Alaskan Sea-Duction: Christmas Ships 2014

Christmas Ships 2014 is in the books. We were going to leave last Thursday, but a high wind warning was issued and we stayed at the home dock. Good thing! The winds hit hard at 60mph. Had we tried to go to St. Helens we would not have been able to tie up at the dock.

We made it to St. Helens early Friday morning and I teleworked for the rest of the day. Then other boats started to show up. On Saturday from 11-4 PM we held the first annual Sturgeon derby. There were about 12 participants. All day, not a single fish! Then at 3:55 Ron Evans hooks a small, but winning fish, the only fish.

In total we had about 13 boats at the docks, the most in recent memory. Lots of fun. The boat parade was awesome and there was double of the boats from last year. It was awesome.

Then came the fog on Sunday morning when I had my first fog adventure and man was it nerve wrecking. We left St. Helens, OR as the fog appeared to be lifting. It didn’t take long to be in the thick of things. Couldn’t see 10 feet in front of the bow. I attempted to steer IAW the GPS and radar, but not knowing what was out there in the shipping channels made it more of a pucker factor.

Lessons learned:

1. I will be getting AIS next month at the boat show.

2. Steering by GPS or radar is at best difficult. Should have plotted a course on the GPS and stuck to it. Should have increased radar range to at least a mile on the river. I was running ½ mile. I also needed to create a waypoint and steer toward it.

3. Stay out of the shipping channel! I actually had two ships making their way up the creek and all we could hear was their horn. I did see them on radar later and we were out of the shipping channel.

4. Slowing downed helped.

5. Second set of eyes was a good thing and the help from the Admiral helped me gain some confidence back.

6. Could have sat at the dock longer. Not got in a hurry.

7. Crap I forgot about the dredge work going on down river how the hell am I going to get around the pipes????

The fog bank was about 7 miles in length so we ended up in nice blue skies and no issues down river. I will be practicing more on a clear day. I am glad we went through this ordeal as it proved to me I and the admiral have to work as a team and gain more experience.