2020

ExTerra voyages again!

Ah 2020!  The covid pandemic, the political extremes, racism unrest……It is time to cast off the lines and have a relatively normal rest of the summer.

Having said that we will have a relatively unnormal sailing season.  Our grandson Aiden will be on board with us for the entire season.  We carved out some stowage space for him and the sea berth will be his bunk.  I unearthed my 2013 ereader and after many machinations and gnashing of teeth I managed to install a Multnomah County library ebook for him.  The dusty ereader choked until I followed the very last advice from the manufacturer.  “If your ereader is as old as dirt you probably need to roll the epub software back a few years as well (paraphrasing here).”  That worked!  

He is happily reading in the cockpit as I type.

I also packed items that have never before been onboard ExTerra.  Pretzels, cheerios and face masks (as well as hotdogs)!  We are packed heavy on food and supplies, the plan being to travel light on the local communities, only venturing into small towns as we need to or where we are welcome.  

We cast off the lines around noon, topped off the tanks at Donaldson’s next door and rode the ebb tide out.  Aiden did the dutiful lie down on deck and snap photos as we went under the I-5 bridge.  He waved cheerfully to the RR bridge tender.  He has of course done these types of things with us before, just not on his own, at the (coming of) age of 18.  We are all excited to be making this trip!   

  

Today we see some basic river traffic, and 'roadside' attractions.  One of the hard working tugs is slowly pulling a tiny home upriver.  On the land we see a crane precariously moving two outhouses across the construction site.  How could this accident have been prevented?  We settle into watching the river roll by.

The tide gave us good travel time even though the 20 knot wind was on the nose all the way.  No one was on the inside of the Rainier dock so we chose to tie up there for the night, not wanting to impose on the wonderful Long View Yacht Club folks this year.  Our goal our first night out is always to just get off the home dock and make good time down river.  We met that goal.   

Aiden is inquisitive and learns quickly.  We plan on walking him through all steps for safe and fun travel by boat.  Having obtained his Oregon Boater Card he can skipper our boat and he has already had his time at the helm; he was happy to learn that we do have an auto pilot. 

He also quickly learned there is never a dull moment.  Already on day two he has seen how we have to open a through hull and run the sump pump when someone forgets and leaves the raw water valve to the head open and it floods the shower sump.  Sorry, I got sidetracked.  I actually had a live human at the end of a phone line who wanted to tell me why my CARES Act Small Business Loan was declined BUT he also was able to Fix it!!  It has only taken about two months to get to this point, they are so overwhelmed, but I should not digress too far into this topic.

He also got to see what a 20,000 pound vessel can do when the wind is pushing her off the dock and you have to quickly re-tie lines and slowly heave ho together to get the boat back close enough to the dock to climb aboard.  These experiences then lead to good discussion on safety, what to do (I was almost to the point of having to let go the line and have Carl circle back and get me), etc etc.

I guess in summary, this will be a learning, bonding and overall awesome time for the three of us.

We are on our way today to Tongue Point to anchor for a couple of nights and let the sea state simmer down.