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August 18, 2005
Gray's Harbor-Westport to Ilwaco
After checking weather and bar conditions, we left Westport at 0545.
The bar had some rollers but nothing to be concerned about and we
crossed without incident in fog. Kath is now referring to herself
as a Bar Hopper. The fog seems to be ever-present these days,
though the lows have passed.
Ilwaco is about a 7 hour run at 8 knots plus we can expect to pick up
about a half knot from the prevailing currents so we should be in Ilwaco
about 1230 or 1300 allowing for some slow speed up the narrow channel to
Ilwaco from the Columbia River.
The Columbia River Bar is the Mother of all bars on the West Coast and
we didn't know what to expect. We had timed it to arrive at the
bar during the last of the flood stage which is supposed to be the best
time to cross. As we approached the entrance buoy, I contacted the
USCG to get a bar report. They indicated 2' to 4' over all areas
with an occasional 6 footer with limited visibility (fog again).
The bar crossing was as expected and non-threatening and so we relaxed,
poured a glass of wine and toasted our arrival, sipping away while we
made our way up to Ilwaco. The channel to Ilwaco is narrow with
drying flats on both sides. Even though we have digital charting
on our computer with GPS positioning (I can't imagine cruising again
without these toys!) the little entrance to the channel through a
"jetty" on each side (according to the chart) was elusive and we were
trying to dodge all the little fishing boats trolling for salmon.
You guessed it. We missed the jetty cuz it didn't look like a
jetty and I went down to relieve myself of excess liquids leaving Kath
at the helm steering where I instructed her and we found ourselves
heading for a mud flat skimmed over with a bit of water. We caught
it in time, got our bearings and found our way back into the channel
skipping the "grounding".
We had contacted the Ilwaco Marina earlier and arranged for transit
moorage, so upon arrival, we first looked for a fuel dock, found one
with nobody around so went to find our slip. We found it, pulled
in and tied up. It felt good to be there.
After shutting things down, we gave Dreamer a quick bath to get rid of
all the salts that had accumulated using dock water. A
little later, we walked about the shops and stores at the head of the
docks and then walked into town to the market to pick up a few things.
It felt good to walk. We found the market (which also had a small
liquor store area) bought a few things including some booze and walked
back to Dreamer.
Kath made a bowl of guacamole with chopped onions, peppers and tomato in
it and we had a nice snack with some red wine. We don't usually
eat chips and snacks, but those little corn chips with guacamole sure
tasted good!
We just relaxed the rest of the day, had the TV on in the background,
did some email and worked on planning our next port. Part of the
problem with transiting the West Coast in Washington and Oregon is that
virtually all ports/harbors involve crossing a river bar. Timing
the bar crossings, both departures and arrivals, can be challenging.
Timing crossing the Columbia River Bar the next morning was a bit
difficult as max ebb was right when we wanted to leave early in the
morning in order to arrive in Newport before dark and during slack or
flood.
I checked the weather forecasts and tried to get an idea of what the bar
conditions might be during max ebb the next morning. It didn't
look promising so I looked at a later departure for TIllimook Bay which
was a shorter run. It looked good, so we had the two options.
Bob