56
As Willett maneuvered us from the harbor with an occasional goose
of the bow and stern thruster, we prepped the salon and the three
staterooms below decks for what was to come.
Five hours later, the Neah Bay refuel was a welcome relief from
taking the closely spaced 10-footers directly on our bow. As uncom-
fortable as it was, the 47 took it all in stride, with little pounding save
for those times when the sets were so closely spaced we had little
choice but to launch into the trough. We didn’t discuss it much as we
refueled, probably because we were so taken with the surrounding
Makah Reservation and harbor hemmed in by snow-capped moun-
tains, rugged coastline and temperate rainforest. Th e cacophony of
seabirds along with the barking of sea lions begging the fi shing fl eets
for the cleaned halibut carcasses was nonstop. A pair of bald eagles
eyed us as Willett topped off the tanks and I kept an eye on fuel levels
on the MFD, knowing that we still had to contend with a nasty head
sea before rounding Cape Flattery and heading south on the Pacifi c.
Th ose last few miles proved to be the hardest of the trip, with
steep seas and swirling clouds spoiling our view of the Fuca Pillar,
a tall, rectangular rock outcropping that sits at the farthest point of
the cape—the northwesternmost point in the Lower 48. Huddled
on the fl ybridge, we could just discern the traffi c separation lighted
buoy, our informant, Station 46087 off in the distance. With that, we
turned to port and headed south along the craggy Washington coast.
On cue, the sea began to follow us and just a few minutes aft er I
pushed the throttles to a very comfortable 19-knot cruise, the ocean
exploded just off our starboard-side bow. A humpback whale fully
breached from the sea and came down with a massive splash. It was
a fi ne harbinger of what was to be the rest of the voyage.
We prepped quick meals at the amidships galley with the late aft er-
noon light streaming through the large windows on three sides and
the aft pocket door, trying to spend as much time on the bridge as
possible. We spotted several more whales and a few more breaches,
with one curious humpback “spy-hopping” out of the water just off
our bow before diving deep with a fi nal wave of its tail.
As day turned into night, we rotated shift s at the lower helm and
kept a diligent log, with each helmsman responsible for an engine
room check before heading into the salon or below decks for rest. Af-
ter a post-midnight jam session with Turner under the helm’s sole red
LED, enjoying Neil Young and Elton John tunes via the Bluetooth-
equipped Fusion stereo, I had some quiet hours to myself. I opted for
9 knots and Miles Davis Quintet’s “Round About Midnight,” the mod-
ern jazz a cool counterpoint to the blackness outside our windows. I
tracked the ships that I had seen during my time at the helm on the
chartplotter for their closest point of approach (CPA) and time to clos-
est point of approach (TCPA), relinquishing my shift to Willett and
gladly obliging his request for a fresh carafe of coff ee.
As the sun rose, we bumped up to 20 knots aft er learning from the
USCG that conditions at the Yaquina Bay cut were quickly deterio-
rating, making it into the Newport, Oregon harbor approximately
26 hours aft er we left Port Townsend on a windswept morning. If it
were not so early in the morning and Willett wasn’t off on the next
leg of the Swift Pacifi c Challenge that would eventually end in San
Diego, I would’ve insisted on a fi tting end: A walk over to the nearby
Rogue Brewery, where we could look down on the Port of Newport
marina at our steed. We’d raise our glasses to not only the 47 but the
entire fl eet of 1,500 Swift Trawlers ranging from 30 to 50 feet—the
47 being the fi ft h vessel in the model line. I’d toast the 47’s comfort,
safety and surefootedness over the last 385 miles and declare the line
of vessels as a classic quintet, much like the jazz band that provided
our soundtrack over the previous night’s journey. U
Seattle’s Lake Union is stunning, its banks lined
with waterfront homes and hundreds of houseboats.
Right: The 47’s airy salon. Note the beefy handrails
on the ladder to the fl ybridge.SEAS: 2 ft.FUEL: FullWATER: FullTEST REPORT
RPM
1000
1500
2000
2250
2600
2900
3080KNOTS
6.7
9
11.8
15.6
19.4
23.7
25.8GPH
2.5- 3
16.9
20.9
29
39.2
43.4
RANGE
1367
629
356
380
341
308
303dB(A)
76
80
82
82
87
88
88