Picking up where Kilian left off . . . we had a great time kayaking in Cathlamet. As usual, the tide wasn't advantageous for kayaking, it was a flood tide which was going to make it challenging navigating the sloughs. As we neared the Columbia River we agreed to give it a go -- paddling upriver to return to Cathlamet. With the wind and tide at our back, we surfed the waves UPRIVER, -- what a hoot. It was great fun.

We proceeded on to Astoria, with big wind and chop as we approached. This made for an interesting time with the bow dipping down in to each wave and water splashing over the bow and on to the deck. Wow. Well, it didn't get much better than that for docking with 20 knot winds. Dave pulled it off and we got in without any crises but it was a bit stressful. I've decided I do not like docking in Astoria! We ran into Mr. Kiwi again this year, and he invited us to join him on any of his trips out to the cargo ships. So we all got up early the next morning to join him for a 6:15 service call. We went out to pick up the Captain of a ship who was returning to Greece after 7 months at sea. It was interesting to hear his sea stories, and as always it was fun to join Mr. Kiwi (although this year we had to provide the cookies. :-) ) Immediately upon returning to our boats at 7am, we loaded up and headed towards Ilwaco, hoping to get there before the winds picked up. With the sunny days, Astoria had been experiencing 20-30 knot winds so we hoped to beat the wind. We got to Ilwaco, settled in and then took Chris and Kilian out sailing while Andy and Marcia enjoyed a day on land. We had a great sailing day with perfect (although heavy) winds. Both of the boys got to take the helm and they did a great job.

We returned to Astoria the following morning, enjoyed the Farmer's Market and walking around Astoria. At this point we started receiving news from home about the big fire threatening Bend. Andy and Marcia decided to head home because of the fire, so they left at 5am the next morning and motored for almost 13 hours back to Portland. Chris joined us and we headed upriver to Batwater Station. We sailed all the way from Astoria to Batwater Station (approximately 30 miles), experiencing gusts up to 42.8 knots. Check out the video on this blog to see how fast we were going.

We had a marvelous trip. The scenery and the sailing were wonderful, but it is the company that makes each trip so special. We enjoyed our time with Andy and Marcia Jordan, Chris Nelson, and our exchange Student, Kilian. The weather was beautiful, the sailing was great, and we had no catastrophes (only a couple of near-catastrophes). Another successful Exchange Student Cruise!