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Old 03-30-2016, 09:23 PM   #1
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Default Cruising a 42-foot power boat from San Francisco Bay to the Columbia River

I am an experienced skipper and own a 42-foot aft cabin Motor yacht. I'm the original owner having purchased the boat in 1988 at the New York Boat Show. It is currently berthed in Alameda California. It is powered by twin 210 Cummins diesels and Max's at about twelve knots and cruises at about 9 or 10 knots. The Vessel has fresh full fuel. The boat was hauled two weeks ago and has a fresh clean bottom and is in exceptional shape down below and throughout the vessel. It is my baby. I have my Master's Merchant Mariner license 100 tons + 7 endorsements and I am a California Yacht broker with experience of making 11 round trips from San Diego to San Francisco in this boat. I have moved to Salem Oregon to attend to my 94 year old father-in-law and would like to move the boat up the coast from San Francisco to the Columbia and then to the Multnomah River to a new berth closer to my home where I can enjoy it.
I have read the older threads most of which related to sailing vessels from San Francisco to the Columbia and I do not have the fuel capacity to go hundred and thirty-five miles offshore do the restrictions in my fuel range. The trip from San Diego to San Francisco I can stop every one hundred nautical miles or so to tuck in for safety and fuel up. This is not true coming from San Francisco to Oregon so I want advice as to whether I should Marina hop or should I load it on a truck and take it to either Portland OR Seattle? I appreciate any help that anyone can give me that is current thank you Captain Dave
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Old 03-30-2016, 09:25 PM   #2
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Also, can anyone recommend a reliable ground transport company?
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Old 04-07-2016, 06:35 PM   #3
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Default Coastal Hops from San Francisco Bay to the Columbia River

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
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Old 04-07-2016, 06:40 PM   #4
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Unless you truly don't have time for the trip, it would seem that the coastal hop would be the smart way to go. But, if you don't have time, consider calling San Diego Boat Movers. They, on occasion, do trips north of SF Bay. They have a facility and trucks in SFBay/Richmond as well as San Diego the last I heard. I'd probably leave the boat in the Bay until September if you don't get a good wx window this month or next.
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Old 04-07-2016, 07:49 PM   #5
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Thanks to all for your responses. Sounds like April is the target month to travel North from SF Bay, watching the weather, and hugging the shoreline isn't as futile as I had heard. My concern is that unlike most sailing vessels, I burn 25 gallons of fuel an hour at 10 knots and only like to carry a maximum of 280 gallons at a time. If I carry more fuel I can only do 8 knots and burns the same or even more fuel. Even though my boat has a "planing" hull, it is under-powered and does not plane. Owning it for so many years, I know its sweet spots and unfortunately I must travel at 10 kmots carrying a max of 280 gallons of fuel and MUST tuck in to marina's with fuel.

Knowing this does anyone alter their advice?

Thanks,

Captain Dave
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Old 04-07-2016, 08:53 PM   #6
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We used to deliver the Leopard Power Cats from Cape Town to all over the world on their own bottoms. The way it was done was to depart Cape Town on full tanks and have about 4 to 6 plastic 200 litre drums on board and a portable transfer pump and hoses. Cut your revs to keep going at 6 to 7 knots on one engine at a time. Swop engines every watch change. Used to motor Cape Town to Walvis Bay in Namibia and top-up. Then Walvis Bay to Fortaleza, Brazil and full-up. Then all the way to the Caribbean and full-up. Then to destination, either a charter base or to Fort Lauderdale. Was never a problem with quite a number of PC's delivered in this manner.
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Old 04-07-2016, 11:33 PM   #7
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Originally Posted by Captain Dave View Post
Thanks to all for your responses. Sounds like April is the target month to travel North from SF Bay, watching the weather, and hugging the shoreline isn't as futile as I had heard. My concern is that unlike most sailing vessels, I burn 25 gallons of fuel an hour at 10 knots and only like to carry a maximum of 280 gallons at a time. If I carry more fuel I can only do 8 knots and burns the same or even more fuel. Even though my boat has a "planing" hull, it is under-powered and does not plane. Owning it for so many years, I know its sweet spots and unfortunately I must travel at 10 kmots carrying a max of 280 gallons of fuel and MUST tuck in to marina's with fuel.

Knowing this does anyone alter their advice?

Thanks,

Captain Dave
It sounds like you're not willing to go slowly enough. Perhaps take a gander at this article.

Did you not read the part where I said "reduced our speed to 2 kts for a period close to 2o hrs" ? This, in our case, was purely our desire to not burn through 6 gph but instead burn our average of less than 2 gpm (1.7). Patience is a virtue. while moving along a measly 40 nm or so, we had an enjoyable time, even so, and didn't break our fuel budget to boot.

Planing hulls are meant to plane. If you cannot plane, you're in the waste-fuel-for-nothing-zone unless you pull back your power to something more reasonable.

If it were a displacement hull, you'd be burning huge fuel to get your 42' boat over about 7 kts--so you wouldn't do it then either. You'd choose a speed that matches the fuel you have to work with.

It sounds like you have an amazingly fuel-Inefficient vessel at 0.40 nm/gallon.
There is no "must travel fast" that I'm aware of unless your boat is one that is not intended for the ocean ever. Exactly what kind of boat is it? I bet it gets much better fuel mileage if you pull back the power to an RPM just sufficient to keep the motor hot/happy but low enough to sip fuel.
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Old 04-08-2016, 02:24 AM   #8
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Default Appreciation

Thanks again to the recent respondents to my request for advice. Appreciate also the details of ports to safely tuck in.

Captain Dave
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