Adventures of Time To Play

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.