The season has ended and this will likely be the final post for the year so it’s a bit long as it covers my time “bar hopping” up the Pacific Northwest Coast.
Backing up a bit for context — I ended up visiting California and Oregon instead of Hawaii as I had hoped this year. It was a memorable summer with plenty of stories to share. It simply wasn’t my year to make the trip across the Pacific to one of my favorite destinations. I am glad I decided not to push on to HI after the repairs in Eureka. I would have faced a tough return trip home in late September but working my way north along the Pacific coast for several weeks had its own challenges. It’s said to be “uphill” for a reason.
After deciding to stay in Eureka instead of heading to Crescent City on 7/29, the day the tsunami struck, I decided things were finally going my way. Crescent City was the only port on the coast to suffer damage and I was very happy I was not there that night. Safely tucked way inside Humboldt Bay it was a non-event. My next port was Brooking Oregon which I arrived at after an overnight run from Eureka. The weather for this trip was near perfect but my luck was about to change.
My plan for the trip north was to explore each town I stopped in for a few days as I had lots of time. My slip at home in Seattle was sub-leased through August. Unfortunately I only got one day before I was effectively trapped on the boat by a low back injury. If you have never experienced one of these it might be hard to appreciate how debilitating they can be. The only good news, it didn’t happen while I was half way to HI! Stuck on the boat I resorted to Uber Eats and kept extending my stay until I finally had to get moving regardless. The wind had come on hard and going north would have been impossible for that week but the forecast was finally showing a chance to move north.
I decided my best option was to make a 24 hour run to Newport, Oregon. I headed out of Brookings in the morning fog for the long motor north. With a bad back and light winds from the north sailing was not an option. I spent a lot of time lying down with the iPad mirroring the chart plotter. The good thing about nighttime travel is there is a lot less traffic. Most of the night it was so foggy there was no chance of seeing anything anyway. A few fishing boats on AIS were the only traffic and they were never a real concern. I arrived to a sunny Newport Harbor on schedule and passed under the bridge that spans the entrance.
The south marina is part of a busy RV and boat launch facility. The check-in office is a very long walk for someone that can barely walk! I got some important advice for taking a slip close in to the shoreside as the outer slips are very shallow at low tide. This was proven when I watched a visiting yacht go aground in the slipway one morning while trying to get out of the marina at low tide. I added this to my decision tree for when it was time for me to leave. Leaving here was going to have to be done at mid-tide or higher.
With no rental car options and my back in the condition it was I didn’t get to see much of Newport. I did get a fun ride with the local cab service to the Oceana Food Coop. I seek out Co Op grocery or independent grocery stores whenever I can on summer trips.
The cycle of strong northerly winds continued to make moving north a challenge. I had to find a window that worked with the tides and the distance to motor north to Astoria which involved crossing the bar at the Columbia River. The number one most dangerous on the west coast.
Eventually the weather and tides aligned well enough to chance the move north. Sometimes one has to take the leap and hope forecasts hold. The tides on departure day dictated an afternoon departure but the wind forecast called for increasing northerlies in the afternoon. I really didn’t want to have to punch into the waves all afternoon so getting north sooner than later would make life more comfortable. I eased out of the Newport marina before noon with about 1 foot clear under the keel and into the fog.
Heading out about 5 miles offshore in fog I eventually found myself trailing behind a big fishing boat heading north on exactly the same heading. It is often amazing how boats end up on exactly the same track. Perhaps it is because we’re all starting to use the same software to plan our routes?
Another coincidence seemed to be that the 100 foot fishing boat and I were both only doing 5 knots over the ground. I was intentionally going slower to time my arrival at the Columbia Bar close to slack tide. I followed this boat for hours on the way north until we encountered 2 fishing boats heading south directly on the same course line. Typically this should have resulted in everyone shifting course a bit so that we all passed port to port. However, the boat I was following turned to the west clearly indicating they would pass the southbound boats to starboard. I never heard anything on the radio but maybe they used a channel I wasn’t monitoring.
I followed my leader. The southbound boats never changed course. That’s about as exciting has these long, boring, overnight passages got.
I arrived early at the Columbia Bar a bit early only to find it closed by the Coast Guard. There was some swell but it didn’t see that bad. I put the boat into a holding pattern like I used to do in planes when I was flying. Slack tide came and went. I finally got impatient after over an hour of back and forth and called Cape Disappointment on 16 to find out when they were going to check the conditions as the bar report had not been updated for a few hours. They said it would happen but no time was provided.
After about 30 minutes I heard the call that the bar was now unrestricted! In I went. It was completely calm with only a gentle swell running. What was more daunting were the hundreds of skiffs out trolling for salmon on the Columbia River. I’ve never seen so many; the ultimate obstacle course making my way up river to the marina at Astoria. Clearly Salmon fishing is BIG business here this time of year.
I was able to rent a car for the first time in Astoria. Still not able to do much walking but it allowed me to visit the wonderful Maritime Museum there and enjoy a great lunch in downtown at Broder Strand.
Again, waiting for a window of reasonably calm weather to head north again I departed Astoria for Neah Bay. This would be a long overnight trip but would finally get me off the coast and away from the constant challenge of finding weather windows and timing bar crossings.
The trip north to Neah Bay was highlighted by sightings of lots of whales. I never seem to have a camera in hand but the most sightings of my trip was near the exit of the Strait of Juan de Fuca. I had to slow to a crawl at times as the whales appeared directly ahead of the boat. They usually ended up diving away but I certainly did not want to get any closer. Most times they just appeared in that slow motion way they do. Surfacing, gliding along, breathing in and out, and disappearing.
I spent a couple days in Neah Bay catching up on my sleep and then made a foggy run to Port Angeles, at times dodging small fishing boats randomly popping up on radar. How can so many people be out fishing in the middle of the week?
After renting a car in Port Angeles I was able to visit good friends in Port Townsend over the weekend of the amazing Wooden Boat Festival. My back prevented me from enjoying it as much as I would otherwise but it was still great to see my friends. There was some incredible boats on display from simple and elegant to immense and stunning. A nice way to wrap things up.
Back in Seattle I deposited Kinetics almost directly into the Seaview Boatyard for bottom paint. Long overdue despite looking fairly good when hauled out. The six inches of growth I had in the brackish waters of the coastal ports had been shed along the way home. The boat is now back in its slip and ready to live through another season of Northwest rain and cold.