August 25, 2013

 

August 22nd and 23rd enroute Columbia River Bar:  This morning’s dawn brings a peaceful ride down the Strait of Juan de Fuca towards our ocean voyage.  We exit the Strait and turn south around 0845 while watching whales spouting and diving.  We are able to use our auto pilot while dodging fishing fleet and a bit of fog.  We are thankful that we have “redundant” lights when we discover that the tri-color (red, green and white at the top of the mast) does not work.  Instead we use our red, green and white running lights along the deck of the boat and steaming light on the mast which will tell other boats where we are.  I think we are both contemplating our first all night voyage on the boat just the two of us.  As the evening turns to night Pam takes the 10 PM hour so Carl can get a nap.  We then each take two hour shifts with one of us at the wheel and one of us (trying to sleep) in the lee cloth.  The ride is very smooth compared to our journey up the coast two months ago.  We have gone about ten miles out off the coast which we understand will be smoother AND will keep us away from all of the crab pots and their prop destroying ropes.  All is well most of the night.  Pam encounters a large shadow about 50 yards off to the side of the boat and (to her surprise) fairly calmly takes the auto pilot off, grabs the strobe light and finds that a 40 foot power boat has decided to turn its light on just in time for her to see the boat.  There was only one white light (no running lights red or green) and Pam turns our boat with about 30 yards to spare, wondering if this is the boat that the fishing fleet has been trying to call on the radio for the last few hours.  On Carl’s shift the fog has settled back in but the radar picks up a large ship.  With our radar and AIS we determine that the ship is about 1 ½ miles away so we have 1 ½ miles of visibility in the fog.  The large ship fades into a ghost ship as he enters the fog.  The Gray’s Harbuor fishing fleet numbers at least ten boats all night long and we finally get clear of them as we motor further south.  We have made our time window to cross the Columbia River Bar about an hour after slack tide with the tide coming in behind us.  We actually sail part way in towards Astoria until there are too many small salmon fishing boats to dodge.  The Coast Guard and the large ships are quite vocal this morning about possible tickets and fines since a large number of the small fishing boats do not pay attention and at some points block the channel that the large ships need.  There are literally hundreds of small fishing boats and we just keep poking our way through them until we are once again docked in the Astoria boat basin.  Our sense of accomplishment is rewarding and we are glad to be on the last leg of our journey home.