Southbound

Fortitude X is on the move! We bid farewell to Canada on August 3^rd, leaving Causeway Marina in downtown Victoria to cross the Strait of Juan de Fuca in moderate winds, clearing customs in Port Angeles and hissing “The Stars and Stripes” courtesy flag before mooring at our assigned spot on the transient dock. My biggest worry, turned out to be a very pleasant encounter: Torsten stayed on board while skipper Steffi used the designated phone calling US Customs and Border Protection to report our arrival in American waters. 15 minutes later we were in a nice conversation with a friendly customs officer who handled our papers and decorated our new Canadian passports with the official US entry stamp.

The list of prohibited and restricted food items to bring into the Unites States includes fruit, veggies, meats, dairy and we combined our grocery shopping with a walk through town, before stocking up on all of our favourites items to refill the fridge. We spent another day for laundry and most importantly, signing up for a US Mobile plan to stay connected.

Taking off in the wee hours of August 5^th, we were welcomed by a beautiful sunrise promising a fantastic day at sea – and it was, at least for the first part of our 50+ NM trip until fog crept up on us. We dropped anchor in the Nah Bay with almost zero visibility, and it took until the next morning before we could fully appreciate our surroundings. Weighing anchor we collected a little souvenir from the bottom of the ocean – what are the chances?

Big day! With a slight delay we aimed for Cape Flattery, THE point to turn left to go south. We had the sails up and were planning for La Push, or further south, Grays Harbour but had so much fun that we just kept going. This is how my first official overnighter came about.

We crossed “The Graveyard of the North Pacific”, the Columbia River bar in perfect conditions and moored in Astoria at 11AM on August 7^th. Tired but happy we went for a first exploration tour of this quaint little town, picked up some junk food, and enjoyed a lazy evening, filling our bellies with beer and chips without a hint of guilt.

Rather than rushing down the coast, we stuck around, worked on some boat maintenance projects, visited the brilliant Maritime Museum, and enjoyed some fabulous seafood.

We made up for any “lost” time by opting for another 24 hours sail, skipping Garibaldi and going directly for Newport.  Tied up between hundreds of fishing boats, we bought a whole tuna fresh off the trawler and enjoyed some of it the same night. We knew that we were in for an extreme low tide and mentioned this when we checked in, hoping to get a favorable slip assigned that would prevent us – or better Fortitude X to touch bottom – not such luck though. I woke up the next morning as Torsten was literally rolling on to me.  Imagine my excitement. 

We spent two nights and crossed the Yaquina River bar at 6AM – together with at least half of the fishing fleet in the harbour – and enjoyed a beautiful day of sailing to Winchester. The Umpqua River bar made for a somewhat challenging approach and we were happy to see two seamen on the dock taking our lines as the tide was not in our favour. It’s then that we found out that Dan and Gary had been watching us from the jetty for the last few hours as we were approaching the bay and crossing the bar.  Both lifelong sailors, they were just so happy to see a boat like Fortitude X coming into their little community and we spent a delightful hour sharing stories on board. We kindly declined to invitation to be interviewed by the local newspaper; Gary insisted that he would make us famous. We left the next morning for Charleston in Coos Bay.

A knock on the boat interrupted our breakfast and sticking our heads out of the companionway, we found our two new friends from Winchester on the dock, inviting us to a day of sightseeing the area with them. They truly gave a new meaning to “Be kind whenever possible. It is always possible.” Needless to say that we spent a terrific day with these truly interesting local gentlemen and we couldn’t have hoped for better tour guides.

Rather than just waiting for a weather window, we rented a car for two days and explored central Oregon down to Northern California. I love road trips.