Travel to Astoria

This last weekend we went downriver to Astoria, which is the first leg of our trip to take Ablissian north to the San Juan and Gulf Islands.  The trip started with a fond farewell to our slip in Tomahawk Bay, then quickly ground to a halt when we arrived at the railroad bridge, called for an opening and were told they were having electrical problems and couldn't open.

We circled and eventually sailed a bit while waiting, and after about an hour the bridge was opened and we  started the motor and headed through. (the section on the right pivots to open the bridge)

We had bright sun and warm temperatures, with wind building through mid morning.  We found the new chart plotter to be a great addition to our paper charts - the combination made it very easy to stay in the channel. 

This was our first time past the railroad bridge, so it was interesting to see the west end of Hayden Island, the junction of the Willamette and then Sauvie Island.

We motored through what has been referred to as the jewel of the Columbia, a section around Walker Island with packed beaches, lots of jet skis and water skiers.  It was a really lovely section of the river.

As we traveled into the afternoon, we had a couple of close views of large ships - one of which passed us with little room to the side - and a second time a large Army Corps of Engineers vessel turned directly in front of us, forcing us to circle to avoid a collision.  But it was all manageable.


By 3pm the winds had picked up considerably and we found ourselves moving through 4-5 foot waves and 20-25 knots of wind.  Ablissian buried her bowsprit several times.  But the boat handled this very well and it was comfortable in the cockpit.  We were pleased to have a taste of this as it gave us more confidence for the off shore travel ahead of us.  We later confirmed that we were experiencing a small craft advisory.

We eventually decided to anchor at the Clifton Channel and leave the last bit of travel for the morning instead of continuing in the rough water.  We dropped anchor about 7:20pm.  This was our first time anchoring Ablissian and we were successful on the first try.  After a hot supper we did boat chores and turned in.  I woke several times to check the anchor but it was holding solid.

In the morning we got underway about 6:20.  There were some interesting rock formations and we saw more wildlife, including deer at the shore.  The last miles prior to Astoria open out to a wide, marshy section.  The channel is well marked and we were making excellent time with the current - up to 8 knots at one point!

Well before I expected it, we saw the Astoria Bridge in the distance, along with several very large ships anchored to the sides of the channel.  We rounded Tongue Point, passed under the bridge, turned into the West Basin Marina and found our slip for the week.  We called Taylor for our ride home and set about tidying the boat for departure.

She looks pretty good under the looming bridge!