SV Panta Rhei Retirement Trip
| Vessel Name: | Panta Rhei |
| Vessel Make/Model: | Able Apogee 50 |
| Hailing Port: | Seattle |
| Crew: | Larry and Karen |
| Social: |
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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?
Living in the high rent district
Yesterday we went to the Blue Lagoon. It is beautiful. The lagoon would make the cover of any travel magazine. Picture a flat blue lagoon surrounded by atols with coconut palms with no waves and white (some advertise pink) sand gradually deepening all around from shores creating a deep blue center. We took a high speed powerboat with about 8 other people across Rangiroa Atol a distance of about 20 nm to this little lagoon. Outside of the lagoon there are black tipped reef sharks by the hundreds. We swam with them and later fed them. Sharks in a feeding frenzy are something to watch. Our tour guides made coconut palm baskets to serve home made coconut bread in and cooked chicken and wahoo over a coconut husk fire. We also had raw fish in coconut milk (which appears to be a staple in this part of the south pacific) and rice with corn. We had a building on a small island all to ourselves with table cloths on the tables. Very nice. The outing took most of the day.
After returning to our boat, one of our neighbors came over to show me some new tricks on sailmail for getting weather. The issue is that GRIB files don't show anything useful. The thing that invites catastrophe are the large thunderstorms. These storms are associated with lifting of packets of air (LFTX) (which we can get a forecast for using saildocs SPOT forecast) and convergence zones. There is also a new trick called Fleet Codes which when used in combination with free software from Pangolin (PhysPlot) gives a graphical forecast of convergence zones and frontal activity over a region we designate. It is very efficient and so available at sea via the ssb. Also, we subscribed to Bob McDavitt's weathergram, following up on a suggestion from Brett. It is a lot to study and thank goodness. We needed a much better understanding than we were getting from GRIB files. The only problem is, now I see all the risks a lot clearer. I was happier before!
The plan is to leave tomorrow at dawn for Papette, Tahiti. It will take 1.5 days to make the transit. Hopefully we arrive before dark Saturday night.
