OUR TIME AT CHARLESTON MARINA-COOS BAY, OREGON

This is one of our favorite places to be. The needs of a person can be found here. Mike's folks lived here during the 1960's. His dad had a commercial fishing boat. I like to be around commercial fishing people. They have good stories to tell.

We've had lots of wind and gale warnings nearly every day. I did get everything that was wet from the knock down, dried out. It's a long walk to the laundry mat. On our walks, we found a couple of handy little stores and a church. A window on the church has a stained glass picture of a sea captain at the helm. Jesus is standing behind the captain with His hand on his shoulder. I wish I would have taken a picture of that to share with you.

I did get a picture of,  The Charleston Fisherman's Memorial. Here it is...

This memorial commemorates local fishermen lost at sea and those who worked in the commercial fishing industry. There's a list of names of those lost at sea. It's very spiritual.

We have public crabbing down our dock. Loads of people coming down. They carry their crab traps and bait, ice chests, kids and bar b q's with them. It's really amazing! It seems like it's different people every day.  They catch crabs and mussels. I love to watch everyone. They are friendly people and they love their families. They kiss and hug each other and play together all day long! It's a scene to restore your faith in human beings. I'm honored to have spent time with these people.

I like when a tuna boat comes into dock to unload. I am impressed with the fish! All the fish! I guess it's an every day thing to some, but I have never seen this. I watched one little boy, about 8 years old, dolly his first 55 gallon barrel of tuna down the dock. He was so proud of himself..not to mention his dad taking a roll of film of the whole thing. I love things like that!

We've been waiting for a weather window and tomorrow, August 3rd, we will be shoving off for Brookings Harbor. We hope they have the marina up and running. They took a hard hit from the lastest Tsuname from Japan.

LEAVING NEWPORT

                                          

   I snapped this picture at Newport marina

It's Monday afternoon and we are sailing out of the harbor. Next stop...Coos Bay!  I'm still pretty tired but I did sleep like a corpse. The captain is in good spirits and ready to go.                             This time before leaving.....
we ate a huge supper and fixed alot of extra food that we can easily heat up and eat. It's no fun to be bounced around while trying to keep a pan on the burner.

I've given R.J. her tranquilizer pill and she ate alot. I'm hoping she will feel better this trip. It will be dark in a few hours and she will go to sleep. We have a nice breeze and will be able to sail.

As the darkness comes, I cannot stay awake. My body loves the rocking of the boat and wants to sleep. Captain is not too happy about it. He yells alot and that's not like him.  Oh well....blissfull sleep.

I was barely awakened during the night when Captain started the motor. I was thinking now we have to smell that stinking thing again.  The boat seemed to be rocking and rolling harder than when I went to sleep. I had to hook a shoulder under the back rest on my bunk to keep in my bunk. Captain kept hollering about  a confused sea...whatever that means.  I dozed off again.  Next thing I knew, I was laying down on the bilge and my head hurt badly! Captain was yelling for me to get up and help him cause we just took a knock down!  It was a real struggle to get up as the boat was pitching bad!  I had hit my head on the step to climb out of the cabin. A nice knot!
Everything was thrown around in the cabin and it was wet! Had about 2 inches of water on the floor.
I got R.J. tied on to one of the bunks so she would stay in one place and then I fought like hell to get out of the cabin and into the cockpit. All this time I had all my storm gear and life jacket on and was very glad of that. Of course, we all stayed strapped to the boat.

We fought the sails, the sheets, cockpit cushions, the movements of the boat and the cold. I kept asking myself..Did that just happen?   For a long time the wind and waves were holding us in one spot. It was awesome! We checked and rechecked to make sure nothing critical was damaged by the knock down.

I was never so glad when daylight came. The wind and waves finally died down. We made it to Coos Bay at 9:30 a.m. Captain and I were beat to death. So tired. It seemed like we were home at last.
We got across the bar and when a person is too tired, they sometimes make poor judgements. Captain tried to take a short cut and guess what?  Stuck in the mud. Yep...come to a complete standstill. Now what, Mr. Smarty Pants?  I was wishing I had a video camera as Captain was very upset and embarrassing me with the things that came out of his mouth.
He told me to work the tiller back and forth while he hung off of the port side and then the starboard side, rocking around going back and forth. Good thing he weighs 200 pounds cause that sure came in handy! The motor was reved up and smoking real good.  After 20 minutes...we were free!!! That was another mess he got me into. Anyway...we motored on in to the marina with out anymore problems.

We left the harbor at Warrington, Oregon on Saturday at 1:30 p.m.
Warrington had been our home for the past month. We lived on our boat, The Ruby Jean, and prepared her and our selves for the following voyage.

We had been waiting for a good day to cross the Columbia River bar. This was to be my first time ever to sail.  I was quite nervous but yet excited. I had been told that the Columbia River bar is about the worst bar to cross, just about any where. Looking back now....I'm glad I was ignorant of just how rough it would be. I might not have gone.

Allow me to introduce myself. I'm Brenda Teaford. My husband is Michael. Michael has been a sailor for most of his life. We have only used motor boats for fishing since we've been together. The Ruby Jean is a Haita 26' sailboat. She's small but we loaded so many provisions on her, I couldn't believe it.   So...off we went.  We brought along our dog that had never  been on a boat in her life. We call her R.J.

At first, all was going pretty well. Then the waves got higher and higher as we got farther from shore. I tried my best to "enjoy the ride", as I've been told to do. I got sicker and sicker. So did R.J.
Captain Mike, as I was told to call him, began to shout alot of orders for me to do that sounded like a foreign language to me. I finally had to leave him up top and go get in my bunk. Sleep was my only refuge. I noticed R.J. was totally not moving except when she puked. She stayed in the cockpit with the captain.
I was awakened sometime just before dark, to help R.J. down in the cabin as it was raining. Captain Mike was in his rain coat & hat and had his fishing line out. He was actually singing! He was so happy and I thought I was dying. He even caught a nice sized salmon! He didn't get it into the boat though. He was a little too excited and he couldn't keep ahold of it. All I could do was sleep.

I was aware that the captain cooked some food and made coffee. It smelt so bad to me. I really wanted to get off this boat!!

At about midnight, Captain woke me up to stand my watch. He needed to sleep. I drug myself out to the cockpit. I was still so seasick. After Captain layed down, I noticed the waves weren't nearly as rough as they had been. I fixed myself a cup of chicken broth. That was a miracle for settling my belly. I began to feel much better. My watch lasted about two hours. I could hardly wait to get back to my bunk and go to sleep!  When day light came, I felt well enough to drink some coffee. I still could not get myself together and function properly. The ocean was beautiful. I'll never forget how it looks into the horizon at a distance. I understood at that moment why people love the sea.

On Sunday afternoon we motored into Newport Harbor. What a nice place. Very clean with the widest docks, made of concrete, I've ever seen. Walking on those docks was a different story.
R.J. and I could hardly wait to get out of the boat and to the rest room. We did our share of staggering around. We were on land but I felt like I was still swaying back and forth like the ocean.Yes....I had a lot to learn.

                                                    Me & R.J. at the beginning