"Conni, I see flying cars!"
23 June 2011 | Newport, Oregon
Oregon Bill
We're in! We tied up the boat and were in bed by 4 AM: 45 hours from Neah Bay, WA to Newport, Oregon.
It was a fairly rough but uneventful 2 days offshore. The rough weather made sleeping while off-shift a difficult task to accomplish, so when we had tied up the boat and completed the other tasks (boat first, then crew), we gratefully hit the sack and slept until 10 AM. Hey, 6 hours in a non-rocking, quiet bed is quite a gift!
When I say "rough", I mean lumpy seas, very confused, and keeping the boat moving around: up and down, difficult to keep on course. Winds at times were delightful for sailing and others we motored. We completely, and stupidly, drained the port fuel tank that we had filled in Everett, WA. The residual crap in the tank, as inevitably happens, got moved into the primary filter and shut down the engine. Luckily we had sailing wind and as Conni kept us sailing, I jumped below and changed out the primary filter, not an easy task because of all the boat's motion. I was concerned about dropping a tiny piece into the bilge, and fuel filters have a lot of tiny pieces. I also had to bleed the fuel system all the way to the damn injectors. Eventually, I got things running, but we continued to sail.
The entrance into the harbor is well marked, but a bit dicey at night and when one is tired. Conni navigated perfectly and we came in with no problems.
Newport has a beautiful Art Deco bridge (see the site for photos) spanning the opening and as we entered last night, we could see car headlights on the bridge long before we could see the bridge. It did look as if the cars were flying along in an arc across the river.
We're here for R and R, of course, and will get out when we can, weather permitting. Lovely place here with free shuttles, lots of services nearby, and lovely weather. We'll stay until Friday at least. Wifi is free and good so we'll try to contact people and get the site updated. We figure about 600 miles to SF, and we can easily make 125 miles a day. We're thinking that we can make it in less than a week, weather permitting.