We launch our 7th
season on Saturday June 29th at 0900 with our youngest son Jacob and
our two youngest grandkids Emily (7) and Sam (4 ¾) on board. The first leg of our trip is short lived as
we tie up in about 5 minutes to the Donaldson’s fuel dock and fill the tank and
two cans. Carl installed a new sending
unit for the fuel gauge this year and some thorough studying of past fuel logs
tells us that if we fill up here we can make it to the Neah Bay fuel dock and
not have to worry about putting into a fuel dock anywhere in between.
Jake helps tie us up, we
top off all fuel containers and head on down the river. With a timely radio call to 49 Vancouver, the
kids are impressed that a bridge opens for us and they do lively waves at the
bridge tender who does not seem to be in sight.
Our day is uneventful, just how we like it. The kids explore the boat, sit in the perfect
70 degree sun (sunscreen liberally applied by Dad of course) and find my fresh
stash of activity books and crayons. Sam
makes sure the companionway drop boards are in correctly after studying each
one and making sure all the lips line up correctly. They torment one another as you can ‘lock’
the companionway doors from the inside and the outside and they commence to
locking each other in/out.
They get to see boats of
all sizes and ones that go ‘real fast.’
Emily explores cubbies and cupboards to re-assure herself as she
mentions many times that she is worried that there is “not enough food on this
boat.” Come dinner time I have her go in
search of a can of baked beans which leads her to the an as yet
un-explored ‘food’ hold, our dry bilge
can storage area.
We tie up at Longview
Yacht Club at 1550. We tie to the new
floating boat house that has a nice long side tie slip and dedicated shore
power, and agreement between Dave, LVYC’s always gracious host and the owner of
the new boat house. After a nice
welcoming visit with Dave, we offload the kids, their fishing poles, my book
and an assortment of electronic devices and spread out on the deck in the
shade. The kids commence to “bobbering”
and are quite content for a good hour.
No fish are harmed as “bobbering” is their way of practicing casting,
bobbers only and a contest to see who can cast the furthest.
Dinner is enjoyed in the
clubhouse, Jacob fixes my phone, and then we head back to the boat and
configure sleeping quarters for 5. Emily
called dibs on the Pullman (mid ship nearly queen bed) and Sam tried to share
this. Midway through the night Sam
crawled into the salon area and went to bed on the cushions on the floor, then
migrated to the other queen berth (settee pullout) and nestled in beside Papa
for the rest of the night. Emily was
found fully crosswise in the pullman, sleeping like a log.
Sunday June 30, 2019
The next morning it is
full agreement that pancakes are in order.
We pile into the vehicle that Carl and I dropped off at LVYC Friday for
Jacob to get home in. Jacob finds the
Pancake House in Longview, which is obviously a local’s favorite. Between us we had 3 different types of
pancakes, with two votes for chocolate chippers.
Enroute back to the boat
Carl diverts us to Napa Auto Parts for an as yet explained need. He has been pretty vague as to what has gone
wrong on the boat but it is pretty obvious when he comes out of Napa with an
alternator belt.
We gather all the ‘kids’
stuff up and get them on down the road.
It has, as always, been wonderful to have them along for a leg of our
journey. Thank you Jacob, for making it
happen.
Now it is time to dive
into the bowels of our bilge, where our engine sits, and get that alternator
belt changed. What is it with our
alternator? It seems like every year the
alternator ends up being a story in our blog.
This year the belt has completely separated and it is not that old. Anyway, as with last year, we are glad the
issue arose while on the river and not out on the overnight trip on the ocean.
Belt changed, Carl and I
head for Tongue Point, our anchorage for the night. Given that we don’t have any passengers to
pick up or drop off in Astoria, and that we have plenty of fuel, we choose this
year to forgo tying up in the hectic West Basin and check out instead the
anchorage behind Elsie Island, a tip given to us by Steve and Rosey B. from the
club. The irony is not lost on us that
we can now say that we have anchored our sailboat on the John Day River, which
outflows along Elsie Island. We raised
our boys in towns along the main stem of the John Day and still enjoy camping,
fishing and hunting along its tributaries in eastern Oregon. Of course this is a completely different John
Day River but it has a nice feel to it none-the-less.
We take advantage of the
calm anchorage to do chores. Reef in the
main; check. Jacklines on deck;
check. Engine checks; check. Glass of wine and bourbon, pork chops on the
grill and relaxing in the cockpit; check.
July 1, 2019
This proves to be a very
nice, quiet anchorage, we sleep peacefully, and awake refreshed and ready to
head out across the bar. That is of
course, after Carl takes a shim out of the raw water pump pulley as he thinks
the belt is a little tight.
Now we are truly headed
out over the bar, timing our crossing on the beginning of the flood. We have learned that it does not pay to get
there too close to slack when there is strong ebb, as there is today. We make a smooth crossing, taking only 3
hours on still apparent ebb, to reach the bar even though our anchorage is a
good hour further away than our normal West Basin departure point.
We settle in for our
roughly 160 nautical mile trip, next planned stop, Neah Bay. The seas are a bit sloppy and ride choppy,
until we are fully outside the Columbia River outflow. We hoist the main for stability rather than
sailing as the wind is predictably on the nose.
We see a nice variety of ocean life, a shark, many whale blows, a few
whale tales, one sea otter, a puffin and a good group of dolphin. Through the night we do our yearly dance with
the Grays Harbour fishing fleet although our dance card is nearly empty this
year as the fleet is much further offshore than normal.
All is well until Pam
jumps out of the lee cloth berth at the sound of the engine slowing around
10:30 PM. Carl said there was something
different with the transmission. He takes
quite some time checking out the engine compartment while Pam revs and slows
the throttle. Everything seems back to
normal and we motor on. In retrospect we
think it is possible that we snagged a line or something. If so, our “shaft shark” hopefully severed it
quickly. Even though we are in the
agreed upon crab free “tow lane” we still notice a high number of crab sets and
it is difficult to find them all in the dark.
Hopefully we do not have any lasting damage.
Tuesday July 2, 2019
We are still motoring
along well, no re-occurrence of the (perhaps) tranny issue. We each kept a close watch on the instruments
during our 3 on 3 off shifts through the night and feel pretty confident. That did not stop me from mentally checking
which fishing boats were in the area in the middle of the night and which Coast
Guard unit we were closest to.
We radio the Coast Guard
to discuss their live ammo training ongoing near Neah Bay and they assure us
the area is well away from Neah Bay and we proceed with caution to the fuel
dock. We take on 38.8 gallons and have
fairly good trust in our new fuel tank gauge.
Anchored out we enjoy the calm bay with two other sailboats, one just in
from Hawaii and one from San Francisco. Last year we anchored near Chuck P. and his sailboat Puffin, aptly named for anchoring here as the we always see Puffins floating around the entrance. Thankfully Neah Bay now has cell phone coverage and I will get this
missive onto the blog before we regroup and start heading up the Strait of Juan
de Fuca tomorrow on a rising tide.
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