Dora has been loving her time at the dog park with her dad. She is a very social dog who only wants to play, play, play with every dog that comes into the park. Recently she meet her yin to her yang, or yang to her yin, or whatever.The bottom line, the…
Tag Archives | trawler
Irony –
In more ways than one —
— Good satire
Nordhavn 57-26 Istaboa
Lappeenranta
Lappeenranta lies on the south end of Lake Saimaa, about 3 nautical miles from the Saimaa Canal and about 16 from the Russian border. The town was charted in 1649, when it was part of Sweden and an important port for tar. The Swedes built a fortress there in stages in the 18th century, but…
Misty Fiords
After a peaceful night at anchor in Bullhead Cove, we head north to the eastern entrance of Behm Canal. On this 150 mile exploration, we will circumnavigate Revillagigedo Island counterclockwise. The trip will take us into the heart of Misty Fiords National Monument Wilderness. This is the second largest wilderness in the United States encompassing […]
This is the Alaska I Remember
The last couple of years, it seems like the weather during our time in SE Alaska has been extraordinarily nice bordering on record setting. The recent stretch of weather during our travel from Ketchikan to Sitka has restored my sense of normalcy to the world.
After we arrived in Ketchikan on June 4, we decided to do a partial loop around Revillagigedo Island and hit some of our favorite anchorages along the way. We departed on June 6 and stayed at Yes Bay, Fitzgibbon Cove, Walker Cove and Klu Bay before returning to Ketchikan on June 10. We did some crabbing and prawning along the way, enough for some meals with more to go in the freezer for later.
We raced back to Ketchikan a day earlier than planned to beat a strong couple of fronts passing over SE Alaska (I read the dreaded word “atmospheric river” in one of the forecast discussions put out by the Juneau weather office). We were glad the slip we were assigned in the Bar Harbor marina was next to a purse seiner fishing boat whose heft protected us from 25 knot winds blowing across the channel,Tongass Narrows, running in front of the harbor. We were In the section that only had a floating breakwater for protection and not “real” rock breakwater barrier.
After about 36 hours of stiff winds, they relented and we were able to start the next leg of our trip towards Sitka on June 12. To cut a day or so off the journey, we took the most direct route through Keku Strait/Rocky Pass. Our first night out of Ketchikan was in bight outside of Red Bay on the north side of Prince of Wales Island and the second night was at an anchorage about a mile WNW of Honey Dew Cove on Kuiu Island bordering Frederick Sound.
Our destination for June 14 was Gut Bay but Marcia wanted to fish the mid-day bite in Chatham Strait along the east shore of Baranof Island. Her instincts were good and after about an hour of trolling, she hooked and landed a beautiful 25-pound Chinook salmon. To say she was overjoyed was an understatement.
The next day, we tried to see if “lightning would strike the same place” but to no avail and we moved on to lovely Takatz Bay. Shortly after we anchored, rain began in earnest. The way the clouds threaded their way through trees and past ridges was reminiscent of our time in Misty Fiords during rain.
Fortunately, the heavy rains were not accompanied by high winds and Chatham and Peril Straits were not uncomfortable when we headed to Douglas Bay in Hoonah Sound. The next day, June 17, we ran Canoe Pass next to Sergius Narrows, fished the north end of Kruzof Island outside of Kalinin Bay then headed to the cove outside the entrance to DeGroff Bay for the night (and more rain).
On June 18th, the winds and waves in Sitka Sound convinced us that fishing Viskari Rocks was not a good idea, so we took the protected water route through Sitka Harbor and the islands to the SW over to Biorka Island where we again fished unsuccessfully. We anchored the night in Samsing Harbor just a few miles south of Sitka.
Despite the leisurely start that morning, we were tied off in Sitka by 10 AM. We’ll spend a couple of nights here before heading out on our slow journey to Juneau…
Saimaa Canal
The Saimaa Canal, connecting Lake Saimaa to the Baltic Sea, has long been an important commercial transportation route. The canal was completed in 1856 while Finland was a Duchy in the Russian Empire and was wholly within Finland after the country became independent in 1917. As part of the reparations for World War II, Finland…
In the Groove
Any time the Red Head crew stays at a spot for more than a few days they develop a routine. Their Baltimore routine is a bit different than ones of the past.
The first day here, Dylan, Dee Dee, and Dora walked to the Canton dog park. It’s a bit less than a mile each way. Dylan sat in the shade and then dragged most of the way back to the boat. Dee Dee was not behaving so her dad took her out for a walk.
The new morning routine is as follows. Up (early) for breakfast, a bit of play time, and a snooze. Around 8 am, Mom takes Dylan for a walk on the waterfront promenade, before it gets hot. He loves sitting in the air conditioning when he returns.
At 9 am, Dad takes Dora for a walk to the dog park. He returns with one throughly exhausted pup.
About 9:15 am, Mom takes Dee Dee for a walk on the promenade, using the one-on-one time to work on leash and other dog manners. She has never liked small dogs and while she won’t approach one, if she is approached it can be ugly. This has now spread to pretty much any unfamiliar dog. Hence, her dog park restrictions. Mom wonders if Dee Dee is feeling her dominance challenged by Dora. It’s hard to know what is going on in those little brains. Fortunately, she is improving and seems to like the special attention.
For the next few weeks we have a routine that seems to work for everyone.
Peep Show 2019
Marina Cam at Herrington Harbour South Marina. One of the many cams the good folks at HHS had onSpot install.The babies are getting big – soon to fly away.Thanks Herrington Harbour – Very Cool Link to other onSpot wifi Marina Cams&nbs…
Dirona In Russia
We’ve been to a lot of places over the years and seen many countries, but taking Dirona through Russia was never on our list of expected or planned trips. When we learned about Finland’s Saimaa Lake region, however, we had to go. The Great Saimaa lake system is 1,690 sq mi (4,377 sq km) and…
ENVOY CRUISING IN THE IONIAN SEA
Before leaving the marina we enjoy one day away from Envoy, hiring a car to tour around this great island of Lefkada with its small sandy coves, picturesque villages and inland mountains soaring to about 3,000 feet. Traffic is negligible and I don’t think there’s any traffic lights at all on the island.
Greece seems to be a very honest country with little crime evident beyond copious amounts of graffiti in the cities. Shopkeepers often leave items outside overnight and people leave their keys in cars and scooters. So it was a surprise when a 46ft Bavaria yacht was stolen from Lefkada’s quayside during our stay and hasn’t been seen since. Locals speculate that it will have been sailed across to Italy.
While in Lefkada we also meet our Kiwi friend Bruce from sailing cat Midi. This year his wife Leslie decided to stay home, so Bruce is cruising with two friends Gavin and David. Anybody thinking about sailing in the Med couldn’t do better than to buy the superbly equipped and lovingly maintained Midi.
Envoy was re-launched on Tuesday 4 June and everything was fine when we did a short sea trial before going to our berth. It’s certainly much nicer staying aboard in tn the water than on the hard.
Overall our cruise preparations went well. The only surprise issue was the sea water leak to the bilge and even that wasn’t a total surprise given past history. Without that we’d have been cruising within 12 days of our arrival, but this turned out to be 16.
Overall our cruise preparations went well. The only surprise issue was the sea water leak to the bilge and even that wasn’t a total surprise given past history. Without that we’d have been cruising within 12 days of our arrival, but this turned out to be 16.
Chris and I spent a bit of time adjusting the Lugger’s prop shaft stuffing box. When Sailand checked the sealings last year they tightened the bolts on the stuffing box too much so that the forward section of the stuffing box wouldn’t loosen up as the adjusting bolts were slackened. We used a puller and some levers to get it moving again and now have a nice regular drip – we find that one drip about every 10-20 seconds is about right.
The RHIB maintenance turned into a bit of a saga. After the Yamaha was serviced I took it for a test run and noticed the tachometer (tacho) was no longer working. Spiros came back and did some work on it, telling me he’d put in a new tacho that still didn’t work “so it must be the regulator” (that provides an electronic signal to the tacho). A few days later a new regulator arrives and is installed but still the tacho doesn’t work. Spiros tries to convince me “you don’t need a tacho anyway … just go and enjoy your cruise”. But I tell Spiros I want it fixed. A few minutes after that discussion he calls me to say its all fixed. He explains that when he initially checked the fault by putting in a different tacho, it was an old used one he had laying around his workshop and that one must have been faulty too. When he put in a new tacho it worked fine.
So all was finally ready – jobs done, stores loaded, documentation completed and we set off from Lefkada Marina on the Weds as planned (plan 2!)
Just before we leave our Italian friend Fabricius comes to say farewell. Fabricius had been aboard his yacht next to us on the hard stand. He gives us some valuable advice about places to see in the Italian region we’re heading to – Puglia at the northern end of the “Boot”. In fact he surprises us by saying this si one of the most visited areas of Italy. In particular he recommends Lecce – known as the Florence of the south with its Baroque architecture.
We cruise just a couple of hours north to anchor off Preveza. Di has some favorite shops here and there’s also a couple of guitar shops I want to check out, ending up buying a cheap Soundsation (Fender strat style)so I don’t get too much out of practice while we’re away.
Laurie doing first BBQ of the season
Laurie doing first BBQ of the season
Here’s an unusual large cat in the Polynesian style noticed at Preveza
Then we cruise up to Parga – one of the nicest village on the mainland coast overlooked by its 14th century Venetian castle.
