Gofirstclass
Well-Known Member
The better part of valor is discretion, in the which better part I have sav'd my life.
--William Shakespeare
This quote by old Will himself is a truism that I’ve tried to live my life by. Today, it paid off.
We had a boat trip planned from our marina to the marina at Umatilla, OR. It’s about 43 miles of so and involves passing through the lock at McNary Dam. We had to be there by 12:30 so we left the slip about 10:00 so we could have a leisurely cruise down. Our club was to be the guests of the Umatilla Yacht Club for the city's Umatilla Days Festival.
The winds had been picking up over the past couple of days and were forecasted to be steady at 20-22mph with gusts to 30mph.
When we headed out the winds at the marina were pretty steady out of the SW blowing around 18-20. We cleared the railroad bridge, running about 10kts in a 1.5’ chop. Not bad. As we got further down the Columbia the winds kept picking up, as did the waves. Before we got to the area of Wallula Gap the waves had increased to about 4’-5’ and the wind was on our port bow. When we’d hit a wave the spray would blow up onto the eisenglass at the front of the flybridge. Not too bad yet.
We got to Wallula Gap (Google it), an area long known for having the worst water conditions on the river. The reason for that is our typical winds are out of the SW and at the Gap the river turns to the SW. The winds have a loooong fetch to pick up speed and they are funneled by the hills on both sides of the river.
As we got to the Gap the waves picked up to about 6’-7’. I was starting to have doubts about continuing, not because of the winds and waves but because of having to go through the lock in high winds. That ain’t a bit fun.
So we made the bend at the Gap and the waves continued to build, not in the 7’-8’ range. For those of you who don’t think you can have waves that large on a river, I have a couple of videos that I took as we were coming to the Gap but they are in my camera which is still on the boat.
As we got further around the bend the waves were now solidly in the 8’ range or larger and the wind was directly on the bow. I was having fun watching the bow rise and fall and the spray blow up over the top of the upper bimini. I decided it was time to take a video with my phone so I could send it to some friends.
As I started shooting the video we got hit by the biggest wave I’ve ever encountered on the river, it was all of 10’.
Watch this and judge for yourselves……
[video]https://youtu.be/OtfsjCKmzRk[/video]
About that that time my wife called me on the phone. She'd been down below sleeping. She wanted to know what the hell was going on, said stuff was all over the floor, the forward berth was soaked because the forward hatch was open. I saw it was closed when I checked before we left the slip but apparently latch dogs were not secured. Oh, and she'd gotten seasick.
I encouraged her to come up above so she could watch the horizon. She did, but only very reluctantly. When she got up there she insisted we turn around. It didn't take much convincing on her part because the winds were now blowing 35-40mph and I had no intention of going through the lock with those winds.
So we turned around, unloaded (downloaded????) all of our wet bedding and trekked to the laundromat. An hour later things were dry so we headed for home.
Tomorrow is forecasted to be winds of less than 5mph so we get to do this all over again.
Wish us luck.
I will upload some more pics and a couple of videos when we get down to Umatilla.
--William Shakespeare
This quote by old Will himself is a truism that I’ve tried to live my life by. Today, it paid off.
We had a boat trip planned from our marina to the marina at Umatilla, OR. It’s about 43 miles of so and involves passing through the lock at McNary Dam. We had to be there by 12:30 so we left the slip about 10:00 so we could have a leisurely cruise down. Our club was to be the guests of the Umatilla Yacht Club for the city's Umatilla Days Festival.
The winds had been picking up over the past couple of days and were forecasted to be steady at 20-22mph with gusts to 30mph.
When we headed out the winds at the marina were pretty steady out of the SW blowing around 18-20. We cleared the railroad bridge, running about 10kts in a 1.5’ chop. Not bad. As we got further down the Columbia the winds kept picking up, as did the waves. Before we got to the area of Wallula Gap the waves had increased to about 4’-5’ and the wind was on our port bow. When we’d hit a wave the spray would blow up onto the eisenglass at the front of the flybridge. Not too bad yet.
We got to Wallula Gap (Google it), an area long known for having the worst water conditions on the river. The reason for that is our typical winds are out of the SW and at the Gap the river turns to the SW. The winds have a loooong fetch to pick up speed and they are funneled by the hills on both sides of the river.
As we got to the Gap the waves picked up to about 6’-7’. I was starting to have doubts about continuing, not because of the winds and waves but because of having to go through the lock in high winds. That ain’t a bit fun.
So we made the bend at the Gap and the waves continued to build, not in the 7’-8’ range. For those of you who don’t think you can have waves that large on a river, I have a couple of videos that I took as we were coming to the Gap but they are in my camera which is still on the boat.
As we got further around the bend the waves were now solidly in the 8’ range or larger and the wind was directly on the bow. I was having fun watching the bow rise and fall and the spray blow up over the top of the upper bimini. I decided it was time to take a video with my phone so I could send it to some friends.
As I started shooting the video we got hit by the biggest wave I’ve ever encountered on the river, it was all of 10’.
Watch this and judge for yourselves……
[video]https://youtu.be/OtfsjCKmzRk[/video]
About that that time my wife called me on the phone. She'd been down below sleeping. She wanted to know what the hell was going on, said stuff was all over the floor, the forward berth was soaked because the forward hatch was open. I saw it was closed when I checked before we left the slip but apparently latch dogs were not secured. Oh, and she'd gotten seasick.
I encouraged her to come up above so she could watch the horizon. She did, but only very reluctantly. When she got up there she insisted we turn around. It didn't take much convincing on her part because the winds were now blowing 35-40mph and I had no intention of going through the lock with those winds.
So we turned around, unloaded (downloaded????) all of our wet bedding and trekked to the laundromat. An hour later things were dry so we headed for home.
Tomorrow is forecasted to be winds of less than 5mph so we get to do this all over again.
Wish us luck.
I will upload some more pics and a couple of videos when we get down to Umatilla.
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