Neah Bay to San Francisco - Day 3

Current Position: 43 20.79 N, 124 19.24 W
COG: 175 T
SOG: 6.0 knots
Winds: 20 knots, gusting to 22 knots from the N
Distance traveled from Neah Bay: 331 miles
Distance traveled in last 24 hour run: 131 miles

We arrived at the entrance to the Coos Bay bar at day break. We had been monitoring the VHF radio throughout the night and many of the bars along the Oregon coast had been closed or had restrictions for smaller vessels (less than 26'). We had been concerned that Coos Bay would close down before we could get through. As luck would have it, the Coast Guard came on the radio just at that moment and announced that the bar was open to all but the smaller vessels mentioned above. The wind had been blowing all night at about 22-25 knots and the swell had built to 6' plus, so we knew that this could be a bit tricky.

We turned up into the wind and swell to get our sail down before entering the bar. That in and of itself was challenging, but came off like clock work. We motored forward passing the entrance buoy, identified the range marker on the far shoreline and proceeded into the bar past the jetty where the surf was breaking on both sides as we went in. The swell was running at 6' inside with very short period of about 5 seconds. The good news, was that we were past the bar and up into the channel before we knew it and things settled almost immediately. From that point, the channel narrows and you have to follow the buoys as you proceed to get to the Charleston Marina.

After refueling, we found a spot on the transient docks and made fast. It was 8:30 AM. The flood was running pretty hard at this point (1.7 knots) and it took several attempts to get the boat into a slip. Once in, we noticed that there were a lot of people on the docks with crab pots being put in and pulled out. They would leave them in for only about 5 minutes and then pull them up with a dozen or more crab. It was like shooting fish in a barrel. Unbelievable! I may need to get a crab permit and give it a try later on. Once over our amazement with the crabbing, we quickly got the boat secured and headed to shore for breakfast and showers.

We've decided to lay over here in Coos Bay for two nights to rest and let the weather on the outside settle. Due to his tight schedule, JP, our crew from Port Angeles to Coos Bay, decided that he would leave us and fly home. It was great having him along and hard to imagine doing the passage without the extra hand. We will continue south on Sunday, with the plan to stop again for a quick break in Eureka, about a 180 mile run.

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