We left Portland last Thursday and headed west down the Columbia on a warm, sunny, glorious morning for the 90 mile cruise, pulling into Astoria 8 hours later where we dropped off one crew member and picked up another. The journey went from glassy cruising at 10 knots to rollicking climbs up 7′ wind swell due to 20 knots of head wind in a couple places, but quickly settled back down. Just to keep things interesting, we brought along a shotgun and went skeet shooting off the back deck while cruising along. Pull….Blam!!!! Nothing like beer, guns and boats, you know.
The tidal gods were smiling upon us so Friday, at the civilized hour of 9am, we headed out through the Columbia River Bar and into the Pacific. The conditions were ideal for the crossing-which doesn’t mean easy, just that there weren’t 25′ breaking waves to crush us. The strong currents, big ocean swells that welled up out of nowhere, and giant freighter traffic kept us busy. By 11am had cleared ‘The Graveyard of the Pacific’ and rounded Cape Disappointment heading north.
The sea was ‘flat’ – meaning just 4-6′ swells, coming from the north. We motored along at 9 knots, gradually heading NNW so as to keep our course 8-10 miles off shore to avoid the various capes, points, headlands, islands and hidden rocks in our path. At times the breeze would kick up, turning the ocean from placid to tumultuous in just a few minutes. Then just as quickly it would subside. We ate and drank and napped and told old ocean tales all day.
At 9pm we chose the night watches, with each of us taking a 2 hour turn at the wheel. It finally got dark around 11pm, and with that a thick fog also settled in, meaning navigation by compass and radar, with the occasional glance at the GPS to make sure we were far enough off shore to stay out of trouble, yet close enough that we could tuck into one of the very sporadic harbors along the way if the weather got really bad.
Driving a boat in the fog on the ocean at night in big, irregular ocean swells is not an easy task. It demands pretty much sustained concentration since the boat is pitching wildly as it climbs up one big (unseen) swell, rolls down the back side, then gets slammed from the side by an (unseen) rogue wave. Direction of travel can swing 90º in a matter of seconds as the compass spins wildly. Imagine driving a big truck on an icy road. While blindfolded. Fun!!!
Around 5am we were approaching Cape Flattery and the entrance to the Straights of Juan de Fuca, carefully steering clear of Tatoosh Island and Duntze Rock in the early morning darkness and fog. As expected, the seas were building from the northwest, meaning huge, rolling swells were pouring into the straights and reflecting off the cape. The F/V Shockles was behaving delightfully, surfing down the massive waves (at one point we hit 14.5 knots), then lifting slowly over the top and down the back side as the swell passed us by just before the next one picked us up again.
Twenty miles along and the fog was still thick, but the seas got flatter as we headed southeast down the straights, staying a few miles off the northern shore of Washington so as to avoid the center of the channel where the big freighters ripped along at 20 knots. We kept a careful eye on the radar, spotting several enormous vessels on the screen, just a couple miles away, that were totally invisible in the fog.
We finally crossed over the main shipping channel (which also happens to be the border between the US and Canada) about mid way down the straights, just as a gigantic freighter came hurtling out of the fog right towards us. At first we thought we just be looking at a side view because it was so big; but then we realized that it was coming right at us when it sounded a low, groaning fog horn that echoed along the sea surface like a giant drum head. Nine hundred feet of steel coming at you out of the fog at 25 knots is indeed an impressive sight.
Five miles before Victoria, the fog lifted and the sun came out. The temperature sprang up from 55º to 75º in a matter of minutes and life was indeed good! Around 3pm we headed into the channel and into Victoria, exactly 30 hours from our start (just as I had planned!). We cleared customs (simply pull up to the customs dock, pick up the big yellow phone fastened to a pole, and tell them you’re here to party. Woohoo!!), and settled into a slip right in front of the spectacular Empress Hotel, with downtown Victoria a block away.
After a quick boat cleaning we headed into town, sampling a half dozen little pubs, street-side cafes and bakeries, eating and drinking. We finished the evening at an Irish pub with a Beatles cover band that actually (probably due to our various states of inebriation) sounded pretty good. We were back on board in in our bunks by 1am.
After a leisurely morning drinking coffee, visiting the Maritime Museum, and taking a long walk through the city and out along the coast, we headed to the San Juan Islands, anchoring for the night off the east side of James Island. We took one of the kayaks to shore and went ’splorin’ for a couple hours before returning to the boat for cocktails and a big pile of grub on the barbie. It was a warm, clear, tropical evening with an almost full moon – perfect.
We awoke to a cold mist, drank a pot or black coffee, yanked the anchor and headed to Anacortes. Fighting some wild currents and an outgoing tide, our speed ranged between 2 and 11 knots as we headed to the mainland. What a crazy place. We pulled into the marina (where I have a covered slip) by 1pm, closed up the boat and hopped the train from Mount Vernon back to Portland ($35 – what a deal!) where my friend Fred picked us up at the train station and brought us back to our cars.
All in all, a fine time was had by all. Now that the F/V Shockles is up in Anacortes, there’s lots more fun to be had!
Capt Fun
