June 9, 2007, 5:50 am, Sunny Cove
This is my first post where I will attempt to insert a video clip. I've not done this before, so I hope it works well.
I promised some video of the orcas so here it is.
Anyone want to go for s swim?
We got to Sunny Cove about four in the afternoon. This being the first time out this year, I was anxious to try out my new trim tabs for my dingy. While Fay was milling about the boat, I got the dingy down off the boat, hung the five horse motor on her, and went for a test ride. While I was out dinking around these orcas came in the cove with us. As I said before I high tailed it back to the boat to get the video camera. Fortunately the orcas stayed in the Cove for about 45 minutes. I managed to get some pretty fair shots. These orcas had picked out a very nice little spot on the beach where the gravel was about the size of egg rock. It was a small stretch of beach about 150 ft. long. The rest of the beach was made up of larger rocks that were covered with moss. The orcas would move up into the shallow water, and role in the gravel. I'm pretty sure they're knocking off parasites. It was quite a sight to see and as always when we see wildlife we enjoyed it thoroughly. I'm told we have two groups of orcas in this area. One group they called transients, and they only like seals. The other group they call the locals, and they survive on fish. I don't know which these were transients or locals. I understand that the seals can tell the transients from the locals. When the transients are around the seals get out of the water but when the locals around they just stay in the water. There weren't any seals around so I don't know if these were transients or locals.
Last year my friends from Phase II, Mike and Valerie, witness the same behavior from the orcas here too. When they had the pleasure to see this, they happened to be on the beach without a camera. Pity. They got a pretty up close view standing at the edge of the water watching the orcas. It's the kind of thing you don't soon forget. The view we got was from the boat halfway across the Cove. Maybe sometime I'll be lucky enough to be on the beach with the camera when the orcas come back. I'm keeping my fingers crossed.
I will continue my ramblings very soon, so stay tuned.
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June 9, 2007, 12:32 am, Seward,Ak
OK I've upgraded to a premium account.
Warning: I am not a writer, I am a power plant operator. In school I finished in the top 75% of my English class (joke). Therefore, please don't be too critical of my grammar or punctuation.
As I said in the first installment if I thought this would work out I would upgrade to a premium account and post some video of the whales in Sunny Cove. I'll do that as soon as I possibly can. I have put a few photos in my photo gallery.
Now for little bit about us. My name is Dan. I was born and raised in Kansas, a flatlander who never saw the ocean as a child. Kansas was a wonderful place to grow up. When I was in fourth grade I read a book called "Only in Alaska", and decided that was where I wanted to live. After marrying young, my ex-wife and I decided to move to Alaska. I been in Alaska for 28 years now. The dream I had in fourth grade about moving to Alaska has become a reality. Cruising the world has been another childhood dream of mine since I was in seventh grade and I read a book called "Dove". I will make that dream a reality. Someone once said "The dreams you have his children are the most important ones." Or something like that. I must agree. I'm 48 and love sailboats.
I was married for 13 years and have three children, the twins, Amy and Angie are 27 years old, my son Casey is 22 years old. As with a lot of people, life interrupted my dreams. It's so easy to get into a day-to-day grind. I'm not complaining mind you, because my daily grind has been very rewarding, but not without bumps. I have been divorced from more years than I can remember. My children live in Colorado, and I don't get to see them as often as I would like. Bla Bla Bla!
On a more upbeat note, I'm currently with a wonderful woman, Fay, who is my first mate in life and on the boat. Fay has two children, Dawn and Michelle. Fay also has four grandchildren, two of which, we are raising. I'm not foolish enough to tell you how old Fay is, but I will tell you that when she was eight years old she was twice my age. You do the math. Kendra is 13 years old, and if you are around teenagers, you'll understand that she can be quite a handful. Tammy is 12 years old, and a special-needs child, and can also be quite challenging. I love my family and am very proud of all of them. We also have quite a menagerie at our house. We have a Blue and Gold McCaw, named Pita. We have two cats, Pogo and Flash. We have a rabbit named Boots, and we have a new addition to our menagerie, and eight-week-old pug named Pugsley.
We call Seward, Alaska our homeport, although I live in Anchorage! I started sailing about 11 years ago after taking a class from Sailing Inc.. The first few years we just chartered. I didn't get my first boat until I turned 40 , so I've pretty much wasted the first half of my life. Our first boat was a Catalina 30. She was a very nice boat, and I worked hard to keep her shipshape. I'm proud to say that she was in better shape when I sold her then when I bought her. I'm also happy to say that her new owners, Joe and Bonnie, seem to love her as much as I did. I've only had my new boat for about a year and have fallen in love with her too. Throughout the winter I work on her when I had time and have made numerous improvements. We took possession of our new boat in July of 2006. This is the first full season I'll have on her. I can get over how much difference 6 ft. makes. Our new boat is so much more comfortable then our last boat. Our new boat has more bells and whistles than our last boat. But our new boat is just an interim boat to tide us over until we get our cruiser. This boat will allow us to gain more experience and confidence for our world cruise. In a few years I plan on starting my search for our perfect cruising boat. I'm planning to like in the 42 to 45 ft. range. Although I don't believe I would be afraid to take this boat around with a few modifications.
Well that's enough for now. There will be more to come, so stay tuned.
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May 27, 2007, 7:32 pm, Sunny Cove, Resurrection Bay, Alaska
Ok folks here goes...my first post.
If this site works out for me I will upgrade it for pictures, videos, and maps.
Last week we went to Sunny Cove for our first sail of the season. Just Fay and I went on this trip. (No kids!) We had some beautiful weather and I got to check out some of the new equipment that I installed last winter. My cordless remote for my autopilot worked great. Now I have all of our instruments data repeated anywhere on the boat. Our new flat panel 20-inch LCD TV worked great. It's a Jensen 12 volt model.
I also put my new trim tabs on my dingy. Of course I was in a hurry to test them out and didn't wait for Fay. What an improvement! While I was out dinking around in my dink, I saw a pod of Orcas enter the cove so I high tailed it back to the boat. After getting the camera out we watched for about 45 minutes while the Orcas rolled around in the gravel on the beach. I guess they were knocking off parasites or something but I'm not a biologist so I'm not sure. I just love it when Orcas are around.
After hauling the anchor the next morning we motored around Fox Island to where the Stellar Sea lions sun themselves when it's nice and sunny out. It's pretty cool to hear them holler and growl at each other. Makes you wonder what they're saying.
We sailed back to Seward wing and wing under a perfect sky and 10 to 15 knots of wind. I was sad it had ended so soon.
In my next post I'll tell you a little about our boat and us.
Calm seas and fair winds!
Capt'n Dan
PS. Later I'll probably post the video of the Orcas and Stellar Sea lions...If I upgrade.
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