Posts In The “North America Pacific Coast” Category
We love technology, how things work, and digging in behind the scenes and so an important part of our trip around the world in a small boat has included stops to tour ice breakers, mines, manufacturing plants, container ships. We even tried our hands at the helm of a 5,000 HP tractor tug. Some highlights…
A decade ago, as we watched the America’s Cup races in New Zealand on TV, we longed to watch a race in person from the water. Last week, we got our chance. The current America’s Cup defender is the Golden Gate Yacht Club on San Francisco Bay. The races scheduled for October 2-7th have been…
Late last week, we passed under the Golden Gate Bridge and cruised south to our new temporary home at impressive Westpoint Harbor Marina. The trip from Seattle started out with wonderfully calm conditions through the Strait of Juan de Fuca–amongst the best we’ve experienced there. We originally had planned to run a good 50 miles…
Today we set off from Seattle to do some longer-range cruising. Our goal is to cross over to Hawaii, and we’ll figure out the next step from there. Insurance restrictions discourage travel in the area between June and November, during the northern hemisphere hurricane season. May was too soon to leave, and we didn’t want…
Last weekend, for the first time ever, we took in some Seafair events up-close. Normally we’re on vacation in August, since that works best with both of our work schedules, and are leaving the area just as Seafair is starting up. The unlimited class hydroplane races for the Albert Lee Cup anchor Seafair Weekend. The…
Earlier this month, we got a chance to tour the Hanjin Oslo at Seattle’s Terminal 46. We had an incredible time–we watched the ship come in, toured the yard, and best of all, were given a detailed onboard tour that included the machinery. The above photo of us on the bridge wing was taken by…
On the final leg of our trip along the Columbia and Snake Rivers, we returned downriver from Portland via sheltered Multnomah Channel to anchor in the Lewis and Clark National Wildlife Refuge. We spent the following three nights at the river mouth: two in Astoria, OR and the third in Illwaco, WA. In Astoria, we…
We’ve just returned from an incredible tour of the Hanjin Oslo at Seattle’s Terminal 46, courtesy of Peter Kim, who supervises the Hanjin container ports in the Puget Sound and Washington state. The scope and scale of the ship is amazing, and the Hanjin operation is extremely professional. We’ll be posting a more detailed description,…
From Hood River, we returned to Cascade Falls to bike the Historic Columbia River Highway and visit the Bonneville Dam Visitor Center. We then continued farther downstream, back through the last lock at Bonneville, through the navigable waters of the Willamette River and back to Portland for the night. The Bonneville Dam Visitor Center unfortunately…
Over the next three days, we ran from the Tri-Cities at the confluence of the Snake and Columbia Rivers, to Hood River, passing through the McNary, John Day and The Dalles locks. At The Dalles, we visited the excellent Columbia Gorge Discovery Center,, and were lucky to arrive in time for their live raptor program….
At our final anchorage along the Snake River, we biked to the Ice Harbor Dam visitor center, and also learned firsthand about goat head stickers. Passing through those locks the next day, we hit an all-time speed record for our boat of 15.1 knots. We spent the following two days in the Tri-Cities area, touring…
We ran downriver at a more leisurely pace than the upriver run, stopping earlier in the day to explore by dinghy, on foot and on our bicycles. A highlight of this leg was a 10-mile return, 1,160-foot altitude gain bike ride to Palouse Falls. While the pace was slower, our speed wasn’t. We got a…
On the next leg of our trip, we crossed the border into Idaho at 738 feet above sea level. We hadn’t been sure we were going to make it all the way, given how much the current was slowing us down at Bonneville earlier in the trip. To reach Idaho, we passed through McNary Locks…
From Cascade Locks, in the heart of the Columbia River Gorge, we next passed through locks at The Dalles and John Day dams. John Day lock, with a maximum lift of 113 feet, is one of the largest single-lift locks in the world. Transiting those two locks put us well into desert country, at an…
On the second leg of our Columbia River cruise, we left the larger cities of Longview, Portland and Vancouver behind and passed through Bonneville Lock, the first of eight upstream locks that we’d transit. Early on the first day of this leg, we got a taste of what we thought was strong current, but we…
We left Seattle on Thursday evening and crossed the Columbia River Bar Saturday morning. Conditions were rough, as they always seem to be, in the Strait of Juan de Fuca, but otherwise we’ve had reasonable weather the whole run. Saturday morning prior to 9am, the Coast Guard has closed the bar to all pleasure craft….
With the official start of Seattle’s boating season nearly upon us, here’s our log for the winter off-season. On our weekend trips this year, we’ve ranged between LaConner to the north,Tramp Harbor to the south, Oyster Bay to the west and Bell Harbor Marina to the east, along with a week-long stay inside the…
The maze of islands and waterways that border Queen Charlotte Sound has long been one of our favorite cruising ground. The terrain is complex, the scenery is varied and impressive, and the anchorage choices are many. The adventure level ranges from sheltered waters, to open ocean, to tidal rapids. You can laze in a tranquil…