I'm exiting the anchorage behind Tongue Point in the lower Columbia just half a dozen miles upstream from Astoria OR. The wind is blowing down from the point at over 30 mph according to the anemometer on the boat that took the pic, a Cascade 36.

When you break out from behind the Point, where the water is 90' deep, there is short steep chop which can be 4'-5' right on the nose if you're heading downstream. When you get west of the Point a bit the wind slows to the 20's on a day like that and you can get closer to shore and out of the channel a bit for smaller seas. The wind shifts a bit from on the nose to a bit more northerly easing the transit. Waves are still steep but a bit less ferocious.

When I first arrived in the area on my little boat, I was often either over canvassed with weather helm or under canvassed so I pulled the boat on a flatbed, put it into a storage area, rented a 10X10 unit for a shop and added a 12" extension on the bow in the form of a flat laminated teak sprit and double anchor roller in bronze which I cut out parts for on my 10" bandsaw.

Did a bunch of other rework on the then three year old boat to better suit my "style". Installed a baby stay in particular for heavy weather which was not too unusual in the area. Staysail alone would be proper for fifty statute miles per hour winds that occasionally came out of Young's Bay for no explicable reason, did not last too long, blew the river flat so easy to work.

I also had a 170% oz. and half DrifterReacherSpinnaker (DRS) which was incredible for winds less than about six mph. My little 22', 4500 lb, Benford had a fine entry, 1500 lbs lead keel, no motor ever, and half a dozen sails for every occasion as befit a boat with no motor. Never a racer, I was at least a sailor. Sometimes I think I should toughen up, buy a 28' to 35' sailboat for the sound, live aboard, and be a sailor again. Gimpy old fart...

Sunday morning digression.....back in the day.....