Well I finally got the weather window needed and moved our boat from Seattle to Ilwaco earlier this week.... here is the story:
The adventure started on Sunday night, I left the comfort on my slip on Lake Union about 9:30pm and headed through the locks. I pulled into Shilshole Marina around 11:00pm and started looking at the updated forecasts. My friend Tim met me at 4:00am and we were off. The forecast for the Straits was marginal at best but the window was for the early am with SCA winds picking up by late morning. I knew we would have smooth sailing if we could just get through the Eastern half of the Straits. Thankfully, NOAA missed on Sunday’s forecast and with their Ken Griffey Jr. batting average, they missed on Monday’s too. We ran into some confused waters around Mid Channel Bank but it laid down once we got to Woody’s Ridge. From there it was great until the Dungeness Spit area. More 3’-4’ confused seas till just after Port Angeles. The further west we went…. the better it got. We rounded Neah Bay about noon and were greeted with a greasy flat ocean. As we chugged south to LaPush we several Humpback whales (I believe) breeching and a pod of Killer Whales. We arrived in LaPush about 2:30, got our slip assignment and relaxed with a few cocktails.
Since I am not very familiar with the bar at LaPush, we passed on the grey light departure and waited for first light which was about 5:15. Once outside the buoys we were again blessed with an amazing ocean. I plotted a course that would take us to the 125 Latitude line off Ilwaco and the Astoria Canyon. We hit the Canyon at 11:00 on the nose and started deploying the cedar plugs and zukers. The water temp was 62 degrees when we started and climbed as high as 65.2! And yes…. I am going to double check the accuracy of my temp gauge those are ridiculously warm temps for mid June! The water was a beautiful blue and there were birds everywhere. I kept waiting for the sound we all dream of…. line screaming off a reel! After 3 hours of searching we pulled the lines in and headed east to the mouth of the Columbia River. I pulled MadMoney into the slip at 4:00 and you know what comes next, cocktails!!
Here are some distance readings from the trip:
Shilshole to Neah Bay – 113
Shilshole to LaPush – 156
Shilshole to Ilwaco (including a swing offshore) – 309
147 gallons of diesel consumed.
Below is a link to my Spot tracking page. We sent the link to our friends and family so they could track our progress. Once I got in cell range, my phone started beeping with several text messages saying “we noticed you took the offshore route…. you must be fishing!” Guilty.
http://share.findmespot.com/shared/face ... SkMZENaxoH
In the message section on the left, you can see that there is a page for each day of our trip. Also, in the upper right hand corner of the map you can change the map to a satellite shot which is kind of cool. You can see our halibut spots as well as the canyons offshore.
Anthony
