Tied up at the Newport City Marina about 7 pm. Jeremy was there to help tend the dock lines, which 8 super helpful with the strong north wind blowing Fairtide hard on the dock. Although I had circumnavigated Vancouver Island last year including sailing in the open Pacific Ocean, this was my first 200+ mile non-stop passage in the Pacific on Fairtide. Unfortunately I made really good time and arrived outside Newport almost 5 hours before I could cross the bar to actually get in to port.

For anyone not well versed in "Bar" crossings, most of the ports along the Oregon coast are on rivers that flow into the ocean. At low tide the outflowing river water runs into the incoming ocean swell and can create really steep confused seas where they meet the "Bar", and at high tide the ocean water rushing into the river can also create confused seas as well as an increase in the current making control of the boat difficult. The best times to cross are during the periods between high and low tides when the water is calmest, (slack tide). The sort of bad news is that this only happens about every 6 hours so if you miss your opportunity you have to wait until the next slack tide, in my case about 4 hours of sailing slowly as possible until I was able to get in.