Patrick and I have a running joke about Coos Bay, Oregon…It is an old Native American term meaning “come here and fix shit”.   About this time last year, we sailed into Charleston’s port and across the Coos Bay bar with the intent of getting Deep Playa’s leaky fuel tank repaired as soon as possible and quickly return to our trip south to Mexico.  Well things didn’t move along as quickly as we had hoped and we spent a month here….yes, a month.  Don’t get me wrong, we tried to leave, on a few occasions.  One of our attempts to leave resulted in having Deep Playa towed by Boat US across the bar and onto Charleston's vagrant dock after we boiled our starting battery (big ooooopsey).   So, after almost a year since leaving Charleston, we became nostalgic to return in our Land Yacht on our way to California.  And of course, as to be expected, we experienced a problem with the land yacht and had to stop in Coos Bay to fix a screeching alternator belt.

We decided to pull into Charleston’s Oceanside RV Park, located behind Bastendorff Beach, which is one of my favorite beaches in the world!  This was one of my favorite running destinations last year so coming back here is very exciting for me.  Since Pea and I both own bicycles this year, my new ride is in the pic, I am finally able to show Pea all of the cool places I visited while on my long distance running escapades.   By the way, my running legs are definitely in need of some hours of training on the bike.  The hill up Bastendorff Drive and Coos Head Road did me in and I had to push my bike up the hill.  It was pitiful.

Land Yacht parked at Oceanside RV Park in Charleston, Oregon

My *awesome* new ride.

The beach is so close we can hear the distant eerie whistles and muffled bells of the channel buoys in the bar entrance.  Hearing these sounds brings me back to last year when we were crossing the bar on Deep Playa in pitch dark and fog without our iPad as a cockpit navigational aid. The bells and whistles seem so much louder and recognizable then they did that night.  I am thoroughly enjoying the contrast in perspective that I am experiencing this year compared to last year.  The status of the sea state, weather, boat projects and storms have all taken a back seat this year and, man… are we waaaaaaay more relaxed.

We are enjoying the relaxed and quiet RV park today and finishing up some projects on the land yacht.  Tonight we took a long walk on the beach to watch some surfers and doggies playing in the surf.  We are missing surfing something fierce but I don’t have the urge to get into the 52.2 degree Fahrenheit water (I Googled it) and freeze my booty off.

Pea walking on Bastendorff Beach

Surfer running into *not* too much surf…sorry dude.  Note the full head to toe dry suit he is wearing.  COLD!!!

Little inlet.  Look at those beautiful colors and contrasting light and darks.  Love it.

This dude is not wearing anything but his board shorts!  Hardy people these Pacific Northwesterners…or just crazy.  I am wearing a sweatshirt and sweatpants while on the beach taking this pic.

It is soooo magical here and it makes my heart and soul very happy.   I <3 Oregon Coast beaches.