May 8-10, 2009, Newport, Oregon, by Bob

I rented a fine automobile from a local establishment in Newport. They have a fleet of four cars. I drove to Astoria, flew the PC12 to Seattle, and picked up Melinda and Josh (baby daughter and boyfriend). I flew Melinda and Josh off to Astoria, after a detour by Mount Rainier and Mount St. Helens. They drove the rental car back to Newport. I flew to Newport. I was confused by that time, so I drank a chocolate milkshake. I am not lactose intolerant, but Melinda was intolerant of my lactose.

The next day we headed out in the Minnow to scuba dive. Melinda opted out, saying something about intelligence that I didn't quite comprehend. The water temperature was a balmy 55 degrees, but we wore wet suits anyway. We even flew the dive flag. The visibility was 4-6 feet near the surface, but on the bottom (30 feet or so) it was about 6 inches. So I came up and looked over the bottom of the boat. I think Mike's been running over a lot of rocks and logs, because there are a couple of scratches.

After I got out of the water and showered, the Coast Guard called and said we were anchored in a dangerous place and needed to move. They said they were sending about a boat to assist us. I told them thanks, that we'd get out of there, and that we didn't need assistance. We were gone before the boat arrived.

I put the minnow on autopilot toward Japan while Josh and I thrashed about trying to figure out, organize, and untangle some ropes to raise the sail. It was pretty windy so we were using the second reef, raising the main sail only half way.

About the time we were done, around 4 miles offshore, a Coast Guard helicopter buzzed us really low. It came around again and we took some pictures. After it left, I noticed that I had left the radio on channel 22, where we were talking to them earlier, instead of channel 16, the channel "hailing frequency" they use to call you on. So the people in the helicopter were probably trying to call us on the radio while we were taking pictures of them. Oops.

We sailed back to Newport, drove around, saw a seal fighting an octopus, kayaked, and ate at place with metal utensils.

The next day we played a bit and then I flew Josh and Melinda back to Seattle. When I got back to Newport, there was a 400-foot ceiling, which is 200 feet higher than the minimums. I landed, then called FSS to cancel the IFR flight plan. They told me to standby. Someone else was talking to FSS trying to get clearance, but they couldn't get clearance because I hadn't cancelled, and I couldn't cancel because they were ahead of me. I finally called them on the phone and cancelled, about the time they figured out what was going on and called me back on the radio.