Week 6 - Going to new places (and some old favorites)

On Monday May 20, we departed Petersburg around 9 a.m. No drama due to currents even though we weren’t at slack water. Once out and nearing the confluence of Fredrick Sound and Stephens Passage, we began to experience first, 3 foot choppy seas, then 3-4 foot chop as the wind picked up. The forecast was for even higher winds and stiffer seas, so we looked for a bail out from our original plans and went to Read Island, in Farragut Bay, a new anchorage for us. Not as nice as our original destination, Pybus Bay on Admiralty Island, but that would have taken 6 or 7 more hours of unpleasant and worsening conditions. Read was nice enough, and we set two prawn traps. But nothing in either, except one small shrimp.

On Tuesday, we did a weather day in Read, waiting for things to calm down and on Wednesday headed out, in much improved conditions from when we left Fredrick Sound. Even then it was a bit lumpy. Our next stop was Goose Cove on Kuiu Island, another new anchorage where we hoped to do some crabbing. We noted sea otters as we headed south in Keku Straight towards our anchorage but stopped seeing sea otters quite a ways before Goose. We also got cell phone service in Keku Straight, and seeing message, I called our friends on m/v Passages. We had just missed them in Petersburg (by an hour!) had a nice chat and expect we will see them in Sitka. At Goose Cove, there was a big float house at the head of the cove, still plenty of room for us. No-one around though. We set some crab pots found 1 small crab in one the next morning, not a keeper. Thursday, and reset a total of 3. Lots of eagles in the anchorage and a carcass on the shore for them…. probably a large deer. The weather was nice blue skies in the evening.

The next morning, Friday, we pulled pots and drew all blanks. Pulled dinghy in and then left and went to the Tlinket village of Kake to the brand new dock a fellow cruiser had said they had used the year before. No other boats on it, and we docked and started walking looking for someone to ask about it. Well, the person in charge found us, he drove up and asked if it was our boat and what our intentions were. As it turns out, we weren’t supposed to be there, it wasn’t open yet; We apologized and were told we could not spend the night, but a couple of hours was OK. We indicated perhaps we would seek out the totem pole (tallest in the world) and were provided directions to get there. So we did ~ 3 mile round trip walk to the totem pole then returned to the boat and left. We thought we would go to an anchorage we used in 2011, Honey Dew Cove a couple of hours from Kake. Well, when we approached we saw there were two boats rafted and anchored in this very small place. No room for us. Sooooo, we looked for another anchorage nearby, and tried Lord’s Pocket, which has rock strewn entrances, and once anchored we decided it was just too small for us. A 40 foot boat might do OK here, but we were just too big, and didn’t like the depth under our stern. Soooo, we left and headed to “Honey Dew” backup. We were slightly on edge. We found it to be a very nice anchorage, that wouldn’t do in a big storm, but our weather and winds were fine, and it was lovely. The forecast indicated we could get to Bay of Pillars on west coast of Kuiu Island but would face 3 ft chop in S. Chatham.

On Saturday morning, we left bright and early at 5 and the conditions were quite good, and if the chop developed it was after we left Chatham and turned into Bay of Pillars. There were a few fish boats anchored in coves near the entrance to this large bay, but we motored past and found a lovely spot completely secluded with very fine vistas. We had lunch, dropped the dinghy and near high water slack set off to explore. There is an inner basin that is accessed by a narrow channel with rocks and fast current and swirlies that would require transiting this area at slack water with a careful lookout and proceeding slowly in a big boat, but in the dinghy we entered the basin. The current was still flooding and we would not have wanted to be there in Alpenglow. The inner basin is huge, the reason why the current through the narrow channel. We decided it was not lovely enough to risk the entrance, and when we got in there we found it to be more windy than where we were anchored! We saw a black bear grazing on the beach grasses in the evening back on Alpenglow.

We had a leisurely start Sunday morning, waiting for favorable flood current for Chatham. The conditions are calm, a good day to get out of Southern Chatham Straight. On the way out of the Bay, we saw a Selene (a brand of yacht) anchored in another cove and headed north to Ell Cove, a very well protected and lovely anchorage. Second time we have been there and it is a favorite.

Cruising SE Alaska 2013 – Week 5

WEEK 5: Petersburg this week! On Monday May 13, we passaged through Zimovia Straight, which we had not previously done. There are a lot of rocks and foul ground in this straight, but navigation markers show the safe route, and it was fine. We got into Wrangell around 12 noon and were off to buy a few things. Kurt’s troubleshooting of AP-1 caused us to conclude it was the unit itself and we sent it off to the manufacturer, ComNav.

The next day, Tuesday, we figured out the timing and left at 11:50 to transit Wrangell Narrows, which is a tricky piece of water with 60 navigational markers. Our goal was to not go through the parts with really strong current when at the maximum velocity and yet to arrive in Petersburg at high water slack. Because Petersburg, being right on the end of the Wrangell Narrows channel can be a real challenge for docking due to current. Both times we have visited Petersburg we have experienced problems with current --white knuckles and by the skin of our teeth avoided damage. This time we did just fine and we now know exactly the best way to run this northbound with our boat; we kept a careful log of the passage, recording predicted current and taking our actual data. We entered (Pt Alexander) 20 minutes after the predicted maximum flood current for South Ledge, so that when we got to South Ledge it was 1 hour 20 minutes after its maximum flood current. And we were entering Petersburg Harbor 2 ½ hours after entering Wrangell Narrows and were within 5 minutes of high water slack. And the docking was no problem and we were right next to where we were in 2011.

The next day, Wednesday we got information and had questions answered on the Petersburg Little Norway Festival, timed to celebrate Norway’s Constitution Day on May 17 and Kurt changed the oil and tested the pump for autopilot 1 to confirm the pump is not the cause of the problem for AP-1. The pump works fine. To test Kurt devised a button switch with inline fuse and hooked that up to the pump electrical with me watching to confirm the action of pump in the lazarette. Kurt also changed the engine oil and ran the 4^th hose for defroster (something we have done without, because the builder ran out of hose when installing this system) It will be nice to have additional defrost capability, because in the wet SE Alaska, the windows do fog up.

Petersburg certainly is a great place to come to if you want to see eagles. There are two seafood processing factories in town, and the eagles have figured this out. There is one tree in which I counted 14 eagles in 2010. The fishing season hasn’t begun in earnest yet, but there is lots of activity getting boats ready. But the eagles are ready and waiting.

Thursday there were two events-- I went to the Rosemaling class, this is a Norwegian art form, then an afternoon of rain followed in the evening by a comedy musical presented by the Mitkoff Mummers (the local thespian group) about a fellow who thought he inherited a saloon, but it turned out to be a salon (as in hair!). It was great fun, and we really sensed the community spirit of Petersburg. Two cruising vessels we have anchored or docked near came in today, one we helped with their lines in Wrangell, and the other who anchored in same location as us on Dundas Island the night before crossing Dixon. We also saw the m/v Wildelife in Ketchikan.

On Friday I was in line at 11:15 for tickets to the always-sells-out fashion show and luncheon in the Sons of Norway Hall. So we had great seats for this, and enjoyed seeing 75 or so model their traditional Norwegian Bunader, the traditional fancy dress of Norway. It was really enjoyable. We didn’t just see each outfit, but heard the history of it; many had been handed down, often for multiple generations, many had been sewn from Norwegian fabric then embroidered by the owner. Quite a few had been purchased in Norway, and several were gifts from Norwegian cousins! There is a Petersburg Bunader, designed especially for Petersburg children, that were shown off first at the fashion show and then when groups of schoolchildren danced through the streets during the parade that took place a couple hours later down Main Street (renamed Nordic Avenue by those folks in Juneau) but still referred to as Main Street in the program guide. The parade was followed by the Herring toss. Then we headed up to Beer Bites, deep fried beer battered halibut bites. They were really good. That was dinner and we were both tired enough to fall asleep during the Nova episode we tried to watch.

Saturday morning we went to the Coast Guard Station for a tour of the Coast Guard Cutter Anacapa and also Elderberry (a coast guard navigation marker tender), then to the Moose Hall for beer bites by the Moose women followed by standing in line for 30 minutes, much in the pouring rain to get back into Son of Norway Hall for Kaffe hus – Scandinavian sandwiches and pastries and goodies. We were soaked to the bone by the time we got into the building. We missed the festival pageant, forgot the time, when we got to talking to Silver Star owners, who provided us with some good fishing tips. Many of the events at the Festival are for fundraising purposes, for example, the all-you-can eat shrimp dinner is for the basketball team. We got tickets for that on Wednesday. Still you lined up and waited, in the buffet line. It wasn’t raining, but kind of windy. This event was held at the Petersburg Fisheries Cookhouse. The shrimp was good and everywhere we go, we chat with people while in line, and at tables. We are made to feel welcome, and made to feel like we belong here. It is a great community, with great community spirit and respect and care for their heritage. This is not a theme town like Leavenworth—this is the real deal. The buildings don’t look Norwegian, though a sign or design may be painted with Rosemale, because this is not Norway, and materials are Alaskan, not what might be found in Norway, but when the people go to a special occasion, they probably wear their bunader!

Sunday is wind down day for the Festival, just a couple of activities. We attended the pancake breakfast at St Catherine Catholic Church; there was no line and the pancakes were great. We decided to skip the lunch seafood bake at a beach 2 miles out of town so we could prepare for our departure on Monday. Plus there are still some very heavy shower downpours, and it sure is cold, in the low 40s. With gusty winds etc. We woke up to see fresh snow in the trees at about the 700 foot level on the mountainous island across the channel. We had pancakes, paid our moorage bill, went grocery shopping for freshies, then stocked up on wine and beer, and some new fishing gear, all in between showers. We expect to be about 15 days out before coming into a town, Honnah, with grocery store, internet and cell coverage before going to Glacier Bay on 5 June. Then to Juneau and after that make our way to Sitka. Plans after that are highly dependent on conditions and weather.

Alaska 2013 – Round Three

Since I have been so delinquent in posting to the blog, Marcia is pitching in. The following post are her notes summarizing our activities week by week.

PRE TRIP PREPARATIONS: Provisioning—now this being our third SE Alaska trip, provisioning is based on previous years. At the end of 2011, I took inventory of what we started with minus what we had left, and that has become some very useful data. So filled the ships stores with lots pasta, oatmeal, tea, coffee, rice, beans, no salt added diced tomatoes, tomato paste, low salt chicken broth, dry cereals, soy milk, coconut milk, multigrain chips, pita chips, walnuts, almonds, trail mix (human Kibble), and lots of Fancy Feast cat food, including the newly discovered favorite, gravy lovers whitefish and tuna. Plus lots baby food, (special treat for cats when we stop the monster engine) the small duck kibble (for Maggie) and of course an adequate supply of kitty litter for the trip. Then found Tillimook shredded cheese for really good price, and with good shelf life bought quite a few pks of these. Plus other cheeses. In addition, cooked and froze “tubes” of ground turkey, in Mexican spice flavor and sausage flavor and also made packages of meatballs. Plus froze 8 packages of chicken breasts, and 9 steaks, and also got a really nice 12 lb pork shoulder and pre-cooked half as BBQ pork, and the other as Pernil, and froze aliquots of these. Also laid in frozen petit corn and peas, and green beans and spinach. So all needed is to buy “freshies” And of course catch crab, prawns and fish in Alaska!

While I worked on provisions, Kurt was making ready the mechanicals, often “breaking the boat” (i.e. temporarily making it inoperable) while he performed maintenance, testing the dinghy outboard, etc, etc, etc. Oh, and in March, we took the boat to Port Townsend where we hauled out for first time since taking delivery, and removed our perfectly good rudder, and replaced it with an articulated rudder we had engineered by Bayview Engineering. Since we are a single engine (with a bow thruster) we were interested in improved performance for close quarter maneuvering that is the promise of an articulated rudder. We also put on new bottom paint, although the bottom looked really good, and replaced the forward sonar transducer, we crunched on ice in 2011. It is fairly forward on the bow. Plus a last minute project, we welded on some protective fins for this transducer. We are pleased with the results, as the sonar transducer seems to work well and we believe will be protected from damage due to logs and ice in the future. In addition, we purchased a satellite phone (and minutes!), for emergency contact, text message emails AND for downloading the weather, done by email request for specific areas.

There are several cruxes of a passage north to SE Alaska, which start in WA and may be quite easy or nasty depending on wind, current and sea conditions. Weather and currents are carefully reviewed in advance to determine routing and whether we go or wait. These crux locations are:

1. Admiralty Inlet, the east entrance to the straight of Juan de Fuca, where you can look out at where the Pacific Ocean enters the Salish Sea. This can be very rough and hazardous if winds are high, swell is big and this all opposes the current. This straight separates Vancouver Island from the state of Washington. Admiralty Inlet can be avoided by going east of Whidby Island if conditions aren’t good. The name of the Salish Sea has recently been approved by USA and Canada agencies to describe the body of water that is the inside passage, and also Puget Sound and the waters between Vancouver Island and BC. So it is official.

2. Haro Straight, can be difficult when high wind and current oppose. Plus you really need to watch out for freighters at Turn Point. You cross this to get from San Juan Islands to the Canadian Gulf Islands and Vancouver Island.

3. Straight of Georgia, 110 miles long and 15+ miles wide separates the mainland from Vancouver Island. The wind gets funneled and with opposing current the waves can be steep and close.

4. Choke points: There are three ways to north Vancouver Island and Johnstone Straight: Seymour Narrows, Okisollo Channel or Dent- Yuculta rapids. All must be timed to passage at slack water, which usually lasts just a few minutes (4 minutes?). Even at slack there are lots of swirls and while there are many locations in the inside passage that must be timed, especially by us, everyone times these. So on this trip we plan to passage Seymour Narrows on 26 April, when slack before the ebb north is 0556. These choke points all occur north of where the current changes for Vancouver Island, from flood north/ebb south to flood south/ebb north. (Puget Sound floods south and ebbs north since there is only one inlet.)

5. Johnston Straight is north of Seymour Narrows and especially susceptible to funneled winds and opposing current and the nasty conditions these cause.

6. Queen Charlotte Straight is where the Pacific swells and sea states come in between north end of Vancouver Island and the mainland. A lot of this can be avoided by crossing to the Broughton Islands and taking inside channels.

7. Cape Caution is one of two areas on the Inside Passage Route exposed to the Pacific Ocean. It is the point of land north of Vancouver Island and on the mainland, fully exposed to the Pacific Ocean swell and sea states that must be rounded to get back into protected waters.

8. Dixon Entrance is the body of water that separates SE Alaska from British Columbia and it is open to swell and sea states of Pacific Ocean.

9. Storms in general can turn most of the waters into difficult or hazardous situations, we are always monitoring the weather and when a big storm is coming we head for cover to wait it out.

SNEAKING NORTH TO PETERSBURG

For this year’s cruise we decided we wanted to attend the Petersburg Little Norway Festival, May 16-19, and so to accomplish this we left earlier than we have in the past.

WEEK 1: We headed north April 15, immediately after the Bainbridge Island (BI) outstation work party for our yacht club, where we moor the boat during offseason. We left our car in a secured storage facility on BI. Our first port of call was Anacortes, after using Admiralty Inlet route. It got a little bouncy, not bad for us but bad enough that both cats got sick. We had our Kabola heater serviced on Tuesday then took on 600 gallons of fuel the next morning before heading out to Stuart Island in the San Juan Islands, our last US anchorage for awhile. Next morning we crossed to Sidney BC, cleared customs, bought freshies we couldn’t bring across border, and headed to Todd Inlet to anchor. We found a pair of eagles and three offspring, different ages that are in residence at Todd Inlet. On Friday, in the rain, we took our dinghy to dinghy dock of Butchart Gardens and after a bit, the rain abated and we had a lovely day wandering around the gardens, with their spectacular bloom of spring flowers. Because the gelato stand was closed (where we were hoping to get blood orange gelato) we ended up doing high tea, which was good and nice to do. Back to boat for another night in Tod then next day off to Ganges on Saltspring Island, where out yacht club has docking privileges. The restaurant we were looking forward to had closed down, so it was off for more freshie provisioning, and we were delighted to find that the gelato store had blood orange gelato! Yum.

On Sunday we headed north and decided to make a push and cross the straight of Georgia in the afternoon. Tsk, tsk. We faced 10-15 kt north winds and head seas, and then suddenly the winds clocked around and increased to 20-25 kts now producing following seas. It didn’t take long in the head seas, which are loud as boat crashes up and down for both cats to get sick and they retreated to corners of master stateroom, the quietest place in boat. Kurt and I switched helm duties every 5 miles, and I would go down and comfort the cats, who were meditating about life in Tucson, just sure of it. The following seas and winds had the benefit of increasing our speed. Finally across and into Pender Harbor on the mainland, which was not windy, no wilderness but a good anchorage for the night.

WEEK 2: Monday, April 22, we headed north, in benign conditions. We noticed smoke shapes over Texada Island. A heart, question mark, other things, then a ring. We wondered if this was a proposal! The mountain ranges have plenty of snow and they were all out. Both on mainland and also on Vancouver Island. Two things we have noticed heading north, lots of gear, prawn and also crab and lots of Buffleheads and Barrow Goldeneyes (both diving ducks that winter over in WA and BC.). We went into Squirrel Cove on Cortez Island, to spend a day at anchor while waiting for our date with Seymour Narrows. Lots of birdlife, including Common loons, Common mergansers, Surf Scoters and a pesky eagle who is scrounging around for some tasty ducklings or some such. On Tuesday it was lovely weather, though the long range forecast was for something to come in on Saturday. We kayaked to shore and hiked to the inlet 1 ¼ miles across the island through beautiful forest with outstanding moss. There were lots of large tree trunks to go up and over, huge Doug Fir and cedar. After lunch back on the boat and near high tide we kayaked to the entrance to a lagoon, best done at high tide, and easy in. Was very nice though it seems we startled several birds. It was 66 degrees and certainly flybridge weather. Wed. morning we pulled anchor and went to Gorge Harbor, which is on the same Island, has a narrow but scenic entrance and is the location of fish farms, lots of second homes and the Gorge Harbor Marina Resort. We anchored but took dinghy in hoping to dine at their well regarded restaurant. Not open this early in the season except weekends. There seems to be a theme, we are very early, and we don’t see other pleasure craft. Thursday we pulled anchor and headed to Campbell River to do shopping for freshies, laundry, wash salt off the boat and make ready to transit the Seymour Narrows bright and early Friday. We departed the dock in the dark at 0430 and were 3 minutes early for the slack at Seymour Narrows, perfect timing. Seymour was no problem, but later, in Race Passage, with the increasing ebb current we got to 12 knots speed, and had to deal with a lot of swirly water. Also, lots of logs. We made it out of Johnstone Straight into our anchorage just as the waters were starting to get choppy. High winds were forecast for Friday afternoon and Saturday, so we planned to be in Port Harvey for a couple of days. It was windy in Port Harvey, and we decided to leave next morning and take Havana Channel inland, timing Chatham Narrows, and on to Waddington Bay in the Broughton Islands. No other boats seen, just logs. We finished the week on Sunday motoring to Claydon Bay, and saw Orca and a HUGE convention of Grebes, hundreds of them floating in a giant patch on the water. At first we thought a large seaweed patch, but no, it was a Grebe patch!

WEEK 3: On Monday, 4/29, we decided to stick our nose out and try to get to Allison Bay, which is only 16 miles from Cape Caution. The forecast for Tuesday was favorable to Cape Caution. But as we headed out, yet were still in the protected waters of Wells Passage we started to encounter head seas indicative of rather rough water in Queen Charlotte Straight / start of Queen Charlotte Sound. So we turned around and went to Carriden Bay and anchored to wait until Tuesday morning. We couldn’t get the weather on the VHF radio in the anchorage, which would have given us the real time buoy reports and so headed out early Tuesday, and started monitoring the buoy and lighthouse reports. The deck was icy, and we were underway at 6 a.m. We dropped our poles and headed into it, 3 ft head seas, not too much on the beam, the conditions did not worsen and we made it around and into protected waters and anchored at Kwakume Inlet. The conditions for the rest of the week were forecast to be worse, and we later confirmed this via weather reports, so we did hit the weather and sea condition window just right. Being in inside waters we continued Wednesday to Discovery Cove, a new anchorage for us, pleasant enough, still not seeing hardly any vessel traffic, we saw more Orca and also a humpback, all heading north in the same protected waters as we were in. Based on the weather forecast we downloaded via sat phone, we took a storm day in Discovery Cove on Thursday, inside we were OK, some winds in the teens but not in the 20-30s. And on Friday we headed north and did a brief section of outside waters, Milbanke Sound, which was quite OK, and the lighthouse reports (Ivory Island and also McInnes Island) indicated we would find Milbanke OK as we did. Then to Khutze Inlet on the east side of Grenville Channel, an anchorage where you set your anchor on a bar with deeper sections on either side. We did so and pulled the anchor chain to the inland deeper water and this strategy worked well, when the current changed to ebb, i.e. flowing out of the inlet going to low tide, the chain draped down from the bar kept us in a tight area. It was a very pleasant evening, and we sat on the flybridge and watched a group of Steller Sea Lions moving around the anchorage, I assume they were feeding. On Saturday we went to Kumelon, the last inlet on Grenville, and last good anchorage before Chatham Sound, where the Skeena River outlet combined with opposing strong winds can make for some distasteful sea conditions. We passed the Nat Geo Sea Lion small cruise ship, who was outside Baker Inlet and we came to realize they were holding there while small tenders were taking passengers into this inlet, just 6 miles south of Kumelon. We read up on this inlet and later after we anchored and downloaded the weather report decided on Sunday to go back to spend a couple of days in Baker Inlet while waiting for the weather and conditions to improve for crossing Dixon Entrance to SE Alaska. Baker Inlet has a very narrow entrance to the inlet, with a blind corner that you must time to transit it at slack waters, which we did. Once in we were enchanted with the beauty of Baker Inlet. As we have found in all our anchorages, we were the only vessel. The mountains surrounding the anchorage are stunning, and a huge black bear did some beach grazing on grasses to entertain us.

WEEK 4: On Monday, May 5, we stayed put in Baker Inlet, as planned, based on weather forecast and were joined by two other pleasure craft traveling together, including m/v Wildelife, whom we met while cruising in 2007. We also, with a wind shift, decided we were too close to the shallow water and so we pulled anchor and moved into some deeper water, about 100 yards from original spot. Next morning, we headed out, to catch the morning 6 a.m. slack water to depart the Watts Narrows entrance into the inlet. The conditions became a little rough in Chatham Sound but still OK and we made it to Dundas Island, in position for Dixon Entrance and the favorable forecast for the next day. On Wednesday, May 8 we crossed Dixon Entrance and were tied up in Ketchikan at 12:49 p.m., with no drama in docking. (Ketchikan can be windy!). We had a list of errands to do, laundry, including all the rugs, as the cats had thrown up on all of them by the time we got to Ketchikan! We also did grocery and beverage shopping, obtained fishing licenses, checked email, paying bills, etc, etc. We did really well and were ready to leave Friday morning so we could passage the unavoidable 20 miles of Clarence Straight when conditions were good (but forecast to worsen the next day). We headed for Santa Anna Inlet, which is actually on the mainland, thinking we would try some crabbing and prawning. There were a lot of Dall Porpoises who played on our bow wake along the way, always wonderful. I mean a lot, and a set of three accompanied us into Santa Anna. We set our pots and the next morning discovered nothing, except starfish. So we decided to move to an area we previously had some luck in, Thoms Place on Etolin Island. Along the way, we saw a humpback whale and our autopilot failed! That was disturbing to say the least. As it happens, in contrast to most pleasure craft, we have a backup autopilot and so we were able to switch to this. Thom’s place was lovely as we remembered it, we set out crab pots and did some further investigation of the failed autopilot, AP-1. A 20 amp fuse had blown and provided an error message. So we decided to cut anchorages short and stop in Wrangell on the way to Petersburg. But not before getting several crab in Thom’s Place.

Executing the “Plan”

When we started down the path of regular summer cruising in Alaska, we concluded that owning a home in the Pacific NW had more negatives than positives. After considerable time, effort and money on deferred maintenance and enhancements, in December 2012, we successfully sold the home in which we had lived for nearly 23 years.

The next step was then finding a home in a locale with winter weather that was better than in the PNW. We focused on the Tucson area for both its weather and its recreational opportunity. We don’t golf but we do hike & bike. Additionally, the mountains that surround Tucson provide vistas which we enjoy. After considerable Internet research and two trips to the area (“boots on the ground”), we found and purchased the home we think we’ll enjoy.

Of course, the first step of our new home ownership was to secure it for the summer as it is time to get ready for the 2013 cruising season!

Fall 2012 Cruising

One of my pet peeves about cruising blogs is infrequent updates. In the future I will have to be less peevish and more tolerant when reading someone’s blog that hasn’t been updated in six months.

My last entry (also a roll-up) recounted our life through August.  Since then, we’ve made progress on the grand plan we’ve laid out for ourselves.  We even managed to get a few short cruises in Puget Sound during the glorious September we had in 2012.

Our sublet of the slip at Shilshole Marina was through the end of August. The folks from whom we were subletting, Dorothy & Larry Dubia (Big Brivet) were gracious enough to let us extend our stay through Labor Day.

We left bright and early on Labor Day (September 3), had favorable currents and made it to Echo Bay on Sucia Island. It was an 11 hour grind but it gave us an extra full day without having to move the boat.

Despite a little drama (a furnace boo-boo), a little sweat (10 minutes of fussing to start the outboard on the dinghy), we thoroughly enjoyed our full day on Sucia. The view of Mt Baker from Echo Bay is always a highlight. It being the Tuesday after Labor Day, it was pretty busy and we shared Echo Bay with 25 sailboats and 20 power boats.

One of the boats we shared the anchorage with was our first boat, Dragontail, a Selene 36. We recognized it by the custom kayak rack on the aft cabin. It has changed hands one more time since we sold it in January 2010.

On Wednesday, September 5, we headed for another favorite spot, Prevost Harbor on Stuart Island. We did a short stop in Friday Harbor to check e-mail, make a cell phone call and buy a few provisions. We’ve not been in Friday Harbor when it was this busy before. It is fun to watch all the boats coming and going but nerve wracking if you are one of those coming or going.

The next day, September 6, we walked to the light house at Turn Point on the west tip of the island.  In the hour or so we were there, we saw four separate pods of Orca totaling at least 20 individual whales pass by from south to north.  Before you’d see the orca, you’d see an entourage of power boats trailing behind pod. The photo at left was taken from shore with a small point and shoot camera with only 3x magnification.  The features in the lower right of the photo are the bull kelp growing near shore.

September 7 was a travel day in which we hoped to snag a mooring ball in Eagle Harbor on Northeast side of Cypress Island. They were all taken but we anchored in a small cove a half-mile north.  In the calm conditions we had, it was delightful and surprisingly calm.

On September 8, we anchored on the north side of Hope Island, an island operated as a marine park by Washington State.  Compared to Sucia Island, Hope is pretty primitive.  I did a hike around the east end of the island and it was a major bushwhack in places.

We arranged to meet George Buehler, the designer of our boat, on the morning of September 9 in Coupeville to get a tutorial on deploying our sails.  Other than at the dock in China, we’ve never put them out.  Of course, the weather decided to get sloppy for our effort and the winds picked up to 15-20 knots.

We only deployed the foresail as the rigging for the main sail needs to be worked out since we our dinghy on the boat deck gets in the way of what Seahorse Marine originally intended.  While we never turned off the engine, we did go into neutral and managed 3.5 knots under sail.  There was current but we have no idea whether it was helping or hindering us.  Deploying the sails was a major effort and given that it normally only Marcia and I operating the boat, the sails will probably stay furled most of the time.

After we dropped off George and his wife Gail back on the dock at Coupeville, we elected to spend the night there.  The weather forecast was for some weather to come in that night and anchorages in Saratoga passage are poor.  It was probably not the best decision as the weather brought 30 knot gusts down the Strait of Juan deFuca over the narrow section of Whidbey Island into Penn Cove and right into the Coupeville dock.  It was very bouncy for much of the night.  Fortunately, the winds let down enough the next morning and we were able to get off the dock without any problem.  We arrived in the early afternoon on September 10, at the Queen City Yacht Club Winslow outstation.

While there we did laundry, provisioned then headed out on September 13 for the southern section of Puget Sound. The first night was just west of the mouth of the Nisqually River. 

We had hoped to take advantage of reciprocal privileges at the Olympia Yacht Club and stay at the dock in Olympia on September 14.  After poking our nose all the way down to the end of Budd Inlet, we saw that no space was available and headed back out. We ended up at an anchorage off of another Washington State Marine Park named Hope Island. This Hope Island was far less ragged and offered lots of well maintained trails for walking. The anchorage was subject to considerable current, however, and it was impressive to see our boat go from one side of its anchor circle to the other as the current switched with the tides.

We trekked north on September 15 and headed for Port Madison on the north end of Bainbridge Island. We rafted with our friends the Dubia’s on their vessel Big Brivet. We first met the Dubia’s in 2007 when we transited Yuculta, Gillard and Dent narrows the same day.

The next day, September 16, we headed back to Winslow the long way, via Agate Pass and Rich Passage. After a few days in which to do laundry and reprovision, we headed back north to the San Juans.

We anchored just outside the Port Townsend Marina for the night. Since the winds were out of the northwest, it was pretty protected. From there, we crossed the Strait of Juan deFuca in fine conditions and again headed to Prevost Harbor on Stuart Island. While we saw some Orca on the west side of San Juan Island, we didn’t have the display off Turn Point that we did two weeks earlier.

After two nights, we headed south.  As we passed the south side of Jones Island, we spied our sistership, ZanaZu, owned by Nancy & Asrar Zubair. Since it was still early in the morning, we didn’t roust them up by sounding our horn off their stern. 

We continued across the Strait and anchored again off Port Townsend. By early afternoon the next day, we were secured at the Winslow outstation for the winter.

April-August Roll-Up

Before it gets even more embarrassingly tardy, I need to update our activities over the last five months. First, no cruising with the exception of a 5-day jaunt to Anacortes in May to attend Trawlerfest.  Our big activity has been to first get our house ready to sale (April through June) and then (since June 30) keep it looking good while it has been on the market.

At the end of April we started subletting slips at Shilshole Marina and move on board Alpenglow. That got us out of the way of the contractor while work was done on the house and spared the cats the trauma of being confined to a small area while scary noises happened around them. Now that the house is on the market, remaining on the boat keeps the house cleaner and eases the showing of the house by the realtor.  It does mean we commute regularly from Shilshole in the Ballard neighborhood to the house in West Seattle.

Living in Shilshole has been fine. It is a big marina (3,000 slips) but since a maximum of 300 slips are for live-aboards, except for weekends and sunny weekday evenings, it is pretty quiet.

Ballard has a strong Scandinavian heritage (especially Norwegian) and a statue of Leif Ericson stands prominently on marina grounds, staring to the northwest and keeping watch over the moored vessels.

Our sublet at Shilshole runs through the end of August. Hopefully we’ll do a little cruising before settling back in for the winter at our yacht club’s Winslow station.

A Change in Scenery

Up until recently, we have been wintering the boat (i.e., the September through May we aren’t cruising) on Lake Union. That site was convenient from our house, an 8 or 9 mile drive, but noisy and dirty (it was almost directly underneath the I-5 bridge crossing the Lake Washington Ship Canal).

In early February we were fortunate enough to be offered a winter moorage slip at our yacht club’s (QCYC) outstation docks in Winslow on Bainbridge Island. The winter moorage is available from mid-September to mid-May which accords perfectly with our planned cruising schedule. Additionally, the outstation is everything the Lake Union site wasn’t (i.e., clean, quiet and secure). While it isn’t as convenient to our house as the Lake Union site, once we are living on the boat, that isn’t an issue.

Below is a photo from the stern of the boat of our new neighbors.

Our current plans are to remain here until the end of April at which time we will move to a slip in Shilshole Marina on the Seattle side of Puget Sound we are subleasing through August. This will give us the convenience of living on the boat (not really an option at the Lake Union site) with good access to our home as we prepare and list it for sale.

Keeping Cool

The additional monitoring sensors I installed in our NMEA2000 system this winter has provided a wealth of data. One tidbit was the temperature of the two AC transformers (isolation and step-down) in our electrical system. I was surprised at the the increased temperature above the ambient engine room temperature in the transformers as I was pulling power through them to operate the two electric heaters.

At our moorage we are on a 30A/120 volt circuit. Normally, we don’t pull more than 15 to 20 amps on a steady basis. This gives a little headroom in case there are transient loads from the DC charger pulling power to service the DC side of the boat. With that steady state load, I’d routinely see a 15 to 20 degree increase above ambient in the transformers. While probably not a big issue, heat tends to accelerate the degradation of components so I thought I’d see what I could do.

The transformers are toroidal style (i.e., doughnut shape) which means there is a hole through which I can pull cooling air. I wanted the fans to only operate when the tranformers were working so I tapped into the AC power being put into the transformers. After the installation of the fans, the transformers are running about 10 degrees cooler, in the 5 to 10 degrees above ambient engine room temperature.