July 18, 2007, 1:48 pm, Prince William Sound
Sorry for the entry delay but we've been incommunicado for awhile of our own choosing.
On June 14, 2007 Fay and I started our three-week vacation. We planned to spend as much time on our boat as possible. We had a few things to do before we headed out. Once they were done we were going to Prince William Sound and Cordova, Alaska. We had planned a pretty open itinerary. Wander through Prince William Sound to Cordova pretty much playing it by ear and picking where we would hole up by how the weather was and how we felt each day. Our plans were written with a pencil that had a large eraser. We chose to go to Cordova because we've never been there. The last time we wandered through Prince William Sound we went to Whittier, this time we thought Cordova would be fun.
The last time we went it was just Fay and I. This time the crew was quite a bit larger. In addition to Fay and I, Kendra and Tammy were going and Kendra's mother Dawn would join us. And let's not forget our new boat dog Pugsley. That makes 4 females and 2 males. I began to think that the estrogen would fill my boat like a thick fog. At the time I was unaware that the fog that would fill the boat during this trip was far more dangerous. But I'll get to that later. I'm not sure how I ended up in this situation but I was prepared to make the best of it. Having 4 females on the boat and only 2 males meant that desperate measures may need to be taken. Testosterone was in short supply. Thank God that our new dog Pugsley is a male. Something would need to be done to neutralize all of the estrogen that would be flowing from these females. Pugsley and I were prepared to do whatever was necessary. I knew that I would have to be the alpha male and take charge of this expedition. Pugsley's job was to mark our territory. Being 12 weeks old, Pugsley marked our territory a little more often than I would have liked.
We finally got the auto packed up and ready to go on Friday the 15th in the afternoon and left for Seward. The van was packed to the gills! I had stuff tied on the roof and packed in around the kids and myself. Fay was the only one in the car without stuff stacked on her because she was driving. Thankfully the trip from Anchorage to Seward is only a couple hours.
We arrived in Seward about seven in the evening, and began unpacking the car. With anticipation of the trip in our minds, we were all pretty energized. That was a good thing because we had a lot of stuff to haul and stow. I loaded the dock cart, I loaded the children down, and I loaded Fay and Dawn down. We all headed down to the boat. I was amazed that in the first trip to the boat we manage to get about half of our stuff down to it. Fay and I immediately started stowing things, and preparing the boat. Meanwhile I sent Kendra and Dawn backup to the car with the cart for more stuff. We all worked fairly diligently but before we knew it midnight was upon us and we still weren't done. We were starting to get a little tuckered out so we decided to crash for the night and hit it again in the morning.
We woke fairly early Saturday the 16th and continued on with our preparations. I had told Joe from Sonyadora that we would be leaving early this morning. That was a mistake. We weren't as close to being ready as I had thought. Last night we had started a list of items that we would still need to purchase such as ice and propane and more groceries and such. That list is still growing. We made a number of trips back-and-forth on the dock and I ran into Joe again. I told him we would be leaving this evening. Wrong again. By late Saturday we had decided that we were pretty much ready to go and that if we didn't have something we thought we needed we really didn't need it. The only thing left on the list was fuel from the fuel dock however the fuel dock was closed for the evening. That's okay though as we were all pretty tired by the end of the day. We would leave in the morning. Or would we?
We woke at a reasonable time on Sunday morning and continued our preparations. By noon I was pretty confident that we had everything we needed and we are ready to cast off. At some point that morning I saw Joe again. Joe couldn't help himself and he had to rib me about my departure time. I know I deserved it and I had to laugh. Just as we are ready to cast off, I realize that I hadn't bought any bait. A quick trip up to the Fish House solved that problem. The moment of truth had arrived. All that was left was to fuel up at the fuel dock. We cast off and headed for the fuel dock. They were quite a few boats around the fuel dock but there was an empty space at the end. So that's where we tied up. Then one of the workers informed us that the pumps on that end of the dock were not working. We cast off again in got in-line for the only diesel pump that was working. After about 45 minutes of drifting around in the harbor we finally managed to tie to the fuel dock and start pumping some fuel. Everything was topped off and we were ready to go, finally. We cast off and our adventure began.
By now the winds had picked up. As we entered Resurrection Bay we found it to be very bumpy and very windy. Fay is a fair weather sailor and was not enjoying the ride. We decided to stop at Thumb Cove. We had a lumpy ride to Thumb Cove where we drop the hook for the night.
At thumb Cove I had my first experience with the fog that would fill our boat for the rest of the trip. It was more of a green haze than a fog! The smell was not of this world. You see Dawn gets gas. And I mean she gets gas bad! First there would be a low rumble, and then everyone on the boat would start complaining! It would literally make your eyes water.
When Fay and I first bought the boat, they had the wrong kind of sewer hose installed. When you would first open the boat after being away for a week the entire boat smelled like a head. It was horrible. I changed all the sewer hose out for the proper style hose, and Fay scrubbed the entire area of the boat that the sewer hose was in contact with. We then scrubbed the entire head area and put little smelly things all over. The next time we came down to the boat, and first opened her up after all that work, she smelled like flowers. We were very pleased. And now with Dawn aboard, the boat smelled like a head again.
Monday morning the weather was much better. We were all pretty tired from the preparations that we had done so we were slow to start. We left Thumb Cove and headed through Eldorado Narrows towards Day Harbor on the other side of Cape Resurrection. On the port side of the Narrows, a little better than halfway through, there is a popular spot where the stellar sea lions lay around on the rocks. As we passed the stellar sea lions we slowed down to watch them for a while. Stellar sea lions are a lot of fun to watch and I love to listen to them grumble at each other. It's kind of sad though because we may not have them much longer. The biologists tell me that their population has decreased by almost 80% in recent years. And they're not sure why. Awhile back I saw program on one of the science or learning channels that talked about the decline of the stellar Sea Lions. In that program they thought that this decline was caused by a collapse of the food chain due to the Exxon Valdez accident. Could be. Hopefully that trend will not continue.
We arrived at Safety Cove early enough in the afternoon that we could do a little exploring. I got the dinghy prepared and Kendra and I check out the Cove. Is the first time that we have anchored in Safety Cove and what a beautiful Cove it is. On the far end of the Cove was a nice waterfall. Close to the waterfall there are some rocks that the sea lions haul themselves out on. Close to where we anchored there is a small beach and behind the beach is a small pond. Quite beautiful. By now Kendra was getting tired of the dinghy ride and I had forgotten to bring a camera so I headed back to the sailboat. Kendra got out of the dinghy and I got Fay to grab a camera and join me in the dinghy. Fay loves waterfalls and I wanted to show her this one up close. We got over to where the sea lions were laying on the rocks. There were two of them up on the rocks and they were keeping their eye on us. We kept our distance but got close enough to get some pretty good shots with the 35 and a camcorder. It's pupping season for the for the sea lions. Fay thought that one of them might be in labor at the time. But I don't know. I don't know the sea lions give birth in the water or on the rocks. We headed back to the boat. It was a beautiful afternoon and evening in Safety Cove. Fay fixed a wonderful dinner. After dinner we watched a movie. While we were watching the movie the fog rolled into Day Harbor just outside of our Cove. I went out to the cockpit to relax for a bit and just take everything in. I wasn't there a very long when Kendra our 13-year-old granddaughter came out to join me. "Papa, what are you doing?" Asked Kendra. "Watching the Bay" I replied. "I think I saw a ghost ship!" I said. "Really" Kendra replied nervously. "Well I think so but I'm not sure it's pretty foggy out there." I said. "Just great!" Kendra moaned. She immediately went down to inform Grandma that Papa might have seen a ghost ship. And I smiled. After a while I went below and was greeted with a green fog. I immediately went back to the cockpit for a few minutes to allow the fog to settle in the odor to dissipate. Around 11:30 we hit the rack. Tomorrow was to be an early-morning.
Fay and I got up around 4:30 on the 19th and hauled the anchor. It was partly cloudy and the sun was shining through the open spots in the clouds. The winds were calm and sees were calm. We left Safety Cove and started crossing to Prince William Sound. Destination: Fox Farm Bay. Fox Farm Bay is about 36 mi. west of Day Harbor. During this part of the trip you are exposed to the Gulf of Alaska and the water can get pretty ruff. Today however it was flat and calm. The winds were to light to make any headway so we motor across. We arrived in Fox Farm Bay about 1:30 in the afternoon. It was a great crossing.
Fox Farm Bay is part of Erington Island. We anchored in about 60 to 70 ft. of water on the Northwest side of the Bay. It was a beautiful spot and we were all by ourselves for a while at least. By three in the afternoon we had a nice breeze and sunshine. If you can stay out of the breeze it was pretty warm. But the wind was cold. Dawn and Kendra wanted to sunbathe on the bow of the boat so they put on their swimsuits and headed up to the bow. They weren't there very long because the wind was quite cold. They ended up in the cockpit behind the dodger. It was a very relaxing afternoon and we were being pretty lazy. But what the heck were on vacation. Later in the day we were joined by one other boat. Anchored a little bit west of us and we hardly knew they were there. Our plans at this point were to leave in the morning and head north. But as I said before our plans were written with a pencil. And we were playing things by ear.
The next morning on the 20th after we awoke there was a small discussion and we all decided that as nice as it was here that we would just hang out another day and leave tomorrow. I decided to start the engine to top off the batteries and discovered that our alternator was not charging. Great. I got the books out on my alternator and voltage regulator and started to do some troubleshooting. The first recommendation was to clean all of the connections which I did. It's still not charging. Fay and I discussed our options. I had brought along our little Honda 1000 watt generator. With that generator I can charge the batteries either from the generator directly or by plugging the generator into our shore power connection. I didn't want a little thing like an alternator to ruin our trip. We made the decision to go to Whittier instead of Cordova because I believed that I could get parts delivered from Anchorage to Whittier easier than I could from Anchorage to Cordova. At this point I still wasn't sure what was wrong with the alternator but I knew I had a couple of days to figure it out. I hooked up the generator to our shore power connection and top the batteries off.
That evening we created a route to Jackpot Bay. It would be about a 26 mi. trip. Fay and I had been to Jackpot Bay before and we thought the kids would like it. Once you're inside the Bay there are a couple of small islands to tuck in behind and it's real cozy. So that was our decision, Jackpot Bay. We would head out tomorrow morning. We spent the rest of our time in Fox Farm Bay just kinda lying around. We watched the wildlife, we watched a movie or two, and just generally enjoyed the Cove. We had a breeze most of that afternoon and evening. There was fog to the south of us, there was fog to the east of us, and there was fog to the west of us but the sun was shining on our little spot. Very nice.
That evening a sailboat out of Whittier anchored to the east of us. We hardly knew they were there.
We got up fairly early the next morning and the girls mentioned they'd like to go to the beach. By now we had accumulated a little bit of trash so I agree to go to the beach with the girls and while they did a little exploring I would start a fire and burn the burnable trash. Our neighbors were already on the beach with their dog.
It wasn't long and the people with the dog on the beach were loaded up in their dingy. They came our way just to visit a bit. These guys were just out and enjoying Prince William Sound. They asked us if we had seen the deer walk across the beach this morning, but sadly we hadn't. We hadn't heard the weather in two days so we asked these guys if they had. They said you could kinda make it out with a hand-held radio if you held it just right. They mentioned that we had some gnarly weather coming in a few days. Now what the heck is gnarly weather? I don't know either. It didn't much matter though as we were headed for Whittier. If the weather gets gnarly between now and when we get to Whittier we will just hole up in some cove.
I gathered up the garbage and the two kids and we headed for the beach. After gathering a bit of wood and starting a fire I proceeded to burn the burnable garbage. Dawn and Kendra took Pugsley for a walk.
I had picked a spot below tide line for the fire. That way when all that is left of the fire is ashes, when the tide comes in the ashes get washed away too. No trace left.
Dawn sat down next to me and started to chat. She mentioned that if the people it took care the beaches around here would leave a trash can that we could burn trash in it would sure be nice. I said "Dawn, let me try to put things in perspective. This is the wilderness. There are no people that take care of the beaches. We're responsible for taking care of the beaches. That's why I put the fire below tide line." Oh yeah I guess so, hadn't really thought about it like that.
Wasn't long and we were back on the boat. Fay had been tidying up a bit so after I got the dingy put up and everything ready topside we pulled anchor and headed out for Jackpot Bay.
In my next installment I'll pick up at jackpot Bay.
Calm seas and fair winds!
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Comments [1]
June 11, 2007, 5:40 am, Seward,Ak
Our new Boat Dog Pugsley! Think being on the boat bothers him?
We headed back down to the boat on May 31 in the afternoon. We had a big weekend planned. Fay had invited her department from Providence to come down and go on the boat. Everyone was to come down over three days, Friday, Saturday, and Sunday. Some were camping, some were in motor homes, and some stayed at hotels. We stayed on the boat. Because we live in a busy world, not everyone could come for the entire weekend. Not everyone could come at the same time. That spread things out a bit so that it didn't get too crowded and things stayed safe. It worked out very nicely, and I hope everyone had a nice time.
A few people came down on Friday, so we took our boat on the bay for a little while and had a nice sail. The skies were overcast, the seas were calm, and the breeze was light. The sailing was very mellow and flat. That was probably a good thing because I don't think any of these folks had ever been on a sailboat before. When I'm showing someone something new, something I enjoy, I hate to scare them the first time out. Sailing can feel unstable to people that are not familiar with it. I think everyone that was on that sail had a good time and I don't think I scared anyone. I know I thoroughly enjoyed it. How could you not? We were out on the bay! In a sailboat! With great people! It wasn't raining! And life was good!
The next morning, Saturday, we woke up to rain. Kind of a drizzle. While people started showing up and it wasn't long I had quite a few people on the boat. I had our rain fly out so everyone had a dry place to sit. Some of the people wanted to fish so after organizing everyone to get licenses and Derby tickets for the Halibut Derby. Fay decided we needed to get some stuff from the grocery store so off we went.
Now we've been looking for a dog, not just any dog but a pug, for about four weeks now. The kids have been pestering me for about 2 1/2 years to get a dog. And I've been able to hold out since then. When I was back in the states for my daughter's wedding in April, I met my son's pug named Tater. He's a pretty nice dog and convinced me to give in to the children. There were some pugs in the paper but when we called on them they had already all gone. And we hadn't seen any pugs in the paper since. Well wouldn't you know it when we got to the grocery store here was the most adorable little pug you ever saw. Fay had to have him. "It was meant to be." she said. Now we have a new boat dog. His name is Pugsley. He is about the cutest thing you'll ever see. Pugsley seemed to love the boat. And I think he will make a good boat dog. Since the girls weren't coming down until Sunday we decided to surprise them.
After everyone was finally organized and I gave a short safety briefing we were off. There was no wind and the seas were extremely flat. We motored out by Fox Island, and drop the hooks.
I must confess at this point that I'm not a fisherman. That's not to say that I've never caught fish. I'm just not obsessed with fishing. And I'm not very good at it.
Now back to the story. We floated around for a couple hours while everyone fished. Unfortunately the only thing that we caught were a couple of Starfish. Both on the same line. It was starting to get late. So we decided to pull up the hooks and head back to the harbor. I was disappointed that we didn't catch a fish, but I've experienced that before, and have learned to cope with it.
Still flat, calm, and rainy we motored toward Seward. While I was scanning the horizon I noticed bump on the surface of the water. "Whale" I hollered and pointed. Everyone rushed to the side of the boat to see. A few moments later we saw the humpback again. This time he blew hard, and his fluke came completely out of the water and square on to us. A picture perfect shot. When I've seen this before I rarely see the whale again. I think it's an indication that they're going deep or far. In this case we never saw the whale again. I don't care how many times you see them it's always a thrill. Almost everyone on the boat saw him. Unfortunately there were a couple people that didn't. I was a bit sad for them. Then while scanning the horizon again, I saw a dorsal fin. "Whale" I hollered and pointed. Now I know that Orcas are not in the whale family. They're in the dolphin family. I just like yelling "Whale". Anyway this is a big guy. He had a huge dorsal fin and was probably at least 20 ft. long. He was all by himself and headed for Humpy Cove. He managed to stay in view for 5 or 10 minutes so everyone got a pretty good view of him. That was pretty cool. Our guests got to see an orca and a humpback. Life is good.
When we got back to the harbor Fay and I docked the boat. We were in and out of the slip quite a few times over the weekend and not every docking was perfect. And I don't remember which dockings were the good ones and which ones were the not so good ones. All of the dockings accomplish the desired result. All were safe. And no damage was sustained not even a scuff. I was really only disappointed with one of our dockings. Most went quite well and a few were picture-perfect. I've been sailing for about 11 years and docking can still be a little bit challenging. Especially when the boat is new to you. I do pretty well but I always strive to do better. Last year I learned a new technique for docking and I just love it. It works really well. It's a single hand technique that uses a single line fastened a mid ship and fairly long. You pull up to the forward cleat and drop a line over the cleat. The line is then brought back to the sheet winch for the jib. This restricts one direction of travel. At that point you shift the boat in reverse, and the line sucks you right up against the dock. It works really well as long as you snag that cleat. Now that your hard against the dock you can step off the boat and tie up your normal dock lines. After they are secure you can shut off the engine.
Once we were tied up to the dock we realized that everyone was hungry. So I fired up the barbecue grill and we started grilling. It was hamburgers and hot dogs time accented with a little beer. Only problem no hamburgers or hotdogs. Fay and a couple of the girls headed to the store. They came back with the beef. Salads were being prepared a few things had been grilled already and it was my time to show off my talents. I am a man and there are only a couple things that men can do better than women. One is pissing out a fire and the other is barbecuing. Now I don't mean to brag but give me a spatula, some tongs, or a fork, put me in front of the barbecue grill on the back of my boat and I excel. I can usually put out some pretty mean protein. OK now it's excuse time. The hamburgers they brought back were frozen and not extremely lean. Everyone was hungry and wanted to eat. So I was in a hurry. Barbecuing is not meant to be hurried. But what do I do? Crank up the heat of course. Now I have hamburgers and hotdogs on the grill with the heat crank up and the grill starts to smoke a little bit. OK quite a bit. So while I'm standing there doing my thing I glance around and notice a couple of police cars up on the breakwater. Then I notice an ambulance in the parking lot. Then I notice a fire truck up by the harbor master. So I'm wondering what's going on. The next thing I know there is this guy coming up the dock. I think to myself "What the heck does he want". He walks up and asked "Is everything OK?". I say "Sure!". So he tells me someone called in a fire at the harbor and I ask him if he wants a hamburger. He politely declines and heads back up the ramp. OK! You tell me! How do you live that down? The next thing I know I hear comments like "You can tell when Dan's done cooking, when the Fire Department shows up." and "Hurry up and grab one of Dan's Three Alarm Burgers.". I mean really. Too funny don't you think. Anyway now I'm not sure if the guy that came down to check on us was being polite or just figured I wasn't much of a cook. I guess it doesn't matter. All in all the burgers and hotdogs didn't come out too bad. Although they were little more done than I wanted them. Everyone seemed to have a great time. And as for me I enjoy being a clown and don't mind if people laugh at me. Good thing to. Because there was plenty of laughter.
As people started getting tired and it was getting late, everyone started drifting away from the boat, heading back to their perspective sleeping quarters. Fay had invited her brother and some friends of ours from Anchorage spend the night on the boat with us tonight. They had got there earlier in the day but didn't get on the boat because it was pretty crowded. They waited until the crowd started to thin out then came aboard and stowed their gear. By now it was almost midnight. I was beat and they wanted to play poker. I bowed out of the poker game but Fay took them on. Well it was almost three o'clock before the poker game broke up. And we went to bed after having a great day on the water.
The next morning, Sunday, some of the people from Fay's work stopped by to bid their farewells. They were headed back to Anchorage. A few people didn't have to leave in the morning, so we took them sailing. The day was partly cloudy with less than 2 ft. seas and about 10 to 15 knots wind. It was the best day of the weekend weather-wise. We had a beautiful sail that afternoon. After sailing for a while we headed back to the harbor and the remaining people left for Anchorage.
To all of those who came along that weekend and you know who you are, let me just say "It was my pleasure to take you out boating.". As skipper it is a big responsibility to take people out on your boat. I take that responsibility very seriously. Although prior to the weekend I was a bit nervous about it, everything went very well and everyone cooperated very well which made my job a lot easier. My anticipation eased up early in the weekend.
Tammy and Kendra came down with Kendra's mother Dawn and her friend Pat Sunday afternoon. They had no idea that we had a new dog. They came aboard and we let Pugsley lose. They were so excited. They must have squealed for an hour. I think they like their new pup.
Dawn had never been on the boat and neither had Pat. So we took them out for an afternoon sail. We had barely left the dock when Dawn dropped one of her flip-flops in the water. So of course we had to go around and pick it out but it took a couple passes. That late afternoon sail was absolutely wonderful. I think Pat and Dawn both enjoyed it.
Fay and I started tidying up the boat like we usually do when we get back from a weekend on the boat. After everything was tidy and we were relaxing, my friend Mike from Phase II came over. He had driven down late in the evening with the motor for his boat. Last fall we pulled the Universal 18 horse diesel engine out of his boat and rebuilt it. He was here to put it back in. The plan was to start on it first thing in the morning. It was a very nice evening so we just relaxed and had a few beers.
Monday morning came early and Mike and I got to work. We had figured it would take about 12 hours to reinstall the engine. But you know how things go and it actually took us two days. Fay headed back Monday afternoon and I stayed on the boat. We had worked fairly steady on Monday with a few small interruptions but hadn't quite finished it.
The next day was Tuesday morning and Mike and I picked up where we had left off. By late in the afternoon we had the engine installed and running. All that it was left to do was to align the prop shaft. Mike has a 27 ft. Gulf. Aligning the prop shaft is quite a challenge. I'm a fairly big guy and could hardly get to it. I did manage to get myself stuck at least once. I only panicked a little bit but did manage to get myself free. I wasn't confident that we had the prop shaft aligned properly so Mike and I broke off there. This week a friend who knows much more about alignment is going down to take a look at it. Better safe than sorry. The engine and engine compartment look great.
On June 14 I go on leave for three weeks. We plan to head to the boat on the 15th. After topping everything off and loading the groceries we will cast off for Prince William Sound. I can't wait.
Until the next time, Calm Seas and Fair Winds.
PS. I added a some pics to our gallery!
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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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