Monday, October 5, 1992 - Umpqua River, OR

Leaving Vancouver, Schooner with replica of Indian Canoe
Clear, sunny, and breezy. We took the boat over to the fuel dock and filled the tank and eight jerry cans. Then we took the boat around the corner to Winchester Marina. Got a good end-tie on Dock 5.
This is a good, well-made marina. We have electricity and water. The showers are excellent.
I wanted to paddle up a little stream we'd seen. What I didn't realize was that there was no way to reach the stream from Winchester Bay; I had to paddle over to Salem Harbor. This meant going a short distance on the Umpqua River, where the wind was blowing strong against me and there were white-capped waves. I hugged the shore and made it, but when I reached the stream, I found I couldn't paddle up it at all; it narrowed to almost nothing and became impassable in less than 100 yards. So I blew back to the boat.
We enjoyed long, hot showers and shampoos. We could use all the water we wanted. Cost $1, but it was worth it.
In the evening, we carted the dirty clothes over to the laundromat. It was a nice, clean, new-looking laundromat. So now everything's clean, including us.
Roy talked with a man who watched us crossing the bar yesterday. He said the waves sometimes lifted the boat completely out of the water!

Sunday, October 4, 1992 - Umpqua River, OR

Replica of 19th Century "Lady Washington"
I was on watch around five a.m. when I saw a small light in the distance ahead. I thought it was a small boat two or three miles away. Tried to find it on radar. Finally located it on the 12-mile range. It was a huge freighter 11 miles away! And it was headed directly for us, going 90 to nothing. I immediately altered our course to avoid it, but it still seemed to be coming at us. In no time, it was on the 8-mile range, then the 4, and then the 2. Its lights were glaring right at me. I turned off the auto-pilot, grabbed the wheel, and swung hard to starboard, but the monster seemed to be coming right towards us no matter what I did. There's no feeling quite like being on a sailboat in pitch darkness, going as fast as you can, watching a humungous freighter bearing down on you. But after a few tense minutes, the freighter glided silently by, 3/4 of a mile away. It was going so fast, it had no sooner gone by than it disappeared. And I started breathing again.
The day was sunny, with a northeast breeze. We put out the headsail but used the engine, too. The wind was almost directly in back of us, which made the sail flop around. In the afternoon, the wind kicked up to twenty or more knots, and the waves started getting bigger and topped with whitecaps. We had hoped to make Coos Bay, but it would have been getting dark by the time we got there, so we decided to go into the mouth of the Umpqua River. Ha ha ha. That's like deciding to climb the face of a cliff instead of taking the road around the base. We'd thought the entrance to Gray's Harbor was wild, but it was a picnic compared with the entrance to the Umpqua River. Usually, as soon as you're inside the breakwater, the water flattens out, but here huge waves were breaking inside the breakwater! The wind was up to 30 knots, and 15-foot waves were tossing the Jofian this way and that, up and down, back and forth, side to side. A couple of times we heeled 50 degrees, first one side, then the other. We were very thankful for the solid lead keel; many boats would have flipped completely over. Roy was hanging onto the wheel for dear life, trying to avoid the breakers on our left and the rocks on the right. There wasn't much distance between them. We had range finders to guide us, but it was a real feat of seamanship to keep on course when the boat was sliding this way and that off the tops of the waves. If anything at all had gone wrong -- if the engine had quit or the steering mechanism had failed -- we'd have been smashed helplessly against the rocks. But everything worked perfectly. Jofian took it all in stride; it was all in the day's work for her. After an eternity, we passed the ends of the breakwaters and entered the river. The wind was still howling, but there were no waves to speak of. What a relief! Our mouths were so dry, we both had to drink a glass of water.
There are two marinas here: Winchester Bay and Salmon Harbor. The information we had said sailboats should use Salmon Harbor, so that's where we went. We soon realized we should have gone to Winchester Bay, but at the moment we didn't care. There was plenty of available dock space, so Roy put the engine in neutral and we blew over to the first dock. Boy, did it feel good to walk on solid ground again! We're glad we had the experience of crossing the Umpqua River bar in 30-knot winds, but we wouldn't want to do it again!
We walked around a while and bought a few groceries. As we were passing a small shopping center, a woman hailed us and asked if we knew anything about fixing cars. Her solenoid had hung up and was cranking away. She had phoned her mechanic, and he had advised her to cut the battery cable, so she was out there trying to cut it with a pair of plastic scissors that would have a hard time cutting paper. Roy pulled the cable off with a pair of pliers. The woman was very grateful.

Saturday, October 3, 1992 - On way to Oregon

Totem Pole in Sitka, AK
Movin' right along. By noon, we were abreast the mouth of the Columbia River (but way out). We're out of Washington and into Oregon!
In the morning, we turned off the engine so Roy could change the oil and empty two or three jerry cans into the diesel tank. He did all this with the boat rocking back and forth on the waves. And he didn't make a mess!
Yesterday, near Cape Flattery, two little land birds landed on the boat. They kept trying to fly back to shore, but the wind was too strong. After we rounded the cape, they were able to ride the west wind back.

Friday, October 2, 1992 - on way to Oregon

Finally got away from Neah Bay. We led the parade, but the motor yacht soon passed us.
Completely overcast most of the day. Somewhat foggy in the morning.
Had no problem rounding Cape Flattery, and as soon as we were headed south, we had a good sailing breeze. Put out the headsail, main, and mizzen. For a while, we were able to sail without the engine. That was so neat! No sound but the wind and waves and rush of the bow wake. But then the wind died and we had to turn the engine back on.
Around noon, the engine abruptly quit. We thought the valve had clogged again, but no, this time it was a leaking fuel line. We'd been smelling diesel fumes for a couple of days, but thought they were coming from the jerry cans. As soon as Roy fixed the leak, the engine started right up.
We're just going to keep truckin', day and night, as long as the weather's favorable.

Thursday, October 1, 1992 - Neah Bay, WA

Well, here it is October and we still haven't rounded the cape. But tomorrow, the wind's supposed to change in our favor.
This morning was overcast, damp, and windy. Our anchor was dragging, so we moved forward and lowered the second anchor. Several other boats dragged, too.
The Lady Washington's in here now. In fact, there are a whole bunch of boats waiting to go south.
Forgot to mention yesterday, when we got off the bus, the driver asked if we were senior citizens. When we told him our ages, he was surprised. He said, "You both look a lot younger." That really made our day!
Roy spent most of today working on the generator. Finally got it started at 3:30 in the afternoon. He had to disconnect the stop button, but we can stop it easily by taking the wire off the sparkplug. Sure nice to have microwave-cooked meals again.
I spent most of the day trying to tune the shortwave radio. Finally decided the antenna needs adjusting. Lowest standing wave ratio I could get was 2:1, and that was only on one or two bands. Most of the bands were around 5:1. The standing wave ratio is supposed to be 1.5:1 or lower.
After finishing repairing the generator, Roy went to town to buy a few things. He ran into the husband of the woman we were talking with yesterday and got the rest of the story, or at least the husband's version of the story. They did pay; the husband left a twenty-dollar
bill, which was more than enough to pay for their food, most of which they didn't eat. His wife had ordered a meat dip with cheese. It was brought without cheese, so she complained. The waitress went back and got a cold piece of cheese with the paper still on it and put it on the plate. The woman refused to eat it. Apparently, some heated words were exchanged. Her husband had eaten a bite or two of his hamburger, and the crew member had eaten two or three French fries. The woman had eaten nothing. The husband said, "Let's get out of here." He slammed a twenty-dollar bill down on the table, and the three of them left.
The non-uniformed police captain caught up with them in the grocery store and told the woman she was under arrest. She asked, "What for?" and he said, "For disturbing the peace." Her husband came over and told the captain he was not going to arrest his wife. He's an aeronautical engineer with a million-dollar yacht, so he had no qualms about standing up to a small-town cop. The captain threatened to arrest him for interfering with the duties of a police officer. The engineer told the captain if he wanted to keep his job, he'd better leave them alone. The argument went on and on. The woman was in tears, and a crowd of shoppers had gathered to watch. The captain got nervous and called for backup. Seven officers responded! I didn't know there were that many policemen in the entire area. The captain, who was about 25 years old, looked frightened and ridiculous. One of the officers fetched the waitress from the restaurant, and she admitted they had paid. No one was arrested. The captain told the three to get out of town and stay out, which was fine with them, since they were planning on leaving anyway. The woman took the bus to Seattle, and the two men will take the boat south tomorrow.
There should be a mass exodus out of here in the morning; a dozen or more boats are waiting for the wind to change.

Wednesday, September 30, 1992 - Neah Bay, WA

First thing we discovered this morning was that the bilge pumps weren't working, so Roy spent the morning cleaning the bilge. For-
tunately, that was all that was needed; the pumps were just clogged. They work fine now.
While Roy was doing that, I paddled ashore and bought a few groceries and a book of stamps. Then I paddled around the bay. Went over to the remains of the bridge but got chased away.
We had tried to listen for Ken at ten a.m., but the reception was very poor, and we kept hearing the loud ticking. After lunch, I noticed that the depth sounder was on, and it occurred to me that might be what was causing the ticking. Roy agreed that was a good idea. He turned on the radio and turned off the DC circuit breakers one by one. The ticking wasn't caused by the depth sounder; it was caused by the radar. That makes sense; the radar has to time the beams it sends out, probably by a crystal oscillator, and it's located close to the radio antenna. So now we know how to eliminate the ticking.
We paddled ashore to take the bus to Forks. In spite of my reminder, Roy forgot the chain, lock, and key, so he had to zoom back to the boat and get them.
While we were waiting for the bus, two men and a woman came up and started a conversation. The woman said she had been treated very rudely in the restaurant across the street. They hadn't brought her what she had ordered, so she had refused to pay for it.
When Roy and I got on the bus, we saw the Police Captain's car in front of the restaurant. The captain (?), in jeans and sports shirt, was talking with two waitresses. We surmised the waitresses were complaining about the woman who didn't pay. They looked at me on the bus as if they thought I was the one. (There was a slight resemblance.) Sure enough, the bus had gone a very short distance when it was stopped by the police captain. He got on the bus and asked about the people who had got on at the motel. Another man who had gotten on with us immediately spoke up and said he'd gotten on there and had heard about someone who hadn't paid in the restaurant. We told the captain that the woman and two men had headed towards the general store. He thanked us and left. Methinks that's going to turn out to be an expensive meal.
Enjoyed a pleasant, free ride to Forks. It's about 45 miles each way, the first ten alongside the strait, the rest through woods. It was an unusually warm, almost hot, day. We strolled around Forks for a couple of hours and bought a few things we couldn't get in Neah Bay, including a little camping toaster (non-electric) to use on the propane stove.

Tuesday, September 29, 1992 - Neah Bay, WA

Now that we have nothing to do but wait for the wind to change, we can take care of some of the things we've been putting off.
This morning, we finally checked into the problem with the short-
wave radio. We haven't heard a sound out of it for months. We removed the radio and the tuner from their cubbyholes and saw that the wire that was supposed to connect the two was disconnected! We plugged it in, expecting that to take care of the problem, but to our dismay, we still couldn't hear anything. We checked all the other connections, and they seemed to be fine. Then Roy had the brilliant idea of listening with his earphones. He could hear perfectly! Thinking the speaker wasn't functioning, he pulled out the plug for the earphones. Lo! We could hear the radio loud and clear. Such a simple little thing!
Before the day was over, we had listened to the Voice of America in New York, Family Radio in North Carolina, the BBC in London, the Voice of Italy in Rome, and the Voice of Cuba in Havana. How neat to have a shortwave radio that works!
Of course, all those stations have very powerful transmitters. Communicating with other hams is another matter. At five o'clock, we listened to 3868.5 to see if we could hear Roy's brother Ken, but reception was poor. We kept hearing a loud ticking. Can't figure out what's causing it.
Besides playing with the radio, Roy made some repairs to the boat and we read. We also finally found out what those huge concrete things are at the end of the bay. They're just what they look like: approaches to a bridge. A bridge on I-85 collapsed a few years ago, and the remains were brought here. They'll eventually be used as a breakwater.