Ore. The tall, broad-shouldered boatswain s mate has been in the Coast Guard for 18 years, and has been driving rescue boats for over a decade. He is a surfman. It is his job to see that the temperamental inlet, where Oregon s Umpqua River meets the Pacific Ocean, lends safe passage to the sportsmen and commercial fishermen who launch from Salmon Harbor. It s different here. It s the power of the rivers and the slope of the beach that cause the breaking conditions that you get.
Waves tend to break the hardest at the shallow area, or bar, of an inlet.
Ocean currents, which travel hundred of miles, collide with river currents. Here, in the Pacific Northwest, inlets are flanked by jagged rock walls, which can tear a vessel apart in minutes. It s an unforgiving place. There s a reason why a lot of people don t come back. It s hard to read and it has its own little quirks and its own little dangers.