23 July - Today was our catch up day. We had a leaisurely breakfast tied up to the dock then we headed into Astoria  - walk along sea front - Maritime museum - didn't go in though as didn't  want to scare ourselves with more information about the "infamous columbia bar - graveyard of 2000 ships!"  great paddle steamer tied up - different way to investigate the world - maybe this is what we should go up the nile in? -

Very American version of a river cruise

Heritage museum - really interesting large scandinavian community settled and they brought with them their scandinavian lore - many trolls

Heidi found more of Grumpies cousins 

Lunch at best seafood place in town - bit of shopping then back to boat for early night.  Plan to head off to San Francisco unless the wind didn't fill in in which case shoot for Eureka

24 July - After going over the tide and current tables several dozen times we ad decided that the 'right' time to cross the bar was around 08:00.  With the 14 NM trip to the start of the bar crossing though we worked out that at our average speed of 5knots we needed to be leaving about 6 am to get there ontime (or a bit early, always a good idea) so it was an early start slipping our lines around 05:45.  As we pulled out into the Columbia we joined what we knew would be an ebb current - what we didn't expect was that the current was running at over 6 knots! (that's not what the current atlas says!)

To add to our concerns of arriving at the bar too early we then realised, as we rushed down the river that our exhaust was not emitting water, a vital cooling mechanism for the boat - PANIC.  We couldn't slow down by turning round and motoring into the current as that would only work the engine harder; we had a large tanker going past us on the channe as welll but we knew we had to fix this fast!  The evening before we had cleaned the water filter and so I quickly looked inside to find it dry - we'd forgotten you needed to prime it before restarting - Once filled with water and the lid tightly screwed on thankfully the system started working so we could progress onto the big challenge of the day!! As we rode the log flume of the Columbia we kept reevaluating our position and motoring upstream to add time.  We eventually hit the start of the bar (it's over 3 miles long) on time and were gratified to have a fleet of fishing boats speed past us -if the locals were heading out it must be the right time to go.  Our worries and overplanning were rewarded however as although there was still a decent swell we didn't have any major traumas as we crossed the bar.

by 12:00 we were sailing close hauled into a southerly wind (totally against the forecast) but were thankfull to be able to turn the engine off.  Unfortunately this wind only lasted a couple of hours adn then we were back tot he 'iron sail'.By the evening though we were back to sailing our wit just the Genoa poled out in light winds and we managed to sail through the night albeit at around 3 knots.  

25 July - As the dawn came the wind died andso we were back to motoring (we had another scare at this point where yet again, the starting system got temperamental requiring a bit of black magic to make it work - the intermittent fault that we hadn't seen since we redid all the batteries appears to be back) in a grey overcast day with some fog.  Just like yesterday, the wind filled in in the afternoon and we enjoyed pleasant if slow downwind sailing in sunny weather.  We had been seeing the occasional whale and porpoise now and then all day but around 3pm, we were suddenly surrounded by dolphins, porpoises and sharks (!) all skimming the surface and leaping around us.  To complete the set, two humbbacks came up for a breath no more than a boat length away and we watched in awe/horror/shock as these massive mammals slipped by underneath our boat surrounded by more leaping dolphns and sharks .  They were so close you could see their entire bodies in the water - way bigger than the boat!. (we assume there was a bait ball and a feeding frenzy going on around us) Going into the evening we motored a bit to set ourselves up for another overnight sail downwind and by 9pm we were back to pleasant if slow downwind sailing in very lumpy seas. 

26 July - At around 01:30 unfortunatly the wind died away again and so we were back on the engine.  As we crossed over on watch change at 06:00 we had calculated that, if we were to even make Crescent City, we would have to motor for another 34 hours! Neither of us liked the sound of that and so we decided to head into Charleston.  This was going to be another bar crossing but we thought it would be ok.  As we motored into the crossing in rolling swells, we listened to the coast guard report for the bar - they advised that the crossing was currenlty restriced for vessels less that 21 feet and had a "six feet ebb chop"  Having seen what "2 - 4 feet swell "looked like ont he Columbia river bar the thought of tackling this 'chop' was daunting but there were no other reasonable alternatives so we kept heading in.  Thankfully as we got closer the coast guard removed the warning and by the time we got to the bar, in overcast conditions, it had calmed down to a far more management 4 foot swell.  It was clearly so benign that the locals were fishing on the bar! Having cleared the bar we motored into the local public marina and tied up overnight.  Once ashore we stretched our legs by going into Charleston, really only a small fishing hamlet and grabbing lunch.  We were both surprised to find that we had lost our 'land legs' and although walking on firm ground, felt somewhat off balance all the time (Heidi said it felt a bit like having vertigo).  After living in rolly swells now for a while our brains are obviously starting to adapt to life on the waves, making firm land and off putting experience.

The journey so far had been somewhat frustrating as the predicted winds rarely filled in leaving us doing a lot of motoring.  One lesson we have learned is that to sail on the ocean you need more wind than sailing on the calmer inland waters of the gulf islands as there needs to be enough wind to keep the sails filled as the boat rolls in the swell - we are strating to thing you need a minimum of 10 knots and preferable 15 - 20 knots to sail well.  We're going to test this if we can over the next couple of days as there is a band of stronger winds further out to sea which we can drop  into and experiment with as we make tracks for Eureka (another couple of days travel).  IF we are unsettled by the strength of the wind through it should only take us a few hours to move into calmer conditions closer to land.