First thing I do after breakfast is head to shore and collect a few days worth of blackberries. Martin Slough has the best wild ones around. My old berry collecting bowl is just perfect.
I hang up and throttle Shatoosh up to 2700rpms, which is what I cruise at and with the ebbing tide, I'm moving along at a nice 8.3 knots. The fishermen are lined up like little soldiers ready to bring in the salmon. I rarely see any caught, but this morning 3 fellows have hooked up, but no one can bring them in. It is always sad to loose a salmon.
I have discovered that I forgot to buy butter, so I toss my options in my mind like a ping pong ball and decide to stop in the small town of Rainier, Oregon. With good timing I might take in lunch at my favorite Mexican Restaurant, El Tapatio. It turns out to be a wise decision. Not only do I get butter, and a Mexican lunch but the stern wheeler, The Queen of the West has tied up to the city dock on her weekly stopover cruising the river.
El Tapatio has been doing quite a bit of remodeling on the outside and today an artist is putting the final touches on one of many proposed murals.This one is beautiful, so I will have to keep stopping by to see all the others get painted and to have some of their exceptional food. It is located about1 block from the dock and has outside seating and river view.
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| The Queen of the West |
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| Shatoosh looks pretty small |
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This is a big wheel |
The Pan Voyager calls on the vhf from down river hailing all the fishermen that he is inbound. As he approaches, the ship has an unfamiliar flag and hailing port, however it is clear from the letterings it is from the orient, not China or Korea. He is moving too fast for me to draw the flag, so I can look it up.
I find the hailing port and it is JEJU province, an island in South Korea. They weren't flying the Korean flag but could have been the Province flag.
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| My course down river from Rainier |
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| My new fan says,"Roam". I like that--most appropriate. |
Day's run 20.5nm
Total run 37.5nm
