S/V CarolMarie: July 2014

July 2nd 2014

We left Salpare Bay early in the morning to go up to Barkley sound with Ray and Alicia on S/V Rowena. My daughter Katie and I were on the S/V CarolMarie following them as we went down the Columbia River towards Astoria, Oregon; our first stop.

Traveling down the Columbia River early in the morning.

Of course as a college kid Katie wasn't up for early morning travel. She pulled up one of the deck chairs and passed out for a while under a blanket.

Katie passed out

S/V Rowena

I couldn't believe how lucky we were to be doing 7.6 knots SOG.

7.6 Knots on the GPS

Our auto pilot steering us along the way.

Katie finally woke up

She had something to drink

She had some lunch

Katie Sunbathing Oregon Style.

Church along the way

Astoria Bridge

July 3rd, 2014

We spent the night in Astoria, at the West Basin Marina. We conferred with Ray and Alicia and went out on the ebb flow of the Columbia Bar at 11:20am.

Heading out to the Columbia Bar

Looking at Ilwaco as we went out.

As we were going out we were followed by the U.S. Coast Guard.

USCG following the CarolMarie out to the Bar.

Once we got out to the bar the weather, and the sea conditions became to rough to take pictures. We were beat pretty hard, going out 23 nautical miles to find an easy ride which didn't come until the early morning of the 4th of July.

Swells were 6-9 feet at 8 seconds most of the day of the 3rd. We kept hourly check in's on the VHF with Rowena. Both Ray and Alicia didn't fair their first night at sea very well. Rowena suffered from a problem with her packing gland leaking, forcing them to have to go below and check things out all through the night.

By 3:00am the morning of the 4th of July the sun began to raise at sea and everything settled down enough to motor sail.

Motor Sailing on the morning of the 4th.

Our calm voyage was short lived, by 10:00am I noticed the tachometer on the motor was bouncing around spastically. Since the engine was rev'ing I deduced it must be the alternator, which was the case. I called to Ray that we needed to pull into the next port call LaPush, Washington. LaPush is famous for two things; the difficult harbor entrance and the werwolves of the series Twilight.

We cut back into the east to make it over to LaPush to find a new alternator, and as we past Destruction Island we heard a mayday call coming from a boat about 14 miles away. The skipper reported seeing smoke and flames coming from beneath his decks. Soon we could see Coast Gaurd helicopters hovering above the site where he said he was. As more information came we heard that the skipper was the new owner of the 71 foot power boat that he purchased in California and was on the way back to his home port in Canada. By the time we were close enough to see anything all we saw was the smoke from the wreckage floating over the horizon.

First smoke on the horizon.

Last plumes of the smoke we saw from the wreckage.

About 5:30 PM we pulled into LaPush, Washington which is on the mouth of the Quileute River in Clallam County, Washington, United States. La Push is the largest community within the Quileute Indian Reservation and home to the Quileute tribe which seems to run the marina. Gene the harbor master was excellent in finding us both a space.

Rowena at the fuel dock and CarolMarie in the background.

Restaurant in La Push.

Katie jumped off the boat and made friends with members of the tribe, watching fireworks with them and enjoying their hospitality. Ray, Alicia, and I had dinner at the community restaurant and then went back to our boats and fell asleep.

Katie's photo from the beach in La Puch

Cleaning fish at the harbor

Katie's fire on the beach at La Push

July 5th, 2014

When I woke up I went over to the harbor master's office to find out where to get an alternator. Gene was AWESOME loaning me his car to find an alternator. We ended up driving to Forks, where the local auto parts store is located. The auto store was closed for the weekend of the 4th, so we drove to Clallam Bay to Cain's Marine. At Cain's they had three different styles of alternators, and we ended up with a 60 amp single coil one that fit the bill. It took an hour to install and we had the batteries charging again, but waited until the next day to head out.

July 6th, 2014

Early the next morning we left La Push, heading out toward Ucluelet BC. Motor sailing again in the swells the 55 nautical miles to Ucluelet BC.

Rain and fog on the next part of the journey

Upon arriving there we called customs, who told us to wait by the boat and some one would be there shortly to check us in and inspect the boat. We waited for 2 hours and no one showed up. I called back and the customer officer said the local officials had gotten busy that we just needed a number which he gave us. We were checked into to Ucluelet!