September 17th, 2016

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Saturday, Sept 17. A rainy day in Newport, Or.

Saturday, September 17th, 2016

Glad that I am not out there sailing in the slow steady down pour. The RV vacationers have moved inside and I hope they have as much indoor chores as I have. The downtown area spread down Hi-way 101 is a long walk, across the long bridge over the Yaquina River. There is a shuttle bus but it only comes every 45 minutes and the last one leaves here at 4.46 pm. I plan to take it and attend the 5.30 pm Sunday vigil mass and leave port at 8 a.m. on the end of the ebb tide. Today the winds are from the south west and strengthening to 20/25 knots this evening. Right on the nose. But the forecast is for a west wind in the morning and then gradually going back to the standard N.Westerly.

I will be mooring at the Encinal Y.C., in Alameda and expect to be there by this coming weekend. Possibly Thursday, if I do not make another stop.

On my walk into town yesterday I recognized the landmarks from the visits here as crew from Gig Harbor to San Francisco in or around 1991 with Larry Burcar on his “Siren” and later with Roger Rue in 1993. Both friends have passed on since. It was on both occasions that we stopped in Fort Bragg and it remains one of the most interesting time warp memories. A town where the clock stopped in 1961. But for all I know it will be a disappointment, that happens when you outlive your good friends. But there will be new ones. I already made a number new friendships, in Port Townsend and here in  Newport, an Ontario Canadian Couple who have been cruising the world for the last thirteen years, Judy and Aubrey, they left yesterday and a Kiwi-German couple on “Rhapsody”. They are on their way back to New Zealand after a large circle tour of the Pacific from N.Z. along Asia, Japan to the Aleutian Islands and down from Alaska. Kerrin is from the small German North Sea island of Föhr and Steve is a Brit who has been living in New Zealand for the last 16 years. Rhapsody is a beautiful well built traditional design of Athol Burns, buit in New Zealand. The hull is planked in Kauri.  They were in the Wooden Boat Festival with me in Port Townsend.

Here are a couple more pictures of the sail to Newport:

sunset Sunday in the Strait of San Juan de Fuca

sunset Sunday in the Strait of San Juan de Fuca

In reaching and running downwind I use the outboard spinnaker lead to tweak the head sail at a better angle. This boat has much better hardware than I had on her predecessor.

In reaching and running downwind I use the outboard spinnaker lead to tweak the head sail at a better angle. This boat has much better hardware than I had on her predecessor.