Crossing the Bar

On Saturday, we took a drive to the northwest corner of Oregon and into the southwest corner of Washington state. Along the way, we noticed this sign: 

Yikes!

We've lived in areas of hurricane danger and blizzards, but I don't think I would want to live in a tsunami hazard zone.

Our drive took us very near the coast (in fact, we went through a city called Seaside) and we had occasional views of the Pacific Ocean. We continued to see lots of places that grow and sell berries and fruits. Many places were advertising organic blueberries, fresh raspberries, and apples. We also saw a place that advertised their jerky. Now I've seen many kinds of jerky, the most common, of course, being beef jerky. But I've also seen turkey, pork, chicken, bacon, and I've even seen alligator jerky in Louisiana. But I've never seen the kind advertised here: Vegan Jerky. Since the word jerky means "dried, salted meat", how does Vegan fit the definition of jerky? 

We drove through the coastal town of Astoria.

Astoria

In Astoria, we visited the Columbia River Maritime Museum. 

At first, I wasn't sure how much I would enjoy a maritime museum, but after learning what the museum was about, it was rather fascinating. An interesting oceanographic feature of this area is where the Columbia River empties into the Pacific Ocean, where millions of gallons of water from the river collides with the huge swells of the ocean. The resulting waves, enlarged by high winds, are so lofty that they are said to be the worst wave conditions on the planet. 

The Columbia River drops it's sediment, mostly sand, at the mouth of the river where it meets the Pacific Ocean, forming a sand bar. Due to the continual currents, the sand bar shifts locations across the mouth of the river. This causes a problem for ships, especially cargo ships, entering the mouth of the river in order to bring their goods to the port of the city of Portland, which is about 100 miles inland. There have been many shipwrecks in this area where ships have run into the sandbar, or more accurately, been tossed into the sandbar by huge waves. The National Transportation Safety Board has declared the Columbia River bar a "specially hazardous area", the only river bar in the entire US given such a designation. 

One of the largest displays in the museum addressed this problem that the shifting sand bars caused for ships. It showcased the perilous attempts of "Crossing the Bar" (and they weren't talking about the law exam!). 

As a result of many shipwrecks in the past, it is now required that any ship passing through the bar take on a "Bar Pilot" to navigate them safely through the waters. The Bar Pilot is taken out to the ship in a smaller vessel, where the pilot climbs from his boat to a rope ladder alongside the cargo ship. He ascends the rope ladder and then boards the ship. After boarding the ship, the bar pilot then takes over the helm and leads the ship by safe passage through the dangerous sand bars. 

A display showcasing a coast guard ship attempting a rescue, with huge waves tossing the boat:

And the guy being rescued:

Maps showing the confluence of the Columbia River and the Pacific Ocean, and the resulting dangerous sand bar blocking passage upriver:

The museum also had a display showing the importance of salmon to the economy of this area, and had a display on the canning industry.

And lastly, there were a couple of displays, for some reason, showing hurricane names. One display showed "retired" names; the other showed names for years 2021-2026. 

As we left the museum, we had some nice views of the nearby coastal waters.