It has been a busy hot week. For the punch line we are home. We arrived at St Helens after 5:00 PM Friday 7/29. Our goal was to try and beat the heat and although it was hot we did succeed to miss the 110 plus temperatures so we'll call that a win.
As you read on, one of the most difficult and frustrating things of the trip was trying to get to the locks on time for the recreational vessel times. Most of the times I was way too early or if I was on time we were delayed for commercial vessels.
Sunday we left Clarkston (river mile 139) to make Lower Granite Dam for a 12:30 downstream passage. This was our first downstream lock and it went really smooth with little tension. We stayed the night on anchor in the Port of Garfield. (river mile 83). We were both a little nervous about anchoring but all went well. In fact at 2 AM I heard an alarm and it was a tug and barge going by on the river. When I got up the same tug was tied up behind us ready for a load of grain. Slept through it going by us in the bay says we were tired or not that nervous.
Monday we were positioned to make Little Goose Dam by 9:30 and then Lower Monumental Dam at 3:30. All went well and we spent the night at Fishhook Park (river mile 18) running the generator to power the air conditioner until we went to bed.
Tuesday we got up with 9 miles to go for a 9:30 passage of Ice Harbor Dam. We proceeded to leave the Snake and turned south toward McNary Dam were we were hours early for 3:30 passage. We spent the night in Boardman. On the radio we heard John Day Lock was closed with no details. I call the lock when were in Boardman and was told the lock was open for business. Cool, or so I thought.
Wednesday we got up and left with the plan to go 55 miles to make the 12:30. Worried about cutting the time frame too close I bumped the RPM up to make better time. We saw more commercial traffic that morning than any other day. I figured it was backlog from the closure the day before. About 10 I was hailed by one of the tugs, Cascades and asked if I planned to go through John Day. The summary of the chat was it was going to take a long time to get through and I should call as early as possible. I called and they said they were working on the lock and could get us through at 2 PM, then 2PM turned into 5PM that was closer to 6PM. Once we were in it became clear, the up stream gate wasn't functioning so they had a temporary gate (Kason) connected to the side of a tug. We got out of the lock at 7:20 PM and went about 10 miles to Miller Island and anchored for the night. We had the best lights that night, the Dam is light red, white, and blue. All the wind mills have a red light on them and they all light at the same time. The stars were very bright as well.
Thursday we got up to go through The Dalles Dam and yes I was too early so we did circles until our time. Got through there ok and proceeded to Hood River where I wanted to take my first mate to dinner for her birthday.
Friday we got up to get some fuel at $7.95 a gallon, water and pumped out before going 20 miles to Bonneville Dam and of course I was way early for 12:30 so we practiced our circle skills. This time we did see folks on the fishing platforms pulling in nets that had a few fish in them. Once out of Bonneville we went the 60 miles to St Helens and tied up at 5:50 PM.
