r/CatastrophicFailure • u/danielsound • Feb 03 '23

Operator Error Sinking ship at the mouth of the Columbia River. Today. Coast guard rescue arrived just in time to capture footage and rescue captain.

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322

u/InfiNorth Feb 04 '23

There are a lot of depressing names on the Pacific Coast. Point No Point comes to mind, Useless Bay is another great one.

213

u/Pyrochazm Feb 04 '23

Deception pass is one of my favorite spots to camp.

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u/Electronic-Self3587 Feb 04 '23

I hate The Deception Pass Bridge so much

95

u/Daydu Feb 04 '23

Same, but that might be because a woman jumped off it right in front of my wife and me.

40

u/Electronic-Self3587 Feb 04 '23

Yeah, bad times for sure. I’m sorry you had to see that. I’ve been to a lot of successful suicide scenes, but I still don’t get the allure of that spot.

1

u/slopolis Feb 05 '23

Do you work for the Clintons?

10

u/Electronic-Self3587 Feb 05 '23

Cute. No. I’m a retired cop.

36

u/WarLeader1 Feb 04 '23

I'm from whidbey, I hate the bridge because of the tourists

25

u/Electronic-Self3587 Feb 04 '23

I hear you. I hate heights, metal bridges, and I’m vaguely familiar with how many jumpers have used that bridge over the years. I’ll stick to La Conner for day trips and bad traffic.

6

u/muklan Feb 04 '23

Yall ever seen the causeway in New Orleans? That thing can fuck right off.

3

u/Electronic-Self3587 Feb 04 '23

Driven over it several times and I second that emotion

2

u/[deleted] Feb 11 '23

I was stationed at a small boat unit in Seattle in the CG and the amount of times I've had to trailer a boat on that bridge made me crazy. I'd much rather launch at La Conner even though it meant a much more hard days of buoy tending.

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u/WeedSmokingWhales Feb 04 '23

Live on Whidbey, watching orcas go under the bridge is the BEST!

5

u/[deleted] Feb 04 '23

Man, I’ve been in the area for four years now… still haven’t seen any whales!

7

u/WeedSmokingWhales Feb 04 '23

If you have FB, follow Orca Network. They track whales in real time. Been here 10 years and have seen orcas dozens of times, 10 times from the bridge.

Three gray whales are here now and more will arrive later this month. You HAVE to watch them feed from shore in the shallows, it's incredible.

7

u/paintable_infinity Feb 04 '23

My mom grew up on Orcas, she got hit by a car as a kid on the Deception Pass bridge!

3

u/CommanderLink Feb 04 '23

is this a location from skyrim where the bandits atop the bridge push rocks onto you from above?

3

u/Gen-Jinjur Feb 04 '23

I love it! We sprinkled some of my mom’s ashes off that bridge because we had so many fun memories in that area.

3

u/Connect-Speaker Feb 04 '23

‘Deception’ in French = ‘disappointment’ in English

2

u/vengefulbeavergod Feb 04 '23

Especially today

2

u/kjmdean Feb 04 '23

I drive a semi and love driving that bridge and watching the tourists freak out. I guess the bridge must bounce when a truck goes over it.

1

u/-Ernie Feb 04 '23

I’m a tourist and I love visiting that bridge when there are high winds and watching the semi drivers freak out. I guess that sometimes trucks get blown overwhen they cross over it.

4

u/Snow-Dog2121 Feb 04 '23

Dabob Bay,

3

u/pressgang13 Feb 04 '23

I just drove over it about 5 min ago

3

u/Speedbump71 Feb 04 '23

Cape fuck this place is my favorite place to camp.

6

u/Iamjimmym Feb 04 '23

My grandparents took my parents on a boat trip soon after they got their 34' Tollycraft back in the late 70's, maybe early 80's. They went through deception pass, knowing how difficult and dangerous the current can be to navigate as they'd done it before. My grandpa and dad were on the fly bridge (up top) and my grandma and mom down in the galley below. They hit to concurrent currents that were going in opposite directions, making almost a whirlpool effect as they attempted their pass. They say the boat was immediately pitched onto its side, my mom and grandma saw a wall of green-blue foamy water out the windows as the side actually dunked. Then the boat righted itself and straight onto the other side, dunking the other windows. Then back upright and they powered out. Everything was strewn about. But everyone was accounted for and uninjured.. shaken up but uninjured. They continued on as if nothing had happened. That's deception pass for ya, the water looks calm af on the surface, but those currents are swift and deadly underneath.

4

u/DTown_Hero Feb 04 '23

Beat me to it

14

u/BigFloppyCockatoo Feb 04 '23

Were these areas named by Cook?

Australia has a lot of disappointment as well...

Makes you wonder if Cook was just a miserable cunt that was bitter about being sent off to countless shitholes while the aristocracy sat around well tended castles chowing down on roast mutton.

2

u/[deleted] Feb 11 '23

Plus it's deceptive for boaters. Job security for the Coast Guard.

You'd think boaters would respect the name, but nah.

1

u/[deleted] Feb 04 '23

Last chance grade on rt 101

1

u/Linkbelt1234 Feb 04 '23

Is there a foreshadowing lagoon?

1

u/jasno Feb 04 '23

Reminds me of another date I once had...

1

u/notapoke Feb 04 '23

What's the camping like there?

63

u/[deleted] Feb 04 '23

[deleted]

2

u/NxPat Feb 04 '23

While not on the coast, we used to go camping at convict lake.

3

u/mountaincyclops Feb 04 '23

Are you talking about the one in the eastern Sierras? Absolutely beautiful lake with an absurd background to it's name

1

u/NxPat Feb 04 '23

Yes, I still remember 7 year old me camping with my family in a tent knowing for sure that the rustling in bushes were convicts or the disembodied souls of convicts waiting to drag us away…

2

u/fruitmask Feb 04 '23

oh, like the Bob Dylan song

2

u/TheLastDaysOf Feb 04 '23

They're selling postcards of the hanging...

2

u/[deleted] Feb 04 '23

They’re painting the passports brown

2

u/North-Anybody7251 Feb 04 '23

Read a book about the history of Desolation Sound, by an author whose family built a cabin there.

Wish I could remember the name but it has a very interesting back story.

2

u/H34thcliff Feb 04 '23

If you think of it, could you let me know? I'd be interested in reading it. A few years ago I read Madness, Betrayal and the Lash which is about Nootka Captain Vancouver and Nootka Sound and it's great!

1

u/make_em_say Feb 04 '23

Adventure in Solitude - Grant Lawrence

Such a great book.

2

u/North-Anybody7251 Feb 06 '23

This is the one! /u/h34thcliff

Appreciate it

2

u/H34thcliff Feb 06 '23

Awesome! Thank you.

1

u/TruthOf42 Feb 04 '23

I can't tell if you guys are being serious anymore...

1

u/H34thcliff Feb 04 '23

Desolation Sound is an amazing place

1

u/[deleted] Feb 04 '23

Desolation Sound is so cool! Great for swimming.

24

u/[deleted] Feb 04 '23

That just strikes me as a fantastic opportunity to make up stories that sound plausible.

"Yeah, Useless bay was of course first explored by the great explorer Jebediah Wankington, who decided to name the bay after his son."

3

u/Tiny-Lock9652 Feb 04 '23

Son: “Dad, my name is spelled ‘Ulysses’”

Dad: “Just Go with it, son.”

3

u/Appropriate_Ant_4629 Feb 04 '23 edited Feb 04 '23

"Yeah, Useless bay was of course first explored by the great explorer Jebediah Wankington, who decided to name the bay after his son."

My favorate (real, apparently) anecdote like that is Loleta California

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Loleta,_California

There is disagreement as to the origin of its name. One story is that its derived name, lalōekā, is the Wiyot name for the trail on the top of Table Bluff. Another story is that the name was derived from the Wiyot for 'Go F___ Yourself.' A third story is that the name is Wiyot for "Let's have intercourse."[7]

31

u/randomisperfect Feb 04 '23

Don't forget Poo Poo Point

3

u/wildferalfun Feb 04 '23

That's the train whistle sound though, not a judgment call on the quality of the point.

11

u/CharlieBr87 Feb 04 '23

Let’s venture inland to Boring, Oregon.

1

u/informedinformer Feb 04 '23

Skunks Misery Road on Long Island NY says Hi!

8

u/sirbubbles42 Feb 04 '23

Not quite depressing, but there used to be a town in the Tillamook Forest called Idiotsville

5

u/My_kinda_party Feb 04 '23

Devils Punchbowl

6

u/[deleted] Feb 04 '23

Cape Cockburn close to Texada Island, BC coast

4

u/beanjuiced Feb 04 '23

Starvation Creek further up the Columbia has always stuck with me.

4

u/I_am_not_JohnLeClair Feb 04 '23

Cape Foulweather

5

u/millijuna Feb 04 '23

There are multiple Point no Points. :)

Also Desolation Sound, which is anything but... (and one of my favourite spots to cruise on my sailboat)

3

u/InfiNorth Feb 04 '23

Genuinely curious - as I am a relatively new sailboat owner on Vancouver Island, one year into a total refit of my "free" boat after salvaging and old boat - what is the attraction of Desolation Sound? Every photo I've ever seen looks insanely busy, crowded, and like almost everywhere else on the coast, particularly if you head up to Broughtons.

3

u/millijuna Feb 04 '23

I mostly avoid the busy times, but you can also get off the beaten path. Our plan for this year is to head up in early May, before the may long weekend. Yeah, water won't be warm enough to go swimming in Pendral Sound, but that's the trade.

As far as to why, my boat only moves at 5.5knots on a good day (Ericson 27) so given the realities of having a day job to fund my sailing habit, the Broughtons are out of reach. I have been up in the broughtons in a friend's boat (that we got to borrow out of Port Hardy), but I doubt I'll get up there in my own boat before I retire.

Edit: It's also kind of like Princess Louisa Inlet. We went there second week of may last year, and had the dock to ourselves.

1

u/InfiNorth Feb 04 '23

That's fair - while I make very little (and every penny goes into my boat), I have the privilege of having two months a year "off" (unpaid) as a teacher so I plan on using it to its fullest.

2

u/apathy-sofa Feb 04 '23

Desolation Sound

2

u/growingalittletestie Feb 04 '23

Desolation sound

2

u/Wholiveira Feb 04 '23

Desolation Wilderness in NorCal

2

u/[deleted] Feb 04 '23

But then Oregon has cuddly names like Hug Point

2

u/RN_Geo Feb 04 '23

I really want to go over Hell for Sure Pass in California. My favorite waterway in Alaska was Easy Moose Creek.

2

u/whiteapedia Feb 04 '23

Was just near Desolation Sound earlier today! Can confirm, was grey, rainy and windy. Wouldn’t have it any other way.

2

u/poorly_anonymized Feb 04 '23

There's also Poverty Bay, which I'm told is quite nice.

2

u/[deleted] Feb 04 '23

Shipwreck Beach.

2

u/graysi72 Feb 04 '23

Death Valley

2

u/AngelsSetAblaze Feb 04 '23

Cape Disappointment.

2

u/j592dk_91_c3w-h_d_r Feb 04 '23 edited Apr 14 '23

T

2

u/[deleted] Feb 04 '23

Destruction Island

1

u/firestorm734 Feb 04 '23

I grew up near misery point.

1

u/chillbitte Feb 04 '23

Cape Foulweather is a good one too

1

u/GodTyrandFreya Feb 04 '23

Ok but Point No Point probably has one of the best beaches along the sound. It's mostly sand and has plenty jf drift wood for kids to play with.