We spent three nights in Texas on the next leg of our road trip to Seattle, first in San Antonio and then in El Paso, traveling 1,097 miles (1,765 km) from New Orleans. This brought our total trip distance up to 1,897 miles (3,052 km) across seven states (South Carolina, Georgia, Florida, Alabama, Mississippi, Louisiana,…
Tag Archives | trawler
Road Trip to Seattle: New Orleans
On the second leg of our road trip to Seattle from Charleston we traveled 202 miles (325 km) from Pensacola, FL to New Orleans, LA bringing our total trip distance to 800 miles (1286 km) across sixstates (South Carolina, Georgia, Florida, Alabama, Mississippi, and Louisiana). In New Orleans we stayed in a 43rd-floor room with…
THIS IS ADVENTUROUS BOATING
I’m always impressed with
people living their adventurous boating dreams in small vessels.
My
younger brother Charles is a yachtsman who’s done lots of daunting
sailing adventures. Among others he cruised from Perth around the
northern coast of Australia to Sydney, sailed from Sydney to Lord
Howe Island and back and then sailed from Brisbane to Scotland via
the Med over
several years while altogether racking up 14
years living
aboard his 34ft van de Statd sloop, Acrobat, with his then partner,
later wife Marie for.
Charles
was our inspiration to embark on our own Med adventures following a
visit to Turkey and
a short
cruise aboard Acrobat. He’s
a very practical guy being
a qualified builder, cabinet maker and shipwright as well as being
able to undertake many mechanical and electrical projects.
Consequently Acrobat is immaculately fitted out to the high standard
needed for ocean passages. But she’s quite basic by our standards
having only hand-pumped fresh water, no hot water, no refrigeration
and only a cockpit shower. I can’t imagine how Charles and Marie
spent all those years living aboard in the Med without cold beer! He
jokes that with Scotland’s cold climate lack of refrigeration is
not a problem. As Marie is still working Charles does solo voyages
from his home port of Lossiemouth in the Firth of Forth
(close to Loch Ness and the Culloden battlefield) and
is currently on a month long trip North
Sea cruise
north to the
Orkney and Faroe Islands. This is serious sailing – The Orkneys are
about half way from Scotland’s north coast to Iceland and
the Pentland Firth between Scotland and the Orkneys has
some of the planet’s strongest tides – up to 16kn.
Quote “the
force of the tides gives rise to overfalls and tidal races …. and
often give rise to extremely violent sea conditions …. the races
are highly visible with overfalls and whirlpools.”
Imagine
Charles’s surprise when anchored at Fair Isle a Wayfarer sailing
dinghy with two POB comes alongside for a chat. A Wayfarer is a
popular UK
4.8m open
sailing
dinghy and they had sailed about 70nm from Wick to Fair Isle. Then
they sailed about another 40nm north in open seas to Lerwick in the
Shetland Islands.
That’s
what I call adventurous boating. As I write this we’re sitting
aboard Rapport on a very chilly but fine Saturday morning, safely
anchored at Waiheke’s
Owhanake
Bay
– and that’s adventurous enough for me.
THIS IS ADVENTUROUS BOATING
I’m always impressed with people living their adventurous boating dreams in small vessels.
My younger brother Charles is a yachtsman who’s done lots of daunting sailing adventures. Among others he cruised from Perth around the northern coast of Australia to Sydney, sailed from Sydney to Lord Howe Island and back and then sailed from Brisbane to Scotland via the Med over several years while altogether racking up 14 years living aboard his 34ft van de Statd sloop, Acrobat, with his then partner, later wife Marie for.
Charles was our inspiration to embark on our own Med adventures following a visit to Turkey and a short cruise aboard Acrobat. He’sa very practical guy beinga qualified builder, cabinet maker and shipwright as well as being able to undertake many mechanical and electrical projects. Consequently Acrobat is immaculately fitted out to the high standard needed for ocean passages. But she’s quite basic by our standards having only hand-pumped fresh water, no hot water, no refrigeration and only a cockpit shower. I can’t imagine how Charles and Marie spent all those years living aboard in the Med without cold beer! He jokes that with Scotland’s cold climate lack of refrigeration is not a problem. As Marie is still working Charles does solo voyages from his home port of Lossiemouth in the Firth of Forth (close to Loch Ness and the Culloden battlefield) and is currently on a month long trip North Sea cruisenorth to the Orkney and Faroe Islands. This is serious sailing – The Orkneys are about half way from Scotland’s north coast to Iceland and the Pentland Firth between Scotland and the Orkneys has some of the planet’s strongest tides – up to 16kn.Quote “the force of the tides gives rise to overfalls and tidal races …. and often give rise to extremely violent sea conditions …. the races are highly visible with overfalls and whirlpools.”
Imagine Charles’s surprise when anchored at Fair Isle a Wayfarer sailing dinghy with two POB comes alongside for a chat. A Wayfarer is a popular UK 4.8m open sailing dinghy and they had sailed about 70nm from Wick to Fair Isle. Then they sailed about another 40nm north in open seas to Lerwick in the Shetland Islands.
That’s what I call adventurous boating. As I write this we’re sitting aboard Rapport on a very chilly but fine Saturday morning, safely anchored at Waiheke’s Owhanake Bay– and that’s adventurous enough for me.
Fun Facts about the 4th of July/Independence Day
- Congress made Independence Day an official unpaid holiday for federal employees in 1870. In 1938, Congress changed Independence Day to a paid federal holiday.
- Only John Hancock actually signed the Declaration of Independence on July 4, 1776. All the others signed later.
Road Trip to Seattle: Florida
In early June, we loaded Spitfire and our luggage into a rental car and set off on a 4,200-mile (6,760 km) road trip from Charleston, SC to Seattle, WA. We spent the first two nights in Florida, first in Jacksonville and then in Pensacola, after passing from South Carolina through Georgia and traveling 598 miles…
Sitka to Juneau via GLBA
We departed Sitka on Sunday, June 20 with the intention of being in Juneau a week later. In addition, we wanted to get in a short trip to Glacier Bay along the way. To do that we submitted a short-notice (48 hours) permit application for entry into Glacier Bay National Park waters (they limit the number of private vessels in park waters to 25 at a time). By the time we lost cell coverage from we still hadn’t heard but the next morning, our confirmation notice was in my e-mail box, so we didn’t have to come up with a plan “B”.
Our first night out from Sitka was Appleton Cove and we were glad to be there. As soon as we rounded the top of Baranof Island (Nismeni Point), the easterly winds started picking up. Soon we were pounding through 4-foot steep chop powered by 20-knot head winds. Not unsafe, but certainly unpleasant.
The next morning was calm and early start allowed us pick up favorable currents and make it to Flynn Cove on the north shore of Chichagof Island. It was a busy place that night with four other boats (three trollers and a charter cruise yacht, Alaskan Song).
The park was still operating with Covid-19 rules, so the mandated annual boater orientation was completed via a video presentation prior to submitting the application. This allowed us to bypass Bartlett Cove and go directly to our anchorage for the night at North Sandy Cove.
Along the route, we did a slow pass by South Marble Island. This is one of the highlights of a park visit because of the Stellar Sea Lion colonies and the nesting birds. We thought the sea lion colony populations looked very healthy and the number of tufted puffins greater than in recent years.
Since we were only spending four nights in the park, one of which was going to be in Bartlett Cove on the way out, we decided to forgo a trip to Tarr Inlet and the calving Margerie Glacier. Instead we spent two nights in North Sandy Cove, one in South Finger Bay and the final night in Bartlett Cove. We tied to the NPS dock at Bartlett Cove for our permitted 3-hours and took Drake ashore, the only portion of the park he is allowed to. Sadly, it was raining so our walking was brief.
From the Glacier Bay we headed to Funter Harbor on Admiralty Island for the night. An early start on Sunday, 6/27, had us in Auke Bay shortly before 9 AM. We were enjoying our first (of many) Hot Bite milk shakes later that day.
From here we will start a slow meandering cruise southward, fishing along the way.
Sitka to Juneau via GLBA
We departed Sitka on Sunday, June 20 with the intention of being in Juneau a week later. In addition, we wanted to get in a short trip to Glacier Bay along the way. To do that we submitted a short-notice (48 hours) permit application for entry into Glacier Bay National Park waters (they limit the number of private vessels in park waters to 25 at a time). By the time we lost cell coverage from we still hadn’t heard but the next morning, our confirmation notice was in my e-mail box, so we didn’t have to come up with a plan “B”.
Our first night out from Sitka was Appleton Cove and we were glad to be there. As soon as we rounded the top of Baranof Island (Nismeni Point), the easterly winds started picking up. Soon we were pounding through 4-foot steep chop powered by 20-knot head winds. Not unsafe, but certainly unpleasant.
The next morning was calm and early start allowed us pick up favorable currents and make it to Flynn Cove on the north shore of Chichagof Island. It was a busy place that night with four other boats (three trollers and a charter cruise yacht, Alaskan Song).
The park was still operating with Covid-19 rules, so the mandated annual boater orientation was completed via a video presentation prior to submitting the application. This allowed us to bypass Bartlett Cove and go directly to our anchorage for the night at North Sandy Cove.
Along the route, we did a slow pass by South Marble Island. This is one of the highlights of a park visit because of the Stellar Sea Lion colonies and the nesting birds. We thought the sea lion colony populations looked very healthy and the number of tufted puffins greater than in recent years.
Since we were only spending four nights in the park, one of which was going to be in Bartlett Cove on the way out, we decided to forgo a trip to Tarr Inlet and the calving Margerie Glacier. Instead we spent two nights in North Sandy Cove, one in South Finger Bay and the final night in Bartlett Cove. We tied to the NPS dock at Bartlett Cove for our permitted 3-hours and took Drake ashore, the only portion of the park he is allowed to. Sadly, it was raining so our walking was brief.
From the Glacier Bay we headed to Funter Harbor on Admiralty Island for the night. An early start on Sunday, 6/27, had us in Auke Bay shortly before 9 AM. We were enjoying our first (of many) Hot Bite milk shakes later that day.
From here we will start a slow meandering cruise southward, fishing along the way.
Petersburg to Takatz
All is quiet in Petersburg Harbor as we ease out of our stall at 5:30 am. We are eager to get an early start today as the forecast calls for gale force winds this evening and tomorrow. Hopefully we will be safely tucked into our anchorage before the front arrives. At 4 am we have sufficient light but the strong […]
Summer Updates
“You only live once, but if you do it right, once is enough.” ―Mae West
We’ve definitely been making up for the time we lost last summer. We’ve been out and about on every nice day…hikes, waterfalls, wineries, visiting with friends, picnics and exploring. Many things we’ve done just haven’t needed it’s own post so I’m including them in this one. We truly love our life on the lake in New York. There are so many things to do here and we always have somewhere beautiful to go.
