Awaiting Weather

Starting from anywhere has always brought a slight tightening to my stomach because I am usually, firstly, comfortably situated at a dock or moorage or secondly because there is some question about what the weather is doing somewhere further than you can see on the horizon. Certainly I have always been an advocate of checking the weather by first looking out the window but when you plan to go off shore for multiple days that doesn’t quite do the job.

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As I write this I find myself in Astoria, Oregon with the out-the-window view of sunshine and dark skies on the horizon. We motored here from Portland over a two day period. The stop in Cathlamet, Washington on the way was good because it gave a day of getting the boat in better shape for the ocean but it also gave us a chance to trade off at the helm and coordinate our communications on boat handling together. It happened that in Cathlamet a friend met us at the dock to hand lines to. He was there for a Sea of Cortez Cruisers Rally that happens every year in August and we had missed it due to boat issues still being unresolved as we sat in Portland. We had an interesting time docking boat because there wasn’t much space and between coming within a foot or so of a large power boat and nearly crushing a Catalina 22 we were glad to see a friendly face on the dock. In any case, I digress once again, the weather was good at the time and we saw no clue of what was going on at the coast. As we came into the channel to turn into Cathlamet we encountered a fierce squall that drenched us to the bone but then cleared immediately to reveal a fantastic sunset.

This is great time in history to be asking the weather questions, really. The boat has internet from time to time and one of the first things we check is buoy weather and other similar sources for weather (wx) information. At Cathlamet we had good internet and so checked wx. It was sounding like we were heading into less than wonderful conditions.

By the time we got to Astoria we knew that it was going to be a wait of a few days before conditions on the Columbia River bar would allow us to pass. This leads to another couple of asides as well. We were picking up crew in Astoria and this happened the night we got there… so, everything was on schedule at that point but it was obvious that it wasn’t going to stay that way. Sitting in a slip across from our end tie was a boat we had last seen in Portland. As we had walked down the dock one morning a new boat was there with the skipper working on his lines. We said, “Howdy,” and he responded so we stopped to chat for a few minutes. His boat, Enigma, is a Hunter 37 and he bought it as his first boat in May (this being late July when we met) and had three sailing lessons and a navigation class and was planning to single hand to Mexico. Hmmm, shudders went down my spine, what is he thinking? Now that we are waiting the weather improvement that is predicted we are wondering what he is thinking. Thus far we have not had a chance to chat again but suspect that he may have gone out to the bar and turned around in nasty conditions. Another thing we did here to get our head around the coming departure was to visit the Maritime Museum and scare ourselves silly with the displays of Coast Guard rescues and wrecks on the bar!

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Waiting on the weather window is an opportunity to do jobs that remain and play a few games while we prepare for what is to come.

So, a few miles down the track we have crossed the Columbia bar (at night, 0230) and motored in little wind to Newport, Oregon and pulled in to reassess what the boat needs to be ready for the rest of the trip. Instantly people jump on us with stories of sure signs of difficult weather down the way. We should wait they all say. Separately we look at the buoy weather and other sources and have to agree it would be more comfortable to wait a few days. This means that we are stuck again in the weather weenie window. As we sit here boat after boat arrives and has the same notion. A couple of days after our arrival we head to the fuel dock early in the morning so that if and when our window arrives we will be ready to step out and boogie down the coast again. The pressure of one crew member having limited time plays on all this but that is of less concern because he can certainly catch a ride back to Portland from here more easily than if we get down the way further and have to duck in somewhere. All is good with staying for the moment but that is the nature of these things… you can always find a reason or excuse to stay where you are, “safe as houses.”