Neah Bay (Makah Marina) To Sequim Bay (John Wayne Marina)

Friday June 1-3 2018

Trip Distance 71 nm

Neah Bay To Sequim Bay

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.

Strait Juan Defuca Traffic Seperation Zones

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.

Strait Juan DeFuca Traffic

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.

Stern Crossing Ship In To Port Angeles
Stern Crossing Ship Out Of  Port Angeles

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.

Sequim Bay Entrance

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

Water Dog At John Wayne Marina
Water Dog At John Wayne Marina

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.

John Wayne Marina Park

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.

 

John Wayne RV Park
Olympic Discovery Trail South Left Side 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.

 

Patty At Start Olympic Discovery Trail North To Sequim

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

Sequim Down Town

 

 

Westport To Neah Bay Makah Marina

Thursday May 31 2018

Trip Distance 104 nm

NOAA Marine Forecast

Today NW wind 5 to 15 kt. Wind waves 2 ft or less. W swell 4 ft at 9 seconds. A slight chance of showers in the afternoon.

Westport To Neah Bay

 

Got out of Newport Marina by 05:30 for an early start on our longest leg for a day trip, we did the longest 160 nm leg over night to Crescent City.  We arrived at Neah Bay Makah Marina at 19:00.

Had a pretty rough ride for the exit out the harbor since we had the ebb tide going out.  Don’t ever underestimate what can happen on these bars when you cross even on a nice day like we had where the combo of 2’ wind waves with 4’ swell really rocked and rolled us even on a 58’ well found boat.

The rest of the ride was fairly smooth with just some small somewhat rough patches.

Sun came out by 0900 and we had some nice views of the Washington coast on the way up.

Washington Coast Deception Island
Washington Coast
Washington Coast Deception Island Light House

Around 13:50 Patty spotted 7-8 whale spouts off the port side so we got a few decent views of whales but they stayed pretty far off.

Whale Body
Whale Spouts
Whale Tale

Arrived at Cape Flattery around 17:00 and got some good views of the Light House and rocks on our way by.

Cape Flattery Light House
Cape Flattery
Duntze And Duncan Rocks
Duntze And Duncan Rocks
Neah Bay Break Water

The next day we took a short walk around the Makah Mari and played a little chuck it with the dog’s before we left for John Wayne Marina for our next stop.

Water Dog At Makah Marrina
Neah Bay First Eagle
Terra Approving Makah Marina Land Fall
Patty Dog Chuck It At Makaht Rv Park

Garibaldi to Westport

Sunday-Thursday May 27-30 2018

Trip Distance 87 nm

Girabaldi To Westport Track

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.

Garibaldi To Westport Nice Day

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.

Westport Bar Breakers

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.

Water Dog Starboard Tie Guest Dock Westport Marina
Water Dog Westport Marina

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.

West Port Marina Charter Fleet

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.

Fishermans Boardwalk Fishing Fleet

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.

Museum Outdoor Display
West Port Museum

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.

Westport Dogs At Beach
West Port Beach LightHouse Trail Ride
West Haven State Park

 

Newport to Garibaldi (in Tillamook Bay)

Saturday May 26 2018

Trip Distance 61 nm

NewPort To Garbaldi

Left very early in morning, lots of fishing boats going out to dodge but calm seas. Had  lovely cruise up the coast with flat water

Mad rush of fishing boats for Halibut
Three arch rocks


Patty was disappointed by how much clear cutting is done. No one likely sees it except the few cruising up the coast. Still it was a great cruising day with sun shining, good weather and nice coastline.

Big Product in Oregon is Lumber, Clearcutting is product of that

Entering Garibaldi (harbor is about 2miles inside Tillamook bay we found that since Memorial Day Week the transient dock we planned to stay at was full of small fishing boats. We ended up tying up at the only dock free and once we walked up found out it was the local fish market dock and they were happy to let us stay for $30, good news since we where not sure what we where going to do.  Had a short one night stay. We checked out a Myrtlewood factory, walked the dogs, had dinner at the towns top rated cafe (wonderful crab melts) and then early to bed for the early wake up needed for next jump up the coast to Westport (in Gray’s harbor Washington).

Approach to Tillamook bay
Breaking swells at jetty tip

Tides are big up here, ie 9 foot in Tillamook. Currents are also big. We arrived at Tillamook at wrong time with outgoing time (can make swells big over the bar and also slow you down). Such a strong tide there were visible rapids.

Rapids! Means shallow water…twas out of channel
Nice view from tie up at Garibaldi
Garibaldi tis a small quaint harbor
Ended up at the fish market dock since transient dock was full of small fishing boats
Transient dock full. We tied up at the fish market Across From Guest Dock In Foreground
Myrtle Wood Store

Florence To Newport

Thursday May 24-25 2018

Trip Distance 38 nm

Florence To Newport Track

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.

Dogs roughing It On Trip
Terra At Land Fall
Port Of Newport Marina/RV Park
Water Dog At Port Of Newport Marina/RV Park

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

Cleaning Halibut

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.

Dune Walk Looking Back At Bridge
Start Of Beach Hike Under Bridge

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.

Patty And Dogs At Beach
Dune Walk Looking Back At Bridge
Trail On Dune Walk
Trail On Dune Walk

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).

Alex in brewery
Entrance to brewery

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.

Yaquina Bay Estuary Trail
South Beach Market Lunch
Yaquina Bay Estuary Trail
South Beach Market Lunch

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.

Water Dog In Marina From Bridge
Bridge From North Side
Alex on Bridge

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.

North Side Beach Trail
One Of the Newport Fish Plants
Coast Guard Station
Down Town Newport Working Harbor
One Of the Newport Fish Plants

 

Bandon To Florence (Port Of Siuslaw)

Sunday May 20 to Thursday May 24th 2018

Trip Distance 60 nm

Bandon To Florence

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.

Holly on bow river watch for shallow water
Bridge opening over Siuslaw River

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

Water Dog At Florence Dock

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.

Down Town Florence Rhody Day
Patty At Fair

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

Novelli’s Crab Shack

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.

Florence Marina And Rv Park Office To The Left

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.

Florence Gas Dock Jasen Helping

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.

Starboard Stabilizer Fin Repair

 

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).

Passing S/V Tango Outside Bar
Siuslaw USCG Standing By just inside the Bar

Crescent City CA to Bandon OR

Friday May 18 2018

Trip Distance 96 nm

Crescenr City To Bandon

The route we set down is in blue our actual track in fuscia.  When we have good weather we will stay more inland to make our route shorter to save time and see the coast which is nice to see the sites as we pass.  As you can see we cut inside our route since it was such a nice sea day.

Left for Bandon, OR Friday May 18th.  Bandon is a small town just inside the entrance to the Coquille River. The town is so small the coast guard station is seasonal and did not open until after Memorial Day weekend so we were on our own to cross the bar (we do always refer to the most recent Coast Pilot NOAA publication).  We did call a sports fisherman in town to ask if there was any special local knowledge we should know. Other than staying south side of entrance he said nothing special.

Approach to Bandon

Stayed at Bandon two nights. The first night we had dinner at Tony’s crab shack. Had dungenous crab which was good but kind of pricey for a tiny crab. The next day we walked to the hardware store for some compression fitting to fix air horn. Then we went to Bandon Beach and Bandon rocks for a fun walk.  Face rock sort of looks like a head facing up from the water and there is an legend about a princess that was lured into the ocean by an evil spirit and she disappeared to surface as “face rock”.  Great walk on the beach with dogs having fun. Bought some fresh caught Halibut from the fish market and had that for dinner. Plan to head for Florence OR the following day.

Possibly face rock in the back ground.

 

Noyo Harbor (Fort Bragg) to Crescent City

We left Noyo Harbor with no problems. Nice clear, sunny, beautiful and calm day. Departed around 2pm with plan to run overnight past Cape Mendocino to get to Crescent City, CA.

Twas a very nice afternoon. Saw a pod of dolphins feeding and some left the feast to ride our wave. With us they tend to ride our side wave from the displacement hull vs the bow wave.

View of coastline
Far in the distance is Cape Mendocino
Frolicking Dolphins
Feeding

We did the overnight with 3 hour alternating shifts. I did 8-11, Alex 11pm to 2am, then me 2-5 AM. Neither of us got much sleep so we were tired upon arrival. Sunset was around 8:30 pm, nice.

Sunset just south of Cape Mendocino. Calm sea with mild swells. Sunset was around 8:30pm, getting into long days.

Arriving at Crescent City it was overcast but clear. Entered into harbor without any problems, stopped at check in dock and fortunately harbor mistress was there at 7:30 am, our time of arrival. We were assigned a slip with the fishing boats.  We took a lovely long beach walk on Crescent City Beach

Crescent City, a working port with lots of fishing boats.
Crescent City beach, at south end we entered the northern end of Redwood National and State park.

Happy Dogs!
Crescent City SeaQuake Brewing Company

We stayed two nights at Crescent City. 2nd day, after a good night sleep, we walked north from Marina to town. Nice waterfront park. Also north coast Marine Mammal Center, a lighthouse and a brewery. Stopped at Seaquake brewery and got a flight of their beers in honor of Albert 🙂 .  They make  all their own beers at had a wide selection of their IPA’s in our beer flight.

Beer Flight, I tasted the dark and they were good!
Battery Point Lighthouse
Walking Bridge From Marina To Down Town Crescent City

We caught a fleeting glimpse of what looked like a Sasquatch on the hill outside town but by the time we got closer it was gone, photo is with tele-photo lens so we where a ways away when picture taken.

Sasquatch?

Bodega Bay To Fort Bragg (Noyo Harbor)

Sunday May 13 2018

Bodega Bay To Fort Brag (Noyo Harbor)

Trip Distance 83 nm

Bodega Bay To Fort Brag

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’.

Annoying Crab Traps
Point Arena

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 Entrance

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.

Noyo Harbor Marina
Water Dog At Noyo Harbor Marina

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.

Patty/Dogs In Front Of Marina

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.

Patty/Dog’s Pomo Bluffs
Pomo Bluffs Sign Off US 101
Pomo Bluffs

San Francisco To Bodega Bay

Trip Length 52 Nm, Approximate trip time 6 hours

San Francisco To Bodega Bay

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

Under Golden Gate Bridge On Way Out Bay

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.

Crossing Point Reyes

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.

Bodega Bay Entrance
Water Dog At End Tie Spud Point Marina
Spud Point Dock Fishing Boats
Spud Point Marina Office

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.

Spud Point Crab Co

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.

Patty And Dogs Bodega Bay Walk Back Road

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.

Bodega Bay Camp Ground
Bodega Bay Dunes Behind Marina
Bodega Bay Dunes
Bodega Bay Dunes
Bodega Bay Dunes