Tsunami Coast

Crescent City, California, USA

Believe it or not, we are finally in California.

A weather window opened up yesterday and we went for it.

Predicted 10 to 20 knot NW winds and moderate seas turned out to be no wind at all and moderate to light seas.  So once again, we ran the engine the entire way.  For a while, there was some threatening black clouds ahead of us, but by the afternoon the sky turned blue and the sun came out and we had a very calm ride into Crescent City  The wind never exceeded about 3 knots and what there was was coming from the south.  So much for forecasts.
 

As the distance we had to cover was not very far, we elected to take the long route out and around St. George's reef, instead of taking the shortcut through the reef - it was still only about 30 miles.  We left Brookings about 10:45 AM, rounded the lighthouse at the end of the reef (which seems to be out in the middle of nowhere) around 1 PM, and were safely in Crescent City harbour by 4:15 PM.

Upon arrival, being on a Sunday and after hours, we read the instructions on the harbour office door, instructing us to tie up at "H" dock and call security on the night line.  Strangely enough, there is no "H" dock, and security just sent us to a voice mailbox that was full.  So we tied up to the "Work" dock, slipped some money into the letter slot at the office and hoped for the best.  As you can see from the picture, this is yet again one of these extremely busy cruising destinations on this coast.  Where is everybody?  Is it really that late in the season?

This morning we were able to visit the harbour office during office hours and confirm that the transient "H" dock and most of "G" dock and some of "F" dock have been missing since November 2006, when a tsunami wiped them all out.  They assured us that the only boats that were damaged were a couple of transient cruising sailboats that ended up on top of the dock.  Very comforting.

Today we will take in the sights around Crescent City, and hopefully get an early start tomorrow morning towards Eureka, some 60+ miles down the coast.  So far, tomorrow looks like another good opportunity to make some distance southward before the next storm front arrives.

{GMST}41|44.8593|N|124|11.0235|W|Crescemt City, California, USA|Crescemt City, California, USA{GEND}

Fogged

Brookings, Oregon, USA

We had a nice, relaxing day in Brookings.  We walked across the highway bridge to get to the town proper, only about a mile away.  This is a typical highway town with gas stations and fast food outlets, like so many other towns along highway 101.  We did find a path to a scenic lookout at Chetco Point, where we could see the rugged nature of this coast; quite spectacular.

Can you tell which way the wind blows here?

Oh Oh, looks like a fog bank out there!

This morning, we had planned to get up early and go on to Crescent City in California (only about 25 miles away), but the fog had rolled in over night and we decided we were not in that much of a hurry after all.  So, once again, we wait for a weather window.

After the first, very hot, day here in Brookings, the weather has turned quite cool.  No doubt that is why the fog has settled in, but the weatherman has promised some much nicer days ahead, most likely starting early next week.

A couple of other boats have come in in the last 24 hours.  One of them is a boat we have shared space with in both Neah Bay and Newport; they seem to be keeping to about the same schedule as us.  The other one was on their way to Hawaii, about 800 miles out, when they experienced mechanical problems (transmission no longer connected to their prop), ran out of propane (they only had a single 10 lb tank), a serious leak from their stern gland, and very heavy weather.  They turned back for the closest port on the Oregon coast (they say California is too expensive), which landed them here in Brookings.  They intend on hauling the boat out to get repairs, then leaving the boat here until next spring when they will try again.

So once again, we feel we have very little to complain about.  The boat has been behaving itself very well and we are in a nice, safe spot to wait for our next passage opportunity.  Life is still good.

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

 

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}