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Don and Réanne Douglass departed
Anacortes April 30, 2003, on their most ambitious exploration
aboard Baidarka to date—a thorough reconnaissance
and documentation of the Gulf of Alaska from Cape Spencer
to Prince William Sound and the Kenai Peninsula to Kodiak.
You can follow their five-month, 7,000-mile trip on
this webpage.
Click on a sponsor's logo to visit their website.
April 30, 2003
FineEdge.com’s
Research Vessel Baidarka left today on its most ambitious
exploration to date. Don Douglass and Réanne
Hemingway-Douglass are embarking on a thorough reconnaissance
and documentation of the Gulf of Alaska from Cape Spencer
to Prince William Sound and the Kenai Peninsula to Kodiak.
Their 7,000 mile trip, spanning 5 months, will provide
detailed data for a new cruising guide, Exploring the
Gulf of Alaska, to be published next year, as well as
a series of magazine articles. The Douglass’ research
will focus on the many inadequately and uncharted anchorages
along the route that could provide shelter for recreational
boaters and kayakers. The goal is to extend their leading
Exploring series books to show how to cruise in one
season from Mexico to Kodiak, Alaska, and back as a
series of day-hops from one anchor site to another.
Accompanied by veteran crewman John
Leone of Anacortes and others enroute, Don and Réanne
will collect hydrographic and recreational information
in their specially-equipped Nordhavn 40 research vessel,
Baidarka. They will have three computers on board to
help record and analyze their data and photos. Their
robust trawler, which is perfectly suited to explore
the remote seas of the world, has a self-sufficient
range of 2,500 miles and sophisticated navigation and
safety gear. (In 2002, a sister ship of Baidarka completed
a circumnavigation of the world in 7 months, a new first
for a production cruising vessel of this size.)
Sponsors for this year’s expedition
include, Nordhavn, Nobeltec navigation software, Mustang
Survival clothing, Iridium satellite communications,
Interphase Technology forward and side-to-side scanning
sonar, and the Canadian Hydrographic Service.
The
Douglasses will complete their provisioning in Sitka
the third week of May and be ready for a good-weather
window to help them explore Lituya Bay, Yakatak and
Icy Bay, as well as potential anchor sites along the
coast of Cape Fairweather, Cape Suckling, Cape Saint
Elias and Cape Hitichingbrook. In early June, they will
rendezvous with Jim and Nancy Lethcoe, the leading cruising
and geographical experts on Prince William Sound before
heading further west to Kodiak. After exploring from
Seward to Homer, Baidarka will visit parts of Shelikof
Strait and the remote, but potentially useful, shelter
afforded by the Barren Islands. Last will be the east
side of Prince William Sound and uncharted areas south
of Cordova and the outlet of the Copper River and flats
around historic Kayak Island.
Don and Réanne will return
to Anacortes in September after calling on a number
of old friends in Southeast Alaska and upper British
Columbia.
May 4, 2003
We are off to Queens Sound after spending
a peaceful night in our favorite Fury Cove. There were
a total of 4 boats in Fury Cove. Among them was the
“Perlorus", a Bellingham boat headed also
for Prince William Sound. We may see them again in Sitka
on the way. We did 107 nautical miles yesterday leaving
Port Neville at 0500 and dropping the hook at 2030.
We are underway north at 1200 hours
via Pruth Bay, Hakai Pass, to Queens Sound and will
stay overnight in the Goose Island anchorage if the
wind allows us to get there before dark.
We are not sure whether failure for
the engine to start sometimes is the switch, the solenoid
or the starter relay. We found a way we can short the
solenoid and start the engine by bypassing the starter
relay in case we have to. Also, John cleaned and greased
the relay contacts so that may be our problem. The engine
started fine when we left the cove.
In any case I will look up the part
numbers for the starter relay and solenoid to have you
pick up and bring as a backup. Lugger is headquartered
in Seattle so you should have them shortly I hope.
Best Regards, Don and Crew
May 5, 2003
After coming out of Pruth Bay into
the teeth of a nasty black squall, the crew voted to
turn right and head back into Fitz Hugh Sound. Instead
the skipper threaded his way north between the Breaker
Group and Plant Group went up Edward Channel and turned
west in Nalau Passage. By then the dark squall line
passed and behind the front was blue sky and moderate
seas. So we once again headed northwest into Kilidt
Sound turned west after passing the Mosquito Islands
and attempted a transient of Spitfire Narrows in Spitfire
Channel.
Spitfire is about the tiniest of all
Northwest passages and Réanne conned us through
missing the south rock a good 6 feet. She was on such
a high that when we reached the open Pacific of Queens
Sound, she followed the course 7 miles off shore to
Goose Island like it was no problem.
Goose Island is a wildly beautiful
place so we decided to spend a layover to explore this
seldom place. John and I spent a couple hours beach
combing and the three of us will head out again as soon
as I get this off.
We hoped John fixed the starting problem
yesterday but we have the same problem today. The starter
won't turn over unless John hits the small Bosch starter
relay. Please call Lugger in Seattle and order a replacement.
The Calvert Island weather repeater
seems to be out again so we have not been able to get
a local weather report but it seems to be fair weather
so we should continue up the outside as far as Trutch
Island in the Estevan Islands Group tomorrow. We hope
to explore the uncharted west entrance of the Langley
Passage.
Otherwise, things are going great.
Réanne is taking good care of us in the galley
when she isn't piloting. We watched a DVD last night,
perhaps a first in these lovely remote islands!
Best Regards, Don
May 6, 2003
We have been traveling on the outside
of the coast this morning in really fine weather and
have gone from Goose Island across Queen Sound, passed
Cape Mark, crossed Milbank Sound, took Catala Passage
inside McInnes Light House and am now streaming north
in Laredo Sound on the west cost of Price Island. We
will be pulling into a tiny cove called Rudolf Bay for
lunch. We checked out the tiny unnamed cove on the NE
corner of Goose Island and found it to be a good lunch
stop in NW weather.
Both computer navigation systems are
almost inoperative. I deleted the PCR stuff we added
the day we left but this has had only a marginal improvement
(virus?). The ships computer is extremely slow and is
about 2 minutes behind in up dating our GPS position
and frequently freezes. The Dell suffers from some of
the same problems and still offers only vector charts
of marginal value. We are sure glad we have our paper
charts onboard even though we three are a little rusty
with DR skills.
We are back in weather station range
so we are not quite flying blind. We talked with the
Ivory Island lighthouse and Rene and Cheryl are leaving
for the east coast and they will be missed for their
20 years of service here.
Best Regards, Don
May 6, 2003 (later in the day)
We are safely inside Rudolph Bay and
really nifty place and the only shelter along this side
of Price Island. Most of this coast is sounded out about
a mile with thousands of rocks and islets—lots
of white water here.
Check out this place on NCBC page
248. This place is like Fury Cove 20 years, undiscovered
and unknown. This is the next step up from Fury Cove.
A truly wild entrance, narrow entrance and near perfect
shelter inside.
One big problem, I believe we made
a mistake years ago when we said to pass the mid channel
island on north side. This is a mistake. We came in
on a 3 ft low tide and found a nasty rock pile awash
which would be hard to avoid. We worked our way in very
slowly along the south side and found 2.1 fathoms minimum
in the tiny fairway.
Please put this up on our website
and tell Charlie at Interphase that his Twinscope unit
worked very well in the vertical mode just when we thought
we would have to turn around before we got caught in
a most difficult situation.
The head of Rudolph Bay has a wide
a 2 fathom flat bottom bay with very good shelter, Lots
of swinging room with a large inner bay and mud flats
to explore to the south. Very few logs ashore here so
this is the only place for miles around for such good
shelter... getting in here in a SW gale would be something
else, the entrance would be covered by lots of foam.
I will do a diagram for future editions.
Yes, we need 12 volt parts so thanks
so much. Until we get them we have to go down in the
engine room and John hits the starter relay. We have
lots to do in Prince Rupert so we may try to get in
there by Friday.
The Iridium is working out very well
for email. Our biggest problem is that while underway
on the outer coast it is hard to type and pay attention
to the communications when so many other things requires
our careful attention.
Best Regards, Don
May 8, 2003
Things are going better since we just
got the ship's computer back in near normal service.
We have been flying essentially VFR last couple days
but have kept up a fast pace and, as we send this, we
are presently cruising along nicely in Petrel Channel.
The ship's computer got to the point
where in could not process any GPS position. So this
morning when I found a diagnostic screen that mentioned
deleting all routes and maps I took it and Voila! it
starting responding to GPS and got back its normal speedy
response. I rebuilt the console etc and John is very
happy to have his little green boat back and I hope
to get rid of a week of frustration with some serious
ship's port-drinking tonight when the hook is fully
embedded. The problem seemed to be related to the failed
attempt to install the PCR on the day we left Anacortes
and the problems just got worse over time.
Only thing questionable at the moment
is that Nobeltec has trouble reading the largest scale
charts (small area) and shows a blank screen and, if
you click the red down arrow, it causes the computer
to freeze. We aren't complaining too much right now
as this is such an improvement over what we had.
Here is what has happened lately:
We have not seen another boat since
leaving Fury Cove the morning of May 4th. We have been
traveling alone in a pristine wilderness. We love the
Outer Passage!
After the interesting approach and
good lunch in Rudolph Bay, we beat our way up Laredo
Channel and made it to our goal of Devlin Bay on Trutch
Island just as it got dark at 2130. The first anchor
try dragged with a wad of kelp but the second attempt
worked fine. Yesterday morning we launched the dinghy
and scouted the Gillespie Channel, the eastern entrance
to Langley Passage. We collected some good information
for a future diagram to this special place.
When we returned to Baidarka Réanne
said she would like to try the rapids in Gillespie and
visit our friends the Pollocks in Ethelda Bay. The current
was ebbing out at about 3 knots and the key leg of the
route is only about 45 feet wide and you must pass within
about 10 feet of red plastic buoy ET3 which marks bad
submerged reefs just behind it. Réanne did a
fine job and we visited the most remote outpost we know
along the B.C. coast. The Pollocks run a small abalone
research operation and were glad to see us. They took
us across the bay to hike the old trail to the WWII
DEW line station site. It was a thousand foot climb
and because of overgrown brush took us 4 hours to complete
with the cost of lots of scratches and some surface
blood but what a view! On the way up we passed a large
beaver dam, saw lots of deer tracks, and heard grouse
in the bushes. (One even gave us a start when he flew
out of the bush.) The weather was clear and we could
see a tremendous layout of countless islands, breaking
seas and snow-covered mountains on the North American
mainland to the east. The west end of Langley Passage
enters the ocean, but is shallow, kelp filled and poorly
charted, but John and I decided to give it a try in
the dinghy. We made it to the opening but turned around
when the seas threatened to start breaking on us. The
coast pilot says the seas break even in moderate conditions
and that the entrance is not surveyed. It was quite
a thrill off the edge of chart 3795 made in 1941 and
not surveyed since.
But that was only the beginning, on
the way back to Ethelda Bay I spotted a gap in the rocky
shore to the south which is uncharted on chart 3795
(even to its approximate shoreline) so John and I spent
about an hour poking our way south. We found a small
boat route that Baidarka could apparently find its way
directly into the ocean at high water with far less
chance of finding itself in breaking seas.
Beyond what we call The Gap, lies
a series of offshore rocks and reefs that make a natural
breakwater of sorts offering partial shelter from prevailing
strong NW winds. We made it as far as lat 53 03.478
and long 129 42.458 (about a half mile or more into
the ocean) where the water was getting over 30 feet
deep and appeared clear ahead. This route appears to
be an alternative for small boats that can tolerate
a lot of smashing swells on nearby reefs. Pollocks says
the local fisherman don't use or know of the place except
perhaps by their punts. He felt we might have missed
a submerged rock at the narrows but that it could be
avoided like at the entrance to Gillespie Channel, by
staying close alongside the islet. We gathered enough
depth data to feel it offers an interesting alternative
and want to return some day soon and make a full diagram
of place. I will write the C.H.S. and see if they have
any more recent data.
The Pollocks' place is about as remote
as you can get. They are about 100 miles south of Prince
Rupert and near no habitation except a couple of Indian
villages requiring hours of boat travel in rough seas.
It costs them $425 for a one-way floatplane ticket.
They treated the Baidarka crew to a fresh prawn (6 inches
long from their traps) and spare rib dinner to which
Réanne contributed a curried lentil salad. Danielle
makes jewelry from the rare otoliths (ivory feather-like
structure in the balance mechanism behind the eyes of
certain bottom fish). We slept well for 5 hours then
left to retrace our steps out east through the Gillespie
Channel and our present route north.
Other than strong afternoon westerly
and bumpy seas, the weather here outside on the west
coast of the Inside Passage has been beautiful and great.
We should be in Prince Rupert by tomorrow noon.
We just passed the first vessel in
4 days: a small sailboat heading into Dory Passage bound
for Squall Bay.
Best Regards, Don
Weekend of May 9-11, 2003 — Report
from the First Mate
We tied up at Prince Rupert Yacht
Club by 1014, just a 20-mile run from Lawson Harbor
where we spent Thursday night. We found many changes
along the waterfront in Rupert: the old fish plant just
west of Cow Bay, newly renovated, now serves as the
terminal for the airport bus & is slowly beginning
to fill with boutiques. At the yacht club: a new $37,000
gangway that eliminates the previous 45-degree angle
at low tide (much safer now; one year Don fell trying
to haul a dock cart at extreme low tide.); a couple
of new float sections and, within a week or two they'll
have email service for guests. We spent the day doing
the usual shore side tasks of laundry, hair cuts, reprovisioning,
stopping by dealers to say hello and checking on their
stock of FineEdge products, and visiting with other
boaters; then John treated us to supper at the best
Chinese restaurant in town. Our friends, Don & Merilyn
Baldwin of Seasport Marine lent us their car to haul
all the groceries and booze. Oh, yes, the guys bought
their last zillion gallons of Okanagon port (read: adult
Coolaid) which is supposed to last until John gets off
the boat in Kodiak. On Saturday, we spent over an hour
visiting the Coast Guard base and interviewing the guys
whose voices we've heard over the radio these past 12
years. Fascinating to see all the computers with the
positions of ferry and cruise ships and to watch the
guys in action as someone calls in. Due to budget cuts,
these officers have to do Vessel Traffic, as well as
respond to all the other demands. The Rupert CG covers
60,000 square km, the largest area in Canada and yet
Ottawa won't even pay for radar for Queen Charlotte
Sound and Dixon entrance that leaves miles of open water
without security coverage. We are big fans of BC CG;
most of these men and women are professional officers
who know their trade thoroughly and are well trained
and articulate.
Mark arrived (Sat morning) just before
we returned from the CG Base and we spent a profitable
(and fun) weekend working on the San Juan/Gulf Is manuscript
and other items, and he and Don spent a couple of hours
visiting the dealers. Mark bought fresh rockfish for
dinner; John prepared it. That served up with a great
Bunzel zucchini dish, my salad and a fresh sour dough
baguette rounded out our on-board feast. Mark, we enjoyed
having you aboard.May 10-11, 2003 — Prince Rupert
Yacht Club — Mark’s Entry to the Log
As a guest visiting Baidarka for a
working weekend in Prince Rupert, I was inspired enough
to write my own perspective to the Log of Baidarka -
with lots of pictures.
My trip to Baidarka had been previously
planned as part of the process to finish the new 2nd
Edition to the “Exploring the San Juan and Gulf
Islands” book. It turned out as you may have noticed
from the log entries above I would also be bringing
along a new starter relay and spare solenoid for Baidarka’s
Lugger diesel engine.
My first trip to Prince Rupert was
with something I am told is very rare - non-stop sunshine!
Well almost. Unlike the crew of Baidarka I took the
easy way up via Air Canada Jazz, the discount prop plane
service. While my passage was only a short 1.5 hours
enroute from Vancouver (RT fare only $161US), the view
was awesome. Traveling north in BC by airplane on a
cloudless day is a special experience. Once we left
the Vancouver area it was easy to pick out some of my
favorite BC cruising areas such as Sechelt and Jervis
Inlet, and Desolation Sound. Areas I hope to visit soon
like Knight Inlet, Fitz Hugh Sound, Princess Royal Island
were all right where they should be with spring snow
capped mountains adding to the panorama. While departing
Vancouver and enroute, the suspense for the trip was
the pilots and flight attendant giving us an update
on the zero-zero visibility conditions at Prince Rupert
airport on Digby Island. They expected the low level
fog to burn off around the time of our 9:35a landing.
If the landing could not be assured due to the fog,
we would turn around and fly the 1.5 hours back to Vancouver.
Sure enough, as we begin the approach with 50/50 odds,
the once clear view of the islands went to a layer of
overcast. As we descended lower and lower, holes in
the cloud deck began to appear where you could see green
terra firma below. Being a pilot, I know that sight
of the ground straight down does not qualify for visibility
to land, so I hoped up front they could legally descend
low enough to poke below the cloud deck. Sure enough
they could and we made an uneventful landing. After
deplaning the next step of the journey began. Digby
Island is across the water from Kaien Island where the
town of Prince Rupert is located. To get to Prince Rupert
you take a bus, which drives down and rolls onto the
ferry for a short 15 minute water crossing, and then
the bus takes you through town and down to the visitors
information center near the yacht harbor. As I stepped
off the bus I could see Baidarka sitting in its berth
at the Prince Rupert Yacht Club.
The mental vision of a yacht club
is often gleaming boats behind locked gates. This is
hardly the atmosphere in Prince Rupert and the yacht
club welcomes transient visitors to moor at its accommodating
facilities. While the resident boats fit the image of
an area of BC known for its excellent fishing, the atmosphere
is friendly and laid back. The club has recently invested
in a new ramp and docks and is in the process of further
improvements and future expansion. Overnight moorage
is nominal and the fuel dock is right next to the yacht
club. There is only one bathroom and shower but there
was no early morning line this early in the season.
The club’s commodore, Jack Payne, gave us a special
welcome and asked if we might try their new wireless
computer connections on Baidarka. Within a few minutes
our laptops in the boat were connected to the wireless
system in the clubhouse and we had access to the internet
just like we were using DSL or a cable modem. Our cell
phones were not usable in Prince Rupert, but we had
high speed internet on Baidarka to send pictures to
our web site and look at the latest weather maps and
sat photos.
Don and I made several successful
sales calls in town for our books and maps. Yes, FineEdge
books and maps are very popular in BC and even in Prince
Rupert. They sell well at Eddies News stand, Star of
the West book store and Sea Sport marine supply. Afterward
we grabbed lunch at Dolly’s Fish Market, just
a block from the yacht club. Dolly’s is a must
visit for great casual seafood. I highly recommend the
salmon and halibut chowder with a shrimp sandwich. While
discussing Prince Rupert restaurants, Cow Bay Café
also gets high marks. We were not able to squeeze in
for reservations on Saturday night and instead dined
on fresh rockfish on the boat. On Sunday the crew of
Baidarka and guests, Merilyn and Don Baldwin from Sea
Sport Outboard Marina dined at Cow Bay while yours truly
was reversing his bus-ferry-airplane and car passage
home on Sunday night.
One of the extra experiences of any
good harbor is the activity from the other boats that
arrive and depart. Prince Rupert, as a gateway to the
Alaska waters to the north, is no exception. For Don
and Réanne there were a number of familiar boats
passing through that they would most likely see again
as they worked their way north. Baidarda also attracts
some attention in any harbor as fans of the FineEdge
books stop by to say hello and comment on their use
of our books and the special coves or harbors they have
found. On Saturday, one special guest was Captain Richard
Friedman of M/V Explorer, the distinctive green and
off white Malahide trawler many of us have admired in
publications like “Passagemaker” and “Wooden
Boat”. Richard was on his way north with two charter
couples intent on seeing the sights of SE Alaska. Richard
was kind enough to give us a tour of Explorer. It is
a delight to see the workmanship that went into this
incredible vessel when it was built in 1976 in Norway.
7” thick, steam bent ribs remind you how they
used to build boats to brave the North Seas. I would
go anywhere in this boat! Richard has just a few openings
left in a pretty full charter schedule for the summer.
If you want to see all SE Alaska has to offer and don’t
have your own boat, or want to see it for the first
time with an experienced captain, take a look at Richard’s
website at www.yachtexplorer.com <http://www.yachtexplorer.com/>
. Even if you don’t want to sail with him, there
is a lot of good information on Alaska on his website.
Sunday morning was again another beautiful
day with sunrise starting about 4:30am. From my berth
in the pilothouse I had a great view of the morning
light over the harbor as the northbound crowd started
their early departures to take advantage of a good window
in the weather on Sunday. I decided to beat the crowd
to the yacht club shower at 6am. As I stepped out of
the yacht club to head back to the boat, I heard the
sound of eagles. To my left, three bald eagles where
wrestling on the harbor rocks. But as I looked around,
the harbor was surrounded by bald eagles. On the piling
tops, on the ridge of a dock shelter, on the roof top
of the yacht club, there were at least 12 bald eagles,
and they were all watching me. Judging their talons,
I figured the group of them could make mince meat of
me in a few seconds. Attempting to show no fear, I made
my way down the dock back to the boat passing within
10 feet of one grand eagle poised on the top of a dock
piling. It was one of those magical moments we sometimes
have when boating – but with my camera 50 yards
away on Baidarka.
After a full day of working on the
new book galleys with Don and Réanne, and a few
more tweaks to Baidarka’s computer systems it
was time for me to reverse the bus-ferry-airplane and
car passage back to Anacortes, but not without one added
point of excitement. Just before leaving, Réanne
asked me to take back a small bag of office tools that
would be not be needed on the trip. I shoved it in my
overnight bag and didn’t think twice about it.
She also asked me if I wanted to take back a round can
of coffee as she had packed too much. Those who know
Réanne know that she is an absolute expert at
packing and provisioning a boat. In Prince Rupert, Réanne
adjusted some of provisioning and left some things behind
until they come back through in September. Later, as
I passed through the x-ray security checkpoint in the
Prince Rupert Airport, things got a little tense as
they re-scanned my bag for the third time. Security
asked if I would mind if they hand checked my bag. At
first they came up with a large fingernail clipper.
Whoops! Since 9/11 I tried to take those things out
of my overnight bag before I would leave on a trip with
travel on the airlines. The nice woman in security reached
into my bag and asked if I had a pair of scissors in
my bag. I said no, and she reached into my bag again
and removed a 10” pair of scissors from the bag
Réanne gave me. As you might imagine, the scissors
did not make the flight and now probably are on their
way to the Prince Rupert schools. Next out came the
round can of coffee which they also proceeded to open
and check. I will have to watch what Réanne gives
me in the future before I fly. On the way up the nice
shiny round cylinder with wires (the solenoid) also
set off the alarms when I left Vancouver so I think
I am now on the watch list for Canadian airport security.
Now I am back to Anacortes to keep
the business on its FineEdge course while the crew of
Baidarka brave the shifting weather enroute to the Gulf
of Alaska and Kodiak. I will be joining Baidarka again
in late July in Prince William Sound which will be quite
an experience.
Enjoy the pictures (see Photo Album
— May 11).
Mark Bunzel
May 12, 2003 — Report from the
First Mate
I insisted on filing today's report
to keep a semblance of truth in the day's log. This
is the kind of day the captain thrives on, while the
crew grasps the helm with death-grip trying to control
it.
We left Prince Rupert at 0510 this
morning, at first light, knowing gales were predicted
for Dixon Entrance, Hecate Strait and points north and
hoping that an early start would get us across Dixon
before the worst part of the weather hit the area. We
threaded our way west, then north through circuitous
Venn Passage & the North Shortcut (see p.393 Exploring
North Coast of BC) where the range and sector lights
read from seaward into Rupert Harbour. This means a
stern watch has to holler directions to the helmsman.
"On range; off range; in the red (too far to port);
in the green (too far to starboard)." New acquaintances,
Ken & Judy on S/V Nellie Juan from Seward, AK followed
us out since they'd never been through the passage before
and didn't have detailed charts. North of the shortcut
we parted ways, as they set sail for Ketchikan. Seas
were sloppy at first, but not bad, so we opted for the
shortest route: up the center of Chatham Sound, past
Dundas and Green Islands, then across Dixon Entrance.
Winds of up to 30/35 NM from the SE had been predicted
and we were soon wallowing in 2-meter seas. John and
Don lowered the stabilizers and "fish", which
helped somewhat, but with following seas we still rolled
a lot. Because the boat was yawing, the autopilot had
difficulty maintaining a downwind course and we had
to hand steer, no easy task in those seas. By the time
we were 15 miles from Rupert, all the indications of
gale were visible: breaking seas and streamers of white
foam across the water. I had been at the helm for several
hours, but had to ask Don to relieve me because I couldn't
control it any longer. Fortunately, the moment it got
rough, I put on my new electronic "Relief Band"
and did not get seasick. (Time will tell whether it
works in the Gulf of AK, but I hope I don't have to
test it any further than I did today!) Unfortunately,
John lost his sea legs and felt horrible. The captain,
on the other hand, whistled all the time he was at the
helm, thriving on the fact that Baidarka was handling
conditions well. (Frankly, I kept thinking he was whistling
past the graveyard!) Baidarka's stabilizer poles groaned
and creaked a lot, but the only emergency occurred when
the freezer shot open and spewed all its contents. Someone
forgot to put the lock on last night and I neglected
to check it this a.m. (Future crew take note!)
Regards, love, hugs, etc (as the shoe
fits) to everyone from Réanne
P.S. It's now 1800 hours and time
for the First Mate to start supper. John has been reading
Bernard Lewis' "Crisis of Islam" and he and
Don are discussing the world situation over their 100th
glass of port (that's counting the last two weeks).
Menu tonight: sherried veal with linguine (courtesy
of the freezer spill out); don't ask for the recipe
I'm making it up as I go along. To Sean & Midge,
et al: thanks for your Mother's Day greetings. Very
funny, but Mark assures me we don't have to be THAT
careful. Also, please tell your brother to check his
earthlink mail. To Chris & Debi: Hope the wedding
went beautifully; give my love to Amanda, and to birthday
girls Christa & Marissa.
P.P.S. to Dina: Congratulations! We're
very happy for you, but sorry you'll be leaving FineEdge.
May 12, 2003 — Comments from
the Pilothouse:
Once it appeared that our crew wasn't
exactly enjoying today's cruise, I started crabbing
Baidarka toward the west side of Chatham Sound with
the idea of seeking temporary shelter in Hudson Bay
Channel between Dundas Island and Nares Islands. Years
ago, Reanne and I found shelter in a small unnamed nook
on the SE side of Dundas Island years, which we named
Hudson Bay Cove, and used it to escape nasty NE winds
that sometimes blow down 100-mile-long Portland Canal.
The question today was how much shelter we could find
from a SE gale. The cove is poorly charted (no soundings
or depth contours) with a nice 20-ft-deep hole in its
center and it looked like a good place for us to drop
the hook. The water inside the cove was flat and we've
been swinging slowly around while the wind blows overhead
across the trees. Now that the tide level has fallen
about 15 feet, a couple of small rocks have uncovered
on the north side of the entrance so we'll make a sketch
for our next edition of our North Coast BC book that
shows favoring the south side when entering.
It always surprises me how good Canadian
charts are for details but it also amazes me how those
who surveyed these waters in the last 60 years or so
missed some key details. For promotional use I just
took a couple of photos of the screen of our new forward-scanning
depth sounder. While it is not the quality of professional
equipment, it's proved to be useful in tight quarters.
Interphase Company is one of our sponsors this year
and we appreciate their support of important equipment.
Prince Rupert waterfront was abuzz
about the 105-foot pocket cruiser Safari Spirit with
16 people aboard that hit a rock last week in Fitz Hugh
Sound along the main part of the Inside Passage, sinking
the vessel. This is yet another sobering distress story
that Baidarka's crew hears on emergency channel 16.
On it maiden voyage three years ago, the new NOAA research
vessel ran aground in Hiekish Narrows--a well marked
and charted channel--and was nearly lost. High latitude
cruising is a beautiful, wild experience, almost unique
in today's environment but it requires constant vigilance
to survive. Darwinism is still alive and well out here!
It's been pouring rain since we set
our hook and now the Green Island lighthouse, 3 miles
east of us, is reporting steady SE winds of 32 knots,
with gusts to 40 knots, and rough 7-feet sea conditions.
This means Baidarka won't attempt to move farther north
today; instead, we'll relish our little bit of peaceful
water just a few miles south of the Alaska border. The
Captain broke out some wonderful chocolate covered peanuts
from the McCoys and real homemade ginger snaps from
Carol Cornell which they both dropped off at our Bon
Voyage dock party.
The barometer has stabilized and we
should head across the border tomorrow as the gale moderates.
This was a good warm-up for the Gulf of Alaska which
lies ahead and I'm happy to report the ship and crew
did well for its initial weather test.
May 13, 2003
Presently tied up at the City Floats
in Ketchikan and just finished dinner at the New York
Hotel on Ketchikan Creek (good food! and nice to have
it near the harbor).
We had a relatively easy day crossing
Dixon Entrance as the front veered to the SW and the
gale tapered off. We deployed the paravanes all the
way from Dundas Island to Mary Island in AK. We had
a mixture of wind, low clouds, cloud bursts and patchy
sun all day long.
Only saw one other boat the entire
way, but a few minutes ago a large cruiser (50-something
Ocean Alexender) came in having completed the entire
trip from Blaine WN in three days; flat out 20 knots
with three much-needed fuel stops. Yesterday's gale
caused a lot of follow up on Channel 16; the Coast Guard
was looking for overdue boats or arranging emergency
help; one boat hit a rock near Trutch Island; another
lost its engine in Kitkatla Inlet, etc. The Coast Guard
announced this morning that Kisameet Bay was closed
for salvage work on Safari Spirit, so it looks like
the grounding will turn out to be a real tragedy.
There were three giant cruise ships
tied up to the wharf when we arrived; next week, when
the real cruise ship season starts they expect to have
five ships here every day. The ships arrive in the morning
and leave in the afternoon starting at 3 pm; they travel
overnight to the next stop, Juneau, Glacier Bay, Sitka
or Skagway on a regular schedule. Downtown Ketchikan
is now almost entirely jewelry and souvenir shops...certainly
not the frontier charm of yesteryear as I knew it when
I lived here as a teenager and ran the radio station
for Ellis Air.
We found that the Ketchikan Micro
Brewery is out of business and our favorite Spruce Tip
beer is no more.....what a bummer....we may leave tomorrow
and go hide out away from all this tinsel town stuff!
The saltwater temperature has been
dropping and is in the high forties now. The Dickinson
diesel pot belly stove feels really nice. We started
it a week before we left and it runs 24 hours a day.
John and I can't figure out our fuel
comsumption. We have a slow 6 knot boat but we seem
to make fuel as we go along; the longer we are out the
more fuel our sight gages indicate. We left Anacortes
indicating 600 gallons and together both gauges now
read 660 gallons remaining! For some unknown reason
we seem to be generating fuel. We'll top the tanks in
Sitka this week-end then perhaps we can get a good idea
of what's happening.
Today was my 71st birthday. John gave
me a New Zealand wool hat which has already become my
favorite cold-weather hat; Réanne gave me a kneeling
pad to protect my tired old knees and a whistle that's
supposed to be heard 1/8 mile away in case I fall in
the water or some horrible disaster like that. The crew
tricked me into not having dessert at the cafe and served
me vanilla ice cream slathered with Bailey's Irish Cream
when we got back to the boat.
We're all pretty tired from yesterday's
gale, so we plan to sleep beyond the usual 0430.
Don, John & Réanne
May 14, 2003
Report from Sumner Strait, heading
toward Cape Ommaney at the tip of Baranof. We're in
the process of deciding whether to take Rocky Pass or
go on the outside of Baranof; the WX report predicts
20kn winds, small craft warnings on the outside.
Yesterday we left Ketchikan at 1030
hrs, headed north in Clarence Strait. Barometer read
1002mb and the wind was SW Force 3. As we hit the convergence
of Tongass Narrows & Clarence, seas were lumpy so
John & Don deployed the stabilizer poles but not
the "fish" which stabilized Baidarka but didn't
slow us down. The water calmed quite a bit as we moved
northward and I was able to finish the edit of Chapter
8 and phone changes to Mark by cell later in the afternoon.
We are now out of cell phone range, and the Iridium
had insufficient signal strength for us to send the
5/13 report until late last night. But so far the sat
phone has proved to be our best friend for communication.
Shortly after noon when John and I
were on watch, the M/V Blitzen a beautiful 50+ foot
passagemaker from Portland, OR passed abeam of us and
slowed. I opened the port side door to take a look thru
the binocs and the skipper came out and held up a copy
of our Inside Passage book (now out of print). I waved
and gave him a thumbs up. Unfortunately Captain missed
the visual kudos.
By 1519 we were abeam Thorne Bay &
Meyers Chuck. Continued on thru Snow Passage bucking
a 3kn flood; Don took the east side where we found a
3kn back eddy, which picked up our speed to 10.1 kn
over ground for the first half of the passage! After
that our speed decreased to 3 kn through the rapids
in turbulent waters. Current predictions read 2.5 kn
on the flood and we were having 4.5 kn.
As if "reading the river"
(Don hand steered all thru the passage) didn't give
us enough excitement we were treated to the sight of
more than a dozen orcas feeding and surfacing in Snow
Passage. Six of them nearly gave us each a heart attack
when they crossed the bow just 20 feet in front of us.
Don had to throw the throttle in neutral and, for a
moment, I had visions of the couple whose sailboat was
struck and hit by a whale in the South Pacific during
the early 1970s. But they just glided on their way giving
us the thrill of the trip to this date. Till then we
had seen very little animal life, other than birds:
one merganser, murres, guillemots, blue herons, loons,
least sandpipers (amazing flight patterns and tight
turns), and of course, eagles en masse. Just now as
I write this we had a rare sight of 5 arctic loons.
Last night Don asked the crew if we
wanted to continue to Red Bay, making a radar approach
and anchoring in the dark or scout out a new anchorage
while it was still dusk. "The new anchorage!"
was our answer, so we "cheated death again"
(John's favorite expression) through a nasty section
in Snow Passage, at the convergence of Clarence and
Sumner straits and set anchor at 2130 hrs in an unnamed
cove on the north end of Bushy Island that offers good
protection from S & SE winds (position: 56 16.53'N,
132 58.87'W); John named it George Bushy Bight. The
anchor bit on our first try (grey mud) and held well
throughout the night.
Nobeltec on the ship's computer acted
up again yesterday, so Don dumped the W. Coast charts
from San Diego to Seattle and a bunch of routes and
it seems to be working better today. We passed Red Bay
a few minutes ago and have decided to take Rocky Pass
to give John a thrill and to avoid the small craft situation
on outer waters. As I finish this email we're bobbing
up and down in the wake of the SS Zaandam which just
passed on their southbound journey.
We all send our hugs, love & regards,
Réanne, Don & John
May 16, 2003
Report from the Pilot House: we just
turned into the south entrance of Biorka Channel from
the Gulf of Alaska and should be tied up in Sitka in
about 3 hours.
Yesterday, as we reached the top end
of beautiful Prince of Wales Island at Point Baker,
it looked very smooth down Sumner Strait toward Cape
Decision so I decided that the forecast for small craft
warnings because of 7 ft seas was overrated and we could
save time and get some more offshore sea legs by going
outside Baranof Island after all. Réanne and
I love Rocky Pass, as one of our favorite routes, but
it is very intricate and would have added another 30
miles or more.
At Cape Decision conditions were fine
and we headed across the bottom end of Chatham Strait
for Cape Ommaney 25 miles across. Seven foot swells
were rolling in from the SW but the crew decided not
to put our paravanes in the water as only the stabilization
poles deployed were required. Everyone did fine until
we passed under Cape Omaney and started out on the west
side of Baranof Island. We immediately found heavy turbulence
and dancing waters on top of the swells that had grown
to 8 footers with occasional 10 footers. Before we could
think about getting the paravane fish into the water
to help calm the rolling, I found myself single handling
the boat for the next two hours.
Réanne was game to seek shelter
in Réanne's Terror the un-named inlet we ran
across several years ago when we also need some calm
waters. It's about 20 miles north of Cape Ommaney on
the west coast of Baranof Island. Breaking seas close
alongside with foam covered the entrance behind the
large rock that hides the inner entrance. It's easy
to see why no one had written about the place before.
We knew by experience that the narrow entrance was deep
and would likely not break clear across.
So in we went, with Réanne
at the helm, and made our hard right turn and within
two or three minutes Baidarka was in flat calm water!
This place has to be the fastest transition from rough
Gulf of Alaska seas to flat calm water along this entire
coast. No more than two hundred yards from chaos to
serenity!
We put the fish in the water inside
the inlet this morning before we left at 0445 and the
ride has been somewhat easier. The crew is up and about
now and taking pictures of magnificent Mt. Edgemore.
We have been seeing the snowy cone on the horizon since
early morning which must have been similiar to what
Vitus Bering and his crew saw as the first Europeans
to see North America from the east side of the Pacific.
Yesterday dolphins played in our bow wake and this morning
we caught up and passed a group of three grey whales
heading north at 5 knots just 50 yards inside our starboard
bow.
May 16, 2003 (later in the day)
We tied up in New Thomson Harbor,
Sitka, at 1455 after having refueled (372.2 gals). We
decided that we'd better be underway the next day to
take advantage of the good weather predicted, so we
had to hustle to get in visits with old friends, laundry,
re-provisioning, calling on FineEdge.com dealers, and
gathering information from local acquaintances.
Long time friends Lizzie and John
Herschenrider whom we met about 8 years ago on our first
visit to the Charlottes surprised us with a visit. At
the time we first met them they were planning a round-the-world
cruise, but after several seasons in Mexico, they decided
that Alaska was still in their blood, so they came north
again, and built a cabin on Baranof Island's east coast
where they now spend their winters. They happened to
be on their Bristol cutter in New Thomson (bought in
Ventura, CA and rebuilt in San Diego) and kindly drove
Réanne around town to do her chores. Richard
Freidman on Explorer was also in New Thomson, so we
had another good visit with him.
One of our new acquaintances, Ward
Eldridge had a tragic story to tell about losing "Merlin,"
his 111 year old, 73-foot schooner that he'd rebuilt
from the keel up. In the fall of 1999, he and his (now)
wife, Kathy, had anchored Merlin in the outer harbor
of Still Harbor north of Réanne's Terror on Baranof's
west coast and were kayaking in the inner harbor. When
they returned to Merlin all they could see was the top
of the main mast protruding above the water. The entire
boat was under water. Ward was sure the hull had been
rammed by a whale, but everyone who heard the story
thought something was "fishy". Don had read
an article from the Juneau newspaper and had the same
response. Later, however, volunteers agreed to raise
the boat if Ward would agree to donate it the Sitka
Maritime Museum Assn. He did, and Merlin was hauled
to Sitka to be repaired. On inspection of the hull in
the Sitka shipyard, Ward and others discovered a perfectly
formed 5-foot round hole and inside the hull was a baleine
from a humpback whale. Ward's reputation was saved and
the boat sailed south to Seattle to be used as an educational
vessel. (The vessel is apparently now in private use.)
The docks were abuzz about the S/V
Dagmar Aaen, a Danish-built gaff-headed cutter whose
German crew completed the Northwest Passage last summer.
(Unfortunately we didn't have time to meet them.)
We left Sitka at 1355 Saturdar after
having completed our provisioning and having picked
up the packet of San Juan Gulf Island M/S sent Express
Mail from Mark at FineEdge. (For once the Postal Service
didn't let us down; the packet arrived overnight from
Anacortes--better service than we can get from there
to California.) We navigated Olga and Neva straits,
exciting narrow channels with strong currents--essentially
the only route used to Sitka for all but large cruise
ships, so we had to "be vigilant" at all times.
We set anchor in Kalinin Bay, 27.7 miles later, at 1808
hrs. There were about a half dozen other boats already
anchored there (most of them fishing charters). Joe
and Margy Orem on their M/V Pelorus from Bellingham
who are also heading to Prince William Sound, but about
10 days behind us, were also anchored there. (We last
saw Joe and Margy in Fury Cove.) For dinner: fresh halibut
filets prepared par excellence by John and a big salad
by RHD. (This halibut, bought fresh at Lakeside Market
above the harbor, made up for a disappointing dinner
at Channel Club the evening before. In their defense,
I must confess that they deducted my portion of the
bill from the total.)
Sunday, up at 0330 (an ugh heard here
and there from the First Mate & able crewman) and
underway by 0400, to prove a long, rolly day.
While we're underway tomorrow (Tuesday),
the captain will continue with his description of our
high-anxiety entry to Lituya Bay. It's now 2240 and
the alarm is set for 0415 so we can catch the proper
tide for exiting. We had fantastic weather today in
Lituya and hope to be safely in Yakutat by Tuesday night.
I've kept one step ahead of nausea by wearing my Relief
Band, but it doesn't keep me from getting dizzy or sleepy,
and I don't dare read or write while we're underway.
(Tuesday underway am trying to write short additions,
keeping eye on horizon as I do.)
Love and cheers from Réanne
May 19, 2003
We're anchored in Lituya Bay &
will attempt to catch up on the past few days. Between
chores at Sitka and long runs since then we've had very
little time for extras. In addition, the satellites
don't always pass overhead when we need to send something.
May 20, 2003
Now en route for Yakutat. Gently rolling
seas. Just did anchor test inside Cape Fairweather and
now passing Cape Fairweather Massif. Don will write
more later. I couldn't send my part last night because
didn't have enough signal stream on the Iridium.
May 23, 2003
Baidarka is sitting out some marginal
weather in the Yakutat small boat harbor, catching up
on chores and recording considerable data we've gathered
since arriving at Sitka.
Our stay in Sitka was only 24 hours,
just long enough to make contact with a few key accounts,
gather what info we could find on what might lie ahead
and pick up the manuscript for Réanne to proof.
With a low pressure system moving across the Gulf from
Kodiak we wanted to get as far north as quickly as possible.
So Saturday afternoon we moved up to our old favorite
Kalinin Bay where we could make a long jump to north
of Cape Spencer, the real beginning of the outside waters
and the end of consistent cell phone, VHF weather reports,
Coast Guard on Channel 16, etc.
We left Kalinin Bay at 0400 hours
on May 19 and soon picked up a large group of California
Grey Whales headed north for the summer. We were doing
just over 6 knots and the whales about 5.5 knots so
we slowly passed them about 200 yards inside our course
line. We made good about 100 miles Sunday and anchored
about 6 pm in Astrolabe Bay (named after LaPerouse's
second ship). John and I checked out Boussole Arch and
think that, under the right conditions, Baidarka could
make it through this amazing geologic formation. Réanne
and I think it's the most dramatic sea arch we have
seen from Mexico to Alaska. It is about 100 ft high,
with a solid 60-foot-thick chock stone with 60-foot
trees growing on it. In a crack in the wall next to
the Arch we could hear a sea lion harem crying out in
alarm. After taking several passes with our echo sounder
to get a good idea of the water depths, we were pursued
by a bull sea lion whose agressive maneuvers and a big
breeching next to our dinghy helped John and I decide
to take leave, pronto.
One Monday May 20, with favorable
weather, we pushed on to Lituya Bay. Tide conditions
were at a minus 3 feet but we arrived just ahead of
slack water and waited for the fast-moving ebb flow
to cease. Réanne had been at the helm when we
arrived. She got Baidarka in position and started in
on the range-marked course but found steering somewhat
difficult in the still-turbulent slack water. We had
a few anxious moments as the seas breaking so close
to both sides of the boat made us all nervous. [RHD's
comments: It was SO difficult to steer that I asked
Don to take over the helm; he had to jockey it around
several full turns to port, then to starboard to keep
the boat from yawing as we entered. John kept an eye
on the depth sounder and I shot photos as we went, which
made me less nervous than being at the helm! At one
point Don asked John to look astern and tell him what
the swells were doing. John's reply: "You don't
want to know; just put the pedal to the metal and keep
going!"] Three years ago when we went in on the
last of the flood, it seemed to go much easier.
We were quickly inside and found good
anchorage in front of Centopath Island. After a two-hour
nap by all hands, we launched the dinghy and surveyed
two other anchor sites we hadn't been able to do survey
before. At the head of the bay, directly below the 1720-foot
scar of the famous 1958 Tsunami Wave, we found fresh
Cougar and giant grizzly prints, otherwise no signs
of man or other large animals.
On Tuesday May 21 we left at 0355
hours, made it out the entrance just before high water
slack and headed north. On the north side of Cape Fairweather
we surveyed a temporary anchor site used by fishing
boats in past years. It looks very good to me for a
shelter in SE winds; the prevailing SW swells dropped
in half from 8 footers to 4 footers in the lee. The
bottom is good sand with lots of swinging room and we
may use it in on the way south if we need to. It's an
open roadstead and a vessel would have to get underway
at any time the site became untenable. We saw a sea
otter mom with her baby on her stomach a half-mile off
hore near the Cape.
The cruise north along the Fairweather
range was beautiful. The range has to have the most
striking mountain skyline seen from the sea of anywhere
in the world we know about. It is huge, silently brooding,
dramatic and overpowering. Most of the hundreds of peak
have no name, and everything is solid white interspersed
with patches of dark and sheer rock slabs, hundreds
or thousands of feet high. At present, the snow line
descends to about 2000 feet and rises to the 15,000-foot
peak of Mount Fairweather and to the 18,000-foot Mount
Saint Elias.
We anchored in Monti Bay off the village
at 2100 hours after a long day of 108 miles. Yakutat
is about as remote as you can get in a good part of
the world. Its nearest neighbors are Cordova 200 miles
northwest, and Sitka 200 miles SE. Both are towns of
only 10,000 people so you can get an idea of how isolated
this place is. Fresh milk costs $10 per gallon! The
next morning we move the boat around to the small boat
harbor a few miles north.
Yesterday, Wednesday, May 22, we rented
a car at the small airport (the main reason for the
village of 600) and drove to the end of the dirt road
and hiked a mile to Harlequin Lake, 40 miles south of
town. This huge lake that lies at the foot of Yakutat
Glacier is full of floating icebergs of all sizes. It
was exhilarating!
Upon return, the three of us went
to the Yakutat Second Annual Beer and Wine Tasting Party
at Leonard's Landing lodge, and boy was it loud and
fun. 10 percent of the town was there, mostly the professionals
with the airport, the fish charter outfits or the Saint
Elias National Park people. (Our Exploring the Southeast
Alaska is for sale in the Park Visitor Center and when
we walked in--perhaps the only visitors that day--the
two park rangers told us they'd heard we were in town!
I sat next to a seismologist who said there was a magnitude
4.9 earthquake the night of 5/21/03. We didn't notice
it because we were either bouncing along in our rented
car on jeep roads or were stuck in the mud and frantically
trying to digging out before dark (about 11 pm). And,
yes, there were fresh grizzly tracks alongside our spinning
rear wheels, so that added to our urgency. It would
have been exciting to be in Lituya Bay Wednesday night
in any kind of earthquake because of it history of having
really big ones about every 50 years!
Today, May 23, we are waiting for
a deep low-pressure system to pass and for the high
seas to decrease a bit so we can safely enter Icy Bay,
60 miles to the west, our next stop. The crew is cleaning
up, organizing charts, etc. Baidarka is working just
fine except that quilting and freezing problems keep
occurring on the two navigation computers. Good thing
John Leone taught navigation courses for the Power Squadron
and Réanne is a diligent helmsman as we have
been able to keep moving even when we are quite frustrated.
More later.
Don, Réanne & John
May 27, 2003
We are presently underway 20 miles
west of Icy Bay 5 miles offshore headed south of due
west for Cape Saint Elias and an anchor site on the
west side of Kayak Island. We hunkered down for two
layover days because of weather and now are cruising
along in only 4 foot seas and calm winds. We have the
paravane’s fish in the water to minimize the rolling
from the nearly perpetual SW swell found in these parts.
Réanne is sleeping in the salon while John keeps
watch in the pilothouse. We got up this morning at 0245
hours because we have 120 miles to go (most likely the
longest day of this voyage.) It could take us up to
20 hours if we average 6 knots and we would prefer to
anchor in the twilight that lasts past 11 pm. It took
John and I over 30 minutes to clean off the blue-grey
clay-like mud off the anchor and the chain. The glaciers
produce a lot of silt that makes the water opaque and
eventually becomes a thick gooey coat on the bottom.
If the layer is thick enough it makes for good anchor
holding.
Our Icy Bay anchor site turned out
to offer better protection than we had hoped from the
strong east winds and we had a snug time. It was overcast,
rainy with some sleet and cold. We were just a few miles
west of the Malaspina Glacier—I believe the largest
glacier in North America. Daytime temperatures were
41 degrees F. From Yakutat's Hubbard Glacier, North
America’s largest tide-water glacier with 5 miles
of perimeter in the salt water, west to Bering Glacier
north of Kayak Island is 200 miles of continuous ice
and snow. Because of the overcast we only got one fleeting
view of Mount Saint Elias, 18,008 feet, the second highest
peak in North America.
The weather service underestimated
the winds and seas when we left Yakutat and we had a
rougher trip than expected. We found out later from
a logging tugboat skipper whom we anchored near in Icy
Bay that the weather service sent out an updated forecast
at 1 pm Saturday. We were out of radio range, so just
tuffed it out. The week before last the barometer climbed
30 millibars, then fell 40, and now has risen 20 since
yesterday. You can cruise off Southern California for
years and not see that much barometric pressure change
in months! Except for two layovers days in Yakutat and
two here in Icy Bay, we have moved along our route every
day since leaving Anacortes and two of these days we
could have moved if we wanted to. So overall the weather
has not slowed us down and we are ahead of schedule.
The long-range forecast calls for gales this Friday
and we hope to be inside Prince William Sound by then.
We hope tomorrow will be nice so we can do some serious
exploring and data collection around Kayak Island, the
only place in North America where Bering landed during
his epic voyage.
We saw our first moose of the trip
walking the beach. It looked the size of a horse.
I made some experiments this morning
calling Coast Guard Radio from both our hand held and
main VHF transmitters on emergency channel 16 and received
no response. The Alaska coastline is not covered with
VHF repeaters like the British Columbia coast is. Ditto
the weather stations and cell phones. This coast is
really remote and is perhaps the least populated of
any part of the coast south of the North Slope. ( his
maybe also true of the entire North and South America
until high latitude Chile.)
Having the ability to check weather
on the web via our Iridium has been most comforting.
Thanks to Mark for helping obtain and installing the
equipment. We haven't used the Iridium for a phone call
yet. Keeping vigilant while navigating this coast takes
all our time and energy and we are too tired when we
anchor to do anything but rest, clean up and eat.
In Icy Bay we turned off our Dickinson
diesel heater for the first time in over a month and
cleaned it inside and out. It has been most appreciated
and has worked flawlessly. In fact, our whole boat,
other than computers, has functioned flawlessly and
we work hard to keep it that way.
When we left this morning, I was concerned
that we would not see the icebergs in the twilight and
what the sea conditions would be on the bar. I had all
of us suit up in our survival suits and boots and conducted
an abandoned ship drill with life raft and dinghy. Afterward,
we maintained a close watch from outside the pilothouse
for nearly two hours. It turned out to be a bit of overkill
and Réanne and John are both asleep like kittens
at this moment and we are 25 percent of the way to Cape
St Elais at 0745.
Best Regards to all those following
our trip and a special to the Fine Edge office staff
and friends who email us.
To Linda: We are using the hand held
Iridium mounted on the wall and I strongly recommend
it.
To David Hoar: We have the updated
Nobeltec version 6.5 on our ship’s computer and
recommend it. Our current problem seems to be a possible
conflict between new NDI electronics charts P1, P2 and
P3 and other software, or overloading the system, or
operator error of some kind. It is now operating OK
in a minimum mode but still has quilting problems and
we can't get large-scale charts to display. Our brand
new DELL is running Nobeltec 7.0 and it is full of problems
with the alpha version. We would not recommend version
7.0 until more cleanup happens. I am afraid they have
added too many bells and whistles and operator errors
become a giant waste of time. I cannot differentiate
between cause and effect on various kinds of problems
and I have no idea what screens, that I have never seen
before, mean.
To Richard Spore: Glad we have the
loan of your life raft and are working hard not to use
it. We will likely want to stop in both Icy Bay and
Yakutat again on the way south, lots of fun. How are
things going, we would like to hear from you.
Sunny and Bob: Hope we can connect
on our way south as you mentioned.
Robin and Bill: Thanks for offer to
help with Nobeltec. There are just too many inconsistencies
to try and work it out at this point. Réanne
sends love and hopes Cancer Walk is again highly successful.
Still getting rejections on some email
addresses we are sending messages to. You can follow
our progress on our website and I understand some photos
are now appearing. How do they look? We don't have time
to check photos from this end. Thanks to all and we
would like to hear from our family. Everyone, please
remember not to hit reply but send us a new email.
Don
May 29, 2003
We made it to Kayak Island last night
and anchored at 2100 hours, an 18-hour day. Doubling
Cape Saint Elias was quite exciting, made more so by
its dramatic size and shape. We could see it from 60
miles away, rising higher out of the ocean the closer
we got. Cape St. Elias, which is actually the southern
tip of Kayak Island, has a spectacular knife-edge ridge
over 1000 feet high. Going into Kayak Entrance was a
little hairy. As Paul Lutus had warned us, the echo
sounder jumped all over the place and the charted depths
are a "fairy tale." Before selecting an anchor
spot we spent nearly an hour going around in circles
to verify the real bottom. Apparently the entire bay
raised a good six feet during the 1964 Alaska quake,
and all the charted depths in the bay are off by 30
to 50 percent. When we woke up this morning there was
a bare reef to the north of us that wasn't supposed
to be there (i.e., not noted on the chart).
John and I set out in the dinghy while
it was still zero tide level (0600) and circled the
new reef. We took a full set of GPS lat/longs so we
can chart this carefully and set up an entrance route
into the bay that should be helpful to future boaters.
We spent the morning checking the
area and found lots of grizzly tracks, moose tracks,
birds and a sea otter that had recently died.
This afternoon we checked out a new
possible anchor site on the north side of Wingham Island.
Réanne and John took the dinghy into a narrow
channel on the north end of the island (Oaklee Channel--an
outflow of the Bering River) to record data. We discovered
that the chart missed a large rock islet over 100 ft
high and 150 ft wide. Several puffins dove calmly for
food near Baidarka, without appearing the least bothered
by our appearance; a lone Stellar sea lion basked on
one corner of the islet while thousands of black-legged
kittiwakes screamed at us from their nests on all sides
of the islet. The sight was magnificent but the aroma
less so. We took lots of photos and will call it Stellar’s
Bird Rock for his love of birds. What a pity he was
anchored just a few miles from this special place but
didn't have a chance to see it.
[First mate continues] We are now
anchored in 4 fathoms on the west side of the Martin
Islands, rocking and rolling in this open roadstead.
The Martins are composed of two islands, separated by
a foul passage of about 500 yards. Our two intrepid
explorers have taken the dinghy to check out the islands
east side while I put my two cents in.
We've been re-reading Corey Ford's
classic, Where the Sea Breaks its Back, about the Bering/Stellar
Russian expedition in 1741 and, before they went exploring
this morning, Don and John tried to figure out where
the small crew might have landed. Other than Cape St.
Elias, where a substantial light station was built,
and two other possible sites, the island is quite precipitous,
as Don mentioned above.
The weather yesterday and today has
given us a rare treat—sunshine and fairly calm
(for the Gulf) seas. We have a view of the jagged mountains
between the Bering River and Copper River drainage systems
and what appear in the distance to be the mountains
of Prince William Sound. We hope the weather will hold
throughout the entry and visit to the sound!
The guys just radioed that they're
on their way back, so I'll sign off and send this before
I start supper.
Regards, hugs, love, etc.
Don, John & Réanne
May 30, 2003
We are well anchored here in Garden
Bay on Hinchinbrook Island. We had a good doubling of
Cape Hinchinbrook yesterday before the winds picked
up and are all happy to be inside Prince William Sound.
It's been exactly one month to the hour of leaving Anacortes.
Not bad for only a 6-knot boat; and in addition, we've
gathered lots of good data to date. Réanne cooked
a special turkey dinner with cranberry sauce, baked
potatoes, fresh salad (last of BC romaine and tomatoes,
etc.) with lots of Italian red wine.
John and I just got back from a shore
run where we saw a lot of deer tracks, a beautiful alpine
meadow, but no sign of the grizzly we saw last night.
All three of us will run across in the dinghy to Constantine
Harbor to explore a secure harbor that has only 3 feet
in its entrance and a very narrow leg with strong currents.
We will then move to the north side of the island for
an intimate no-name area that Paul Lutus used last year.
We just got an email from the Frisbys
and plan to meet them in Valdez on Monday, June 2nd.
Dave & Evie: looking forward to
hearing more about College Fiord on Monday. We may find
the Lethcoses in Valdez also. Don't miss eclipse of
sun available for Alaska tonight at 0830 hours.
With only two to three foot seas forecast
inside Prince William Sound, life on Baidarka is back
to beautiful and things couldn't be better.
Best to all, Don
To our kids: we would certainly like
to hear from you. Are you following our itinerary? How
about getting your kids involved in the routes and lat/long,
too?? We send our love to all.
June 2, 2003
It's now 0545 hours and we're heading
out of Sawmill Bay bound for Valdez harbor. We had a
layover day yesterday in the southern arm of Sawmill
about 1/2 mile off the entrance to a lagoon that can
be entered at high tide. John and Don reconnoitered
the anchorage by dinghy and noted nearby, a bad 15-ft-wide
uncharted rock awash on a 4.5 foot tide ENE of the lagoon
entrance. They took GPS coordinates and found the chart
indicates there should be a minimum of 7 feet of water
in this area, just another indication of the general
rising of the seabed as part of the 1964 earthquake.
The problem now is to determine which charts have been
corrected for the earthquake and which have not--this
comes under the heading Local Knowledge and let the
user beware.
Sawmill Bay is a jewel--a marine park
that deserves to have been set aside. Snow-studded mountains
rise abruptly from the bay on three sides, providing
stunning a background for photo opportunities. We were
delighted to sight 8 harlequin ducks playing around
the uncharted rocks just 100 yd. off our beam. (Just
now, we're seeing the first snow chutes that fall all
the way to the water!)
For the first time since leaving Sitka,
we encountered other pleasure craft in Sawmill. We shared
the cove with a Hans Christian sailboat from Unalaska;
a Pacific Seacraft S/V 25 (looks like a Flicka but is
longer); a 45+ foot M/V engaged in fishing; a small
aluminum runabout and our new friends on Enetai, Dave
& Evie Frisby, who rafted alongside Baidarka yesterday
about noon. We had potluck dinner on board Enetai: fresh
spotted prawns, and homemade bread and chowder; salmon
(prepared by John); an RHD salad (a bastardized salade
nicoise using our last fresh tomato). Afterward Evie
& Dave treated us to a "private showing"
of videos they've taken in the area here, as well as
a pre-release version of the PBS 2-part special program
tracing the 1899 Harriman Expedition to this area. (Our
webmaster Herb Nickles mentioned this to us some time
ago.) The first part airs June 11 and it's definitely
worth watching. (We'd also appreciate someone's copying
it for us on DVD if possible.)
We are now approaching Shoup Bay that
has a very shallow entrance bar. We're going to see
if we can get in on the present low tide. Bergy bits
at the entrance also increase the excitement. So . .
. time to bail out, suit up and head for the bow.
Don, Réanne & John
June 9, 2003
We are presently streaming north in
Harriman Fiord on a calm day. (Don't forget to watch
the PBS two-part special on the Harriman Expedition
that begins June 11, and tape it for us if possible.)
We haven't sent a report for several days, not because
we're having trouble but because we have our hands full
collecting data, taking photos by the hundreds, trying
to stay off the rocks and avoiding collisions with bergy
bits.Today and yesterday we're visiting the glaciers
in College Fiord, a fantastic collection of hundreds
of glaciers with many that reach the saltwater, calving
icebergs with loud cracks and booms. This trip of ours
is full of magnificent scenery and experiences of beautiful
wild nature; we're overwhelmed by the sheer intensity
of it all.
We are generating some very good data
and have collected precise GPS info on many cove entrances,
anchor sites and uncharted rocks. We are finding many
small errors or omissions in the paper and electronic
charts and find that we must pay close attention to
our surroundings and instruments every moment we're
underway. Constant vigilance at all times is a must
at this fast-paced itinerary and we find we're really
tired at night.
We just took what may be our Christmas
card shot at the foot of Harriman Glacier, taken with
Baidarka just underneath the overhanging glacier. Most
of the glaciers are calving and don't allow such a close
encounter.
After leaving Valdez, we had to work
our way through ice into Jade Harbor. There Don and
John joined David from Enetai for a four-mile grueling
hike up the newly uncovered lateral moraine toward Columbia
Glacier. It was exciting to hike over terrain recently
covered by ice for centuries. The next day we followed
Enetai thru an ice-choked channel on the north side
of Glacier Island so we could move west.
The last several days have included
some really striking scenery in several inlets, Wells
Bay, Unakwik Inlet, Eaglek Bay and Esther Passage.
We will rendezvous again with David
and Evie Frisby in Seward on June 17 and share a rental
a car to visit Anchorage. David has a passion to explore
uncharted areas and he and Evie have shared some vital
information with us. Yesterday we picked up a kayaker
who's been out solo for two weeks and shared some hot
chocolate aboard Baidarka. Kim Melling, who is a teacher
from Anchorage area, told us of several spots in the
Kenai we should visit.
John caught two salmon in Olsen Cove
so this is now his favorite spot and he says the trip
is now starting. Every day we see many sea otters, birds
of all types but no bears so far; it's bear hunting
season and it appears they've headed for the hills!
Best, Don
June 14, 2003
We are cruising along in the Gulf
of Alaska at 0725 local time two miles east of Cape
Junken. It is raining, visibility is about two miles
and solid cloud cover cuts the vertical cliffs off in
a horizontal line at the 1000-foot mark. If we could
see the peaks that tower another 1500 feet directly
above us, it would be most impressive. We put our stabilization
paravanes in the water at Cape Puget and Réanne
has been able to take the helm for the last hour and
a half. The seas are somewhat confused off these capes
that makes for a somewhat uncomfortable ride, especially
after all the smooth water we found inside Prince William
Sound. We are heading along the Kenai Peninsula in the
direction of Seward; the ocean remains an aquamarine
color and the scenery remains spectacular. Our friends
David and Evie aboard the Enetai are two miles behind
us and we will rendezvous with them in Day Harbor tonight
to catch up on what both boats been doing for the last
five days. David says they caught two halibut, two salmon
and a cod and they are planning a fish stew for us tonight.
There is almost no vegetation along
Cape Junken because the snow constantly avalanches down
the near-vertical slopes, depositing large, dark, shale-colored
rocks into the ocean. Along this coast, 3000 ft peaks
are barely a mile from the saltwater and their snowfields
are awesome. The chart just says the topography north
of us is "high irregular peaks". Many of these
numerous peaks are covered by the Sargent Ice Field
which must have several hundred miles of surface; it
in turn feeds many glaciers that head down the slopes
for the Pacific. Bainbridge Glacier and Excelsior, which
we are now passing, have a terminal moraine that is
just a short distance from the beach line. This same
ice field feeds the glaciers we saw a few days ago in
Nellie Juan and Blue Glacier fjords, a good 40 miles
north of here.
Our hope to report each day's progress
to you over the Internet went out the window with Réanne's
plans to input the details on her new laptop everyday.
We had been making 6 to 8 anchor checks per day, but
we found we could not sustain this week after week.
The vigilance required to navigate close to uncharted
shores and enter unsounded coves is very tiring. Then
you add in the need to dodge icebergs and transit narrow
channels with strong currents and no underwater visibility
because of glacier silt, you can see why we were maxed
out and getting testy with each other. We got Baidarka
into the narrowest and hairiest spots along the Pacific
Coast to date. Shoupe Lagoon, Jonah Bay, and 29-fathom
Hole, all narrow openings of 50 feet or less with currents,
making for high adrenaline steering.
This week we cut our workload in half
and got three nights in a row of 12 hours of undisturbed
sleep...what a luxury. Our compass course is now southwest
as we skirt the Kenai Peninsula toward the direction
of Kodiak. We will explore several interesting inlets
along here, then head into Seward, our next and only
civilization until Kodiak. So far since Sitka, we have
only tied up to a float for the night in Yakutat and
Valdez. It 's amazing how fast you can become accustomed
to wilderness exploration. Each night we have a calm
anchorage in a setting with absolutely no sign that
mankind has ever been here. Quite amazing!
We have been obtaining information
that has not been published as far as we know and it
is exciting to know things about dangerous rocks, such
as when they first appear on a falling tide that isn't
indicated on the charts or guidebooks. Having John Leone
has been a most welcome help and he is quickly becoming
an expert in doing the bottom checks.
To Rod Nash, glad to hear of your
interest, will try to email you tomorrow.
Kids: Sean and Chris are headed for
Cabo (Sean to attend an econ. conference and celebrate
Chris' birthday early). Chris and Jeff; how about an
email for us?
Friends, thanks for all the emails,
like to know someone is back in the other real world.
Bill and the Admiral thanks for update and suggestions,
hope we rendezvous in September.
To Terry and Debbie, how interesting
we are actually west of your longitude and nearly a
quarter of the way around the world north of you as
you approach Fiji. We will save some liquid sunshine
for you guys. Trust Wings' engine problems are settled.
Nobeltec now working fine on ship's computer, will get
new release of 7.0 for laptop.
All the best.
June 22, 2003
Just when we thought we could not
get any busier, we did!
The Kenai Peninsula and Fjord National
Park is one of the best-kept secrets in wilderness travel.
Other than our buddy boat Enetai we see almost none
other than occasional fast 100 ft day tour boats out
of Seward. If you get a chance, come to Seward and take
these tours, they are amazing. Better yet, hop on your
own boat and spend all summer up here, up close and
intimate. Today alone, whales, orcas, tufted and horned
puffins, a lonely loon crying out as we do our anchor
check, sea otters, eagles, etc., etc.
In the Northwestern Fjord alone we
visited the snout of four glaciers as close as we dared
and saw another dozen or more hanging overhead. Words
escape us. We had all these glaciers and fjords entirely
to ourselves all afternoon with nothing manmade in sight,
and no permits or limitations (at least at this time.
This one fiord alone makes Glacier Bay look more like
a Disney theme park. After just this one fiord Réanne
says she doesn't want to go back to Glacier Bay. Here
you're as close as your adrenalin (and safety considerations)
permit. The ice tumbles down right in front of you for
1500 feet or 5000 feet...we simply can't describe it
all.
Saturday morning we tried to get into
Taz Basin (59 39.07, 149 49.13), a submerged cirque
on Granite Islan |