10/15 - 10/29 - 2017 Snake/Columbia River C-Dory Cruise

colbysmith · Posted: Sun Sep 17, 2017 7:55 pm Post subject:

My first take on this is...um....overly ambitious shall I say? 80+ miles with two locks is questionable in my mind. My hope is that we don't plan on running more than 16-20 mph. (Somewhere between 13-18kts). If there are any no wake zones, I think it fair to figure those in at around 5-6 mph. Ideally, I would hope we are going to enjoy the river, it's cities and it's scenery, along with the camaraderie of each other, and not just speed along to get from one end to the other. To be honest, I thought 50 miles a day was ambitious, but easily doable if the weather Gods are with us. Figure about an hour for the two locks, assuming those locks are like those here on the Mississippi, and we can get right in when we arrive. Otherwise, if we have to wait for a commercial tow going through, it could be another hour or two longer. For a comparison for those of you that have done the California Delta Cruise, my charts show that was 61 miles, San Francisco to Rio Vista. I know we made pretty good time on that, but I believe we were running between 20-25mph non stop on the way back, with no locks or no wake zones.
Ok, my two cents worth. I don't know anything about the Snake & Columbia Rivers, but I have done a lot of cruising in both rivers and the Great Lakes, and just think we are being overly ambitious about 80 miles a day, with two locks included. I appreciate all the planning you guys are putting into this, and I'm really looking forward to it. But with 4000 miles round trip on the boat trailer, I like to enjoy the time on the water while there! Cool

If the others feel 80 miles is very doable, I'll put my concerns aside. Colby

AstoriaDave · Posted: Sun Sep 17, 2017 9:12 pm Post subject:

Colby, I cannot vouch for those daily goals above Bonneville, largely because I have no experience locking. However, I have quite a bit of experience below Bonneville, almost all of it below Longview (near Kalama), where daily mileage goals are substantially less. And they seem much smaller than vessels similar to CD 22s and CD 25s make all the time, with this caveat: if conditions are typical for October.

It seems to me those mileage goals for the first couple days, if ambitious, may be counterbalanced by the goals in the last few days.

On the lower River, where we run all the time, the principal obstacle downbound is the good weather afternoon NW wind, which can be substantial, forcing some boaters to run at hull speed, i.e., off plane. Ten knots is a typical top speed figure for most smaller craft such as the 22s and 25s when the headwind blows. Fortunately, most fetches above Skamokawa are relatively short, minimizing head seas to two feet.

Truly, your venture is a situation where YMMV (aka Your Mileage May Vary) ... and that is part of the fun, I suspect!

Jim Gibson · Posted: Mon Sep 18, 2017 1:09 pm Post subject:

Colby.

The actual nautical miles are as follows:

1. Day 1 to Lyons Ferry Marina -74
2. Day 2 to Port of Kennewick - 52
3. Day 3 to Boardman Marina - 48
4. Day 4 to La Page Park - 43
5. Day 5 to Port of Hood River - 43
6. Day 6 to Port of Camas-Washougal Marina - 43
7. Day 7 to Port of Kalama Marina - 39
8. Day 8 to Astoria Mooring Basin - 52.

This trip is very manageable for a relaxing and interesting journey through a vast expanse of landscape.

The first day is the longest day, but it is still doable. It may be an eight hour plus first day, but we are leaving early Wednesday morning and we will be fresh. All the other days are very relaxing.

Chuck and I looked at this trip many different ways and we decided to set up an 8 day planning itinerary so as to leave two extra days for either wind contingencies or side trips. For example some may choose to take a side trip up the Willamette River when we get near Portland (one could go 50 miles up this river if they wanted to). The extra days could also be used to just hang out and relax. Some may want to get a hotel for the night at Hood River to refresh.

There are a tremendous number of options on this trip and we will meet and discuss each night the plan for the next day. We thought hard about where we wanted to put our trip priorities and we decided to get through the Snake River portion in two days to free up time for the Columbia. Everything is a trade off in trip planning.

This itinerary is just a plan to get us going. This plan will be modified real time as necessary to meet real world, real time conditions.

The trip will be an enjoyable cruise for all. After all we have Kath and Penny to keep happy along the way.

Colby, I can assure you both Chuck and I are planning a relaxing Expedition Cruise. No need to worry about that.

colbysmith · Posted: Mon Sep 18, 2017 1:30 pm Post subject:

Thanks Jim. Appreciate your comments. They do put me more at ease! As I said, I don't know anything about the Snake and Columbia's, other than driving over them in a few places a few times. I do however have some experience on the Mississippi River and know that locking can take anywhere from 20 minutes to 3 hours or more, depending upon the commercial traffic. If the water is flat calm also makes a difference over even a 1 foot chop at fast cruise. And I'll be doing all the boat handling myself, but have done so before so know the routine with that...
The nautical miles still convert to some higher statute miles, pretty much as noted earlier. 74nm = 88sm, 52nm=62sm and 48nm=57sm. Assuming we run at 18kts, or 22mph, which is probably a good fast cruise speed for all of us, that first day alone is looking at just over 4 hours of continuous cruise. Assuming we throw in stops for lunch and maybe some slow downs for the locks and sight seeing or bit of a break, starts making for a longer day.
Anyway, as I said, I do appreciate your comments and put me more at ease about the overall trip desired experience. I am curious how the others feel about the time schedule, and if anyone else has experience with boating those kinds of distances per day. Colby

hardee · Posted: Tue Sep 19, 2017 12:42 am Post subject:

I tend to agree with Colby in that the mileage seems a bit aggressive. The scenery will vary from enticing to boring, but then to YMMV. The weather (wind) will be the primary factor. The evening meeting, planning for the next day is a great plan. I don't think you can get 50 miles up the Willamette, I don't believe the Oregon City Falls locks are functional. You can get up through Portland to the base of the falls about 25 miles so maybe you met a 50 round trip. I would consider a night at Beacon Rock just below Bonneville Dam. It is a pretty neat state park and an incredible view from the top (I have heard).

I had offered to do some driving, (from Astoria up river), and that is still open, but I won't be able to participate on the water. I'm sorry to miss this Epic River Flotilla.

Enjoy and stays safe.

Harvey
SleepyC Moon

Big dave · Posted: Tue Sep 19, 2017 11:49 am Post subject:

Real time report...I-5 bridge to Pendleton Oregon by car via highway 14 to the Dalles I-84 to Pendleton.
Interstate bridge to Camas WA. Wind slight water calm 67 to 70 degrees, very few boats on the water.
Camas to Bonnaville dam wind gusts to 10-15 mph blowing up river creating some whitecaps. Didn't see any boats out.
From the dam up to Pendleton things changed a lot and stayed that way. Winds really picked up to approximately to 25 to 30 mph some rain showers lots of gill nets out quite a few fishing boats out. Some commercial boat traffic, didn't see any pleasure craft,wind blowing up river creating solid white caps and waves hard to judge wave height but I tried when a barge was going downriver looks to 2 - 3 feet short spaced. Not what I would call pleasurable boating water.
Not sure where we will head today but if it's is worth a report I will let you know.
Dave
Raven Dancer

beermanPDX · Posted: Tue Sep 19, 2017 1:51 pm Post subject:

hardee · Posted: Tue Sep 19, 2017 2:01 pm Post subject:

beermanPDX · Posted: Tue Sep 19, 2017 2:33 pm Post subject:

Wandering Sagebrush · Posted: Tue Sep 19, 2017 11:28 pm Post subject:

Camped at the Port of Arlington as I type. West wind was 25-30 miles per hour, chop was pushing 4 feet at times. Kite boarders and wind surfers were having fun, but it would have been real sloppy in a CDory😳. Wind died after dark.

colbysmith · Posted: Wed Sep 20, 2017 11:34 pm Post subject:

For anyone that is interested, as I usually do, using both Garmin's Home Port and MapSource software, I have plotted out the various waypoints and possible routing that we will be stopping at and following along the Snake and Columbia Rivers. While I would not just run the course I plotted on auto pilot without a very watchful eye, it's probably still helpful to have the information just for timing, distance and other such navigational items. Both of these files are saved as *.gdb files, that one can load into their Garmin chartplotters that read these type files, or on your computer if you have the above software. The mapsource file runs on my GPSMAP 541 while the Homeport file runs on my GPSMAP 840. If you would like one or both files, just email me at mcs2442@gmail.com, and I'll send you the file. Surprisingly, both files have the same name, but the one run from Homeport is about 3 times the size as the one ran on Mapsource. 208 kb and 80 kb. Colby

Big dave · Posted: Fri Sep 22, 2017 6:54 pm Post subject:

Live update...Driving west bound on HWY.14 Boardman OR. to the 205 bridge.
Well after living my entire life in the PNW. and boating the Columbia River from Bonneville Dam to the ocean for the past 30 years, today was one of those days where the river was just flat out beautiful and I mean FLAT, as in like a lake, frog water, mill pond however you want to say it. The only spot that had a few white caps and perhaps 1 to 2 foot sloppy waves blowing upriver was a five mile stretch right before Hood River and about 2 miles below Hood River, but it is known as the wind surfing capital of the world. I hope you guys are blessed with that kind of water when you head out.
I'm looking forward to joining the group in Washougal / Camas or down by the I-5 bridge if I can find you.
Have a wonderful trip and enjoy the adventure.
Dave
Raven Dancer.

hardee · Posted: Fri Sep 22, 2017 7:02 pm Post subject:

Dave, Thanks for the live updates. Yes, it can blow like stink one day and be nice the next. Hope for the good, always.

Harvey
SleepyC Moon

colbysmith · Posted: Fri Sep 22, 2017 8:42 pm Post subject:

Doing some more considering of the trip plans, mostly my own logistics. I'm thinking now of possibly showing up at Hells Gate on the 15th, then taking my rig sans the boat, to Astoria on the 16, then flying back out to Lewiston on the 17th. Any recommendations on long term parking in Astoria? (I haven't checked with the West Mooring Basin yet, although I assume that's our ending point.) I would catch the 6pm bus from Astoria to PDX the evening I get there (16th), then stay with my brother at his commuter apt to fly out in the morning. Then see if anyone wanted to pick me up at the LWS airport on the 17th to run me back down to Hell's Gate. Wasn't sure I wanted to do that earlier, as if for any reason decided to pull the boat out along the way, I'd now have to get my rig in Astoria.... but staying positive about the trip, would sure make it nice if my rig was in Astoria when I got there, cutting a little bit time off for the trip back home. Colby

Big dave · Posted: Fri Sep 22, 2017 10:02 pm Post subject:

Might want to check with Tyboo and make sure there is a boat launch at the boat basin in Astoria, I don't recall one. There is a very nice one with lots of parking a little ways downriver in a town called Hammond. There is another nice ramp with parking up river around tongue point and up the john day river. Also right across the river in Illwaco there is a ramp and lots of parking.
Maybe Tyboo will chime in and confirm.
Dave
Raven Dancer