons in Mexico, in 2012 they joined the "Puddle Jump" and sailed from Banderas Bay to the Marquesas and worked their way across the Pacific through French Polynesia and Tonga to New Zealand. For the next four years they sailed back and forth from NZ to the tropics - to Fiji three times, and then to Vanuatu and New Caledonia. In 2018 they concluded their full-time cruising and sailed Bright Angel home to Washington from NZ, with stops in Tahiti and Hawaii. They plan to continue cruising in Puget Sound, the San Juan and Canadian Gulf Islands, and further north in British Columbia.

Recent Updates

Bright Angel - August 3, 2018
Posted:
We were headed last night about 0300 when the wind went light and backed to the north. So, rather than sail off to the west, we tacked and are now sailing off in an easterly direction - sometimes ... Read More
Bright Angel - August 2, 2018
Posted:
We are still slowed down to better position ourselves to deal with some adverse weather up ahead; it's such a beautiful day, and the seas are quite calm, so it is hard to be going so slow - the ... Read More
Bright Angel - August 1, 2018
Posted:
We will not be talking about out daily run totals for a while now, as we have deliberately slowed down to better position ourselves to deal with some adverse weather that is brewing up ahead of us ... Read More
Bright Angel - July 31, 2018
Posted:
We had another 135 nm run for the fourth day out; we don't expect those kind of numbers to hold for much longer, though, as the winds are forecast to go lighter in a day or so. On the bright side ... Read More
Bright Angel - July 30, 2018
Posted:
We had a 135 nm run the third day out - the decrease from the day before in part being due to having reefed down considerably almost all morning after sunup as we seemed to be in one continuous ... Read More
Bright Angel - July 29, 2018
Posted:
We had a great run the second day out - 145 nm! But, we are starting to get a bit concerned about not being able to make much easting. We have been sailing at an AWA (apparent wind angle) of 60 - ... Read More
Bright Angel - July 28, 2018
Posted:
We have now officially left Hawaii - "Aloha" to the Aloha State! Our first 24 hour run was a decent 115 nm, especially considering the several hours of "slow go" as we made our way west along the lee ... Read More
Bright Angel - July 27, 2018
Posted:
We did get away from Honolulu yesterday, but we did not make it very far! We were tied to the dock overnight at Ko'Olina Marina, near Barber's Point, about 20 nm west of Waikiki. We came here for ... Read More
Bright Angel - July 25, 2018
Posted:
Today will be our last full day here in Honolulu, where we have been guest since our arrival on June 6 of the very gracious Waikiki Yacht Club! We plan to head out tomorrow early am for Ko'Olina for ... Read More
Bright Angel - July 7, 2018
Posted:
We tied up to the guest dock at Waikiki Yacht Club at 1115 today, a mere 25 days and 2900 +/- nm (who's really counting?) from Papeete, Tahiti - we were all cleared in by 2 pm! Then we had to sample ... Read More
Bright Angel - July 6, 2018
Posted:
This will be our final report underway on this passage; we should be at the dock in Honolulu shortly after noon tomorrow! The weather, as expected, is really nasty - too much wind from almost dead ... Read More
Bright Angel - July 5, 2018
Posted:
We are now just off the SE coast of the Big Island of Hawaii - can't see it yet, as we are still too far offshore (about 45 nm). And we are just under 275 nm from our guest berth at the Waikiki Yacht ... Read More
Bright Angel - July 4, 2018
Posted:
No change in course; still going in on the windward side. Making a concerted effort to get in on am or early pm Friday to avoid the heavier winds Friday evening - could still see 25 kts on Friday ... Read More
Bright Angel - July 3, 2018
Posted:
Another nice day of sailing with blue skies, white cotton ball clouds, and fresh winds all day. Looks like the weather up ahead, on Friday or Saturday, could get a bit nasty - NE 30 kt winds and 3.5 ... Read More
Bright Angel - July 2, 2018
Posted:
Good sailing today! Winds and seas are down a bit from late last night and early this morning, when we had 20-23 kts, and were making 7 kts of boat speed with a reefed genoa and de-powered main! Much ... Read More
Bright Angel - July 1, 2018
Posted:
Good day's run yesterday - 146 nm; but, not so good today. Wind started out okay, but then died down to the point it was hard to sail without dumping the wind out of the sails in the swell, so the ... Read More
Bright Angel - June 30, 2018
Posted:
We are definitely through the ITCZ now - and have been sailing with blue skies, white cotton ball clouds, and fresh winds all day. The seas were a bit lumpy early on, when the winds were up around 20 ... Read More
Bright Angel - June 29, 2018
Posted:
Forget what we said yesterday about being through the worst of the ITCZ - the high seas forecast we downloaded after posting yesterday's update indicated we weren't even to the ITCZ yet! Today's ... Read More
Bright Angel - June 28, 2018
Posted:
We may be through the worst of the ITCZ (at lest we hope so) - not too bad of a day today! But we are still burning fossils waiting for sailing winds to fill back in. The boat got a shower last ... Read More
Bright Angel - June 27, 2018
Posted:
We are in the thick of ITCZ "junk" - clouds, rain, squalls, light & variable winds (except in th squalls!), so we are burning fossils as we motor north to cleared skies and better sailing winds. The ... Read More

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