August 19, 2009 - On to Astoria

We left Port Angeles on Sunday the 16th at 6:30 headed for Neah Bay 65 miles away. It was another beautiful day, glassy calm sea with just a small swell. We started at the beginning of the flood and fought the current all day, sometimes at a speed of 3.5 knots. Actually fought is the wrong word, because there was nothing adverserial about the day, it was just a little slow. We had hoped to check out the Makah Museum in Neah Bay, but we arrived too late so we just anchored in the Bay and enjoyed a nice evening in lovely surroundings.
We made our first try at downloading weather and it worked very well. We even pulled down the surface temperature charts to see how far we would need to go for tuna fishing. Earl would love to go, but with no empty freezer space and no amount of ice, I don’t know what we would do with one or more tuna. We tried again for crab and again got nothing. Earl is blaming the new collapsable pot I bought.
Monday the 17th, we left Neah Bay at about 5:30. It was lumpy coming out of Juna de Fuca Straits. We had the out going tide against incoming swell, but unlike the day before we were speeding – 8.5 knots. Once we headed south it was lovely, but foggy on the shore so that we saw nothing much. A little shore bird landed on our deck. He looked cold and tired and took a nap on our front deck. Earl put some bread crumbs out for him, but he was not interested. After he left, Daisy cleaned them up. We anchored at around 2 in the lee of Destruction Island which Earl remembered fondly from his younger years fishing out of Westport as a nice anchorage. We rocked and rolled and Earl complained. I guess he has forgotten the happy nights we had in Cook Inlet at Starisky rolling around all night. Anyway, after rolling around for 6 hours, at 8:30 he decided the time had come to head south to Westport. Once underway, the sailing was comfortable. The stars were beautiful and the night was long and uneventful. We arrived in Westport at 6:30 in pea soup fog. The charter boats were roaring out of the harbor and I was afraid Earl was going to hit one and never live it down. Happily we made it to the dock, 120 miles from Neah Bay, and had a beautiful sunny day in Westport.
Mousie and I visited the museum in the old Coast Guard Building which was very nice. Among other things, it houses the lens from the old light house at Destruction Island. It has 1700+ prisms and is really a work of art. We had a visit from Brady and Happy and then Mouse and I went for our first bike ride together in 45 years. It was fun.
Today, Tuesday August 18th, we are on our way to Astoria. It was not nice early and made me bad tempered. But now it is lovely and we have just entered the Columbia River, are making 10.5 with the flood and looking forward to exploring Astoria. Wonder if I’ll find any reference to Ramsay Crooks, our ancestor scout for the Astor Fur Expedition.
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