On Crossing the Columbia River Bar

For those of you who are new to this blog, I am taking maritime courses at the local community college. This includes days spent on the school ship for practical applications of the classroom items. Occasionally the ship crosses the bar and goes into the Pacific. I have to admit that this prospect excited me!

Unfortunately, the days I didn’t have a ride to school happened to be days that the ship went over the bar. From reports from classmates, the days were weather perfect and the projects went off without a hitch. They even saw whales one day! Needless to say I was disappointed to have missed out.

Yesterday was a foggy, gray day with the wind picking up steadily. The instructor decided this would be a good day for a more “realistic” bar experience on par with what those training for vessel occupations would encounter. Fair enough.

As we motored down river and neared the bar, the white caps spanned the horizon like a snow capped mountain range ominous and looming with a red buoy on the edge of the channel for safe passage to the north of the swells. I sat on deck for the entire approach and was apprehensive but looking forward to the crossing. Surprisingly, the waves seemed smaller and smaller as we got closer. As we passed they were sparse crests that were so much less impressive than they appeared from hundreds of yards away.

I was fine for the crossing, but once we passed the bar the sea we faced was even more wild than the tide and wind swept river. The toss of the swells prompted me to head inside the wheelhouse and crowd in with the rest of my classmates. We were planning a man overboard drill later that afternoon but no need to make it the real thing.

Sadly, I am NOT good with rough seas inside a cabin. I held on for dear life as my inner ear issues suddenly came violently to the forefront. Normally if I get nauseous, I am able to grit my teeth and get through it. Yesterday was NOT one of those days and I lost my lunch. I sat and tried to regain my composure, one of my classmates was kind enough to get my lunch back and I tried eating some crackers and drinking some sprite. That turned out to be a mistake and I tossed my proverbial cookies again.

After all that, I still had a speed curve assignment and had to supervise an anchor drill. It was rough, but I managed to get through it all and made it back to shore in one piece (minus my food, but other than that it was one piece :-P ).

In the end, I CROSSED THE BAR! That is a goal that I have achieved. Next will be to actually be at the helm for a bar crossing.  Stay tuned!

My camera on my phone does not do this shot justice, but you get the idea of what kind of day it was.