August 31, 2014

August 20th – 22nd:  Once the pull of home is upon me I get focused in on that.  I am just now finishing up our photos and ‘blog’ even though we have been home for almost a week!

We enjoyed poking around in Bamfield for a few days.  Bamfield’s Main Street is the waterway between East and West Bamfield.  East Bamfield is at the end of a 54 mile gravel road and West Bamfield is across “Main Street” and only accessible by boat.  It is quite a unique spot to visit.  West Bamfield maintains a mile plus long boardwalk along the waterway and walking gets you everywhere.  The Bamfield Marine Sciences Centre, shared by many of the British Columbia Universities, is housed in the historic Cable Station for the trans-pacific telegraph cable.   Brady’s Beach is a wonderful beach just a short hike away, and the Canada Coast Guard maintains a large complex including their Rigid Inflatable Training Center.

 

 

 

 

 

August 22rd – 24th:  We depart 0800 from Bamfield which will put us in the right area during a ‘safe’ time to cross the Columbia River Bar.  As we head out into the ocean we are in fog but figure that it will be gone soon as has been the case most days.  As we approach the Straits of Juan de Fuca, the major waterway that pours water out into the ocean from the Seattle WA and Vancouver BC area we are still in pea soup fog.  We can hear a fog horn in the distance from a large ship and see him on radar but he is not where he is supposed to be (“they” have travel lanes coming out the Straits to reduce collisions).  By the time we figure out his path we decide we need to quickly turn to get out of his way, and Just in time as we see a tall black wall emerge from the fog just to end of our boat, a true near miss and a memory that is implanted on my brain!

While we are in fog for the next 28 hours the remainder of our overnight trip is a safe transit down the coast.  We turn to head over the bar and as soon as we are entering the Columbia River the fog lifts to glorious sunshine!  This is good because we then have to meander through the hundreds of small salmon fishing boats.

As we tie up to the Astoria dock it is once again nice to be safely across the bar and headed to the local pub for some red meat and a brew.

 

 

 

 

August 25th:  As often happens when you return home you move right into all of the things you need to take care of.   Because of this I have not ‘closed out our float plan’ from this year’s adventures.  SO here is the last Ship’s Log entry:  Last evening we stayed at one of our new favorite spots, the quaint Longview Yacht Club.  We were the only boat there and had a quiet evening dockside watching some beautiful wooden boats taking a sunset cruise.  Our last leg home found us near one of the largest dry docks in the world on its route from China to Portland.  We pulled over and let her go by.  By the end of the day we were tied up to our house, content with ourselves for meeting all the challenges, thankful for the safe and interesting adventures and new friends and glad to be home.