May 28th and 29th of 2017
Postscript [
I should say for the record that a few days ago when Donnie dropped in the new muffler. When I started the boat both Paul and Donnie saw white smoke, hot water and small white feathers coming from the exhaust port. It's an important detail for the reader for later in the saga. ]
Bill takes us across the bar -
Crossing the Columbia River Bar for sailors is a big deal. The bar is known as the grave yard of the Pacific Ocean, with over 2000 large ship wreck tallied through the years. It is so dangerous that the bar pilots are paid over $180,000 a year to bring in ship today.
Meriwether Lewis and William Clark arrived in July of 1806 being so impressed they named it Cape Disappointment, so there isn't much more to say about the place.
The bar is about 6 miles long and three miles across. The "green side" (following the green buoys) as I call it lies to the north of the bar just off the North Jetty. The green side hugs the large rock wall creating large waves if you ride across that side. The only time I ever came through the green side was going up to Barkley Sound some years ago following S/V Rowena. Alicia on Rowena reported seeing 60% of the CarolMarie's bottom as we topped wave after wave.
The "red side" of the bar (following inside the red buoys) as I call it, only comes close to the south jetty at it's very end. With mostly northerly winds staying off the south jetty going out makes a smoother ride. Dealing with the westerly swells becomes the only concern. Our plan was to be out on the bar a little before the outgoing tide and have it propel us outward to sea.
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| Columbia Bar - Black Lies show the North and South Jetties while the red and green lines show their respective sides. |
May 28th Day 2.
We woke up early, Bill made coffee and oatmeal for us all. Afterward I went through the checklist with the crew. We checked the transmission, transmission fluid, tied down the heat exchanger that had worked itself loose, checked engine mounts, changed the water pump just in case, checked and added oil. We ran the Jacklines, set up the stationary tethers in the cockpit and the dynamic ones on the port and starboard Jacklines.
Meanwhile Bill made sandwiches for lunch and dinner in case of a bad bar crossing or rough seas. Bill prepared the galley and provisions for the crossing and the open ocean.
Next was to check the SSB before heading out to sea. Some time ago we installed an ICOM M802 aboard as the new SSB. The marine single sideband transceiver operates on frequencies in the shortwave spectrum between 2 MHz and 26 MHz. These short wavelength frequencies refract radio signals off the ionosphere, reflect off sea water, and may easily skip hundreds and thousands of miles around the earth. We had never tested our SSB at a distance. Before leaving I spoke to my good friend Jim Noval who badly wanted to go on the journey but couldn't but said he'd be our radio hop to Charing and Theresa. Jim's boat S/V Ranidan would call us on SSB at set times. The protocol was to begin every day at 9:30am on 4.146 Mhz if no answer after 5 minutes we'd go to 3.968MHz and then again after 5 minutes to 7.238MHz. We would repeat the protocol until 10:00am Pacific time. Although we tried it appeared Jim's boat needed a setting changed. So we counted on our cellular phones and VHF as our communication means. Bill brought along a SPOT Satellite GPS Messenger to send our positions back to shore as needed.
We were so busy the morning past quickly; we'd almost missed our chance to cross the bar. Based on the schedule I had the sack tide was around 2:00pm. Astoria West Basin is 14 miles from the bar so we needed to leave at 11:30am. With the tide coming in we'd being losing 2 knots to our speed of 5 knots. We left the dock right at 11:30.
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| Leaving the West Basin Marine on the Columbia River |
Upon leaving the dock and entering into the Columbia River, Paul and I set the main sail with a single reef. Once the main sail was set we accelerated beginning the voyage again.
While waiting to approach the bar we had our lunch thanks to Bill. He'd made these wonderful cheese spread sandwiches.
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| Bill having lunch and watching the river traffic. |
Since the CarolMarie moves slowly we were soon being followed and overcome by the fishing fleet heading out to sea, taking advantage of the slack tide.
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| Fishing boat passing us on the river as we went out. |
The stretch to get to bar is always a long one. Often the marine layer of clouds makes the entire setting that much more ominous, which only heightened our anticipation as we approached the bar.
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| Long approach to the bar looking at Ilwaco, Washington |
Bill had told me days before that he'd always wanted to cross the bar after having learned about it's infamous history. I gave Bill the pleasure then of having the helm as we passed along the "red side".
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| Following the "red side" |
We weren't long out on the bar when we first started feeling the effects of the Pacific swells and the waves. Bill stood firm behind the helm, with Otto (autopilot) doing the actual steering. One by one we passed the red buoys leaving the bar behind.
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| Our man Bill taking us out to open water |
Looking back to Cape Disappointment we were now in a new environment, the Northwest Pacific, and needed to deal with her swells and waves as we made way.
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| Looking back at Cape Disappointment |
About 15 miles out from the bar we set the stay sail, set the course south. A nice northerly breeze pushed us along.
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| Set sail for the night |
Because of the seasick patches and the last two mornings of early starts the crew was tired. We had a quick meeting, about the watch schedule. Each man would do four hours through the night in a dog watch. First watch was Bill from 2000-0000, I was on second from 0000-0400 and Paul did the morning watch from 0400-0800. Because it was early in the day still I said I would take the watch until after dinner was finished.
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| Paul off watch nap |
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| Bill off watch |
Bill's first dinner was great, he'd settled into the galley well. Paul learned everything about the boat quickly and set in as first mate. After dinner I climbed into my bunk, slept until my watch came up. The first night at sea was easy, a gentle pitching and rolling but we were doing about 4.5 knots in the water and pushed along by a 0.5 knot current.
Through my watch, I could see sometime flying off our stern, back and forth in front of the light. I thought it must be a small bird, eating bugs attracted by the light. At 0400, Paul came up and I went down to bed again.
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| Sailing along |
The next morning when I awoke the crew was up, and the smell of coffee filled the damp cabin. With seventy miles behind us, we began to find a rhythm at sea. The 9:30am radio check didn't work either. I phoned Jim and he reported he was able to hear my call, but I wasn't able to hear him.
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| Bill on watch the next day |
Watches when on through the day, while the ship gently rolled and pitched in the swells. Bill found the espresso pot treating us to afternoon coffee and biscuits.
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| End of watch treat |
By the afternoon of the second day we were now 25 miles offshore, making way at 5.5 to 6 knots. As the day went on two stowaways appeared.
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| Stowaway #1 |
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| Stowaway #2 |
The stowaways kept us entertained until through the day. Bill cooked dinner again and we fell into our nightly watch pattern.
