Two firsts

With Sea Turtle's RVG dislodged, steering continued to be difficult and exhausting. We were about 60 miles offshore of the continental USA and decided to head into Astoria for repairs.

Jordan decided to test out the great fishing rod that Mark and Alana of Victoria BC had given him and caught our first fish - a 15+ lb Albacore tuna - it took about one hour for the guys to land it!

Jordan displaying the prize catch

Continuing on with 1.5 to 2-hour shifts at the helm for Jordan and Aaron, we arrived at the entrance of the channel to cross our first sand bar. Vessels under 25 feet were restricted from crossing and warnings were issued for other vessels.

Crossing sand bars can be very dangerous in daylight and it was now very dark at 22:00. Jordan notified the Coast Guard of our steering problems about 20 miles out and they monitored our progress every 30 minutes. Using GPS and MaxSea electronic charts, it was a 3-hour trip up the channel.

Wet and wild bar crossing

At 01:00, we arrived safe, but exhausted, at the Port of Astoria (Oregon USA).