You should have a lovely trip if you time it right with the weather. You need not go out so far to make you way north. It is one option but not the common way people transit the coast between SF and the Columbia River.
We did the trip from SF to AK and back in 2014 and know many people who've done the trip both ways. We are a sailboat 54' on deck, 47' waterline, 30+tons. We sailed up in March using a series of southerly gales to advantage. Non-stop (the bars were impassible) 5-1/4 days from SF Bay to Neah Bay, WA. We broad reached and ran up the coast between 30 nm and 60 nm offshore.
People with very small sailboats DO hug the coast and pop into the numerous ports along the way. The bars can be tricky so its best that your trip take place in more settled weather so you don't have the bars as such a worry. This hug-the shore advice comes from excellent sailors who have done the trip many times. One of our friends who is now in his 80's and has done the trip from SF to Canada or AK about 10 times (always spring) over the years -- in sailboats less than 38' (his own being 32') advises to stay only 4 or 5 nm out and stay in these protected waters of smaller waves and smaller winds. His advice is always to do it in April or May or you will have to wait for September.
There is a crabpot free zone (marked on the charts) about 10 nm off (most the time it is that close to shore) and you can readily follow it from SF all the way up to your destination of the Columbia River. We came back down the coast in early Sept 2014 and there was no wind for us from a point only 40 nm south of the Canadian border, so we motored along in the crabpot free zone going south to SF Bay. With calm weather we went straight through from Neah Bay to SF Bay-- 5-1/2 days of motoring on a milk pond with occasionally strong headwinds--e.g we had about 20 hrs of strong headwinds on the nose 25 kts steady and choppy seas between Newport OR and Cape Blanco that reduced our speed to 2 kts over ground for that duration as we were not willing to blow through fuel when we had plenty of time. Our 5.9l Cummins can suck up 6gph wide open (at 7.5 to 9 kts depending on conditions) but on average if we take it easy, doing 5 to 6 kts, we pull 1.7 gph. With 370 gallons, we had more than enough fuel for our trip from Neah Bay, WA all the way up in to the Sacramento Delta. Blog post on it here
https://blog.mahdee.com/2014/11/08/s...nth-in-review/
There are ports all along the way of your planned coastal passage. One of my favorite coastal hopping stories of this leg is told by the owners of a small trimaran. Inexperienced sailors, they'd never been outside the SF Bay and had only sailed for a few days inside the Bay. They had such a terrible experience with seasickness of a crew member one early overnight leg of their trip from SF to Canada (the fated bad leg was during their night sail between Bodega Bay and Point Arena) that they decided not to ever sail at night again during the trip. They succeeded--staying close to land and popping into each little port or anchoring in a few of the areas protected by headlands or at some of the rivers that people anchor near the mouth of. Some of their days were only 30 nm hops and the longest was a 90 nm leg.
Their ports-of-call were, in order south to north; Bodega Bay, Noyo River, Shelter Cove anchorage, Humboldt Bay, Chetco River, Port Orford anchorage, Coos Bay, Umpqua River, Yaquina River, Cape Falcon Smuggler Cove anchorage, Columbia River (unplanned stop at Ilwaco, then across to Hammond a week later), Grays Harbor, La Push, Neah Bay anchorage,
You may wish to look at Coast Pilot 7 for each of their stopping points, the marinas, anchorages, and amenities at each.
We wish you luck with an enjoyable trip. If you use as little (or less) fuel than we did on our motor back down the coast from Neah Bay, WA, it seems like you might be able to carry enough fuel to not make many stops? No?
We tend to like to stage our sails northwards from Drakes Bay anchorage but many people stage from Bodega Bay because they can get fuel there.
Fair winds,
Brenda