Alaskan Sea-Duction: September 2017

After leaving the Pairadice in Blind Bay, they headed to Oak Harbor, we went to Friday Harbor. We had a reservation for 2 days, but ended up to be 3 days due to the weather on the coast. We topped of with fuel at $2.97 a gallon.

We left and head to Neah Bay to stage for the crossing on Thursday the 14th. The trip to Neah bay was without incident, but I routed a straight path from Cattle Pass, pass the tip of Victoria (yes back into Canada temporarily) and from there a straight path to Neah Bay. By doing it this way I cut off about 10 miles.

On the coast the weather reports called for wind waves less than 1 foot, with westerly swells 3-4 feet at 12 seconds apart. After Thursday the weather returned back to crap.

We anchored in Neah Bay and refuse to get fuel here anymore because of the local tribe attitude at the dock. Vey nice calm evening until about midnight. The wind blew up to about 30mph from the southwest. I let some more chain rode out, then after about an hour (by coincidence with the tide changing) it was like someone flipped a switch. The wind died to 1mph and we had a great sleep.

We were up about an hour before sunrise. I needed 12 hours of good seas to make it to the Columbia River Bar. But not too quick as the flood didn't start until 5:30 PM. WE NEVER EVER CROSS ON AN EBB!!!! See beginning of the trip post to see why. After everything was tied down and the anchor pulled (love the new windlass) we headed to Cape Flattery. By the time we were rounding the Cape, the sun was rising. Then it all disappeared! Crap, FOG!!! I set the radar up and mad sure I stayed on course. I was hoping it would lift and some places it did, briefly. For most of the 190 miles to the Bar the fog visibility was less than 3/4 of a mile or less. Most of the time less. Radar awareness was paramount. Kay kept an eye on the radar and out the front of the boat looking for crab pots. A few did show up, but we saw them in time. We were still looking at a 5:20 crossing and we were cruising around 14kts.

About 20 miles from the Bar, the fog lifted and visibility was unlimited. Lucky us! No issues crossing the bar, except the last 20 miles seem to take forever. Our plan was to anchor in a small bay behind Tongue Point. The problem was we took a little longer, 12.5 hours to do the jump from Neah Bay. Now I had a big Cruise Ship at the Astoria docks releasing from the dock and turning around. They called us on the radio and wanted us to hang for 20 minutes while he got away from the dock! Nope wasn't happening. I was tired and wanted to get to the anchorage before dark. So I threw the throttles forward and was around him in less than 5 minutes. Geez these Cruise boats think they own the waterway. Ran into the same issue in Alaska.

Made it to a nice bay at Lois Island and threw the anchor in 24ft of water, but by this time it was dark. I was a little nervous, so I sat up for about an hour. I actually dosed off in my chair on the bridge. I did one last walk around and went to bed. Boy I was tired.

Woke up at 9 AM the following morning and we just took our time getting ready to leave. This was the last anchorage of the 2017 ASD cruise. We also knew we had a mess back at the home dock. A nice ride upriver and 4 hours later we tied up to the winter dock among all the trash and pieces stacked on the dock. You could hardly walk on the dock! But Ron was afraid of throwing anything away as we needed to take pictures and such. Good thinking Ron.

The divers had failed to get floatation under the boat shed. They tried hard, but just couldn't do it. About a week later after we got there, the crane barge came by and crunched it getting it out of the water. We were sad, but it had to come out. We lost a lot, due to a fisherman's boat creating a wake in a no wake zone and sunk it.

About a week or so later, John and Tracy on the Pairadice side-tied to us for the last time. Bitter sweet it was. I had a few cold AAs and BBQ ribs off the grill.

I will be making one more post with "Lessons Learned and Final Thoughts."