We pulled out of Newport Marina under sunny skies, calm seas, and light winds. We threw up the spinnaker (the large colorful sail, used in lighter, downwind conditions) and settled in for a relaxing day on the water. From below deck, I heard John quietly cursing. Once I emerged topside, I found that we had snagged a crab pot. When you're 15 miles offshore and in several hundred feet of water, there seems no need to constantly look forward. We aren’t driving a car on the highway after all. What could possibly be out there? Crab pots, apparently! We spent the next hour untangling the line from our rudder and were very grateful that we were successful.

Shortly after, we hooked a beautiful salmon! It looked like things were turning around for us. John began cleaning and filleting the fish while I went below to prepare for packaging. And then, I felt a shift in the boat’s motion. I went up top to find the sail was lying in the water, partially under the boat! John was pretty distracted with his catch, so I had to say, “umm, John, the sail is in the water."

Another 30 minutes of chaos followed. The salmon was left behind, the sail (sopping wet) was pulled onto the deck, and we worked to come up with a new sail plan. Once we had it all sorted, we commenced with cleaning and packaging the salmon. Our new plan was to head towards shore to investigate the situation. Under a beautiful sunset we enjoyed a delicious salmon salad and tied up to the dock in Coos Bay at 1am.