Portland OR to Anacortes WA

This past May, I got a chance to crew a 40 foot motor yacht from Portland OR to Anacortes WA in the north San Juan Islands in Puget Sound.  My neighbor Roger owns the vessel "Slow Flight", a Krogen 39.  For more photos, go to: http://www.krogen39trawler.com/

"Slow Flight" is the latest in a number of blue water boats Roger has owned.  (Last year he took it from Portland to La Paz, Baja Mexico.)  We spent three days  provisioning and clearing maintenance items before a shakedown cruise on the Columbia river.  On this trip Roger took a crew of 4 - me being one, and hired a professional skipper to navigate the Columbia bar and the entrance to Puget Sound. 




Slow Flight



The trip took three days, with one overnight in Warrenton OR before crossing the Columbia Bar with an outgoing tide.  The bar was very rough.  The ocean was not calm either.  We had 2-4 foot wind waves with 6-8 foot swells at 10 second intervals.  We stayed at least ten miles off the Washington coast to avoid the crab pot lines, and entered the Straights of Juan de Fuca about 3:00am.  Once inside the straights everything calmed down, and all we had to do was stay out of the way of all the freighters.



Approaching Anacortes

We passed near Vicoria B.C. Canada, and I was surprised to learn that my daughter Betsy and husband Justin who live in Seattle were staying in Victoria over the weekend.

Now that the boat is safely docked in Anacortes, we can have some fun taking it out fishing and crabbing.  I hope you're reading this Roger.

Tom "Tuco" Harris
(June 23, 2011)