Next Steps; taking in the sites

Well as some of you may or may not know, this is my (Tracey) last stop until southern California.  Yes, we've finally come to a decision that Ed will go on and I will head back to Seattle for a couple of weeks, flying to meet up with him when he hits Long Beach.  I am confindent in his skills as a skipper that he will arrive safely into each harbor on down the coast - but if you pray to a deity of any kind, say a little pray for him!  I honestly feel more comfortable with him going south than trying to bring the boat home against wind and water.  In the meantime, we've been taking in some of the sites of Newport.  Definately a fishing village.  Not so sweet smell of fish and crab and barking Sea Lions 24/7.

p.s. did you notice how that shrimp is being 'cleaned' and shipped?  Open air trucking...yikes!

Yeah we made it to Newport!!

Yeah ! We made it to Newport, Oregon. Arriving at about 4:30pm and getting tied up to the transient dock at the Port of Newport. It's a nice marina here.

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

Dark Night..and not the Batman Movie

Wow ! its dark out here at night with 100% cloud cover and fog. I could see maybe 6 feet from the boat. Apparentley the locals don't have it much better, since a sea bird flew into the sail or lines and dropped right in the cockpit. No harm done, I gave him a boost back out.

Tracey's down with motion sickness. I feel bad for her, I know she's not having much fun. This part down the Wash, Oregon coast is hard if only because you're not use to the motion and it's hard to get anything done. We've got about 90 miles to Newport, so should get there late in the day tommorrow.

Ed

Made out to the Pacific Ocean 8-13

Ahoy ! We made it out into the Pacific Ocean this morning and are now out about 10-15 miles and turned to head down the coast. There's a light wnw wind and very little swell or wind waves and we're sailing under full main, jib and staysail making about 4 knots. This morning as we motored out the strait and around Tatoosh island and rocks to the nw of it, we met up with some 6-7 foot swell. It's a ride going those. The fog closed in to about 1/4 mile earlier, but know it's bright overcast with visibility about 5 miles.
Tonight will be our first full night at sea, so we'll see how that goes. If it stays overcast it's going to be dark, dark, dark. So far the weather forecasst looks terrific with north winds 10-20 and moderate seas, all the way through Friday. We should be in Newport on Thursday or Friday. More later.
Ed