Journal 3

August 10, 05

Today is more what I have expected for our passage. There was patchy fog and cleared to a beautiful sunny day as we crossed the Umpqua bar, light winds and a wee swell that allowed us to sail wing on wing almost all the way to Coos Bay. No toque, mitts, or scarf required for today’s journey. Still wear full foully gear (and she’s starting to smell a bit foully).
Coos Bay bar was another non event, for which I am most grateful after our experience entering Winchester Bay. That makes 8 of 9 crossings without incident. We met up with some Blue Water Cruisers, who have been holed up here for the past 6 days. They have a 35 Benneteau captains Paul and Kristi with 2 additional crew, a former co-worker and friend of Paul’s, Ian and his son Leif. They had been off shore for 67 hours when they had enough of a pounding and decided to come in, escorted by the coast guard at midnight through pea soup thick fog.
Leif 17, is what I would describe as a typical teenager, eats lots, sleeps lots, and not driven without really specific instructions. Works well for the “captains” in the crowd.
Leif is also a very bright young man who suffers from seasickness and is the resident knot aficionado and sea life expert. He was able to tell me all about the fish I had seen off the coast of Cape Flattery. I had described this flat, round fish floating close to the surface was what I thought had been a bottom fish, unceremoniously disturbed by one of the fishing boats relative to the location of the fish. Apparently not, Leif tells me it is a sunfish, a Mola Mola. They skim along the surface eating jelly fish and can grow to about 8’ in diameter. They have been known to create some real challenges with devastating results for cruisers in the South Pacific.

August 11, 05

Dick and I shared a cab ride to town with Kristi in the brilliant sunshine today. The wind is very cool, but get out of the wind and it’s toasty. Our tour of the largest Walmart in Oregon give me a feeling of completeness. I have now toured the largest Safeway in Oregon, that was in Astoria, and now the largest Walmart in Oregon. I’ve also had the pleasure of rounding out my shopping experience by visiting 5 of the 7 family owned England Marine Supply stores in Oregon. Oh! what shopping delights might California hold?
Touring the town of Charleston, we’ve made friends with the local electronics store. Brenda found a microphone for Dick’s 20+ year old VHF and charged him a whopping $10. We were thinking this little misadventure was going to cost us a whole new radio. Phil out back was also able to scrounge up an instrument cover for the depth meter for another $5. We are so far ahead of the game that when Brenda said I could use her internet to try and find Veleda I was sure I had found Nirvana. The local Marina RV park office receptionist has been an invaluable find as well.
This is day 60 for abnormal winds, the fisherman are really struggling as the salmon fishing has been closed along the coast and its too rough for them to go out for tuna. They’re stuck and they’re frustrated, it’s starting to wear on some of them. The abnormal winds have grounded us too, probably until Sunday or maybe even Monday, They have kept Shearwater tied up for the past 7 days. They need the same weather window for getting out of Coos Bay. It’s not just the science of weather forecasting that encourages us to leave the various marinas, or our search for summer, the holding tank has a decided impact (3 days in one place is just about enough).
This is the first day since we have been on the boat that Dick has not done one little bit of “work”. It’s not that there are no chores, there still seems to be an endless list of jobs to do.

August 12

Awoke to thick fog, no wind to move it out and the heat in the valley has trapped it on shore. We aren’t going anywhere today. We’ve already toured the town and found an amazing fish market. They not only sell fresh fish and seafood but they do their own smoking and I (who absolutely do not like tuna) tried their smoked albacore tuna with a teriyaki sauce. It was amazing! I’m hooked (so to speak).
Where else but in Coos Bay could you go to the local pub expecting a little clam chowder and a glass of white wine looking out at the slough, and also be a party to a wedding? The bride wore a lovely white satiny dress that didn’t really show her tattoos in their best light. (I’m grateful that Lane has chosen to wait before getting the Guns and Roses tattoo she was “gunning” for in her teens). Half the guests were wearing the finest duds adorned with parkas, no kidding, it’s that blasted cold and the other half of the guests were there in their jeans and jackets. So go ahead ask how small is Coos Bay? Well when you’ve only been in town 2 days and you not only recognize some of the folks at the wedding you actually know a few of them by name and where they work., that’s how small Coos Bay is! However, that’s not the scariest part. We’ve heard all these stories of how a vessel arrives and they aren’t able to leave. The first story we heard was from the folks off Shearwater, they met a guy who was single handing a Nonsuch north and wasn’t able to leave for a year.. Then there was the guy Dick ran into on the dock who was sailing with his wife to the Philippians from Alaska. When they arrived in Coos Bay got stuck, then he got a job you know temporary till they could leave, then she got a really good job, and then last November they bought a house. They arrived 5 years ago. Yikes! We got to get out of here. And, Shearwater is still here!

August 13, ‘05

More fog, no wind, can’t see across the pier. We’re not going anywhere. I took a cab to town to explore what possible bookstores are available. The cabs are all a flat rate $10 from the Marina to anywhere in town, and $5. from any one point in town to another.
My lesson here is patience and anyone who knows me knows that has always been my lesson. I haven’t learned it yet! So, I guess I’ll continue to have the opportunity to learn. (The lesson shall be repeated until learned. Thanks, Liana.) We learned to play Mexican Train Dominos with Shearwater and crew. It was fun!

Happy Birthday Lauralee!

August 14, 05
Heavy fog, no wind. This is getting depressing. I find it difficult to “do” anything. It’s too damp or wet. I’ve heard people complain that winters in Vancouver are like this! I feel trapped. This is a great little community, but I wouldn’t recommend it as a stopover this time of year as a destination, great!
Had dinner with Shearwater and crew played another round of dominos.


August 15, 05

We’re out of here! Half a mile of visibility and light winds. Crossed the bar with no incident. Kristi has suggested with all our crossings, there could be a book!
Saw a number of freighters and tugs on radar and as the fog lifted the farther we got out we’re able to see fishing boats, commercial and pleasure craft.
We’re headed to Port Orford, an open anchorage where Veleda has been holed up for 6 days..
We acquired a hitchhiker on this leg of our passage, a tiny finch like bird was clinging to the backstay for two or three hours, poor wee thing. Because of the rugged shore and outcroppings on the Oregon coastline we travel out to around 12 miles off shore. My curiousity has me wondering how these little guys get out there and then how do they get back. Anyway, I have his photo as he did make one attempt to leave us before returning to cling to one of the halyards on the pin rail. I’m not sure when he finally gave up on us for good. I do know it was before the winds picked up as we passed by Cape Blanco. The fisherman in Coos Bay, say the devil lives there. I believe they could possibly be right. It was a rough couple of hours going in, and what made it all worthwhile is that the sun was shining! Yahoo!.
Met up with Lodestar and crew, Logan and his dad Trig who are sailing north to Tacoma and have been holed up in Port Orford with Veleda. Lodestar is a 50’ ferrocement ketch that Logan and Trig picked up in San Diego 18 months ago and have been down to Mexico and are now headed North before heading out for Hawaii (I think next fall). They had invited us to dinner and we gratefully accepted a dinghy ride from Veleda to Lodestar.
All is well with the world. This anchorage is small and there are only 4 boats moored here, that seems plenty as we are swinging around on the end of our anchor like paper boats in a fountain.. Did I mention the wind was howling?

August 16, 05

Woke to sunshine and howling winds. As we started our mile and a half walk into town we were approached by one of the fisherman’s wife asking if we would like a lift to town. We gratefully accepted and hoped into the back of the pickup truck. (I feel like I’m in Mexico already). We hopped out of the truck as we arrived at the Paradise Café and were welcomed by the locals. They were suggesting that in fact this was a safe town and could see we weren’t taking any precautions. I guess they knew we were visitors as Veleda’s crew was still wearing their life vests. Funny thing is I didn’t even notice that our three companions were still wearing their life vests. Man has my life changed!

Our last sail in here was on a port tack. This was a first time experience and so all the stuff which we had secured for starboard only now came loose. We made a few more locker buttons, bungees and shelf retainers and all seems well now. It is amazing how the ocean will find all the weak spots. Also amazing is that the ones we expose are so minnow. Great to have such a solid boat.

For breakfast we had plate sized hotcakes (one). It was actually the size of a turkey platter. $2.50 plus a buck for blueberries. Dick’s omelet was more than he could eat and he barely touched the mountain of hash browns.
I’m beginning to think that sailors and farmers have a lot in common. It seems that there is either not enough wind, too much wind, the swells are too big, the combination of the swells and the wind wave and the winds aren’t good, it’s foggy. Steady 20 knots with gusts to 40.

August 17

Left Port Orful early and here to say goodbye was the local grey whale who frequents the anchorage. We had such a great sail to Crescent city we could not believe it was the same ocean. We went by Rogue River where the Devil’s sisters live. He had already got us at Blanco so they stayed in bed.

Modern technology!!!! The harbour at Crescent City has no bar but is strewn with reefs and rock outcroppings. Wind was down and fog was up. Visibility was about 2 boat lengths. Between radar, depth sounder GPS and chart plotter, we went in guided right to the dock.

August 18

Good showers and a long walk make us feel really new. They have the best pizza here. BBQ chicken and garlic with tomatoes and a white sauce and really good cheese. This is now California as we crossed the 42nd parallel yesterday so we had the local Merlot. Not much going on here as the major employer is the state prison.

August 19

As we leave the harbour we can’t believe the mess of rocks we went through on our arrival. Hurray for technology. Great day of sailing in the sunshine. The swell is down and wind just forward of the beam. We made such good time that we went on to Humbold Bay and stopped at the public Marina in Eureka. The eleventh bar crossing was a non event and we think we are getting the hang of it although we can’t get cocky. SF is rumoured to be a real bear. Our first grounding occurred here in the marina as they are a little short of funds for dredging.