A Much Better Trip This Time....

OK, I finally got some time to load the photos. There aren’t a heck of a lot of them, and Tina gets the credit for taking most of them. I had my hands full of other things most of the time. I'm not sure what was going on with my image hosting site but it took 2-3 tries for each photo to finally get them uploaded.

This is the tug and barges that we followed at a snail's pace toward McNary lock, but he was nice enough to let us go through the lock with him so I shouldn't say too much bad about him.
https://postimg.cc/image/qbfglkwqj/
Here we are tied up next to him in the lock. They don't let us tie up to the barge, which is fine with me. We tie up to the bollard that floats up and down as the water level changes.
https://postimg.cc/image/hcykznoi3/
This is looking over the side of the lock at the spillway. They're flowing TONS of water now to help the salmon get to the ocean faster.
https://postimg.cc/image/48t0mz463/
My deck hand waiting as we're getting ready to be lowered. You can see the water level behind the gate--it's 85' down to that level.
https://postimg.cc/image/6vd4hvi97/
When we got to John Day lock (Day 2) we got there ahead of a tug that was heading upriver. They turned the lock around for us and made him wait. He was a bit pissed (you could hear it in his voice on the radio) so when they got us down to the lower level and we got ready to leave, he crowded the opening to make it a bit tougher for us to maneuver out of the lock. Jerk.
https://postimg.cc/image/8aep6ngsb/
Here's my trusty deck hand doing what she does well.
https://postimg.cc/image/l9bwvo4cr/
This one is out of order, but it's a shot of Beachcomber sitting at the Tyee Yacht Club awaiting her new canvas.
https://postimg.cc/image/9wzbdwy8r/
On the way home we stopped by Multnomah Falls. It's supposedly the 2nd highest free falling falls in the US.
https://postimg.cc/image/c6s12lrh7/
See, I told you so....
https://postimg.cc/image/x3o979x7v/
Multnomah Falls Lodge
https://postimg.cc/image/7kvwu9ldn/

That's it. Not my usual number of photos and videos but I'll take more when we bring the boat home in about 3 weeks.

All things considered it was a good trip. I'm not sure Tina would wholeheartedly agree with that. She doesn't find the idea of spray coming up over the fly bridge as exciting as I do.

Then, on the way home we were on the freeway in a construction zone where the left lane was closed, the speed limit was 40mph and I had some arsehole come flying up on my rear. He was so close I couldn't see the hood of his car. I gave him a quick brake check but he didn't back off so I ignored him.

He stayed right on my tail until we cleared the construction zone then he raced around me into the left lane then pulled right in front of me (within a car length or so) and hit his brakes. He must not have liked the single finger wave I gave him as he went by. He did that a few times then took off.

I guess I don't understand that road rage thing. I mean c'mon man, we're in a single lane with traffic moving at 40mph. WTF does he think I'm going to do, pull off on the shoulder so he can go by me?

I promise to take more photos and videos on the way back upriver with the boat.
 
You should have taken a pic of the a-hole driver and posted it so everyone could see who the jerkoff was.
Shawn
 
Nice pic's, I always enjoy hearing about your trips - you are a good storyteller. As far as the road rage driver, there was a day I would be all over people like that, but now I'm getting old enough that it is just not worth the stress of getting worked up over it. I just give them the confused old man look. My wife always says their car is about the only place a lot of people feel in control and they somehow think they are invincible - many times they are dead wrong. I'm not planning to die in a car crash cause someone is being an idiot!
 
Shawn and Bill, I agree 100%. He really freaked out my wife because she thought I was going to do some stupid reaction to what he did. She was pleasantly surprised (and relieved) when I just let him go on his merry(?) way.

She wanted me to get his license number and report him to the cops but there's nothing they could have done because things like that they have to witness first hand,
 
My ex had a great way of dealing with road rage/idiot drivers. She'd just smile and wish them a wonderful day. Confused most of them.
 
Terrific posts! Its such valuable information for those of us getting ready to embark on the whole buying- a -boat- and- traveling- adventures! We all know there can be bad days and even bad trips but WHAT actually can go wrong is so educational.
Thanks!
 
Bob, fortunately for us (and for the boating industry!!) there are MANY more good days and good trips than bad days and bad trips. If I had to guesstimate I'd say that less than 5% of my days on the boat could be counted as bad days.

The thing that helps to get through the bad days is to practice, practice, practice. When I talk with people who are buying a new to them boat or upsizing I always suggest they practice until they can "do it" (whatever "it" is) until they can do it without thinking.

I always back the boat into our slip and the only thing that makes it different from one time to the next is the wind direction and speed. I've done it so many times I do it without thinking.

But put me in that long fairway in Portland with the wind blowing south to north and the 2kt current moving east to west and it took me out of my element and I got spooked. I backed in too fast and fortunately didn't hit anything, but I was really uncomfortable with it.

If I'd had my wits about me I'd have just pulled back out into the river, got my head organized and backed it in the way I know how to do it.

I screwed with Mr. Murphy of Murphy's Law fame and this time I won. Doesn't happen that way often, but I got lucky.
 
Great read, thanks for posting. As a landlocked boater, it's great reading vicariously these types of trips.

Amazing seeing the spray all the way up to your bridge, that's a lot of water flying. Really cool seeing visually just how far they drop your boat when going through the locks - 85' is no small feat.

Great stuff...
 
Fly'n Family said:
Great read, thanks for posting. As a landlocked boater, it's great reading vicariously these types of trips.

Amazing seeing the spray all the way up to your bridge, that's a lot of water flying. Really cool seeing visually just how far they drop your boat when going through the locks - 85' is no small feat.

Great stuff...
Click to expand...
Fly, 85' is one of the smaller locks. The first one we encounter on the Snake River is usually 105' and the highest we've seen there was 118'. It's a pretty amazing experience to go through any of these locks. It's very humbling.
 
Gofirstclass said:
Fly, 85' is one of the smaller locks. The first one we encounter on the Snake River is usually 105' and the highest we've seen there was 118'. It's a pretty amazing experience to go through any of these locks. It's very humbling.
Click to expand...

We use to get a cabin for a week in Indian River, Michigan on the Inland Waterway when we had our 220 Sundeck. The lock on the Cheboygan River to Lake Huron was 18' or so and that was amazing to us. 85' would be incredible. Thanks for taking us along on your trip. It almost feels like I'm waiting for my canvas to get done so I can get the boat back home.:D
 
Joe, grab a cuppa joe and hang in there. I figure the boat will be down there 2.5 to 3 weeks, then we'll wait for a weather window to bring it home.

Did that lock lower you or raise you to go from the Cheboygan River to Lake Huron?

I can't get the photo to load but if you click on the link you'll see what it looks like inside the lock when we're at the bottom.

https://postimg.cc/image/8aep6ngsb/
 
I figured out what I was doing wrong with the photos. DOH, you gotta pick the right link. Here's that pic.
20180415_103733.jpg
 
I really like Tina's life preserver and have been on the lookout for a couple just like it. Pretty much all the inflatables I have looked at appear to be pretty uncomfortable with straps that can chafe along the neck/shoulder area.
Would really like more information if you have it to share!
 
Sounds like a good trip - though with some events along the way. That always seems to happen.

Interesting lock - the gate raising up like that. What is the vertical clearance?
 
FootballFan said:
Sounds like a good trip - though with some events along the way. That always seems to happen.

Interesting lock - the gate raising up like that. What is the vertical clearance?
Click to expand...
Fan, with my antennas down I need about 21' minimum but they usually give me a few extra feet. Antennas up, the minimum goes to about 28'.

For the tugs they raise it the full height which I'd guesstimate to be about 50'.

I looked on Google and found this info:
Navigation Lock and Channels
Type - Single lift
Net clear length, lock chamber - 675 feet
Net clear width, lock chamber - 86 feet
Minimum water depth over lower sill - 16 feet
Upstream gate:
Type - Radial
Height - 25 feet
Downstream gate:
Type - Virtical Lift
Height - 91 feet
Maximum operating lock lift - 105 feet
Length of guidewalls (from face of gate):
Upstream (floating) - 746 feet
Downstream - 696 feet
Normal fill time - 11 minutes
Normal emptying time - 14 minutes
(P.S. the misspelling is their error, not mine.)

It shows the height of the gate to be 91' but that's not the opening clearance. I will say that it's an impressive thing to go through the lock. We've done it many times and it still gives me a thrill because it's so damn big.
 
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