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| For Those Who Venture South - Part 2 |
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| Charleston Offers the Bounty of the Sea |
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 | | Photo by Marili Green Reilly | | A fishing boat leaves Charleston Harbor in the fog. |
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by Marili Green Reilly
If you are looking for a port on the Oregon Coast that provides reasonably easy and safe access, is within a couple days travel from the Columbia River, and is close to beaches, entertainment, and fishing, Charleston is the place for you!
On our harbor-hopping tour of the coast last summer, my husband Dave and I made Charleston our second stop. While we waited for a repaired part to be returned to us, we enjoyed long beach walks, dined at excellent restaurants, and cooked freshly-caught seafood aboard our boat.
We left Newport in the gray light of pre-dawn in order to catch the end of the slack tide after the flood. With a northwest wind of 10-15 knots and the aid of our "iron jenny," our Cascade 36 sloop, Tamara, arrived at the red and white entrance buoy "K" off Coos Head about 14 hours later, having averaged about six knots.
Coos Bay is a harbor of refuge, offering a bar that is negotiable in bad weather, and is located about 200 miles south of the Columbia River. The entrance is described in Charlie's Charts as "awesome" due to the breakers that can occur over the submerged tips of both jetties. Authors Charles and Margo Wood recommend entering at the end of the flood current, and note that you can also get an hourly bar report from the US Coast Guard at KBBR (1340 kHz) or by calling on VHF channel 12 or 16.
The breakdown of our auto- pilot halfway through the day delayed our arrival, bringing us to the bar a little nearer ebb tide than we would have preferred. Because of that lost half hour, we took some heavy swell out of the north just as we made our turn toward the protection of the jetty. We were indeed awed by the nearness of those breakers, and we gritted our teeth and hung on as a couple of big swells laid us over to starboard before we made it into the calmer waters.
After you clear the jetties, the main channel heads toward the northeast. The channel to Charleston, the first port on the Bay, turns southeasterly at red marker #2 and continues south. As you approach Charleston Marina, the fuel dock lies in the shelter of land on your right and the longer transient dock "B" is just across from it. Take a side tie and check in with the marina office at the top of the ramp or call ahead for a slip assignment at 541-888-2548. We arrived after the office had closed, but a night watchman came down to greet us and gave us the proper forms.
When we turned in our papers the next morning, we asked for a slip and were assigned a spot on the end of Walk E. It turned out to be an excellent choice for us, and increased our enjoyment of the harbor. Walk E lies between two longer walks and the end tie provided us an unobstructed view of the far shore, the comings and goings of nearby commercial fishing boats, and the operations of the Coast Guard Station Coos Bay, barely 200 yards from our cockpit.
Charleston Marina is a certified Oregon Clean Marina, so you won't find floating fish carcasses around the cleaning stations. There are recycling centers at the top of each ramp for collection of wood, paper, and metal, and waste oil receptacles are off the parking lot near the marina office. Showers and restrooms are also located near the office, and laundry facilities are available at the nearby RV park, about two blocks away. A WiFi network is available for a fee, but with our internal antenna we were able to access it from our boat only sporadically, leading us to believe that foggy weather can dampen a signal as easily as it can our spirits.
For a small town, Charleston has several excellent restaurants which not surprisingly specialize in seafood entrees, and they offer a pleasant down-home friendliness. The High Tide Café and the Portside Restaurant were our favorites for nice lunches and dinners. The small cafés right next to the marina, the Sea Basket and Basin Café, provided good breakfasts and are popular with the local fisherman. We also visited the trendy shops at Oyster Cove Square on the road out to Cape Arago Highway (OR 240) and the restaurant there, Oyster Cove Bar and Grill, had good food, a tonier atmosphere, and slightly higher prices. We were somewhat surprised that dining in this small coastal town was not too much less expensive than the restaurants we like in Portland.
Although the cancellation of last year's salmon season hurt merchants and fisherman, we found a supply of fresh crab, tuna, ling cod, halibut, and red snapper readily available. Chuck's Seafood and Seahawk Seafoods near the highway sell fresh fish, but we soon settled into the convenience of visiting Fisherman's Wharf, located right there on the dock, on an almost daily basis. When the tuna boats came in, they were especially accommodating, allowing us to buy less than a whole fish because of our limited freezer space, and the owners even wrote down their favorite ways to prepare tuna when I confessed to my lack of creativity in preparing fresh fish.
There are two small grocery stores on the highway, an easy half mile away from the marina. You can take care of maintenance and repair needs and pick up the latest Freshwater News at Englund's Marine Supply just beyond them, across the Slough Bridge.
For more comprehensive shopping needs, take a cab or hitch a ride with a local boater into the larger cities of Coos Bay or North Bend. We needed prescriptions filled and had banking to do, so we paired a shopping trip with a visit to the Mill Casino in North Bend. The Mill's courtesy shuttle is available on an on-call basis and the friendly and accommodating drivers provided some local color during the 20-minute ride. It was a long walk into town from the casino, but we rewarded ourselves afterwards with a visit to the Mill's restaurants and lounge.
Admittedly, we overlooked the best means of accessing the town, taking the boat to the Coos Bay city dock. One southbound sailor we talked to had spent a month dividing his time between the City Dock, the Charleston Marina, and the anchorages that lie off the main channel. For those who want to economize or get a closer look at nature, we recommend checking with local boaters for the best spots to drop the hook.
For Dave and me, a trip to the Oregon Coast - even by boat - isn't complete without a walk on the beach. Nearby Bastendorff Beach and Lighthouse Beach, which together stretch from the south jetty to Cape Arago, filled our needs perfectly. A half-hour hike up Chicken Point Road or up Cape Arago Highway to Coos Head Road and Bastendorff Beach Road will take you to several beach access points.
During our stay we had several opportunities to chat with people crabbing from the docks. One Grants Pass man said he brings the family to Charleston every year for this pursuit, and we had to agree that this town has its charms as a getaway spot. Coos Bay is a convenient stop, whether you are making a voyage south or simply looking for a boating destination beyond the Columbia River, and we'll remember Charleston for years to come. |
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