The Marquesas Islands first showed up in version four of our planned itinerary across the South Pacific. We weren’t even going there initially, not because it wasn’t appealing, but because the islands were a long run east from Hawaii. And we decided to make it even more challenging by going to Palmyra Atoll and Fanning Island first. Running from Fanning Island signed us up for strong counter currents and winds the whole way to the Marquesas. But having done it, the rewards are substantial. The Marquesas are impressive and we almost can’t believe they weren't on our itinerary from the beginning.

We arrived at Nuku Hiva in the northern Marquesas the morning of April 15th and spent the next two weeks island-hopping to the southern extreme at Fatu Hiva. The scenery, impressive in Nuku Hiva, became even more dramatic as we worked south: sheer mountain cliffs with almost impossible formations, mountain ridges so narrow that holes have formed from one side to the other, and incredible views into the anchorages below for those willing to climb. Fatu Hiva, pictured above, was our last stop in the islands and typifies Marquesan geology. We particularly enjoyed the diving there as well. We love exploring, and usually move frequently, but ended up staying at Fatu Hiva for five nights. If the rest of the South Pacific weren’t waiting, we’d probably still be there.

Highlights from the trip follow, or click on the image at left for a live map-based version of the complete trip log. On the live-map page, clicking on a camera or text icon will display a picture and/or log entry for that location, and clicking on the smaller icons along the route will display latitude, longitude and other navigation data for that location. And a live map of our current route and most recent log entries always is available at http://www.mvdirona.com/maps/LocationCurrent.html.

4/15/2013: Cliffs The steep slopes of Nuku Hiva.

4/15/2013: At anchor At anchor in Baie de Taiohae with our quarantine flag flying as we head in to clear through.

4/15/2013: Bonjour View to our first French Polynesian anchorage. Dirona is just visible in the background directly to our right.

4/15/2013: Hinano Local Tahitian beer Hinano on the veranda at Pension Moana Nui. We had a delicious pizza there the following night.

4/17/2013: Fueling We took on 1,170 gallons of diesel at the fuel dock, but wanted 1,364. They were short on fuel, so we couldn't quite fill. The fuel dock has a cement wall and the surge was substantial, so a side-tie risks damaging the boat. Instead, boats needing small amounts of fuel often ferry them by dinghy in jerry cans. Those needing larger amounts typically med-moor to the wall, where the boat is anchored and backed into the dock and tied standing a few feet off the wall. We've got a 75-foot line from each stern corner to a bollard ashore, and a large Aere inflatable fender protecting the swim platform. The fuel hose runs from the dock, over the swim platform and into the cockpit on the far side of the fender.

4/18/2013: Anse Hakatea At anchor in Anse Hakatea, Baie do Taioa. The bay also is known as Daniel's Bay after a longtime Marquesan resident. Three sailboats were at anchor there when we arrived, and two more came later. We anchored outside them all with plenty of swing room. Swell was a little higher were we were, but it was fine with the flopper-stopper.

4/19/2013: Along the path The valley we're heading to is directly behind that tall palm. Once we'd left this tended path, the trail through the forest was still quite easy to follow.

4/19/2013: At the falls Rain hadn't fallen for a while, so the falls weren't flowing much, but the valley was spectacular with steep shores enclosing a tranquil pool. James is standing just to the left of the pool.

4/19/2013: Baie Hooumi We left Anse Hakatea after returning back from our hike and anchored all alone at Baie Hooumi in the late afternoon. We anchorage felt secure and snug, with steep shores on either side. Some swell did reach us, but we were fine with the flopper-stopper out. We're able to deploy and retract it within ten minutes, so it's not a bother.

4/20/2013: Baie D'Anaho Serrated cliffs along the south shore of Baie D'Anaho, on the north shore of Nuku Hiva. We also has this beautiful and tranquil anchorage all too ourselves. The waters were calm too--the first at Nuku Hiva where we've not even considered the flopper-stopper. A few houses ringed the shore and it night local music drifted across the water.

4/21/2013: Ua Pou A view to the distinctive spires on Ua Pou. The scenery in the Marquesas is spectacular, and keeps getting better at each island. We were lucky to see the spire tops so clearly--apparently clouds often hide them.

4/21/2013: Baie d'Hakahau We were able to find a space with just enough swing room between the three transient boats anchored behind the breakwater. Then we followed the road up to a cross on a hilltop east of the harbor.

4/22/2013: Gray Matter Approaching Baie Hanamoenoa, where our good friends Christine Guo and Mark Mohler are anchored aboard Nordhavn 62 Gray Matter. We last saw them in San Francisco, where they'd arranged a slip for us at their marina in Redwood City. And now, both boats having travelled over 5,000 miles since then, we're finally back together again.

4/23/2013: Baie Hanatefau Both boats made the "big" run to Baie Hanatefau the next morning. The anchorage was beautiful, with torquoise waters and steep slopes. We initially had the basin all to ourselves, but half a dozen other boats eventually stopped there too. The small village of Hapatoni is in the background at the south end of the bay.

4/26/2013: Sunset Enjoying the sunset from the bow.

4/27/2013: Sunrise Sunrise through a hole in the cliffs, en route to Fatu Hiva.

4/27/2013: Tahuata cliffs Dramatic cliffs at the south end of Tahuata

4/27/2013: Baie Hanavave Soaring cliffs and dramatic formations flank the valley that heads Baie Hanavave at Fatu Hiva. We've been in some pretty beautiful anchorages on this trip, but this one without question is the most impressive.

4/28/2013: View A road connects Hanavave and the larger village of Omoa to the south, climbing steeply to a 2,000-meter pass. We followed the road up to the pass for sweeping views into the anchorage, the village, and the valley beyond. Dirona is anchored at the far left of the picture.

4/29/2013: Falls Lunch in front of the pool at the base of the falls. Jennifer was going to have a swim, but got over it after we saw an 18-inch eel hunting there.

4/29/2013: Scenery After the hike, we toured the shoreline around the anchorage. Steep, vegetation-covered hills soar above us around at every corner. This is easily the most beautiful place we've ever been.

4/29/2013: Cave Some of the caves were large enough to fit the dinghy well inside.

4/29/2013: Arch This arch Jennifer is sitting at runs about 40 feet clear through the cliff.

4/30/2013: Welcome Welcome sign on the way into the village. Fatu Hiva is the only populated island in the Marquesas without an airport, so everything arrives by boat.

4/30/2013: Octopus On the first dive, we saw many octopus tucked into the rocks, the first we've seen on this trip. The octopus appeared reasonably large, although not nearly as big as the ones we've seen in the Pacific Northwest. We believe this is a Day Octopus, which grows to about 2.5 feet. They changed colors patterns frequently as we watched, going from dark brown to almost white in some transitions.

4/30/2013: Moray eel One of several Moray Eels, possibly a Stout Moray. We saw many eels on this dive, but none were bright yellow like this one.

4/30/2013: Lionfish One of two Spotfin Lionfish hiding under a rock overhang.

5/1/2013: Moorish Idols Two Moorish Idols swimming above our dinghy anchor. We did two more wall dives today--and the underwater scenery and sealife was even better than yesterday. Massive schools of thousands of fish frequently surrounded us, and we saw all kinds of Triggerfish, Butterflyfish and Angelfish.

5/1/2013: A nudi! This 1-inch creature likely is a Nippled Pleurobranch rather than a Nudibranch, but close enough. Both are of the subclass Opisthobranchia whose species often are so wildly colored they look fake. Over 3,000 Nudibranch species live throughout the world's oceans--their fantastic forms and psychedelic colors make them among our favorite sea creatures. Our boat name is derived from Dirona Albolineata, or the Alabaster Nudibranch, an invertebrate indigenous to the Puget Sound that we often saw when scuba diving there.

5/1/2013: Eels A small (left) and a large Moray eel peering out from the rocks.

5/1/2013: School Swimming through a school of thousands of Fusilier-like fish.

Click on the image at left for more photos and the complete map-based trip log.

From Palmyra Atoll, we travelled 200 miles southeast to Fanning Island, another atoll in the Northern Line Group of the Line Islands. Fanning Island is part of the Republic of Kiribati, so this would be our first exit from the U.S. into another country since leaving Seattle last September, over 4,000 miles ago.

The entry channel has plenty of depth, but current there can run at 4-5 knots. We'd arrived about an hour before low water slack on a 1.7-foot exchange and conditions looked good to enter. The current still was ebbing a bit, but we had no trouble passing through.

Most of the atoll is shallow with coral heads throughout. We anchored just south of the channel off the main village, flying a yellow quarantine flag until we'd cleared into the country. We'd attempted to make radio contact several times before entering, as the Kiribati administration requested, but it turns out the village radio was not working. Shortly after we'd anchored, however, a skiff came out from the village with officials representing customs and quarantine, and the police chief representing immigration.

They reviewed our papers and requested a brief inspection of the vessel. Generally the process went smoothly and efficiently. Spitfire wandered out on deck during our meeting, and his paperwork was in order as well. Once we'd cleared into the country, we swapped the quarantine flag for the Kiribati courtesy flag.

The Fanning Island population is about 2,000, and fishing is a major activity. No matter what time of day or night, someone always seemed to be out fishing, either from shore or by boat.

A road reportedly rings much of the island, so we brought the bikes ashore to check it out. In the picture below left, we've landed at the pier you can see in the background of the topmost picture of Dirona at anchor. The picture below right is the road heading north towards the channel. The main settlement and administrative buildings are to the left of that photo. Generally the village was clean and tidy, and appeared well-run.

The road was wide enough for a truck until we got to the southeast end, then it became more of a footpath, but still quite rideable, with stone bridges across small channels.

We'd apparently set off during rush hour: the road was quite busy--we passed several trucks and many groups walking or bicicyling. Bicycles are a particularly common mode of transportation here. We also saw the occasional motorcycle and moped. The people were very friendly, pretty much everyone smiled widely and said hello as we passed.

Most of the buildings were built in a traditional style, with thatched roofs. In front of those in the picture below left, a large pit has been dug with plants growing inside. This was fairly common. We also saw at least a half-dozen larger gathering places like the one below right.

Other sights along the way: bananas and a sleeping pig.

From 2000-2008, Fanning Island was a weekly stop for the Honolulu-based Norwegian Cruise Lines ships to work around Jones Act restrictions that a commercial ship built outside the US cannot travel directly between two US ports. We saw several signs and other vestiges of their presence there. In earlier history, Fanning Island also was the terminus of the British Pacific telephone cable from Barkley Sound on the West Coast of Vancouver Island, Canada. Now we've been at both ends. From Fanning, the cable system linked to Australia via the South Pacific.

We eventually reached a point near the southeast tip where the bridge across a channel was gone, and turned back. We might have carried the bikes across, but the day was becoming hot and we we felt we'd gone far enough already. We stopped on the way back for lunch overlooking the lagoon.

We did a dive the next morning. We anchored the dinghy in about 25 feet just south of the entrance channel outside the atoll and dove south to 60-feet. The quantity and variety of sea life was amazing: 3' Giant Trevally and Double Header Wrasses, the biggest we've seen; schools of Barracuda that circled us completely; many varietes of Butterflyfish and Angelfish, in particular the striking Flame and Golden-Spotted Angelfish; and a sea turtle. Unfortunately the camera battery hadn't been charged properly, so we didn't get pictures for this one.

We'd arrived on a Wednesday, and originally planned to stay until the following Monday, but the weather was looking to deteriorate over the weekend, so we decided to leave for Nuku Hiva after the dive instead.

The diving at Palmyra is incredible, with huge schools of colorful fish and extensive stands of healthy, vibrant coral. We saw Parrotfish and Surgeonfish over a foot long--much larger than we've seen in the past. Black-tip reef sharks were exciting to see. Fortunately, as in the shallows, they avoided us underwater and didn't approach too closely. Most impressive of all, however, were the Mantas Rays. We never tired of watching their graceful passage.

Below is footage from three of our dives. The first is off the Western Terrace (mid-left on the map), and the second two were in the entrance channel, where Manta Rays are often found.

We were given permission to tour Strawn Island, directly west of Cooper Island (map), the only island on the actual wildlife reserve portion of Palmyra Atoll where unaccompanied public access is allowed.

Several idyllic coves are along the lagoon side en route. Slightly less idyllic is the cove below right, the site where the bone's identified as Muff Graham's, of the Sea Wind murders, washed ashore and were found.

The sand flats here are a productive black-tipped reef shark nursery. We saw many, ranging from less than a feet long to over four feet long, cruising in water perhaps a foot deep. The sharks aren't interested in humans and generally keep their distance, so we weren't too concerned being in the water. But we did keep an eye on them.

A little farther along is the ruins of an old military powerhouse. We climbed a ladder to the roof for a sweeping view north.

The Norwest Gun Battery was once on the extreme northwest tip of Strawn Island and is slowly becoming part of the sea.

Walking back along the north shore, turtles were swimming just offshore with lots of boobies in the trees and the sky.

The tide was too high to continue alongshore, so we picked up the trail back in the woods. A pair of White Terns, apparently curious, swooped and wheeled only 3-4 feet above us for a good five minutes as we walked. They're beautiful, delicate-looking birds.

We popped back out to the north shore to check out some offshore bunker ruins.

Near where Cooper and Strawn Island connect is a massive Sooty Tern nesting area. They prefer flat wide-open spaces--this is one of several areas the Palmyra Atoll staff have cleared to keep the terns off the runway. Thousands upon thousands of birds are here, on the ground and filling the sky above. The terns will often take off, fly around, then land as a group. We were out on the water with Amanda one time and passed under a literal cloud of Sooty Terns. "It's a Ternado!" she joked.

We cooled of after the walk on the rope swing at the swimming hole (44, bottom right on map).  

Amanda Pollock, the Wildlife Refuge Manager for Palmyra, had returned on-site the day before we had and invited us along on her site arrival boat survey. This was an opportunity for us to tour the East Lagoon (map), off-limits to visitors due to current at the entrance and water shallowness. The military built a causeway that created East Lagoon. This radically altered water flow in the atoll, effectivetly killling off underwater life  in the lagoons due to lack of flow. The causeway slowly is crumbly away and natural flow eventually will be restored. In the video below, we're running north along the eastern edge of the causeway, shortly before exiting into Center Lagoon.

Later the day, Amanda took us out to Penguin Spit (bottom left in map) to brief us on snorkeling there. And since we were going out there anyway, we all went for a snorkel. No anchoring, even of dinghys, is allowed anywhere in the reserve except at the designated anchorage where Dirona is. Several buoys have been installed along the western reefs that small boats can tie off to to. The underwater life there is astonishing--we were particularly impressed with the colorful giant clams and stands of staghead coral over ten feet in diameter. Below are some stills and video that we shot.

We went ashore to Cooper Island the day after arriving in Palmyra for a tour of the camp and to walk the trails. The camp has several "pets", including a tame Booby, a dog and a cat. Eric Pholman of the Nature Conservancy (left in the photo below) said the animals were grandfathered in when the conservancy purchased Palmyra in 2000. Boaters often picked up pets in the South Pacific and left them in Palmyra as they couldn't bring them into Hawaii back when the quarantine rules were much stricter. Holding the Booby is Aaron, Chief of Marine Operations at Palmyra.

The Palmyra Yacht Club (building 31 on the map) walls are filled with inscriptions, drawings and poems from past visitors to the island.

The Nature Conservancy keeps the camp and its trails in excellent condition, with whimsical touches throughout. That's a line of old flip-flops along the generator building wall (21 on the map).

We walked east towards the runway. Not far along is a swimming hole with a float and rope swings (45-47 on the map). This is one of the more minor of the modifactions the US military made to the atoll when they took it over during World War II. Palmyra is slowly reclaiming itself, but this is a long process. For those who have read And The Sea Will Tell, this is where the Sea Wind moored, and the building Jennifer is standing in (44 on the map) is Mac's old workshop. The picture of us standing in front of the Palmyra sign is near the trailhead to the swimming hole (43 on the map).

Next was the Palmyra airport departure gate, with signs showing distance and direction to various locations. At the far side of the runway was a plane wreck. The plane, carrying a group of Ham radio operatores, had crashed and been pushed off the runway. With no way off the island, the Coast Guard had to rescue them.

We walked along the runway to the northeast corner of Cooper island (map). Fifty-foot Pandanus trees lined the strip. Their fruit resembles a pineapple and has sections that look like giant corn large kernels.

A new coconut tree forming. Coconut trees are not native to Palmyra--they were introduced for a copra plantation--and crowd out the native plants.

From the north end of the runway, we picked up the trail west along the north shore of Cooper Island. We had to be careful where we stepped--the path was full of hermit crabs and the occasional land crab.

Along the way, we found plenty of evidence of the old military base. Coming across that manhole cover on the trail made us feel a bit like we were in an episode of the TV series Lost. We were half-expecting to see Dharma Initiative logos soon.

We stopped for a beer along North Beach, the only real beach on the atoll. A small patio was setup there as well and, judging by the sign, a barbecue pit.

Eric had invited us for cocktails and dinner at the camp. We had an excellent time. A group of guests were on-site from Calgary--I think we tipped the balance to making the island's population 50% Canadian.

We arrived at Palmyra Atoll six nights after leaving Honolulu. Conditions on the run there were by far the best we've seen. We had the wind and current behind much of the way, and boat motion was minimal until the last night. Jennifer normally needs to wear a scopolamine patch for offshore runs, but didn't need to on this one and didn't feel the slightest bit queasy. We shot some video off the stern showing the relatively light conditions.  

On the final night, the wave period decreased to six-seven seconds with seven-eight-foot seas on the beam. We were rolling ten degrees consistently and occasionally twenty degrees.

On the last day, the main fuel tanks had enough space that we could transfer the fuel from the bladders. So the main tanks are now full again.

When we were about thirty minutes off the main channel, we radioed Palmyra to let us know we were arriving. Amanda Pollock, the Wildlife Refuge Manager for Palmyra Atoll and Kingman Reef National Wildlife Refuges, answered and would come up to guide us through the channel. Below is footage of our entry into the atoll. When Jennifer first appears on deck, she's removing the line that secures the anchor. The second time, she is attaching the snubber between the anchor chain and the boat. Snubbers take strain off the windlass, give the rode some elasticity, and isolate the boat somewhat from the noise of chain scraping across rock on the bottom.

Palmyra Atoll is absolutely beautiful. Palm trees crowd the shore above lush vegatation. Around the atoll, the sea color varies from deep aquamarine to pale turquoise inside a white frothy edge of breaking surf. But you can hardly hear the surf above the calls of the thousands of seabirds that wheel in the sky above us.

Amanda guided us to the designated anchorage. We'd corresponded with her while in Hawaii to obtain our visitor's permit--it was nice to finally meet in person. On board with her was Eric Pohlman of the Nature Conservancy. Once we were secure, Amanda and Eric came onboard to brief us on the island and rules for visitors. Spitfire, as usual, was the star of the show. One of Eric's first questions was "Where's Spitfire?" But Spitfire still has to follow the rules. Amanda jokingly gave him a stern warning to "stay away from my birds". We explained that Spitfire is more of a kibbler than a hunter.

An extensive research camp is on Cooper Island, the only island open to the public. The Nature Conservancy manages Cooper Island, while the Department of Fish and Wildlife is responsible for the rest of the reserve.

So now we are within six degrees of the equator--by far the farthest south we've ever been in Dirona. Oh--and we have WiFi.

Yesterday we got our first ever outbound clearance paper, or Zarpe, leaving Honolulu bound for Fanning Island, Kiribati via Palmyra Atoll. While we've left the US before, so far it's only been to Canada, where a Zarpe is not required to enter the country. But Kiribati, and most other countries we will visit over the next few months, require a Zarpe from the previous country entered.

Our first leg will be 960 miles south to Palmyra Atoll, a US national marine monument in the Northern Line Islands. The Nature Convervancy owns Palmyra Atoll, and jointly manages the island with the US Fish and Wildlife Service. Access to Palmyra requires a permit for a maximum seven day stay, and only two boats can visit at a time. The island recently went through a major de-ratting--the FV Aquila that we visited in Bell Harbor was part of that operation. As a result, any boat visiting must have a rat inspection. We passed ours. Palmyra also is famous as the site of the Sea Wind murders, documented in the book and TV miniseries The Sea Will Tell.

From Palmyra we'll travel to another atoll in the Northern Line Islands: Fanning Island in the Republic of Kiribati. And we're finally actually leaving the US. We've travelled nearly 10,000 miles in Dirona, to Prince William Sound, up the Columbia and Snake Rivers to Idaho and across to Hawaii. But other than a couple of quick trips to Canada, we've never actually left the US.

We fueled up this morning and set off with 2,350 gallons of diesel, including all tankage. Our next fuel stop will be in Nuku Hiva, Marquesas Islands. That will be 2,550 miles, plus two to three weeks of generator time. We took on fuel from Mike Rossman's Marine Petroleum Corporation--great service, good fuel, and excellent pricing. If you're fueling in Hawaii, there's nobody else to call.

We'll be posting our route and other updates on the site (http://www.mvdirona.com/maps/locationcurrent.html). But for most of the trip through the South Pacific we will be out of range of our KVH V7 and will have to use the more expensive BGAN at a memorable $8,000 per gig. So our updates may be less frequent.

Don Stabbert was taking Starr into fuel with Mike after us, and took the picture above as we set off for Palmyra.

For us, a night at the races once meant watching the stock cars at Sunset Speedway north of Toronto, or Evergreen Speedway north of Seattle. Now it means taking in the Hawaii Yacht Club's Friday night sailboat race. The race starts and finishes in Ala Wai basin where we are moored, and we usually watch from the boat deck. The starts can be pretty exciting as the boats jockey for position, often coming within feet of us and sometimes as close as inches. After watching a recent start one windy evening, we ran the dinghy outside the basin to watch the field race back inside to the finish. Below are some shots of the action.

Heartbeat (yellow hull below and above) and Cazan often race to the wire. Below, Cazan edged out Heartbeat for the win.

This weekend we attended the Waikiki Yacht Club's Opening Day Celebration and Blessing of the Fleet. An opening day in February with sunny 80-degree weather is a little different from what we're used to. Back home, the Seattle Yacht Club's Opening Day for the official start of boating season is in early May, when the temperature is typically in the high 50s. Coincidentally, the theme for the 2013 Seattle event is "Hawaiian Magic". Hopefully the weather will approach their theme.

The turnout for the event was excellent, with over 200 people at the breakfast brunch. The guest speaker was long-time Waikiki Yacht Club member Colonel Frank W. Tate, who commands 3,500 troops, including the 2,600 soldiers of the 25th Combat Aviation Brigade in Afghanistan. Colonel Tate knows Afghanistan well, politically and culturally. He gave an excellent update of the country's history, progress and current state of affairs.

Around noon, the boats gathered for the Fleet Blessing, where a boat anchored offshore carries a priest, who blesses each boat, captain and crew as they pass in review. Here's a video Rick Heiniger shot last year aboard Don and Sharry Stabbert's Starras they participated in the blessing. Rick owns Nordhavn 76 Eliana, visible at the start and end of the video moored where Dirona is now.

This year, Don and Sharry (at left below) hosted the blessing on Starr and invited us to join them. Giving the blessing was Coast Guard priest Commander Haley. Other guests on board included Waikiki Yacht Club commodore Gregg Dunn, Opening Day organizers Mark and Dot Hazlett, our guest speaker Colonel Tate, and other Hawaii-based members of the Armed Forces and the Coast Guard. Every one of the Coast Guard members we spoke with also had served in the Seattle area.

The weather was perfect for pictures.

Here are a few shots of the boats passing by for blessing:

 Commander Haley also blessed the Waikiki Yacht Club's Laser (small sailing dinghy) fleet and the womens paddling crew.

Earlier this month, Daniel Buchmueller and Fabian Hensel dropped by to visit. They were in town working on a remote-control drone they built to do image acquisition for geospatial applications. They did a few test flights over Dirona and nearby Ala Moana park. The arial photographs there were able to take of the boat and the Waikiki skyline are striking.

With four rotors, GPS, and inertial-stabilization, the drone is remarkably stable, even in gusty winds. James took a turn at the controls and found it surprisingly responsive and controllable. It can get pretty high in the air too, and travel at speeds of up to 50 mph. The drone carries a car-backup-type camera for in-flight viewing via goggles, and either a GoPro camera to shoot video or a small digital camera for still shots. The pictures and video were simply amazing.

Below are a couple of photos of Dirona taken relatively close to the water.

The view higher up, looking west over Ala Moana park and north to the Ala Moana shopping center:

Higher still and looking east across the Ala Wai Boat Harbor, and north down the Ala Wai Canal:

Daniel and Fabien took these two over Waikiki Beach earlier that day:

And here is some video footage from the GoPro:

Daniel and Fabian built the helicopter for commercial geo-spatial work but, after looking at the pictures they were able to capture, it’s hard not to want to get one.

This morning, after eleven nights at sea, we arrived at Hilo, Hawaii. Although our ultimate destination is Honolulu, we chose to make landfall here partly because Hilo is about 200 miles closer, but mainly because its easier to clear Spitfire in at Hilo through Hawaii's Direct Airport Release program.

We had a great trip--the weather this time was the best of any of our offshore runs. The worst weather of the whole run was last night, when we had to tread water in rough seas to wait for daylight to enter the harbor. But we now are med-moored to the seawall at Radio Bay and Spitfire has cleared through with Hawaii Animal Quarantine. Tomorrow we'll clear with the Department of Agriculture and take on a load of diesel.

Mark Abril sent us a nice suprise with pictures he took of our arrival. On the left picture we are entering Radio Bay, with the cruise ship Pride of America in the background, and on the right we are pulling back towards the sea wall with the anchor down.

And below these is our log of the trip. You also display these on the map view.

10/25/2012: Golden Gate We've just passed under the Golden Gate Bridge and are headed out to sea. Conditions so far look excellent.

10/25/2012: Last view of land Our last view of land for the next couple of weeks. And our who know when Dirona will be back in North America?

10/25/2012: Farralon Islands A little bit more land. This really will be our last for the next couple of weeks.

10/25/2012: Porpoises A large pod of porpoises chased our bow on and off for about an hour.

10/25/2012: SCF Prime Just before 3pm today, the Crude oil tanker SCF Prime crossed our path about a mile ahead of us going north at 13.6 kts. When 6 miles away to our north, he appeared to go dead in the water. His speed fell to a 2-kt drift and twice a big cloud of black came out out of his exhaust. It looks like something big may have failed suddenly. Forty minutes later, he still was adrift at 0.3 kts.

10/25/2012: Sunset Our first sunset of the trip. The seas have picked up a bit, but conditions still are decent. MaxSea's GRIB data has been spot-on so far--it predicted 6' seas from the north on 8-second period with winds at 18 knots and that's pretty much what we're seeing.

10/26/2012: Sunrise The sun is up and conditions settled a bit overnight. We've got maybe 3-foot swells from the north, and 20 knots of wind behind us. Very nice.

10/26/2012: Sunset Sunset #2. The waves have picked up a bit to 5 feet, with wind 20 from the north. Not quite as smooth a ride as earlier today, but still comfortable. Outside temp is 67F, but it feels warmer.

10/27/2012: Passenger We found this little bird tucked against the starboard outside steps leading up to the pilot house. He might have flown into the day head window and hurt himself. We tried lifting him to see if he'd fly--he spread his wings, but didn't try to fly. We have him setup on the cockpit cabinet where the engine room vents to keep him warm, and gave him a little water in a small dish. He's a clumsy walker on slippery fiberglass, but that might be normal. Hopefully he'll recover soon and fly off.

10/27/2012: Sunset Sunset #3. Conditons continue to be excellent with 5 knots of wind and a 1-2-foot northwestly swell.

10/28/2012: Calm seas The winds have been less than five knots all night, with a barely perceptable ocean swell. The sea is now blue, rather than the greeny-grey we're used to in the Pacific Northwest. This certainly is the calmest and most enjoyable offshore run we we''ve made. Last night we had to make two course corrections: one to avoid a 4-foot orange buoy and another for the containership Matson Maunalei. With an ocean this big, its amazing we would both be in the same place at the same time but we had to turn off for 3 to 5 min as we were on a collision course.

10/28/2012: Buoy This morning we passed another buoy, this one about 18" in diameter.

10/28/2012: Underway We've been underway for 81 hours and are almost 600 miles offshore. The ocean swell is now about 5', but the waves are so far apart that the motion is quite gentle and comfortable. In a couple of days we'll be passing through the southern end of a 998mb low pressure system that is tracking northeast towards the southern BC coast. We're likely to see 12' seas, but on a 10-sec period, so that shouldn't be too bad.

10/28/2012: Sunset Sunset #4. Winds still are below 5 knots. The swell has picked up to around 8', but the waves are at least 10 seconds apart, so there's not much boat motion.

10/29/2012: Lunchtime We've switched to Hawaii time, so it's time for lunch. We brought along a selection of packaged noodle dishes for lunch. We prefer rice and noodle dishes underway--they're filling and easy to digest.

10/30/2012: Afternoon conditions The waves are starting to come from WSW now--a little less on the nose and a little more on the beam. The roll guage shows that progress: 12 hours ago we were rolling around 5 degrees, now it's up to 10. The waves still are pretty big: 9-10' on 5-second period. But the winds are starting to fall off--from consistently 20-25 knots to 15-20 knots, so hopefully the waves will follow suit. And we're starting to pick speed a bit too.

10/30/2012: Squall Just passed through a squall. The sudden downpour was over almost as soon as it started.

10/30/2012: Evening conditions The winds have dropped to 10-15 knots. The waves still are 9-10 feet, but now are 8-10-seconds apart, so we're able to pick up speed and maintain our target fuel economy. Fair bit of boat motion though--have to be careful moving around. We're making good use of the extra grab bars we installed in the stairwell, galley, shower and day head. The temperature has been rising steadily as we proceed south--it's 76F after sunset.

10/31/2012: Dawn Conditions have continued to improve. The waves still are 9-10 feet and 8-10-seconds apart, but the wind has dropped to less than 10 knots. Boat motion has reduced considerably, so moving around much easer. The forecast indicates continued improvement for the next couple of days and waves dropping to 5-6 feet. We might have a brief period with bigger waves a couple of days out of Hilo, but the period should be at least 10 seconds.

10/31/2012: Buoy Just had to change course slightly to avoid this small orange buoy.

10/31/2012: Another passenger Our bird eventually flew away the night we found him. This fish doesn't look as lucky.

10/31/2012: Smooth seas We're over halfway across now, with only triple-digit miles remaining. The sun is shining, winds are less than 5 knots, and we've got a gentle 5-7-foot ocean swell from the northwest. Very nice.

10/31/2012: Sunset Sunset #6. The wind is picking up a bit from the southeast, but still is below 10 knots.

10/31/2012: Happy hour Virgin Mai Tais at sunset to celebrate crossing the halfway mark, and Jennifer's birthday.

11/1/2012: Sunrise Conditions reasonably calm--a gentle 3-foot swell and winds less than 5.

11/1/2012: Fresh fruit We have a cup of fresh fruit every morning before breakfast. Strawberries will last several weeks in our fridge, and we also carry a swack of Del Monte Fruit Naturals fruit cups.

11/1/2012: Tire Just passed this tire--looks like its been floating out there a while. We've been in lumpy seas most of the morning with 10-15-knot winds and waves on the bow. The wind is just starting to veer to WSW and putting the waves more on the beam, so the ride is smoothing out.

11/1/2012: Squall We passed through another brief sqaull. The wind clocked up from 15 to 20+ knots, rain poured and the whole thing was over in about 5 minutes.

11/1/2012: Albatross We've seen a few albatrosses over the past week. Amazing how far they range from land.

11/1/2012: Testing the wing We start the wing engine every few days to make sure it's running ok in case we need it.

11/1/2012: Sunset Sunset #7. Its very dark once the sun sets, but a couple of hours later a nearly-full moon rises behind us. The moon lights up the deck so much that we initially thought our night running shield had torn off the forward-facing floodlight.

11/1/2012: Spitfire don't care We've been running against tight 5-6-foot waves on the bow most of the day, with a fair bit of pitching motion as we power through them. Not a big deal, but do need to hold on carefully as we move about. Spitfire, doing his best Honey Badger imitation, just wedges himself somewhere and ignores it. In this picture, he's on the ledge below the starboard corner pilothouse window above the stateroom stairs.

11/2/2012: Another fish Found another fish just outside the port pilothouse door this morning, near where we found the first one. That's a long way to jump up.

11/2/2012: Sunrise Conditions starting to feel decidedly Hawaiian now: temperature in the high 70s night and day, a consistent warm breeze, and a gentle ocean swell. The models indicate the wind and waves might pick up a bit later today and tomorrow, but mostly should be pretty smooth sailing for the remainder of the trip. Only 675 more miles to go.

11/2/2012: Sunset Sunset #8. Conditions remained excellent throughout the day: calm and sunny with a warm tropical breeze.

11/3/2012: Wind The wind has come up in the night and now is blowing steady 20 from the southeast. Waves are about 8' on 5 seconds on the beam. We're mostly just powering through them, however, and aren't losing much speed. Fair bit of boat motion, but the stabilizers are doing their job, and its not uncomfortable. Model indicates winds will ease off by this afternoon.

11/3/2012: Coming out of night mode Just coming out of night mode in the pilothouse as the sun is rising. We don't have to do much: undim the AIS, VHF, autopilot, stabilizer, engine and hydraulics panels, and remove the night shields from the monitors. In this picture, the navigation software still is in dusk mode. In particular we run the radar (2nd from the right) with a blue background, instead of white in day mode.

11/3/2012: Sunrise The wind has lessened a bit, but conditions haven't improved much. We're 500 miles from Hilo though--3/4 of the way there. Looks like we'll arrive sometime on Tuesday the 6th.

11/3/2012: Maunalei Containership Maunalei en route to Hawaii about five miles off to starboard. We saw this ship docked at Oakland when we were at Jack London Square. The only other traffic we've seen the whole trip after our first day out has been container ships, about one every two days. Most have been travelling to/from Hawaii and the US Pacific coast, but one passed about five miles in front on a northerly course to Japan.

11/3/2012: Lunch Chitarra with sauteed pine nuts for lunch. Conditions have settled down--winds are now blowing less than ten from the southwest and the waves are 3-5' on 9-seconds on the beam. Boat motion gentle. Temperature is steady 78F, day and night.

11/3/2012: Sunset Sunset #9. We're getting a push from the current now, and are making excellent speed. A little over 400 miles to go. We might actually have to slow down to avoid arriving at night.

11/3/2012: Passenger A large seabird took up roost on the night running shield for our forward-facing floodlight, and probably was responsible for the bird crap all over our dinghy cover. Neither turning the light on nor sounding the horn distrubed it. Eventually we tried nudging it off with the boat hook, and it squawked and fought back. At that point we were worried it might be hurt, but eventually it grudgingly flew off. Riding is just easier the flying I guess.

11/4/2012: Morning Not much of a sunrise this morning--sky all grey with rain clouds behind us. Conditions excellent though, and we're making good speed. Just over 300 miles left to go. Keep thinking can see lights or land out there, but nothing yet.

11/4/2012: Rain A welcome rainshower has washed away some of our salty crust--we were really coated.

11/4/2012: Another fish Found another fish on the boat this morning.

11/4/2012: Sunset Sunset #10. Just over 200 miles to go. Conditions calm and getting a nice push from the current.

11/5/2012: Rain We're 125 miles out of Hilo now--still can't see land though. It's 84F outside, and we've just passed through one of the brief rainshowers that are common on the windward coast of the Big Island. All the better to rinse away the salt. A few people have asked why we chose to make landfall at Hilo rather than our final destination of Honolulu. Partly Hilo is about 200 miles closer, but the main reason is that its easier to clear Spitfire in at Hilo through Hawaii's Direct Airport Release program.

11/5/2012: Elliott Bay The bulker Elliott Bay (interestingly the same name as the harbor off downtown Seattle where we last moored). The first ship we've seen for two days and we were on a collision course. We radioed them to make passing arrangements and they altered course to pass behind us. We're 68 miles out of Hilo now, but still can't see land--it's pretty clouded in up there.

11/5/2012: Sunset Sunset #11. Not much of a sunset for our last one of the trip. We're now 45 miles from Hilo and still can't see land for the clouds. We'll be arriving after dark, not ideal, but the harbor is well-marked and well-charted. And we can light up the world with floodlights all around. We'll be careful, and if conditions don't feel safe, we'll wait for morning.

11/6/2012: Big waves The seas continued to build overnight--we experienced frequent 20-degree rolls.

11/6/2012: Sunrise One more sunrise before we land.

11/6/2012: Big Island First view of the Big Island in daylight. And with a rainbow--that has to be good luck.

11/6/2012: Aloha Med-moored to the seawall in Radio Bay, Hilo, Hawaii.

Yesterday morning we topped off Dirona’s fuel tanks, put on the storm plates, and locked down the outside furniture. We just cast off from Jack London Square in Oakland and are underway for Hilo, Hawaii. You can track the voyage on the real-time plot at  http://www.mvdirona.com/maps/LocationCurrent.html.

We've been monitoring weather conditions for a couple of weeks (via the NOAA Ocean Prediction Center, the US Navy Forecast Models, and GRIB data downloaded into our chartplotter program, MaxSea). It looks like we'll have pretty decent conditions for the run. The video below shows a visualization of our route in MaxSea through modelled weather conditions using downloaded GRIB data. The GRIB data includes model wind speed, barometric pressure, and wave height, period and direction. The green areas are 5-8' seas, yellow is 9-11', and orange is 12-17' seas. The model shows 5-8' seas for most of the route, with a few points at 10'. And where we do see larger waves, the wave period is 10-11 seconds. Weather data isn't really accurate much beyond five days, so conditions could deteriorate, but so far it looks good.

The decision to spend a few weeks in San Francisco before crossing to Hawaii worked out very well. We'll skip some of the nastier weather that we've been watching hit the northwest coast of Washington state these past few weeks, and we had a great time exploring the Bay area. Below are some of what we've seen, and you also can display these on the map view.

09/12/12: Westpoint Harbor Marina Lunch on deck in our new temporary home. Westpoint Harbor Marina is an impressive new facility with excellent services.

9/14/2012: Quarry Beach, Angel Island State Park We're anchored off the Quarry Beach, south of the remains of Fort McDowell. The anchorage is suprisingly sheltered, given how exposed it looks on the chart. One of the reasons we stopped here is the view in the other direction: to downtown San Franciso and the Bay Bridge. It should look amazing at night.

9/15/2012: Sausalito Police Sausalito Police boat off Pt. Blunt with our view to San Francisco in the background.

9/15/2012: Racoon The US Army Corps of Engineers landing craft Racoon, with a Sausalito Police escort, landed at the dock just south of our anchorage. Several dozen people got off, probably for a tour.

9/15/2012: Outriggers Perhaps twenty outriggers rounded the point later that morning.

9/15/2012: Fort McDowell We set off on a tour of the bay, first around Angel Island. More of the remains of Fort McDowell are visible north of Quarry Point.

9/15/2012: Winslow Cove Old immigration station buildings at Winslow Cove. Several boats were anchored there--the cove has good wind shelter.

9/15/2012: Ayala Cove Ayala Cove is the busiest anchorage on the island. The park has docks and mooring bouys here. To maximize the number of boats on the buoys, boats tie a both bow and stern to different bouys.

9/15/2012: Sailing Sailboats filled the bay--outnumbering powerboats by at least 20:1. The predictable afternoon winds make sailing popular.

9/15/2012: Steep hills Those famous San Francisco hills.

9/15/2012: Camp Reynolds The US Army established Camp Reynolds, south of Point Knox, in 1864.

9/15/2012: Golden Gate Bridge Back under the bridge.

9/15/2012: Golden Gate Yacht Club Home of the America's Cup.

9/15/2012: Ghiradelli building

9/15/2012: Sea lions Sea lions at pier 39.

9/15/2012: The Bay Rocket This boat moves!

9/15/2012: US Navy One of two well-armed US Navy boats that sped past.

9/15/2012: Racing About thirty Porche's and a handful of other cars were running the course at the west end of Almeda Island.

9/15/2012: Hanjin Berlin The Hanjin Berlin unloading at the Port of Oakland.

9/15/2012: Crane operator

9/15/2012: Passing under both Bay Bridges The new Bay bridge is currently under construction beyond the existing bridge.

9/15/2012: Heeled over Sailboat off Treasure Island.

9/15/2012: Richardson Bay The city view from our anchorage at Richardson Bay is even better than last night.

9/15/2012: Gray Matter We had dinner with Christine Guo and Mark Mohler aboard Gray Matter, anchored a short distance away. Mark and Christine had just completed the same trip we did, from Sidney B.C., a couple of weeks earlier.

9/21/2012: Space Shuttle Endeavour The Space Shuttle Endeavour viewed from our flybridge at Westpoint Harbor Marina. The shuttle, mounted to the back of NASA's modified 747, made a low pass over San Francisco this morning en route to its new home at the California Science Center.

9/22/2012: Dumbarton Bridge Heading under the Dumbarton Bridge. We decided to take a short cruise south to anchor for the night. The morning is warm, sunny and calm.

9/22/2012: Bridge supports The criss-crossing supports for the Dumbarton Bridge look rather elegant.

9/22/2012: Aqueduct This aqueduct presumably is for carrying saltwater to the salt ponds.

9/22/2012: Old railway bridge The chart says this railway bridge is permanently open. We can see why--the bridge is rotting away. And at the shore end, the bridge just ends in old pilings.

9/22/2012: Coyote Creek Enjoying the sunny morning on the bow, anchored at the mouth of Coyote Creek. Nearby, down Alviso Slough, is the once-bustling town of Alivso.

9/22/2012: Sunset Sunset with the lights of Palo Alto just starting to glow.

9/23/2012: Breakfast on deck Another calm, warm and sunny morning. This was an excellent anchorage--quiet, private and relaxing. Yesterday's prevailing afternoon winds generated some waves, but they were hardly noticable on board. And another bonus of being at anchor rather than docked is the bow faces into the wind, sheltering the cockpit.

9/28/2012: Robert G. Brownlee The Marine Science Institute research vessel Robert G. Brownlee heading up Redwood Creek as we departed. The 90-foot ship is designed for carrying school students, and a group was on board.

9/28/2012: Team Oracle Racing The Team Oracle Racing's AC72 catamaran out for one of the boat's first test runs. The huge boat, with a sail higher than 130 feet is incredibly fast. San Francisco Chronicle reporter Al Saracevic, following in a high-speed inflatable, reported their chase boat was doing 30 knots at one point and the catamaran was pulling away. Of the four chase boats we saw, some apparently were some manned by spies for the competition, including New Zealand's Emirates Team.

9/28/2012: Coast Guard rescue diver Nearby, the Coast Guard was practicing water rescues. The chopper was right near the waterline for ages. This video shows the diver retrieving the rescue dummy and being hoisted back up.

9/28/2012: Moore 24 National Championship We just barely made it in front of the South Beach Yacht Club's Moore 24 National Championship field as they headed east across the Bay.

9/28/2012: Good wind That steady afternoon Bay wind propels this contender between us and the Bay bridge.

9/28/2012: America Foss Beautiful tractor tug America Foss running south.

9/28/2012: Overseas Anacortes The tanker Overseas Anacortes leaving the tanker port at Point Richmond. The channel there is quite narrow--we passed close by.

9/28/2012: Marshall Foss Marshall Foss with a line running to the stern of the Overseas Anacortes.

9/28/2012: Richmond-San Rafael Bridge The 5.5-mile Richmond-San Rafael Bridge was one of the longest in the world when completed in 1959.

9/28/2012: East Brother Island Light Station The historic light station was build in 1873 and now is a bed-and-breakfast. That would be a wild place to stay.

9/28/2012: Intintoli The high-speed Baylink ferry Intintoli en route to San Francisco from Vallejo. Baylink runs a seemingly contstant stream of ferries from Vallejo-- we see several every time we're out in the bay.

9/28/2012: Rodeo oil refinery A view into the complexity of the Sonoco Phillips refinery at Rodeo. The refinery can produce 100,000 barrels of crude oil per day.

9/28/2012: C&H Sugar Refinery C&H sugar refinery just east of the Carquinez Bridge. We'll be seeing a lot more C&H facilities in a few weeks when we reach Hawaii.

9/28/2012: Traffic Entering Mare Island Strait behind Baylink'sthe high-speed ferry Solana, that passed us just before entering the strait. And exiting is Baylink's Vallejo.

9/28/2012: View homes These houses that wrong the shore and cliff must have awesome sunset views.

9/28/2012: Wreck Bait Me aground below the cliffs. The wind had been blowing a steady 20 knots from the southeast the past couple of hours. Looks like they can get a lot stronger.

9/28/2012: Shipyard cranes Mare Island once was a Naval shipyard, but now is private.

9/28/2012: Baylink terminal Solana moored at the Baylink's ferry terminal.

9/28/2012: Vallejo Marina Vallejo has a large marine that appears well-maintained.

9/28/2012: Mare Island Drawbridge The Mare Island Drawbridge has a vertical clearance is 13' closed. We expected we'd have to wait a while to get through, since it was close to rush-hour, but the operator opened the bridge right away after we radioed a lift request.

9/28/2012: Tug under Highway 37 bridge The current at both bridges was surprisingly strong, especially at the highway 37 bridge, where the current tended to push the boat north. This tug is coming through on an angle, presumably to work against that north push. We watched from our anchorage just north of Dutchman Slough. The tug anchored nearby around 7pm, then left again sometime in the middle of the night. We're guessing they were waiting for the tide to change.

9/28/2012: Sunset Sunset over the marshes alongside Napa River. The anchorage is a little more open than we were expecting, but we have plenty of swing room compared to anything farther up-river. And once we were settled in, especially after the evening lights came up ashore, we quite liked the spot.

9/29/2012: At anchor on the Napa River Taken from the dinghy before we ran up-river to Napa. It was going to be a beautiful day.

9/29/2012: Edgerly Island At Edgerly Island, the river narrows and feels more intimate. The island is rimmed with houses, docks and boats.

9/29/2012: River anchorage This powerboat was anchored mid-channel, where the river was calm and sheltered.

9/29/2012: Tug again That powerboat's anchorage seemed ideal, except when we went further up-river and saw the tug and barge that anchored near us last night. That would have been a tight squeeze if the powerboat was anchored overnight.

9/29/2012: Estuaries Just short of the city, a couple of estuaries lead off. Each was packed with houses, docks and boats and looked like very nice places to live.

9/29/2012: Waterfowl The river shores are full of wildlife. We didn't see any fish jump, not anyone catch anything, but lots of fishers were on the banks as well.

9/29/2012: Geese A gaggle of geese at Napa.

9/29/2012: Dinghy landing Surprisingly, Napa has nowhere to land a dingy, let alone a larger boat. So we landed at the edge of the Riverfront complex and scrambled up the rocks.

9/29/2012: Napa River from Napa View to the river from the Riverfront complext in downtown Napa.

9/29/2012: Downtown Joe's We had an excellent lunch on the riverfront patio at Downtown Joe's Brewery.

9/29/2012: Milagros We got thirsty after walking about downtown, so stopped for another pint on the patio at Milagros.

9/29/2012: Art Napa has lots of interesting artwork. This one is outside the County of Napa building.

9/29/2012: Wine train The Napa Valley Wine Train at the station.

9/29/2012: Sunset Sunset over Mare Island. We returned downriver to tour the waterfront off Vallejo.

9/29/2012: Coast Guard The area is well protected--three Coast Guard vessels and a police boat were moored at the north end of the marina.

9/29/2012: Dusk Dusk from our anchorage.

9/30/2012: Moonset Moonset the following morning.

9/30/2012: Sunrise

10/2/2012: Dawn Dawn from the boat deck at Westpoint Harbor. We moved the boat temporarily as the marina is bringing a truck in to fuel a number of boats today.

10/5/2012: South Beach Harbor We anchored off AT&T Park, just south of downtown San Franciso to take in Fleet Week and the America's Cup races. We weren't sure how rough the anchorage might get due to boat wakes and the the afternoon winds, but it turned to be fine. And our view, stretching from downtown San Francisco and across the Bay bridge was amazing. And we could see the America's Cup fleet moored nearby: in this panoramic photo their 70-foot masts are visible at the west end of the Bay bridge just left of the carrier USS Makin Island.

10/6/2012: Candlestick Point Yesterday we went to the Blue Angels show and the America's Cup races. Wow, we had a great time. Today the Giants are playing at AT&T stadium, so our anchorage was very busy with ferries from the Oakland side. We moved south to get a nice spot with beautiful views away from the crowds and distractions that we enjoyed so much yesterday. Candlestick Park, home of the San Francison 49ers, is in the background.

10/13/2012: Dawn Dawn looking east towards San Francisco. We anchored for the night just east of Golden Gate, tucked southeast of Fort Point. The occasional large wake bounced the boat a bit, but generally conditions were fine--similar to Blake Island Marine park off Seattle. And the view was amazing--San Francisco one way and the Golden Gate Bridge the other. At night, everything was aglow. Were we to be staying in the Bay area longer, we'd definately anchor here often.

10/13/2012: Sunrise Sunrise over San Francisco.

10/13/2012: Golden Gate Bridge The Golden Gate Bridge in the morning sun.

10/13/2012: Swimmers 180 swimmers were preparing to swim from the St. Francis Yacht Club to Aquatic Park--the large circular basin about a mile east.

10/13/2012: Oakland We're going to spend our last couple of weeks in Oakland for a change of pace. So far, we love it here. While we very much enjoyed the pristine and tranquil moorage at Westpoint Harbor Marina, here we're right in the action. We've got an end-tie with a view to all the passing boat traffic reminiscent of the Ballard Ship Canal in Seattle. We're also just east of the Oakland container port--we love watching the big ships come and go. And we're seconds from the restaurants and shops of Jack London Square, and close to the amenities in Oakland and Alameda.

10/14/2012: Sunset Sunset from our moorage, looking to the Oakland shipping terminal with the Bay bridge and San Francisco just visible in the background.

10/18/2012: Rowers Rowers at dawn, looking east from our boat deck.

10/18/2012: MSC Ivana Tugs turn the MSC Ivana at the container port. The maneuver must be carefully managed as the massive 366m ship barely fits lengthwise in the channel--that's shore right off the bow and stern.

10/23/2012: Groceries A cartload of groceries for the trip to Hawaii--we're on track to leave tomorrow. We just got the cart this week. It's light and easily folds flat for storage, and is super useful where no dock carts are available.

A decade ago, as we watched the America’s Cup races in New Zealand on TV, we longed to watch a race in person from the water. Last week, we got our chance. The current America’s Cup defender is the Golden Gate Yacht Club on San Francisco Bay. The races scheduled for October 2-7th have been on our calendar since we realized our trip to the area would coincide.

We wanted to get Dirona within dinghy distance of the course, so we anchored for the night outside the South Harbor marina breakwater off AT&T park, about three miles from the course. We were weren't sure how rough our anchorage might get due to boat wakes and the afternoon winds, but it turned to be fine. And our view, stretching from downtown San Francisco and across the Bay bridge was amazing. And we could see the America's Cup fleet moored nearby: in the panoramic photo below, their 70-foot masts are visible at the west end of the Bay bridge just left of the carrier USS Makin Island.

Before heading out to the course, we stopped off in "the pits" to check out the boats. Crews already were on board most of them, either preparing the boat or themselves for the afternoon's event.

The carbon-fiber AC45 catamarans are like Formula I race cars--just amazing technology. At 44' long, with a 900 sq. foot wing on a 70' mast, they weigh only 3,000 pounds and can reach speeds of over 30 knots. Their support boats are pretty nice too.

Before the races, we got to see our second Blue Angels show of the year, part of the Fleet Week festivities. We were a little closer to the action this time and had an awesome view. The shoreline and bay were full of people out to see the show as well.

And then for the main event. The racing was exciting--boy those boats move fast--and it was just wild to be there watching on San Francisco Bay with the Golden Gate Bridge in the background.

There even was some excitement off the course as well. The boat on the right, maneuvering through the spectators, nearly ran us over in the dinghy before colliding with the sailboat on the left.

After the races, some of the teams towed their boats back to their moorage, but a few sailed back. The boats ran incredibly well in the rough water--just skimming across the surface. We barely could keep up in our 30-knot dinghy, often having to slow down through larger wakes. And with some impressive tight-quarters boat-handling, team Artemis even sailed right onto their buoy.

Shortly after we arrived, the Prada boat was lifted out of the water by crane. We could see a large dent in the side, but weren't sure if that was the reason for lifting it.

The AC45s will race in several venues around the world as part of the Americas Cup World Series. These boats are designed for quick assembly and disassembly to fit in a 40-foot shipping container. The final races, for the Louis Vuitton Cup and the America's Cup, will be raced in the massive AC72s. The AC72s are roughly twice the size of the AC45s: 72' long, with a 131' mast and a 2,800 sq.-foot wing area, and weighing 13,000 lbs. Their crew size is 11, compared to 5 on the AC45s. 

We'd seen defending champion team Oracle's AC72 out for its world open-water debut a couple of weeks ago. We clocked them on radar at 31.5 knots, and it will be capable of doing considerably more. We saw team Oracle's AC72 again this past weekend. The huge mast dwarfed the eleven crew below it as the boat sped across the bay.

Late last week, we passed under the Golden Gate Bridge and cruised south to our new temporary home at impressive Westpoint Harbor Marina. The trip from Seattle started out with wonderfully calm conditions through the Strait of Juan de Fuca--amongst the best we've experienced there. We originally had planned to run a good 50 miles offshore to avoid boat traffic and crab pots. But a storm was brewing with gale-force winds and 14-foot seas predicted between 60 and 250 miles offshore, so we instead ran within 10 miles of shore where better conditions were predicted. The winds still were 30-knot with 12-foot seas, but that was an improvement over the alternative. After about 24 hours of big winds, conditions settled back down and we had a relaxing cruise into the San Francisco area.

To avoid entering the busy San Francisco Bay in the dark, we anchored for a night at Drakes Bay. We had both navigation reasons for delaying our entry, in addition to better photo opportunities. We'd have to first cross the San Francisco bar, best done at slack or on a flood current. During large ebbs, the current there can reach 6 knots. And when ocean storms are pushing waves westward in the opposite direction, steep 20' seas can develop there. Once across the bar, Golden Gate itself is only 0.7 miles across and busy with ship traffic.

We enjoyed the stop at Drakes Bay--steep hills surround the anchorage on three sides, with a view south towards San Francisco. And the entire peninsula forms the Point Reyes National Seashore. Had we not been so eager to reach our destination, we likely would have spent some time exploring ashore, particularly visiting the Point Reyes Lighthouse we'd passed on our way into the bay. But eager to arrive we were, so we left Drakes Bay early the next morning and arrived at the San Francisco bar about an hour before high-water slack.  We had an easy cruise under the bridge, past the city, and south through the Bay. We'll be spending the next few weeks here exploring the area, before continuing on to Hawaii. Our log for the trip is below. You also can display these, along with a detailed route, on the map view.

09/07/12, 8:00pm: Dusk We're at the east entrance of the Strait of Juan de Fuca. Conditions are excellent: 6 knots of wind, calms seas and clear skies. The cruise ship Amsterdam just passed heading to Alaska and still is visible in the distance, aglow with light.

09/08/12, 5:00pm: Off Ocean Shores A salmon fishing opening is in effect--we're seeing a lot more traffic than on our previous run to the Columbia River. Conditions settled a bit, but now we're in S 15-knot winds with tight 4-6' seas on the bow. We've got gale-force winds predicted for Mon-Wed, so its definately going to get worse.

09/10/12, 1:00pm: Winds 25-30 knots The bad weather has arrived. Winds are N 25-30, generating tight 7-9' seas. The only good thing as that we are running with the waves, rather than against them, so we're still able to make decent time. Conditions are expected to worsen, with 10-12' seas tonight, and then start to ease off tomorrow morning.

09/10/12, 6:30pm: 15-degree rolls Winds are steady 30 with 10-12' seas. The range in the roll guage pictured is from -20 to +20 in 5-degree increments. Even with hydraulic stablizers running at maximum output, we're still rolling 15 degrees each side.

09/10/12, 8:30pm: Approaching Cape Mendocino Conditions much improved. The wind has dropped to 10-20 knots and the waves to 7-9'. The waves still are big, but aren't nearly as fierce as a couple of hours ago.

09/11/12, 5:10am: North of Fort Bragg Conditions were reasonable rounding Cape Menocino, but worsened not far south. Winds blew 30-knots most of the graveyard shift, with 10-12' seas to match. The wind has again settled back down into the 20s, with mostly 7-9' seas again.

09/11/12, 7:00am: Sunrise The sun just rose on what promises to be a good running day: winds are down to around 10 knots, the waves are 5-6', and the sky is clear and blue.

09/11/12, 12:05pm: Fog The clear skies gave way to a thick fog late this morning. Winds are blowing around 10 from the SW--not much of a problem except we're getting a good saltwater bath from the spray. Our ETA to Golden Gate is the middle of the night, so we're thinking of stopping in Drakes Bay tonight and proceeding through Golden Gate tomorrow morning. Hopefully the fog will lift and we'll actually be able to see the bridge.

09/11/12, 6:20pm: Land ho! The lighthouse at Pt Reyes, hung of the cliff, makes a dramatic display. Land actually has been ho for a while, but this particular land is more interesting to us because we plan to anchor at Drakes Bay for the night.

09/11/12, 7:15pm: Our first California anchorage The engines are off after four days straight, the anchor is down, and the wine is poured. Time for a relaxing meal and a full night's sleep. For our first California anchorage, it's a pretty nice one. Steep hills are on three sides and we have a clear view south towards San Francicso.

09/12/12, 6:44am: Heading to Golden Gate Got up just before sunrise and we're all excited to be heading towards the Golden Gate Bridge (even Spitfire).

09/12/12, 9:20am: Pilot Boat San Francisco We're in the lanes with the Golden Gate Bridge just visible in the distance. Conditions are overcost, but not socked in.

09/12/12, 10:00am: Approaching Golden Gate

09/12/12: Passing under the Golden Gate Bridge

09/12/12: Fort Point Masonry fort under the south end of the Golden Gate Bridge.

09/12/12: San Francisco

09/12/12: Alcatraz Island

09/12/12: Port of San Francisco

09/12/12: Passing under the Bay Bridge

09/12/12: Westpoint Harbor Marina Lunch on deck in our new temporary home. Westpoint Harbor Marina is an impressive new facility with excellent services.

Today we set off from Seattle to do some longer-range cruising. Our goal is to cross over to Hawaii, and we'll figure out the next step from there. Insurance restrictions discourage travel in the area between June and November, during the northern hemisphere hurricane season. May was too soon to leave, and we didn't want leave Seattle and travel through the North Pacific in November during the winter storm season. So we'll first be travelling to the San Francisco area to stay there temporarily for 4-6 weeks until we cross over to Hawaii in October. This also puts us 200 miles closer--Hawaii is about 2,200 miles from San Francisco and about 2,400 from the Seattle area. The prevailing winds and currents are better on this more southerly route as well.

We've just finished a new feature on the web site that shows a real-time plot of Dirona's location. A small version of the live chart is on the blog site above, and a large one is at:  http://www.mvdirona.com/maps/LocationCurrent.html. In the image at right (click to enlarge it), the blue line is the plot of our track. Each blue square on the line shows the time and speed at that location if you put the cursor on them. And the red square with the star shows our current location. The blue paddle icons represents a log entry along the way, the red one being the most recent. Click on a paddle to see details for that entry. Each map also has a refresh button that you can click to refresh just the map data (rather than the whole page).

As we sail south, we're leaving one of the most beautiful cruising areas in the world and perhaps the nicest marina we've ever stayed at. Bell Harbor Marina, in the core of downtown Seattle, is a special place. Below are some of what we've seen since our cruise on the Columbia and Snake River system. You also can display these on the map view.

05/17/12: Echo Bay, Sucia Island Sucia Island is one of our long-time favorite anchorages in the San Juan Islands. A few early-season boats are here, and the beautiful tractor tug Lindsay Foss preceded us in. We suspect it is waiting for a ship to escort into Anacortes.

05/18/12: Cap Sante Boat Haven, Anacortes At Anacortes for Trawler Fest. We'll be presenting Saturday morning.

05/19/12: Padilla Bay Maersk Cameron at the Anacortes refinery near our anchorage in Padilla Bay

05/21/12: Pier 57 Ferris Wheel The Pier 57 Ferris Wheel, still under construction, viewed from our moorage at Bell Harbor.

05/25/12: Tramp Harbor Beachcombing during low tide at Point Heyer.

05/26/12: Morning sun Calm waters off the KVI tower.

05/27/12: Divers Scuba divers at the fish haven off Point Heyer.

05/27/12: Murden Cove Landslide off our anchorage at Murden Cove. Shoring that up looks like an expensive operation.

06/01/12: Celebrity Infinity Celebrity Infinity leaving its berth at pier 66 as we leave ours.

06/08/12: Hanjin Geneva The Hanjin Geneva en route from Seattle, viewed from our anchorage at Murden Cove.

06/15/12: Bell Street Classic Weekend The classic wooden yacht Olympus coming alongside for the Bell Street Classic Weekend shortly before we left the marina for Murden Cove.

06/16/12: Ballard Locks Returning out through the big lock after picking up a a load of fuel this morning at Covich-Williams. The small lock temporarily is closed. They sure pack a lot of boats in there--and this isn't even a busy day.

06/18/12: Old engines ... ... don't like starting.

06/18/12: Norwegian Pearl When the cruise ships leave pier 66, you can almost touch them from the Edgewater Hotel patio.

07/03/12: Hydroplane Mini hydroplane tearing through Quartermaster Harbor.

07/06/12: Celebrity Infinity Celebrity Infinity coming alongside at pier 66 early this morning.

07/06/12: Sunset Sunset from Yukon Harbor.

07/08/12: Morning Looking west from Yukon Harbor in the early morning light.

07/08/12: Boat inspection Department of Fish and Wildlife on a boat inspection.

07/13/12: Rich Passage I Kitsap Transit's fast ferry Rich Passage I en route from Seattle to Bremerton.

07/13/12: Sunset Sunset from the anchorage.

07/15/12: USCGC Stratton The piracy threat level is probably about -2 at Bell Harbor today with the 418-foot US Coast Guard Cutter Stratton moored alongside.

07/16/12: Into the fog The US Coast Guard Cutter Stratton heading into a foggy Puget Sound this morning.

07/16/12: Fire boat Testing the pumping systems off Pier 66.

07/20/12: Blakely Harbor David Baker sent us this picture he took of Dirona anchored at Blakely Harbor with the Seattle skyline in the background.

07/27/12: Silverdale We're anchored at the head of Dyes Inlet for Silverdale's annual Whaling Days. The public dock is packed for the event.

07/27/12: Fireworks Friday-night fireworks at Silverdale's Whaling Days. The show was impressive: we were only a few hundred yards away from the barge and felt like we were right underneath.

07/28/12: The Joey James Dean Band The Joey James Dean Band on stage Saturday night at Silverdale's Whaling Days.

07/31/12: Nearly-full moon A nearly-full moon rising over the Seattle skyline next to the mast of the HMCS Oriole.

08/01/12: Oriole and Halsey HMCS Oriole in front of the destroyer USS Halsey. They're here for Seafair weekend.

08/01/12: Bringing in the colors Bringing in the colors on the USS Halsey.

08/05/12: On the TravelLift Getting lifted for anti-fouling paint at Canal Boatyard.

08/12/12: Racoons Racoons gathering breakfast at low tide off Blakely Island. At least a dozen are out there.

08/12/12: Parasailer Parasailer just lifting above the city, viewed from the dinghy in Elliott Bay.

08/17/12: Sunrise Sunrise over Seattle this morning.

08/23/12: And you think your salon is small ... Last night we watched the occupant of this tent stow all manner of gear in his craft, moored along the tribal docks at Bell Harbor. It looks like he's heading of for a big trip.

08/27/12: Dawn Seattle at dawn as we approach Bell Harbor this morning from Blakely Harbor.

08/30/12: Moonrise Moonrise over Port Madison.

08/31/12: Dawn Dawn as we leave Port Madison heading towards Hood Canal.

08/31/12: Fishers Fishers packed Point No Point this morning. Even more are outside the picture frame.

08/31/12: Sea monster This driftwood sea monster has been on Pt. Hannon as long as we've been visiting Hood Canal.

08/31/12: Hood Canal Bridge Heading under the Hood Canal bridge. The clearance is 30', but we had about 5' to spare on a 7' tide.

08/31/12: Bangor Fog lifting over the Ballistic submarine sevice hanger at Bangor.

08/31/12: Wild ride Enjoying the warm weather and calm seas off Sunset Beach.

08/31/12: Nightfall The head of Hood Canal is a much cozier-feeling anchorage than the chart implies--we quite like it. We were here two years ago for July 4th and had a great time. A few small boats buzz about during the day, but nobody else is anchored--the place is calm and silent at night. And this time we had a visitor: Rachel, who co-owns one of the nearby houses, paddled out with a bottle of wine to introduce herself, and came on board for an enjoyable visit.

09/02/12: Sunrise Sunrise from Lilliwaup Bay.

09/02/12: Whitney Point We're tucked against the shore in a small cove off the Whitney Point spit. The anchorage is a little deep and tight for swing room close to shore, but its such a pretty spot that we had to make it work.

Last weekend, for the first time ever, we took in some Seafair events up-close. Normally we're on vacation in August, since that works best with both of our work schedules, and are leaving the area just as Seafair is starting up.  The unlimited class hydroplane races for the Albert Lee Cup anchor Seafair Weekend. The race and many of the supporting events take place inside the Ballard Locks on Lake Washington, but one is located right at Bell Harbor Marina where we moor: the Boeing Maritime Celebration. Two of the participating vessels, the destroyer USS Halsey and the HMCS Oriole, had been moored at pier 66 much of the week.

Rather than leave for a weekend anchorage as we usually do Friday night, we opted to stay at Bell Harbor Marina to tour the ships Saturday morning. The pictures below are looking across Dirona to the Halsey from shore, and looking back the other way from the pier 66 breakwater just before we boarded the destroyer. The breakwater is a secure area and, even though we'd live at pier 66 for over three years, this was the first time we'd actually been up there.

The 509' Halsey was launched in 2005 and is capable of speeds exceeding 30 knots. The firepower on board is formidable. The 5-inch gun below is accurate to 13 miles. At right is a close-up view of the gun's remote-operated guidance system, above the bridge on the ship's stack.

The ship can launch a variety of missiles, including Tomahawks, from the bay at left below, and also has two tubes for launching torpedoes. And it carries two MK III Helicopters that are moved on and off deck on the tracks shown below right.

Up to 11 50-caliber machine guns can be mounted on deck, with an additional 2 40-caliber machine bugs on the bridge.

The bridge is packed with navigation and control equipment. It also has the only windows on the ship, but they aren't very large.

After touring the Halsey, we returned the marina to board the HMCS Oriole, moored inside the marina. The wooden sailing ship was built in 1921, originally as a pleasure craft, and was later donated to the Canadian Navy. The Oriole is both the oldest vessel in the Canadian Naval fleet, and the longest serving. The vessel is used for training purposes and for public relations. As you would expect from a navy vessel, the boat was maintained beautifully.

We left Bell Harbor after our tours to anchor for the night. To provide security for the destroyer, all vessels required a Coast Guard escort to enter or leave the marina.

Sunday morning, we locked through to freshwater en route to Canal Boatyard for anti-fouling paint. The locks were packed with small boats, presumably heading to Seafair on Lake Washington. At bottom right we are moored along the wall at the boatyard.

We've never had any desire to take our main boat to the events at Seafair--it's a bit of madhouse--but we figured it would be fun to take the dinghy to see the US Navy Blue Angels performance. We've not before seen so much traffic in the waterway en route to Lake Washington--even with a 7-knot speed limit, the water was pretty chopped up from wakes. And when we left the speed-limit area, the wakes from all the boat traffic were huge. At first we thought it was wind waves, but the water calmed once we reached the area where most of the boats were stopped.

Literally thousands of boats were there for the Blue Angels show.

And what a show it was. The jets fly incredibly close to each other, and so close to us sometimes we could clearly see the pilots inside.

When we were deciding on equipment for the 52, one of the things we considered was replacing the standard Sub-Zero 700TCI refrigerator/freezer with one that is more energy-efficient. Home appliances, with self-defrosting freezers and ice makers, generally are designed for applications where power is plentiful. We'd heard complaints from other Nordhavn owners that the Sub-Zero power draw was excessive. In our marine application, we'd often be off-grid on battery power, and would need to run the generator to charge the batteries. The greater the power draw, the more often we'd need to run the generator. In the Sub-Zero's favor, other owners had raved about the quality of the unit, almost more than seems reasonable. After all, it is just a refrigerator.

Another concern we had with the Sub-Zero 700TCI was it's unusual dimensions. We've tried hard to avoid having any non-standard equipment that limits our replacement choices should the unit fail. For example, we increased the galley cabinet depth by two inches to accommodate a standard 24"-depth GE Profile dishwasher instead of the 22" Miele that is the standard choice. While the 15.3cu Sub-Zero fit made good use of the galley space, we couldn't find another production unit that came close to matching its dimensions of H 80" x W 27" x D 24". Side-by-side fridges, although also designed to be built into the cabintry, were 4-5" deeper and 8-10" wider. Some companies made a similar design of fridge on top and freezer drawer below, but these units were still 8-10" wider and 4-5" taller. Standalone fridges existed that were similar to the Sub-Zero in width, but they were 6-8" deeper. We would have had to make major changes to the galley layout to accommodate a more standard unit.

The only other option was to have a custom unit built. This we could get with a more efficient, remote 24-volt compressor. We'd get better power efficiency with improved servicability. The refrigerator/freezer would just be a box with few points of failure, and the remote compressor would be relatively easy to service or replace. The main downside of these units would be food quality--the custom units generally are not frost-free and don't control humidity as well as a standard fridge. In that regard, we expected the custom units to be similar to the 12-volt marine combo refrigerator/freezer we had on our previous boat. The boat appliance did not keep food nearly as well as the GE Profile side-by-side that we had in our house at the time, and we expected the Sub-Zero would be better than the GE.

In the end, we stuck with the Sub-Zero 700TCI for the galley. We did, however, change the grill design while we were at the yard. The standard install includes teak panels, with a teak grill below to hide the equipment. Several owners felt the grill restricted the airflow, increasing power consumption, and had removed or replaced theirs. And we'd been told that Sub-Zeros installed with the original stainless steel and no teak panels were more efficient. The teak should provide some extra insulation, so this didn't make sense until we saw a stainless steel unit installed on a Nordhavn 55 in the yard: the space below was open with no grill. So we changed our design to match, with just a teak piece that extends from the bottom freezer drawer to partially cover the equipment, and no grill. In addition to improving airflow, this also makes cleaning dust buildup there much easier.

We did make one refrigeration change to install a 24-volt Dometic RPF-50 freezer in the lazarette. At the time, the separate freezer option for the 52 was a Sub-Zero UC-24C fridge/freezer combo installed in the stairwell to the staterooms. We didn't like the idea of having the unit in the stairwell, partly because that's conveniently accessible space to give up for something that we'd not have to access frequently. But, more importantly, a freezer failure could send smelly meat fluids down into the cabinetry and be near impossible to clean. And we wanted a full freezer, not a combo unit, so we opted for the Dometic instead.

Having had the boat for over two years now, we are very happy with the decision to keep the Sub-Zero in the galley. Those who extolled it's virtues were correct: food keeps incredibly well. When we go on longer trips, we use the same tricks that we did with the previous boat to keep food fresh. In particular, we use Evert-Fresh or Debbie Meyer food-preserving bags. The bags allow gases to escape, and keep fruit and vegetables fresher longer. Since moisture can speed up spoilage, we put a paper towel in each bag and replace the towel when it is damp. We’ve had good luck with all kinds of produce, including green onions, lettuce, corn, lemons and artichokes. With the marine refrigerator we had back then, this doubled or tripled the shelf life, depending on the product. With the Sub-Zero, the shelf life is quadrupled or more. The picture taken below is a head of Romaine lettuce four weeks after purchase, and it still was fresh even after six weeks.

We're also happy with our choice of the Dometic for the lazarette. We only use it for longer trips, but it allows us to stock up on bread, meats, etc and not need to stop for groceries for well over a month. The Dometic isn't frost-free, however, and we have found that food such as ice cream doesn't keep well long-term there compared to the Sub-Zero--more support for keeping the Sub-Zero. The marine fridge/freezer on the previous boat was not frost-free either, and we'd annually need to defrost it to remove thick ice build-up. So far we'd not had to do that with the Dometic--ice just doesn't build up. This may be partly due to our not opening it frequently when in use, that we only power it on for a few months at a time, or it might be a higher quality unit.

While the Sub-Zero does consume more power than the other options, we're very happy to have it. The boat is pretty power hungry, and while we've not measured it, we don't feel the Sub-Zero is a major a contributor to the overall power draw. Having fresh produce last longer makes us more self-sufficient--diesel is much more readily available in certain parts of the world than is fresh produce. This also allows us to last longer between stops, even if fresh produce were readily available. We've designed the boat for self-sufficiency, and having to the run the generator to top off the batteries is comparatively not that big an issue.

Earlier this month, we got a chance to tour the Hanjin Oslo at Seattle's Terminal 46. We had an incredible time--we watched the ship come in, toured the yard, and best of all, were given a detailed onboard tour that included the machinery. The above photo of us on the bridge wing was taken by Peter Kim,  who supervises the Hanjin shipping container ports in the Puget Sound and Vancouver, WA. Peter knows the Hanjin and port operations well--his detailed explanations of how things work and the equipment involved really added to our enjoyment of the visit. 

We left Bell Harbor Marina as the Hanjin Oslo was entering Elliott Bay and arrived at the terminal in time to watch the ship dock. The ship of course is huge, but the size and scale is really obvious when it's next to other vessels. The 915-foot ship dwarfs the roughly 382-foot ferry Kaleetan to the stern.  And that "small" tug off the bow is the 98-foot Crowley Tioga.

Peter Kim, the port supervisor, is pictured below left with those huge gantry cranes behind. The "BRIDGE" sign in the righthand picture indicates where the bridge of the ship should go. That car Peter is standing next to also marks  the location.

As the ship approached the dock, the caption (in the hat on the left) and the pilot directed the docking from the bridge wing.

It was a tight sqeeze--Peter wanted the ship to dock about 100 feet in front of the already-moored Cosco Seattle. If the Oslo was too far forward, trucks entering and leaving to carry away containers would get each other's way and slow down the unload.

The terminal area was pretty empty and quiet when we arrived, and as we watched the ship dock. But once the ship had stopped, the place sprang to life. Forklifts buzzed about, trucks began arriving to pick up the containers, and various officials appeared to process the ship's arrival into port. Crane operators whizzed to the top of their cranes in small elevators and moved the cranes into position. The video link at bottom left shows the cranes closest to us going into position. For such a large piece of equipment, it moves quickly.

The walkway, that we would take to board the ship, lowering into position. Peter took us on a tour of the yard first, and then we boarded the Oslo. One of the first things we saw on board was the emergency muster station, with a labelled position for each crew member to ensure all are accounted for. For such large ships, the crews are relatively small. The Oslo typically will have a crew of 21, or 22 if a cadet is on board.

Our first stop was an officer's room. There we met the captain and three members of the bridge crew, and had an enjoyable discussion with them before beginning the tour. On the screen at the back of the room, they were monitoring the ship's trim while ballast adjustments were made to compensate for weight distribution changes as containers were unloaded.

The Oslo's third officer, also named Peter, took us on a tour of the ship, starting with the bridge. It was so wild to be on the bridge of a container ship.

Peter, of the Oslo, explained the operations of the various equipment at the bridge, and let me "drive".

The Oslo's captain has a real green thumb. He was growing quite an extensive garden in the corner of the bridge, including an impressive tomato plant.

The view looking forward and aft from the bridge wing. The long-range visibility is impressive, but is quite limited close-range--it's a long way to the bow. Peter Kim commented that the you could lay the 605-foot Space Needle in between the bridge and that small white tower at the bow. Small boats just forward of the ship would simply be invisible from the bridge. This Discovery Channel show on Container Ships, featuring the Hanjin Washington, shows how resticted the visibility is from the bridge when entering a port.

From the bridge wing, we had an excellent view of the containers being offloaded. In the video linked at right, you can see how skilled and efficient the crane operators are at pulling a container out and depositing it onto a waiting truck.

The next stop was the machinery monitoring room. Besides the main engine, the Oslo has four auxiliary generators for producing electricity. We believe 2 are 2700 kw and 2 are 1700kw.

And then we got to see the engine. It's absolutely huge. Peter Kim compared it to the equivalent of ten city buses stacked vertically. For more details on the engine, see Jame's blog entry Visiting the Hanjin Oslo Container Ship. Below are two pictures from the top floor of the engine room.

And these are the second and third floors down in the engine room.

The prop shaft extends from the engine at the lower (third) level down. It's incredibly huge, with massive supports.

The last picture below is of various huge engine spares, include cylinders and sections of the prop shaft. Notice how clean and sparkling everything is. Peter had warned us before our tour that this was a working ship and would be dirty, but we'd been on cruise ships that weren't as clean as the Oslo. There wasn't a speck of dirt in evidence anywhere.

We had an awesome time that afternoon. Thanks to Hanjin Shipping lines, the captain and crew of the Oslo, and Peter Kim for an incredibly informative tour.

On the final leg of our trip along the Columbia and Snake Rivers, we returned downriver from Portland via sheltered Multnomah Channel to anchor in the Lewis and Clark National Wildlife Refuge. We spent the following three nights at the river mouth: two in Astoria, OR and the third in Illwaco, WA. In Astoria, we visited with friends, visited the impressive Columbia River Maritime Museum, and enjoyed the view from Astoria Column high above the town (pictured above). At Illwaco we toured Cape Disappointment State Park and the surrounding area by bike, and went to another excellent museum, the Lewis and Clark Interpretive Center. This is the first trip where we've use our bikes so much--they've opened up some sidetrips that would have been difficult or impossible otherwise.

And then it was time to return home. Our return trip across the bar was even more uneventful than our entry--conditions were very calm. We encountered a bit of rough water off the west coast of Washington, but that didn't last long and soon we were inside the Strait of Juan de Fuca with the wind behind us.

Here's our log from Portland to the San Juan Islands. You also can display these on the map view.

05/11/12: Hawthorne Bridge Passing under the Hawthorne Lift Bridge at dawn.

05/11/12: Samuel Island Bridge We took Multnomah Channel back downriver. Houseboats, most very nice, and farmland line the majority of the shores, making for a tranquil run. Several parks with docks, and small marinas, also were enroute. Were it later in the day, we'd likely have stopped somewhere along the channel.

05/11/12: Old farm building Old farm building near Coon Island.

05/11/12: Hanjin Madrid Passing the Hanjin Madrid at a tight spot in the channel.

05/11/12: 1,800 hours Just crossed 1,800 hours on the main engine. We've used the boat a lot in the past 2.5 years.

05/11/12: R/V Quinnat One of two NOAA research vessels working near Puget Island.

05/11/12: Miller Sands Anchored for the night off sandy dunes in the Lewis and Clark National Wildlife Refuge. The many sandy islands in the area are a nice bonus of river dredging. We quite enjoyed this anchorage. Although we were close to the traffic lanes, the wakes from passing container ships wasn't a problem. We suspect this was due to the ships slowing slightly for the corner, and the wakes at different angles cancelling each other out, similar to Rich Passage.

05/12/12: Port of Astoria, West Basin Going to spend a night or two in Astoria.

05/12/12: Cape Disappointment The Coast Guard motor lifeboat Cape Disappointment entering the marina.

05/12/12: Flat Earth We were one of three Nordhavns in the harbor. This is Nordhavn 50 Flat Earth.

05/12/12: Susan J The last Nordhavn 62 ever built, Susan J, was the third Nordhavn at the marina. Steve (shown) and Beverly Creagan previously owned a Nordhavn 40 and a 47 and are one of only two Nordhavn owners to have had boats built in all three PAE boatyards.

05/12/12: Columbia Columbia Bar pilot boat Columbia. This is one of two two state-of-the-art, 30-knot pilot boats that work the bar. A third pilot boat carries river pilots to and from ships that are across the bar. The Columbia fuels every day, and were normally would fuel at the commercial dock, but it's closed Sunday so they were fueling at the mooring basin instead.

05/12/12: Another Columbia This looks like a pilot boat, and certainly has the right name. Possibly it's out of service and has been restored.

05/12/12: Company Christine Guo and Mark Mohler, of Nordhavn 62 Gray Matter, flew up from San Francisco to visit us in Astoria.

05/13/12: Astoria Column In the morning before Mark and Christine flew back home, we all went up to take in the view from the Astoria Column. The 125-foot column stands on a hill above the city with sweeping views.

05/13/12: View from the top Today was an excellent day to be up the tower. We've realy had amazingly good weather.

05/13/12: Enjoying the view

05/13/12: Hanjin Madrid The Hanjin Madrid heading out to the bar, with another ship visible in the distance. This is the same ship that passed us inbound a couple of days ago--that was a fast turnaround.

05/13/12: Queen of the West The last day we would see the Queen of the West. A number of its passengers had taken a bus up to the tower from the waterfront.

05/13/12: Heading back down A tight spiral 166-step staircase leads to the top.

05/13/12: Sunday Market Astoria has an healthy streetfront Sunday market covering several blocks. Wares ranged from fresh produce and flowers, to prepared foods, to arts and crafts.

05/13/12: In remembrance Plaque honoring bar pilots lost on the bar--its a dangerous job.

05/13/12: Marking the entrance The original Columbia River lightship that marked the Columbia River entrance, and the 60-foot navigational buoy that replaced it in 1979. Both are displays at the Columbia River Maritime Museum. Tours of the lightship are included with museum admission.

05/13/12: USCG cutters Two 210-foot Coast Guard Cutters, Steadfast and Alert, also were moored off the museum. And much to our delight, they were open for tours.

05/13/12: USCGC Steadfast Crewmember Latham took us on an excellent tour of the Steadfast. This is the very large gun on the ship's bow.

05/13/12: The bridge We were able to see most of the ship, except the engine room.

05/13/12: The Wet Dog Time for lunch. We had a good meal on the deck of the Astoria Brewing Company's Wet Dog Cafe, a short distance from the museum.

05/13/12: Astoria Trolley While we were having lunch, we heard the distinctive sound of a trolley car. And sure enough, along came the Astoria Riverfront Trolley. The restored 1913 trolley runs back and forth for 2.6 miles along the Astoria waterfront, pushing or pulling its generator power source. Several regular stops are along the way, or you can flag it down anywhere. The trolley has no set schedule, but you can track it via GPS.

05/13/12: River Pilot The river pilot boat, still running and just pushed into the pier.

05/13/12: Columbia River Maritime Museum We spent the rest of the afternoon at the impressive Columbia River Maritime Museum. This is a detailed model of the Tidewater tug The Chief, a boat we frequently encountered on our trip up and down river.

05/13/12: Shipwrecks This display shows known shipwrecks at the Columbia River bar. Details of each indicident are on the board below--you can push a a button next to a ship's name to light up the location where it wrecked.

05/13/12: Motor lifeboat 44300 One of the most dramatic displays is the original motor lifeboat prototype, 44300, mounted on a sharp angle to depict a rescue at sea. It's part of a larger exhibit on the USCG lifesaving at the bar.

05/13/12: Riverfront walk Astoria has a wonderful riverfront promenade that runs from the marina about a mile into and through downtown. This also is where the trolley runs. The walk was most enjoyable and only marginally slower than the trolley, which averages about five miles an hour.

05/13/12: Bridgewater We had an excellent meal that evening at the acclaimed Bridgwater Bistro next to the marina.

05/13/12: Sunset Sunset viewed from the flybridge.

05/14/12: Sunrise Sunrise behind the Astoria-Megler Bridge as we leave the boat basin.

05/14/12: Chinook The second bar pilot boat, Chinook, returning from the bar.

05/14/12: USCG Cape Disappointment Motor lifeboats at Coast Guard Station Cape Disappointment.

05/14/12: Port of Illwaco Moored at Illwaco to bike into Cape Disappointment State Park. Before looking at the charts in detail, we were thinking of anchoring off the park in Baker Bay and running the dinghy ashore. But depths in the bay are mostly less than a fathom, except for a dredged channel into the port. We could still have run the dinghy from the dock, but the bikes give us more flexibility.

05/14/12: Jessie's Jessie's Illwaco Fish Company has been shipping seafood worldwide for over forty years. They apparently are the largest buyer of albacore tuna in the world, with fisherman delivering catch from as far away as Midway Island in the central Pacific.

05/14/12: Cape Disappointment State Park At the trailhead to the Cape Disappointment Lighthouse, roughly a two-mile pedal by road from Illwaco.

05/14/12: Old building Old building along the trail to the lighthouse. We couldn't guess its purpose--perhaps it was use as a workshop or for storage.

05/14/12: Cape Disappointment Lighthouse At the lighthouse we first saw a few weeks back on our entry to the Columbia River.

05/14/12: Lewis and Clark Interpretive Center The Lewis and Clark Interpretive Center, also in the Cape Disappointment State Park, perched on a bluff northwest of the lighthouse.

05/14/12: Observation room Four Coast Guardsmen were in this observation hut below the lighthouse. This likely is where the Coast Guard determines bar conditions.

05/14/12: Motor lifeboats Far below, four motor lifeboats appeared to be doing training exercises.

05/14/12: Binoculars The men in the observation room were studing the scene with a massive set of binoculars. We've been told you can see craters on the moon with them.

05/14/12: Snack Having a snack at the lighthouse with a view east to Jetty A.

05/14/12: At the interpetive center After the lighthouse, we biked a short distance to the interpretive center.

05/14/12: View to lighthouse View to the Cape Disappointment Lighthouse from the interpretive center.

05/14/12: Fort Canby The interpretive center is built into the ruins of Fort Canby. Battery Allen, shown, is of similar construction to the Puget Sound forts we've visited closer to home.

05/14/12: Munitions room Underground munitions room.

05/14/12: Lewis and Clark's journey The interpretive center had an excellent display of Lewis and Clark's journey from the east coast through to the Pacific Ocean. We both were quite impressed. Part of what made the display so good was personal anecdotes and journal entries from the various members of the expedition.

05/14/12: Waikiki Beach From the interpretive center, we biked out to North Jetty. This is Waikiki Beach--yes, that's really the name--en route. The south-facing cove must take a pounding during winter storms, judging by all that driftwood.

05/14/12: Benson Beach Soft-sand Benson Beach at the foot of North Jetty.

05/14/12: Lunch Enjoying the waves over lunch along North Jetty.

05/14/12: Discovery Trail The 8.2-mile Discovery Trail leads between Ilwaco and Long Beach. We picked up the trail just inside the park at Beards Hollow. The trail is wide, well-paved and immaculate, as if someone trimmed and swept it every day. Much of the trail runs along the ocean with sweeping views--it felt like highway 101 for bikes.

05/14/12: Gray whale skeleton Skeleton of a 38-foot juvenile gray whale that washed ashore at Long Beach in 2000.

05/14/12: Boardwalk A wonderful boardwalk runs along the beach at Long View.

05/14/12: Condor scuplture Condor scuplture at the trailhead in Ilwaco.

05/15/12, 5:50am: Sand Island Susan Rae following us out of Illwaco. We'll be crossing the bar soon--it's open to all traffic with seas 2-4 feet everywhere.

05/15/12, 6:41am: Columbia River Buoy 1 Just passed the first buoy at the bar entrance--we're through. Conditions were pretty good the whole way.

05/16/12, 8:48am: Traffic We saw little to no traffic between the Columbia River and Cape Flattery, but lots in the Strait of Juan de Fuca.

05/17/12: Echo Bay, Sucia Island Sucia Island is one of our long-time favorite anchorages in the San Juan Islands. A few early-season boats are here, and the beautiful tractor tug Lindsay Foss preceded us in. We suspect it is waiting for a ship to escort into Anacortes.

05/18/12: Cap Sante Boat Haven, Anacortes At Anacortes for Trawler Fest. We'll be presenting Saturday morning.

05/19/12: Padilla Bay Maersk Cameron at the Anacortes refinery near our anchorage in Padilla Bay

We've just returned from an incredible tour of the Hanjin Oslo at Seattle's Terminal 46, courtesy of Peter Kim, who supervises the Hanjin container ports in the Puget Sound and Washington state. The scope and scale of the ship is amazing, and the Hanjin operation is extremely professional. We'll be posting a more detailed description, but here's a sneak-preview.

From Hood River, we returned to Cascade Falls to bike the Historic Columbia River Highway and visit the Bonneville Dam Visitor Center. We then continued farther downstream, back through the last lock at Bonneville, through the navigable waters of the Willamette River and back to Portland for the night.

The Bonneville Dam Visitor Center unfortunately was even more unfriendly to bicycles and pedestrians than Ice Harbor was: the Army Corps of Engineers wouldn’t allow us in unless we could produce a motor vehicle. But we had an excellent bike ride along the old highway and saw many waterfalls that day and the next: Ruckel Creek, Wahclella, Multnomah, Dutchman, Ecola, Fairy and Wakheena. And we hiked to 2,500' Devil's rest for sweeping views up and down the river. We also got a close-up view to the sternwheeler Queen of the West, tied alongside as we went through the Bonneville Lock.

Here's our log from Hood River to Portland. You also can display these on the map view.

05/08/12: Flume Broughton Lumber Company flume just east of Drano Lake. Between 1922 and 1986 the flume carried logs from a sawmill to a finishing plant nine miles away.

05/08/12: Mitchell Pt The scenery has been pretty impressive most of the trip.

05/08/12: Queen of the West The sternwheeler we saw earlier in Richland, Queen of the West, moored at Stevenson. We didn't know it, but we'd be getting a lot closer view of that boat tomorrow.

05/08/12: Entering Port of Cascade Marina We're back at Cascade Locks to bike along the Historic Columbia River Highway State Trail to the Bonneville Dam. The marina entrance is narrow, with opposing wind and currents. And once past the narrow entrance, you have to make an immediate right turn onto the transient dock. That's when you find out if the docks have space or if you have to back out.

05/08/12: Tight squeeze We had a bit of a tight squeeze getting in this time--sailboats were docked on both sides of the fairway. It made getting through the entry look easy.

05/08/12: Trailhead Breakfast at the trailhead beside the Bridge of the Gods.

05/08/12: On the trail The Historic Columbia River Highway was built as a scenic route in the 1920s, but quickly fell into disuse when vehicle traffic increased and was closed when I-84 opened. Starting in the 1980s, large portions have been restored for car traffic. The section we're on, from Cascade Locks to Moffett Creek, is open to cyclists and pedestrians only. The trail is wonderful, and its nice not to worry about vehicle traffic.

05/08/12: Sheridan State Park Interpretive signs are all along the trail, detailing the highway's history.

05/08/12: Ruckel Creek Falls Old bridge over the falls at Ruckel Creek.

05/08/12: Eagle Creek Hatchery A major hatchery is at Eagle Creek. When we were there, the tanks held 4.5 million Chinook smolt.

05/08/12: Stairs Just beyond the hatchery, an old flight of stairs was the only real obstacle on the path. Our bikes are light, so carrying them up wasn't difficult.

05/08/12: Lookout Enjoying the view from one of the old highway lookouts. The old road really was beautifully done.

05/08/12: View View to the lock and dam from the lookout.

05/08/12: Old lock The original navigation lock, no longer in use.

05/08/12: New lock The new navigation lock that we passed through earlier on the trip and will pass through tomorrow.

05/08/12: Bonneville Lock and Dam We were quite excited to have arrived and were really looking forward to touring the visitor center. It is supposed to be the best of them all. But Bonneville is even more pedestrian and cyclist unfriendly than Ice Harbor was. If you arrive in a gas-guzzler, you're good to go. But you are not allowed to walk or pedal to the visitor center.

05/08/12: Lock gates We could visit parts of the site, including Robins Island, but some areas were closed to cyclists and pedestrians. This is the view to the lock gate from the bridge to Robins Island over the lock entrance channel.

05/08/12: Lunch We stopped for lunch on the Bonneville fish hatchery grounds. Despite the visitor center restriction, we were still having great day. The bike ride along the old highway was really fun.

05/08/12: Wahclella Falls Opposite the Bonnevile facility was the entry to Wahclella Falls on Tanner Creek. The falls were about mile or so away from the trailhead, so we set off. The trail was quite good, and easy to follow. And the falls were spectacular.

05/08/12: Crossing Tanner Creek After the falls, we crossed Tanner Creek on the old highway and continued to the end of the trail, not much father along at Moffett Creek.

05/09/12: Backing out We slid out backwards between the two sailboats, and then around the corner and out the entrance. The aft helm is handy for maneuvers like this.

05/09/12: Backed up Once we'd cleared the marina about 5:50am, we radiod the Bonneville lock for an opening. We were going to have to wait a bit. The tug Cascade was already in the locks going down, but couldn't exit until after 6:30 because the bridge we were on yesterday to Robins Island is closed from 6:00am to 6:30am for employees to cross. The sternwheeler Queen of the West was also enroute downstream, and the plan was we'd lock through with them, behind them on the starboard wall.

05/09/12: This will be fun Olaf J also was wanting to lock through and radioed Queen of the West to discuss the possibility. They agreed and suggested this to the lockmaster, who replied "I look forward to it. This will be fun." That's another difference between this and the Ballard locks in Seattle: here the boats tend to discuss shared locking options and then radio the lockmaster for approval. In the Ballard locks, the boats don't communicate like that and the lockmaster just directs everything.

05/09/12: Old highway The old highway we biked on yesterday, above I-84.

05/09/12: Entering the locks Olaf J needed to tie on the port side, putting Queen of the West on the starboard aft side to make room for the cruise ship's bow ramp. We could go port side on the lock, but opted to tie off the Queen of the West. To tie off on the port side, we'd need to move the kayaks from their racks that extend over that side. Plus we're assymetrical and don't have a walkway there, so managing the lines and fenders is more of a hassle.

05/09/12: Coming alongside Not as tight as this morning's marina exit, but not a lot of extra space either.

05/09/12: Tied off That's a big boat.

05/09/12: Spitfire Spitfire, always a little concernd about close quarters, was the star of the locking. A few passengers were interested in our boat and came by to chat. But soon after Spitfire appeared on deck, a crowd formed on the Queen of the West's bow to take his picture.

05/09/12: Hard on it Olaf J working hard to exit the locks against the eddies.

05/09/12: Our turn Heading out.

05/09/12: Olaf J The captain stopped the Olaf J just outside the locks to let the Queen of the West pass.

05/09/12: Queen of the West Queen of the West exiting the locks.

05/09/12: Sternwheel Queen of the West's stern lit up in the morning sun as they pass.

05/09/12: Benson Park We anchored off Benson State Park to see if we can reach Multnomah Falls, pictured here. The anchorage actually is suprisingly sheltered--we're enough out of the wind and current that conditions are much calmer than in the main channel.

05/09/12: I-84 We had a pretty easy time landing the dinghy--the shoreline is steep-to and the brush was fairly light. The challenging part is that the park entry is between the I-84 lanes, so we had to cross the two westbound lanes. Fortunately we could see the oncoming traffic a long way off and could wait for a good clear gap in traffic.

05/09/12: Multnomah Falls The falls, with Benson Bridge in front, are spectucular. The bridge apparently is one of the most photographed architectural features in Oregon. Simon Benson, one of Historic Columbia highway builders, constructed it in 1914.

05/09/12: Falling rock We were wondering if we could reach Benson Bridge, and it turned out a path did lead there. Some serious falling-rock barriers were along the way. Judging by the shape, they've caught a few big ones.

05/09/12: Trail to the top Then we saw a sign indiciting the top of the falls was about a mile's walk. We had to do that. This is the view looking back to Dirona from partway up.

05/09/12: Top of the falls We're really up there--542'. At the top right is the viewing area and the bridge across the front of the falls.

05/09/12: View from the top Looking across the Columbia from the viewpoint. Dirona is visible at the mid-left of the picture.

05/09/12: Second Bridge Beyond the viewpoint spur, the trail continued farther along Multnomah creek and crossed on a stone-fronted culvert.

05/09/12: Dutchman Falls The sun-dappled woods were wondefully serene, and the trail was easy to follow. So we continued along the creek and soon came to another set of falls.

05/09/12: Dutchman Tunnel A stone wall carries the trail through a crescent-shaped cave. The trail we're on was built in 1915 by founding members of the Trails Club of Oregon--it starts at the base of the falls and continues to Larch Mountain.

05/09/12: Ecola Falls Then we came to the 55' Ecola Falls. Wow, what a trail. At this point, we'd gained just over 1,000 feet of altitude in the 2-mile walk from the base of Multnomah Falls. Just beyond the falls, the trail forked. A trail map on a nearby tree indicated that the Larch Mountain trail continued to the left and the Wahkeena Trail to the right. And off the Wahkeena Trail was a spur to a viewpoint, Devil's Rest, and a loop back down to Multnomah Falls. We're suckers for a view, and the day was young, so we decided to continue on to Devil's Rest.

05/09/12: Trail to Devil's Rest 1.6 miles to Devil's Rest. We'd already hiked way farther than we'd expected to when we left Dirona. But we'd come this far, so might as well get that view.

05/09/12: Devil's Rest viewpointstrong> And wow, what a view.

05/09/12: Looking north That white speck way in the distance close to shore is Dirona. . We were now at 2,500 feet and had sweeping views up and down the river. (For a more interesting visualization of the hike, select terrain view under street map at the top right of the large map).

05/09/12: Beacon Rockstrong> 800' Beacon Rock seemed so big when we'd climbed on our way upriver, but looked pretty puny in comparison.

05/09/12: Fairy Falls From the Devil's Rest trail, we returned down along Wahkeena Trail towards Wahkeena Falls. Along the way are the 20-foot Fairy Falls.

05/09/12: Wakheena Falls Stone bridge at the base of Wakheena Falls

05/09/12: Government Island Making chicken wings for dinner on the dock at Government Island. We'd had a lot of excitement for one day: at 5:30am we backed out between the sailboats at Port of Cascades Marina, then went through Bonneville Lock tied off to the Queen of the West, and finally we did a a 2,500 foot, 8-mile hike. We slept well that night.

05/10/12: Portland International Airport View to the airport at dawn.

05/10/12: Swing bridge Back under the BNR railroad swing bridge. Both times we passed, the bridge operator said we could have fit under without an opening. We'd actually tried on the way up, and didn't feel we had enough room. Bridge clearances along the Columbia River system are given in mean lowest low water during lowest river stages. According to the Hawthorne lift bridge, the river height was 5' and the tide height was 7'. Subtracting that from the charted 39' for that bridge yields 27'--not enough for our 30' air draft. The one thing that's gospel is the guage on the side of the bridge that indicates the current clearance from the waterline. The guage was reading 28'--we would not have fit.

05/10/12: Big ships Back to big ship country.

05/10/12: St. Johns Bridge Looking back on the St. Johns suspension bridge, the first of fourteen bridges that span the Willamette at Portland.

05/10/12: Portland Shipyard Ship in drydock at the Portland Shipyard on Swan Island. Several large ships were at the yard, including the USS Paul F. Foster to the right of the cranes.

05/10/12: Fremont Bridge Passing under I-405. The Fremont Bridge is the second longest tied arch bridge in the world.

05/10/12: Broadway Bascule Bridge Looking under the Broadway Bascule Bridge to the double-lift Steel Bridge. The Broadway Bascule Bridge was the longest bascule bridge, or drawbridge, in the world when it was built in 1913. And the Steel Bridge is unusual in having two lifting levels, the top for for traffic and the bottom for rail.

05/10/12: Downtown Portland Portland is a city not know for its sunny days. We've been very lucky with the weather.

05/10/12: Elk Rock Island Approaching Elk Rock Island. The Willamette River was tranquil and cozy feeling compared to the larger Columbia and Snake rivers. We quite enjoyed our cruise there.

05/10/12: Out for a row A couple out for a row in a beautiful wooden rowboat.

05/10/12: Fishing As we neared the river head, the fish boats became thicker and thicker. They anchor side-by-side and deploy a bucket underwater off the stern to keep them in place. We've been told they sometimes can block the entire channel, but that the sheriff monitors VHF channel 16 and will quickly come to clear them out if called.

05/10/12: Willamette Falls The end of the navigable channel--the US Army Corps of Engineers closed the Willamette Falls Locks in December 2011. We considered anchoring to take the dinghy in for a closer look to the falls, but the small fish boats were arriving and anchoring en masse with those buckets to hold them in place. None of our buckets were big enough :), so unless we deployed a stern anchor we'd clear out thirty of them in a single wind change.

05/10/12: Through the mass The boats had really filled in since we'd arrived, and working back downstream was tricky. About half were anchored, and the rest were underway randomly upstream with their attention on the fish lines behind them rather than the direction they were moving. The ones that did see us didn't seem concerned that they were blocking our path. We occasionally sounded the horn when they got too close, and they grudgingly moved out of the way.

05/10/12: Cedar Island We stopped of at the cove inside Cedar Island for lunch. The river adjacent was packed with fishing boats, but the anchorage was calm, secluded, and empty. It was a beautiful spot, and we would have stayed the night if it were later in the day.

05/10/12: Stephen Cridland Our friend Stephen Cridlan, who did the photography for our Circumnavigator shoot, saw us on the way upriver while he was out fishing and flagged us down when we returned. He'd called us on the cell phone after we passed before and recommended some stops, including the Cedar Island anchorage.

05/10/12: View home A large and beautiful view home along the river.

05/10/12: Another view home And this one even larger.

05/10/12: Tom McCall Public Dock Moored for the night at the public docks off downtown Portland. We collected a lot of wood in a short time.

05/10/12: Portland Streetcar Portland has free rail and bus service throughout downtown. We picked up a tourist map from the hotel by the dock and found a streetcar stop just south of the public dock.

05/10/12: Fountain Downtown Portland is full of parks and fountains.

05/10/12: Architecture And interesting architecture too.

05/10/12: Steel Bridge Crossing over the top level of the Steel Bridge we'd passed under earlier. The Burnside Bascule Bridge is in the distance.

05/10/12: Bridgeport Pub We did a mini-pub crawl, stopping off first at Henry's Tavern to sample from their selection of over 100 beers on tap. We finished the evening farther north with an excellent meal and pints at the Bridgeport Pub.

Over the next three days, we ran from the Tri-Cities at the confluence of the Snake and Columbia Rivers, to Hood River, passing through the McNary, John Day and The Dalles locks. At The Dalles, we visited the excellent Columbia Gorge Discovery Center,, and were lucky to arrive in time for their live raptor program. We spent the third day in the windsurfing mecca of Hood River, a well-maintained town with many excellent brewpubs and restaurants. The winds were calm, so we didn't see any windsurfers, but we enjoyed fabulous clear weather.

One of the advantages of the time of year we did the trip, apart from the empty docks and anchorages, was that the summer recreational lockage schedule was not yet in effect. We could pass through pretty much anytime during daylight. From May 15th through September 15th, however, recreational craft only can lock through on three-hour intervals between about 9am and 9pm. We often arrived at a dam well before 9am, and mostly were able to lock through without delay no matter the time.

Here's our log from the Tri-Cities to Hood River. You also can display these on the map view.

05/05/12: Dawn Underway for a couple of longer runs to meet friends and family in Hood River on Monday.

05/05/12: Tugs We're starting to see a lot more tug traffic now that we're back on the Columbia. Here The Chief is heading downstream and the Wallace E. is working up.

05/05/12, 5:45am: Port of Wallula

05/05/12, Wallula Gap Train passing as we enter Wallula Gap.

05/05/12: Car on slope That car we saw on the slope on the way up now has two large X's on it.

05/05/12: Bridge up ... sort of The lockmaster didn't open the bridge all the way. And it looked a little tight for us to fit.

05/05/12: Bridge clearance They opened it a little more. As long as we stay centered up, we'll be fine.

05/05/12: Spillway View to the spillway from inside the locks.

05/05/12: Gate opening

05/05/12: Lassen Lassen working upstream towards the locks.

05/05/12: Research vessel Research vessel just downstream of the dam.

05/05/12: Navy jet This navy jet screamed past low overhead, then climbed into the sky, flipping and looping, before heading north along Alder Creek Canyon. Apparently this is a fairly common path for Whidbey Island Naval Air Station jets to take en route to the Boardman bombing range.

05/05/12, 2:35pm: Windsurfer

05/05/12: Windmills

05/05/12, 4:30pm: Mile 328 Anchored for the night behind a small point that provides reasonable wave shelter and a suprisingly decent wind break. We really liked this spot--the scenery was dramatic; we could watch trains going by on both sides, and cars on the far shore; and several tugs passed while we were there. We were considering going on through John Day tonight and were glad we didn't. In the hour after we anchored, three tugs were backed up waiting to lock through with others coming upstream.

05/05/12: Dusk Windmills in the hills above us at dusk.

05/05/12: Moonrise

05/06/12: Sunrise

05/06/12, 6:45am: John Day Lock and Dam Early morning sun lighting the gate support towers as we enter the locks. The lockmaster said it was good we came early as the winds can be very strong in the locks and he hates to see recreational boats bouncing about.

05/06/12: Sun disappearing Losing the sun as we descend.

05/06/12: Bolt secure Forget about a telltale line, this bolt isn't going anywhere with that strip of metal attached.

05/06/12: Partial gate lift As soon as we got through, the lockmaster was going to turn the lock around for the tug Clearwater to lock downstream, then the tug Invader would be coming upstream. To save time, he didn't raise the gate all the way and figured we'd have about 40' clearance.

05/06/12: Maryhill Museum of Art Entrepreneur Sam Hill built this as his home in 1914. The structure was never completed and eventually he converted it to the Maryhill Museum of Art. now

05/06/12: More seagulls the pelicans Until recently, pelicans have outnumbered seagulls. The islets off Miller Island tip the balance far the other way.

05/06/12: Celilo Bridge Passing back under the Celilo Bridge.

05/06/12: Mount Hood Mt. Hood dominates the skyline as we approach The Dalles locks.

05/06/12, 9:10am: Top of The Dalles lock 116 feet at the top

05/06/12: Bottom of the lock And 38.6' at the bottom.

05/06/12, 10:20am: Crates Point Anchored for the night in a bight below the Columbia Gorge Discovery Center.

05/06/12: Dinghy landing We landed the dinghy below the railroad tracks at the east end of the bight we'd anchored in. The going was relatively easy to get up to and over the tracks and into a meadow near the center.

05/06/12: View to anchorage Looking back to the anchorage from the meadow.

05/06/12: The Dalles View south to the city of The Dalles.

05/06/12: The Columbia Gorge Discovery Center Outside the Columbia Gorge Discovery Center, the Official Interpretive Center of the Columbia River Gorge National Scenic Area. The facility was most impressive, both inside and out.

05/06/12: Gardens A bicycle path, probably from The Dalles, leads up to and around the property's beautiful pond and gardens.

05/06/12: Dramatic entryway Entry to the center is through a glass and cedar hall with the Columbia River depicted on the floor. Jennifer is standing where we are anchored.

05/06/12: Red-tailed hawk We'd arrived just in time to watch the live raptor education program. The birds in the program have been injured and are being rehabilitated. Some will be re-introduced back to the wild if they can heal. This red-tailed hawk had a broken wing.

05/06/12: Great-horned owl The owl was blind in one eye.

05/06/12: Kestral

05/06/12: Native history The displays included geological develoment, and native and European history. All were very high quality.

05/06/12: Mountain lion

05/06/12: Vintage car

05/06/12: Movies Several movies were playing in the center. One that we particlarly enjoyed included footage and interviews with tugboat operators who ran barges on through the rapids on the Columbia before the dams were built. They looked absolutely nuts. In one shot, the tug was skidding sideways like a sprint car. For some of the rapids, the captains said you either got through or blew up an engnine trying--you just went flat out trying to get through.

05/06/12: Tug-watching We were expecting to get hit with a substantional wake with this tug went by working hard upstream. But the wake was barely noticable--perhaps the current moderates it somewhat.

05/06/12: Dusk The anchorage was a little unusual, but we loved it--the scenery was amazing. And at night, the trains and cars lit up the shore on both sides.

05/07/12: Morning sun

05/07/12: Lookout The rock wall and lookout at the top of the picture likely is part of the Historic Columbia River Highway.

05/07/12: The Chief The Chief working upstream. We've seen that boat a lot on this trip.

05/07/12: Victor Trevett grave Marble spire on Memaloose Island marking the 1883 grave of The Dalles state senator Victor Trevett.

05/07/12: Approaching Hood River

05/07/12: Calm weather Sailboat anchored in ultra-calm conditions off the marina.

05/07/12: Breakfast Tied off and having breakfast on deck.

05/07/12: Toll bridge The bridge over the Columbia at Hood River is toll.

05/07/12: Sternwheel Huge sternwheel at the Hood River County Museum. The facility was closed for renovations.

05/07/12: Pedestrian bridge Pedestrian bridge over the Hood River.

05/07/12: Big Horse Brew Pub WWe'll be meeting folks for lunch here later today. James' parents, Rob and Andrea, have driven down from Victoria, BC and longtime family friend Mike Dilly is driving up from Eugene, Oregon. Hood River has something like eight or nine brewpubs--our kind of town.

05/07/12: Dinner The wind stayed down and we had a great meal and evening in the cockpit.

The table has sold.

The Martinique Veranda Extension Teak Wood Table with flexed leg design seats six to eight people comfortably. Twin leaf butterfly extensions allow you to extend both leaves simultaneously, or one at a time depending on the number of guests. When the extensions are collapsed, the Martinique Table transforms into a beautiful round table.

We bought this table in 2010 and love it, but don't have room for it on the boat. The table costs $2091 new, plus a minimum of $145 shipping, and we're selling for $599 or best offer.

Email, or contact by phone at 425-922-2991.

Click pictures below for larger images.

We ran downriver at a more leisurely pace than the upriver run, stopping earlier in the day to explore by dinghy, on foot and on our bicycles. A highlight of this leg was a 10-mile return, 1,160-foot altitude gain bike ride to Palouse Falls.

While the pace was slower, our speed wasn't. We got a several-knot push from the current, and hit a record-breaking speed--well for our 9.5-knot boat anyway--of 14.6 knots.

Here's our log from the Idaho border at Clarkstonto Orchard Cove. You also can display these on the map view.

4/29/12: Dawn

4/29/12: Castle Rock Aptly-named Castle Rock--it does look like a castle.

4/29/12: Green light Green light to enter Lower Granite lock.

4/29/12: Debris Debris clogged the lock entrance--we had to just push through it. A tugboat captain that had just locked through warned us of the debris and hoped we had a spare wheel.

4/29/12: Bow imprint A pile of the debris bound up and we bulldozed it halfway through the locks. This is the imprint our bow left when we backed away.

4/29/12: Lockmaster The lockmaster said we could take the debris with us if we wanted.

4/29/12: Close to the gates We were going to take the second bitt from the west end, but it was out for service. The front bit felt pretty close to the gate as it opened.

4/29/12: Current Nice to have that current with us for a change.

4/29/12: Smokin' We ran wide open to see how fast we could go. We briefly hit 14.6 knots, but only captured 14.3 on the screenshot.

4/29/12, 11:40: Port of Garfield Anchored for the night--we're taking it a little easier on the return run. Port Garfield was an excellent stop. A highway runs along the north shore, but we didn't find the traffic noise bothersome. The Port of Garfield grain elevators are at the head, with a small boat launch adjacent. We enjoyed watching the boats traffic to and from the ramp. The lands on the south shore are public (Army Corps of Engineers)--we landed at the boat launch and walked up to the hills for lunch.

4/29/12: SR 127 bridge Looking north across the Snake River to the SR 127 bridge, with the Port of Central Ferry in the background.

4/29/12: Meadow Creek Family out for a Sunday afternoon on the estuary at Meadow Creek.

4/29/12: Port of Central Ferry Pipes and pumps at a chemical-loading facility in the Port of Central Ferry.

4/29/12: Central Ferry State Park Landing in the east basin of the now-closed Central Ferry State Park. We sounded about 3' through the entrance here, and about 1.5' through the west basin.

4/29/12: Beach View to the SR 127 bridge from the park beach. The park had good facilities in a beautiful setting--too bad it's closed.

4/29/12: Dinner in the cockpit Moroccan-Spiced Brochettes with Rosemary Oil for dinner in the cockpit.

4/30/12, 8:20am: Little Goose dam Gate coming up at Little Goose dam.

4/30/12: Fender The rear ball fender getting a workout as the water level falls.

4/30/12: Gate opening

4/30/12: Fender scrub Giving the fenders a quick scrub after the locking. They come pretty clean dragging in the water, but some dirt remains that might mark the gelcoat the next time we use them.

4/30/12, 10:15am: Palouse River Anchoring for the night to bike to Pelouse Falls. This is the view to the north from the anchorage, up the Palouse River.

4/30/12: Bike transport We keep our bikes on the flybridge, and normally would hand them down to the cockpit over the boat deck rail. But the eyebrow bimini blocks that, so we needed a different system. Loading them into the dingy and bringing them down together solved the problem.

4/30/12: Lowering dinghy/bikes

4/30/12: Ready to go We tied the dinghy off on the boat launch at the Lyons Ferry park. Depths were in the low single-digits on the way into the basin, but not a problem for the dinghy.

4/30/12: Palouse Falls We're a lot more tired than Jennifer looks. In 50 minutes, we climbed 760' along 5.1 miles of highway 261, from 540' above sea level to 1,300'. The falls are another 2.2 miles down a dirt road, at an elevation of 900'. Although the downhill ride to the falls was a nice break from the uphill slog, we weren't happy to give up all that elevation we'd have to gain back when we returned.

4/30/12: The falls The falls plunge 200' over a cliff and were most impressive. The view was well-worth the effort of getting there.

4/30/12: James at the falls

4/30/12: Palouse River Quite a nice view down the Palouse River

4/30/12: Jennifer at the falls ... but hard to compete with the falls.

4/30/12: Marmots Marmots sleeping on the cliffs above the falls.

4/30/12: Lunch This little guy was eating lunch while we had ours.

4/30/12: Lyons Ferry State Park A well-deserved break after returning from the falls. Our total climb was 1,160': 760 to reach the park road from the anchorage and another 400 from the falls back up to the highway. And we had to fight a 20-30-knot headwind coming back up from the falls. Lyons Ferry State Park is closed, but Park Rangers were there maintaining the buildings and running sprinklers, and the lawns had been mowed. Perhaps it will re-open this season.

4/30/12: Lyons Ferry The old Lyons Ferry, Washington's last operating cable ferry. The river's current propelled the ferry across the river, attached to the overhead pulley in the foreground.

4/30/12: Dusk Train crossing the Union Pacific Railroad Bridge. That's the trestle we photographed on the trip upriver--reportedly the highest working trestle in the US.

5/1/12: Monumental Rock Monumental Rock is the namesake for Lower Monumental Dam, 3.5 miles to the west.

5/1/12, 8:20am: Lower Monumental Dam Lockmaster watching us enter.

5/1/12: Working day Several people were working atop this crane as we neared. The last of them is climbing down now.

5/1/12: Fish ladder The incredibly complex-looking fish ladder structure.

5/1/12: At the top Just before the water starts to drop. The west gate is actually below the water--if a boat were to hit the end of the lock, they'd just hit the wood barriers.

5/1/12: At the bottom You can see the wood barriers, that we recently were even with, way above us.

5/1/12, 9:40am: Windust Park On the dock at Windust Park for a late breakfast after locking through. With a combination of strong river current flowing westward and 20-30-knot winds blowing eastward docking was a bit challenging.

5/1/12: Breakfast We were hoping to also bike to the visitors center at Lower Monumental Dam, but we called and found out it's closed. So we settled for just breakfast on the back deck.

5/1/12: 1pm: Orchard Cove Anchored for the night. We called this unnamed cove Orchard Cove after the surrounding orchards.

5/1/12: Utility pole We took the dinghy ashore to hike up the bluffs. This old utility pole was ashore partway up.

5/1/12: View from bluffs View into the anchorage from bluffs above.

5/1/12: Orchards From the top of the bluff, orchards were visible far into the distance in every direction.

5/1/12: Orchard tailings Big pile of pruning debris.

5/1/12: Train Train passing along the south shore.

5/1/12: Deer Deer halfway down the slope below us.

5/1/12: Wreck This Ford truck looks like went of the bluff and flipped many times on the way down.

5/1/12: Fast way down We took an easy trail up around the northern end of the bluffs, but took the steeper slope back down.

5/1/12: Tacos Frying tortillas for a taco dinner.

On the next leg of our trip, we crossed the border into Idaho at 738 feet above sea level. We hadn't been sure we were going to make it all the way, given how much the current was slowing us down at Bonneville earlier in the trip. To reach Idaho, we passed through McNary Locks on the Columbia River, and all four locks on the Snake River. We had a lockmate with us for the only time upriver: a tug and barge at Ice Harbor Dam.

Here's our log from the Umatilla National Wildlife Refuge to the Idaho border. You also can display these on the map view.

4/26/12, 7:45am: Nearing McNary Dam We'll be locking through in about 45 minutes. This is our last lock heading upriver on the Columbia.

4/26/12: Current Strong current 1.5 miles from the dam.

4/26/12: Entering locks We've lost our nice weather--rain is pouring today.

4/26/12: Going up Spitfire watches us lock through. He seems to find the noise a little disconcerting.

4/26/12: Spillway View to the spillway from near the top.

4/26/12: Nearing exit The bridge is up and the gate almost is open.

4/26/12: Lockmaster The lockmaster appologized for the rain. :)

4/26/12: Debris Lots of debris around the gate.

4/26/12: Car on slope That white speck halfway down the slope is a car. It must have slid down from the road high above.

4/26/12: 11:15am Twin sisters According to Native American legend, a spirit-bird turned twin sisters to stone as a punishment.

4/26/12: Kennewick Bridge The bridge normally us up, but lowered when we were about three miles away, and then went back up again as we neared.

4/26/12: The Chief The tug The Chief coming hard off the docks behind us. He would quickly pass us before the next bridge.

4/26/12, 12:55pm: Snake River Mile Zero We saw this freqently--a barge looking nearly sunk with one end loaded first.

4/26/12: Strong current 4.5 miles from the Ice Harbor Dam, the current is roaring.

4/26/12: Buoy 10 The closer we got to the dam in distance, the later our ETA, because the current kept increasing. At one point we were down to 2.5 knots at 100% power. Moving over a bit out of the main stream helped, but the dredged channel is quite narrow, with little space on either side.

4/26/12: Buoy 20 Buoy 18 must have been right under--we didn't even see it.

4/26/12: White Pelican White Pelicans frequented the waters downstream of the dam. The fishing probably is good there.

4/26/12: Current near locks Strong current flowing out just before the protection of the seawall at the locks.

4/26/12, 3:10pm: Ice Harbor lock About to enter.

4/26/12: Wind In addition to strong current, we had big winds--32 knots as we entered the locks. James hair is all blown back in it. The mooring bits bounced and clattered in the wind waves--the lock was much louder than normal. You can hear them if you turn up the volume in this 360-degree view of the lock.

4/26/12: Lockmate In the locks waiting for the tug Hurricane to enter behind us. This is the first time we've been inside with another boat on this trip.

4/26/12: Hurricane securing

4/26/12: Going up There was plenty of room with Hurricane's single barge. But we probably both couldn't fit if it was pushing four barges. We're lucky, as commercial boats get priority and we might have had to wait.

4/26/12: At the front We're right up near the front this time to make room.

4/26/12: Lockmaster The lockmaster making a visual inspection.

4/26/12, 4:45pm: Fish Hook Recreation Area We typically prefer the seclusion of an anchorage to a dock, but more privacy than this would be difficult to find.

4/26/12, Company Perhaps a hundred geese and goslings roamed the grassy slopes, but we didn't see another person the entire time there.

4/26/12, Sunset Sunset viewed from the cockpit.

4/27/12: Dawn

4/27/12, 5:28am: Bluff

4/27/12: Tresle

4/27/12: Ruins Probably the remains of a long-past railway stop

4/27/12, 7:53am: Farrington Tug Clearwater on the dock at Farrington.

4/27/12: Lower Monumental Dam They're spilling a lot of water today.

4/27/12: Fish ladders Fish ladder between the Lower Monumental dam and lock

4/27/12: Deschutes Tug Deschutes working against the eddies coming out of Lower Monumental lock.

4/27/12: Approaching locks The current is strong even alongside the seawall.

4/27/12: Bit track Looking up to the top of the lock along the bit track.

4/27/12: Gate almost down

4/27/12: Fender wash Power-washing the fenders in the boat wake. The fenders get covered in dirt and debris from the lock walls.

4/27/12: Wall debris A fender tore a two-square-foot slab off the wall as we ascended, leaving chunks of debris on the rubrail.

4/27/12: Bluff The Snake River is narrow and more intimate-feeling than the Columbia. And the scenery is spectacular.

4/27/12: Survey vessel Survey vessel working the river. It's a lot smaller than the NOAA or CHS survey ships we see in saltwater.

4/27/12: Union Pacific Railroad Bridge Built in 1914, this bridge reportedly is the highest working trestle bridge in the country.

4/27/12, 1:00pm: Approaching Little Goose dam Fish ladder in front of Little Goose dam. We'll be locking through in about 20 minutes.

4/27/12: Gate arm Massive hydraulic arm to move the gates.

4/27/12: Spitfire Spitfire looking concerned. He wasn't scared in the locks, but he wasn't entirely comfortable either.

4/27/12: Transformers High-voltate power transformers above the dam.

4/27/12, 2:43pm: Little Goose Bay Anchored for the night in a cozy cove, with steep slopes, and cows, on both sides.

4/27/12: Cows We've heard a lot of different noises in an anchorage, but never cows mooing. Spitfire is not quite sure what to make of it.

4/28/12: Dawn

4/28/12: Morning sun

4/28/12, 7:25am: Snake River Mile 90

4/28/12: Pelicans Our Pacific Northwest bird book says that American White Pelicans are rare. But not along the Snake River. We've seen more White Pelicans than seagulls.

4/28/12: Coyote

4/28/12: Boyer Marina Strong current outside Boyer Marina, a mile and a half downstream of Lower Granite Lock and Dam.

4/28/12: Buoy 48 Buoy 48, right below the dam, was almost completely submerged.

4/28/12: Lower Granite Lock and Dam This is where all that current is coming from: major discharge here too.

4/28/12: Gates closing A final view to the hills west of the locks before the gates close. The nice weather has returned and stuck with us.

4/28/12: Upwelling The upwelling from the water entering the locks was more obvious here than at other locks.

4/28/12: Lockmaster

4/28/12, 10:20am: 738' above sea level The gate is back up behind us. We're through the last of the 8 locks and now are at 738' above sea level.

4/28/12: Go Cougs! Washington State University Cougars rowing meet.

4/28/12, 2:15pm: Clearwater River, Idaho Port of Lewiston, Idaho crane along the Clearwater River. We made it!

4/28/12, 2:40pm: Clarkston Public Dock Moored at a city of Clarkston public dock for the night.

4/28/12: Roosters Restaurant A celebratory meal on the deck at Roosters Restaurant above the public dock. The food was excellent, with a sweeping view up and down river.

4/28/12: Dusk

From Cascade Locks, in the heart of the Columbia River Gorge, we next passed through locks at The Dalles and John Day dams. John Day lock, with a maximum lift of 113 feet, is one of the largest single-lift locks in the world.  Transiting those two locks put us well into desert country, at an elevation of 265 feet. Desert it may be, but barren it is not. With help from massive irrigation systems, orchards and vineyards fill these shores.

Here's our log for the next three days of the trip through to the Umatilla National Wildlife Refuge. You also can display these on the map view.

04/24/12: Columbia Gorge View of the Columbia Gorge as we leave the marina at Cascade Locks. Maneuvering room was limited, so we just backed the whole way out.

04/24/12: Landslide Above the Bonneville dam, the Columbia Gorge narrows and steepens. Landslides are common along these shores.

04/24/12: Tunnel Road and train tunnel cut through the rock.

04/24/12: View home Some pretty specatcular houses have been built on the hills above Hood River.

04/24/12: Kiteboarding jump Hood River is famous for windsurfing, but also has international kiteboarding competitions.

04/24/12: Hood River Bridge Passing under the bridge at Hood River.

04/24/12: Windsurfer We saw only one windsurfer on the way up, and he was really sailing. Here's a video we shot.

04/24/12: Dalles Dam power transmission A huge number of power transmission line towers lead from the Dalles Dam.

04/24/12: Hurricane leaving the locks The tug Hurricane was locking downstream through the Dalles when we radioed an hour or so in advance. But once the locks were clear, we were able to enter without delay.