August 26

Forecast still says variable winds to 10 knots from the East and not unfavorable currents,yes, that is the best you get heading West in the Straight, most of the way to Neah Bay. It's a 50 mile slog with not much in the way of places to “park” in between. We shower, get breakfast and head out. By 1:00PM the winds have picked up to where it might be worth raising the headsail, we gain about 1/2 knot and the ride smooths out. The waves in the Straight are interesting. We get long rollers from the West and occasional following waves from the East. One of them poops the dinghy. We get many gallons of water in it. It's now dragging us so we put the engine in neutral (still making 3 knots from the headsail) and I go pump out the dink. We snug the dink to the side of the boat so it is less likely to get pooped again. Another lesson. It's a long day already. The wind dies out, we roll in the headsail. The wind picks up, we roll it back out again. I make some adjustments to the autopilot to make it more efficient but didn't work so well. We get into Neah Bay, just as the wind picks up...only for a few hours. There's a Coast Guard buoy tender anchored out and a dozen other boats, appearing to be waiting for the same advertised weather window down the coast. (Now you know why we couldn't post until back in Astoria, don't want the mom's to worry about us.)

We saw several canoes paddling (very fast) in the bay,. One with 8 paddlers. Interesting. Since it looks like we might be here a few days, I check on-line for activities. The Makah Nation has a museum with many artifacts from the Ozette archaeological site on Cape Alava . My boy scout troop did several hikes out to Cape Alava and on one of them we got a tour of the Ozette dig, a native village that had been covered by a mud slide about 500 years ago and later uncovered by ocean erosion. There is a hike out to Cape Flattery and the Makah Days start on Friday. We'll see how long we stay. Just depends on the weather.