Day 119, 8/26: We got out of Astoria about 7:30 AM and the current gave us a little push at the beginning. Overall, we made great time with little current to deal with so we made it to St Helens by about 2:30. It took a while to get all the lines setup the way we like them. This is the hottest weather we have had all summer at 94 degrees. We stayed in St Helens for the evening to meetup with friends.

Day 120, 8/27: We got up packed a few essentials, a cart full, and headed home. Lynn and Kathy dropped off the car at the marina Friday on their way to Astoria. That made it really nice to have the car there waiting for us. I was able to remember how to drive with no incidents on the way. Back to reality, fix a toilet, start pulling weeds, and satisfy Carolyn’s craving for Chinese food. Tomorrow we will make the first run, of many, to unload the boat.

 Day 111, 8/18: Still waiting at Friday Harbor for a weather window. Walked around town a little had lunch, nothing notable to speak about.

Day 112, 8/19: The weather outlook changed, this time in the Strait of Juan de Fuca and the ocean. We will leave tomorrow and go all the way to Neah Bay. The wind is predicted to be bad in the strait both Monday and Tuesday. I was very surprised that we were able to get a refund for Sunday night.

Day 113, 8/20: Got an early start for the 80-mile day. Didn’t see much wildlife, when we did see a whale, it would show itself once and then it was gone. The water got rough late in the day so we were getting a lot of salt spray. We anchored in the bay since it was 6 PM on Sunday we weren’t going to try to get a slip. There were several boats anchored, not sure if they were headed north or south.

Day 114, 8/21: Called to get a slip and then went to the fuel dock to top off the tanks. We found our slip and went for a look around town. The first things we noticed is all the boats that were is such disrepair that they can’t be used any more. There was one that had sunk, one the pilot house roof rotted off, a steel boat that had holes from rust though the hull. We did learn that Neah Bay is a dry reservation. The celebration of the year is called Makah Days happening next weekend. There was a lot of activity around town cleaning up for the festivities.

Day 115, 8/22: The weather outlook is still holding up for tomorrow to go south. Today we went to lunch and then to the museum for the Makah. Very interesting, they did a lot of wood working, like assembling wood boxes, carving and wood plank homes.

Day 116, 8/23: Out of our slip at 5:45, as we are leaving many fishing boats are passing us on the way to the fishing grounds. The water was predicted to be 4’ swells at 8 seconds with 1’ wind waves. Other than being a long day the ride was good. We puled into Westport about 5:30 PM, we finally found our slip. Have I mentioned that marinas do a crappy job marking slips so you can see the numbers from the water? The bonus with this slip was 2 slips over was 30 large boisterous Sea Lions. We didn’t want to sleep anyway.

Day 117, 8/24: Lynn’s Birthday! Up way to early, underway at 6 AM and again lots of fishing boats passing us on the way out. The water was predicted to be more wind wave and less swell. The forecast was pretty accurate, it wasn’t uncomfortable but the additional wind had its effect. We crossed the Columbia Bar about an hour and a half before high tide. The current was still ebbing but not too bad. There were fishermen everywhere, out in the ocean there were a lot and after we crossed buoy 10 there were another 1000 boats. From what we saw coming in and then at the Astoria dock the fishing has been very good. We made it to the Bowpicker for a late afternoon dinner, can’t beat that tuna.

Day 118, 8/25: We went to breakfast, a first on this trip. Got back to the boat to wash some salt off. Surprisingly, in the last two days on the ocean we had only gotten light salt spray on the windows. A huge difference from when we went north. We also have been dealing with a fly infestation since we got tied up in Astoria. All the boats around us are dealing with the same issue. Tonight, we will go to dinner with Lynn and Kathy, they had separate plans to be here for wedding research. Tomorrow we will head up the Columbia with the hope that the current will allow us to get to St Helens at a reasonable time.

Sun rise near Mt. Baker

What Smoke?

Cattle Point Lighthouse

Cape Flattery Lighthouse

Tatoosh Island

Shy Whale

Dock buddies in Westport

Cape Disappointment Lighthouse

Fishermen-a-Plenty

 No Pictures Today.

Day 109, 8/16: We went to the whale museum today, it was small but the price was cheap. There was some good learning on sea life overall. It has been warm here, so much so we HAD to have ice cream for lunch.

Day 110, 8/17: The major work these days is checking the different sources for the forecast. I have 6 different apps and web pages I check a couple times a day. Yesterday it looked like we had a window on Sunday to go down the coast. This morning that window slammed shut and now Thursday looks like the best day. The evening forecast looks like Wednesday is doable but that will likely change. We paid for three more nights here so we will leave Monday to be in Neah Bay Tuesday to be ready for our window.

 Day 101, 8/8: Headed to Port Neville in the rain. There was about an inch predicted and I think they got every ounce, we had rain all day. There was a narrow that we went through along with passing several fishing camps. Once we got to Johnstone Strait it was lumpy but not to bad given, we didn’t have far to go. Once at Port Neville we went into the second bay and anchored in shallow water. The big hazzard for the day was seaweed bullwhips. We had to run through a thick patch in the narrows that literally slowed the boat. Then in our anchorage there were a lot more that we had to navigate through along with crab pots.

Day 102, 8/9: Our planned path was to go back through Dent rapids the way we came up but with Johnstone Strait having a good forecast we decided to go through Johnstone Strait to Campbell River. Near Campbell River is Seymour Narrows and slack was at 1:00 PM. As soon as we left Port Neville there were a few boats going in the same direction and roughly at the same speed. As the day went on we picked up more boats heading for the narrows. As luck would have it, we got a big push most of the day from the tide so we all were reducing RPM so not to arrive too early at the narrows. We got to Seymour Narrows a little before 1:00 PM and went through with no issues. Even at slack all of the narrows have eddies that will throw the boat around a little. We were able to get a spot at Coast Marina for the night. Did a little shopping across the street and had dinner at the hotel also across the street. Our spot was right next to the ferry terminal, fortunately they stop running about 10:00 PM

Day 103, 8/10: The plan was to go to Comox about 33 miles down the Strait of Georgia but once we were close, we decided to keep going. The strait was calm and getting a place to stay is turning into work with all the other boaters around. Once we decided to continue the wind picked and the water got lumpy, so much for calm water. There are very few places to anchor between Comox and Nanaimo. The best looking bay we would have had to call the military for approval so we kept looking. We decided on Northwest Bay that has an active log boom operation. It turned out to be a good anchorage and we had fun watching the life size Tonka toys playing with logs.

Day 104, 8/11: We are getting good at changing the plan on the fly. We decided not to go into Nanaimo and go to Tod Inlet near Butchart Gardens. Dodd Narrows is just on the other side of Nanaimo about 22 miles from our anchorage so we started out late to catch slack at 2:18 PM. There is a military exercise area called Whisky Gulf that was active today. Listening to the radio was great fun with all the boats blindly entering the restricted zone and being told to exit immediately. When they call a boat and say this is Canadian War Ship 76 it gets your attention. We drove by the Nanaimo harbor on the way to Dodd to kill time but we were still early. Sitting and watching many boats had gone through early. Two power boats passed us announced their intentions to go through and I decided to go with them. It was a little turbulent but a lot of it was the wakes from the boats in front of me. All went well and we got through 1.5 hours ahead of slack. Later we made another pivot not to go to Tod Inlet so we anchored the night in Burgoyne Bay.

Day 105, 8/12: We pulled anchor and headed toward Friday Harbor. Mid way we called Customs using the ROAM app. This time they did a video conference (one way they could see us). She asked about food and the only issue was eggs. She said we could boil them or bring them to customs in Friday Harbor. Carolyn opted to boil the dozen eggs on our way. Surprisingly we called for a spot and got one right away, I expected we would need to anchor since it was Saturday. The next boat that called the harbor was told they were full and had to go on the waiting list. Did a little roaming around in town and did lunch but more to do in the following days.

Day 106, 8/13: Looking at the weather for the coast it looks like it will be next week before we want to transit but we will look every day. The weather causing it to be so hot at home is getting the winds and seas going on the Pacific. We had dinner on another couple’s boat that we met in Alaska. Had a great time sharing the ups and downs of long cruises and what we would do differently next time.

Day 107, 8/14: Watching the weather but still not much change. In the mean time getting chores accomplished and seeing our first hot weather this year with 90ish temps. This is the first time I wish we brought the air conditioner with us that we bought last year.

Day 108, 8/15: I didn’t think it had been so long since I did an update. Still in Friday Harbor, I know we should still be out exploring but I think most of our exploring is done for the year. It is all about getting down the coast and getting home. That said, we did explore more of Friday Harbor today. All shops need to be shopped, I enjoyed Ace Hardware.

Seymour Narrows (not really narrow)

Hanging out at home

Old sternwheeler

Campbell River

Campbell Ferry

Cape Mudge Lighthouse

Parachute Practice

Lighthouse

Log Boom Toy

Big Tonka

Air Surveillance Whisky Gulf

Ship sitting on boundry waypoint for WG

Control Center for WG

Nanaimo

Planes

Fire while we were anchored at Burgoyne

Ferry at Campbell River

Ace Hardware at Friday Harbor

Piggy Bank at old brick factory in FH

Look for the key hole