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Melissa & Dave - Adventures at Sea

Garibaldi (Tillamook Bay)

Today begun at 3:00 in the morning - in the pitch black, fog and rain. Gerry and Dave manage to wake up and pilot the boat out over the Grays Harbor bar. After a couple hours, it became light enough to turn off the search lamp and for Dave to go back to bed. After sleeping a few hours, he came back up on deck to reciprocate allowing Gerry to get a little extra shut eye.

Wind waves were almost nonexistent. Swell was running 3-4 feet from the NW. Very smooth start to the day.

As we approached the Columbia River, it got a little rougher. Still no wind but the swell heaped up as it met the ebb current. We surfed down some 8 foot swells off the rear quarter. The autopilot was yawing a bit uncomfortably so Dave hand steered it for a while. It calmed back down to 3-4 feet after we passed the entrance buoys. A bit further and the weather cleared up with a slight north wind. It was much welcomed weather after so many gray days.

Tillamook Bay can be treacherous in bad weather but it was a smooth crossing over the bar. We talked to Tillamook tower as we approached and the confirmed that the best way in was the south entry. We tied up at the transient pier and were promptly boarded by the Coast Guard. Gerry managed to convince them that the boat was legal to operate.

After the boarding, we got off and walked around Garibaldi. Melissa bought some shrimp and oysters at a local fish market. Our snack consisted of tequila oyster shooters and a shrimp cocktail. Both were outstanding - very fresh. Michael's new screwdriver apparently did not like being used to shuck the oysters and jumped into the water. Hmmm. Guess we need to buy a new screwdriver. Dinner was tacos.

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