SV Panta Rhei Retirement Trip

Vessel Name: Panta Rhei
Vessel Make/Model: Able Apogee 50
Hailing Port: Seattle
Crew: Larry and Karen
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18 September 2017 | Seattle
23 August 2017 | Prince Rupert
15 August 2017 | Anan Bear Observatory
19 July 2017 | Petersburg, AK
17 June 2017 | Hoonah, AK
03 June 2017 | Seward AK
03 June 2017 | Denali
25 April 2017 | Seward AK
23 March 2017 | Seward, AK
11 March 2017 | Seward, AK
23 January 2017 | Seward AK
06 December 2016 | Seward AK
12 November 2016 | Seward Alaska
14 October 2016 | Valdez, AK
21 September 2016
05 August 2016 | Seward, AK
26 July 2016 | Whittier, AK
19 July 2016 | Valdez, Alaska
05 July 2016 | Seward, Alaska
Recent Blog Posts
18 September 2017 | Seattle

We are back in Seattle

It feels like home. Of course we are not in Silshole. Maybe we will be, someday, but there is a list and we are on it. In the meantime we are at Bainbridge Island Marina.

23 August 2017 | Prince Rupert

The dinghy holds air again

It wasn't very nice of the bear to tear the fabric across a seam. We were worried that we couldn't patch it but tried anyway. The glue had a job to do and it did it!

15 August 2017 | Anan Bear Observatory

A Grizzly Bear damaged our dinghy

We were visiting the Anan Bear Observatory south of Wrangell. It is one of the best places to visit in all of SE Alaska BECAUSE it has bears. But (as we learned) there is a dark side to this bear concentration. And of course, there is a story to tell.

19 July 2017 | Petersburg, AK

Moving On

"No matter where you go, there you are" (unknown reference). By now we have been there and done that. Most recently that included Cannery Cove on Admiralty Island. The photo shows the quiet grandeur of the setting with Ron and Suzie's boat SV Tango in the foreground. It has been like that for the last [...]

17 June 2017 | Hoonah, AK

We are in Hoonah, SE Alaska now

We got something resembling a high pressure ridge so we moved expeditously across the Gulf of Alaska. The crossing took three days and weather stayed as forecast. That was a very good thing. The weather changes in the far north far more rapidly and dramatically than we ever experienced in the more southern [...]

03 June 2017 | Seward AK

Crossing the Gulf of Alaska

We are still in Seward, AK. Now that spring has come, why not start south?

SV Blue Rodeo is drifting, loose from its' mooring buoy

13 July 2012 | Tied to a mooring buoy at Bora Bora, French Polynesia
Larry Nelson
Thursday night was the dancing and drumming contest at the community center in town. It was clearly the thing to do. We would have dinner before the festivities began, buy some seats with a good view of the show, and get picked up by the manager of the Bora Bora Yacht Club after the festival. Everyone was there, including SV Blue Rodeo (Mark and Anne). The weather was windy, but most of us were on mooring buoys so we felt reasonably secure.

It was a good party. My Ausie friends were explaining how they called their significant others. It's all in the rhyme: "house mouse" rhymes with spouse; "cheese and kisses" rhymes with mrs; "trouble and strife" rhymes with wife. So the words can be interchanged. This sort of playful re-naming of our wives was particularly interesting with beer.

The show was great. The announcer spoke in Tahitian, French, and for the first time, English. But during the show we all watched the flagpole. It was bending like a fly rod with a big fish on as the gusts came through the outdoor venue for the festivities. By the end of the festivities we were all anxious to get back to our boats. When the manager of the Yacht Club came to pick us up, he brought word that a boat had broken loose from its mooring and rescue efforts were happening. Which boat? Does it have a blue hull? No information. Geez. It was a long trip back to our dinghies and then out to our boats. Thankfully, SV Panta Rhei was ok. We called back to get information on the location of the vessel in distress and couldn't get any. The lagoon was blacker than the inside of a pig and it was raining buckets. Just keeping a dinghy upright IF we knew where to go to help would be a problem. If your engine failed you would be GONE. Even so the rescue went forward. It wasn't too long before we heard that cruisers had scrambled aboard and manually put out the anchor and 300 feet of chain in about 100 feet of water. The boat was SV Blue Rodeo, good friends of ours. Mark and Anne were on their way and pretty worried. Fast forward to today and the story continues to unfold. The line from their boat to the mooring buoy had chafed through and their boat had drifted into a coral bommie area where apparently it hung up on its keel, buying a little time for it's departure to be noticed and a rescue to start. Eventually it drifted off the coral and into the lagoon where it was intercepted by cruisers in dinghies. They nudged it toward the best shelter they could but in 40 knots of wind that isn't a very easy strategy to execute. Eventually they got the anchor down.

So now everyone is checking their mooring lines. The wind is unrelenting and indeed most of us are showing chafe. SV Panta Rhei now has 4 lines including an amsteel line from the end of our bruce anchor to the mooring buoy. Amsteel is highly abrasion resistant and we have chain on the anchor so where that line comes off the boat is not subject to chafe. Add to that we are staying aboard although maybe that isn't completely necessary now.

This weather is forecast to continue for some time, which is interrupting our cruise through the lagoon. We've signed up for a nitrox dive on Monday morning with the local dive shop. Apparently there are manta rays to see...and sharks. It will still be windy but we have redundancy now on our mooring so we can leave the boat for a few hours.

The picture is taken inside the spa at the Pearl Beach Resort. The spa is on an island in a lagoon and sets a new bar for oppulence. We toured it. The price was a little beyond our range.
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