Astoria to Garibaldi

John and Leonard - Departing Astoria

Tillamook Rock & Lighthouse

Tillamook Bar and Jetty

Cape Meares

Cape Meares Lighthouse

Our Nephew John joined us in Astoria and we departed May 12^th for Garibaldi around 11:50am with favorable Columbia River bar conditions, however, there were 5-7 foot breaking waves crashing over shallow areas outside the main channel.  We saw a sailboat in these heavy seas; the Coast Guard hailed them on the radio but no response.  We presume they realized their mistake and headed back into the main channel.  The sea was calm once outside the bar, only 2-4 foot waves – a gentle roll and pleasant cruise to Garibaldi.  We passed the communities of Seaside and Cannon Beach where our sons played as children and where I had played as a child.  It seemed strange that I was now one of those boats out at sea!  Beautiful scenic Tillamook Rock & Lighthouse is located in the same area and stood proud as we passed by.  Upon our arrival at Garibaldi, we found favorable conditions to cross the Tillamook Bar, but we did see large ocean swells rolling over the shallows and up against the jetties.  We arrived at Garibaldi around 6:15pm and tied up at the Port of Garibaldi guest dock.  We walked over to the adjacent park just in time to see the “Rail Speeders Club” displaying their rail cars and also saw vintage trains operating on the tracks – a special treat.  Since John had left his car in Garibaldi, we drove to Tillamook the next day and visited the Tillamook Air Museum.  The Museum houses war birds in one of the few remaining World War II blimp hangars in the nation – the largest wooden structures in the world.  It was definitely worth the trip just to see the building!  (1,072 feet long, a height of 192 feet, and 296 feet wide.)  We also visited the Tillamook Cheese Factory and watched the cheese making process and purchased ice cream, yogurt, and of course cheese.  The following day we visited the Garibaldi Museum, a surprisingly nice museum for such a small town.  We enjoyed the excellent displays covering early navigation, the voyages of Captain Gray, and the history of Garibaldi, an important lumber mill town of the 1920’s-30's.  Before John departed for home, we drove out to nearby Cape Meares and hiked the short paved trail to the historic Cape Meares Lighthouse, built in the late 1800’s.  Although we had some fog that day, the views were still breathtaking.

Speeder Car and Vintage Train

Tillamook Air Museum in WWII Blimp Hangar

Blimp Hangar - Wood Construction, Built 1943

Auto Pilot Calibration

Program set up for Deviation Test

One Degree Deviation

During our stay in Astoria, Leonard and I went out in the Columbia River to make donuts/circles with the boat.  Yes, it sounds like a strange thing to do but that’s part of the process required to calibrate the auto pilot.  We had noticed during our run along the Coast that the auto pilot would occasionally drop-out in rough seas; meaning it would switch over from “auto” to “standby,” requiring manual steering.  The display indicated a “calibrate required” message.  We also noticed that the “track” mode would over steer or swing too wide, a symptom of needing calibration.  We were missing the Commissioning Guide and Auto Pilot Manual for the boat so Leonard downloaded the manual from the Ray Marine web site.  He also called Ray Marine Tech Support for assistance.  After describing the problem, Tech Support surmised that the original owner never finished calibrating the auto pilot, which is part of the commissioning process.  The process involves the fluxgate compass, no it’s not like the “flux capacitor,” we’re not going to the Future.  The manual included the steps for calibration and indicated that the deviation should not exceed five degrees.  Step 1) take the boat out and perform a minimum of two slow circles in calm water while the fluxgate compass figures out what the magnetic deviation is and Step 2) steer a compass heading and adjust the electronic fluxgate compass to match the boat’s compass heading.  The fluxgate compass is an electronic compass located away from other electronic and magnetic interference on the boat.  The flux compass on our boat is located under a hatch in the guest state room.  Our challenge of course was to find relatively calm water to make our circles and stay away from that big metal bridge to prevent magnetic interference.  We’re happy to report that the boat’s compass now matches the compass reading on the electronic display.  The true test, however, will come when we are once again at sea in rough conditions.

Compass Heading

Electronic Display Agrees

Fluxgate Compass

Astoria - a Special Place in History

Panoramic View from Astoria Column

The Astoria Column

Beautiful Bas-Relief Friezes 

Wealthy Lifestyle of the 1800's - Flavel Mansion

The Flavel Mansion

We visited several sights of interest in Astoria, including the Astoria Column on Coxcomb Hill.  We climbed 164 steps of a spiral staircase to the observation deck from which we had panoramic views of the Town, River, and Ocean.  The exterior of the Column is decorated with a frieze of 22 significant historic events painted by the Italian artist, Attilo Pusterla, hired for his expertise in a bas-relief technique called sgraffito.  The column is truly outstanding and a surprising find in our part of the world.  The Column was dedicated in 1926 as a Centennial celebration and illustrates Robert Gray in the ship Columbia on the Great River of the West in 1792; and Lewis & Clark who reached the Pacific and established Fort Clatsop in 1805, along with many other historic events of the area.  Since we had visited Fort Clatsop (the replicated log structure encampment of Lewis & Clark) in previous years, we decided to spend our time seeing the Columbia River Maritime Museum.  The Museum is first class and includes information and artifacts about ship wrecks, pilot boats, lightships, and other nautical heritage of the Columbia River and Northwest Coast.  The Museum included a self-guided tour of the 1950 Lightship Columbia, which had a 600,000 candlepower lens.  Lightships were designed to serve as navigation aids by anchoring in one place to mark the entrance of an important river or dangerous reef.  For nearly a century from 1892 until 1979, a lightship marked the entrance to the Columbia River.  We also visited the Flavel House Museum, an 1885 Queen Anne style mansion built for Captain George Flavel, one of Astoria’s influential citizens of the late 1800’s.  The mansion has 14 foot high ceilings, beautiful wood work, and many of the furnishings are original as are the gas-lamp fixtures and bathroom plumbing.  Captain Flavel (1823-1893) was a noted bar pilot on the Columbia River and a prominent businessman.  Pilot boats are used even today.  Pilot boats deliver captains/pilots to cargo ships, who are preparing to enter the bar.  These experienced pilots are familiar with the local waters and bring the cargo ship into port.  On the day we arrived, we saw a pilot boat come out to meet a cargo ship about the same time we had entered the bar; the pilot of the cargo ship quickly got underway and we had to keep to one side of the channel.  Astoria, named after John Jacob Astor (1763-1848), is indeed an interesting place to visit.  Astor established the American Fur Company in 1808 and founded Fort Astoria in 1811, creating the first U.S. community on the Pacific Coast!  A community that played an important role in American history and continues today to play an important role on the Columbia River.  Even cruise ships have discovered Astoria.

The Lightship Columbia - 1950's

A bad day on the Columbia Bar - Pilot Boat

Got d' Fever and Cruise Ship at Astoria

The Columbia River Bar

Beautiful Sky and Calm Seas

Brown Pelicans

Cape Disappointment and Mouth of the Columbia River

After the parade of sport fishing boats had left Grays Harbor, we departed at 8:30am on a beautiful day with gentle 2-4 ft ocean swells, which later flattened to 1 foot seas.  The gentle ride meant we could easily walk about and I could make coffee and a batch of muffins while underway.  The seas were so calm it was hard to believe we were out in the ocean.  The soft breeze and warm sun felt great and even Java went out on the bow to sun herself.  There are always challenges, however, when cruising at sea:  keeping a constant vigil to avoid the many crab pots that line the Coast, timing your arrival to cross sand bars into ports, and dealing with unexpected surprises like your auto pilot dropping its auto steering mode (more about that to come).  We cruised past beautiful Long Beach, the world’s longest beach at 28 miles long and could see Oregon’s Saddle Mountain in the distance.  As we approached Cape Disappointment and the mouth of the Columbia River, we saw Brown Pelicans flying overhead.  We watched as they folded their wings and plunged straight down into the sea to catch their prey (the only pelican species that does so).  We had also noticed numerous Brown Pelicans at Grays Harbor.  They are such pre-historic looking birds with their large beaks and round heads.  Once again, we were positioned for favorable conditions to cross a river bar; this time the notorious Columbia River Bar which has earned the world-wide reputation as the “Graveyard of the Pacific.”  Bars are created from the deposit of sediment as the river meets the ocean; and without the benefit of a river delta, the current is forced through like a fire hose.  The Columbia River Bar is 3 miles wide and 6 miles long with a channel dredged in sections of 55, 48, and 43 feet deep.  Fortunately, our timing was good and the crossing was a piece of cake.  The only challenge was to keep toward the outside of the navigational channel to avoid a large cargo ship moving at 16 knots!  We let this big boy go first and eventually reached the quaint town of Astoria and the lovely Astoria Bridge around 3:55pm.

Letting the Big Boy Go First

Following the Dredged Channel

Beautiful Astoria Bridge

Astoria Bridge connecting Washington and Oregon

Cape Flattery to Grays Harbor



Approaching Cape Flattery & Tatoosh Island

Fuca Pillar at Cape Flattery

Entering Westport Marina in Grays Harbor

We spent three nights at Neah Bay waiting for good sea conditions to round Cape Flattery and head down the Coast.  A good weather window had arrived and we departed at 5:45am on May 5^th for the long 14 hour cruise to Grays Harbor.  “I guess we’re really doing this!”  “Humm let’s see, keep the land on the portside, and the horizon at starboard.”  The weather report called for 5 foot swells eight seconds apart, nothing dangerous but that still meant rocking and rolling the entire way.  After a few hours, we settled into the rhyme and Java found her usual secure corner for a nap.  We were surprised by the variety of conditions at sea – some sections were lumpy, some more smooth, while other sections had the usual ocean swells.  We were also impressed by the dramatic columns of rock along the Washington coast, including Fuca Pillar at Cape Flattery and other “sea stacks” at Cape Alva and the Native village of LaPush.  We cruised about 4 miles off shore along Washington's coast and finally reached Grays Harbor at a favorable time to cross the bar but still encountered some strong current.  We pulled into a slip at the south end of Westport Marina around 7:30pm only to find the dock covered in what appeared to be a scene from “Wild Kingdom.”  After hosing a variety of bird, fish, and shellfish remains off the dock, we finished securing the boat, made dinner and then collapsed into bed.  The following day, we went window shopping and checked out the cute ocean-side shops in historic Westport.  We also visited the Maritime Museum which houses farm equipment for processing cranberries, historic town photos of Westport, and early period rescue equipment for mariners.  The museum building itself served as a “life saving station” in the 1940’s.  A highlight at the museum is the magnificent Lens from the Destruction Island Lighthouse, which is displayed in a separate building on the museum grounds.  The Lens was built in France in 1888 from the design of Augustine Fresnel and was installed in 1891 for the Destruction Island Lighthouse located north of Westport.  The Lens operated until 1995 when it was replaced by an automated device.

Maritime Museum at Westport

Fresnel Lens from Destruction Island Lighthouse

Neah Bay – Makah Country

Neah Bay

Makah Marina

A Sea Lion welcomes us at Makah Marina

Neah Bay is on the Makah Indian Reservation and is the only Native American Tribe with the right to hunt whales guaranteed by treaty and is an active fishing community.  We moored at Makah Marina and were surrounded by fishing boats coming and going throughout the early morning hours and late into the night.  During our stay, we visited the Makah Museum which houses 500 year old artifacts from the Ozette Archaeological Site.  The centuries-old Ozette Village was located 15 miles south of present-day Neah Bay and was buried by a mudslide around 1750, preserving precious artifacts.  Tidal erosion in 1970 exposed Native Longhouses and thousands of artifacts were recovered including tools, clothing, furniture, baskets, weapons, and fishing implements.  Washington State University spent eleven years excavating this archaeological find, perhaps the most significant in North America.  There were five permanent villages within the Makah territory:  the Waatch, Sooes, Deah, Ozette, and Bahaada.  In the early 1800’s these villages were home to upwards of 4,000 Makah.  Today the population at Neah Bay is significantly less - 865 persons with 77 percent Native American.

Cedar Boxes - Makah Museum

Symbolic Art - Makah Museum

Strait of Juan de Fuca

Strait of Juan de Fuca and Olympic Peninsula

Port Angeles

One of many Cargo Ships on Juan de Fuca Strait

We departed Friday Harbor on San Juan Island May 1^st at 12:45 and crossed the Strait of Juan de Fuca.  We had 2-4 foot seas and 7-8 knot winds, a little lumpy but nothing out of the ordinary.  We arrived at 17:30 in Port Angeles, Washington and spent the night at the Boat Haven Marina.  We departed for Neah Bay the next morning at 10:45 and encountered gentle ocean swells almost the entire way.  The only ships in the Strait besides us that day were cargo ships, tugs, the Coast Guard, and a military ship on maneuvers.  After seven hours of motoring, we finally arrived at Neah Bay located on the Olympic Peninsula near the mouth of the Strait of Juan de Fuca – our exit to the Pacific Ocean.    The Strait is approximately 12 miles wide and 90 miles long, named in honor of a Greek sailor, who reputedly explored it for Spain in 1592 in search of the fabled Strait of Anian believed to be the "Northwest Passage" linking the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans.  The English Captain Charles Barkley discovered the Strait in 1787 and named it Juan de Fuca (the Spanish rendering of Loannis Fokas), which today serves as the western boundary between Canada and the United States.  Fuca described the Strait's location at 47 degrees N, which is close to the more accurate 48 degrees North.  Fuca's discovery of the Strait was controversial in its time and continues to be so today.

Coast Guard Station - Port Angeles

A True Yacht Needs a Window Washer! - Port Angeles