Tuesday May 15.

It was high tide early in the day and since Fetch was already in the water I got under way in short order. It was pretty foggy, so I made an GPS exercise out of it. I sailed down to the South Bay in a light wind. Once on the bay I tried to follow some channels with the GPS and subtle differences on the water surface confirmed the location of the shallows. As soon as I decided to head back the wind picked up. I tacked out of a narrow channel and even had to put in one reef. It was fun to quickly put in a reef during one short tack across the channel.

foggy day

pelicans on breakwater

Near the breakwaters the wind was very light, just like yesterday. Tacking back against the current in light wind proved futile, so I turned on the iron horse and went back to the ramp. I stopped by Tony, but he was out. Had a good lunch at the marina restaurant and went back on the road. I called Dan Phy, who lives in Fort Bragg, to tell him I may stay one more night in a park before I made it to his house. I helped Dan build his Scamp in the Maritime Center in Port Townsend about a year and a half ago and he had invited me to stay a few nights.

I spend some time in the redwood forests, but didn’t feel like hanging around. So I hit the road again. I got off the 101 and onto highway 1, which hugs the coast to Fort Bragg. That road is one steep curvy son of a gun! Up and down with tight hairpin turns at times. I got the hang of though and had a good time. Just as I had praised my van for doing such a marvelous job under those conditions while pulling a boat, I noticed a burning smell and the brakes felt funny. I pulled off and saw to my grief that both front wheels where spewing smoke! I felt bad, I had overdone it, my poor little van was hurting! After waiting a while I carefully started going again, this time taking it much slower.

jolly painted house along the way

I got out of the mountains and onto the coastal section and finally got phone reception again to notify Dan, who wasn’t expecting me till the next day. I got there around 8 and we emptied a bottle of wine. His wife Mary got back home a little later and we all had a nice chat before hitting the sack. I got their guest house all to myself with a real bed with sheets!

Monday May 14.

After a night in a rather sketchy RV Park I checked for wind. There was a nice mild breeze and mostly sunny skies. In the middle of the night I woke up from some movement of the trailer. I carefully opened the blinds and didn’t see anything wrong. Thoughts raced through my mind; some guy could be messing with my outboard motor and I wouldn’t see it from here.  Finally I saw the culprit; a cat had jumped on the boat! I rocked the van, which made the boat rock as well. The cat looked around confused and took off.

I launched the boat in Eureka and sailed down toward the South Bay. There is a wide channel with industrial places both sides. I noticed a boatyard on the west side with a trawler one the hard.

tug and barge

boatyard

coastguard station near the bar

Near the beginning of the breakwater I started wondering whether I should poke my head out in the ocean. The wind was less than 10 knots at this point and I’ve wanted to do this the past weeks, but the sea has been too wild. Since it was straight into the wind, I lowered sail and motored over there (I think it’s called; across the bar).

GPS showing I'm heading out across the bar

swell breaking on breakwater

head of breakwater with pelicans

Once in the open, I raised sail and sailed…. till the wind died. Swell was gliding underneath Fetch, having come a long distance and about ready to crash on the beach about a mile away. In celebration of Fetch’s first time on the ocean I made a Nutella sandwich and put it on extra thick!

celebration with Nutella

A big ship was heading in and looked like it was aiming at me for a while. After it turned into the entrance I saw it was the dredge and it went right to work dredging the channel. It didn’t take long before it was loaded to it’s waterline, after which it headed back out to dump the stuff. I motored back past him to see if I could find some wind inside.

Inside I found a nice breeze which took me right back to Eugene. I swung by Tony, in the marina, to say high and to show him Fetch. He was quite pleased and asked me to come by before I left town.

There are three channels, each with a bridge, into Arcata Bay direct north of Eugene. The southern one ends up in a slough with a fixed low bridge, so I turned around before I got stuck. I then went to the biggest channel to the north and it forks of into different arms. On the cart and GPS one can distinguish different channels on the bay, but from the boat it just looks like a vast area with some dry spots here and there and lots of stakes without apparent relation to the shallow areas. It’s really hard to guess distances. With aid of the GPS however, I was able to find and follow one arm and after a bit cross over to another one to then head back through the third and middle channel.

most northern bridge

fog coming up

This channel took me by a substantial Egret rookery. There may have been 50 of them. It was a beautiful sight to see all these Egrets fly hither and dither. They are such graceful birds. I noticed some Great Blue Herons and a Night Heron as well. There were some nice settlements on that island. I wouldn’t mind living in such a place one day. Slowly the fog had been creeping in and by the time I reached the dock it was pretty foggy.

egret rookerie

egrets on nests

nice spot

another nice spot

thick fog

the ramp must be somewhere here

tied up at last

I didn’t haul Fetch out, because I was planning to sail some more the next day. After another great meal at the Lost Coast Brewery I parked the van on some parking lot for the night, hoping I wouldn’t get bothered.

Around sunset (Sat. May 12th) I took a quick stroll to the beach. There were impressive sand-cliffs and a lot of it was sloughing off onto the beach beneath.

Sunday May 13.

Mother’s day today I reminded myself. It was foggy and there was no wind. I drove into town to see if there was any there; nope. Sailors of small boats are picky people, there is either not enough wind or there is too much. The day before seemed perfect, but I got there too late. I sat down in the Beachcomber Café with coffee and a ‘bean bowl’ and plugged in the wall to top off my laptop. A lot of wall outlets had cover plates on them, so suitable seats were sparse. A fellow Internet user informed me that café owners are cutting back on outlets, because people with their laptops sit there for hours with just one coffee. Oops! I made sure I ordered enough to be worthwhile. During blogging and emailing a guitarist came in a played some good songs, which made for a pleasant morning. I noticed a different kind of customers here than before in cafes. There may be an alternative community living here. I guess I’m getting closer to Eureka and Arcata.

Back at the harbor there was still no wind, so I stood there for a while thinking what to do. Just leaving didn’t seem right, so I decided to take out the kayak. In the trailer box, next to Fetch, I carry an inflatable kayak and a foldable bicycle (as well as a spare trailer wheel). I needed to try the kayak anyhow, because I only had it out once at home. It doesn’t have much of a fore deck, so I put on long johns to stay dry. I paddled for about 2 hours and it was nice to feel the swell under me. I got to a cliff where the swell was breaking, so I beached and took a short break. During the paddle I saw some seals, vultures and cormorants. It felt good to be out paddling.

trailer box with kayak and bicycle

After packing the kayak away I took off toward Eureka. I explored the edges of Arcata Bay and took a walk in Woodley Island Marina. I noticed more sailboats than along the Oregon coast, where there are mostly powerboats and fish boats. On one of the docks I saw a guy standing on a nice looking sailboat. I asked him if it was a Vertue by any chance and he asked me surprised how I knew that. He never meets people that know that design. I told him I worked in the boatyard in Port Townsend where there were a few of those boats. He said his boat came from there, one of 8 built by ‘Fiberglass George’. After talking for a while he mentioned Kit Africa as someone who did the original rigging on that boat. I said I worked with Kit till I left on this trip and asked him if he knew Kit.  Apparently he married Kit and his current wife! He knew him very well. Small world. Tony Carter was his name.

Tony Carter on his Vertue.

I asked him about an unusual looking steel boat at the end of the dock. He said it was designed and built for a guy, who took it out once about 25 years ago! Apparently the propulsion is in the rudder and that wasn’t working well in the swell, because the prop kept coming out of the water. The steel hull is over 100 feet long and only about 12 feet wide with steel masts supporting a junk rig. The bigger unstayed foremast had a hinge and was bolted with massive bolts to the base like a big telephone pole. The things you can do in steel. Very unusual boat indeed.

I parked in downtown and walked around. I had some excellent salad and beer in ‘Lost Coast Brewery and Café’. It felt good to be in a bit of a town again after all these ‘holes in the wall’ (sorry) along 101. I’m not much of a city guy, but in Port Townsend we are spoiled with good quality bakeries, coffee shops, food coop, restaurants etc.

Lost Coast Brewery and Cafe

May 12.

In the morning I walked part of the Trillium Falls Trail and saw a few more giants. Near the falls were some really green mossy trees.

Trillium Falls

I was following signs for the elk meadows, but didn’t see any. I got in my car and just as I exited the park I noticed a bunch of cars parked along the road. Sure enough there was a herd of Elk grazing nearby. All their heads were down munching till a train hooted out loud, upon which all heads went up. Cameras went berserk left and right.

Elk Meadows

In a little town called Trinidad I noticed that the sea was kind of protected behind a headland. The bay looked pretty nice with a bunch of rocks and a beach further over. Out around the headland there was more wind, so I could pick how much wind I wanted to deal with. I started looking for a ramp and followed the signs. Down at the beach one could only launch from the beach, which didn’t look all that doable for my rig. However there was a small launching railway. For $35 they roll you in and out the water. A pretty slick looking operation. I asked the manager if he could do Fetch the next day (they were about to close). He took a look at the boat and thought it would be ok. He advised me to come back the next morning around 10 after all the other boats were in so they could take their time. The normally don’t launch sailboats.

Trinidad Bay

railway

This is how the fishermen get out of the water

I started looking for a place to charge my laptop battery and check email. The places that were open didn’t have Internet and the places with Internet were closed. Outside one café I got signal and had just enough power left to check my email, but not enough to reply. The RV Park didn’t have Internet, so I drove out of town to find another park. Back along 101 I found a state park near the beach and drove in. No power hookup anywhere except for two sites. I pulled in an hooked up….no power. I checked the other one; no power. I tried the men’s, which had a outlet, but it was busted. I tried the ladies and alas! Power! However, I didn’t see myself go in there and sit down with my laptop, so I ran a power cord out the window and put up my folding chairs outside. Finally I got some more juice in my computer to do some photo editing and writing.

power from the ladies room

Thursday May 10.

I left Gold Beach rather late, having spent a few hours blogging. The wind was stronger than ever and the sun was bright. I said goodbye to the Ospreys and Swallows and drove off. More cliffs, beaches, vistas and breaking surf were enjoyed and I stopped in Brookings for lunch. I had chicken salad, because I want to focus on protein and veggies where I can for you know why. I also try to work in at least one good walk of an hour or more each day.

my favorite

After lunch I was feeding a seagull some stuff upon which a jealous seagull came along and started whacking into each other. They got a firm grip and tumbled 15’ down in the water and still didn’t let go. It was brutal. I felt a bit guilty for having started this fight.

gull meets gull

gull no 1 doesn't like it

argument follows

it ends up in a fierce fight

Back on the road, all of a sudden I saw a ‘Welcome to California’ sign along the road. It took me a bit by surprise, but there I was in California! I started noticing other signs around me: The sky was hazier, the water was bluer than earlier on my trip, I was picking up Arcata public radio, it was definitely warmer outside, I needed sunglasses and air-conditioning and I spotted Eucalyptus trees. Driving in Crescent City I had the feeling that the streets were wider, more asphalt all around, some stucco houses. All of this reminded me of living in California years ago. Somehow I was feeling a bit uncomfortable about these changes. Maybe I was a bit nostalgic about leaving Oregon somehow. Oregon seemed smaller scale, greener, funkier. I better get used to those changes, because a lot more of them were ahead of me.

I checked out the harbor in Crescent City, spotted an RV park nearby and parked the van there. I took a walk to the lighthouse and shot some pictures of pelicans, ravens, whimbrels and a bunch of Phalaropes in a puddle. Normally these little birds hang out on the ocean, but maybe the wind had blown them inshore. The sun was setting and caused some nice lighting over the reef and surf.

yours truly

Lighthouse at Crescent city

Phalarobes

ravens

Spotted Sandpiper

I had borrowed a CD at the park-office and enjoyed the movie ‘Runaway bride’. This was my first movie on this trip and I was amazed how comfortable one can be in a little camper watching a movie, completely oblivious of where one is at the moment. Kind of like getting absorbed in a movie flying in an airplane; in the middle of the movie you look outside and notice, with a bit of a chock, that you are high above a world of ice in Greenland.

Friday May 11.

I wanted to visit the redwoods, so I drove down to Prairie Creek Redwood State Park and parked at one of the trailheads. I chose what seemed like a short loop on Prairie Creek Trail. The walk ended up about 3.5 hours, because I couldn’t keep walking for long before I just had to take another picture! The lighting, the tall trees and the wild textures of their trunks were mesmerizing. After seeing a few big trees I arrived at yet a bigger tree and thought: now that is a BIG tree. After a while there is an even bigger tree than the one before: Wow! Now that is a REALLY BIG TREE. After yet another while…….you get the picture? One feels dwarfed standing among a grove of those giants, some of which are over 2000 years old! I felt lucky and thankful that I had the opportunity to be there and be in no hurry what so ever.

me and tree

I wanted to spend the night in the park, so I pulled in the Elk Prairie campground. There were warning signs not to approach Elk. Every campsite had a lockable metal food box to keep bears and other critters out. I stepped outside after dark, but had the feeling bears were staring at me, so I went right back inside my cozy camper and had a good long sleep.

It’s beachcruising season and we’ve got 6 stainless Kelly Kettle cooker kits in stock and ready to ship. —Eds