Living on the Hard - is HARD!

After leaving Port Townsend, we sailed west to Port Angeles, WA to check it out.  They had recently had a sand sculpturing contest.  This one was obviously the winner as all the others were gone!

Next stop Astoria, Oregon.

From Wikipedia:

The Lewis and Clark Expedition spent the winter of 1805–1806 at Fort Clatsop, a small log structure south and west of modern-day Astoria. The expedition had hoped a ship would come by to take them back east, but instead endured a torturous winter of rain and cold, then returned east the way they came. Today the fort has been recreated and is now a historical park.
In 1810, John Jacob Astor's Pacific Fur Company sent the Astor Expedition that founded Fort Astoria as its primary fur-trading post in the Northwest, and in fact the first permanent U.S. settlement on the Pacific coast. It was an extremely important post for American exploration of the continent and was influential in establishing American claims to the land. Fort Astoria was constructed in 1811.

 New headsail - working like a charm.

 Astoria has served as a port of entry for over a century and remains the trading center for the lower Columbia basin, although it has long since been eclipsed by Portland, Oregon, and Seattle, Washington, as an economic hub on the coast of the Pacific Northwest. Astoria's economy centered on fishing, fish processing, and lumber. In 1945, about 30 canneries could be found along the Columbia; however, in 1974 Bumblebee Seafood moved its headquarters out of Astoria, and gradually reduced its presence until 1980 when the company closed its last Astoria cannery. The timber industry likewise declined; Astoria Plywood Mill, the city's largest employer, closed in 1989, and the Burlington Northern and Santa Fe Railway discontinued service in 1996.


The Astoria post office is the oldest west of the rockies. It opened in March 1847.  Marble walls, floors and columns.  Stunning.

Astoria-Megler Bridge crosses the Columbia River to Washington state.

 There she is - out of the water.  First time since Guatemala in 2012.

Le Chat Beaute' is coming out of the water for bottom cleaning and a paint job.  For you landlubbers- keeping a fresh coat of copper-loaded paint on the bottom helps to keep the critters from attaching and growing there.  Like barnacles and other creatures that can bore into your boat.  This paint has a sloughing effect to avoid those problems.  A good paint job lasts about 2 years.  After the boat is raised over land, a good pressure washer is used to get rid of the goo.

Hull sander extraordinaire!  Yes, that is a vacuum cleaner over my shoulder.  Who knew that all those years of carrying a heavy shoulder purse would prepare me for this job.

 Okay, here's one of those stories.  The boat below is a 47' Tayana sailing vessel.  During the previous evening he had anchored in a supposedly safe anchorage when at 5:30 a.m. a shrimp boat was going by.  Shrimp boats have those outriggers that stretch out over the sides for quite a ways.  The fishing boat didn't see him, hit his mast with an outrigger, throwing the mast off and totaling his boat.  The guy was single-handing from Alaska.

Cap. Paddy grinding and repairing a hull.

The before and after.  Now she's all pretty with red paint!  And new strips.








We had the boat hauled on the 15th of Sept. and back in the water 1 week and 1 day later.  I know because it was hard living on "the Hard".  So we were living on the boat, out of the water in the middle of a working boatyard.  We had electricity but no water nor toilet usage.  Paddy did hook up a hose from the galley sink to a bucket so we could wash and brush our teeth.  Otherwise we were 3 blocks from the marina restrooms and showers.  Not fun!  All day long you could hear the drills, sanders, grinders, welding and smell all the scents plus paint.  We were overjoyed when launched back in the water and we celebrated with champagne!  What else?