5 September Friday0900 I depart Martin Slough with slight head winds and chop and make a cruise through Kalama to see if any of my boating buddies are there. I don't see any familiar faces so head down river. There are plenty of salmon fisherman on the river all anchored neatly in lines crossing the river and if you can believe it within the confines of the shipping channel. I read that you can be anchored in the channel on the Oregon side but you have to give way with the shipping traffic.The Spring Peacock from Panama is tied to the grain docks. There is a ship anchored mid channel from Majuro named the Mimi Selmer. Wow, I have never seen a Majuro ship on the River. A tug has a line on her and is pulling her stern around for some reason. Then in this confusing mix of boats is the Queen of the West, the big stern wheeler coming down on everyone. What a traffic jam on the Kalama River sandbar. I squeeze through the fisherman, but get a shot of this Majuro Ship.
1030 I am entering Carrolls Channel and am anchored in my favorite spot at 1100. Just in time for lunch.
After lunch I set about to get my log set up for my long cruise. Everyone has a different log system, some skippers never make one and some are pretty detailed, listing course, speed, wind direction, eta's, Mine is pretty simple and has served me well over the years. There is a space for time, location, engin
e hours, mileage, and fuel. On the corresponding page I make comments of things of interest, birds we see, people we meet, weather conditons and tides, ships we encounter and their hailing ports. Sometimes I sketch a drawing or two for my childrens version. It all ends up into a more detailed word document and a formal journal that I keep onboard for people to read. Now, with my blog I'm rethinking how I am going about documenting everything. I might just keep a hard copy of the blog onboard for crew and visitors to read. Oh, did I forget to tell you, I finally bought a digital camera? So now I am high tech.My nav station is filled with gifts from friends:
1. Garmin 48 GPS from Glenn
2. A hand carved Shatoosh which rides on top of the depth sounder from Conrad
3. Navigation rack and tools from Jean and Namaste, her 32 Gulf
4. IPOD Mini with Solar panel charger and speakers from Jean
I am so grateful for all these items and all the love in which the gifts were given to me.
My GPS has helped me so much and guided me one night up the river in the dark using my trackback option. Thank you Glenn, you are a dear to me and I always think of you when I'm on board and starting up the GPS, which by the way, is integrated with the radar.
Jean, my nav tools have marked off many a mile on charts in the SF Bay, the Delta and the Columbia and Willamette River Systems. The IPOD, of course has brought the beautiful and powerful Mantra of the Siddha Lineage, Om Namah Shivaya to all these waters, blessing them with sacred viabrations. Thank you for all you have done.
Conrad so carefully carved and painted my model of Shatoosh. His handiwork is all over Shatoosh. I am cruising the Columbia because he and Juanita encouraged me to make the trip up north. I have lost touch with them, but always remember them with lots of love.
Days run 10.5 nm
Total 28.7 nm
