To be clear, I am a ship that takes risks. I am not that ship that waits for fine weather. If I were I might never leave the dock. A ship in the harbor is safe, but that is not what we ships are built for. When the days get shorter and the snow flies most vessels spend the majority of their days silent and secure in their slips. Not all of us, though. A buyer might find a vessel they just gotta have sitting right there in a home harbor.
Other vessels might have stayed out cruising longer than planned or maybe a yard project took longer than estimated. As the winter holidays arrive ship owners start calling and emailing delivery skippers regarding availability for a winter foray up or down the US West Coast.
Estimates for shipwrecks from San Diego to the Strait of San Juan de Fuca range as high as 7,000 unfortunate vessels. Interestingly as many as 70 are likely buried beneath the streets of San Francisco, abandoned during the 1849 gold rush and left to founder and eventually be built right over. The majority of these vessels came to grief at the harbor entrances guarded by river bars. The Columbia River Bar is the most notorious of these river bars, likely due to the fact that there is significant traffic in and out of the river. The sheer size and power of the seas at that entrance are another factor. An example is the USS Shark, a navy ship lost along a lee shore now more renowned for weddings and The Goonies. The Shark’s cannon came to rest on a beach in Oregon,
Tthe west coast navigator used to have to rely on a combination of watching the barometer, the 11 o’clock news, NOAA weather forecasts, and SSB broadcasts out of Pt. Reyes in order to determine your own sail plan. Then you might have discussions with local fishermen to determine whether the bar crossing was open or closed by the USCG.
Now the modern mariner has a myriad of free websites and professional weather routers at their disposal. Even so most pleasure boats simply just stay comfortably in their slips. But not all of them. I can tell you this year there was some fine weather in January and owners of some vessels just simply couldn’t wait for spring flowers to get moving.
These vessels require hardy crews with names like Carrick, Megan, and Scott. And this is the story of their delivery trip down the west coast.
The adventure begins with the flight to the vessel once the weather is determined to be “good enough. Truth be told, the sea state and winds proved much higher than predicted. Most deliveries start with the flight and at the end of which the owner’s people pick you up and transport you to the vessel. Not always, though. This time it was a plane to Portland International, then a train to the Union Station in downtown Portland. The trains arrive at the back of the building and the bus to Astoria departs from the front. The walk around the building was adventuresome even by this former Army Ranger’s standards. There were folks openly smoking crack, injecting themselves and one another or simply laying on the sidewalk. For starters it was chilly. It was the holiday season. Then there was a bus ride to the Coast, which was a pleasure. We left out of Ilwaco on the Washington side of the Columbia River just downstream from Dismal Niche where Lewis and Clark once spent a winter holiday themselves.
Not surprisingly the liveliest weather of the trip was the first four hours as we cleared the Bar entrance and set sail for San Francisco. That shaking was probably the reason the fuel filters become cloudy. The motion of the vessel likely caused the sediment in the fuel tanks to emulsify into the diesel fuel and clog up the filters. Then the engine started running rough. Then the engine shut down. With a glassy sea around us and predicted to be so for four more days we drained the debris and replaced the fuel filters. We got the iron genny started again for a little while, but then it shut down again. We notified the USCG at Coos Bay of our situation and swapped the filters once more and finally cleared the bar pulling into Giddings Shipyard just through the South Slough drawbridge. Going under a draw bridge with gimpy filters fighting current keeps you focused on tasks at hand.
Giddings boatyard is famous for its metal fish boat construction and it was as sleepy as a ghost town. [I wondered if the owners of the giant diesel pick up trucks in the parking lot; Ford, Chevy and Dodge with all the TRUMP stickers understood the connection. I would discourage political comments. You might unnecessarily irritate ½ the people reading.]
Yard personnel cut an access port into the cabin sole and then the fuel tank. The fuel was removed and filtered and the tank was physically scrubbed. Then we reloaded the boat with a fresh box of filters, watched the end of the play off game while we finished dinner at a local pub and were underway as the moon rose over a sleepy blue Pacific.
The heater kept the pilothouse warm but the autopilot was only accessible from the cockpit. Every three hours we would swap from the bunk to the helm seat. Note to self: If you are a delivery captain don’t ever let the owner handle the grocery shopping. Make sure he informs you ahead of time to informs you that he is on a special diet that does not include carbohydrates, caffeine and sugar, especially if you like all those food groups.
On the way down the coast I was reminded that each harbor has its own personality and perspective of time. Tillamook Bay, Oregon, for example, has the best ice cream by far. When we pulled into Bandon, Oregon and rang the number for the fuel dock we were reminded it was NFL play off Sunday so we learned that we would have to wait till half time to fill our tanks. Cruising into Eureka, California we did not even have our mooring lines secured before we were made a generous offer for a prodigious amount of Cannabis. Every harbor has its own charm.
Every winter the commercial crabbing fleet waits anxiously for the whales to make their way South prior to being allowed to set their pots in order to limit entanglements with these gentle leviathans. There are also towing lanes set up offshore to allow commercial traffic to pass unimpeded. Well there are supposed to be towing lines. As a former fisherman myself, I can tell you that the crabbers set their pots where the crabs are likely to be. For pleasure boats approaching harbors near coastal waters represent a labyrinth of hazards. Given the strong currents sometimes the buoys are only visible occasionally. This year we got lucky and slipped through without any hassle.
The point I’m trying to make here is to remind you that just because the days are shorter and the nights are chilly the trip up or down the Coast can still be epic. As a delivery captain my last two Thanksgiving vacations have been spent underway up and down the west coast. I’ve seen black footed albatross, gray whales and Dall’s porpoise, all of which have provided fine company to make up for lack of turkey and stuffing.