Fishing, part one

I did a "little" fishing today. Was hoping to get a flounder for dinner, ended up with Sculpins. Growing up, I called them bullheads when I pulled them out of the creek to feed to Puff the cat. Using them for bait tonight, hoping to have crab omelets for breakfast in the morning.

Nutshell:  We have made it to Newport!   Really needed to be out of the river before Memorial Day ‘opens’ the boating season and the weather, tides, winds, and readiness seemed to finally match up.  Yea!  Left Astoria about 10:30 yesterday knowing ‘bridge to bridge is 100 miles.  Figuring we could average about 5 mph depending on wind, waves, sails or motor…  Columbia River Bar is the worst so all is timed around it but still knowing if we got here at night we would ‘pop cookies’ in the ocean till day light..  Yes we have new radar and lots of gadgets to guide us at night.  Maybe too many.  Lol  Any way got to Newport area about sun up and turned into the ‘3 mile line.’  Usually means dotted with crap traps for a mile or so before heading to the next bar.  Boy that sounds bad!  Very few traps, we crossed the bar into Yaquina Bay and anchored about 9:30 this morning.  Doug and the cats took naps.  I will sleep well tonight!

Now for those who want to read the essay….

Got to sail part of the way with some real wind.  Awesome!  However, that also showed us how much the masts creak and moan under tension.  We opened up the floor to see it ‘moving.’   Not a bad thing unless you were a cat down below listening!   It will be quieter when we support it and wedge it in before further passages.    And even when not enough wind to sail by, just having the sails up makes a smoother more comfortable ride.    

And we have this fabulous warm cockpit with huge windows to steer from using the autopilot.  About 7:30 last night Doug turned it on and we discovered much noise….  (Yes we have used before and not heard it)  Amount of waves in ocean and lack of serious winds at this point caused it to be doing much correction and thus the noise.  Surprise needs cleaned and greased!   Decided we were overtaxing it and needed to hand steer sails (outside) or motor with auto pilot (inside).    Who?  What?  Forecast made it easy.  Winds were to die at midnight so the sails had to come down in daylight.  Cindy rule.  Most things are his decision but…  he made me admiral so he could be captain so sometimes I get to pull rank.  Lol.  Seriously we agreed but it’s fun to spout. 

On the way of course we discovered many things we did well and  or enjoyed, and many things NOT!  We still have many to work on.  Reality has hit us that when we did this kind of a trip to the San Juans, we had already owned the boat “Kitty Cat” for 10 years and knew her well.  We had rebuilt most the systems and thus could efficiently repeat when the higher degree of use made it necessary again.   We had already spent many short weeks onboard with Squishy to know how she responded and liked it….  Now we have started again. All new to us all and with a 4 year old ‘kitten’  added to the family.

Maui likes to ride up top on the opening hatch and under the dodger.  Squishy prefers the vberth but raising and lowering the anchor scares her so much that she just hides in the aft berth under the cockpit, noisier in general but less extremes.  

Self tacking rigging is REALLY nice!  Could not understand why it was such a pain….  We removed all sheaves and turning blocks that we could and cleaned and replaced them.   Many will have to be replaced with new, as the years of solidified goo that prevented them from turning caused flat spots to be worn in to them.  Ugh!   Others had metals that seized them and need more work to remove them without damage.  Won’t do until the replacements are on hand… Just in case.

Right after the decision to pull the sails we decided to come down while still in daylight and ‘play’ with the radar.   It takes about 20 minutes for a fast moving ship to get from where you can first see it to where you are in danger!  We check the horizon every 10 minutes or when the radar goes off.    Still took most the night to figure it all out.   Kitty Cat did not have radar.   Spartan bobs port to starboard, L to R, lots!  And radar reads itself often.  We had not yet figured out how to support radar but knew the  first overnighter would help define.  And it did!!!   I can only see the outside ocean if kneeling on dining settee ,  sitting on stairs, or standing on stairs with head out side.  None of those positions can hit the ‘shut up’ button on the radar.  Good thing Doug is half deaf and never heard it…. All 50+ times.   Seeing what it ‘might’ be squawking about was far more important than shutting it up.  Lol

The out to ocean rock on Spartan is definitely side, whereas river is more front to back.  We learned of EVERY rattle and noise that further antagonizes our precious babies.  All on the list to fix list.   

Crabbing failed but he got enough fish to bait the crab trap.   Now he's making dinner then I will eat n sleeeeeeep.    Doug will post pics later.   Love to all

So what do we do when we are in port?

We arrived in Astoria West Boat Basin on Friday morning, pump out the holding tank (like pumping out a septic tank, but you do it a couple times a week and you don't have to dig for it), and get a slip for the weekend.  A cruise ship is in town, so there's lots of pedestrian traffic on the pier.  Someone takes a picture of me pumping out the holding tank.  We pick up the supplies we had sent to the port, the riding sail and an outboard motor mount.  We got the shore power hooked up and start filling the water tanks.  I walk to Englund Marine supply to get some parts we need to get the inflatable dinghy up on the davits (hanging off the stern of the boat).  Cindy stays with the cats, because they are still wigged from motoring in.  Then Cindy goes to Englund for fibreglass and adhesives for her projects while I cat sit and get all the various devices charging.  She gets going on her project, I walk up on the pier and find a fresh fish market.  Salmon tonight.

Next day, engine maintenance.  The engine leaks oil, so I mop out underneath it and try to find the source.  Remember, I am a computer geek, not a mechanic.  The oil pan seems to be on as tight as it can get.  Perkins engines are notorious for rear seal leaks, but that doesn't look too much to be the case.  For right now just keep topping up the oil and mopping up what drips out.  And sail more, motor less.   Shrimp cocktails for lunch, we get showers and start laundry.  Another cruise ship is in town.  After his shift a local host comes down to talk to us.  He's also affiliated with the Astoria yacht club.  Offers to take me to Safeway for provisioning, which I accept.  Thanked him with a tot of port, sharing of stories, and a little guitar.  We get the dinghy up on the davits and the outboard up on it's new motor mount.  Cindy has removed the dodger, scrubbed it, and filled in the screw holes with epoxy.  Shrimp salads for dinner.  On the way down with the last load of laundry I dump three socks into the river.  I get two back.  I have weekend work to do on a client system, that goes well, then to bed.

Today, cats caused trouble most of the night so we sleep in to accommodate.  Online chores and oatmeal in the morning, taking apart and cleaning blocks, pulleys, and sheaves so they run smoothly in the afternoon.  This should help the raising and lowering of the sails.  Several of the sheaves (the little wheel thingies in the pulleys) are cracked or eroded, so we'll have to get an order in for those.  Still usable right now.  We plot the next few days.  Motor in to Warrenton tomorrow to get the battery in the EPIRB (Emergency Position-Indicating Radio Beacon) replaced.  Probably spend the night, then work on boat handling in Astoria bay and anchor at Tongue Point until our next shipments come in.  And take it from there.

"Cruising is fixing your boat in exotic places."  anonymous.
"Honey, we've got to work on that 'exotic' part."  Doug to Cindy
 

Real Wind, part 2

We have been able to sail more, partially because there has been some wind, partially because we've gotten stuff fixed and practiced enough so that raising the sails is easier, but mostly the cats really do not like the engine.  On Thursday we got from Walker Island to Tehasillahe Island, sailing about half the way.  On Friday we motored out into the channel and immediately hoisted sail.  Winds were not heavy, but between the wind and the current we were able to make 3-4 knots down river, quiet and comfortable.  Until we get to where the channel turns west and we we can see the Astoria Bay bridge.  Bam! All of a sudden 15-20 knots on the beam.  The boat lists, we hear the crash of cutlery in the galley, we had not prepared for "sailing" like we should have.  We adjust sails and get pointed the right direction, but the wind is on the nose, so we're tacking across the channel between Miller Sands and Rice Island.  Making headway, but it's a bit nerve wracking.  We power up the engine, drop the sails, and motor the last hour in to Tongue Point, where we anchor.

Our boat tends to "dance" at anchor in the wind, swinging back a forth through as much as a 110 degree arc.  This is even with a 44lb CQR anchor and all chain rode.  The winds keep up, the boat swings back and forth, and then the tide changes and our boat sits broadside to the wind waves.  Every now and then a big one would slap the side of the hull and it would sound like a tree trunk hitting the boat.  Not to worry, eventually the wind died down, the tide changed again, and we had a quiet night.  I did set an anchor monitor with one of the electronics, while we did shift from one side of our anchor to the other (I had 100ft out), we did not drag.  We do have a "riding sail" waiting for us in Astoria that should take much of the swing out of anchoring. 

Real Wind

We headed out yesterday afternoon to start getting down the river towards Astoria. The forecasted southeast wind didn't show. Instead, we had 10-15mph from the north. And which way does the river flow here? North. Time to find out how well this boat goes to windward. We were able to point at about 40 degrees, zig-zagging down the river, and with the current we were able to sail almost all the way to Walker Island (about 20 miles) before the wind died. A very pleasant afternoon. At anchor we were greeted by a Bald Eagle, and an upset goose. I think she thinks we're too close to her nest.

turning point

We've made it past the turning point....  on to sailing and adventure more that the to do list.  Not that we don't still have plenty of "work to do's" and "boat to do's" etc but two days of great sailing and now headed towards Astoria.

Realized we have not been posting and think it was cause nobody really cares how hard we have been working..  lol.  but the adventure is beginning!!!

BTW we've tried to let folks know the blog is up but think spam blockers etc are interfering with the message.  Some have but if you haven't please respond here or email Doug or I too let us know if you are seeing this, then we will know who we are missing.

love to all,
Cindy & Doug