Shaken and Stirred

Automated Bar Signal

Java's Balancing Act

Blanco Reef

We checked on the bar report before departing Charleston on May 26^th.  Automated advisory signals are posted at every bar - two flashing amber lights indicate rough bar conditions.  In addition to these advisory signals, boaters routinely call the Coast Guard at each river bar for any vessel restrictions.  In this case, the Charleston Bar was restricted to vessels 20 feet and under.  Since we were well above the 20 foot limit, we legally crossed the bar around 1pm but met 6-7 foot waves outside the bar with some 8-foot swells.  Normally these seas would not be so bad but the waves were coming from all directions.  These “confused seas” meant steeper waves with lots of tossing, shaking, and rolling.  I felt like a pin ball inside a pinball machine!  Java would stand up once in a while and lean sharply from side to side - she seems to have mastered the balancing act better than we have.  We continued south with the plan to stop at Bandon, one of Oregon’s prettiest beaches, but the bar in this instance was closed to ALL vessels.  We had read that Bandon is often the first bar to be closed and the last one to open.  The bar at Bandon is very narrow and exposed to northwest wind and ocean swell so boats often have to wait several days before they can leave port.  As we continued south from Bandon, the seas eased to 4 or 5 feet; we cruised past Cape Blanco and beautiful Blanco Reef with its long line of rock spires.  After passing the reef, we headed toward shore for Port Orford, arriving around 6:30pm.  There is no river bar to cross at Port Orford and no breakwater, which means there’s no dock or marina available for pleasure boats.  However, Port Orford has suitable anchorage for protection from northwest winds.  Ocean swells nevertheless sweep into the bay so we had a long night of “rock-a-bye baby.”  Our anchor was set firmly in the mud but as a precaution we used the GPS navigation software for an “anchor watch” establishing a 40-yard circle.  If the anchor slipped and the boat strayed outside this designated circle, an alarm would be activated giving us time to take action before ending up on the rocks.  After a somewhat sleepless night, we departed the next morning around 6:50am.  This time we were welcomed by calm seas with only 1-2 foot swells – Pacifico was over her ill-tempered mood.  We enjoyed a peaceful cruise the entire day, spotted several whales and saw more beautiful rock spires off Mack Reef and Cape Ferrelo.  We arrived at Brookings, Oregon near the California border on May 27^th around 12:45 in the afternoon, a major mile stone on our journey down the West Coast.

Cape Ferrelo

Approaching Brookings