The objective here on Yaquina Bay right now is to get in shape to visit Canada next month. The upcoming trip will be in the recently launched faering.
Saga and I don't really know each other yet. So far it's a marriage of convenience. There is the usual cascade of details to work out, each one seeming more important than the last.
Today I agreed to meet Brandon on the water and we would sail our own regatta and take pictures. My mooring is about two miles from the launch ramp he would use, dead into the wind and against a two knot current.
The photo above is the same course but obviously a much calmer day.
No worries! I fired up the black lung 3.5hp four-stroke and was there in just over a half-hour. The wind was blowing 15-20 knots with gusts.
We launched Brandon's boat, Ravn and tied up to the dock to watch a nearby flag flapping hard and horizontal. The wind would let up for a minute and come back stronger than before.
No sailing for us today.
We visited for a long while and I motored back. Against the tide (how does that always seem to happen?), but with the wind this time. You know what that means. A one knot current against a 25 knot wind will give you two foot standing waves.
Add a swell coming in from the ocean. You have to be careful in a double-ender with a following sea. They like to steer themselves. (Have I mentioned how dicey a jibe can be when you should have taken in a reef but decided not to?)
I spotted these fellows a couple times today. It's rare to find a drift boat on the Bay. I don't know why. These guys are crabbing and doing a nice job of it. To haul in a pot, they run the line through an oarlock and heave. They were in a nice protected spot and having better success in this little plywood dory than anyone else, in bigger and more expensive boats.
Can you believe that weather? Don't be deceived. It was only 59 degrees Fahrenheit. That's what we call summer around here.
4 comments:
darn. You mean no-one fell in?
(bad weather is the reason I am trying to learn how to fish....if there is no wind, out comes the hand line and I don't feel so silly doing nothing...)
Don't give up. Keep the boat ready because a beautiful sailing day will pounce on you both when you least expect it.
Ha, Robert, you are SO FUNNY.
You will note that Brandon's boat is completely open, while mine has side decks and a coaming. When jibing I notice that my gunnels dip in the water every time and there seems to be no way to avoid it.
So far, with the coaming, there has been no water shipped.
I have my boat in the water at a local marina. She and I go out several times a week in order to get to know each other better.
When I was younger I would take off on a sea adventure with no preparation and solve the myriad problems as they arose. It was years before I realized it didn't need to be that way.
Robert, just because Doryman and I are both by a body of water at the same time doesn't mean that one of us necessarily gets wet. Sometimes, but not always. If you knew you were going to stay dry no matter what, where would be the fun?
Michael, thanks for coming to South Beach. It was a good plan, I should have taken the morning, not the afternoon off.
I stand corrected, chastised and brought to heel.
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