Highlights from Sea

We want to do this trip to meet people and to do our best to love strangers on the dock. The first dock we spent any time at was in Newport, and it was a flood of amazing people. Here’s a recap of the few days we spent at the transient dock

Our neighbors on the dock, SV (Sailing Vessel) Celestial, a young couple helped with so many things. They made us cookies, gave us sail repair tools, taught us about the commercial fishing game, and loaned us their dive mask. They also made us feel much more relaxed about the coast and the sand bars. They were sailing North (which we thought was unheard of) from Moss Landing, CA, to the Puget Sound and had done the coast a handful of times. They also had the best dog. A blue heeler Jack Russel mix named Bruno. 

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SV Voodoo Child housed two brothers in their early 20s and their enormous cat, ‘Bigfoot’. They sailed South from Seattle a day after us. They shared some weather routing info but mostly inspiration. They’re planning on heading to California before turning right to Hawaii on a much smaller vessel than ours. They also taught us about the liveaboard culture in Seattle, which makes me less inclined to ever live on land again. Right as we were leaving, they offered a huge bag of cucumbers. Apparently they had a crate full from a local farmer and were getting sick of them, so we hit the jackpot. 

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Bob, an older gentleman on his trawler, was making his way up the coast from California to the Puget Sound and eventually up the inside passage to Alaska. He was a retired ferry captain and had sailed his 50-foot sailboat across the Pacific several times. He shared tons of sailing stories and information. He also tried to get us to buy his sailboat, the last remaining asset in his divorce. It’s only slightly out of our budget. He was a wealth of sailing information.

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Keith, the dock attendant was in his 60’s or 70’s and quickly became my favorite person. He was witty, softspoken, and looked like he had spent every day of his life in the sun. Then he mentioned his sailing resume. He had taken a sailboat around the world and spent most of his life cruising in the South Pacific. His advice to me was to enjoy the islands but don’t bring back a wife. He brought back a beautiful Samoan, but said now all he’s left with is an old Samoan woman with an “ass like an ox and a temper to match”.

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We met two guys down from Portland. They were approaching retirement and took two weeks off to get ready for a retirement full of cruising. They had one week to get as far South as they could and one week to get back. They were likely the most expert sailors on the dock. They had no hesitations about the Columbia River, or a hurried cruise up and down the pacific coast. They’re also the guys we suspect bought us Crowlers in Florence. 

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The coast guard captain who towed us in immediately became Taylor’s hero. She wielded her 47’ vessel and all-male crew like a master craftsman. Her title was a surfman. Meaning her job is to operate her boat in the worst conditions it can handle. And it can handle everything.  That boat was self-righting, could be rolled and swamped and keep steaming along. All the operations can be done from inside at a seat with a 5 point harness. It looked like a spaceship. When we were done being rescued, she traded us a tour of her boat in exchange for a chance to hold and snuggle Eunice. 

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It also was fun to be in a marina/RV Park. All the retired RV-ers would get bored and come walk the docks. Most a little too early in the morning for us sailors, but some we had great conversation with. Tim, a former sailor had a long list of great questions and as a retired heavy equipment mechanic had advice for our little diesel operation. He revisited Monday and Tuesday to see us off each time our plans changed. I didn’t get any good pictures of Tim but here’s a few of the public fish cleaning station.

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On our dinghy ride, we made friends with the entire marina. Something about 4 beer-drinking friends on a tiny raft is disarming, and throw in a kitten on my shoulder and everyone wanted to be a part of our party. 

A 12-year-old kid fishing off our dock made friends with Nelson. Apparently the kid almost hauled in an eel but his lure broke at the last minute. An hour later he re-caught the same eel and got his lure back. The eel was 1/4” shy of the state record. Another hour later the kid returns and offers Nelson one of the fillets! The Eel appetizers that night were fantastic! 

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Newport was good to us. We’re so happy to be cruising and now need to figure out what we can offer to all the boats around us.