Chinook 34 Sailboat – Cinnamon

We just got back from a wonderful vacation cruising and sailing on the Columbia River for a week from the end of June thru the 4th of July weekend. Okay, okay we are not exactly in the tropics here, but having spent some time in the Caribbean in the U.S. Virgin Islands I can make some comparisons. Hayden Island in the summer often reminds me of a mini St. Thomas. Shopping and Condos with multi-million dollar houses lining the waterfront around Hayden Bay, the sailboat harbor where we moore Cinnamon. Of course we don’t have white sand beaches…but there is always Jansen Beach Shopping Center with a real old fashion carousel….LOL Then there are the wild spots. Islands that are parks and wildlife refuges with hiking trails that in the summer can be reminiscent of hiking in the thick tropical forest in the national park on St. John.

The weather was near perfect and the wind constantly changing to give us a taste of what the river has to offer. I honestly can’t imagine how you could have a better sailing vacation anywhere in the world. The scenery along the rivers is simply spectacular this time of year…and there are even mosquitoes…oh, the memories that brings back…the sweet smell of sunscreen and DEET on a warm evening…hoping the trade winds will hold to cool the night.

We started the week Monday by heading down river in Cinnamon, with our friends Dana and Lori Sewall, in their Cape Dori 30 sailboat. We had hoped to go as far as Walker Island, but after 4 hour beating into 20 knot wind right on our nose and 3 foot chop, with no dodger, we decided to bail out at St Helen’s and run back out Multnomah Channel to Coon Island. Sure glad we did. Later we heard that the gusts increased to 30 to 35 knots at Longview later in the day.

The trip down the channel was nice. Once we got off the main river and in the shelter of the hills and trees the wind dropped off to about 10 knots and off the port aft quarter. Dana rolled out his headsail and sailed most of the 5 miles out the channel to Coon Island. We had the dock at Coon Island all to ourselves and is the lee of the island we were sheltered from the wind. We had an enjoyable evening sharing dinner and drinks at the dock. The marine park and docks at Coon Island were build and are maintained with by a combination of Columbia County Parks and money from the Oregon State Marine Board. It is an excellent facility and it is nice to see where some of our boaters registration fees are going. The docks are very nice floating conrete with huge steel pilings driven into the riverbed. There is a ramp leading to the island and a trail that leads around the island with numerous camping sites and a composting toilet.

The next morning we headed out the channel to St. Helen’s. When we reached the Columbia River the wind had already picked up to 10 to 15 knots, blowing straight upriver flowing the contours of the hills along the river. With just our head sail out we were able to sail upriver against the current at 3.5 knots SOG on the GPS all the way back to the Vancouver Railway Bridge. Luck was with us and there was another boat waiting upstream from the bridge and it was opening just as we approached so we didn’t even have to wait. What a nice ending to our fantastic slay ride upriver.

We spent Tuesday night aboard at Hayden Bay. Wednesday the wind was still blowing from the NW at 10 to 15 knots with gusts to 20. We had a fast run up to Government Island. For the trip back down river, upwind, we set a double reef in the mainsail and six rolls on the furler on the head sail, which brings it down to look like a 100% Yankee. It gave us a nice balance and was plenty of sail to make 9 knots SOG hard to weather, which I’m sure is pushing hull speed.

By Thursday the wind had softened and was down to 5 to 10 knot from the NNW. It was a nice wind to get some lazy spinnaker runs up to Government Island and still enough to make an enjoyable sail back downriver.

This entry was posted on Wednesday, July 15th, 2009 at 7:55 pm and is filed under Cinnamon Blog. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.