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?

Unable to send email out today

21 May 2012 | Enroute to Rangiroa, Tuamotos, French Polynesia
Larry Nelson
Of course by the time you read this, I will have successfully sent it. But for now we aren't quite able to connect to any station. The stations we have been successful contacting are in California and in New Zealand. Both are a long way away. For a while yesterday I made the New Zealand connection but the connection failed prematurely so our email did not get sent. It is like fishing. sometimes you catch one, sometimes they get away. Our ability to connect depends on the ionization of the ionosphere, which generally follows the sun cycle. This means that connecting happens best when it is least convenient. Any school boy could have told us that, but instead we get a complicated table of times and probabilities. This table is telling me to try again in about 4 hours.

Our passage is going well. By that I mean there is wind (but not too much wind) and the food continues to be excellent. No fried chicken though. Instead we had eggplant parmesan. It was so good we had it for lunch and dinner.

We are going to try checking in to the Pacific Seafarers net on 14.300 MHz USB at 0330 UTC. Last night I called the net and just as I talked, the autopilot did a Crazy Ivan (an abrupt hard left turn caused by transmitting on the devil radio). So we abandoned the effort, but maybe tonight... Crazy Ivan's are unsettling, particularly when they happen in the dark of night. Fortunately, we had double reefed the mainsail for the night. Steering is much easier when the headsail does most of the pulling. We call it "front wheel drive", a descriptive term suggested by Michael Pack (SV Calestis).

Looking ahead, arrival at Rangiroa is a little like arriving along the west coast of Washington or Oregon where every arrival involves a bar crossing. The smart navigator arrives just prior to high tide slack on a rising tide and of course in daylight. That's a lot of good conditions to string together as a condition of arrival. So we may compromise a little and therein comes the risk. Since our speed depends on the wind we really can't say when we will arrive and therefore cannot say what the tide or daylight will be. Stay tuned. The good news is that we picked what is supposed to be an easy entrance (think Newport Oregon). It is marked with a lighted range and it is deep water. Also, our GPS map appears to correspond to published waypoints. Wouldn't it be nice if the map showed this entrance in the right place? Hope springs eternal. This is something you do not bet your boat on.

Trip log 14865 Distance to go: 400 nm Distance in last 24 hours: 170 nm Solar for the day: 108 AHr (2.8 kWHr)
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