Another Great Adventure For Beachcomber and Crew!

[Gofirstclass]

In a thread I posted a few weeks ago http://clubsearay.com/showthread.php/52682-Building-Good-Karma?highlight=Blues I outlined a trip we were going to take down to Portland, OR to attend the Blues Festival. We took the trip, and here's the story of our adventure.

Three other guys and I left our slip on 6/30 at 6:30 to head out. Our plan for the 220 mile trip down the Columbia to Portland was to do it in two days. It involved going through four locks and we planned on overnighting in The Dalles, OR. As it turned out we made a lot better time than we'd hoped for, plus one lockmaster let us go through earlier than the scheduled time, so we were able to make an extra 25 miles that day and stopped at Hood River. Here's the tale of the trip...

Wow. That's about all I can say about this trip. Everything has gone so well it's almost scary. We were scheduled to leave at 0630 and everyone showed up a bit early. I went through my pre-cruise briefing and that cost us a few minutes but we made up the lost time because we had the current pushing us along faster than I'd figured.

Here's a shot of me and "the crew" before we shoved off. From left to right are Rob, Jack, Bill and yours truly..

I pulled the boat out of the slip and called the railroad bridge to see when we could get the bridge raised. They got it right up so there was no delay. One thing that went right! Rob took over the driving duties and ended up driving most of the way to Portland. Here we are getting ready to head under the bridge...

I have nicknamed Jack "Inspector Gadget". He was on his iphone A LOT during the trip. Here he's showing Rob his navigation software on the phone and comparing it to the GPS display on the boat. The boat's display won.

We hadn't gone 15 miles before we ran into some waves and winds. We were only moving about 12kts (speed over ground with the help of a 3.5kt current pushing us) but were kicking up some great spray. This happened over several stretches of the river. More about that later. In this picture you can see where the river bends to the right. Once we got around that bend things calmed down a bit.

Here's a wake shot after we'd rounded the bend in the river and things have calmed down.

Then we got a few miles further and the water was like glass. In preparation for going through the locks and having to set out the fenders, I had everyone practice tying clove hitches. I don't use fender clips to tie fenders on because they have a habit of breaking when you least need that to happen. Check out how calm the river is...

More of the glassy water as we approached the lock....

As we got closer to the first lock we came across one of Paul Allen's boats, Meduse, tied up alongside the Port of Umatilla dock. We didn't see Paul, but his chopper was on the boat. More on that later and a side story about "money talks".

Here we are about to enter the McNary Lock. I've been through there three times coming upstream but never had passed through going downstream. As you can see, there's zero wind but lots of tumbleweeds and other debris floating on the top.

Here's a shot of Rob (left) and Jack doing line duty on the bollard as we're headed down....

Here's a shot looking at the downstream end of the lock as we're starting our descent...

 

[Tonka Boater]

Awesome....look forward to the rest of the story.

 

[Carpedmman]

This write up is fantastic Mike! I enjoyed hooking up with you and GW down in Portland. Too bad we didn't get a show of us for the CSR crew!
Thought of that later...
I look forward to the next photos!

 

[Gofirstclass]

This is really becoming a PITA. Every time I try to load pics the software freezes up at the point where I try to get pics from my computer, so I'm going to try it a different way.

The first day, because we had a nice 4kt current pushing us along plus a nice lockmaster at John Day Dam who let us go through 1.5 hours ahead of the scheduled lock time, we made it 25 miles further than we'd planned. We overnighted at Hood River, OR instead of The Dalles. Here's what Sunday's weather looked like after we headed out of Hood River.

Here are some pics of the scenery in the Columbia Gorge....

As we got closer to Bonneville Dam, the last of four we had to pass through, we realized we were behind a tug. Commercial vessels have the right of way over recreational vessels, so we slowed down. I called the lockmaster on the radio and told him we'd like to pass through after the tug. He suggested we tie up at Cascade Lock Marina and wait there rather than just idle around in the river (the wait could have been an hour or more). So we did, and here are some pics we took there....

This is the "Columbia Gorge" sternwheeler that gives tours up and down the river, and the four of us at the marina...

Here is a shot of the downstream gate at Bonneville as they were opening it. They usually let the water level inside the lock even out with the level outside, but in this case they opened it just a bit early and there was quite a flow out of the lock.

This shot is of one of the bouys and shows what the current was...

Multnomah Falls....

More scenery...

 

[Gofirstclass]

We got into Portland Sunday afternoon around 3:00 and stopped at Columbia River Yacht Club to fuel up. We were going to spend the night there before heading up to Riverplace Marina. After dinner two of the crew jumped on the AMTRAK back to the Tri Cities and Bill and I stayed on the boat. We left Monday morning from CRYC to head 4 miles down the Columbia then 10 miles up the Willammette River to Riverplace.

On Day 3 before we pulled out of CRYC I went in search of a bolt to replace one that had come unscrewed out of the aft bimini hardware. They didn't have one at CRYC but the club manager loaned us his Lexus to run down the road to a chandlery where I got two of them....one for a spare. That act of kindness puts CRYC in the top category of great clubs. Thanks Richard!

We pulled out around 10:00 and started the 4 mile cruise down the Columbia to where the Wilammette empties into it. We lowered the VHF antennas before we passed beneath the I-5 freeway bridge because it just looked a little too close for comfort. After passing that bridge we came across a shining example of our tax dollars at work.

Here's a shot of a Corps of Engineers aluminum catamaran boat that probably cost all of us a couple mill or more...

A bit further down the Columbia we came to the headquarters of Tidewater Barge Company, one of the larger barge outfits in the PNW. Here are the tugs that weren't currently in use at that time...

So we turned up the Willammette for the ~10 mile trip to the marina where we're spending the week. It was prettyh uneventful until we were approaching the St. John's Bridge...

As we got closer to it we saw a sheriff's boat with its blue lights flashing. When we drew abreast of it we could see they were dragging something in the water. We couldn't tell what it was but a close examination of the photo showed it to be a body. UGH! Probably a jumper off the bridge.

Just after we passed it a fireboat passed by us on the way down there, then it stopped by the sheriff's boat.

I didn't get a lot of pics from that point on until the marina because of river traffic and having to navigate beneath 7 bridges, one of which we had to call them on the phone and ask them to raise it for us.

We got to the marina around 11:00 and I called them on the phone to let them know we were close. By the time I got into the marina there were two guys standing there to assist us. This marina (Riverplace Marina) is really a first class operation.

During the course of our stay I'll take a bunch of pics of the boats here, the floating restaurant and the surrounding area. I did get quite a few videos of the trip but it takes forever to upload them so it might be a couple of days before I get them posted.

 

[Gofirstclass]

So we got into the marina in downtown Portland in good shape. Riverplace Marina is another first class outfit. The marina manager and his assistant were there to help us get in and tied up. We had 50A/240V and 50A/120V power, water and all the comforts of home. We had the rest of Monday and all day Tuesday to just goof off and look around Portland before the festival started. My Galley Wench had ridden down to Portland with Bill's wife (they have a condo right above Riverplace Marina) so after the two gals got there we did some exploring.

Then it was July 4th, and the fun really got started. I had gotten up early to decorate the boat for the holiday and here's what it looked like...

Can ya tell I have a patriotic streak????

We started out in the morning to watch the music and performers and the crowd. This entire area was packed, even that early. The sun was out nice and bright, no clouds or wind, and everyone was ready for a good time. We made our way through the crowds and met up with Bill and his wife, then Don and his girlfriend, then headed over to the VIP tent to get some lunch. The backstage passes Don arranged for us are awesome. They got us into the free lunch area (and lunch and dinner from here on out) and side stage seating for some of the music.

To say that the place was packed with boats would be an understatement. The docks were rafted up two and three deep, and the area in front of the bowl where the music was going on was pretty full. Boaters show up 2 weeks early to anchor their boats in prime locations, then dinghy back to their marinas.

I don't know if this pic will load right, but here's a panorama shot I made of the boats...

The music was non-stop all day and I really enjoyed it, but I'm a people watcher and this was a place to watch people. I wish I could show you all the pics I took of "interesting" people who were there yesterday, but there ain't that much room on BABC's computers.
Here's a shot from one of the side stage areas we watched from...

and a shot of the crowd...

By late afternoon we were all pooped and we knew we wanted to be back to watch Curtis Salgado's performance, so we all separated and we headed back to the boat for a nap and some time to relax. About 7:30 we headed back to the music area and watched more of it and it was every bit as good as I expected. Around 9:00 two tugs brought the fireworks barges into position on the river....

I'm like a little kid when it comes to watching fireworks and I had to get some chairs set up on the dock before they started so around 9:30 we headed back to the boat. We ended up with about a dozen people on board to watch fireworks and I have to say, this was the biggest, loudest, brightest fireworks show I've ever had the pleasure to watch. It started right on schedule at 10:00 and ran for about 45 minutes. What a show. They had anchored the barges directly in front of our slip and the fireworks were going off almost right above the boat. Sorry, no pics because pics of fireworks just don't do them justice.

After the fireworks the party on the boat and on the dock continued until about 11:30 when the others left. GW and I were beat so we didn't even clean up last night, we just hit the sack.
We were back at it early the next morning for another full day of music, food, drink, people watching. Then another day on Friday, another on Saturday and the final day on Sunday. I'm not sure this tired ol' body can last that long, but I'll give it a helluva try!

I just wish all of you could be here to enjoy the show with us. We definitely are "Living The Dream" this week.

 

[Gofirstclass]

Well I'm two inches shorter today than the day before. GW walked my poor legs of on a whirlwind shopping tour of downtown Portland. Portland has about 32,000 miles of streets and I think we walked 25,000 of those miles. OUCH!

I came back to the boat and grabbed a nap before we headed out for the afternoon/evening music. There were a couple of highlights in the band selections so far. Curtis Salgado put on a great show, and Booker T was magnificent. I really liked Booker T because it was a lot of music from my generation (back in the wagon train days!!!).

After Booker T we walked over to hear a separate stage to hear some harmonica playing. We like it, but a little goes a long way so we didn't say long. From there we headed to a Country Western Revival for awhile. The music isn't really our style but it was fun watching the couples on the dance floor doing the two-step.

Then it was back to the boat for some down time before hitting the sack around 11:00.
Here's a few pics I shot of the boats...
If money were no object, I'd be all over a Marlow Explorer. This guy came in and docked right across from us...

This guy cruised past but didn't stop...

These dragon boats have been going in and out all day long...
[

Here's a shot of a very nice Hinkley that came in during the day...

And last but not least, here's a shot of Mount Hood...

So far this trip has been great. We've wined and dined, listened to some great musicians, seen some beautiful boats and enjoyed great weather. It looks like it's going to be more of the same for the rest of the week.

Friday night we did a couple hour cruise down the Willammette and back. We're taking out some people from the Grand Ronde Indian Tribe as a favor to Don, the man who arranged our backstage passes. The Grand Ronde Tribe is a new sponsor of the Blues Festival this year and they antied up $25K to sponsor the fireworks show. The least I can do to pay them back for a wonderful show is to take them on a litte boat tour.

I have pics of that and will post them later. I'm headed to the club for the usual Friday nite BBQ.

 

[Sadler]

Very nice write up! The pictures were awesome. Thanks for posting.

 

[AMFM3]

Mike...great pics of an abviously great adventure! At least now I'll recognize you next week when I'm looking for you in the bar at The Eldorado!

Im looking forward to showing you and GW the sites on Okanagan Lake.

Mark

 

[Gofirstclass]

There's more pics to come, I just ran out of time to get them posted. I'll try tomorrow.

GFC

 

[Pack66Dad]

Makes me smile to see how much fun you are having. Thank you for sharing!

 

[copb8tx]

What a great adventure. I love it when people get to use their boats as God and Sea Ray intended. Keep up the great story.

Thanks!

 

[Gofirstclass]

As I said before, yesterday GW and Laura (Bill's wife) dragged me (fighting and kicking) to the Saturday Market. I took a few photos along the way and after we got back here...
A beautiful 1956(?) Buick Caballero that was parked in front of a hotel at the music festival. This thing was drop dead gorgeous. If I owned it I don't think I'd have walked away from it without posting an armed guard.

A "tin man" doing statue poses and playing with his balls at the festival...

At the market they have all kinds of masseuses, palm readers, fortune tellers, etc. This gal was enjoying her massage and the masseur was enjoying a nice view...(Note to self: Find out how much I would have to pay for a job like that!)

Another "tin man"...

A self portrait after all the walking the girls made me do....

Now THIS is the way to travel...tucked in between two nice sized safety straps. (HA, I bet you thought I was going to say something else, didn't you!)

We went to breakfast with two friends Sunday morning and were back at the boat for a little down time before we head back up to listen to the music.
This sure has been a fun week!

 

[Gofirstclass]

Here are some more random pics from the Festival. By way of an FYI, Portland has had an unofficial compaign to "Keep Portland Wierd" and it's something they're quite proud of. With that in mind, here are a few pics, some of which go along with that theme....

I have tons more pics from the Festival and the other places/sights we saw in Portland, but that pretty much shows what we saw. The weather was absolutely perfect, even on the reallly hot days. A few impressions I had of the festival would have to include....
--things ran like clockwork. If a band was supposed to pay from 7:00p.m. to 8:30p.m. they started exactly at 7:00 and ended promptly at 8:30.
--there were 2300 volunteers at the festival. It couldn't run without them and they were all very nice, very friendly, and quick to answer questions we asked of them.
--everyone was in a good mood. We saw only a handful of people who got too drunk or too unruly, and they were quickly escorted out by the security staff.

The Waterfront Blues Festival is put on to benefit the Oregon Food Bank, which services all of Oregon and the Vancouver, WA area. The suggested admission was $10/day plus 2 cans of food per day.
--Over $900,000 in cash was raised along with almost 60,000 pounds of food. That will feed a lot of hungry people.
--The festival was packed on July 4th and people were turned away because the fire marshall put a limit on the crowd and felt it had reached the limit.
--On the Sunday when the festival ended, the headliner band was Steve Miller Band. That was the only other day the fire marshall ordered the gates closed, and I could see why. The crowd was HUGE! We were able to get in because of our backstage passes even after the gates were closed and I'd estimate there were thousands of people who could not get in. Fortunately even those who couldn't get in could still hear the music from outside the fences.

 

[Gofirstclass]

GW and I decided to stay at Riverplace Marina through to Monday morning. We had originally planned on leaving Sunday after the Steve Miller concert but with many of the rafted boats pulling out then, and knowing that many of them had been drinking throughout the day, we decided we didn't want to be part of that mess.

We pulled out Monday around 9:00, planning on stopping at CYRC to top off the tanks before heading up river. We got to Bonneville lock at noon and locked through with no problem, then pulled out and headed toward The Dalles. As we passed Cascade Locks we heard conversation on the VHF between a Ranger Rescue boat and the control room at Bonneville about a capsized sailboat and people in the water. We had passed through the area where the boat was supposed to be so we radioed back to the rescue boat and told them we hadn't seen anything like that.

As we continued upriver the wind switched from a light breeze on our stern to a strong wind from the port side. The waves got bigger and bigger and the winds kept growing. The lockmaster at Bonneville made a comment to us as we were leaving to "be careful out there, it's like an ocean." I now knew what he meant. We were running in about a 5'-6' wave area with crests about 30' apart. I was busy at the helm so didn't take any photos, but I did have the video camera running and ended up with a great video. Unfortunately it's 30 minutes long and would take me days to upload it with my slow internet connection speed.

We were running on plane through that because we needed to make it from Bonneville to The Dalles before dark. The Dalles marina isn't the easiest place to get into, and I didn't want to be running in this kind of sea after dark. It's a 45 mile run from Bonneville Dam to The Dalles which normally would take us about 2 hours on plane. With us fighting against a ~4kt current that turned it into a 3 hour trip.

As we proceeded up river the winds kept picking up and the 5'-6' waves continued and in some areas got a bit over 6'. The wind was still on the port side and we had huge amounts of spray and sheets of water blowing up on the flybirdge windows. Between the wind and the water blowing on the windows it was enough to pull one of the large plastic zippers apart. I wish you could all see the video because it's pretty awesome to watch. I learned one valuable lesson though--when running in water like that it's important that I make sure the forward hatch is closed. Yup, we took in enough spray that it soaked the bedding on the forward berth. About 20 minutes into our run through those waves I noticed that it was open and GW went below to close it. More on that later.

As we got further up river the wind switched 180* and was now blowing from our stbd side. The large waves and blown spray continued. The boat was doing well in those waves and the video shows only a minor amount of bow rise. The only real problem I could see was fuel consumption. With running into those waves and against the current I could see on the gauges that we were using a LOT of fuel.

We ended up getting into the area of Hood River around 3:00. That stretch of the river is known as the Windsurfer Capital of The World, and for good reasons. When we came through there were hundreds of wind surfers and sail boards out there. They like to play chicken with boats so that gave us one more thing to watch for as we fought the waves and wind. We got through there without turning any of them into fish chum and continued on to The Dalles.

When we arrived at The Dalles I slowed down when we entered the area where the river narrows from about 3/4 mile across to 1/10 mile across. That area is ALWAYS rough, usually rougher than the wider areas of the river. As we went through there, the waves were about the same height but the crests were much closer together so the waves were a lot steeper. At one point one wave swung the bow about 60* to port. I turned the wheel and gave full throttle to the stbd engine, but the boat heeled over about 30*-40* before I could get it back on track. GW gave out a little shreek as she thought we were going to capsize. I wasn't worried about that, but we were heading towards the shore and the shore is all rocks. The bow finally came back around and we continued on our course.

When we got to The Dalles marina there were four boats in there from CRYC. The wind was still blowing about 30kts so they helped me as I backed the boat into a slip against the wind and we got tied up. I don't recall ever being so glad to be surely in a slip.

We dragged all the wet bedding out to the cockpit. Between the high wind and the 90*+ temperatures it didn't take long at all for things to dry. I think it took less time for them to dry than it did for GW's anxiety level to come down. After a few margaritas for me and glasses of wine for GW, we were able to settle down and fix the last of the salmon filets for dinner.

 

[Gofirstclass]

The next morning was another beautiful one, and the winds had died down during the night (THANK GOD!!!). The four boats from CRYC were planning on going through the lock at 0900 so I topped off the water tanks and joined them as they were entering the lock. Those four boats included a very pretty ~65'-70' Bertram and a ~37' Hatteras, along with two 45' Bayliners. We all went into the lock in single file and found a strong wind blowing into the lock. GW and I were the last to enter the lock but the first to be able to radio in that we were secured on a bollard (GOOD JOB GW!!!).

Here are some pics of the passage through The Dalles Dam with the boats from CRYC...
The Hatteras...

The Bertram...

Heading into the lock...

and out....

and a shot off our stern at one of the Bayliners with Mount Hood in the background

After a nice ride up we left the lock and headed out at a slow cruise (11kts) toward our destination, Arlington, WA. We got in there around 4:00 and got tied up without any issues. We enjoyed another nice dinner and a few 'ritas before turning in for the night. About 0200 I was awakened by the sounds of the bow line straining as it was being stretched. The wind had picked up enough that I was concerned about the single bow line. I got out of the nice, warm bed and went out to add an additional bow line and a midship spring line, then back to bed.

My plan was to take the boat out of Arlington at 0600 and head for the last dam, McNary. We wanted to be there for the 0900 lockage and that meant running on plane for a bit over an hour. The winds had subsided with just a gentle breeze blowing. I got out of the marina and underway and it was beautiful.

As I got to McNary I called them from about 5 miles out to let them know we were coming and was told there was a tug in the lock at that time. We slowed down to a speed where we were just making headway against the current and got up to the dam just as the tug was leaving. We got through the lock and headed out on the last leg toward home. It was a 36 mile run and we did it in just about 3 hours. Whether we're out for a day trip or a longer one, that's always the part of a cruise that I hate. Not because of wind or water, but because it means the end of a trip. While it feels good to be back in the home slip, it's always a sad thing for a great trip to come to an end.

When we got close to the last bridge that had to be raised (about 1/4 mile below our marina) I could see a work crew on the bridge. I called the bridge from about 30 minutes out and told them we were on the way. The bride operator assured us he'd have the work crew off the bridge and have it raised for us, and he was true to his word. We had to slow down just a bit just before we reached the bridge, but we didn't have to stop. Here's a pic of the bridge with the work crew still on the bridge.

When we got to the slip there were several of our dock friends who came out to welcome us back. We were both exhausted from the long hours of partying and the long hours in the big waves on the second day and it was good to be home. We unpacked our stuff off the boat and hauled it up to the car (4 dock cart loads) then headed into the brewery at the top of the dock for lunch and a cold one after a VERY successful cruise.

 

[wyrman]

I've really enjoyed reading about your trip. You have a great way of writing that a person can almost feel they're on the trip with you.

 

[Quint4]

Enjoyed it very much, thanks.

 

[D-Sill-D]

Great story, photos, trip....GFC....we have been to those places, including the Blues Festival, so it was alot of fun to follow your adventure....I happen to be doing another electrical transmission project that overlooks the mighty Columbia, just north of the Entiat / Rocky Reach Dam area.....thanks for posting...

 

[searay40dad]

Great trip & pics GFC. Looks like an enjoyable time was had by all (with the exception of the little roll GW might not forget for awhile). As you mentioned a few weeks ago, it's interesting to see what it's like boating in other places. Mountains, falls, cliffs were spectacular. So, what are the lifts in the locks you went thru? on our last trip the lockmaster put us thru in a secondary chamber with a towboat and turned the valves on full. My "GW" didn't enjoy her fending off adventure at all!

btw, speaking of locks...your bollard tie scares me. If the bollard becomes jammed and that big girl keeps on rising, no way your crew could get that multi-hitched line released (without cutting it) before alot of damage gets done.