Our original trip itinerary was to sail from Port Townsend to San Francisco, without making any stops. But when we got the weather forecast of a big gale blowing up, and realized we were close enough to Newport, Oregon to stay safely out of the storm's way, we high-tailed it in to the Port of Newport marina to hunker down.



Friday morning brought beautiful blue skies...the calm before the storm. We motor sailed towards Newport, along with a bunch of fishing boats all headed for home. Fortunately, crossing the Bar at the Yaquina River was a non-event. Following this fishing boat in the water near the jetty was very calm.



Kirk and Sandy had stopped in Newport on a previous delivery with friends a few years ago and knew just where to go. The Port of Newport marina staff was very friendly and helpful, with a free shuttle-bus to town, and clean facilities. Moorage for a 40' boat only costing $24/night...a bargain! And the showers were also very reasonably priced at $1.50 for 5 minutes, (however the water pressure in the showers was overkill, on par with a firehose!? Yikes!) We'd definitely recommend Newport Marina & RV Park to anyone.



We were safely tied to the dock by noon, greeted by Jana and Ian from another Passport 40, Freya, that had also taken shelter from the impending gale in Newport as well. It's so much fun to see other Passport 40's and get ideas from them on ways to do things differently. We picked up a great idea from Freya for how to stow the spare anchor on the bow pulpit. No more clanging around on the foredeck!

After lunch of cup-of-soup in the cockpit, the first order of business was laundry. With the WET night before, rain + saltwater had drenched everyone and we had two loads of boat towels to wash.



Tikka and Tosh were so happy to finally have the engine off and boat standing stationery for a change. They have both been real troupers so far, faring well on their 1/4-tabs of Bonnine each day, and mostly staying hunkered down in their two nests. Tikka hangs out in the aft cabin, wedged into her carrying case, while Tosh hangs out in his basket, wedged under the salon table.



Mike's parents, who live a couple of hours away, took a road-trip down here to visit, and we all headed over to the Rogue Brewery near the marina for a crew dinner, and to watch the storm roll in. The view was nice, but the food was very mediocre. Still we all had a fun time as evidenced by this photo -- who would have imagined years ago when these fresh-out-of-college software-kids first met that they'd all be sailing to San Francisco together 25+ years later?!



We storm-proofed the boat Friday night after dinner, preparing for the worst. We'd heard forecasts in the marina of anywhere from 40-80 knots of wind predicted. Luckily it was at low-end of that. The storm hit full-on late Friday night and into Saturday morning, with sustained winds from 35-45 knots for hours, and a max gust of 55.9 knots hitting us about 10am on Saturday, but not much rain until Saturday night. Reports from friends back in Seattle sounded like they actually got the brunt of the storm worse than we did.

With gusting winds but no rain on Saturday morning we decided to take a crew hike out to the jetty and sand dunes past the marina to watch the waves crashing. What a difference a day makes, the bar was closed and completely impassable in this wind. You can see breakers crashing over the top of our heads...



Sadly, Sandy had to leave our crew and voyage, as the delays at the beginning of the trip and now three days in Newport had cut his time-frame short. He was able to catch a ride back north with Mike's parents. So we re-arranged our crew watch schedule, and now we'll all be 4 hours on, 4 hours off, with one person coming on watch every 2 hours, and Heidi still doing the cooking on her watches. Sandy is going to be MISSED!

Sunday was spent working on instruments and taking a trip to Nye Beach area of town for some lunch, window shopping and provisioning a bit more fresh food. The weather forecast looks good for heading out mid-day Monday with the high tide, and northwesterlies filling in as we sail south for San Francisco, thankful that John and Mike can continue on with us.

Follow our wake via our SPOT link.

We'll update the blog again from San Francisco! xoxo
Heidi, Kirk, Tosh, Tikka, and crew

Photos courtesy of Heidi, Kirk, Sandy McCrae and Mike Coleman

Tips for Cruisers
Moorage: We stayed at the South Beach Newport City Marina where the staff was nice and friendly. Moorage (as of 8/2015) was 60¢/linear foot. The marina monitors VHF channel 12 or call 541.867.3321.
Showers/Laundry: Card keys were provided at no extra charge for laundry and shower facilities (both coin-op, taking quarters which weren't available at the marina office. Also laundry soap was not available in the laundry room.)
Wifi: Free and included but rather slow being shared with the RV Park as well.
Transportation: Free shuttle bus from marina into town which is about a 2.5 mile walk.
Food: Rogue Ales Brewery is adjacent to the marina and we had high hopes, but the food was very mediocre. Several of the fish restaurants in town had good food.
Fuel: We fueled up at the fuel dock which was very reasonably priced. Because fuel prices fluctuate we won't list that here, but this was some of the cheapest fuel we've ever gotten anywhere.