29 July 2019 | Prince William Sound: Snug Harbor
16 July 2019 | Aialik Bay, Kenai Peninsular
14 July 2019 | Northwestern Glacier
13 July 2019 | Kenai Penninsular
12 July 2019 | Pilot Harbor, Kenai Peninsular
11 July 2019 | Kenai Peninsular
10 July 2019 | Kenai Peninsular
09 July 2019 | Afognak Island
08 July 2019 | Afognak Island
06 July 2019 | Afognak Island
05 July 2019 | Kodiak Island
We're Here! - Day 21
17 May 2013 | French Polynesia
Kate
We have arrived at Hiva Oa and are at anchor in a lovely rolly anchorage with spectacular views. have had G&T to celebrate and looking forward to just chilling. Will get together with Somerset this evening to celebrate. Unfortunately Interlude must have gone to Fatu Hiva. Lot of the old Galapagos faces here. Plan to stay for 3-4 days then move on.
Last full day at sea - Day 20
16 May 2013 | French Polynesia
Kate
Typical of this trip! Its midnight and we are 45 miles out of Hiva Oha with an expected arrival time of around 8am - a gentle potter into port. So what happens, the wind picks up to a brisk 20-25 knots and Iolea, despite being double reefed, takes off like a horse on its home run. Oh well, guess its better than being becalmed.
On a more pedestrian note, our last day has been spent rubbing the boat down with vinegar and water and oiling the teak, as well as cleaning all the fans and both heads, and organising our rubbish - organics and tie cans and cardboard cut into pieces have gone overboard but, following Sue on Spruce, plastics and tetra packs have been cut into strips (photo) and stuffed into plastic bottles and other containers to reduce the volume of rubbish we offload in Hiva Oha. We will do our washing on the way into port and hope to have all inside tasks finished before we anchor (we hope) so that we just have the decks and hull to do after arrival.
Days 18-19
16 May 2013 | French Polynesia
Paul
This screen shot is a sort of milestone in this passage. It shows us about to enter French Polynesian territorial waters. In the top right corner it shows there was a southerly current of 2.0 knots; which is contrary to the dominant westerly current. Our Course Over Ground at the time was 242 degrees. The top right hand corner shows that we were hooning along at 10.1 knots towards our Marquesas waypoint. Yes we were a little over powered. Below that it shows the wind was 135 degrees off our port side blowing 19.1 knots. Shortly after this the winds increased to a sustained 25-30 knots with 35-40 knot gusts. We ended up double reefing the mainsail and putting a dozen wraps on the genoa. The screen shot also shows the time in the bottom left corner and in the bottom right corner some info on our waypoint; namely that it was on a bearing of 242 degrees, it was around 260 miles away and an estimate of how long it would take us to reach the waypoint. We are both so so so looking forward to arriving on Friday morning in Hiva Oa. There has been a 4 metre swell hitting us from 2-3 different directions for the last couple of days; feels like we've been riding a mechanical bull. A good night sleep on anchor will be a welcome relief to these troubled seas.
Nets - Days 16-17
16 May 2013 | Pacific Ocean
Paul
One of the most common questions we get asked by our land based friends & family is "what do you do all day?" Well on passage one task that tends to take up a lot of my etime is checking in on various nets using the SSB radio. Nets are chat rooms for cruisers. They are run by a net controller on a set frequency each day & evening at set times specified in UTC. They are a means by which cruisers update each other on their position, course, speed, weather, etc. The first call is for emergency, priority or medical traffic. After which each boat that is participating in the net calls in to report their current status. They are relatively informal and only exist if someone takes the initiative to set one up and they can get enough volunteers to help run the net. One of the nets we participate is called the Beagle Net, which has a collection of boats going to either Gambier, Marquesas or Hawaii. The photo is of me about to do my thing as net controller for a day. In this case there are about 30 boats participating in the net with a wide range of nationalities (USA, Canada, UK, France, Germany, Austria, Netherlands, Denmark, South Africa, Italy, Spain, Australia, NZ). Whilst most passages are pleasant uneventful voyages, there are always instances where things don't go to plan. Some of the issues that have bobbed up on three nets we're following are:- snapped main halyards, torn spinnakers, torn main sails, rudder failure, auto-pilot failure, engine failure, transmission problems, broken shoulder blade, plus numerous other minor injuries. Last but not least is of course the reporting of how many fish were caught, what type, with what lure, and how were they cooked. All good fun!
Dog legs - Day 15
13 May 2013 | Pacific Ocean
Kate
Yes, we do know how to sail! We keep on wanting to pick the little boat up and stretch out the line to see where we would be if we didn't have to to and for across the rhumb line. But, hey, what's the hurray? Thought we saw the spout from a whale today but it didn't make another appearance. Otherwise its been a day of baking bread - finally produced a large light loaf using my dutch oven on the stove top and the smallest burner - Paul is ecstatic at the potential saving in gas. As you can see its the little things in life that matter to us now. Paul got stuck into the walls of the front cabins with vinegar and water followed by a light oiling. My turn tomorrow. It keeps the mould down and protects any exposed wood and the boat smells lovely afterwards.
Unidentified Sailing Objects - Day 14
11 May 2013 | Pacific Ocean
Kate
The seas are up today - around 3-4 meters with the sets bigger - and we had a conga line of light squalls overnight - welcome rain to clean the decks and rig of salt. We have headed more south to maintain a reach and reduce the load on the rig as the sea takes hold of us. We are green with envy at Somerset's ability to run comfortably square to the wind. She is sailing along in a straight line and we are buzzing around her like a bee except our goal is favourable wind not honey.
Last evening we came across an unidentified vessel lit like a Xmas tree and apparently on a converging course with us. Despite several attempts to raise them they ignored us. Boats ahead of us in the fleet had reported this problem as well. It seemed as though the vessel wanted to cross our path and were tracking us until we got ahead of them. But without confirmation a small yacht just can't make those assumptions so Paul woke me and we changed course to go behind and, yes, he turned as we had expected - just a simple "we will go behind" is all the effort it would have taken them.
Despite our grumblings we are still enjoying the passage and our routines. The SSB net is an important part of that since it gives us weather and sea conditions from those boats in front of us and lets us know that " all is well on board". This morning there was an unconfirmed report of a 16 meter yacht floating abandoned in seas near The Gambier - Not a boat from this fleet, I guess we will hear more on that.
PS: avoid Backpackers Pantry freeze dried camping meals they are disgusting - we have used commercial freeze dried meals camping in Oz and they have been good so we bought a dozen of this and another brand in the States for difficult sailing days - very disappointing.