sailing casita

We are still out cruising the Multnomah Channel & the Columbia River and having a fantastic time. The weather has finally turned around and we are enjoying lots of sun. We are still mostly motoring (Multnomah Channel is too narrow and full of snags, pilings, and floating logs for us to feel comfortable sailing) but we have done some sailing on the Columbia.

Tuesday we had light winds (3 to 5 knots) blowing straight up the Columbia, we put out both headsails (no main) and managed to make 2.9 mph SOG – not much but this was against the current. I also managed to sail backwards at one point – without even trying! That must have looked funny from the shore – our sails were full and we were slowly going backwards:)

Wednesday we docked at the St. Helens city docks and walked into town for supplies (stopping along the way for gelatto) and did some more sailing. The winds were 5 to 10 knots, we made 7mph SOG close hauled with just the headsails (we might get brave enough to raise the main today). We had a great time, we worked on refining our technique for tacking the jib with the staysail up and dodging cargo ships. The biggest freighter we saw gave us some “heavy seas” with a couple 5 foot waves very close together – the 2nd wave was breaking as we were riding down the first one, we almost took water over the bow.

Right now we are anchored in a log pond in Martin’s Island, it is a nice sheltered spot with no current and nothing scary to drift into if we were to drag – a great first anchorage 🙂