We were a little sad to leave Port Townsend last Monday, August 25th.  It’s such a comfortable marina and we had sunny, warm weather.  My step-brother Matt came to visit us and we had a great time catching up.  We walked to town and then came across a farmer’s market on the way back where we picked up a beautiful salmon for $20.  We also bought some gorgeous tomatoes, and together with the beets that Matt brought us from his garden, we had a tremendous feast on Saturday night.  It was great fun.

We had planned for our first stop in the San Juan Islands to be James Island, a tiny State park.  We reached it after about 4 hours of sailing/motor sailing in light winds.  There are only a few places to either dock or moor at the island (no anchoring), and the west side was full.  We decided to anchor right across the water at Decatur Island (Decatur Head).  We put the anchor down in about 15 feet of water, and we were done for the day!  It was so calm there – we had a sweet first night in the islands.  There were several harbor porpoises swimming in the bay and some cute little harbor seals.

The next morning we decided to head to Spencer Spit State Park, which was only about 6 miles away.  That’s kind of the way it is up here – there are so many islands and places on each island to see and they are close together.  It’s awesome and sometimes overwhelming.  We approached the park and saw that a mooring was available.  For those of you not familiar, this is a float that is anchored to the bottom with a heavy weight or the like, and you tie up to it.  (For those of you familiar with Catalina moorings, there is no stick to pick up, you have to tie a line to the ring on the mooring ball – quite a trick!).  The moorings cost $12/night, which is a deal.  We let the dinghy down from the stern swim step and I drove while Ralph caught the mooring with the boat hook and tied a line to the ring.  Then we dragged the line to the bow and tied it on.  We were done with our day’s work in about an hour!  After settling in we took the dinghy to the beach to walk around.  There is a marsh on the spit with lots of interesting birds, etc to look at.  It’s been pretty nice almost every day, but it does get cool in the evenings.

We decided to stay two nights at Spencer Spit.  The second day we blew up our inflatable kayaks and took our trash to the trash receptacles in the park and paddled around, in addition to doing some usual boat chores.  I’m pretty sure I saw an eagle – either a juvenile bald eagle or a golden eagle.  I’m really excited to spot eagles and I can’t wait to see orcas!

Speaking of orcas, we are now moored in Cascade Bay on Orcas Island.  We are meeting some friends here this weekend and we decided to get here early so that we might get a spot – our timing was perfect!  We got a great mooring for $25/night and that includes access to the Rosario resort on the island (nice swimming pool and access to showers included).  The mansion is in the national historical places register and is really interesting and beautiful.  Yesterday I took the bus to the biggest town on Orcas Island, Eastsound, to get groceries.  It’s a really cute little town.  Later, we toured the mansion and stayed for a musical performance on the 1900 Steinway piano and a giant pipe organ – just wonderful.

Today we plan to hike to Cascade Lake and meet up with our friends.  We’re having a wonderful time – it is really amazing here with gorgeous views everywhere you look.

WiFi and phone service is really spotty in the islands, so although I am trying to update the blog once a week, I might not always be able to do so.  I’ve been taking video, but there’s not enough bandwidth here to upload it, so I’ll save the footage and load a video when I can.

Spencer Spit

Sunset at Spencer Spit

Love kayaking!

Black tailed deer on Orcas Island

Leaves are already starting to turn here

Marsh at Spencer Spit

Mooring field in Cascade Bay, Rosario

Historical mosaic floor in the Moran Mansion, Rosario

Moran Mansion, restored pool

Rain on the way, Cascade Bay

Ralph, the blackberry hunter

Sailing with the Mainsail, on the way to Orcas Island

Sea planes lining up to delivery passengers to the Rosario resort

Toga on a Rosario mooring in Crescent Bay

Stained glass in the mansion music room

Moran Mansion at Rosario Resort, Orcas Island

Ferry with snow covered mountains in the background

Anchored at Decatur Head, Decatur Island

“Crabby” – great boat name

We enjoyed our stay at Port Angeles, even though it was short and we didn’t make it to town.  We used the time to work on a little boat cleanup and relax.  We left Port Angeles on Monday, August 18th at 7 am.  Even though we will no longer have river bars to cross, the timing of our trips are just as important because the tides and currents in this area rule everything.  We left when we could go with the current and round Point Wilson at slack water (that is when the current = 0 knots).  Going with the current added a knot or two to our normal speed, sort of like walking on those moving walkways at the airport.

We had a beautiful day for our trip and we got to sail a little bit.  It was a short trip compared to our others, and we rounded Point Wilson at about 11:00 am.  We enjoyed the absence of rolling and pitching! We were watching the vessel traffic on the radar because this area can be congested with large vessels going to and from Seattle as well as passenger ferries and all kinds of pleasure craft, but we had no problem other than competing with a passenger ferry that was on it’s way to Port Townsend.  The ferry won.

Port Townsend is a mecca for boat builders and enthusiasts and it’s fun to be in this environment.  The marina is comfortable and the downtown area is only about a mile away.  We took a walk down there the other evening and went out for dinner – it’s such a cute town! We have a great fish market and a grocery store right here – also, a brewery!  Port Townsend Brewery is right in the marina area and the IPA is very good.

We are planning to leave here Sunday or Monday and head north – not sure where yet!  We are very excited to be here and hope to see a lot of places in the next several weeks.  I got the laptop working again, and I posted a video with some footage from a few voyages for you.

Link to video: http://youtu.be/ByBIyJ3gGVY

Area map to help you understand where we are

Boat name I like

Beautiful Port Townsend Boat Haven

Fresh seafood abundance

Fun in the beer garden

Lovely Port Townsend – Disclaimer! I did not take this photo

It’s not all fun living on a boat. We spent several hours the last couple of days removing dozens of mysterious rust stains from the deck.

Boat maintenance and repair happening everywhere around here

Wooden boat building classes

Ferries are a common sight here

Pretty beaches at Port Townsend

We took off from the dock in Newport around 8:30 am last Friday, again timing our travels to have the best bar conditions at the harbor entrance/exit.  Although there was noticeable current running in the river (it looks like low level rapids), we had no trouble exiting.  The weather forecast predicted 10-15 knot winds and small seas.

It was a lovely sunny day, and after we set our course northward we enjoyed our breakfast and started our watch shifts.  We decided that we would take 2 hour shifts for the entire passage rather than just at night, and maybe that way we would feel more rested and relaxed.  This was a great idea and we both felt that the passage was much better than any of our others.

The passage itself was uneventful in that we didn’t have any whale or dolphin sightings.  We did see lots of Vellella’s (sailors-by-the-sea) and other, larger, jellyfish, so it wasn’t a complete bust.  And we always have our companions, the Common Murre’s, to keep us company with their funny squawks.  The mothers and babies talk to each other frequently, and I find it entertaining to interpret what they might be saying (Mama: “Get your feathery butt over here! You’re going to get eaten by a shark!”; Baby: “I’m coming mama!” – and so on).

Regarding the weather, once again, we had much higher than predicted wind and wave activity.  It’s pretty frustrating to not be able to rely on weather information other than in a general sense.  We saw almost 30 knots of wind, and the average wind was probably between 15-20 knots.  The seas were at times confused and churny, Ralph called it “washing-machine like”, especially near the Columbia River entrance.  Not sure if this was a goodbye from Oregon or a hello to Washington!

We decided not to enter the Columbia River before we left Newport, although I’m sure it would have been beautiful. In order to get to a marina, it would take at least another two hours of travel up the river, and we didn’t want to fight the crowds (it’s a very busy area) and the bar crossing is notorious for challenging conditions.

Because of the wind and water conditions, our progress was pretty slow.  My new face mask was useful to both of us to avoid too much exposure to diesel fumes and neither of us was seasick.  For part of the night we had a bright moon and stars – that was very lovely and welcome.  We also had fog – sort of ran the gamut of weather besides rain.  We arrived at the Gray’s Harbor entrance at around 6 pm on Saturday and we had some difficulty navigating to the marina because of discrepancies between the markers and our charts, and as I say in the video (link below) we missed the main marina entrance, but luckily, it was no harm done and we happily docked at the guest dock.

There are several restaurants on the waterfront here, and we had a good meal out on Saturday night.  Sunday we didn’t do much (too tired), but yesterday we went for a bike ride on the beach trail.  It was such a beautiful day, sunny and really warm – there were a lot of surfers and others on the beach and in the water.  The trail was great, and it also went by the Gray’s Harbor lighthouse (tallest lighthouse in the Pacific Northwest – at 107′); we decided to take the tour and walked up the winding staircase.  There were interesting things for both of us there.  The original lighthouse construction plans were on display, and I enjoyed reviewing the building details (4′ thick concrete walls, people!) while Ralph was fascinated by the huge Fresnel lens which was used until 1992 and how it operated sitting in a bath of mercury to allow it to rotate.  Now the light is provided by a simple light in a plastic housing.

This is pretty much a tourist town, although it is very quaint.  There isn’t even a grocery store here anymore, it had to close down.  Tomorrow we plan to head northward for our final northern leg of this trip.  We are rounding Cape Flattery and will stay over at Neah Bay for a couple of days before moving on to Port Angeles and then probably Port Townsend and Anacortes, and then – the San Juan Islands! I included a map in the photos below and drew out our basic route from here for those of you who aren’t very familiar with the geography up here.  Ralph and I are very thankful that we have made it this far safely and we are very much looking forward to being in the protected waters of Washington and Canada.

Regarding the video – it drags a little, in my opinion.  I had some trouble with the voice over recording and I had to re-do it about 5 times, but I hope you find it interesting.

Video: http://youtu.be/LHvh31K7bDs

Leaving Newport

Underway

Lovely sunrise

Rough water off the Columbia river entrance

Rough, churning water off the Columbia river entrance

Super moon above Westport

This is my new toaster! Works pretty well.

Big jellies are everywhere

Cool bike path

Gray’s harbor beaches

Bike ride!

The new light that takes the place of the big light

3rd order Fresnel lens at the Gray’s Harbor lighthouse

Looks like a long way up, but it really wasn’t.

Gray’s harbor lighthouse

Toga at the guest dock

Fish processing

Starting at the middle left, this is where we are now – Gray’s Harbor. Follow the red dashed line and circles for our probable next several stops.

We left from Charleston at the high tide and crossed the Coos Bay bar at around 5 pm on Saturday.  The conditions were mild and we enjoyed the evening.  We had a little scare with the radar when we couldn’t get it to turn on and we considered turning back, because when the fog rolls in the radar is your best friend.  We soon discovered that the system had somehow been reset and needed a setting turned on, and we were in business.

We’d had a nice early dinner before we left, so we spent the evening just hanging out in the cockpit.  The engine started to run hotter than usual, so we cut back the RPM a bit and the temperature settled down, but we kept an eye on it the whole trip.

We decided to start the watches at 8:30, and Ralph took the first rest.  During my watch the winds picked up and I started to be bothered by the diesel fumes, which is pretty normal for me.  Seasickness soon followed, unfortunately.  Later in the night, Ralph also had some seasickness and neither of us rested well, so it was a rough night.

By the time we were in sight of the Yaquina Bay bar, the winds were at least 20 knots, but luckily the sea conditions weren’t rough.  We crossed the bar uneventfully, and soon passed under the 101 freeway bridge – a pretty cool experience – and tied up at the Newport marina guest dock at about 2 pm on Sunday.

The Newport marina is a recreational marina, with the commercial marina being across the river.  Newport is a really nice town and the amenities here at the marina are very good.  The headquarters of Rogue brewing is here, and we visited there and had a nice meal and good beer.  Our favorite Oregonian beer so far comes from Deschutes brewing – Ralph likes the Inversion IPA and I like the Mirror Pond Pale Ale.  Someday we hope to visit them, either in Bend or Portland.

We’ve had sunny weather every day that we’ve been here, and we appreciate that!  It isn’t very warm, because it’s quite windy here, but we’ll take the sun.

While here we have visited the historic bay front across the river, which is an interesting mix of working seafood operations and tourist attractions.  Yesterday we rode our bikes to a local fish market for lunch – we had really good fish and chips and so-so clam chowder.  We also rode around the waterfront and stumbled upon a University of Oregon science center, which was a mini aquarium.  It was a really fun diversion.

Last night I made “5 minute refrigerator bread”.  It was nice to have fresh bread and it was really good considering the minimal effort it took to make it.  Just mix it up and let it rise – no kneading.  We haven’t had the fresh seafood here that we’ve had at other marinas since the commercial boats aren’t here, but don’t worry, we always eat well!  Tomorrow morning we are leaving for Gray’s harbor, which is in Washington (should be about a 27-hour trip).  Assuming it doesn’t get too rough out there and we end up ducking in somewhere, we are already saying goodbye to Oregon!  Seems like we just got here.

Historic Bay Front

Fun on the waterfront

“Coastguard town” – nice CG house, historical grounds

Sunrise

Bridge in sight

Passing under the bridge

Rogue headquarters – The Rogue Nation

Yaquina river breakwater

Commercial marina

Rogue brewery tasters – good to the last drop!

This is a rock fish. I tried to get him to smile, no luck.

Touch pools

View of Newport Marina

Fresh bread!

My new mask in case the fumes bother me again. I’m smiling, in case you can’t tell.

Toga tied up at the guest dock

After my last post the fog settled in.  We have had a little sun since then, but not much.

As usual, we’ve met nice folks here.  John, the captain of the fishing vessel the Mary F. came to our aid early one morning while we were moving the boat along the dock.  We got to talking and he offered to take us over to the other side of the peninsula, to downtown Coos Bay.  The next day we drove over with John and his son and got a nice tour – and some sun!  It’s frequently sunny over there when it is foggy here.  On the way back we stopped to pick blackberries, and we got a bunch.  We enjoyed a berry cobbler as well as the berries themselves for dessert a couple of nights.

We also met Daryl, Captain of the Pisces (a motor-sailing fishing boat).  Daryl catches albacore that is then canned.  He gave us some of his product, and wow! It is very delicious and much better than mainstream canned albacore I’ve had.

We got both of the bilge pumps working.  The automatic pump needed a new check valve and the manual pump hose had a crack.  It’s always something!

Several days ago we left the guest dock and moved to a slip – it’s a little more peaceful here.  We thought it would be a good idea for the crew to get out a bit, so we rented a car and toured the area a little.  We went south to Bandon and north to Florence.  Both are really cute little seafaring towns.  The 101 highway through this area has beautiful views of the sand dunes, forests, lakes and the sea.

We are planning to leave here this evening for Newport, OR; it’s about a 19 hour trip.  The weather hasn’t “laid down” like our fishermen friends have told us it would this time of year, but it’s not looking too bad.

Delicious albacore

Coos Head

Blackberries!

This is what it looks like most of the time here.

Enjoying Bandon – and an IPA.

Enjoying the Oregon beach

The historic 101 bridge at Florence. If you want to come through with your boat, you call 2 hours ahead and they will raise the drawbridge for you.

Lunch in Florence – Ranger IPA for Ralph and Manny’s Pale Ale for me. Lunch also included a couple of pub burgers.

Umpqua lighthouse

Local scenery

View of the Oregon dunes

Our neighbors, the Coasties