Newport!
30 July 2009 | Newport, OR
Heidi
We had wonderful weather for our 1st offshore passage of this trip!
Just as forecast, we had light winds from the north and a gentle swell, also from the north. The best part was NO FOG! After 48 hours out to sea we were approaching our first landfall: Newport, OR. We'd heard and read that it was normally an easy entry and the small coastal town had plenty to offer. We wanted to enter the breakwater about 7:30 am at slack tide to ensure no problems with maneuvering through and things were shaping up well for our time of arrival.
I'd been on watch until about 4 am when Terry took over and I went down for one last bit of rest before our big entry. When I got up an hour later we were completely socked in by the dreaded FOG!
So once again we picked our way in to an unknown harbor using the radar and electronic chart plotters as our guides. And once again the biggest worry were the many small fishing boats heading out for the morning catch.
When we finally made it in we tied up to the guest dock at the Newport Marina and have been thrilled at this nice stop!
Terry wanted to replace a fuel filter gauge that wasn't working properly and we located one at the local marine store -- it was only $5 more than my discounted price would have been at West Marine (if there'd been a West Marine here!). And the best part: they delivered it to the boat since they were located on the other side of the river -- not an easy place for us to get to.
We spent the rest of that first day cleaning up: washing the boat, doing laundry, taking showers and just straightening up. Then we rested, didn't realize how tired we'd gotten until we finally stopped.
So today was a day to enjoy our new back yard. We walked to Fishtail's Cafe, which had come highly recommended by our friends Steve and Kay of Kavenga and we enjoyed a great breakfast tasting the Marionberry French Toast that they'd told us about. Delicious!
On the way home we stopped at the Aquarium and found it to be fascinating -- maybe the best aquarium we've ever been to. When the fog finally broke, we walked out the long breakwater to see the channel we'd come down the day before. It would have been so easy without the fog!
Right now our plans are to stay and enjoy this nice harbor until Saturday
morning when it looks like we'll have a good weather window to continue our trek south. But, if it looks like we need to wait a bit longer for conditions to be right, this will be a fine place to stay a bit longer.