This week, after much ado, our beautiful yacht, DESERT VENTURE, sailed away with her new owners. We wish DV, and her new owners, much success. It’s likely you’ll see DV out on the waters of Puget Sound – and if … Continue reading →
MV DESERT VENTURE Moves On
[KensBlog] The Road To Mallorca
Sans Souci, Nordhavn 68
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[KensBlog] The Road To Mallorca
Sans Souci, Nordhavn 68
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Passagemaking with a Nordhavn 2015-08-13 18:39:01
Sans Souci, Nordhavn 68
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The Summer Gets Busy
While some plans changed with the sneeze, others stayed as planned. Like a week-end on the river with friends. Muscle relaxants, ibuprofen, and the promise of Manny’s pizza made it a no brainer for Pam and me to accept Kim & Lu’s invitation to join…
Split
We spent a couple of days in the Split marina on a dock. Had to do some house cleaning and re provisioning. Also had a rendezvous with Lidija and Os. We met them 4 years ago in Belgrade, and now again in Split.The city of Split as seen from the water. …
12 August 2015 Coeur d’ Alene, ID – Spokane, WA – Portland, OR – OR Coast – Eugene, OR – Bend, OR – Boise, ID – Arco, ID – Yellowstone – Grand Tetons
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| A frozen waterfall near the porcupine encounter at Lake Louise |
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| Windmill Farms abound |
Calgary was a difficult place to leave but it was in our rearview mirror as we saw Coeur d’ Alene in our cross hairs and arrived to celebrate our independence after just recently enjoying celebrating with the Canadians. That was a delightful little city—beautiful, a college town, water water everywhere, very bicycle friendly. In that area it wasn’t uncommon to have streets dedicated JUST to bicycles and if cars had to share with us, the bike lane was plenty wide enough so that lessened our fears of becoming a statistic.
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| A big shoe to fill Spokane, WA |
Took a little side trip on a simply perfect day to investigate the OR coast north of Coos Bay. Several years ago we covered Coos and south.
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| The Oregon coastline invited us to stop and frolic. |
Tillamook Cheese Factory also summoned us where we tanked up on many cheese samples THEN did not resist their ice cream made with very rich whole milk and many other ingredients that made me wonder why my shorts are too tight. Sure was good!
Sweetest guy in the world dwarfed by |
When we were in Coeur d’ Alene, I swam in the Spokane River, clear as a bell. Not another soul out there but 2 white ducks. This was the best thing (workout) since St. Petersburg’s pool months ago. Beautiful 4th of July celebration morning. Swimming, my passion, is a very rare treat!!!
We ordered and received our Bike Friday’s 8 years ago and have been eager to go to their headquarters in Eugene, OR, to see where our bikes were conceived and birthed. We had our bikes turned up, enjoyed a great tour of the facility, and even met the owner/designer of the line of Bike Fridays.
Bend, Oregon’s, 36.3 mile Twin Bridges Scenic Bikeway with an elevation range of 3010 feet to 3800 feet beckoned us. As “flatlanders”, it definitely wasn’t the easiest ride we’ve ever done. Breathtakingly beautiful but we felt we’d earned our locally crafted beers and pizza on our way home. I never want to leave Bend…but the Deschutes isn’t trawler navigable. Hiking! Cycling! Wineries! Microbreweries! Lovin’ it!
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| About 10 minutes into our ride, this rose up to say, “now aren’t you glad you got out and started your day with nature and solitude?” |
It’s not everyday that we find a giraffe peering over the fence at us nor do we often see a broken dam and surfers making good use of it. We cycled the marvelous Boise Greenbelt today and these were just a few of the things we saw. The state capitol has yellow ribbons on the columns for our military troops.
This was a blast!!! I’ve been dying to do this forever. Even though we live on a boat, Bill is NOT a water person so he never exuded an ounce of enthusiasm when I’d mention a white water rafting trip. There was only one way to solve that problem so I made reservations, paid for our trip, and said, “Guess what we’re going to do Thursday.” I dragged him kicking and screaming—he even left heel marks in the parking lot. Guess who LOVED it and has agreed to do it again! I couldn’t resist “falling in” and that water was probably only 33 degrees (not really) but didn’t take long to acclimate. What a great day. Didn’t want the trip to end. My next project is to get him on a zip-line over rivers and gorges.
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| Bill’s port side near back in khaki cap. I’m front, starboard, pink cap. |
After 2 nights in Arco, ID, home of Craters of the Moon National Park, we were Yellowstone-bound for 5 days. There are miles of lava fields that look like coarsely tilled very fertile soil. A historical marker at a scenic pull-off boasts that “Since 1949, more nuclear reactors — over 50 of them — have been built on this plain than anywhere else in the world.” The town of Arco became the first city in the world to be lit by atomic power from a reactor built in 1955. The Arco reactor later suffered a partial meltdown — another World’s First but there isn’t a highway sign bragging about that. This is a sad little town reminding us of something out of an old western movie with tumbleweeds blowing around and sage brush everywhere. Kinda expect to see Gun Smoke’s Chester come hobbling out of one of the dilapidated buildings.
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| These exquisite views are new to us each day. |
Our visit to Jackson Hole, WY, offered hang-gliding which is another thing on my bucket list but could arouse no interest from my husband. The next one we come across, I’m going even if I have to do it alone.
2 of our 5 Yellowstone days, we spent a full 12 hours of hiking, entering the park at 5:30 AM. The other 3 days weren’t as long or as strenuous. Had no idea I should’ve trained for this trip–like maybe using the Ironman program. Every day we were on the move and still didn’t see it all. Think it’d take at least 2 weeks of 10-12 hour days to not miss a thing. There’s no way to describe the beauty—each just needs to see this for themselves. We continued to marvel at our Father’s world—the canyons, sculpted and carved from intricacy to boldness; the meadows and forests, colored and textured with His brush and palette; and the clarity and intoxicating force of the cascading waterfalls. When He flung this world into space, He did it was all for our pleasure. After 12 hours and many miles on our hiking shoes, we were running for the barn with full hearts.
Yellowstone can be one of the most freeing and unique places in the world if you know where to go. Probably the majority of the park visitors never leave the boardwalks or the Grand Loop Road.
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| Sapphire Pool |
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| Artist’s Paint Pot |
Yellowstone is famous for its many geysers but the hot springs seem to come as a surprise to tourists. We saw hot water flowing over patches of brilliant yellow, orange, red, and green. Hot pools were lined with color and even the steam appeared to be tinted.
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| Geyers in Yellowstone are everywhere. |
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| These colorful deposits are microbial even though it seems amazing that organisms could live, much less thrive, in water too hot to touch. They are called thermophiles, can’t live anywhere else. |
The Grand Prismatic Hot Spring is the largest thermal hot spring in our country and 3rd largest in the world. If your travel plans include Yellowstone, park your car in the Fountain Freight Road trail lot and after about a mile or two hike you will receive your reward of a spectacular view of this spring in its entirety. It has 3 distinct colors–white on one side, pale red or an orangey color in center and on the other side, a light sky blue. The orange color is due to pigmented bacteria, the blue color is due to refracted skylight and the green is chlorophyll. Each color coordinates to a specific microbe that thrives at very different temperatures.
Seems that Old Faithful is as much of a national landmark as Mount Rushmore whereas the thermophiles are as under appreciated as the water spouts are over-marketed. It is the heat-loving microbes that literally put the yellow into Yellowstone.
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| We were captivated by an Old Faithful performance lasting over 4 minutes!!! |
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| Rodents have never been my favorite critter but these little prairie dogs are cute as can be and real hams. |
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| Buffalo/Bison were plentiful; elk not so much; but we never saw not one single bear!!! |
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| Old Faithful Inn where we had a view of geysers and a sumptuous brunch. |
Currently, we’re in the Tetons for 5 days and continue to exclaim at every turn we take.
Bill and Laura Bender
8 August 2015
2015-17 Petersburg, Wrangell, Anan Creek Bears, Santa Anna Inlet, Ketchikan
August 9th: Petersburg, Wrangell and Zimovia StraitLast night after walking the town, we ignored Petersburg’s dining and enjoyed dinner aboard. It’s an easy run down Wrangell Narrows towards Wrangell. We need to leave around 8:30 this…
Srebreno
Anchored around the corner from our Srebreno dockage right in front of some “one time” beautiful buildings. It looked like a resort that was damaged during the war and abandoned.Christie and Andy took the dingy to the shore and explored the build…
Mahon, Menorca to Calle de Sant Vicenc, Mallorca
Point number 7 is where our first stop was and we then continued
on to Calle de Sant Vicenc, point number 13.
How we hated to leave Mahon! It is such a nice friendly place with warm, friendly people and lots of interesting places to explore in town. Here is the thing: it may seem that because we have a 4 month or so cruising season, we should be able to spend a long time at each place we visit. The Med, however, is a very big place with hundreds of potential stops. Add to that our plans to spend at least a month in Barcelona and we start to get to the end of the season quickly!
Since we really were not in too much of a hurry, we decided to add a few stops to our cruise to Barcelona, which would both be day trips. We had not gotten much input from people regarding good stops, but between us and our friends on Airstream, we came up with a few good anchorages. We have cruised along with Bill and Janet for a few trips now and we have it down to a science. He cruises at about between 6-7 knots and we do between 8-8.5 kts. He usually leaves a bit earlier than us and arrives a little later. At some point on the trip, we give a wave as we pass them.
The first stop, Calle Galdano, was a small, semi enclosed harbor on the south side of Menorca with a tourist town attached to it. The anchorage itself was a bit tight as by the time we got there, other boats had already nestled in to the spots closest to shore. The only spot we could find with any protection was only about 100 feet from the rocky shore that jutted out from the base of the harbor.
Seabird in the background and Airstream in the foreground
We anchored in about 27 feet of water just off of Morro
de Llevant. You can see at the top of the map where the
river leads into town from the bay.
Normally, I feel safest if I put out chain at a 6:1 ratio to water depth. We have found that here in the Med, that is not always practical because of space constraints. Here, the best we could do was a 4:1 ratio and we were perfectly comfortable with that as long as the anchor was well set. Seabird is really oversized on the anchor front. Most boats our size would have a 100 lb anchor and be happy. Ours weighs in at a very hefty 300 lbs! It is quite big for the boat size but the peace of mind that it gives makes it worth it. The downside is that if the hydraulic winch breaks, getting it up by manual means is a big chore. Maxwell, the manufacturer of the windlass, supplies a skinny quarter inch thick aluminum popsicle stick tool for emergencies that would make it impossible to haul up the anchor manually. Years ago when I had a manufacturing business I had the shop make a special tool 5 times that size that makes raising it manually at least doable. I have never needed to use it, but my friends Braun and Tina on Grey Pearl lost their hydraulics while we were cruising in the Aleutians Islands with 200 feet of chain out and the same 300 lb anchor as us. Fortunately, I had made two of the tools and they had one of them.
To get to the town, we took the dinghy into a small river at the base of the harbor. Once you got past a narrow, shallow entrance, the town was directly ahead on the left with the local small fishing and tour boats tied up. We asked permission from one of the locals to dock there and he directed us to an empty space. We were not really interested in the tourist areas, but wanted to take a hike over the hill to one of the other bays, about a 1 hour walk on the trails.
At the end was a crowded tourist beach that we wanted nothing to do with, so we turned around and went back to the boat.
We planned on leaving at first light for our next destination. In the meantime, the rollers started coming in at about 4 pm. It was actually getting very choppy and many of the smaller boats had to leave as they were rafted to each other and starting to hit, and so they left the anchorage. Although we had a bit of movement, it was not all that uncomfortable and after a decent nights sleep we hauled anchor and headed to Calle de Sant Vicenc, on the north side of the main island in the Balearics, Mallorca.
We had yet another perfectly smooth trip and found the gorgeous bay with only one other boat in it, allowing us to drop anchor in 20 feet of water with nothing but deep sand to keep our anchor happy and set. We were able to put out 170 feet of chain, well beyond my normal amount. Carol and I dove the anchor at one point and found it completely buried in the sand.
Calle de Sant Vicenc is a shallow bay with a hotel and beach being the key feature on the landscape. We looked forward to taking the dinghy in and having a nice dinner. It wasn’t going to happen. Normally, all of these harbors have some sort of dock where boats at anchor can bring their dinghies into. Not here. We looked everywhere and decided that we were going to have to be happy just anchoring in a gorgeous spot, swimming and eating on board. We took the opportunity to don our mask and fins to check out our underwater mechanicals and for marine growth. Everything down under looked fine. I cannot recall in any of our cruising seeing water as clear as this. The bottom is a bright, whitish sand that reflects the sunlight and makes 20 feet of water seem like 3 feet.
The hotel and beach were to the far left of the picture. I
included a few more at the end of the blog.
On the opposite side of the bay from us were high cliffs where the younger kids were doing jumps, flips and dives into the water. The cliffs were up to 25 or 30 feet high, but as you can see, it did not discourage them one bit. Maybe in our younger days….
Today was a big day. Since there was no wind and it was a calm anchorage, I decided to get wild and wooly and launch my drone for some aerial footage. The drone itself is a Phantom 2 plus which Carol reluctantly gave me for Christmas. It is a fairly sophisticated one considering it is mainly for consumer use. The drone has a digital 1080p movie camera on it with a gimbaled mount with anti vibration pads and can go 900 feet high and up to a quarter of a mile away. It takes amazing photos and movies with no indication of shaking in the movies. Up until now I have not been brave enough to launch it off of the boat for fear of losing it into the water. Supposedly, if I lose communication with it, the drone’s internal GPS will remember where it took off from and return to automatically land at that spot. Problem is, being that I launched it off of a boat, even at anchor, the boat may not be in that spot when it decides to return and land, and it is not waterproof…….nor does it float.
Shortly after this was taken I begged Carol for her
assistance and a few bandages!
My first attempt at launching it by myself did not go well. When it took off, instead of going up, it went sideways toward the side of the boat. Evidently, the brain inside of the drone was trying to take off vertically from the spot where it started, but the boat was moving at anchor, therefore, so was the spot where it took off. I grabbed it and it banged into me, the spinning blades giving me a couple of nice slices in my chest. I then had Carol hold it for me as it spooled up. She let go and up it went. Unfortunately I had neglected to fully charge the battery so flight time was limited. Click on the link below and you will see my amateurish video. At least you can see how gorgeous the water is! I promise my next one will be more daring!
Click on this link below and when the window comes up, click on the arrow in the center of the screen to start the video.
https://drive.google.com/open?id=0B8a5PF6uvSYXUHBSUEJsenFoM0E
Fortunately, it landed without incident. I will get the battery fully charged for the next trip and blog which will be our cruise from here to Barcelona, our home for the next month or so……
A few more pics…..
Another photo taken on our hike at Galdana
The beach and hotel in back of the boat at anchor in
Calle de Sant Vicenc
Sunset at Calle de Sant Vicenc
And last but not least…
I wonder what they will do when they wake up and find out that their room has
disappeared….
