Newport to ???

Finally there was a small opening of wind so we packed up, pulled anchor and set out for Coos Bay or Bandon depending on the weather - which ended up not really cooperating with more crisscrossed seas and dying wind.

Breaking out the Norvane!

We did get to see more whales including really cool breaches, huge bioluminescent patches so bright they would make the sails glow green sometimes, sharks AND a puffin (goodbye arctic puffin)! We motored for the last few hours so we could go to Bandon instead of Coos Bay as it looked like a more fun town. Boy, are we glad we did as Bandon is great - cute little waterfront area and enough candy samples to satisfy the hungriest elf!

This one's for you Daryl!

 We got up to the library for some reliable wifi to start posting (finally!). We closed the place down and one of the librarians offered us a ride back down to the waterfront so we could row back out to the boat for supper. We didn’t catch her name, but if you know the librarian with the alphabet on her Belgian glasses, we love her!

We also made it over to the Facerock Creamery to try out their cheese and ended up not being able to resist a Basque cheese and a coconut(!) cheese from Holland from their imported offerings. We also succumbed to their ice cream counter (serving Umpqua ice cream) where we were treated to the biggest child size ice cream cone ever! Thank goodness we only ordered one as the $1.50 splurge probably sported nearly a pint of ice cream - Darren thinks it was as big as my head. Unfortunately we didn’t think to take a picture to document to enormity of it til after we had enjoyed some of it. And we thought Mike’s was the bomb!

We had nice enough weather that Darren put the finishing touches on the new dinghy sail rig and took it for a test! It's great! Thanks to Jim, James and Charlie for your help, supplies and tools to help us realize this part of our dream! We have a great little commuter now.

 

After craving pizza for several weeks, we broke down and splurged on a pizza from Angelo’s Italy near the waterfront and - yummm – boy was that a treat! Darren also continued to catch us crab - we saved them up and ate eight in one day! I think three large dungeoness is my limit.

Bandon also has a great waterfront area with art, places to sit and things for kids to climb on, a huge boardwalk, a glass enclosed picnic area for blustery days and a crabbing dock! Did we happen to mention how much we love this town?

Many of the shops had free wifi and several of our posts came to you from Coastal Mist where we had some tasty Mayan Drinking chocolate. Oh, the sacrifices we make to post for you! Seriously though, if you are in the neighborhood stop in and say hi to these friendly people and, of course, you’ll have to try some chocolate while you’re there – you poor thing.

Why yes we are, thank you!

Love, 

Jodi & Darren

s/v Gratitouille