Crescent City Harbor & Redwoods

I was quite tired from our 48 hour passage, slept soundly, until Dan awoke me and said we needed to move the boat while the harbor waters were calm.  Apparently, the solar panels were not charging well enough due to limited sun (smoke haze from the western fires, fog, nighttime etc) and he wanted to hook the boat up to shore power which meant the boat needed to be turned around.  Even before coffee!

Dan is practicing his boat driving skills as he turns the boat around (in calm water) so the stern is close to the dock. My job was to handle the dock lines and get a second lesson on properly securing the boat to the dock cleats.  It was good practice for me too.  The electric cord was removed from storage as we have not needed it since the solar panels were installed months ago.  Power was hooked up only to discover the polarity was wrong (on the dock hookup), and we had to try the outlet on the adjacent slip which worked then properly. Dan notified the marina office and maintenance will look into it.  Meanwhile, we have shore power and our batteries are being charged even as I write this blog.

The second biggest order of the day, was to order sail slides for the main sail.  We had broken two of these slides on the sail down from Newport.  They are mostly plastic with a metal insert and it is the part that slides into the track of the mast.  Over time, the plastic probably wears down.  Since we have not raised the sails during the past year, this was unforeseen.  Dan doesn't really seem to get worked up about these "bumps in the road", like I might.  He looks at things rather systematically or is it problematically?  Either way, he and I have different skills sets which can be complimentary at times.
He spent yesterday researching on line possible places to find these older style slides.  No luck.  This morning he called North Sails in Portland, Oregon where we had purchased our Code One Gennaker.  They were able to locate some and will have them sent to the Crescent City Marina.  This means we get to stay here until the package arrives, although we do not know how long that will be. Now, it is time for some exploring and fun stuff - the bikes

We decided to unload the folding bikes, and head to Jedediah Smith Redwoods.  On the way out, we had a nice chat with a few of the local fisherman - Larry and his buddy who is carrying the tuna.



We biked about 15 minutes to get to the entrance of the redwoods. There seemed to be a lot of traffic on what I thought would be a more quiet road.  Then I discovered were the traffic was going - to the Elk Valley Casino!  There was much less traffic after that, however the road did become rather steep.  My riding in flat Eugene had not prepared me for this climb.  Walk some, ride some, we made it to see some incredible redwood trees.

Notice the dust form the dirt road that appears to "cake" on the flora.  I wonder how much greener it would look another time of the year.

What an incredible tree cut, over 6 ft across and I love the moss colors.  But wait there is more.

It looks like fire has made this "keyhole sculpture" from a redwood tree of long ago.

These incredible trees have their own energy and here Dan is trying to connect with their energy.



I am loving this bike ride through this amazing forest.

While we never made it to the trail head Stout Grove on this bike trip, the ride on Howland Hill Road was pretty spectacular. Perhaps we will be here long enough to attempt the ride again.  Meanwhile there are other things to explore.  

On the way back to the boat, we decided to ride our bikes to the Safeway grocery store, which we heard was a mile or so into town.  Naturally we purchased a few extra things, but Dan was able to stuff his backpack pretty well.  This is what he looked like from the back - we sort of fit into the area now, as there appears to be a lot of homelessness here, with many people carrying their belongings on their bikes or in carts.

We stumbled upon this Tetrapod sculpture on a green in town.  I immediately thought I should take a photo to show my sister Marji of woodthatworks.com who loves such sculptures.  As we read the sign however, we learned the ultimate purpose of this "jack".

These giant jacks are used to protect harbors from damaging currents.  As waves hit the tetrapods, the force of the water is dissipated by the curve of the legs.  There are 1630 tetrapods on the oceanside of the  Crescent City breakwater.  This 25-ton tetrapod was on display near Front Street and was moved nearly three feet off a pedestal by the force of the March 28, 1964 tsunami.

This 1964 tsunami caused considerable damage in the marina.  The marina we are staying in was completely rebuilt which is why it looks so nice and new. Here are some of Crescent City's fishing boats today on these nice and strong docks.

We took a walk to see some fellow cruisers on the transient dock. On the way we saw this beautiful harbor reflection.

This is Curt and Lynn on S/V Slow Motion.  They are heading south also with the goal of Mexico and beyond.  We had a wonderful visit and Curt who has worked with the US Coast Guard for 28 years, shared some incredible experiences.  The cool thing about meeting fellow cruisers, is that we share knowledge, research and experiences.  I suspect we will be running into them again.  We learned about this Cruising Guide from them and plan on hunting one down while we are in southern California.   

It was a wonderful day!  Stay tuned for more!

Beverly