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Cruising Willapa Bay

 
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Marco Flamingo



Joined: 09 Jul 2015
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City/Region: Seattle
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PostPosted: Wed May 04, 2016 1:56 pm    Post subject: Cruising Willapa Bay Reply with quote

This probably isn't on anyone else's bucket list, but it was on mine. I grew up on Grays Harbor and messed around there a lot in the sloughs and backwaters, so I was always curious about Willapa Bay, Long Island, and the North river. I'll probably still do Grays Harbor even though I explored the Hoquiam and the Humptulips rivers as a kid.

I put in at Toke Point at the Port of Willipa Bay marina. It's run by the Shoalwater Tribe and on their reservation. I immediately learned how the tribe got its name and why everything is called the something or other spit, shoal, sands, bar, bank, reef, shelf, slough, etc. I didn't have the official NOAA chart, just the Navionics card on the Lorance and a cruising atlas, both of which are facsimiles of the NOAA chart. Rather poor facsimiles, unless the NOAA chart itself is inaccurate (or the sand bars move around, which is likely).

I had to laugh at the Navionics chart. It's bathymetric lines ran in figure eights and curlicues in some places. Lines that randomly started and ended. Not a single actual sounding on the entire bay. The colors for dry land and what exposed at low tide were seemingly reversed in some areas. I assume that the data is from some computer scan of a NOAA chart and Willapa Bay is just too complex for that computer program.

The bar of the bay was interesting. First, there are commercial crab pots everywhere. That was generally an indication of deep water, i.e., 10 or more feet at low tide. But if the buoy had slime on it, it may have drifted into shallow water. Each crab pot was marked by two buoys about 4 feet apart and in a straight line with the ebb and flow. That makes it a lot easier for the crabber to retrieve them under any current conditions and helped me by 1) marking the channel and 2) showing the the direction and strength of the current and 3) missing them as the two buoys basically pointed towards the next if there was any current. At one point, the pot buoys were only making Vs on the surface, having been pulled under by the current. Time to get away from the bar, having peeked at the mostly sand islands that dot the southern opening of the bay.

I headed towards Long Island, at the southern end of the bay. I knew that there had been a land swap in the 80's between the State of Washington and Weyerhaeuser in order to preserve some of the last lowland old growth timber in the State. Some had told me that the State didn't get there fast enough. Weyerhauser had build a boat ramp on the island, which can be seen from Highway 101, and was barging logging trucks onto the island, loading the trucks, and then barging the loaded trucks back. Must have been some good wood.

There is no dock on the island side, so I had to "beach" my boat. I say beach, but the island is mostly surrounded by huge mud flats. Having recently lost my phone, which I use for tide charts and as a watch, I guesstimated the tide and ran the boat "aground." Again, there wasn't really any ground. I crawled through 10 feet of mud, having to reach to the bottom of each "post hole" in the mud an pull my shoe out, as the mud had sucked it off.

Once ashore, I hiked to the "Ancient Cedar Grove," about a 6 mile round trip. My impression is also that the State didn't get there soon enough. The marketable timber had been cut, leaving only trees of lesser value. Still, those snaggled cedars, some reportedly 1,000 years old, were impressive, as were the stumps left behind. A stump 10 feet in diameter and 12 feet high is impressive. Kind of like looking at a Woolly Mammoth tusk and imaging what the whole thing must have looked like.

Because I gauged the tide wrong, I spent an extra 1 1/2 hours waiting for the boat to float. I couldn't get to my intended anchorage before dark and just threw the anchor out in what I again guesstimated to be the appropriate depth. The entire bay is suitable bottom for anchoring. The only problem is that the bay is about 1/2 the size at low tide. There are tidal mud flats that are exposed three miles out from the high tide vegetation. That leaves small channels of deep water that the oystermen have marked with long skinny sticks.

The larger channels would be used by anybody travelling at night, the bays were all mud flats, so there were surprisingly few anchorages. I anchored at the edge of a channel, heard the bottom skritching in the night, pulled anchor and drifted into deeper water, and dropped anchor again. Worst case scenario I would have spent a few hours on a mud flat in the morning. Amazing how fast I can get up when I hear that skritch. I need an alarm clock that does that.

In the morning I went off to explore the North River. I had heard that there was a houseboat community there. Entering the river channel required a medium to high tide and following the ratty rotten remains of some old day markers. The markers carved an arch that I would have never suspected as being the river channel. Even following them was a little dicey. My lowest reading was under 2 feet. Once in the actual river, depths dropped to 18 feet.

The houseboat community was interesting. The shoreline of the North River, like many coastal rivers, is littered with old pilings left over from when the logs were floated down the rivers and towed to the sawmills. It was also common to drive pilings down the center of the river, so that the log rafts could be accessed even if the tide was low. It was also important to keep the logs "clean" as the sticky sandy mud was tough on the buzz saw blade.

The majority of the North River houseboats were on these old center-river pilings. That meant that you needed a boat to access your houseboat. The nearest dock was a mile away at the Highway 105 bridge and it was full of kicker boats, as the residents seemed to mostly be away, it being a work day. It was easy to tell who was home, because there would be smoke coming from the chimneys. Some houseboats had a special woodshed barge along side.

I saw lots of bird wildlife. Elk tracks but no elk. WX2 said small craft advisory in the afternoon, so I headed for Tokeland. I can't say that I would recommend this as a C-Brat cruise destination, but it's now off my bucket list.

Mark
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AstoriaDave



Joined: 31 Oct 2005
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PostPosted: Wed May 04, 2016 4:22 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Mark,

I would wager your experience on the Willapa was pretty typical for any one venturing onto it without substantial local knowledge. It is very easy to run amuck there, and a several hour wait for the tide to return is common. And, yes, the charted channels represent what was there years ago, more or less, with only the access to Nahcotta and the main channel to South Bend having markers you can rely on. Even the channel leading to the Naselle River is poorly marked.

I have paddled sea kayaks on the southern part of the bay some 20 years or so, and have rarely seen power boats anchored out. Almost all visitors to Long Island choose paddlecraft. Runabouts abound, and open skiffs are typically run up onto the firmer sand/pebble beaches in the west side. I suspect you went ashore at Sawlog Slough, a muddy beast no matter how you slice it. The best beaches are on the west side, at the three USFWS campsites, with decent pit toilets, two of them shiny aluminum creations. Alas, when the NW wind blows, getting on or off can be a challenge.

A visit exploiting the Nahcotta ramp would be the best for those interested in a circumnavigation of Long Island, running south along the W shoreline of LI about an hour or so ahead of high tide, returning along the E side, and skirting the N tip of LI at Diamond Point, well ahead of the falling tide. My benchmark for rounding DP is 4.5 feet of water on the tide gauge for Paradise Pt, and a sea kayak can get across the huge shoal, about half a mile N of the point. 5 or 6 feet would be enough for a planing craft like a CDory.

This is definitely a route where YMMV applies!

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Astoria, OR
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hardee



Joined: 30 Oct 2006
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PostPosted: Wed May 04, 2016 9:55 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

My Father-in-law used to have property on Willapa Bay, and kept a sailboat down there. He used to talk about the incredible sailing, due to the pretty steady westerly winds. I always thought it would be fun to go over and spend some time on the bay. Thanks for curing that for me. Maybe I'll make it a motorcycle trip.

Glad you you got that itch scratched. Laughing

Harvey
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Marco Flamingo



Joined: 09 Jul 2015
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PostPosted: Sun May 08, 2016 5:03 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

CORRECTION: The Navionics chart is very accurate. While working with my Lowrance to get it AIS compatible, I was looking at all of the various settings and saw that the plotter's chart was set to "Lowrance." The model that I bought came with an upgrade to Navionics charts, but apparently I had inadvertently switched it to the standard Lowrance charts. I didn't even know that was possible. So I switched it back.

Then I went back to look at the plotter "tracks" that I had made in Willapa Bay using the Navionics chart instead of the standard Lowrance chart. The Navionics chart had soundings and more bathymetric lines. I could see the areas where I was searching for the channel, sort of like a fly bouncing against the window trying to get out. When I overlayed the track on the Navionics chart, there was the channel clear as day.

Lesson learned.

Mark
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Larry Q



Joined: 17 Mar 2006
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PostPosted: Mon May 09, 2016 12:42 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

I have spent way too much time exploring the mud in Willapa Bay. Every late summer you will find me salmon fishing off of wash-a-way beach. We follow the salmon up the Willapa river. Launching at Smith Creek can be a lesson in navigation as the limbs and poles that mark the channel seem to come up missing at times.
A friend of mine owns one of the float houses on North River and gets mud sucked at least once a year crossing from South Bend to North river. Low tide is sometimes better than high tide. With mud all around it is easier to see the channel.
Just go slow and watch your depth, sometimes using a pole as I don't trust my depth finder in shallow water. Someone on the bow pointing really helps at times.
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