Sunday 5th September 2004
A
day exploring Cape Disappointment. After a heap of trivialities, such
as having to do some laundry (there's a remarkable variation amongst transAm
cyclists in their cleanliness - some seem just about never to wash anything
at all, either themselves or their clothes, others look like they are
permanently freshly luanderied), we went to Waikiki Beach, on the River
Columbia side of the headland, and Steve swam. the river water is warmer
than the sea - much warmer. It's quite a hearable temperature. I'm a bit
puzzled about the sea temperatures - there's a Japanese current coming
in which warms things up, and Alaskan current flowing down the coast which
cools it all down, and river currents which warm it up. Apparently the
sea is warmer as you go offshore into the Japanese current! Cape Disappointment
itself is beautiful, a lighthouse on a rocky headland, surrounded by forests,
and looking every bit as romantic as its name requires it should. Fortunately
it isn't open to the public so it doesn't reveal its romantic secrets
to be just a heap of metal and wiring. We ended the day watching the turbulent
Columbia crashing into the Pacific waves, this time from the north side
of the Columbia, by the heap of rocks that form the north jetty. In the
photo, you can see the lighthouse, but in the distance you can see (just
about) the north jetty jutting way out into the Pacific, and the Oregon
coast beyond that, where we were a couple of days ago. Click on the photo
and you'll get a more detailed pcture.
We have a short
mpeg video clip (154Kb so OK for 56K modems - ogg available for those that
are wise enough to prefer linux and open source), surveying the Pacific Ocean
and the Columbia River, with commentary. Quicktime usually defaults to
too low a volume - so if that's what you're using, you may need to turn
up the volume.
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