Another Long Night

Brookings, Oregon, USA

We left Newport at 9:30AM, right on schedule.  The bar was open and unrestricted and we motored through without incident.  Always looks worse than it is.  Notice that the local wildlife seems to enjoy the cozy platforms mankind is nice enough to supply.  Maybe they were just there to wave goodbye to us.

For the first few hours, the winds stayed away and we just motored along, in what were pretty good conditions - 7 to 8 foot swells at about 11 seconds (or so they tell us).  The usual rocking and rolling motion got to Susanne after about two hours, and she was down for the count.  She was able to handle her watch during the daylight but, come nightfall, she retired to the cabin for the duration.

In the early afternoon, the NW winds came up. Not enough for us to sail and maintain the speed I wanted, so we motor-sailed (used the sail to augment the engine - great fuel economy) until about 5 PM.  Then the winds strengthened some more and I was able to kill the engine and sail quite comfortably at about 5.5 to 6 knots for close to 5 hours, with only the genoa again.

In the night, the winds stayed pretty steady, but were coming from directly behind, making it necessary to gybe back and forth between about 6 and 12 miles off shore.  Eventually I was finding it hard to manage pulling the sail in and out (I am so out of shape), and elected to reef it in some and use the engine to continue motor-sailing for the remainder of the night and early morning.  When I use the engine, I can usually stay a little closer to directly down wind, making for less gybing.  To gybe this boat, with only the genoa, requires that I roll it in completely, turn the boat, then roll it out again on the other side - otherwise the sail gets hung up on the staysail stay.  At night, after the moon went down, it was very dark and I could not see the foresail at all to know if it was in or out, which does not make it any easier (see the attached picture to get an idea of what my view looks like at night).  Actually, I could probably have sailed all night without losing too much time, if I was just not so tired.  We may have to rethink these passages a bit.

In the early morning, the wind shifted to SW for about a half hour, then completely died.  I rolled in the sail and we motored the rest of the way to Brookings, where we arrived about 1:30 PM., good timing for crossing the Chetco River bar, which was also open and unrestricted when we arrived.

As we approached the bar, I found that we were actually arriving around maximum flood and, as we approached the actual narrow entrance, while the boat's speed through the water was about 4 knots, we were making closer to 10 or 11 knots with the current.  Knowing what I do about narrow passages and strong current (learned from years of sailing in the inside passage waters), I panicked and aborted the entry, heading out to sea again.  Once I was clear of the 40 or 50 fishing boats hanging around the bay, I called the Coast Guard to get some advice.  They seemed to think there was no current over the bar at all - what we were experiencing was just some tidal surges.  So, we turned around again and headed in.  Turned out to be a piece of cake - no current between the jetties at all.  You learn something every day.

As we were entering the bar, we got a call from the Coast Guard taking a bunch of information about us and the boat and wanting to know when we were last boarded and inspected by the Coast Guard - Never!.  Needless to say, as soon as we were docked at the transient dock (right next to the Coast Guard station), we were boarded and inspected.  We expected this would happen at some point, and now we have our little gold star to say we are OK.

So here we are in the town of Brookings, the most southerly port in Oregon, enjoying some very nice weather - at least 10 degrees (F) warmer than Newport.  So far this seems like a very nice laid-back fishing community.  As you can see, the transient dock is really busy - I have counted as many as 3 boats here at a time.  I guess this is not on the regular cruising itinerary for most recreational boaters, at least not this late in the season.

Here are some of the more frequent dock users.

We will stay here for a couple of nights, to rest up and such, before continuing on our way south.  Hopefully we can make some shorter hops from here on down the coast.  BTW, this was our longest passage to date, about 170 miles, making for a total of about 540 miles from Nanaimo so far - almost half the distance to San Diego.

{GMST}42|02.8118|N|124|16.0178|W|Brookings, Oregon, USA|Brookings, Oregon, USA{GEND}

Growing old in Newport

Newport, Oregon, USA

We have stopped counting the days now.  Weeks would be more appropriate.  It has been almost 3 weeks since we left Nanaimo and we are still only on the Oregon coast.  Not that it is a bad place to be; we are just get anxious to be on our way.

The problem with leaving is two-fold.  First, we want some decent weather out on the ocean and, second, we need the Yaquina bar to be open for our exit from Newport.  Here is a picture of the bar to give you some idea of what it looks like.

A third issue came up last night as we had a particularly low tide and found ourselves hard aground in our slip in the marina.  The area is all dredged to about 7 feet at "low" water, but using the US method of measuring low water, the recent low tides in the evening have been up to 1.2 feet below low water.  Not a big deal but a bit disconcerting as we are not used to being on a boat that is listing to one side at the dock.  Of course, we certainly cannot leave the slip if the boat is stuck in the sand.

From the looks of things right now, we should be able to get out of here either tomorrow morning or the day after.  We just need everything to line up - tide, current, weather, Jupiter, Mars, etc.  Our current plan is to head for Brookings next (still in Oregon but nearer the California border).

Still, we have to say that Newport has been a great place to weather the storms.  Nice people, inexpensive, a nice bayfront area, and even some entertainment.  Over this Columbus Day weekend there has been a fishing derby (U-Da-Man), with lots of little boats full of anglers coming and going.  Now that the weekend is over, things are pretty quiet again.

The transient dock is much busier than it was a week ago with a few more boats coming in out of the heavy seas.  A couple of the sailboats here are heading north for Seattle, although I cannot imagine why.

Hopefully the next post will be from places further south.

{GMST}44|37.4337|N|124|3.1412|W|Newport, Oregon|Newport, Oregon{GEND}

 

Failure to Launch

Day 16, 17, etc. - Newport, Oregon, USA

Here we are for the foreseeable future.

Yesterday, we were all ready to leave around 1:30 PM. The day was hot and the winds had died and the forecast was for light winds and seas until after midnight, then a shift to light south winds. By this morning we should have been safely in Coos Bay, just in time to wait out the approaching storm front.

Just as we started backing out of our slip, the winds came up from the NW, making it virtually impossible to get the boat out. We waited for about 1/2 hour, but it would not let up. By 3:30, we were getting too close to maximum ebb over the river bar for my comfort, so we decided we would stay put.

Shortly after we shut down the boat and got settled, one of the other boats decided to take off. This was the same boat that had all the problems getting here and we were not confident that he was really ready, but we went to help him with his lines anyway. As soon as he left the dock, he was in trouble.
 The wind was pushing him down the channel towards the shallow water when he suddenly lost power. The engine was running ok, but it would not go into gear.

He quickly threw out an anchor and managed to stop before hitting the rocks, and then several of us fellow boaters attempted to get a line to him. Sue and I launched our dinghy and I used that to carry a line out to his boat. However, in the meantime he thought he had the problem solved and tried to power over to the fuel dock with his anchor still down. Needless to say, this did not work. Then, he tried again, and when he was close to the dock, he started taking his anchor up. When he tried to put the boat in gear again, it failed again. Before we could do anything, he drifted down onto the rocks at the end of the dock. Fortunately, the winds had died down a lot and he did not really hit hard - just settled his bow onto some rocks.

We finally got a line to him and one of the commercial boats at our dock came to the rescue and towed him back to the dock, basically where he started from.

The silver lining in all of this is that by around 5 PM, the winds shifted, now coming from the south, and getting much stronger. If we had been out there, we would be fighting head winds all the way.

Today, several other boats have come in looking for shelter. They are reporting very ugly conditions off shore, especially last night. The last boat that came in was a beautiful 54' Tayana with a crew of 5 men, heading north. They said it was very bad out there - and they were going with the wind. Again, we are just so glad we did not leave last night.

The current weather forecasts are not encouraging. These conditions are going to get worse over the next couple of days, and may persist for almost a week. So, here we sit, thankful that we are in such a nice place to pass the time.

{GMST}44|37.4337|N|124|3.1412|W|Newport, Oregon|Newport, Oregon{GEND}

Hard to leave

Day 15 - Newport, Oregon, USA

The weather here in Newport has been good.  A little cool at night but just lovely during the day.  Makes it very hard to leave for unknown ports further south.  Looking at the weather reports we have decided that tomorrow, Wednesday, would be our last chance before the winds start shifting to come from the south again.

We made the trip into town to the marine chandler today to pick up some more fuel filters.  We now have new filters in both of the Racor units, and 9 spares.  That better be enough.

One of the things we have noticed here at the marina is that, since we arrived, no other transient boats have arrived or left.  This probably means we are on the tail end of the season for boats going down this coast, or maybe no-one ever bothers to stop here in Newport.  Regardless, it appears that out of the 4 boats at the transient dock, we are most likely going to the be the first to leave if we go tomorrow.  Not sure what that means.

Hopefully the next post will be from Coos Bay.

{GMST}44|37.4337|N|124|3.1412|W|Newport, Oregon|Newport, Oregon{GEND}

Wasting away in Newportville

Days 13 and 14 - Newport, Oregon, USA

We have spent some quality time here in Newport, seeing the local sights and waiting for our next weather window to continue south.

This is a great place to spend some time.  The marina is inexpensive, about .50/foot/night including unlimited power and water, free internet (in the laundry room) and a free bus-pass to get you around town.  And there is a great pub/restaurant overlooking the marina.  It doesn't get much better than this.

We have visited the Marine Sciences center and the Newport aquarium, which are both a short walk from the marina.  The aquarium is actually pretty impressive and worth a visit.

We took the bus (free bus passes provided by the marina) to the other side of the bay where most of the actual town is, including the bayfront walkway and marine chandlers.  I bought a couple of new fuel filters at NAPA but we have found a better source and will go back again to get more.  Now that I know of a potential problem, I want to be extra sure I have the solution.

The bayfront here is apparently one of the favorite stops for the California Sea Lions.  They make quite a lot of noise all day - we can hear it quite well from across the bay.  A lot of tourists come here to see them.

Another feature of the bayfront walkway is the "Fisherman's walk", with plaques for all of the people who have been lost at sea from this port.  A bit of a sobering message.

We met the owner of one of the other transient boats and he has had quite a rough time getting here.  He has only come from Portland and this is his first time out in the ocean.  He is single-handing and was sick, lost his autopilot, experienced a couple of accidental gybes which have compromised both his main and foresail and then his engine quit.  He was towed into Newport by the Coast Guard.  After hearing his story, I don't think we have anything to complain about.

We are hoping to get out of here in the next couple of days, probably leaving in the late afternoon, doing an overnight passage to Coos Bay, further south along the Oregon coast.  We need both a good weather window and a good "bar" report before we go.

 

{GMST}44|37.4337|N|124|3.1412|W|Newport, Oregon|Newport, Oregon{GEND}