Journey of a Lifetime

Thanks for posting the details of this trip. Sounds amazing so far! Dumb questions but for us "part-timers" what is the back story of the trip? Who's with you, where are you going, etc. It might be in another thread, if so sorry for the basic questions.

Anyhow - have a great time and keep the updates coming!
 
Thanks for keeping us updated. If you have any photos of Neah Bay please post a couple. My uncle married Neah, who I think was Neah's daughter (I guess they name girls after their mothers, as we do boys after fathers). In the '60s when I was a young boy we'd make the trip from Texas and spend the summer with our Makah Indian cousins. I haven't been there in over twenty years and wonder how the town has survived the times. I remember it being a small poor Indian village but extremely beautiful.
 
Looks like it's going to be great weather hardly any wind waves or swells see your just getting ready to turn south watch out for the large rifts and currents going around the point.
 
Mike, Great pics & Are you guys doing any kind of live streaming like Turtle did on his trip ??.
 
Awesome trip and thanks for the updates! I'd love to see more pics of the weather and water that you're running in. I hope there is a GoPro camera on board... :smt001
 
Thanks for keeping us up to date. Safe travels and know that many are watching and praying for a safe trip.
 
Looks like they made it to the dock.
 

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Sounds like you guys are having a great trip. Thanks for keeping us updated.
 
Well we FINALLY made it to Ilwaco, WA. This has been a heck of a day. We started out about 0730 from Neah Bay under sunny skies, flat seas with no winds and just a beautiful day. We passed inside of Tatoosh Island rather than go around the outside and we headed down the coast of WA. This is an area where there are almost no roads so the only ways to see it are by boat or by air.

It stayed calm for a couple of hours but then the seas started to build. By lunch time it was getting REAL nasty with the marine weather saying 4’-7’ seas and I believe every bit of that. We were running about 9-10 kts as we headed south but after awhile we stepped that up so we were doing about 12-13kts. The seas continued to build so we had to slow back down a bit.

To make a long story short, this day seemed like it would never end. The seas were on our stbd bow so we were rolling a bit and at times it seemed like we were going to drop into a hole between the waves. Spray going everywhere, the wind blowing the spray over the boat, and nobody on board could stand up without leaning against something or hanging tight to something.

But all good things must come to an end and finally it did. As we came down the coast and got into the channel to cross the infamous Columbia River Bar, we were taking the seas on our stern. They calmed down a lot and as we crossed the bar we were in about a 2’-3’ swell with a light chop on top. We crossed the bar in the calmest seas we’d seen for hours.

So here we are, tied to the dock and it’s time for a toddy. For dinner we’re having the halibut filet that the Indians gave us last night and as soon as my head and stomach settle down a bit I’ll get to the cooking duties.

I have some photos but the internet service here is pretty spotty and it will take some time to upload them. I’ll post them as soon as I can.

Bruised and battered GFC
 
Hang in there man. You guys are due for some nice, smooth seas!! I'm enjoying the updates, thanks for posting. I was also able to see your other pics finally on my computer! Nice pics!!


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
Todd
 
Who'd figure that the Columbia bar would be the calm part. :huh:
 
Thanks for the updates, very interesting trip...take care and stay safe:)
 
Well it sure feels good to have had a good night's sleep. I went to bed some time around 10:30 and just got up at 7:30. We're stuck in Ilwaco today because the weather/wave report looks a lot like what we had yesterday. I'm not feeling a bit bad about spending the day here rather than going out.

Yesterday was not fun for me. I had breakfast some time shortly after we rounded the NW corner of WA state when we were in beautifully calm waters. Then I gave it all back around lunch time when we were getting tossed around so much. That's the first time in my 65+ years that I've ralphed due to rough seas. Yuck.

I did manage to take some photos yesterday and also some videos. The internet service here is pretty slow so I'll wait until later to load them but I'm going to post the pics and identify what they are.

Cruising along the Straits of Juan de Fuca, the extreme northern coast of WA. Much of this land is inaccessible by road so you can only see it by air or water.
aP6170002_zps28bdaf6f.jpg


More of the same. These cliffs remind me of some of the areas along the Columbia River that I've posted pics of before.
aP6170007_zpsffb521aa.jpg


More of the same. This area is really pretty.
aP6170008_zps8f1ef417.jpg


Our first real good look at Tatoosh Island. It sits right at the NW corner of the state. Most of the boats that pass through here go out and around the island. There are many underwater shallow shoals that require you go out a mile or more around the island. Rolland (the USCG guy) told us he used to take his 190' ship between the island and the mainland and showed us where the passage was. We took that and saved probably an hour of transit time. It's a relatively narrow channel but easily wide enough for us to pass through.
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Tatoosh Island Light and some of the surrounding islands and rocks.
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The next two shots were taken while we were rocking and rolling around. They really don't do justice to the way things really were. As I said earlier, I took some videos and will try to upload them to Youtube later today or tonight.
aP6170020_zpsac7a6b1e.jpg


aP6170022_zps1165a0a0.jpg




Maybe you can pick up a GoPro helmet camera and walk around and do some narrations?
I have a video camera that I used a few times yesterday and will try to post those videos to Youtube so I can share them. The problem we had was that when the going really got rough enough for good videos it took both hands to hold onto something. As an example of how we were rolling around, at one point Stuart was sitting on the helm seat. It's on a wide base but not mounted to the floor. The chair (and Stuart) were tipped over due to the waves. I managed to reach up and grab his arm and he got a foot down on the floor before he went all the way over or he might have bashed his head against the helm cabinets.

I'm going to get some breakfast so I'll see y'all later.

Well rested GFC
 
Nice pics !! we have nothing like that out here.:smt089


Now QUIT being sissy girls and get going. :grin:
 
Gofirstclass said:
I'm going to get some breakfast so I'll see y'all later.
Click to expand...

:smt001 At least today you'll be able to enjoy it longer.

Fascinating trip, thanks again for keeping us posted. I'm also really enjoying the AIS tracking feature. That website is very addictive. I sit here clicking on all kinds of boats to see what they look like and where their coming from.

Can't wait for some videos!

Tom
 
Here are the videos I've taken thus far....

[video=youtube;ntGsJiiLV40]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ntGsJiiLV40[/video]

[video=youtube;ZSiyisOQgZ4]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZSiyisOQgZ4[/video]

[video=youtube;EdFj_m01LTc]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EdFj_m01LTc[/video]

[video=youtube;u6JgZzkVXi0]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u6JgZzkVXi0[/video]

[video=youtube;ayBJYJJeQvU]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ayBJYJJeQvU[/video]

[video=youtube;uKgc8DBUi8M]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uKgc8DBUi8M[/video]

[video=youtube;eylZAKB2MSA]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eylZAKB2MSA[/video]

[video=youtube;El1O06LyH1c]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=El1O06LyH1c[/video]

[video=youtube;PRa-W4NdhBI]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PRa-W4NdhBI[/video]
 
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