Was surprised this morning when I actually managed to upload the blog post I finished last night. I had tried several times after finishing up, but had no luck at getting it to go. This morning however, it loaded right up and went off into the ether world as if I was hooked directly into a high speed internet connection. Not sure why it worked, just glad it did.
    It was raining, still, this morning when I got up, so I just hung out at the trailer for a couple of hours and read a little bit. I was out and on the road before noon though, so the whole day wasn't shot at least.
   I turned the truck north and headed up the rock blob known as Otter Crest first. This is a high, volcanic cliff that overlooks the ocean and which Hwy 101 has to climb over on it's way along the coast. At the very top where the highway goes over the crest they have a lookout area you can drive out to and look out over the ocean. On a clear day you should be able to see a good 80-90 miles out into the ocean to the west. Today however this area, given the name 'Cape Foul Weather' by Captain Cook back in the late 1700's, was living up to it's name. High wind, driving rain and fog that didn't even let you see the trees in front of you, let alone the ocean down at the bottom of the cliff. Still... it was neat to sit for a while and feel the full power of nature as it crashed against the shoreline there. The only bad thing was that when I went to turn left and pull back onto the highway I found that the visibility was so poor that I ended up turning right instead for fear of pulling out in front of a car that I didn't see coming.
   I went on into Depoe Bay at that point, just a few miles away from there, in order to get some much needed lunch. My heart was set on eating clam chowder and some kind of sea food at the Spouting Horn restaurant over looking the inner harbor there. But alas, they are closed on Sundays and Mondays these days, so I made do by going down to the Sea Hag and having fish and chips and clam chowder there. Not bad, but it certainly wasn't as nice of a place to sit and enjoy the day.
    It had nearly stopped raining when I came out so I took advantage and walked around town taking pictures of all of my favorite scenes. The waves were sure crashing outside the harbor entrance on what is known as the north and south reefs. Just shallower areas that can really roar when the weather turns nasty. There was also a pretty good spray coming out of the 'Spouting Horn' down below the seawall. That is a blowhole that has an underwater entrance to it that blows water out the top every time a wave comes into the mouth of the slot. Today it was only blowing 60'-70'  in the air. I've seen it during bad storms when it would blow spume all the way across four lanes of highway there in mid town.
   I wandered around for quite awhile, but it soon started to rain again so I headed north towards Lincoln City. I stopped at several pull outs along the way just to watch the waves. There was plenty of action in Little Whale Cove and over at Boiler Bay as well as off Rock Creek Point. It's always fun to watch.
   Stopped in to my favorite used book store up there in Lincoln City and browsed around for about an hour. Found a couple of new books to read if it stays rainy, which I am hearing it will. Just sitting in Micky D's right now, but they don't have an electrical outlet and my battery is almost dead so I'm not sure if this will go out tonight or not. I may just finish this part up and then come back tomorrow and annotate the pictures posted below.

Astoria Maritime Museum at the mouth of the Columbia River

Oct 21, 2014

They have a whole section of the museum set up to display info on the fishing industry in the area including several full sized boats once used. Here is one set up as a long line trawler that was used to fish for salmon.  

 Looking at the stern of the trawler Darle with all of its gear.

A shot showing the catch.

A nice little sailing skiff used as a platform for gill netting salmon in the river.

A view showing some of the gear used in gill netting.

One last view of the sailing skiff.





I have always loved old skylights that come out of ships.




A neat little gang mold that puts lead weights on the bottom line of a gill net so that it pulls the net down tight.



Invented by someone who lived here in Astoria, this machine threaded line on to a net needle, that flat wooden thing on the left. These are used to make and patch nets.



Some of the different types of net floats that have been used over the years.

An old fashioned dive suit used in the boat building industry around Astoria.  



There was a small whaling industry located in Astoria late in the 50's and 60's. It thankfully died out soon after the international whaling conventions came into force. On the left is an old explosive harpoon gun with various whale flensing tools in the back. 

 Along with the whale industry, you also had whalers doing scrimshaw while on their long voyages. This display isn't even close to some I have seen back east, but it still has some nice samples.

brk*