Back to Seward
04 June 2019 | Seward, Alaska
Jo Winter
We arrived back in mid May to find Brother Wind where we had left her in Raibow’s yard, Seward, where she had been shrink wrapped for the winter. She had survived heavy snow and more alarmingly the shock waves of an earthquake in Anchorage, which apparently caused and evacuation of Seward, and had all the boats shaking on their props!
We were relieved to find her in very good shape, no mould, and looking good, but it was amazing how much Alaskan grey grit had penetrated the shrink wrap, she looked a very grubby boat when we finally got the shrink wrap off!
We spent 4 nights staying on board Sagata, our New Zealand friends’ boat, a relief not to have to stay on board, on the hard, and after a quick anti foul we were happy to be back in the water.
Before we left last September, we had taken the generator out and it was at nearby AVTEC, engineering college, to be used as practical experience for the students. We had had to buy any parts, but it would hopefully prove an economic way of repairing it. A couple of days after launching we went over to the Icicle pier, and their crane lowered the generator down to us in great style, with friend Phil on board to help!
To get it back into the locker meant Giles taking all sorts of bits off, and then using the boom as a hoist Phil and he manoeuvred it back into the very tight space it came out of! That was problem one solved, and then it rained for 3 days so other jobs were done instead!
Eventually we reached firing up point, great, it ran, but not for very long, it sounded like fuel starvation! We had Bobby and three students to tea on board to admire the generator, but annoyingly we had not solved the problem.
Suffice it to say that after days of agony we still don’t have a working generator, very frustrating to say the least!
Other things have slowly got done on board, and bit by bit other boats have left, Sagata set off a week ago, and should be across to the other side of the Gulf of Alaska by now.
During the three weeks we’ve been here the weather has been warmer than anticipated, and we’ve had some lovely sunny days, as well as plenty of wet and grey ones, the wind when it blows is icy though! The snow is ever receding on the mountain tops, and looks beautiful.
Today our crew arrived, my younger brother James and a friend of ours from Norfolk, Mikey Gurney, they’ve sorted out fishing tackle and bought a licence, and are currently striding off to ‘Downtown’ Seward, which is pretty, with streets of old wooden houses, a draw for the tourists!
Tomorrow with any luck we should be good to go, first stop will be at the mouth of Prince William Sound, about 50 miles, so a good shake down cruise, luckily we spent time in Prince William last year, ad had hoped to revisit, but the wind as ever dictates! It would seem that we have got a decent weather window and we’ll set sail for the Inside Passage!