Volume: 2

The Bar

Dealing with the mighty Columbia River Bar.

From my window seat I observed a few fishermen on a pier. One old man was catching some small fish and throwing them back. When he found one he liked he slammed it on the deck, killing it. A young kid, maybe eight, was trying to hook the same type fish. He accidentally snagged one by the fin. The fish was wiggling so violently that the kid couldn't get it off the hook. He set the fish on the pier and then gave it a mighty stomp with his foot. He tossed the dead fish back into the water and watched it float away.

Alia mumbled something about a transducer or linkage or something and returned to the boat before the rest of us. I spread out a chart on an empty table. There weren't many choices if we wanted to cruise east, up river. We decided to power into the shipping channel and see where it took us.

The numerous, flat islands aren't worth naming here. They all looked the same. After ninety minutes and passing under the Julia Butler Hansen bridge all of us had seen enough. The river was flat and the wind non-existent. The sailor in all of us was already bored. We decided to circumnavigate Puget Island to our right, return to the Bar and out to the ocean.