August 24th through 26th
enroute our home slip: Last evening we walked into the Astoria bus stop
to greet our son Zach and two of our Grandkids, Aiden and Sophie who
will travel up the Columbia River with us. Today we had a wonderful
sail up the river with main and yankee and fair winds. Having two kids
on board has its moments. We find small sailboat tasks to keep them
interested and point out wildlife and other river traffic. They of
course like the “surf’s up” waves created by the large ships that pass
nearby. We found our way back to the Columbia River out station off of
Walker Island and anchored for the evening. Dinner was the last of our
rock fish bbq’d nicely using Walt and Odile’s recipe.
Sunday we have pancakes and head out, motoring so we can make the Rainier dock in time for Zach to catch Amtrak in Longview as he heads back to go to work tomorrow. After dropping him we continue to motor for our evening’s docking at Coon Island in the Multnomah Channel. This channel parallels the Columbia River and is a nice break from the large river traffic. Coon Island has docks on either side and gives us a place to take a hike with the kids. Aiden feels the island is haunted but after a nice hike he is more in tune with listening for the birds and rabbits and Sophie is enjoying the quiet walk through the tall grass.
Monday morning we head on up the channel passing the many floating home communities that will perhaps one day house Carl and me with our boat along side. We pass Kim and her folks who are working on their boat in preparation for a long term sailing adventure in a year or two. She and her wonderful staff at Columbia Marine Exchange have helped us get our boat ready with their knowledge and ability to have reasonably priced marine products for us. We pass Zach’s boat and get a nice photo of the kids looking for Dad’s boat. We briefly travel the Willamette River until we join back up with the Columbia for the last leg home. The B&R Railroad Bridge swings open for us to pass through and gives the kids five blasts of their horn which produces giggles and grins. Once under the I-5 Bridge we hoist the sails and sail briefly, quickly needing to reduce sail for the 20 knot wind. Perhaps it is the two month journey and our desire to get home that makes us drop all sail, or perhaps the grand kids concern that the boat is going to tip over……either way we drop the sails and motor on home to the Big Eddy Marina. We arrive around 4:00 and chat with Brian, Dennis and Jeff who greet us on the dock. It is nice to start catching up with folks. We take the first layer of “stuff” off the boat and by 7:00 we are at the Sandy house eating pizza and ice cream and watching Star Wars on the VCR (Aiden is not sure what a VCR is!). Tomorrow evening we will have dinner with Jacob, Brittney, and our other granddaughter Emily, making our homecoming complete! Our son Jacob has been holding down the fort for us, collecting our mail, renting out the beach house, etc; a big thanks to him for taking on those tasks! Soon we settle into our fall activities which will include deciding what tasks to do on the boat to get it ready for next year’s adventure. Thank you all for following us along this journey! Pam and Carl on s/v ExTerra
No comments:
Post a Comment