NORTH BOUND

 Now that we've seen to most of the details involved with being a float for more than six months.... we left our cozy marina, Salpare Bay and headed west to Astoria. The water level in the river is super high so we had to call bridge on the VHF to open the gate. We could not fit underneath this railroad bridge like usual. 

Pretty awesome to witness how the bridge operates!

Making our way west on the Columbia River, heading for Astoria.

This is what the route looks like. Nice push, 10.7 knots at 1600 rpm. Sweet!!!

Tom in his new dink met us on the river to try to solve the autopilot problem
... with no avail. It was good to see them though.

Arriving at Port Astoria. April 15th, 2017, Day 1 82nm.

April 16th, Easter Sunday, Leaving Astoria for the Bar Crossing at 12 noon! Day two.

The seas are in our favor! Love it when that happens!

Beautiful day on the flybridge!

This shows our "Bar Crossing". 10 knots... sweet!

John was the one who took the first nap in the watch berth.. 5pm, looks like he's in a coffin!

Nope he is still alive!

Enjoyed an awesome sunset! John even posted it on Trawler Forum!

"Don't be afraid of the dark"... that's a quote from our friend, Jeff Merrill;-)
This is the pilot house, once everything is dimmed for our first overnight crossing!
We ran the boat 30 hours, nonstop, Astoria to Port Angeles. 210nm

Same picture of the pilothouse with the flash...
We taped white paper over the AIS and covered the IPad Pro Navionics with a dish towel.
The coffee pot is going on... It's going to be a long night.

April 17th, Day 3. We just made the turn east into Strait of Juan De Fuca,
around Cape Flattery.  Very happy to see the sunrise!

Fishing vessel at Port Angeles.

Pairadice with a port tie at the visitor dock.

Another fishing vessel.

April 18th, day 4. Leaving Port Angeles - heading to Oak Harbor, WA.

Breakfast, cinnamon rolls and fruit in the pilothouse.

Heading under Deception Pass Bridge right on time for the slack tide.

What a beautiful day!

I'm an artist!

Our chart displaying the entrance into the Oak Harbor Marina.
It gets pretty shallow as we make our way in there.

And wouldn't you know it,
it started raining when it was time for me to handle the dock lines!

We are a bit larger than the length of the dock.

The afternoon view from the aft cockpit.

Nice day for an afternoon regatta!

...or an evening row session with the  Dragon Boat Team.

Do you suppose this is where the magic happens?

Walk of Honor on Main Street.

I really like this piece of art on Main Street.

Our moorage at Oak Harbor Marina.

The dragon boat is out and about again.

Tomorrow, April 26th, day 12, we leave for Roche Harbor, San Juan Island.