After a rainy winter on the river it was time to leave Portland and go back to the amazing cruising and sailing of Puget Sound. Since vacation time is in short supply we spread the trip out to 3 weekends with the first leg from Portland down the river to Astoria, 2nd leg over Memorial weekend from Astoria via Neah Bay to Port Angeles and the weekend after from Port Angeles to Seattle.
The first weekend we floated down the river with little wind but alot of sunshine stopping Saturday night in Rainier, OR which has very nice public docks.
Arriving in Astoria we tied up to the guest docks in the West Basin Marina for the week. The depth sounder was showing only 2 feet under the 6 ft draft of the keel for the slip we were assigned to. We verified with a lead and indeed there was only 2 feet of water left. Other slips showed the same depth. The low tide on the following Saturday was supposed to go lower than that but since we had no other choice we decided to leave Sage there anyway.
Returning to the boat Friday with the tide going out we were of course grounded in the soft silt that the Columbia River constantly washes into the West Basin Marina. Only with the help of 2 crews of the Astoria Yacht Club and heeling over the boat we were able to get free and still make the 11am slack tide to cross the Columbia River Bar.
Getting the boat un-stuck.
Approaching Neah Bay…
Watch this time-lapse video of approaching Port Angeles with 25+ knot winds
