Wind still out of the southwest, so even though we'd have liked to spend more time in Westport, we left for La Push. Motored north at 5.5 knots. Fairly calm sea, light breeze, sprinkles.
Without charts and the GPS, we'd never have found La Push. From the sea, it's impossible to tell there's anything vaguely resembling a harbor in here. There was a buoy about four miles from shore. Other than that, all we could see was a high island, a lot of jagged rocks,and the wooded shore. We motored towards land for half an hour or more before we could even see the second buoy. The water around the buoy was full of white foam that looked like surf from a distance, and the buoy looked as if it was almost sitting on the beach. I started getting scared; it looked as if we were going straight into surf that was breaking on the shore. I was glad to turn the helm over to Roy and start getting the lines ready.
After we rounded the second buoy, we could see a green buoy in the distance, marking the narrow entrance to the harbor. Once we got behind the island, the going was easy, but we couldn't see any place to tie up in the marina. I tried to radio the harbor master, but there was no response, so we decided to anchor. Then the Coast Guard came on the radio and asked us our intentions. They advised us not to anchor because of the swift current from the river, so we tied to a wooden wall. But we no sooner got tied than the Coast Guard told us they had contacted the harbor master, and he said we could tie to the fuel dock overnight, so we moved the boat to the fuel dock.
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