The ebbing tide is early, so I depart at 0725 with coffee mug in hand and some almonds. 2 eagles catch my eye on my out of the slough, one is perched on a small tree trunk at the entrance to the slough near the ground. Very majestic looking. There is about 10 knots of wind and 2 foot seas, but very easy riding. A tug is coming up river full boar without any barges and the breaking waves leave a visible wake for a mile. By the time they hit me they pack a 1-2-3 punch but I am ready for them and Shatoosh goes bow high up and over. The poor men in their little fishing boat did not so as well.
Anchored off Goble is the largest tanker I have seen on the Columbia. It must have been 600 ft in length. Just past Kalama River bar I cut across the river to the Oregon side and stay in close to shore. I spend some talking to my dear friend Glenn in Az. He is such a delight to talk with and he said he loved the posting I put up on his sailing trip. Work is being done on the Lewis and Clark Bridge. One of the pilings has an unusual peach colored full length skirt around the pilings. Wonder w
hat this is all about?
Down river of the bridge several ships lie at anchor waiting to get a berth. One is from Panama, one from Singapore, and one from Hong Kong. The wind drops to nothing and the seas are flat yet it is still cloudy and cool, however I beginning to see the skies lighten up toward Astoria.
There is alot of dredging going on at the beginning of Lord Island on both sides of the river.
My speed is increasing now. I'm cruising at 8.9 knots which pleases me to no end. A few sailboats power up river and at 0945 hrs I reach buoy "10", my turning buoy and the sun greets me with open arms. "Ah", I say to myself, "this is wonderful. Just as I had hoped." It will be a Pashmina kind of day. I leave the river and head up the channel around Walker island. A sailboat is leaving the dock as I approach and I tie up at 1015. I cook up a piece of sausage, and have a green drink with another cup of coffee. Mother osprey on the piling has twins this year and my favorite osprey at Martin Slough had 3 young ones. Usually you only see one, on occasion 2, but I have never seen 3 before. I see across the channel eagle # 3 and 4 in a bare tree and later in the morning I see #5 flying overhead.
Off comes Pashmi
na from the cabin top and on the dock she goes. I still have to do some tweaking on the oars. Since the new oars have a slightly smaller diameter it impacts the function of other things. My slide on oars stops(which I lost one the other day) do not stop the oars from sliding out and without them the oars don't align themselves on the boat. So I used some rubber, bungee cord to make a stop and put little bungee cords to hold the oars in place. Pashmina goes into the wa
ter and off we go up river to my favorite cove. With the oars extended I am making good headway. The tide has receded quite a bit and I am surprised at the high water mark on the beach. There are Canada Geese tracks, many opened clam shells and it looks like river otter scat. My niece begins a series of text messaging, so I'm focusing on all that. I find Flora, my great niece is sick, so I send her Reiki treatment. Georgia is in Montana with her grandpa and she is on a saddle but no horse. I head over across the channel and want to go between Walker and Lord Islands, but when I get there all the water is gone. Then I remember today and tomorrow are minus tides. I circle back across the channel and visit another cove that I have seen but never visited. Wow, the beach drops off immediately as there is a sheer granite cliff adjacent to it.
By the time I return a large boat is docked right next to me and later their friends pulled in with a cute 24 Skagit Orca, but again Shatoosh beats it all out with the available living space. It is 2200 hrs as I type this and the wind is really blowing and waves hitting all of us on the stern. Fortunately for me the Skagit Orca is blocking some of the waves. I never got to read the new book, but got lots of tweaking done to the oars and boy, do those babies make Pashmina glide through the water. I have a wonderful day.
Days run: 20nm
Total: 37nm
hat this is all about?
na from the cabin top and on the dock she goes. I still have to do some tweaking on the oars. Since the new oars have a slightly smaller diameter it impacts the function of other things. My slide on oars stops(which I lost one the other day) do not stop the oars from sliding out and without them the oars don't align themselves on the boat. So I used some rubber, bungee cord to make a stop and put little bungee cords to hold the oars in place. Pashmina goes into the wa
ter and off we go up river to my favorite cove. With the oars extended I am making good headway. The tide has receded quite a bit and I am surprised at the high water mark on the beach. There are Canada Geese tracks, many opened clam shells and it looks like river otter scat. My niece begins a series of text messaging, so I'm focusing on all that. I find Flora, my great niece is sick, so I send her Reiki treatment. Georgia is in Montana with her grandpa and she is on a saddle but no horse. I head over across the channel and want to go between Walker and Lord Islands, but when I get there all the water is gone. Then I remember today and tomorrow are minus tides. I circle back across the channel and visit another cove that I have seen but never visited. Wow, the beach drops off immediately as there is a sheer granite cliff adjacent to it.
