10/24 Riverplace
Awoke already docked at the Riverplace marina where I entered the boat for my first time 6 days earlier. We unloaded the guests and 6 hours later loaded a new group of 60 only to repeat the same journey! I had a lot to do but was able to take 20 minutes and give my buddies Shehan, Casey and Kevin a quick tour of the boat! I just completed my 7 day rotation and instead of beginning at 7am tomorrow, I get and extra 6 hours and will start at 1pm my new rotation of 12 hour shifts.
10/23 Cape Disappointment.
For the first time aboard the Sea Bird I awoke to a violent rocking. I quickly dressed and went above to figure out what was going on. Apparently we were 2 miles west of Astoria introducing everyone to the Columbia River Bar. The only other spot on earth as difficult and deadly when it comes to navigation is Cape Horn. This extremely shallow and rough section of water is the result of fierce ocean currents combining with massive amounts of water pushed down the Columbia. Over 2000 ships have sunk and at least 700 lives lost within the 17 mile section of water making up the Bar. Once again this was all new to me. Having gown up in the state I was shocked never having learned this fact. Everyday huge barges enter into Columbia where they are loaded with grain or unload electronics and other supplies. Each and every one of these vessels is piloted by a local pilot who is dropped off via helicopter to assist them through the narrow 17 mile stretch of the dredged channel. The men who are trained to pilot these barges make around $180,000- $300,000 a year and one little mistake can result in death or the loss of millions of dollars in product! Astoria is also the home to the National Motor Lifeboat rescue school which is the only school for rough water rescue operations in the U.S. In the town of Astoria we got 6200 gallons of fuel costing around $10,000 and taking a little under two hours to fill! The guests were unloaded to explore the world class maritime museum and then shuttle across a 4 mile bridge to cape disappointment WA. My duty of the day was to watch the entrance of the boat and make sure that nobody but guests and employees entered...t’was a long and wet day!
10/21 Palouse-
In the early a.m we had anchored up the Palouse river which confluences with the Snake. There were three choices for our guests this day; kayak up the river, bus ride to a waterfall, or a guided zodiac tour up the river. Only 4 people chose to kayak, which was the boat operation that myself and the 3rd mate were responsible for. Being my first small boat operation I was beyond excited. The 3rd mate and I unloaded all the zodiacs and then loaded 4 kayaks onto one of them which we drove 1 mile up the Palouse. The river lies at the bottom of a steep rim rock canyon. Waterfowl exploded out of the river the entire time. Never had I seen so many ducks concentrated in one area. A few hundred yards from where we dropped off the kayaks followed by the guests I could hear a Pheasant calling and got up a cubby of 45-50 quail. It was very beautiful terrain and empty shotgun shells scattered the ground proving excellent bird hunting ground. While heading back towards the main boat, a thunderous sound was chasing us up the canyon...Out of nowhere a fighter jet came flying bye only 100-120 yards off the ground. The sound was deafening and the proximity was mind blowing!
10/22 Hood River
I consider myself to be pretty familiar and knowledgeable with the state of Oregon, but the areas that I know the least about are exactly where we paralleled during this adventure. Finally mid-day on the 22nd I got my first real glimpse of the town I had heard so much about; Hood River, land of breweries and wind surfing! Approaching Hood River from the once mighty Columbia is beyond breathtaking. A snow covered MT Hood towers in the background looking down on gentle slopes covered with homes and yellow and red leaved trees. Seeing these brilliant colors and dense forests is quite the contrast to the bare and rocky slopes that live to the east.
10/20- Forty hours later we found ourselves pulling into a small dock in Clarkston WA, which, strangely enough is across the Snake river from Lewiston Idaho 350 miles inland from the Pacific Ocean. The Lewis and Clark expedition camped out in the area in the early 1800’s with the Nez Perce Indians before they headed out on the last part of their 2 yr plus search for the Pacific! In that forty hours time we had gone through eight different sets of locks/ dams including; the famous Bonneville dam, The Dalles, John Day, McNary, Ice Harbor, Lower Monumental, Little Goose, and Lower Granite. The Columbia River drops twice the elevation as the Mississippi in half the distance! It is said to be far more difficult to maneuver than the Mississippi due to its shallow rocky bottom compared to forgiving mud. Clarkston is just a small simple town with a large paper mill and of course a Wallmart. Early on the 20th the guests disembarked the ship and loaded onto jet boats headed into Hells Canyon, a section of the Snake far too shallow and difficult for the N.G.S.B. With all the guests away we were really put to work. Fresh water was pumped into the boats tank, which holds 4400 gallons. All the garbage, recycling, and laundry were delivered to the dock by means of a human chain where bins and trucks awaited. Once all the dirty work was done we took on a weeks supply of food for 72 people including employees and naturalists. Seeing the amount of food and waste consumed and produced by this amount of people in a weeks time is quite impressive! The rest of the day was filled with painting, cleaning and organizing. At 2300 we took off to head back down the snake!
10/18
“Head on down to the fantail, grab the Ospho and a doodle bug then meet me on the aft 200 to give a quick pass over the scuppers…” Yeah, that’s how I felt too the first day aboard the National Geographic Sea Bird listening to commands in what seemed a foreign language. Two minutes after boarding the vessel at the Riverplace Marina making it 8:32am, I was put to work and told my shift lasted until 7:00pm. Given that I was pretty tired from my final evening on land, I started to evaluate my decision committing myself to a six month contract in a position in which I know absolutely nothing about. But, after a good meal, some friendly faces and a real tour of the ship I soon knew that only good times lay ahead. Having completed a good 5 hours of monotonous tasks, cartloads of luggage began to line the dock to be loaded into the corresponding rooms written on the yellow luggage tags. Fifty-five senior citizens do not pack lightly for a 6 day excursion up the Columbia and Snake rivers in pursuit of historical Lewis and Clark landmarks… Prescription meds, history books, excursion outfits, booze, and binoculars tend to weigh down a suitcase! At 1800 my first voyage aboard the Sea Bird commenced.
It is official! Yesterday 10/16/09 I awoke at 4:30 a.m. and my father dropped me off at the Redmond Airport. I flew to Seattle and took a taxi into the heart of rainy downtown arriving at the Lindlbad Expeditions west coast office. I filled out my final paperwork and meet a variety of employees with job titles such as; port operations manager, captain of the National Geographic Explorer, 2nd mate to the National Geographic Sea Lion, Purchasing Manager, Engineering, Human Resources, Staffing and others...
