How would you like to travel 140 miles on a half cup of gasoline and a big friendly dose of wind? We have just finished up a trip with several of our friends using a centuries old mode of transportation, sail power. We gathered up our flotilla at the city docks in front of the Columbia County court house in St. Helens, Oregon. The wind was right on the nose at 10 to 12 knots. (That’s miles to a sailor; however, you get a 12 percent bonus over land miles)

The sails were all up gleaming in the sunshine before we were out of sight of the court house. Long time friends, Phil and Sue, led the way with Rendezvous. Judy and I with crew Dave and Adrian spent the day trading leads with Ed and Sarah on the Hokuloah.
Lunch time brought chaos aboard the Regal Jug. Judy was down below trying to make sandwiches and sliced fruit for all hands as the plates came sliding by each time we tacked. That is when we executed a maneuver called “lying a-hull,” That is where you tack but forget to change the sails over. Regal Jug settled into a slow easy motion and we had lunch right there in the middle of the Columbia River. By the time we finished lunch Ed and Sarah had taken over second place and we spent the afternoon swapping back and forth.

We stayed on a yacht club float behind Walker Island the first night. Second day brought the same wonderful winds and another 30 miles down river to Cathlamet, Washington. The third day we finished the trip downstream to Astoria, Oregon. A total distance on the river of 70 nautical miles, 78 miles for you land lubbers. The water became quite rough the last ten miles with afternoon winds gusting up to around 20 miles per hour. We had a little too much of a good thing so we motored the last ten miles into Astoria. Our friends Phil and Sue were able to thrive in the heavy winds and sailed the entire distance.

While others departed early, Ed and Sarah and Judy and I stayed until Monday, July 28th and made the return trip in three similar legs. We avoided the rain until Tuesday. We spent the day in our “rubber duckie” suits and hunkered down for a long wet slog up river and right into the teeth of the wind, a bad combination for wind power.

All is well that ends well, and we made our port of call, St. Helens Oregon where we went out to supper to celebrate Sarah’s birthday. We got Regal Jug unloaded and dried out on Wednesday and headed back down river to Clatskanie with Arcturus for Bluegrass in the Park.

Love for all from Gary and Judy