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?

There is new light in the morning

13 May 2013
Just as you begin wishing you were someplace, anyplace, else dawn comes. The sea turns blue (if the sun shines) and everything looks better. Note I didn't say it was better though it frequently is. We have now circled that low and managed to take it with beam winds (much better than the headwinds that would have greated us on the rumb line). Thanks here to the wonders of modern weather prediction. We download GRIB files that contain an array of wind vectors for the part of the earth we are transiting which array is provided for periodic intervals. It's work to thread your way through this maze of data, but it is a whole new world of goodness compared to the old barometer reading. I've ordered up new weather data but I won't get it until I send this email. For now we are thinking that the path ahead is way better than the path behind. This may change with the new data. That is how it happens around NZ. We have about 400 nm to go so we are still in the middle of a very big ocean. It is getting calmer though. We do like that.

We are having more trouble with our autopilot. The cockpit control failed. It is disconnected now and we are proceeding on the control mounted at the nav station. What happens, you might ask, when the autopilot fails? The answer is that you momentairly lose control of the boat which can be bad. Also realize that when it fails, you have to figure out that it failed and in that interval of time there is a mountain of worry and confusion. Of course it usually fails when conditions are at their worst because worse condtions tend to induce failures. Its an unhappy fact. Life has lots of those. The real difficulty is that we run the boat with only two of us, and one of us is usually asleep. Add a storm to this story and you will begin to understand why there are so many sailors on US navy ships. Imagine an out of control aircraft carrier?

I can report though that the world appears safe from us. It's a very big ocean and there is nothing to hit! There is also no one to pick up any wreckage including us. Sobering thought. We did see a fishing vessel 2 miles off during the storm. We wondered if we would become entangled in his fishing gear (which can extend many miles). That happens but it didn't this time. Luck. We need it.
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