BEFORE CRUISING:

We so far have only traveled between California and Washington with our boats. Albeit we have been fortunate to already chartered throughout the South Pacific and Caribbean over the years.  We've also traveled the east and west mainland coasts of Mexico extensively and most recently flew down to Panama and welcomed a pleasant surprise of exploring that wonderful country.

With Rapture we have made two trips to Portland, Oregon for full dodger and enclosure as well as for our dinghy davit/solar panel rack. 

AUGUST 2003

The first trip was fought with gale force winds and 12-15' seas and NO dodger! BOY were we wet. Taking green water and spray that goes into your foul weather gear. I thought we had wet suit's on...no, one would be drier! The real problem was we just got to the Columbia river bar at dark and because we hadn't installed a waterproof chart plotter in the cockpit yet, meant we were just navigating by lights and radar. That typically isn't a problem but adding all the nav buoys that go up to Ilwacco, Wa. and the river buoys it wasn't easy. Also having ships running in and out was exciting. The rest of the river trip of 100 miles to Portland was great the next day. 

After the dodger work completed we sailed back down the river in shorts and "T's" whilst the wind and rain flew past us. Our friend from S/V Nai'a joined us on that trip. When we got to Astoria at dark the wind had picked up to 30 knots again and some of the heaviest rain we've seen in years. Just tying up to the dock in like 3 minutes, Linda and Dave came back into the cockpit like drown rats, COMPLETELY soaked.

The next day was a challenging move. Head down the coast between storm fronts or figure renting a car and driving back to Newport and waiting for another week. Of course as it worked out we were able to make it to Newport the next day with no wind and 6-8' seas in 15 hours. That next day WX deteriorated and we counted our blessings. 

AUGUST 2004 NEWPORT-PORTLAND

Our next voyage was in August 2004 for a trip to Portland once again for a davit/solar panel installation. My nephew Mark and his son Jazer joined me for a combined Tuna trip and yacht delivery. We left at 1 PM on a Friday and about sunset we were in the Tuna grounds. Within a few minutes we started catching tuna 4-6 at a time! Neither Mark or Jazer had fished for them before. I was their deck hand and could hardly keep up with the bringing them up to the boat. At one point had 3 or 4 fish in a bucket that was inadvertently (meaning I kicked it) knocked down, where I watched them slowly sink away. I tried though to gaff them but lost the gaff hook in the process. Oh well not to worry, 4 more hookups took off while I was fumbling around. Could it get any better? Sun setting in 70 degree water, 4'swell, only in shorts, and 36 tuna in 1 hour. Ya....to bad we have to be going northeast, instead be heading southwest!!!