September 19th-21st: Astoria, OR to Newport, OR
Author: Kris
I feel like I have a bad hangover today. That’s because I felt very queasy and ill yesterday. And that’s because I spent much of Tuesday and Tuesday night in the 3rd stage of sea sickness. The Stages of Sea Sickness are, Stage 1: You fear that you are getting sea sick. Stage 2: You fear that you might die. Stage 3: You fear that you are going to continue to live.
Rewind 3 days...Adam and I were spending our 2nd day in Astoria. We took care of our errands and watched Monday night football at the Merry Time sports bar. The weather forecast called for a small craft advisory due to unpleasant seas (11ft at 11 seconds). But we decided to depart Astoria for Newport, timing it so that we would cross the Columbia bar on the noontime slack flood. As Adam piloted us toward the bar I busily made us pbj sandwiches and put hot water in the thermos for later. Experience had taught me that the last place I want to be during passages with high swells was down in the galley. We had applied our Scopolamine patches earlier that day in hopes of preventing sea sickness. As we neared the bar I could feel the influence of the ocean swell increasing. They were getting bigger. 6 feet, then 8 feet, then 11 feet, but still no breakers. Ok. We cleared the bar without incident, save a hold opening and spilling its contents onto the floor.
We made it out into open water and set a SW course to take us offshore. Both winds and seas were out of the southwest, but the forecast was for them to veer westerly and then northwesterly toward the end of the passage. Because we had winds on the nose we had to motor, which made the boat roll on the swells much more than when under sail. I don't know exactly when my sea sickness started setting in, but it wasn't long before I started spending a few minutes every couple hours over the back rail. No fun. You know you're really sea sick when you begin to look forward to those few moments of feeling ok that follow getting sick. As night set in Adam and I established a watch schedule. He would take 8pm-12am, I would take 12am to 4am and he would take 4am to 8am. It was a nice theory, but I was so exhausted and Adam was doing fine, so he picked up a little of my watch. I held watch for 2.5 hours, from 12am until 2:30am, then he took the helm again. He woke me at 6am because he was starting to nod off and I took the helm, feeling a bit better, and more importantly, eager to be in port. I managed to keep it together during the morning watch by focusing on the horizon and looking for buoy 1 for the Newport bar.
After two hours it appeared on the horizon and we began maneuvering our way toward the jetty. The bar was closed to vessels under 30 feet and Adam was a bit hesitant to enter, but I was adamant that we would make entry, pointing out that we had been through much worse on the Columbia bar. A huge dredge ship was occupying the middle of the jetty but we managed to sneak around it into Yaquina Bay and...blissfully calm water. We decided to pull into a marina for the first night to take advantage of shower and laundry facilities. The South Beach marina had everything we needed, including a free shuttle into town. Fighting off our fatigue, we had showers and took the shuttle to old town. It dropped us off at the Undersea Gardens and we walked half a mile to Englund Marine for some wire that Adam wanted. During the walk we both hit the proverbial wall. It started raining and we were hungry so we ducked into Mo's where I managed to eat some clam chowder and a few green beans. We had to wait another hour for the shuttle so we browsed the few shops that weren't shut down due to rain. By the time we got back to the boat all we wanted to do was crawl into the v-berth. Adam pointed out that yesterday was International Talk Like A Pirate Day. I didn't find that funny at all. :-p
Today is our second day in Newport and I'm feeling better, though my head is still a bit achy and I feel loopy. We're going to stay in town until Saturday, when the forecast is much nicer than our passage from Astoria. Pretty much anything will be much nicer! Our next stop will be either Coos Bay or Crescent City, depending on the condition of the crew and seas. There is a lot to be said for getting south fast!
Lessons learned from this passage: 1) Small Craft Advisories may be just fine for our 36' boat, but I don't hold up so well. 2) The Scopolamine patch isn't for everyone. I've used it on three passages and I'm pretty sure that it only made my sea sickness worse.
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