Made an unexpected stop today in Astoria, OR and will leave maybe Sunday. Have always talked about coming in here with the sailboat but really never thought we would. It's the first time we've ever been in a river with the boat!

The stop was unexpected due to weather, sustained south winds of 27 knots with gusts over 35, sea and swell combined of 12 feet with large breakers. Something you would like if you surfed (the boat did well, even heeled 45 degrees a number of times, and more importantly came back up).

During the previous night we'd made good time until 3 a.m. when every hour the wind increased we lost a knot of boat speed, in fact we passed Astoria in the early hours of the morning, but by early afternoon our speed was less than 3 knots an hour. We contemplated just sticking it out for two more days as the forecast calls for the same tomorrow and Saturday but decided we would head back to Astoria since we had the option. It was an interesting trip back. We took 1 hour shifts steering the boat as "Ray" the autopilot couldn't hold a line to kill himself! I think we may hurt tomorrow. Docked around 8:00 p.m. to find that the keel will be settling into the bottom of the dredged harbor due to its shallow depth, again something new we've never done!

Winona, the cat, looked like she wanted to jump ship when we docked, in fact I believe she may mutiny the next time the motor starts and the wind blows.