As an update, we had nice northerly winds the day before yesterday and moved along at 5-6 knots under sail all day long. We nicknamed our Monitor wind vane self steering gear, "Mighty Thor the Monitor"
He does a much better job steering the boat than I do. At night or in the fog with no reference points but a compass bearing, I can find myself 60 degrees off coarse in a moment of inattention, but not Thor. He stays true to the course.
Around the Columbia river entrance there were like a hundred boats. We found ourselves glued to the chart plotter with the AIS input showing commercial boats closing on us and making sure we avoid a close encounter.
Yesterday at about 3 or 4 in the morning and about 35 miles from Newport the wing changed to SE and so we began to motorsail and tack upwind. So the last 35 miles took around 12 hrs. I think you can walk that fast.
Fog closed in as we arrive at the entrance to the Newport Jetty and even using GPS, we spent 15 minutes looking for the entrance bouy and getting ourselves lined up for the channel. We made it without mishap.
We had dinner. Tracey was feeling a bit better and downed a couple of great chicken burritos she made. I ate and hit the sack at 6:00pm, sleeping the sleep of the dead until 7:00am this morning. I mean I usually wake up at least 4 times during the night, but I was out !!!!!
Today we're wondering around Newport and visited the Rogue Brewery. Rogue Nation man !!!!!!!!!!!! We had 12 different beers...Awesome !
We'll probably be here the next two days and then figue out the next step. Sorry for the long post. Addtional pictures to follow when we transfer them to this computer.
Ed
It was so good seeing you tonight - I had been worried, having not seen any posts for awhile. My heart is heavy for you as I know you wanted to do this, not only for yourself, but for Ed. You can only do what you can do and it's not for everyone. You gave it a go and you should be proud of yourself!! Love you guys. Stay safe!! :)
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