We are 291nm and 36 hours from Dutch. The wind has backed down to around 15kn from the WNW. I am an optimist so I’d like to think that the worst is behind us. Let’s do a brief review of what has broken or gone wrong. 1st. There was this itsy bitsy 24vdc hot water heating fan that quit running and put out a lot of smoke. There were no visible signs of any burnt parts. This is the second fan to go kaput in the past 10 years even though these guys get very little use. We are running a solid 27vd…
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Tag Archives | trawler
Damage Control
Dylan is Eleven!
Today is Dylan’s 11th birthday.It’s been nearly eleven years since Dylan became a crew member on aCappella.He’s gone from second mate alongside first mate Dyna.To first mate in his own right.Dylan helped train Dee Dee for her second mate position.He le…
Rogue Wave
This is Noodle’s daily blog on 5 June 1200 position 47N 163W. 450 miles from Dutch Harbor “What should be the title of today’s blog?”, I asked Sharry. “Gray”, she replied. It’s an accurate description of what it looks like out here. The ocean is gray except for the breaking white caps. The 100 overcast sky is gray. The wind has increased and clocked around so that it is now coming out of the west at about twenty five knots. There has been much debate in the wheelhouse about the actual wind s…
Flåmsbana
As we’ve been travelling the world, longtime blog reader Jacques Vuye has been scouting ahead and recommending scenic and unique train trips. One of our favourites was the West Coast Wilderness Railway in Tasmania, Australia. Shortly after we arrived into Norway, Jacques encouraged us to take a trip on Flåmsbana (the Flåm Railway), considered one…
Flåm Arrival
We left Indrefjord, but not the waterfalls and fabulous mountain scenery, as we cruised to the village of Flåm at the head of Aurlandsfjord. We lost count of the waterfalls en route, and pretty much ran out of superlatives to desribe the scenery. At Flåm we had their guest dock all to ourselves, with a…
Stabilizer Blues
Sunday June 3. The port stabilizer is making more chattering noise, where the torque arm is reversing direction in incremental amounts several times per second rather than making long smooth strokes. The starboard stabilizer is making a similar noise …
Indrefjord
Our initial plan for cruising Norway was to run straight north to Tromsø with few diversions en route, and to tour the Norwegian fjords on our return trip south. But we decided to take a few days to explore 115-mile Sognefjord, the longest fjord in Norway. This time of year the mountains would still have…
North to Sognefjord
From our first Norwegian anchorage at Vorlandsvagen, we ran 105 miles north past Bergen to the mouth of Sognefjord in two day trips. Over that time we completed a few chores, explored in the tender, and enjoyed the relaxed running through Norway’s sheltered and scenic ‘inner lead’. En route we passed ships of all sizes…
Alaska 2018 Blog Post 10 – Takatz Bay to Sitka
May 25, 2018
The winds kicked up last night, but Takatz Bay is well protected, with little fetch to build up any waves. The SE winds reflect off the hills and come back as NE winds, which gusted to 25.4 knots before quieting down the rest of the evening. The rain arrived as predicted and we spent the day doing routine maintenance and relaxing. One other pleasure craft seemed to have the same idea, so it was just the two boats anchored in the bay, drifting slowly around their anchors, washed down by the continual rain.
The brown bear we saw at low tide on the beach did not re-appear today.
The evening was consumed with watching a movie, “Jumanji into the Jungle”, good for some laughs.
May 26, 2018
As predicted, the winds arrived in the morning, with heavy rain and cool temperatures (low 40’s). The peak wind gusts are forecast to be in the vicinity of 40 knots later in the day. A good day to be in a secure anchorage.
After charging the batteries and making water, we let the genset cool somewhat and then changed oil and oil filters, also finding a loose electrical connection on the main neutral lead on the generator housing. This connection has loosened before and needs a better locking mechanism. There are too many wires on the same bolt. We also cleaned the plankton and 5 micron pre-filters on the watermaker since they were getting clogged and would have caused a low inlet pressure shutdown before many more gallons were produced.
As evening approached, the winds continued to gust hard, reaching 31 knots and coming from several directions. By 2200, the bay was calm once again as the rain returned.
May 27, 2018
Surprise, there was sun shining through the clouds in the morning, and the winds were calm,so we decided to leave and head for an anchorage somewhere in Peril Strait. Exiting Takatz Bay, the conditions in Chatham were somewhat gruesome, winds steady at 20-25 with gusts to 32 from the SE, and 4-6 foot seas on our starboard quarter. Fortunately, we only had to endure the rolling corkscrew motions for two hours until we turned the corner into Peril Strait.
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| A still morning in TakatzBay |
Conditions were initially good, then the wind and seas again filled in on our stern until we turned again at Nismeni Point. From that point on, the seas were flat. We decided to anchor for the evening in Baby Bear Cove and after entering, found a sailboat anchored in our favorite location, with both bow and stern lies to shore blocking entrance into the most protected part of the cove.
We anchored a short distance away in 50 feet of water and launched the tender for exploration, mapping out the reef near the entrance and checking out a new possibility for anchoring in the southern portion of the bay. The entrance to the southern arm gets down to 12 feet at half tide, but the inner cove is flat and should be good holding. At a minus tide we probably would be trapped in the cove.
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| Anchorage in Baby Bear Bay |
We travelled an additional 53 nautical miles today, bringing the total to 976 miles since leaving Anacortes. We are now only 30 nautical miles from Sitka.
The rain returned late in the evening.
May 28, 2018
Overnight the wind gusted as promised, with our wind gauge registering 42.5 knots. Our anchor was set well and we barely heard the wind. There is no fetch in the bay, so even if the wind blows, there is no wave action.
Patrick set two crab pots in Deep Bay, just across the channel from Baby Bear Bay, about 2.5 nautical miles away. An afternoon check showed all females, no keepers. The 8PM check yielded 4 nice hard shell Dungeness crab.
The weather front has passed over, mostly, and the wind is now out of the north at 5-10 knots.
May 29, 2018
The morning check of the carb traps yielded 2 more hardshell crabs and a number of large soft shell crabs. After, cooking, cleaning and freezing the haul, we pulled the anchor from the sticky black mud in Baby Bear Bay at 1145 and continued west/south in Sergius Narrows. Exiting Kakul Narrows we headed west in Salisbury Sound and fished for several hours, with one strike and no other action. We finally anchored in Kalinin Bay at 1630, a familiar anchorage. We were initially the only vessel, but about 2000 another pleasure craft entered and anchored near us.
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| Kalinin Bay |
May 30, 2018
At 0545, getting a late start on fishing, we pulled the anchor and headed out fishing. There was no action, even going offshore to Cape Georgiana, where we spotted several charter boats is the same location, also not catching anything.
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| Bears feeding and watching us leave for fishing |
After 6 hours of nothing but the occasional rockfish, we headed back and re-anchored in Kalinin Bay. In the process of anchoring we discovered the primary anchor roller fasteners had loosened and one had fallen out. We quickly reconfigured and used the secondary Bruce anchor and then replaced the missing fasteners. The anchor roller design is poor, and we have yet to come up with a permanent solution to the loose fasteners. By late afternoon there were six boats anchored in the bay.
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| Eagle Fishing in Kalinin Bay |
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| Evening in Kalinin Bay |
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| As the sun set,the colors became spectacular |
May 31, 2018
Another 0545 start, but we were the third boat out of the bay. Fishing was equally fruitless, so at 0900 we headed for Sitka.
Our only excitement were two Stellar Sea Lions swimming around our downriggers.
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| Looking for a handout |
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| Another dream gone awry near Olga Strait. |
At 1200 we pulled into “A” float in the south harbor, a slip we have been in before.
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| Eagles waiting on the fish cleaning tables in Sitka Harbor |
Our log now shows 1045 nautical miles since leaving Anacortes.
As soon as the engine cooled down, we changed the main engine oil and picked up the parts at the US Post Office to rebuild the salt water washdown pump, parts we had ordered while out in Frederick Sound 10 days earlier.
On the Move – Bainbridge to Port McNeill
One of the reasons we worked so hard to get out on Friday, May 25, was that the buildup for our yacht club’s Memorial Day celebration at the Bainbridge outstation was occurring. It is a multi-day event with boats thickly rafted at the dock. It started on Friday and we knew if we didn’t get out by early Friday morning we’d be stuck until Tuesday.
Fortunately, we’d done some provisioning in Port Townsend once the tenting around the boat associated with the bottom coating was removed. We worked hard at our chores and at 4:30 AM we cast off the lines to begin our cruise.
We had another predawn start and continued up the Strait of Georgia to Gorge Harbour on Cortes Island. We stayed two nights here (one at anchor the other at the dock of the Gorge Harbour Marina) waiting for a break in the NW winds in Johnstone Strait.
We positioned ourselves for Johnstone by anchoring in Owen Bay on Sonora Island the night before. Another predawn start got us to the Port Harvey Resort on Cracroft Island before 11 AM. It still being early season (although it seems late to us), we ended up being the only boater on the dock. Dinner was one of George’s excellent pizza which he brought to the boat after it was cooked in their pizza oven.
One more predawn start got us to Port McNeill around 9:30 AM. Port McNeill provides convenient provisioning and is an excellent jump off for rounding Cape Caution, our next milestone.
Distance covered – 329.8 miles in 50.5 engine hours
