Big Left Turn: Astoria, Oregon – GOONIES!

Posted on 23 Sep 2021 by netgoof

September 23, 2021

Today was declared a rest day sine we were all tired after the 21-hour adventure yesterday.

After my 11 hours of rest, I was up and at em around 7 so I got out and did a jog along the shoreline to downtown Astoria. It’s a nice area and has a trail that goes forever. I only did 2 miles down so that is my reference. On the way back, I scoped out the Goonies Jail and Mr. Walsh’s work from the Goonies movie so I could take Steve and Barbara by later.

When I returned from running, Gary from Illimite was over for coffee and we chatted about the upcoming week. Gary departed and we waved to him and Noelle as they left the marina. They reported the bar was way better this morning, which was expected since they hit it as slack current and beginning of flood tide.

Around 10 we decided to hit the town and check it out. I first took them over to the Goonies sites so we could get the necessary pictures.

After that, we headed thru town with the intentions of having breakfast. Steve was determined to have an omelet and we never found a place, so we ended up just going to the Columbia River Maritime Museum. The museum was pretty cool. However, I would say it was 75% dedicated to telling us how stupid we were for attempting to cross the Columbia River Bar. The first display was that 2000+ boats have been lost there and its nicknamed the Graveyard of the Pacific. They had cool videos of the pilots and bar roughness. They have a lightship that you can go aboard and that was fun touring. Worth a stop if you are in town.

Around noon, we headed over to the Bowpicker Fish and Chips joint up the street from the museum. It’s a food boat, not to be confused with a food truck. They use Albacore tuna, and it is delicious.

With the learning portion of the day complete, we headed to the grocery store for provisioning. We were getting low on milk and the mochas are just not the same without it. After getting back to the boat, Steve made me defrost his refrigerator and fill the water tanks. Gotta earn my keep somehow.

Big Left Turn: Making the Turn & the Columbia River Bar

Posted on 22 Sep 2021 by netgoof

September 21-22, 2021

The next stop we planned was Astoria, OR, via the Columbia River Bar. The guidance says if you want a smooth transition you need to transit at slack current or at least a flood tide. This is so you avoid the situation they call ebb chop, which can even lead to breaking waves. We projected the trip to take 18+ hours and slack was around 9 AM so we decided we would depart Neah Bay at 1 PM to give us enough time.

Since I had a bit of time while we were at anchor, I decided I’d fly the drone a bit and got a few good shots.

After departing Neah Bay, the wave chop picked up and we were a bit concerned with the ride since it was for 18 hours. However, once we made the left turn and got a bit offshore the ride smoothed out and overall it was good ride.

It was interesting when the sun began to set and then we hit darkness. I’ve talked to a bunch of boaters that do crossing and long trips. Some say they just put on the alarms and sleep. Others have watches. But there is a feeling of nothing you can do. We can’t see traps or logs so looking out the window is not that productive. Looking at the radar and AIS was very helpful but we only passed two boats all night. We had a great moon rising. There was no way to get that on camera given the lighting and motion.

We had planned to be at the Columbia River Bar around 9:30 AM. However, we made great time and got there a couple hours early. Starting about 6 AM the Coast Guard started communicating reports and that the bar had a 20 foot and below restriction. Steve asked if he should call in and get guidance and I figured they would just give the same report. Which is exactly what they did, but added your vessel is not restricted as this time. Basically it’s your call captain. A charter captain hailed us after the call, and gave us guidance on how to approach, which gave us a little more confidence.

Crossing the bar was a good experience. The waves were 4-6 foot with some 8-10 footers thrown in. Steve was so puckered up that he wouldn’t let me take pictures. Therefore, we have limited footage.

Once successfully across the bar, we cruised in another hour to Astoria. We were all beat given the long trip and not sleeping much so it was nap time.

In the late afternoon, after our naps, we headed up to the Bridgewater Bistro for a meal. As we sat down, we got a call from Gary on Illimite asking what we were up to. Him and Noelle waked up to the restaurant and we had an amazing meal with great company.

Voyage Information:

Neah Bay to Astoria

Time: 21 h 56 m ( 12:29 to 10:25 )
Distance: 160.99 nm

Big Left Turn: Port Hadlock to Neah Bay

Posted on 20 Sep 2021 by netgoof

September 20, 2021

Steve had us up bright and early today as it was the first of the long days to come. The Strait of Juan de Fuca was calm, and we did not have much wind, so was a very nice ride over. So much better than my last crossing.

When we arrived at Neah Bay we found, as expected, that the docks were closed to transient boats and therefore we anchored out with the others in the bay. It’s a nice large bay with a great breakwater and lots of space. Very accommodating!

Voyage Information:

Port Hadlock to Neah Bay

Time: 11 h 18 m ( 06:33 to 17:52 )
Distance: 84.83 nm

Big Left Turn: Bainbridge Island to Port Hadlock

Posted on 19 Sep 2021 by netgoof

September 19, 2021

With the Tyee festivities over, we said our goodbyes and started the journey. The first stop is Port Hadlock. This is another of Tyee’s outstations and since we got a later start it was a good stopping point after about five and a half hours.

The trip was a nice and we arrived around 5 PM. Next to the marina is the Old Alcohol Plant Inn. We were told that the restaurant was great so we headed up for a bite. The recommendations were not wrong and we had a great dinner. This was the first restaurant that I’ve eaten at that required vaccinations to sit indoors. I’m sure it will be the first of many in the upcoming months.

Voyage Information:

Bainbridge Island to Port Hadlock

Time: 5 h 36 m ( 11:31 to 17:07 )
Distance: 32.41 nm

Big Left Turn: Seattle to Bainbridge Island

Posted on 17 Sep 2021 by netgoof

September 17, 2021

Today I’m starting another adventure as a crew member on M/V Coda. Capt Steve plans to do the the big left turn and take the voyage down to San Diego. The big left turn is rounding the tip of Washington and heading down the Pacific Coast.

The first leg of the trip is a familiar route to Bainbridge Island where we meet up with the Tyee Yacht Club fleet and belatedly celebrate Tyee’s 74th birthday.

We leisurely traveled down the ship canal in Coda for the last time. Not the last time for me, but for Coda. While it may someday travel this route, the plans for it for the next few years is to transit to the East Coast and thus the likelihood of it returning to Seattle is low on the Vegas odds list.

Arriving at the locks we had a short wait and then transited it. The lock staff was friendly, as always, and we chatted about the upcoming trip. Even snapped a picture with them.

After the nice crossing of the Puget Sound, we arrived at our assigned location on the Tyee Outstation Dock and prepared for the weekend’s celebration. The fleet arrived shortly after, and Boris declared (as he always does) that we didn’t have enough beer. We dinghied over to Winslow and resupplied with fellow Iowa State fan Jeff.

Voyage Information:

Seattle to Bainbridge Island

Time: 3 h 31 m ( 08:15 to 11:46 )
Distance: 12.95 nm

Coupeville to Seattle – Last Day!

Posted on 2 Sep 2021 by netgoof

September 2, 2021

A kind of weird day. This is the last day of our 84-day adventure. We had a bit of time in the morning as the tide was low dockside and we wanted to have a few more feet of water under the boat to take off. We had planned to get coffee at the pier café but for one reason or another they didn’t open. So we walked up the street to the Little Red Hen Bakery and got some wonderful breakfast sandwiches and morning beverages. By the time our sandwiches were ready the boat behind us had left, which gave us the option of leaving without further awaiting the tide.

The trip down to Seattle as really nice, meaning smooth and calm, and we had some decent lock karma and, after a fuel up and pump out, easily settled into the home slip.

La Conner to Coupeville

Posted on 1 Sep 2021 by netgoof

September 1, 2021

Spent a wonderful morning walking around La Conner so we could see the shops while they were open. Started off the stroll by stopping by the Reclamation Candle Company & Coffee Bar. Tonia saw they had sipping chocolate and we try it out! Good but still doesn’t compare to Barista Steve’s!

After the chocolate fix we continued to stroll around and check out the local shops. La Conner has a lot of local artists and shops. In one of the shops an artist was painting Italian landscapes on stone tablets. He was from Italy and we talked to him for a bit about towns we’ve visited and he knew all of them. If we had a house, we may have considered commissioning a piece but it just seemed a little heavy and bulky for the boat.

We finished up our outing by visiting the Museum of Northwest Art. They have a lot of very cool displays featuring artists of the area.

We casted the lines and took the short journey over to Coupeville. Our first time there but highly recommended by Steve and Barbara. We didn’t know if we would be able to get dock space or have to anchor so we called the marina about an hour out and they said there was a slip for us. Perfect!

Coupeville is a pretty little town in the middle of Whidbey Island.

Since we did a short trip we had a good amount to explore. We started by grabbing some food at Ciao Food and Wine. Then Tonia and Emily checked out some of the shops and I met back up with them after dropping by the boat.

Then I made the girls trek up to the Penn Cove Brewery and Taproom for a nice beverage. After the food and libations were taken care of we decided the night wasn’t over yet. One of the things to do in Coupeville is to go to the Sunnyside Cemetery. It was relatively close(ish) so we decided to trek over after the brewery. The walk was on back roads in the middle of nowhere. So I sent a few texts to Boris and Mayli about Tonia and Emily taking me to the cemetery and if they didn’t hear from me they knew what happened. The cemetery turned out to be pretty interesting with a lot of history of the area and its settlers.

Sucia to La Conner

Posted on 31 Aug 2021 by netgoof

August 31, 2021

There was more hiking to be done on Sucia so we loaded up in the dinghy and headed to shore. Today’s hike was the one out to Ewing Cove. It’s a great little hike that takes you to the northeast point of the island. Tonia was on the lookout for starfish as always and we found a good one. Along with other various wildlife. We got a little picture happy again so here you go…

After the hike we cast off and headed to La Conner. We decided on that path so we could go on the inside of Whidbey and check out at least two more destinations before we call the trip to an end. Had a nice cheese plate on route – from the Salt Spring Island Cheese factory of course!

Upon arriving at La Conner we took a look at options and found there was space on the Swinomish Yacht Club reciprocal dock so we headed to it. The dock master and his wife happened to be there preparing their boat for an upcoming holiday weekend cruise with their club so they helped us dock and we chatted with them for a while. They asked if we saw Docktails while in Alaska and we reported that had happy hour with them multiple times. I had forgotten that Tessa was a Past Commodore of Swinomish YC.

After settling in we made reservations at Nell Thorne and Waterfront Bistro and headed into town. After a bit of wandering around downtown, it was time for dinner and it was delicious!

Sucia Island: China Caves & Echo Bay

Posted on 30 Aug 2021 by netgoof

August 30, 2021

The previous day we promised Mayli & Boris’ son Michael that we would hike with him to explore the China Caves. This is something we had done with him a few years ago and it’s still his favorite thing in the San Juan Islands. We set of from Fossil Bay and hiked over to Shallow Bay. Once there, we traversed the shore rocks to the China Caves because it was low tide. We had a great time climbing around and squeezing thru all the areas.

Once we were able to extract Michael from the caves, we headed back to the dock so we could feed them lunch and say bon voyage to Ships N Giggles. They needed to travel back for work or school or some nonsense like that.

We also moved the boat from Fossil Bay over to Echo Bay and took up one of the linear ties. We did this because the upcoming low tide over night was going to be a foot lower at Fossil Bay and we didn’t really want to risk the already shallow water by the dock. Plus, Echo Bay is a bit more central to hiking the other half of the island.

After the short trip we decided to take another afternoon hike. We had never done the trail on the other side of Shallow Bay that went by the Lawson Bluff so that was the choice for the hike. It was a beautiful hike and we found some more climbing spots for Michael for future trips. We also got a bit camera happy so…

Tonia was thrilled to spend this time with her sister Emily and so happy she could make the trip out.

Turn Point Lighthouse & Back to Sucia: Fossil Bay

Posted on 29 Aug 2021 by netgoof

August 29, 2021

We started the day by finding a new crew member camped out on our kayak. A seal decided that flipping our kayak over made a great resting place.

In the morning we did the Turn Point Lighthouse hike before boating to Sucia. Boris and Mayli also joined in the fun. Partway into the hike is the Teacherage Museum so we checked that out. Also nearby is the honor-system treasure chest that had Stuart Islands t-shirts and gear for sale. Pretty neat. The hike to lighthouse leads you past the grass airport and then you arrive to a beautiful view of Boundary Pass and Canada in the distance, which was full circle as we passed this lighthouse coming back into the states.

Tonia and Emily decided to hike around and see a beach so I hitched a ride with Boris and Mayli. We found out that their dinghy fuel tank was not 5 gallons but 3. Therefore, we ran out of gas on the voyage back to the boats. Since we didn’t know how long it would be for Tonia and Emily, we called Steve and he came to the rescue and towed us back. Tonia and Emily got back before Steve arrived and laughed at us as they passed.

Once back we said our goodbyes to the Tyee cruise and prepared to travel back to Sucia. Emily had never been, so we wanted to go over and show her the splendor of the island. We also convinced Boris and Mayli to extend their vacation and stay just one more day.

We broke up the five-boat raft, and after we got all the anchors up, we motored over. Boris does not like to travel slow, so they jetted over and found that there was enough dock space for us in Fossil Bay. I was a bit concerned with the dock because the water in that area was just not that deep. After consulting the depth and tide predications, we determined that we were good for the evening and settled in.

After a wonderful charcuterie al la Mayli, a few of the crew went on a short kayak/hike around Fossil Bay, which is spectacular. You can quickly see how it gets its name. Fun fact: UW’s Burke Museum has a dinosaur bone from Sucia Island!