July 2: 0545 am West Boat Basin, Astoria. Oops! The alarm did not go off! Good thing we built in extra time to begin our crossing of the bar. I believe in all of our minds that crossing the bar was the most intimidating aspect of our trip but we have picked our best tide and weather and here we go. As we motor towards the bar we decide that we will reef (shorten) our main sail so that we are prepared if our wind picks up. We are finding that some things that worked for us at the dock are not working for us underway. The reef line does not work well so Carl lets the boat circle while Odile and Pam re-rig the sail. Well done and off we go again.
We continue down the river to the ocean clicking off the buoy markers as we go. It is such a smooth crossing that it is somewhat anticlimactic for us but we are thankful. At buoy 3 we shut off the engine and head up under sail into the mighty blue Pacific Ocean. We set course for latitude 46 14 in what is to be our first of many many tacks up the coast. With wind coming at us from the direction we want to go we have to ‘tack’ (sail at an angle to the wind) west away from the coast line then tack north to gain distance up the coast line, zigging and zagging to make slow progress up the coast. Our reward today is a beautiful sunset, ‘red sky at night sailor’s delight’, our first on our boat while not on the river.
July 3rd 0245 in the morning:
west of Leadbetter Point State Park Washington: Pam and Odile come on
shift on this our first all night sail. Walt and Carl have moved us
approximately 24 miles north of the bar. This is a first for Walt,
skippering a boat after dark under sail and a first for Carl, sailing
through the night on our own boat. The boat travels well and we are
pleased. She is heavy enough that when you are outside the beating
through the waves is not too bad. However, when you go below you are
violently knocked to and fro. It makes no sense but you get the
feeling that you are in the wash cycle of a heavy duty clothes washer.
To make matters worse the head (john, loo, bathroom) on our boat is at
the front of the boat so whenever you feel the need to use the
facilities you have to make the long journey forward. Our typical trip
to the head…. grabbing any possible handholds along the way you make
slow steady progress. Once there, let’s see, the door to the head will
not close if the boat is going one direction so should I wait another
hour until we turn or chance it now….OK….I am in the head Now how can I
hang on long enough to make it to the seat. Dang there goes the door
again. Am I in the head or on the Tilt-a-Whirl at Disneyland? Ah,
finally, now to make the long trip back to the cockpit. Pam finally
makes a door “lock” with a piece of bungie cord and you have one less
thing to worry about. The head seat and shower curtain sustain damage
but no broken bones. Now if there was a handhold where the large
mirror is that would be great. Instead, the mirror wears all of our
badges of courage from our trips through the cabin. There are hand
prints from top to bottom, at least two head prints and is that a foot
print? No…..just more smeared hand prints. Sure will be nice when we
get out of this north wind! Now we know why it is called Bashing when
you have to sail into the wind with waves and swell.
The
4th of July Northwest of Griffiths-Priday Ocean State Park: Bruised
and battered the intrepid foursome continues to claw their way north.
Odile and Pam come on shift at 0100. All is well until 0445 with Pam
at the helm. What was that noise? Hmmmm why is the boat suddenly more
difficult to handle, the wind is the same? Uh Oh. The head sail is
completely extended! Odile does a quick check and we can see that the
furler line (the rope that holds the sail in to keep it smaller) has
been cut. Captain Pam has Odile wake up Carl so that we can have more
hands on deck and figure out how best to fix things. Ooops! Was that a
crab pot? Narrowly missing the crab pot (with ropes that can tangle
your prop and ruin your day) we continue. Walt gets up as well which is
good. Now two of us (Pam and Odile) can strap in and go forward and
work on the sail while Carl and Walt hold down the fort. There are many
moments when one has to face a fear and for Pam this is one of those.
But the safety gear is in place, the life jackets always on, you tether
yourself and off you go to the headsail. Odile has great ideas (having
sailed for many years and often by herself) and after a few different
attempts we have a shortened sail again and we are confident that our
repair will keep us going until we can anchor.
0800 another sunrise has come and gone. The winds are just not in our favor and the weather forecast on our VHF radio says that gale force winds are predicted tomorrow so we do need to make better progress. We gather and decide that we are ready to turn the motor back on after sailing 48 hours straight and gaining only about 60 miles. It is now daylight so we can sail closer to shore and keep a good watch for crab pots. The motor works great and by 4:00 the little town and harbor of La Push and beautiful rock formations, the Quillayute Needles are off our starboard bow. Making wonderful progress.
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