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?
Working our way to dive nirvana
Entering Fawn Harbor was pretty easy. We used waypoints we got from Curley in Savusavu. We also arrived at 1 pm local time. It wasn't quite as sunny as we would have liked, the wind was strong, and there were substantial waves at the pass entrance...all bad. But the chart here did pretty much match the waypoints and the pass is reasonably wide. We would like to keep all our ducks in a row all the time but sometimes they stray. We dropped our 110 pound anchor and heard a distinct thud as it hit the bottom (not really!). It is holding us just fine in an 18 knot wind now.
One other story from Savusavu. We spent much of our time there listening to the ssb net for our arriving friends. They generally had a rougher passage than we did and one boat....the pity boat...had a particularly tough passage. We'll leave it nameless for this telling. The first day out their head broke and they had to switch to a blue bucket. Then they had about 5 days of 40-50 knot winds and 30 foot seas. The boat was "wrapped" in salt water pretty much all 5 days. Somehow, the waves pounding on the side of the hull worked a huge quantity of salt water into the vent for the fuel tank. When they started their engine the bad fuel wrecked their fuel injection system. They tore their brand new staysail. Their floorboards were floating because of water coming through the hawsepipe and a plugged bilge pump intake. Amazingly, the entire crew reports that they had a good time! But of course the story doesn't end at sea. The repairs that had to be accomplished in Savusavu consumed about a week of their days in harbor (the fuel injection system is out now for repair in Suva and getting it out was not so easy). That was a week of hard work in HOT conditions. This crew is double tough. There is yet the re-installation to be done, but that happens another day. For now they can enjoy the new town. In a couple more weeks, we expect to see them in another harbor.
The picture shows Karen next to a hot spring in Savusavu. These springs are really hot. You can cook food in them.
