Any mariner who plies the coastal waters of the Pacific North West, knows how wild that coast can often be. Chances are they also know the entrance to the Columbia River and the Bar that protects it from any dubious vessel that dares to challenge it’s uncompromising wrath at the wrong time, ……..for the bar is not some sleazy joint on a river side street like you might find along the banks of the River Thames, or those along the canals of Antwerp or the watering holes on the banks of the Danube, no!! ……. the bar.. on the Columbia River is more serious stuff than that and especially to the old timers of Astoria, Oregon, the gateway city at the river’s mouth. To them the bar is part of their heritage, their history, the evolvement of their city, and they hold it in great esteem with a great deal of pride; for it was ‘The Bar’, in the early days, that gave them employment as rescuers, salvagers and pilots to guide ships across it – ships that navigate the long Columbia river.
By now you might be wondering what the heck the bar is?? Well first of all the intent of this brief narrative is to tell you about a sail boat called – Anestina – crossing ‘The Bar’, including a little drama on the way….. and not to try to explain why the Columbia River bar does what it does …… because I’m no expert on its bizarre behavior, but I will, in layman’s terms, try to give you some idea of what makes it such a dangerous waterway.
You see all big rivers around the world eventually run into the ocean, but unlike the Columbia, they fan out into wide shallow estuaries that form over a long period of time, by the deposition of silt and sand carried by the flow. The Columbia has a huge volume of water flowing down to the ocean through the convergence of its upstream tributaries, some being major rivers in their own right, but at its mouth, where it meets the ocean, the volume of water funnels into a comparatively small outlet and the silt and sand contained in its flow deposits at its mouth to form a constantly changing sandbar…… the ‘Columbia River Bar’.
Topography of the Columbia Bar showing some of the 2000 ships that have come to grief since 1792.
Some rivers like the Amazon have huge estuaries, hundreds of miles wide, so does the Frazer in British Columbia, the Nile in Egypt, the Zambezi in Africa, to name a few, all big rivers on their respective continents.
All big rivers are affected by ocean tides to varying degrees. The Columbia, because of its restricted outlet and its geographic position relative to the ‘tide creating moon’, the ebbing and flooding tide has a profound effect on its flow over a tidal range and when combined with wind and weather and the constantly shifting sand bar, violent waves are caused for short periods of time, capable of overpowering even large vessels, making it an extremely dangerous waterway to navigate. . At times throughout the year, when the river flow crashes into the open Pacific, it tends to come to a dead stop. All the silt and sand in the water collapses at the mouth to form the famous bar, a bit like a big black charging bull hitting a solid brick wall and collapsing at its foundation.
The Columbia is a commercial waterway for ocean going ships for about 100 miles and smaller ships navigate the river for twice that distance. In the early days many ships came to grief on the bar or near it because of few navigational aids, tidal effects, weather and bad judgement. Since becoming a significant commercial waterway in the 1790’s more than 2000 ships have foundered at the mouth of the River. It was dubbed the ‘Graveyard of the Pacific’ and a mural in the Astoria Maritime Museum is a testament to that.
Like any navigable inland waterway, indeed most large commercial ports employ professional pilots to guide large ships into their port facilities. Astoria, the gateway city, is the base for the Columbia River pilots, except here there are two classes; the ‘Bar Pilots’ and ‘River Pilots’, but the former are the distinguished elite, they’re the ones that bring the big commercial ships across the constantly changing sand bar.
I don’t know if large ocean going vessels have to time their passage across the bar the way smaller vessels do because big commercial freighters have the power to plough through the rip that can reach huge wave heights with a very short period between wave peaks….scary stuff in a small boat…..I’ll tell you, and if Anestina, got into it, it would bury her. Timing therefore is critical for small boats to cross the bar. The US Coast Guard closely monitor its navigable condition and open and close it accordingly, but how they decide I do not know. For small boats, what can be extremely dangerous is an opposing wind to the direction of tidal flow, even in high or low slack water, generally the best time to cross it.
We went into Astoria for two reasons. One to go down the channel and across the bar at high slack…… when the tidal flow can still be running at a high rate of knots, plus the speed of Anestina under power……wow what a ride!!!! The second was to check in through US Immigration & Customs. Although it was an awesome joy ride down the river it wasn’t without some drama at the channel entrance.
Anestina has two fuel tanks. The main tank built into the keel. The second, a small capacity day tank, filled from the main by an electric pump, manually operated by a push button switch. With all the anxiety of crossing the bar at the right time. I overlooked the fullness of the second tank, just at the entrance to the main channel heading across the bar and not 100meters into it. Although we were yet; several miles away from the critical point, our speed was beginning to increase and I knew there was no turning back, we were committed to the flood and in for the ride and it wasn’t going to get any slower.
One of the red cans approaching the bar
All of a sudden, the engine died!!! Oh what a time to croak…. I thought, after all the care and attention I give that little 3 cylinder sucker, it lets me down at the worst possible place, right at the channel entrance to the Columbia River…… Now what ??? In the panic of the moment, what seemed a lifetime, but only a few seconds, I realized what had happened. It had simply run out of fuel!!!
I scrambled through the wet locker close to where the day tank is installed and checked the level gage. Not a single sign of fuel in the tank. It was empty !! the engine had taken the last little drop and stopped. Now what?? ….first ….get Diesel fuel from the main to the day tank , then bleed the fuel system. A 14mm spanner and a screw driver.
Keep on stroking the manual pump while I crack the bleed screw at the injector pump… I said to Simon my crew …until we get a clear flow of fuel…done!! Now the injectors starting at # 1 cylinder. Crack each one at the overflows, again until a clear flow of fuel…….done!! Now the moment of reckoning ……the engine turns over but for a lot longer than it normally does before firing ……then suddenly… bingo!! it starts, splutters and burps and finally begins to run hesitating a little, as all that last aerated fuel is squeezed of its air…. then it starts to purr. We’re back in the game…. phew!! what a relief and before I bring the engine up to its cruising RPM we are already screaming down the channel.
The benign looking bar at high slack that might have violent waves in the next few minutes.
Since we were already in the current, in spite of those 30 powerless minutes, we still had steerage and Silas the pilot kept us on a straight course down the channel with just a few single degree corrections along the way…….Wouldn’t want that experience again, running across a river sand bar without power although I guess it was common place in the old days ??
Customs and Immigration in Astoria was hassle free. I called them up on VHF after crossing the bar and answered a few basic questions including passport #’s and boats registration. George the customs man met us at the fuel dock coming in, gave us a welcoming greeting then said we were good to go. However, all cruisers coming into the US need a Cruising Permit. When I requested this, George simply gave me an entry conformation# on a torn off piece of paper – very informal like – a breath of fresh air I thought and told me I would have to call the office the following day to make an appointment. The cruising permit involved a few questions and was issued as a formal document not long after with a validity of 12 months. The issuing officer advised me to call Customs & Immigration at each major port, as a gesture of courtesy.
Rested up, fueled and watered and ready to rock and roll, we departed Astoria after 3 days, half an hour later than we had planned, on an ebbing tide. All went well down the northerly river stream towards the bar and we enjoyed the ride to the green channel can, marking the turning point into the final channel. Right on the bar were two large dredgers that are employed in maintaining a constant depth. Each dredger was running diagonally across the North and South side of the channel and we initially set a course to run between the two. However, these two vessels were moving much faster than they appeared and we subsequently decided to go around them. While our attention was focused on the dredgers, we were rapidly approaching the green can and before I knew it, almost on top of it, and had I not disengaged Silas and swung the wheel we could have been history. The rate of current flow around that buoy was astounding. As we continued down the channel the outgoing ebb got worse, the wave rip intensified and became quite violent and Anestina constantly buried her nose. Fortunately this was just a mild sample of how bad an ill-timed crossing can be over the Columbia River Bar.
Now there is…we discovered….. after all…. another bar in Astoria that would……. by any stretch of the imagination, rival those of the sleazy European variety that I mentioned at the beginning of this little narrative. The Portway Pub, not five minutes walk from our slip at the government dock, has been in the same location for nearly 100years ….. 1923. Its most famous owner or Publican was the son of its founder. Portway Paul they called him, ….. a professional boxer who is well remembered in the community for running long beer tabs for his regular clients then, when any one of them was paid off, he bought drinks for the house. The legacy he left after he passed on, several years ago is still upheld today to some degree, so I was told!!
The Portway Pup is an active noisy joint where the beer is good and the tattooed clad characters to watch are even better, especially on Karaoke night. Worth a visit if you’re passing through Astoria on your way south but check and double check your timing across the Columbia River Bar.
M.A.D.