We’ve been thinking about investigating the Columbia River for many years. The varied terrain, history, commercial traffic, locks, and rivers emptying into the Columbia, (in theory at least) offer real potential.

Hanging out in the Pacific Northwest we ran into four cruisers who had spent time on the river. Three of them said it was "wonderful", the fourth said "totally boring, don’t waste your time".

With the summer winding down we figured we’d make a quick trip to assess things for ourselves.

Crossing the bar (covered in a separate story, which we’ll write soon) has to be done with planning and care, but once across, navigation is straightforward with marked channels in most places.

Coming from Alaska and British Columbia, we were in a wilderness mindset. But for us, the charm of the river is in the small towns along its banks.

Take Astoria, at the mouth of the river, as an example. There are good facilities for visiting yachts, a charming town, and a wonderful maritime museum. We were able to catch the opening of a new musical with a Los Angeles theater company. You could spend a week or more just exploring Astoria. It also has the coolest marine store we can remember, a huge facility which is a combination industrial and marine supply center.

There are numerous fishing-related facilities, now lying unused, as you head inland.

These give the lower portion of the river a special charm.

The sides of the river are lined with miniature breakwaters, to divert water flow and preserve the banks. These act as catchments for the odd tree that comes along during flooding.

We started to photograph all of the interesting tree stumps we saw impaled. They make you wonder what it must be like when the water is really flowing.

There are a series of nine dams to control runoff and generate electricity. However, when the there are large amounts of rain or snow melt, release from the dams can raise the river level 20 feet (6m) from what you see in these photos!

We arrived during the salmon fishing season and there were hundreds of small boats out trying to catch their limit. There is a huge amount of commercial traffic – big ships, barges, and a variety of other vessels – and these little fishing boats are anchored into the middle of a narrow channel. The Coast Guard was constantly reminding everyone on VHF 16 to keep the channel clear, but we saw no enforcement action.

Boat watching is wonderful, especially if you like commercial vessels. There are numerous pusher tugs hauling barges full of saw dust and grain.

Notice how high the conning position is on these tugs. This is so the crew can see over the barge.

We noticed that most of the ships going upriver were bulk carriers that appeared to be empty. This provided us with a chance to study their bow profiles and the shape of their bulbs.

If you tune a bulb like this to a specific speed, and bury it well below the waterline, it can increase efficiency by five to seven percent.

Bulbs work by suppressing the bow wave. Because they are so deeply buried, at load well below the water line, they are less affected by wave action than is the case on a small yacht with a bulb.

However, there is no universal design concept. The shapes vary from one ship to the next. Bulbs are also a problem when anchoring. Look closely at the paint on the bulb above and you will see where the chain has been dragging back and forth. Also, notice the projection off the bow through which the chain runs. This projection is an attempt to improve the angle on the chain, to reduce its rubbing on the bulb.

Not to belabor this bulb concept, but here is a third type of shape.

Years ago Paul Elvstrom designed a six-meter for the world championships in Australia with a bulb. After extensive tank testing, and a variety of bulbs tested at full scale, they raced but did not win. Feeling that there was not enough benefit for the negatives, Paul abandoned the concept.

Above: Our tax dollars at work. An Army Core of Engineers cat. Note the cool paint job. Power cats can be very efficient in terms of horsepower. However, you have to be careful with hull shape and beam so the bow and stern waves do not interfere with their mates coming from the opposite hull. Check out the bow waves on the hull above. You will see that they have set up an interference pattern at this slow speed. This will get worse as they go faster.

Speaking of cool paint jobs and shapes, check this out! These guys were running at high speed up and down the river.

We were guessing 50 knots for boat speed, and wanted to verify this with our radar ARPA tracking.

However, we could not get a target lock on this stealth shape, which gives us the idea that this must be some sort of test vehicle for the military. We could see the wake on radar, but almost nothing of the hull itself. If this were clad in or built from the same material used for radar absorption on the F111 and B2 aircraft this shape would be invisible at slow speed (where there would be little or no wake).

How about this for a bow! (September 13 update – Bruce Hays has sent us a link with more details on this craft – http://www.special-operations-technology.com/article.cfm?DocID=493 .)

We saw a number of boats sailing up or down the river. These guys are running in, towards Portland. Nice-looking reaching kite. Note the snuffer at the head of the sail.

This little fishing boat caught our eye in the town of Cathamet. The hull has been around a long time.

In its own way, this hull shape is as cool as the stealth craft.

We’ve sailed past many of the great capes, but have missed Cape Horne. Well, we can tick that off our list. That’s Cape Horne on the Columbia behind Linda – and they’ve even got cell phone coverage.

While we found the lower reaches of the river interesting, once near Portland things became a bit too industrial for our taste. We thought this might improve as we got to the famous Columbia River Gorge. The scenery was certainly interesting – although nothing to compare with what we saw further north. However, the ambiance was a little off-putting, with active railroads on both sides of the river plus a busy freeway on the Oregon shore. We also had a hard time finding a spot to anchor out of chop and current. With a strong sea breeze often opposing a current flowing towards the ocean, it can get bouncy at anchor unless you are out of the current and facing into the wind and waves.

We stopped in Portland on the way down the river. There are a number of marinas and yacht clubs where you can find a berth, or you can anchor, as we did, out of the channel. We found Portland to be a charming spot, as big cities go, with good public transportation and friendly people.

We enjoyed our short time on the river, and might go back some day for a longer look.