12 September Friday
Linda and I depart the marina at 0905 and it is cloudy and overcast. Our morning plan is to head upriver and enter Clifton channel and meander over to Devil's Elbow and exit through Woody island. You really have to pay close attention to the depths in Clifton as the deep water makes you criss cross the channel several times. At Woody island we see many floating homes tied up along side the island. This is interesting to me as this area is part of the Lewis and Clark National Wildlife Refuge and it makes me wonder how these homes can be here. Woody Isl. is not inhabited, so there is no electricity or sewer system. Which means they are pumping their sewage into the river. Hum?? We arrive at 1115.
The skies open and the sun shines down upon us. This is nice. We enter the Columbia River and meet the inbound Emerald from Panama. I go down and fix us tuna fish sandwiches and have some of Linda's tomatoes. We turn on its stern and head upriver. We pass the local dredging company working on the channel at the entrance to Steamboat Slough.
I have wanted to go into this slough and have read about and talked to many people who anchor here. We enter at 1215 taking the down river entrance and channel marker 33 to our port which gives us 17 ft of water on this flood tide. What a lovely slough, it is wide and deep and reminds me of the Georgiana Slough in the Delta. We cruise through and have lots of sun so we decide to continue on and head for Westport Slough and the Kerry West Marina on the Oregon side. We enter the Westport slough at 1330 and Linda loves this slough. Lots of Great Blue Heron and a few ospreys hanging around. We cruise on up the slough and get to Kerry West Marina. Linda is aghast at the condition of the boats. The last time I was in here I got a lot of orbs on my pictures, so I wanted her to take pictures here with her camera, but we didn't get any. I see my favorite boat the steel Florence A. I'd love to go to sea in her. We continue up river and go as far as we can which is just this side of the bridge. We flush a large flock of Canada Geese. We then return on our incoming course and arrive back at Cathlamet at 1600. I am 1 minute off my ETA. We spot a sea lion having a good time tearing off big chunks of salmon as he moves through a school. This is quite the sight to see. Anchored off the channel is that nice looking boat, the Klick Tat. I had seen him at Walker Island a few days earlier. What a nice looking classic wood cruiser.
We tie up to the docks and I'm busy fixing our salmon dinner and
vegies that Linda has brought, when some folks show up at Shatoosh. Its Larry, his wife Susan and their friends who are RVing and staying here this weekend. Larry owns the Starship and I met him in Martin Slough a few years back. We keep in touch by email and I see him when I pull into Kalama from time to time. Larry is a great country and Western singer, so they invite us to the Karaoke evening at the River View Bar tonight. I tell Linda we must go, as I know that Larry is good. An opportunity that we shouldn't miss. I know, 9 pm is late for us, but we must make the effort. We show up and Larry and his friends were good, but the music was loud. We lasted one hour and came home and went to sleep. Larry sounds a lot like Willie Nelson, which is a good thing. See link to his website: wichitacountry.com
vegies that Linda has brought, when some folks show up at Shatoosh. Its Larry, his wife Susan and their friends who are RVing and staying here this weekend. Larry owns the Starship and I met him in Martin Slough a few years back. We keep in touch by email and I see him when I pull into Kalama from time to time. Larry is a great country and Western singer, so they invite us to the Karaoke evening at the River View Bar tonight. I tell Linda we must go, as I know that Larry is good. An opportunity that we shouldn't miss. I know, 9 pm is late for us, but we must make the effort. We show up and Larry and his friends were good, but the music was loud. We lasted one hour and came home and went to sleep. Larry sounds a lot like Willie Nelson, which is a good thing. See link to his website: wichitacountry.comdays run 36.2 nm
Total 110 nm
