Oregon and North California

We left Astoria on the 10th September 2019 for Newport. Astoria was good, great shops and a lovely waterfront. The people there have been very friendly. Before we left we visited the heritage museum where Kathy checked out wheelchairs, she liked this model.

Also in the Museum they had pictures of the old hospital and below the hospital governors meet, this won’t mean much if you’re not from the UK, but Jeremy Paxman doesn’t seemed to have aged at all since then

The trip to Newport meant leaving in the late afternoon so we could cross the bar on a weak flood tide. Then an overnight sail to Newport, however the timings meant we had to cross the Newport Bar at the worst time. Thankfully the weather was mild and so although the waves looked scary it was fine in the middle of the channel. Once we were under the bridge it was a short hop to the marina.

Newport is a lovely town, with 2 lighthouses and a beach. We managed to fit in all the highlights in a day’s walk around town.

One of it’s main attractions is a group of concrete pontoons built for the sea lions. It’s a tourist draw alright, and quite amusing, however after 20 minutes we decided we should get ready for an early start to get out to Crescent City. The weather forecast wasn’t going our way.

Our trip to Crescent city was uneventful, we sailed half way but the wind turned to the south and we ended up motoring the rest of the way. We saw very few boats on the way, but at night the fishing vessels seem to have very bright lights, I must find out why, but they are like football stadium lights pointing forward from the bow.

Crescent City is good, as there is no bar to worry about, but plenty of rocks all the same. The lighthouse below, as you approach the harbour isn’t on the Navionics chart, which is a bit worrying.

The marina was wiped out by a Tsunami from Japan in 2011 and has been rebuilt to be the strongest on the west coast. The piles and pontoons are very sturdy and twice the normal size.

We arrived on Kathy’s birthday so went in hunt of a restaurant that might have a vegan offering, sadly Crescent City doesn’t excel in this area, and poor Kathy ended up with an ‘eat all you can’ Salad bar in a seafood cafe. She actually quite enjoyed it, she is going to have to wait until we get to San Francisco for a present from me.

Well the pontoons at CC are great, but we didn’t get to sample any of its other delights (if they exist?), as we needed to head on early the next day in order to escape some strong southerly winds that were on the way. Also it was pouring down and the rain was predicted to last 3-5 days. I took the opportunity to check everything was ok at the back of the engine, gearbox oil and water pump, as they had had a good thrashing since I had them in bits in Sointula. I was very disappointed to find the water pump I rebuilt with the help of John in Sointula was pissing sea water out the back end. We couldn’t continue with this problem. I guessed the Lip Seal had broken, and as this was what we had just replaced, I guess the damaged shaft is the problem, so I need to buy a new pump, at around £300.
Fortunately, due to me messing up on the last replacement pump kit order, I had another spare kit which included bearings and a lip seal, I just wasn’t sure if I had the tools to replace it on board. As it turned out it was quite easy and 4 hours later the pump was back on the engine and running fine without any leaks. The oil cooler I replaced also seemed good along with the gearbox oil level. However the Impeller hadn’t fared too well, I’m not sure why, as it was also new back in April, only 200 engine hours ago.

So at 7:30AM we left Crescent City for Fort Bragg / Noyo River.
I kept a close eye on the water pump for the whole passage and it seems to be holding up. Hopefully it will get us to SF where I can get a new pump ordered and fitted. We had to motor the whole way, but once around Cape Mendocino the wind dropped and the sun shone bright, it really felt like we had arrived in a new country, suddenly for the first time in a long time it was t-shirt weather.
We were assigned a berth, B5, by the harbour master, but ended up mooring three times before we found the correct berth. Mostly due to the complete lack of signage on the pontoons.
There is no fuel available here, so I’m going up river in the dinghy to another harbour where I can get fuel tomorrow.
We are only two days from San Francisco now, but it may be Sunday or Monday before we get there, as we are going to checkout the state park at Drakes Bay.

Paul Collister.