You may recall that in one of my last posts I was headed for the coast to entangle with the storm of Friday night. I got to Warrenton, near Astoria about 2120 hours. There was little wind and some rain driving down from Portland to Astoria. The wind really came on when I started west out of downtown Astoria across the Youngs Bay Bridge. East of there you would hardly know there was a violent storm brewing. In any event, I walked down the dock to check out a sailboat and before I could walk back up the storm hit big time. I never got off the boat until 1000 hours the next day. ("hours" is justified if there is any confusion as to what a number is being used for). The wind was very erratic. There were many lulls punctuated with very strong gusts which gradually got stronger. The weather service considers a gust to be one that lasts some specific time, I think it is 60 seconds. In any event to a sailor a gust is something that is noticeable and that means if it peaks for even a few seconds at 100 mph, that constitutes a significant event. After all, to a sailor this is not a game of arbitrary definitions, but a duel with reality and gusts of 100 mph have real consequences even if they only last a few seconds. I would estimate that the worst of the storm was about 0200 Saturdya, when the power went out in Warrenton east of the Skipannon River. By my definition there were about 3 or 4 gusts near the 100 mph mark during the night. One of them I would estimate went well over that. If the wind had been steady at these higher speeds, there would have been severe damage to the entire coast. As it was, the damage was pretty slight. There was a period near the height of the storm when the water in the boat basin area began to pump/surge. If this had continued for say 30 minutes or so, I would expect the boat basin would have been torn apart. Fortunately this only lasted for about 2 minutes. But the effect was very noticeable. This surging is caused by the reflected wave energy bouncing off the sides of the river and retaining walls. The width of the Skipnnon River at this point is about 120 yards and runs north/south for about 1 mile. There is some potential for the wind to align with the river and this would increase the potential fetch. From about 0200-0400 there was considerable lightning and thunder. Seems that the cold part of the front had passed overhead and the thunderheads would have been spectacular if you could see them. The wind shifted about daybreak to the west and the winds intensified to about 60 mph, with some higher gusts.This business of being slammed against the dock by 100 mph gusts for 8-12 hours is enough to make one seasick just from the lack of sleep. One of the fenders on the boat punctured. None of the lines broke or frayed enough to need replacing. Most likely due to the fact that the boat was being pushed into the dock rather than back and forth or away from it. The local crabbers report that they have been out only about 9 days out of the last 6 weeks. That crab are just legal and average numbers. That much gear has been lost due to storms and that it is not a great day in mudville. Saturday the storm surge and normal high tide resulted in a 12 footer that flooded parking lots at the Peter Iredale wreck and most likely at other places on the coast. Mike Capt. Mike Maurice Tualatin(Portland), Oregon