Category: 2018 A Pacific Coast Trip San Francisco Bay To Puget Sound

Friday June 1-3 2018

Trip Distance 71 nm

Since it started raining Sunday we ended up staying at John wayne Marina for three nights from Friday to Sunday.

We got out of Makah Marina at 1100 hours to catch the incoming current to Sequim Bay.  Patty read some good stuff about John Wayne Marina which is run by Port Angeles which is a large commercial port just West of John Wayne.  John Wayne donated the land back in the 60’s to Port Angeles with the requirement that they build a public marina at the site.

On the charts saw something new where you have the normal traffic separation zones in the middle for ships to pass port to port, like cars in the US. On the outside of the normal lanes on the US side you see traffic indicated for starboard to starboard passing zones as you can see in the photo below with the small arrows in the lower left below the normal traffic separation zones for ships.  The NOAA chart notes  barge traffic and fishing vessels pass starboard to starboard in the area.  I followed this and all the small vessels complied to this on past Port Angeles.

We are used to pretty heavy large ship traffic in San Francisco Bay but the shipping channel in the Strait Of Juan de Fuca was very heavy with 300’ or larger ship coming one after the other in the main shipping channel as shown on AIS on our port stern quarter below.

We then had one ship cross our stern as he crossed us as he went in to Port Angeles then another cross our stern as they exited Port Angeles, exciting stuff.

Rules of the road or Chicken 😕

The entrance to Sequim Bay takes a pretty short dog leg to the starboard side with the natural sand spit to port protecting the bay as you go in then to port but is is easy and wide.

We ended up deciding to stay on the outside of the transient dock so we could have a view outside the marina break water.

Forecast was for light winds but even with light NW winds we got a little wind wave action from the entrance from NE.

The marina has very nice green manicured lawns on the 22 acres so is very pleasant and dog friendly with trash cans and doggie bags at the top of the ramp.

At high tide good pebble dog beach. At low tide mud and likely one could dig in the mud for clams and such.  A stream empties right at the junction of marina and beach of RV park.

The next day Saturday we took a short walk past the John wayne RV park at the south end of the marina and up to a short cut across the back of RV park and up along the south side of Sequim Bay along Olympic Discovery Trail.  The trail runs along the shore for many miles on the Olympic Peninsula  along the shore and is a great hiking and bike trail.  The RV park had small spaces parking lot stile but some did have nice view of bay from across road.

 

Sunday things cleared up rains wise and we went back up too Olympic Discovery Trail but this time took a right to head to the City of Sequim to see what is there.

 

Not much at downtown Sequim to look at so just passed through and turned around to go back over trail.

 

 

Sunday-Thursday May 27-30 2018

Trip Distance 87 nm

NOAA PZZ250 Zone Forecast

6NM W Cannon Beach OR

NW wind 10 to 15 kt with gusts to 20 kt. Wind waves NW 3 ft at 5 seconds. W swell 4 ft at 11 seconds. Patchy drizzle in the morning.

This is our next to last leg with a long 110 nm leg from Westport to Neah Bay at the mouth of the Strait of Juan de Fuca.  Got out of Garibaldi Marina at 0600 on our way too South Port Marina.  Only stayed at Garibaldi one night since we have a good weather window and not much to do at Garibaldi.  Was a very nice calm day which turned out to be better than the NOAA forecast.  Feeling lucky with all the good weather we have had for all our legs on the trip so far.  We ended up staying until Thursday at Westport waiting for a good weather window.

We once again came in on the ebb tide at 13:30 so we the swells coming over Westport bar got bunched up and had a fun ride down the back of the waves.

When you enter marina you go down past the fish plant dock on the port side where the guest dock is located, we took a starboard side tie on float-6.

Westport has a large charter fishing fleet on the side we docked at on the North side and also a large fishing fleet mostly on the other south side of the marina.

If you walk to the outside jetty, around the North side of the marina to the entrance the Fisherman’s Boardwalk allows you to view Grays Harbor and the fishing fleet on the North side.

We then took a quick outside tour of the Westport Maritime Museum across form the marina where the dogs enjoyed the nice watered green lawn.  They have a large glass display case so you view exhibits from along the lawn.

On Monday had breakfast at Blue Buoy (good basic breakfast stuff) right across from marina.  We then took a hike over to the viewing tower and then down the paved trail along the South jetty through West Haven State Park to the beach for a dog romp.

 

Thursday May 24-25 2018

Trip Distance 38 nm

Our planned route in OpenCpn is in blue, our actual track of the voyage is in fusia.

NOAA Marine Zone Forecast PZZ255 Marine Zone Forecast

N wind 5 to 10 kt, rising to 10 to 15 kt in the afternoon. Wind waves N 2 ft at 4 seconds. W swell 6 ft at 11 seconds. Secondary swell S 3 ft at 16 seconds. Patchy drizzle in the morning.

Nice short trip was nice after the last few longer ones.

We really enjoyed Newport since there are trails out the beaches on each side of the jetty and also some town walking with shops for Patty.

We almost got stuck in Florence as mentioned in the last blog since the Siuslaw Bar closes almost every day when the current starts going out and the swell steepens and start breaking in the entrance.  We had a 0700 Florence bridge opening but when we heard S/V Tango on channel 22 getting escorted out we got going and mad it out the bar for An uneventfull short trip to Newport  where we arrived at 0100.  We ended up staying two nights where for the first day we hiked out to the beach on the south side of jetty and on the next day hiked over the US 101 bridge to Newport on the North side of river.  The Port Of Newport Marina is the first recreational boaters marina we have seen since we left san Francisco.  The working boats stay across the river to the North at Newport.

It was opening day for Halibut and the cleaning tables where packed with people cleaning fish.

For the hike out to the beach you start on the trail under the south side of the bridge and proceed down the south jetty.

You then can cut over to the left on to the trails through the dunes to get off the road as we did if you like.

Our first evening we checked out the Rogue Brewery. There are also Rogue spirits. This place is a true farm to table organization as they have Rogue farms which grow grains, hops and flavoring veges (ie cucumber gin) and then incorporate into the beer or spirits. Dinner was ok (not great food…go for the beer).

The next morning we took a short walk on the Estuary Trail across from marina to the east and then on over to South Beach for lunch of oysters and Halibut.  Freshest fish we found in Newport.

A little later in the day we walked over the US 101 Bridge to Newport proper.  A bit of a tourist town but is was nice to see a number of fish processing plants along the shoreline along the main drag.

we then took a short walk under the north end of the bridge towards the beach and then turned back to the right up the trial towards the bridge for trip back.

 

Sunday May 20 to Thursday May 24th 2018

Trip Distance 60 nm

Warning:  We found that the Siuislaw bar closes more often than others along the coast and opened only on the after the slack tide incoming current, twice each day.  This is even with nice seas with 3-4’ swell.  With the bridge tender asking for minimum two hour call before opening got dicey having to call bridge tender with bar closed a couple hours before high slack and you just hope the bar opens.

Here is a web page we found will all the bar status that would be a good idea to get closings as you go.

Washington/Oregon Bar Reports (Open or restricted Etc):

https://www.wrh.noaa.gov/pqr/marine/BarObs.php

Fairly short leg to Florence which  we have enjoyed visiting by car so we decided to stop there for a few day’s.  About half way there the starboard stabilizer fin stopped moving the way it should on the TRAC monitor where it just floated around center.  I went ahead and went below to mid-ship space and  pinned the fin to disable it.   Water Dog handles well in moderate seas with one fin so all is well.

Florence is about four miles up from the Siuslaw river entrance and has some nice looking sandy beaches along the starboard side with more development along the port.

We pulled up to the guest dock for a side tie  that’s just past the bridge on the port side of river.

We happened to arrive on Rhody(Rhododendron) day at Florence so they had the fair in town with rides and games as well as the local Harley riders.

Had a great bowl of Crab Chowder at little floating place Novelli’s crab shack … all seafood from their own boat.

Took a walk just north of guest dock where the Port Of Siuslaw office is and their nice RV park.

The people at the port were all super nice.

The next day we want over and got 840 gallons of diesel at $2.28 per gallon, a great price right now.   No high speed pump so took a couple hours to pump but Jasen was very nice to watch the pump for that long.

We went out to dinner one night. Someone had recommended the Firehouse Grill for the best clam chowder. Another local passed by and mentioned the Water Front Depot as the best place to eat. I (Patty) had seen it on yelp as the best restaurant in town so when Alex wanted to divert I said sure. We had a great meal at the bar with an attentive and friendly bartender, Tom. When I asked for good sipping Tequilla he offered one up which was good. He suggested cinnamon instead of salt prior to the tequilla then follow with an orange slice YUM!…. Alex asked for a special drink which Tom made (bourbon or scotch based drink)

 

 

Ended up the starboard stabilizer fin hydrolic cyclinder nut had come loose so the fin was not longer attached to it and was swinging free.  Ended up taking it out to make sure cylinder OK and re-installing Wed.

 

We called for 0700 bridge opening the night before but at 0700 bar was closed so we called to cancel.  We then heard Tango being escorted out by coast guard and called bridge back to open and we where lucky enough because he was still on bridge (we actually ended up going through at our scheduled time of 7am).

Sunday May 13 2018

Bodega Bay To Fort Brag (Noyo Harbor)

Trip Distance 83 nm

This leg of the trip is the first of one of the longer legs so we decided to leave at 05:00 in the dark from Spud Point Marina.  We had our track into  Bodega Bay on OpenCpn which I could follow on the way out.  Murphy’s law hit and our hand held search light went out when we cleared the marina and in the dark went slightly past “R”34 marker and ran aground.  Luckily we were going slow and I was able to back off and get off the ground but it was a bit exciting since could see nothing.  Patty was a real sport and stood on the bow trying to use a flash light to find the markers on the rest of the way out.

Calm flat seas today and we rounded Point Arena with no problems but did have to dodge a lot  of crab pots.  On night trips we cannot see the pots so we keep outside at least the 300’ depth line where the water is usually too deep for pots.  On the way we have noticed pots out too 270’.

Arrived at Fort Bragg (Noyo Harbor) at 13:30 in good shape.

This harbor is for smaller size boats and we fit in but with some effort.

Noyo Harbor is another fishing working harbor, like Spud Point Marina, where not many pleasure boats visit.   Many of the nice older classic wooden fishing boats as well as newer steel hulled ones were in the harbor.

There is not much to do at Noyo Harbor but there is a nice stretch of grass in front of the marine for the dogs to play with the chuck it.

Monday May 14 2018

Monday morning we took a hike out the front of the marina and out to US 101 to the Pomo Bluffs park that is on the ocean on the south side of the entrance to the harbor.  On the way back we stopped at the Harvest Market which is a high end very nice market just outside the marina.

Trip Length 52 Nm, Approximate trip time 6 hours

Saturday morning we got out at 7:00am bound for Bodega Bay for the first leg of trip up coast to the PNW.

Nice day but not perfect conditions with the forecast for 10-20 kt winds with wind waves 3-5 ft and NW swell at 4-6 ft.  Did notice buoy data at Station 46214 – Point Reyes showed wave hights of 14’ but this station is quite a ways out from Point Reyes at 21 nm and should die down a bit by the time we got there.  Made the decision to go since things should be improving later in day according to grib data from Predictwind.

Here is the NOAA forecast that morning:

12NM SW San Francisco CA

Marine Zone Forecast

May 12 NOAA Forecast

NW winds 10 to 20 kt…with gusts to 25 kt this morning. Winds becoming SW 10 to 20 kt in the afternoon. Wind waves 3 to 5 ft. NW swell 4 to 6 ft at 12 seconds. Patchy fog in the afternoon.

Due to swell from NW it was almost too much to take short cut, not use the shipping channel through Bonita Channel but turned out OK to cut across.  Did hit some good wave though cutting through.

When coming across Point Reyes the 3 to 5 ft NW swell was easily 10-14 feet and we pitched heavily until we rounded point and headed toward Bodega Bay which took the waves off our nose and more on our beam which the stabilizers took care of.  Hollie looked a bit sea sick, sea dog Terra just got a little wide eyed.  Patty took a meclizine sea sickness pill at this point, I had taken one at Bonita channel crossing.

The winds clocked around to the SW which helped push us to 9-10 knot speed for final leg in too Bodega Bay Spud Point Marina when we docked at end of C dock at 1:30pm.

Spud point is mostly a working fishing boat marina with many very nice old wooden fishing boats.

Week end guy at Spud Point Marina was very nice and too good care of us.  If no one in office just look for a guy/girl in a blue uniform and ask to check in.

That afternoon for Lunch we got white clam chowder st the Spud Point Crab Co across from the Spud Point Marina office, amazing stuff.  We went back the next day for another bowl each it was so good.

Saturday May 12

Got going on our hike for the day walking down the back road just outside the main road circling the North end of Bodega Bay to go in too town across the bay on the east side from marina.  Plan was to walk to town and then do a dune walk on the way back.

We passed the other small marina and bay side RV Park on the way.  RV park has small spaces and looks like it used mostly by people fishing.

On the way back via the same route we cut through the Bodega Bay camp ground in the woods too find a path to the dunes to the west.  Really nice looking camp ground for an RV or camper.