Trawlering up to Oregon on Antipodes

After several months in San Francisco, we left the comfy confines of the bay and headed out into the Pacific Ocean.  While we have cruised a good portion of the coast from Cabo San Lucas to San Francisco, this next section is reputed to be the toughest.

Heading north on this coast is always a challenge.  The currents are typically southery, the swells out of the northwest, the wind the same and finally there are few safe ports or anchorages along the way. On top of that, the weather is more boisterous and heads quickly down the coast making planning difficult.  In all, a daunting task for a boat that only travels 7 knots.

We had been watching the weather for several weeks and finally found a good window to start heading north.  A good weather window is one where the winds are light and the sea swell is small ad lasts for several days.  We also hired a weather router, a person who professionally monitors the weather for folks like us and provides advice.  Bob from OMNI Weather also gave us the thumbs up to start heading north.

Heading out of the San Francisco Bay, we enjoyed the views along the way cruising under the bay bridge and past the city and Alcatraz Island.  We finally headed out under the Golden Gate Bridge and into the Pacific Ocean.

San Francisco Bay, like many entrances into the ocean, is considered a river with a bar that complicates entry and exits.  As tides rise (flood) water streams into the bay and as tides fall (ebb) water rushes out.  In some places, this movement of water is significant.  When the water leaving the bay opposes an ocean swell they fight.  This creates large confused seas that are not fun to run a boat through.

We timed our trip to arrive at the Golden Gate at slack tide, this is when the tides switch direction and the currents are minimum.  I was apparently a bit off in my calculations as we still had a good 1.5 knot current pushing us out the bay.  This current met the incoming swells and caused them to steepen up, some were 8 foot and very steep making forward progress somewhat bouncy.  None of this was dangerous to our boat, just not as comfortable as you would like, especially starting out a long voyage.

Another challenge around a river bar, and especially San Francisco, are sholes.  Rivers meet the ocean while carrying lots of sediment.  This sediment meets the ocean swells and falls to the bottom creating the bar or bars.  San Francisco's famous for a area called the Potato Patch.  We had the option of taking a narrow, but marked, channel inside the patch or going around it which was a 6-8 mile detour.  An hour on our boat.

We decided, after scanning the channel, that it was good enough for us to pass and it was.  After we cleared this channel we turned north up the coast.

Our next challenge did not take long to present itself.  We started seeing multiple areas loaded with crab pots.  We are now in the middle of the crabbing season on the west coast and crab pots can be a nasty issue for us.  The pots are dropped in somewhat shallow water (less than 500 foot depths) and are marked by a long line attached to a buoy.  The lines are the concern as we can wrap the line around our prop causing us to lose propulsion.  On a good day this is a real problem, on a bad day with heavy seas and wind it can be outright dangerous.  If the boat has no propulsion we can turn side to the swells and the boat would be rocking considerably.

We have gear on board that would allow us to straighten out the boat (a sea anchor) as well as diving equipment to help clear the lines but in all honesty I would rather miss the pots and skip the swim.

So, we decided to run far offshore for the remainder of the trip.  Since we had dead calm seas and little wind, this was an easy decision.  We didn't see another pot until our arrival into Coos Bay two days later.

Since this was a long leg, we travelled 400 miles. we needed to run the boat over two different nights. Night running is interesting in that you cannot see much outside the boat and you rely on your electronic equipment to help you see.  We use our radar, chartplotter and AIS for navigation.  Nancy and I split the time overnight with each of us watching 5 hours.  We feel this is better for us as the person off watch can get a decent sleep.   Others use 3 or 4 hour shifts but we've found this to be good.

We did see some good sunsets, sunrises as well as many whales along the way.

After 57 hours running Antipodes we made port in Coos Bay.  The bar crossing here was with a flood tide and was without incident.  The marina here in Charleston is a classic fishing port with most of the fleet fishing for salmon right out of the bay.

We have another short hop up to Newport Oregon then will head to Seattle by running another 36 hours up the coast.  After than, we will be reasonably protected from the ocean and it's fury!

Here we go again!

So, after 5 months of time in this beautiful area it's time to start moving again.  We have thoroughly enjoyed our stay here in the San Francisco Bay area.  Lots of activities from hiking to biking, plenty of great trips (Big Basin and Pinnacles being my personal favorites), and lots of family time made the time pass quickly.

 

  

We've spent a good amount of time over the past few months working on Antipodes, we feel that she is in great shape and ready to take on the challenges of the Pacific Northwest.

Our 2015 plan is as follows:

April - find a good weather window to head up the coast.  We have about 850 nautical miles to travel before heading into the Straight of Juan de Fuca.  Once inside the straight the seas get somewhat easier to manage and we won't be fighting the ocean swells to any extent.  The summer/fall cruise will primarily be in the "inside passage", protected from most ocean conditions.  However, we will need to get good at managing tides and currents as many places can be dangerous due to rapids (sample image below), currents and whirlpools.  Not an issue as long as you time things right.

May/June - We'll be staying rather close to the Seattle area for the late spring, mainly due to our daughter Allie's graduation from Oregon State University on June 13th.  We'll drive down for the graduation and Nancy will help Allie drive back to San Diego where she will start her life as an adult (Allie, not Nancy).  

We will visit several areas while in this location including Port Angeles (Olympic National Park), Victoria, British Columbia including the Gulf Islands, the San Juan Islands and Hood Canal.  We'll also stop in Seattle and several smaller boating communities over the two months.  We are looking forward to seeing some of our Mexico made friends in Seattle as well.

July/August - After Nancy returns from San Diego we are planning to make a beeline to Alaska.  We want to start as far north as possible to get as much time in Alaska as the weather will allow.  The trip to Alaska will take about 12 days so we are looking at July 4th as our target date to be up there.  We plan to visit Ketchikan, Juneau and Sitka while there, these will be the reprovisioning stops.  Our adventure will include visiting Glacier Bay, the Misty Fjords, several glaciers as well as bear watching facilities. I plan on lots of fishing for Salmon, Halibut and Lingcod.  We will do some crabbing as well, should be a feast!

  

September - We will start heading back towards Seattle in late August or early September.  We plan on visiting areas on the way back down including the Broughton Islands and Desolation Sound.  These are both beautiful areas full of islands, waterfalls and wildlife!

 October/November - We will most likely start our return trip to San Diego in mid October and slowly work our way down the coast.  We have plans to stop in many areas including a visit to San Francisco, the Channel Islands and Catalina Island for Thanksgiving.

Finally, if all goes according to plan (lol), we will return to San Diego around December 1st.

Well, that's the plan.  It will be interesting to see how much/little comes to fruition!  Regardless, it will be an adventure and we're anxious to begin!