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Saturday, December 09, 2006
We're on our way south after quick visits to La Paz and Mazatlan. As winter arrives in the Sea of Cortez the northerly winds blow harder and the water gets cooler, so people head south to the mainland side where the air and water are still tropical. It being our first year of cruising, who are we to question this conventional wisdom? In the spring we'll head back north again, making our way deep into the Sea of Cortez before hurricane season hits the southern region.
The trip to La Paz was nice, and that's where we spent Thanksgiving with 200 other cruisers at a turkey dinner potluck. The cruising club in La Paz provided the turkeys and we all brought the side dishes. La Paz is a great little town that's not a cruise ship destination, so it still feels like Mexico (unlike Cabo San Lucas, which is just Newport Beach south). There is a paved 3 mile walk along the beach that extends from one end of town to the other, and I found a friend who liked to get up early like I do and walk for exercise before the sun gets too hot.
Crossing the Sea of Cortez from La Paz to Mazatlan requires an overnight passage, and some strong northerly winds were coming into the Sea, so we decided to head south and then across. Unfortunately we ended up between weather fronts, only had 5 knots of wind, and had to motor across. But I think it may have been better than 25 knots with the seas on our beam, which is what happened the day after we got to Mazatlan.
Mazatlan is a pretty town with lots of different personalities. There is an old town district with buildings dating back to the 1800's, and a tourist district with modern high rise hotels on beautiful white sandy beaches. The cruise ships do stop there (we saw three in port when we arrived), but the town is large and the passengers get absorbed into it without overwhelming it. There is a municipal harbor where you can anchor for free, but it's downwind of the sewage treatment plant, and we decided after one stinky night that paying for the marina wouldn't be so bad afterall! When we got to the marina we found boats we had met on the Haha and had lots of fun with some new friends. We also ran into the folks who owned the boat yard in Port Townsend where we had hauled our boat last year, which was quite a nice surprise.
Our next planned stop was Isla Isabella, which is a small island 17 miles off the coast of mainland Mexico and 90 miles south of Mazatlan. We left Mazatlan late in the afternoon, making an overnight passage so we could arrive at the island in daylight. The weather forecast on buoyweather.com called for winds of 0-0, meaning it would be a motor boat trip. Imagine our surprise when we got out of the harbor and found 25 knots of wind. We thought it was just an afternoon seabreeze, but after listening to the weather forecast on our SSB (single sideband, the ham radio), we found out it was going to persist through the night and all the next day. Good for the passage, but not good for the anchorage, since Isla Isabella does not have a protected harbor for a good blow.
By morning the wind had died and we turned the motor on. The seas were high and the passage had been very rolly, making the boat an incredibly noisy place to try and sleep while you're off watch. As we motored past Isabella in the morning there was only 3 knots of wind. The anchorage looked very very tempting, and there were two other boats already there. The island is a National Wildlife Preserve, with over 500 nests for frigate birds and blue footed boobies. Definitely a must see on our list. But not today. We still maintain a pretty conservative approach to cruising, and didn't want to get caught in a bad anchorage when the wind came back up in the afternoon. So we pushed on and figured we could stop on our way back north.
The bay we were anchored in yesterday is a lovely little fishing village with some palapas (restaurants) on a beach that's lined with palm trees, some RVs and a couple of small hotels. We had a stern anchor set to keep us bow into the ocean rollers, and there were 5 other sailboats in there with us.
Now we're north of Puerto Vallarta but we'll only stop for a day or two in an anchorage on the north side of Banderas Bay, not in the city marinas. The coast between PV and Zihuatanejo has lots of beautiful stops and we're anxious to be done with the big towns and spend time in small harbors. And we have only 19 days to get the last 350 miles to Zihuat before my sister shows up.
Tonight on Yohelah we're going to enjoy a dinner of fresh wahoo caught this afternoon enroute to La Cruz...........
Saturday, November 18, 2006
I've waited nearly nine years to hop off my boat into warm water, and on our second stop in Mexico when the temp gauge said the water was 80 degrees it was definitely time to do just that. And it was very very good.
We were in Bahia Santa Maria, about 3/4 of the way down the outside of the Baja peninsula, along with 162 other boats headed to Mexico for the winter. The Baja-Haha was living up to its reputation of providing lots of new folks to meet and good beach parties. We had our friends Lee & Kathleen from our cruising club in Seattle onboard as crew for the Haha. It was nearly a two week trip with 6 overnight passages and two stops between San Diego and Cabo San Lucas.
Unfortunately we're into the light air passages Mexico is famous for now, so we didn't sail the whole course. As we got further and further south from San Diego, enough good wind to push our 34,000 pound boat was impossible to find consistently. But we definitely had fun trying. And I can totally admit that Lee & Kathleen could generate food out of my galley that tasted better than anything I could ever conjure up. The day they caught a mahi-mahi and served it lightly pan fried on a bed of coleslaw I thought I was eating in the best restaurant on the planet. Hopefully I learned a thing or two while they were here. I do know that getting a massage (Kathleen is a professional massage therapist) on the midnight watch was a treat I'll remember for a long long time.
Now the Haha is over and we're working our way north to La Paz for Thanksgiving. We were going to go over to Mazatlan, but hurricane Sergio is hanging out down near Zihuat, close enough to Mazatlan to just make us nervous. It seemed more prudent to head in the opposite direction, rather than towards it. And we've got a few boats with friends from Seattle that left last year that are further north that we're anxious to catch up with. After Thanksgiving we'll cross over to the mainland and work our way south, getting to Zihuatanejo by Christmas for Leslie & Fred's vacation.
Today on Yohelah we're relaxing in the shade of the cockpit after another nice swim this morning........
Wednesday, October 25, 2006
The final to-do list is ready, and as always it's long. But we're scheduled to leave San Diego next Monday at 11:00 am with 181 other boats as the Haha fleet heads to Mexico. Hopefully hurricane Paul will weaken, pass by Cabo and not cause any damage. And certainly we hope Paul is the last of the storms in the Pacific this season.
We've had a busy busy time while in San Diego. Rob went to Seattle to see his folks and do some last minute shopping. Leslie and Fred visited for 3 days so we got to sail in the Bay and see the San Diego Zoo. The road trip was fun, and the pix from the Balloon Fiesta are marvelous. And it was nice to hang out with my dad a bit in Yuma, too.
Today on Yohelah we're checking off the last items on the list as we get ready to leave the country and head for Mexico.......
Thursday, October 05, 2006
The forecast today was for an 80% chance of thunderstorms. The information center at the Grand Canyon advises you not to hike into the canyon to avoid being hit by lightning. And the ranger specifically told me the trail we had picked was the worst because it was on an exposed ridge with no trees. Rats again, since this was our only day here and the only chance to hike. So, of course, you know we did. Rob actually made the call to take the shuttle out to the trailhead and check it out. The bus was full of other hikers, so we liked our odds a little better. And the trip down a mile and a half and 1500 feet was marvelous. The storms were rolling across the canyon, but staying on the west and northern sides.
When we got to our turnaround point we looked back up the trail and realized the entire south rim of the canyon had disappeared underneath the oncoming thunderheads. We put on our rain coats and headed back up. When the raindrops got to be pea sized, we found an overhang to hide underneath for a while. The lightening rolled right over the top of us, and I realized I was greatful it was Rob's decision to take the hike and it wasn't my crazy idea this time!
Sunday, October 01, 2006
We've tucked Yohelah into a marina in San Diego for a month. We're going to go on a little road trip to see the Grand Canyon, the balloon fiesta in Albuquerque (and Lisa Stewart Gunderson and Debbie Cook), and my dad in Yuma. We'll be back here in a week and then Rob will fly up to Seattle to see his parents. Then Leslie & Fred will come down here for a weekend and after that it's time to get us and the boat ready for Mexico and the Haha.
Southern California has been wonderful. In Santa Barbara we bicycled and did some boat jobs, ran into friends from Seattle, and met some other folks headed for Mexico. After Santa Barbara we spent two days motoring and sailing out to Catalina. T2 (Teresa Lennstrom) and Linda came down and hung out with us for a couple of days. The Santa Ana winds were building when we were in Avalon, though, so we ended up sailing over to Long Beach. Carol Hasse (our sailmaker in Port Townsend) had put us in contact with Cherie, the owner of a Baba40 named Karma in Long Beach, and she found us a slip in her marina to hang out in for a couple of days. T2 flew back to Seattle and we headed south, sailing alongside Karma on a spectacular day down to Newport Yacht Basin.
We sat on a hook in Newport for 3 days and enjoyed the harbor, then did two day trips down to Oceanside and into San Diego. We stayed at the city dock for a couple of days until the marina had a slip, where we came today. Amazingly, about 40 minutes after we pulled in, a boat that was across the dock from us at Shilshole pulled into the slip next to us. Chris and Dani on Kinship are also Haha-ing south. Yesterday we spent the afternoon hanging out with some other folks from K-Dock at Shilshole, Leigh & Peter on Marcy.
Today on Yohelah we're enjoying the Southern California fall weather and looking forward to our little road trip.....
Wednesday, September 13, 2006
After a quick two night passage from San Francisco Bay we're in Santa Barbara this morning. And we've finally found warm weather (Yippee)! The passage was boring, as we waited for a trough of low pressure to pass through and ended up with not enough wind to sail. Listening to the motor for two and a half days was painful, particularly since we burn well over a gallon an hour of fuel. But as usual, the rewards are worth it.
Sausalito was a nice stop. We were at the dock for two days getting some rigging work done on the boat and some folks from our cruising club in Seattle saw our boat and came to tell us about some mooring buoys in the bay. Richardson Bay in front of Sausalito is very shallow, unless you're anchored well out at the opening of it, which is really windy and bouncy. But there are three mooring buoys deep in the bay but right off the channel with 12' of water under them, and they're free for the first three days and $5 a day after that. Definitely in our price range. We grabbed one as soon as our riggers left and stayed on it until we left San Francisco Bay.
Brittney came down and we had to figure out how to get to the airport and pick her up. We ended up taking a ferry to San Francisco and BART (their rapid transit) to the airport. She stayed three days and we had lots of fun hanging out with her. On Friday we went into the city and did the tourist thing. We found a dim sum spot that even the teenager thought was fabulous(when it's packed and there are only six non-Asian people in the building you know it's good). Saturday we took the bus and BART again and got her back to the airport.
Then we pretty much hung out for another week. One day Rob rented a car to go to a chandlery in Alameda to get another jib track (still unfinished work from the refit) and we did some Costco and shopping things. After that we were waiting for a good weather window to head south again. Our buoy was in front of the Sausalito Cruising Club, run by really nice folks who welcome cruisers on their way south.
Now we're finally in the land of palm trees and warm sunny beaches! We'll do some boat chores here and probably stay 4 or 5 days. Then we're heading down to Catalina Island to meet up with T2 (Teresa Lennstrom), who is coming down for a couple of days!
Today on Yohelah we're warm and dry and enjoying the sunny weather we've finally found......
Thursday, August 24, 2006
Of the eight hundred plus miles between the Pacific Northwest and San Francisco Bay, the ones around Cape Mendicino in Northern California are likely to cause the most trouble. The heat of the valley makes the winds blow strong and summer gales occur more frequently than not in that area. Our preliminary forecast Wednesday night called for light winds by the time we got to Mendicino. But, we'd have to pay for it in the meantime with big winds and big seas off the Washington coast. What we were going to see wasn't gale force, though, just "bigger than you'd like", as the weather forecaster put it. If we didn't leave on Thursday, though, we'd need to wait until at least the following Tuesday, and by then there was no way to know what it would be like at Mendicino.
Of course by now you know what our decision was - Let's go for it! With forecast in hand, 6 dinners in the freezer, fuel and water in the tanks, and everything stowed away we headed out into the North Pacific.
And for the second time the forecaster was right on. Unfortunately, the only variance was an underestimate of the winds and seas off the Washington coast! They started building on Friday as expected, and it blew 25-30 with sustained gusts of 35 knots all night and by morning there were mountains of ocean everywhere. Was I afraid? Of course I was at first. Than I realized I had nothing tangible to attach the fear to. The boat was solid, it's systems were sound and we knew how to sail it. What we lacked was experience in big seas and the ocean, but it looked like our choices were little in that regard. The only twist was the horrible cold I was getting, and the strength it took from me.
There was significant comfort knowing the conditions weren't going to last long, and they didn't. Here's a video Rob shot on Saturday after things had settled down considerably (there was no way we were thinking about the video cam in the huge stuff). We went nearly 100 miles off the coast and found little traffic. I saw a fishing boat on Sunday, but that was all until we got to San Francisco. We learned a ton about downwind sailing and used lots of different sail combinations, including our new spinnaker pole on our jib in the lighter winds, and a combination of our storm trysail and jib as the winds picked up again south of Mendicino.
Are we glad it's over? Yes, but mostly because it's just "been there" for so many years. Are we glad we went when we did? Absolutely. The experience was awesome and the passage overall was marvelous. There's nothing good to be said about the 2:00 am to 4:00 am watch when it's blowing 30 knots and the boat is screaming along in the dark, but it's part of this lifestyle that we're learning so much about and loving. We made quick time getting here in almost exactly 6 days, and only motored about 20 hours the entire trip (past Cape Mendicino and into San Francisco when the wind died on the morning of our arrival). The boat performed marvelously, and we experienced not a single piece of equipment failure or breakage.
Now we're tucked into a city marina and got some seriously good sleep last night. Toady we'll clean 3,000 lbs. of salt off the boat and get ready to enjoy the city and San Francisco Bay. Brittney is going to come down next week for a few days for a little pre-college jaunt, so we'll have fun exploring the city with our neice. We've got a few boat jobs to work on (as always) and then we'll start coast hopping down towards San Diego to get ready for the Baja Haha and our first winter in Mexico!
Today on Yohelah we're several pounds lighter, as that North Pacific passage monkey is finally off our backs.......
Tuesday, August 15, 2006
It was so good to see our sibs. Rob & I have travelled and worked away from "home" much of our adult lives, but for some reason when we left this time it made me realize how important the families are that we were leaving behind. Maybe it's just being all grown up now (sort of), or not having our own kids and family, or the fact that we're all getting older now, but for whatever reason it's harder being away from them now.
So having Leslie up for three days and Stann for a week was marvelous. To get to share one of our favorite places in the Northwest with them was special. We were sad Leslie could only stay three days, but we're looking forward to seeing her in San Diego in a couple of months.
We went to Turtle Bay and sat on a hook, visited the little town of Bamfield, and took the hike on Effingham Island that I've always wanted to do. We also got a couple quick tours of Tofino, which is a town in Clayoquot Sound north of Barkley (it was nice to have cars after three months without).
But now they've gone back to civilization and we're getting ready for our next big passage south. This is the one we've been thinking about for years and we've prepared ourselves and our little boat. We'll get a forecast from the weather guy again and decide when to leave. We're getting the boat ready for a Thursday departure.
Thursday, August 03, 2006
One of the cardinal rules of voyaging is that you never make landfall at night. With the help now of radar and GPS, you hear people admitting that they do more and more, but I wasn't even tempted. We were making a 580 mile passage from Alaska down the outside of the Queen Charlottes and Vancouver Island to Barkley Sound, which is truly the "Graveyard of the Pacific". We had been sailing for three days and nights and motoring the last day, and were scheduled to come ashore at 6:00 am Wednesday. It should be light enough then, and if it wasn't we planned slow down a bit and wait.
Our trip was quite wonderful, and we're so glad to have the "first passage" under our belts. We used a weather routing service called Locus Weather since we were new to passage making and still in the North Pacific. Our forecast called for quite a variety of winds, but it was providing what we wanted - good winds for sailing without getting our butts kicked. And that's exactly what we got, except the last bit of winds were delayed and we made such good time we ended up motoring the last day in no wind at all.
As expected, the boat performed marvelously. The windvane did all the steering, and with a nice balanced helm we easily stayed on course throughout the trip. We found a few shortcomings that need to be remedied before the next passage (reefing the jib needs to be easier), but they'll get fixed here in Ucluelet. We sailed downwind, on a beam reach, and upwind, and on all points of sail the boat just charged on through.
The crew didn't have quite as easy of a time, though! We've heard from friends that the first couple days of a passage are tough, and that is so true. We took some seasick medecine a freind got us in Thailand last year (thanks Shane) that all the yachties take. It made us totally lethargic, so we only took it for the first day and a half until we knew our bodies were acclimated to the conditions and we wouldn't get sick (or so we hoped). We did two hour shifts, and on our off watches we just crashed instantly, foulies and harness and all. The watch scheduled totally messed with our sleeping rhythms, but eventually our bodies got used to two hour naps.
By the end of the second day we were starting to feel human again, and by the fourth day we were able to trade some sleeping time for showers. I had precooked and frozen all of our dinners before we left, so meals were simply heating something up.
The night watches were really incredible. It was cold and we had on four layers (thermals, two fleece layers, and foulies), and the first three nights were overcast with no moon so it was really dark. The last night was clear and starry, and it had warmed enough to rid ourselves of a layer, but we were motoring so some of the magic wasn't quite there! But being out there in the dark while the boat is just charging through the seas is an awesome experience. The radar makes it easy to keep an eye out for other traffic, so it's mostly just about watching your course on the GPS and monitoring the wind speed and direction and hoping you don't have to wake up your spouse to make a sail change if the wind picks up.
Now we're in Ucluelet waiting for Leslie to get here tomorrow. We crashed hard once we got to the dock and cleared customs. We'll spend two weeks here visiting with my sister and Rob's brother, and then head south again on our next passage. We'll use the routing service one more time, since this will be a longer passage and a little more tricky to predict. And we'll be checking the weather faxes he's using for the forecast so we can learn more about it ourselves.
Today on Yohelah we're glad the first passage is done and we're getting ready for the second.....
Friday, July 21, 2006
The trip down the outside of Baranof and Prince of Wales Islands has been spectacular. The anchorages are beautiful and almost completely empty of other boats. The ocean sailing wasn't too special, as the winds were pretty light and we're not happy using the spinnaker with the dinghy and kayaks both on deck (too many things to tangle spin sheets on). But Rob finally got the fishing monkey off our back and caught a beautiful and yummy 23" coho. Fed us for three nights.
The kayaking in Tokeen Bay was excellent, with lots of little islands and rocks to explore. Didn't see any black bears while we were in our little boats, though.
There's a massive low pressure system out in the Gulf of Alaska that's been messing with the weather for a few days now. Hopefully it'll dissipate soon and the sun will come back. Luckily it's not expected to come ashore here into Southeast. And hopefully the high will fill back in so our northerlies return for our trip south.
We're headed for Craig today to make our last laundry and provisioning stop in Alaska. Then it's south back to BC, where we get to see Rob's brother Stann and my sister Leslie, who are coming to Barkley Sound for visits!
Today on Yohelah we're going to get wet, as it's just pouring rain and we have a 37 mile trip to Craig.....
Monday, July 10, 2006
It's been nearly three weeks since we stopped at Sitka and we're definitely ready to head out. This is a wonderful town with marvelous people, but it's time to start making our way south. We've been at the dock working hard on the boat finishing up the projects that weren't done in Port Townsend. I can happily say that we have a new high capacity automatic bilge pump, the solar panels are wired up and pumping in 14 amps on a cloudy Sitka day, the SSB works and we can receive weather faxes and onboard email, the jacklines are hooked up so we can't fall off the boat, and the lee cloth is done so we don't fall out of bed on passage. And tomorrow morning we'll fire up the watermaker and should have fresh water on demand now whenever we want.
We'll rendezvous with Tim & Cindy late next week in the town of Craig on Prince of Wales Island. From there we'll head to the south end of the island where we'll wait for a weather window to make a passage offshore to Barkley Sound. We'll be about 470 miles from Barkley Sound, so we expect 4-5 days depending on the weather. The summer northwesterlies have settled in, so we're hoping for a nice calm downhill ride. We've hired a weather routing service to help us out on these first two passages so we can learn more about the weather faxes we're reading. He'll tell us when it's a good time to go and what kind of weather we can expect. We're ready and the boat's ready, but this is still our first time for overnight sailing so we're (mostly me) plenty nervous.
Alaska has been amazing, and it's going to be hard to leave it again. We met some wonderful folks from Miami and South Africa who have been here three years, and the conversation did come up about wintering over. But, I've spent plenty enough winters in Alaska, and it's definitely time for Mexico.
Today on Yohelah we're finally ready to make our first offshore passage......
Saturday, June 17, 2006
We anchored in front of Reid Glacier for 2 days. We had gone ashore at the end of the bay for a walk in the morning until the bear tracks looked too big and too fresh. That afternoon we beached the dinghy and climbed over the boulders to get to the base of the glacier at the head of the bay. The enormity of the glacier was amazing, as were the colors in the parts that were actively calving. Rob was taking pictures and I was scanning the glacier with the binoculars. We were on the north side of the glacier. I panned the binocs to the south side and suddenly the lenses were filled with two grizzlies - mom and cub. Ohmygosh (not what I really said)! The dinghy was a half hour scramble over the boulders, and the bears were moving in the opposite direction away from us. But I could not convince myself I didn't need to be off that beach immediately. Rob continued to snap pictures of the glacier as I hauled butt for the dinghy.
Of course the entire event turned into an incredible photo op for my husband. We motored over to tell Tim & Cindy and we all headed to the beach. Mom and child were not bothered a bit by Rob & Cindy's cameras, and we got far closer to a grizzly than I ever want to be again.
That was only one of the many animal sightings we enjoyed in Glacier Bay. We were totally blessed with spectacular sunny weather the whole week. The sounds the glaciers make is incredible when they calve off and fall into the sea - truly an amazing sight.
We were at our furthest point north before turning south to head to Mexico. It was Margerie Glacier at the head of Tarr Inlet. After the cruise ship left it was just us and Masquerade to enjoy the glacier. We rafted up and had a champagne toast from the bottle my sister had given us, celebrating the fact we had made it to Glacier Bay and that we were now heading south!
The highest animal count for a single day included 3 grizzlies, an eagle on an iceberg, a humpback whale, 9 mountain goats, a sea otter and 16,000 mosquitoes. Truly better than any trip we could have imagined.
Now we're headed for Sitka, where we'll stay awhile. We've got to get Yohelah ready for an offshore passage, and there are some unfinished jobs from Port Townsend that can't be put off any longer.
Our trip to Glacier Bay was so incredible. Today on Yohelah we're heading south.........
Wednesday, May 31, 2006
Alaska has been amazing. The difference between the anchorages here and the stops we made on the way up here is incredible. And seeing all the humpbacks and orcas is just icing on the already delicious cake.
After leaving Ketchikan we transited the Wrangell Narrows up to Petersburg. It was one of the passages I'd been worried about while I was trip planning. We have to share a 22' deep, 300' wide channel with the commercial traffic. There are 53 buoys in the 23 mile passage. You begin near the end of the flood tide and ride the current to the middle of the channel, then hope you timed it right and when the current changes to an ebb you ride that back out to the other end. Petersburg was a nice little town at the end with very friendly folks (and no cruise ships) who still earn a living in the commercial fishing trade. We made a quick overnight stop to get water and headed north again in the morning.
The next two stops were beautiful. Portage Bay had miles of beach to walk. Sanborn Canal was a quiet little cove where we hid out from a passing low pressure system. It had a stream at the head that we explored in the dinghy (and rain) for a mile or more hoping to spot some moose or bears - but no luck. The boat that was in there when we arrived was Wandr'n Star - it had been across the harbor in Point Hudson from us all winter long. Gary & Dorothy are also headed to Mexico via Alaska.
"Go slow, don't hit the big ones, and don't back up." That was the advice given to me on the VHF yesterday by the commercial tour boat coming out of Tracy Arm as we were headed in. We had Tim & Cindy and Gary & Dorothy on Yohelah, and everyone but me was on the bow pushing ice bergs (bergy bits) away with pike poles and boat hooks as I drove through them. Exciting? Absolutely! And the reward was good; South Sawyer Glacier was spectacular. We were still a mile away from the base of it when we turned around, but that's as close as we were willing to push to as the ice kept getting thicker and thicker.
Now we're on to Juneau in a couple of days (where I'll send this update from). Then to Glacier Bay on Tuesday for our up close and personal visit with the glaciers. The ice in Glacier Bay shouldn't be packed in like it is in Tracy Arm, so we can get closer and see the glaciers better. And we'll get the kayaks out and do some paddling if the weather's nice.
After that, we just don't know yet. We want to make it to Sitka. Our friends Steve & Elsie are enroute headed this way and we want to catch up with them at some point. But what we will know is that we'll be officially headed south!
Today life is an exciting adventure on Yohelah......
Sunday, May 21, 2006
Yippee - we made it to Alaska finally!!! We're going to slow down a bit and start enjoying ourselves more. We've decided to skip northern BC on the way back down and do an offshore passage back to the outside of Vancouver Island. That'll give us plenty of time to enjoy Alaska. We changed the entry date on the Glacier Bay permit to June 6th, so we've got a little more time to get up there. Then we'll have several weeks to actually see the sights, do some kayaking, and enjoy the anchorages.
We've accomplished the first big milestone of the trip - now it's time to relax and enjoy.....
Wednesday, May 17, 2006
"Don't cross Queen Charlotte Sound if the height of the waves at Sea Otter Buoy is more than one meter". That's the advice given to us by our friends Jim & Barbara who made this trip last year. It's also the advice in the cruising guide.
We got up at 4:00 am in a little anchorage at the south end of Queen Charlotte Sound to check the latest weather forecast. A high had built in, but a low with gale force winds was pushing through, and it had slowed down. If we didn't make the crossing that day we could possibly be stuck for days waiting for the low to pass by. The forecast was perfect for the crossing, since the wind would be a light south easterly (behind us) and the gale wasn't coming through until night time. But the seas at Sea Otter Buoy were already 2+ meters. Rats. What to do?
That was over a week and nearly 300 miles ago. And indeed, we did make the crossing that day in very big seas with no wind. It was quite a ride, but of course we had confidence our little boats would take good care of us. And did a gale blow through? We have no idea because we were tucked in tightly in Fish Egg Inlet and never felt even a breeze.
Today we're heading for Prince Rupert after waiting out another big blow yesterday. This one, though, we did notice. The inlet we're in this morning is not nearly as protected as Fish Egg was. But our anchors held tight and we rode it out without too much of a worry.
The last week has been filled with incredibly beautiful passages in deep channels that are long and narrow between high mountains. We're truly heading up the inside passage now and the scenery is spectacular. But unlike the cruise ships, we get to (have to) make stops along the way, most of which are quite interesting.
We stopped one morning in a First Nations village to take on water and found the folks incredibly charming and helpful. Of course it didn't hurt to have our Native logo and boat name. That night we were on the dock in a ghost town called Butedale that was literally falling into the sea. Lou the caretaker was a gracious host and we had an impromptu potluck at his house with another sailor headed north. Butedale was formerly a fish packing community housing up to 2,000 people in the summer. Now Lou watches over what's left to keep vandals out. The power house is a trip - it's a concrete building built over a downhill stream, sucking water through a turbine. The generators don't work anymore, so the turbine is still spinning the rotor of the inoperative generator, and is attached to a pulley system that spins an alternator the size of the ones on our boat, which provides power to Lou.
The next afternoon we were at Bishop Bay Hot Springs on the dock alone enjoying the incredible springs and sunshine. About 3:00 we were gloating about how wonderful it was going to be having the whole place to ourselves overnight. Of course, about a half hour later a charter group of 6 power boats comes in. In the end we were sharing the tiny little dock with three power boats and a commercial shrimping boat, and there were four other boats out on anchor. So much for "all to ourselves". But we still got to go back up to the hot springs after dark with Tim & Cindy, wine and candles. Very cool.
Today we'll stop in Prince Rupert to do some much needed laundry and get some rest. Then the last big crossing of open water (Dixon Entrance) into Alaska. It's a 90 mile trip to Ketchikan, and legally we can only stop in Foggy Bay on the way across, so we have two long days to get to customs and check in. We're still trying to get to Glacier Bay by June 1st, and may just make it afterall.
Life is full of interesting stops on Yohelah.....
Sunday, May 07, 2006
"Have you heard about the local fishing boat that went down in Seymour Narrows last Wednesday at 7 a.m.?" That was the information being passed on by the woman in the boat next to us as she helped us with our lines when we tied to the dock in Campbell River. And it was told again by two locals who came to chat with Rob while he put the boat up. Big news in Campbell River when the locals have trouble with the narrows. The crew came out alive, although the boat was trashed having been on it's side and filled with seawater.
Of course I couldn't stand it and finally checked the tide tables to find exactly what I'd hoped to - the max current in Seymour Narrows that Wednesday morning was a 13 knott ebb at 8:00 am. We were carefully planning another transit at slack water and knew we'd be fine. But it's still enough to make you be very careful and appreciate the need to time your travels.
Tim and Cindy made it in on Sunday and took a few days of well deserved rest time. Rest time being, of course, time to work on the boat a bit. Rob & Tim got the new high output alternators installed on the engines, so we both now recharge in much shorter time than before.
Wednesday we headed north through Seymour Narrows in calm waters at slack tide and into Johnstone Straits. The weather was so nice and the current so favorable we pushed on long past our planned stop. On Thursday the wind came up a bit, but was behind us, as was the current again. We stopped in a little island group called Pearce Islands at the bottom of the Broughton Archipeligo and spent Friday enjoying the sun and watching the population of enormous eagles around our anchorage.
Friday night the Canadian weather folks forecast a low pressure system moving ashore, so we zipped over to Port McNeil yesterday morning and are sitting it out today. Tomorrow we'll head for a little anchorage called God's Pocket at the mouth of Queen Charlotte Strait to cross Queen Charlotte Sound and head north. This is a crossing we have to have a good weather window to make, and a high pressure system is forecast to build tomorrow, so it's time to make a run for it.
Today we're making plans for a big push north while we get a little rest in Port McNeil......
Wednesday, April 26, 2006
"Securite, securite, securite. This is the sailing vessel Yohelah transiting Malibu Rapids outbound." That's the call you make on the VHF to alert vessels on the opposite side of the rapids that you're coming through. With an 8 knot current, slack tides of only minutes, and a very narrow and shallow channel at low tide, the transit is a bit nerve wracking the first few times you make it. And you can't see the boats on the other side of the winding channel when you start. The trip in on Sunday was a piece of cake, with no other boats waiting to transit. Yesterday when we came out, though, was another story. After I made the announcement and we were committed to the channel we heard a motor vessel announce his arrival and transit inbound. Crap. I ran downstairs and called him twice more with no response. Too late to turn around. And if we missed this slack we'd have to wait another day since the afternoon slack was so late in the day and there wasn't an anchorage to be found within 30 miles outside the rapids.
Of course all's well that ends well since he was just a little boat and flipped a big u-turn when he got to the channel and saw us in the middle of it (we wouldn't even hardly have noticed running him over). All of our friends who have been this far north over the years are used to this now, as we will be after a couple more. Our next chance is Seymour Narrows north of Campbell River - when we transit it on Sunday it'll be the slack between a 12 knot flood and a 14 knot ebb.
We've finally started to feel like we're getting into "cruising mode" now. An arrival into a new town means taking care of chores like grocery shopping, laundry, website updating. And of course there's an occasional meal out. Today when we had planned to cross back across the Straits of Georgia and heard a stinky weather forecast we decided to sit tight until the weather was better tomorrow.
The best news is that Tim & Cindy should be in Campbell River when we get there tomorrow afternoon. We're going to start putting some miles under our keels and getting north. We've got approved cruising permits for June 1st in Glacier Bay, so it's time to stop dawdling and get up there!
Today, life is quiet on Yohelah while we wait for better weather tomorrow....
Wednesday, April 19, 2006
I can't believe we're already into week 3. The bad news is we're not getting very far very fast. The good news is we have at least made it to Canada! And the boat's in much better shape than it was when we left (we now have a working radar and gps, and there's no more stuff we have to cart out of the forward cabin before we go to sleep at night). We're in Nanaimo this morning, expecting a good weather window tomorrow morning to cross the Straits of Georgia over to the Canadian mainland.
After leaving Shilshole we spent 3 days in Oak Harbor with my pop, which we thoroughly enjoyed. Then off to Sucia, where we caught up with Tim & Cindy, but couldn't get off the boat because the fuel for the outboard was too old and it wouldn't start (oops, forgot that one on the list). Off to Roche harbor for a few days to get the outboard fixed and new fuel. Then we left Tim & Cindy and spent 4 days in Sidney at the Sidney North Saanich Yacht Club. What a nice place, but really horrid weather. Spent a day being tourists in Victoria, which was fun.
From there we sailed (even had a spinnaker day!) up Trincomali Channel to a little harbor on the north end of Thetis Island. Then yesterday our first of many passages waiting for slack tide through narrows with 9 knots of current. Today we have a long long list of chores, as this is the last big town we'll see for a long time. Hopefully this weekend we'll be in Princess Louisa Inlet. Tim & Cindy had to go back to Port Townsend to get some wood work done on Masquerade, so we're hoping to catch up with them in a couple of weeks.
I don't know where the time goes, but life is very very busy on Yohelah....
Tuesday, April 4, 2006
They were all standing there when we left just like we had imagined and hoped they would be. All of our sibs (except TB, Lisa & Lynn), Mom & Michael and Rob's parents. It was incredible. After 8 years of planning, a 9 month delay, and 4 solid days of partying we were finally getting "off the dock" for good. Of course they were also all teasing us about not having any instruments that worked and going aground in Oak Harbor our first day out, but that's to be expected. And as we all knew they would be, the instruments were hooked up and working an hour before we needed them.
So here we are - finally "on our way". And I think we're on our way because our family always believed in us, even if they did think we were more than a little crazy.
Later this week we'll meet up with Tim & Cindy in Sucia and head for Canada. There's not much to report right now, except the list of things that weren't hooked up before we left. But we've finally realized that we'll be working on this boat for the rest of our lives, so why let it slow us down now?
For now, life is very very good on Yohelah....
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