Oregon Coast
We have hit a milestone, crossed over into Oregon water. I hope the fishing is better here. I need help with my fishing skills, or lack of.
The Oregon coast is truly amazing I hope those of you who have never been here can get some idea of how beautiful it is from our very amateur photographs. Lisa is doing pretty damn good with the cameras we have but the coastline is so stunning its hard to capture in a lens. When we left Cresent City we had to go out 7 miles to get around St. Georges reef wich extends out from the coast to N.W.Seal Rock. Then due north to Port Orford, wich is really just an anchorage in rolling swells. Another uncomfortable night.
July 15
Leaving Port Orford, again we must travel straight west out around another reef this time about 5 miles before turning north and sailing up the coast along the way we spotted a large rock with an arch in it, I looked it up on the chart and it is called Mack Arch, very cool.
We noticed quite a few freighters today as we sailed towards Coos Bay, it turns out that Coos Bay is the largest wood products port in the world. The other thing we learned about Coos Bay, Charleston Marina to be more specific, if you want a clean boat, DON'T stay there. They have no gates or any security to speak of and they allow the locals to come down on the docks to go crabbing. They show up between 4 and 5 in the morning with their smelly fish carcasas and start throwing traps in all around your boat then the seagulls come looking to steal the bait off the dock, which by the way isn't picked up when they leave. The seagulls shit all over the boat and the dock and even if you're careful, they'll get you too!
July16
I went into Englund Marine about a mile away to get the new depth finder that Christopher, from Eureka, had ordered for me. They let me borrow it so I could hook up the transducer and throw it over the side just to make sure that was the problem, only to find the transducer wasn't in the box, DAMN. So we still don't have a working depth gauge. Not much else to say about Coos Bay, can't wait to leave.
July 17
We got up early and left Coos Bay along with several lacal fisherman in their 20' fishing boats. The tide was ebbing so we would normally not leave to cross a bar at this time but all the little boats were going so we did too. OH SHIT these guys are crazy. the waves on the bar were about 8' with 10 to 12 foot breaking waves Lisa went down below and didn't see them coming. She thought she was going to get some tea and coffee for us, needless to say the tea and coffee didn't make it. and Lisa was a bit green as she came up out of the cabin. This only lasted a few minutes until we got across the bar then the rest of the trip was just rolling swells. we had planned on a relatively short day, about 40 miles up to Florence, OR. but when we got there the conditions at their bar were so bad they had restricted entry to only commercial boats over 40'. NO "pleasure craft" we had to go north another 45 miles, so now we're in Newport and we're a day early.
Tied the boat up and talked to a few people on the dock who directed us to the Rogue Brewery, convieniently, just next to the marina.
July 18
made a call to a Raymarine Tech. he came right out looked at our system and diagnosed the problem. This guy knows his stuff. He has a few parts on order. Meanwhile we have scheduled to have the boat pulled out of the water and have the bottom painted. While the boat is out of the water we are going to Portland with our friends Jim and Terry.
July 19
We had the boat hauled out and Jim drove down from Portland to pick us up. We stopped at a local pub for a beer then made our way to Portland. On the way Jim asked if we wanted to stay for the next week and dog sit while the boat is out of the water. We decided that would work out best for everyone, so we will be spending the next week based in Lake Oswego and touring the area. We arrived at Jim and Terry's beautiful house just across the road from the lake and readily made ourselves at home.
July 20
Lisa, Jim, and I went to the Edgefield property on the outskirts of Portland overlooking the mouth of the Columbia River Gorge. Jim wanted to show us the property and to our suprise there was a local art show going on while we were there. We had a great day there tasting the local wine, beer and wiskey. I hope this doesn't sound like we spent the whole day drinking, afterall we were just tasting. When we got back to the house we had some popcorn and a fire in the backyard and talked until after midnight.
BELOW: Various Oregon Coastline
The Oregon coast is truly amazing I hope those of you who have never been here can get some idea of how beautiful it is from our very amateur photographs. Lisa is doing pretty damn good with the cameras we have but the coastline is so stunning its hard to capture in a lens. When we left Cresent City we had to go out 7 miles to get around St. Georges reef wich extends out from the coast to N.W.Seal Rock. Then due north to Port Orford, wich is really just an anchorage in rolling swells. Another uncomfortable night.
July 15
Leaving Port Orford, again we must travel straight west out around another reef this time about 5 miles before turning north and sailing up the coast along the way we spotted a large rock with an arch in it, I looked it up on the chart and it is called Mack Arch, very cool.
We noticed quite a few freighters today as we sailed towards Coos Bay, it turns out that Coos Bay is the largest wood products port in the world. The other thing we learned about Coos Bay, Charleston Marina to be more specific, if you want a clean boat, DON'T stay there. They have no gates or any security to speak of and they allow the locals to come down on the docks to go crabbing. They show up between 4 and 5 in the morning with their smelly fish carcasas and start throwing traps in all around your boat then the seagulls come looking to steal the bait off the dock, which by the way isn't picked up when they leave. The seagulls shit all over the boat and the dock and even if you're careful, they'll get you too!
July16
I went into Englund Marine about a mile away to get the new depth finder that Christopher, from Eureka, had ordered for me. They let me borrow it so I could hook up the transducer and throw it over the side just to make sure that was the problem, only to find the transducer wasn't in the box, DAMN. So we still don't have a working depth gauge. Not much else to say about Coos Bay, can't wait to leave.
July 17
We got up early and left Coos Bay along with several lacal fisherman in their 20' fishing boats. The tide was ebbing so we would normally not leave to cross a bar at this time but all the little boats were going so we did too. OH SHIT these guys are crazy. the waves on the bar were about 8' with 10 to 12 foot breaking waves Lisa went down below and didn't see them coming. She thought she was going to get some tea and coffee for us, needless to say the tea and coffee didn't make it. and Lisa was a bit green as she came up out of the cabin. This only lasted a few minutes until we got across the bar then the rest of the trip was just rolling swells. we had planned on a relatively short day, about 40 miles up to Florence, OR. but when we got there the conditions at their bar were so bad they had restricted entry to only commercial boats over 40'. NO "pleasure craft" we had to go north another 45 miles, so now we're in Newport and we're a day early.
Tied the boat up and talked to a few people on the dock who directed us to the Rogue Brewery, convieniently, just next to the marina.
July 18
made a call to a Raymarine Tech. he came right out looked at our system and diagnosed the problem. This guy knows his stuff. He has a few parts on order. Meanwhile we have scheduled to have the boat pulled out of the water and have the bottom painted. While the boat is out of the water we are going to Portland with our friends Jim and Terry.
July 19
We had the boat hauled out and Jim drove down from Portland to pick us up. We stopped at a local pub for a beer then made our way to Portland. On the way Jim asked if we wanted to stay for the next week and dog sit while the boat is out of the water. We decided that would work out best for everyone, so we will be spending the next week based in Lake Oswego and touring the area. We arrived at Jim and Terry's beautiful house just across the road from the lake and readily made ourselves at home.
July 20
Lisa, Jim, and I went to the Edgefield property on the outskirts of Portland overlooking the mouth of the Columbia River Gorge. Jim wanted to show us the property and to our suprise there was a local art show going on while we were there. We had a great day there tasting the local wine, beer and wiskey. I hope this doesn't sound like we spent the whole day drinking, afterall we were just tasting. When we got back to the house we had some popcorn and a fire in the backyard and talked until after midnight.
BELOW: Various Oregon Coastline
Oregon stops, Heading North!
Coos Bay
Coastline
Newport (Yaquina Bay)
July 28th 2011
As it's been a week we thought we should give a quick update of our continuing adventure...on land...
One thing we have always needed on the boat was a quick way to get to the beach without blowing up the dingy. Jim was going to take us around the local Surf and Kayak stores but by luck we found a killer deal on Craigs list and are now proud owners of a tandem Kayak, which we have already tried out on the Willamette River and it's awsome!
Lisa and Terry visited the Washington Park International Rose Test Garden in Portland that Jim recomended and after running errands he presented me with another thing I really wanted on the boat, a very cool Hammock, can't wait to try it out...
After Terrie and Jim left on their Cruise we decided to check out some of the sites.
A road trip took us first to the Multnomah Falls, at 620 feet it is the second highest year round Waterfall in the United States, it was pretty incredible.
One of the famous Windsurfing playgrounds of America is where the Hood River meets the Columbia River Gorge. Unfortunately we picked one of the few days that it was totally calm, so the only action on the river was all the Paddleboarders. It also seems the big sport is not Windsurfing anymore but Kite Surfing, but no wind, no kites!
After leaving the Columbia River we decided to head up to Mount Hood the tallest mountain in Oregon at 11,235 feet. It is considered a living volcano that last erupted in 1907 and on cold days steam can be seen coming from the vents near the summit. It is a year round ski resort but only a couple of lifts and runs stay open due to the lack of snow. It was about 80 degrees when we were there and watching a snowcat at work while we sat in our shorts and flipflops having a beer just didn't seem right!
If you're ever this close and you like planes you have to go to the Evergreen Aviation Air and Space Museum! We were hoping to meet up with a friend of Lisa's who fly's for Evergreen but unfortunately it didn't work out. He was going to give us a tour of the inside of the Spruce Goose that is housed in the Museum after moving there from Long Beach, but we did get to look inside the Cargo hold, maybe we'll get the chance on our way back.
After hours of taking in the amazing history of the aircraft displayed we headed to the Imax theater to watch an extremely well made documentery of a Fighter Pilot, then lastly a stop at the Space museum the whole day was very cool!
Hoping that the weather would hold up in Newport enough for the guys at Riverbend to get the bottom of the boat painted we drove the 3 hour trip to check on their progress. We also needed to figure out where we were going to put the water maker that desalinates the sea water to make drinking water.
The hull of the boat had a few osmotic blisters that had to be ground out and filled. The bottom would be painted in the next couple of days, I would be coming back to help with all the wiring and plumbing for the watermaker to keep the cost down. On our way home we decided to stop at one of the hundreds of Winneries in Oregon for a tasting, we ended up at the Yaminn Valley Vinyards where for $5 you could taste 6 different wines. It was a very cool place with a huge koi pond in the front and barrels of wine stacked up close by. A fun way to end the day...
As it's been a week we thought we should give a quick update of our continuing adventure...on land...
One thing we have always needed on the boat was a quick way to get to the beach without blowing up the dingy. Jim was going to take us around the local Surf and Kayak stores but by luck we found a killer deal on Craigs list and are now proud owners of a tandem Kayak, which we have already tried out on the Willamette River and it's awsome!
Lisa and Terry visited the Washington Park International Rose Test Garden in Portland that Jim recomended and after running errands he presented me with another thing I really wanted on the boat, a very cool Hammock, can't wait to try it out...
After Terrie and Jim left on their Cruise we decided to check out some of the sites.
A road trip took us first to the Multnomah Falls, at 620 feet it is the second highest year round Waterfall in the United States, it was pretty incredible.
One of the famous Windsurfing playgrounds of America is where the Hood River meets the Columbia River Gorge. Unfortunately we picked one of the few days that it was totally calm, so the only action on the river was all the Paddleboarders. It also seems the big sport is not Windsurfing anymore but Kite Surfing, but no wind, no kites!
After leaving the Columbia River we decided to head up to Mount Hood the tallest mountain in Oregon at 11,235 feet. It is considered a living volcano that last erupted in 1907 and on cold days steam can be seen coming from the vents near the summit. It is a year round ski resort but only a couple of lifts and runs stay open due to the lack of snow. It was about 80 degrees when we were there and watching a snowcat at work while we sat in our shorts and flipflops having a beer just didn't seem right!
If you're ever this close and you like planes you have to go to the Evergreen Aviation Air and Space Museum! We were hoping to meet up with a friend of Lisa's who fly's for Evergreen but unfortunately it didn't work out. He was going to give us a tour of the inside of the Spruce Goose that is housed in the Museum after moving there from Long Beach, but we did get to look inside the Cargo hold, maybe we'll get the chance on our way back.
After hours of taking in the amazing history of the aircraft displayed we headed to the Imax theater to watch an extremely well made documentery of a Fighter Pilot, then lastly a stop at the Space museum the whole day was very cool!
Hoping that the weather would hold up in Newport enough for the guys at Riverbend to get the bottom of the boat painted we drove the 3 hour trip to check on their progress. We also needed to figure out where we were going to put the water maker that desalinates the sea water to make drinking water.
The hull of the boat had a few osmotic blisters that had to be ground out and filled. The bottom would be painted in the next couple of days, I would be coming back to help with all the wiring and plumbing for the watermaker to keep the cost down. On our way home we decided to stop at one of the hundreds of Winneries in Oregon for a tasting, we ended up at the Yaminn Valley Vinyards where for $5 you could taste 6 different wines. It was a very cool place with a huge koi pond in the front and barrels of wine stacked up close by. A fun way to end the day...
July 29
after a long day yesterday installing our water maker on the boat, Lisa and I went up to Mt. St. Helens to see what the volcano and surrounding area looks like 31 years after the top blew off the mountain. To our amazement the mountain looks as if it is rebuilding its self. The volcano has been pushing cooled magma up through the top of the crater adding new spines to the once hollow crater. The area around the volcano still looks as barren as it was after the eruption. The forests have mostly been replanted where the trees would take hold. but much of the area near the volcano won't sustain foilage. We had a great day hiking around and visiting the area, topped off with a suprise stop at the tasting room of the Mt. St. Helen's Winery. Owned and operated by a wonderful couple Gary and June Dunbar. After tasting some great wine poured by June at the tasting room, Gary showed up, and the four of us enjoyed a bottle of their award winning syra and a couple hours of conversation on the patio looking out at the volcano. Still another encounter with fun nice people.
after a long day yesterday installing our water maker on the boat, Lisa and I went up to Mt. St. Helens to see what the volcano and surrounding area looks like 31 years after the top blew off the mountain. To our amazement the mountain looks as if it is rebuilding its self. The volcano has been pushing cooled magma up through the top of the crater adding new spines to the once hollow crater. The area around the volcano still looks as barren as it was after the eruption. The forests have mostly been replanted where the trees would take hold. but much of the area near the volcano won't sustain foilage. We had a great day hiking around and visiting the area, topped off with a suprise stop at the tasting room of the Mt. St. Helen's Winery. Owned and operated by a wonderful couple Gary and June Dunbar. After tasting some great wine poured by June at the tasting room, Gary showed up, and the four of us enjoyed a bottle of their award winning syra and a couple hours of conversation on the patio looking out at the volcano. Still another encounter with fun nice people.
July 30
Jim and Terry returned home from their cruise, then the four of us went down town Portland to the Oregon Brew Festival. We sampled some fantastic and some NOT SO fantastic beer from around the country along with the entire population of the greater Portland area. Needless to say it was an enjoyable evening.
July 31
Back to our boat and one night on the ground. Jim and Terry drove us back to Newport where we spent a night on the boat about 15 feet in the air while the boat was on dry dock. the tide was out and the area where the boat was to be launched was dry as well. It seemed strange that the tide could come up that far in just a few hours, but it did.
August 1
We are sailing again. The work was finished on the boat and we were off, down the Yaquina river we went back to the south beach marina where we spent one short night getting the new depth gauge installed, going out for the best clam chowder on the west coast, (and we've tried them all) then a bit of rest.
August 2
A long first day back on the Ocean, we had some makin' up to do. We were lucky enough to have a calm day, and we covered about 135 miles, the last 20 was entering the Columbia River at about 11:00pm. We had heared all the horror stories about the Bar at the mouth of the river and how if you cross the bar during an ebtide the waves can stand up to 15 or 18 feet and there have been over 2000 boats capsized there, So we decided to wait and go in at slack tide in the middle of the night.. The bar was as calm as could be, but we couldn't see a thing. The instruments were working fine, but every now and then a tug pulling a freighter would come down the river with their 200 bazillion candle spot lights and blind you. sometimes it was hard to tell what was a boat and what was town. We made it safely as we motored SLOWLY up the river to Astoria.
Jim and Terry returned home from their cruise, then the four of us went down town Portland to the Oregon Brew Festival. We sampled some fantastic and some NOT SO fantastic beer from around the country along with the entire population of the greater Portland area. Needless to say it was an enjoyable evening.
July 31
Back to our boat and one night on the ground. Jim and Terry drove us back to Newport where we spent a night on the boat about 15 feet in the air while the boat was on dry dock. the tide was out and the area where the boat was to be launched was dry as well. It seemed strange that the tide could come up that far in just a few hours, but it did.
August 1
We are sailing again. The work was finished on the boat and we were off, down the Yaquina river we went back to the south beach marina where we spent one short night getting the new depth gauge installed, going out for the best clam chowder on the west coast, (and we've tried them all) then a bit of rest.
August 2
A long first day back on the Ocean, we had some makin' up to do. We were lucky enough to have a calm day, and we covered about 135 miles, the last 20 was entering the Columbia River at about 11:00pm. We had heared all the horror stories about the Bar at the mouth of the river and how if you cross the bar during an ebtide the waves can stand up to 15 or 18 feet and there have been over 2000 boats capsized there, So we decided to wait and go in at slack tide in the middle of the night.. The bar was as calm as could be, but we couldn't see a thing. The instruments were working fine, but every now and then a tug pulling a freighter would come down the river with their 200 bazillion candle spot lights and blind you. sometimes it was hard to tell what was a boat and what was town. We made it safely as we motored SLOWLY up the river to Astoria.
