Thursday, May 30, 2013
Club member Anthony posts a video from Duck Dodge, where he skippers club boat "Charlotte," a Catalina 27 along with club member Josh (who's also our Purser)
Report from club member Marc in Alaska May 13-14
As said previously we spent Monday morning at the Squirrel Cove General Store to refuel, shower, etc.
We first docked at the public dock failing to find a fuel dock. Somebody pointed out that fuel would be available at the general store when it would open at 9 am. So I walked over there to check things out and found a tiny dock with a single fuel hose leading to it. I peered into the water and saw it was deep enough for Mariposa. So we moved her to that tiny dock and eventually the store opened and we went at our business.
A guy walked up to me and said he owned the same sailboat as I did and thought I was very "brave" for daring to dock there since at low tide the whole dock would be aground... Needless to say we moved Mariposa back to the public dock as soon as we were done!.
It rained badly all day. While we had lunch, safely moored to the public dock, with the little fuel dock now nearly hitting bottom, we were lashed by unbelievable downpoors of hate rain again. There was a continuous stream of water over the portholes as we were looking out, not rivulets but a thick uninterupted layer of water gushing down the entire side of the boat like a waterfall! We stopped eating and watched in amazement.
We would have toodled around Deception Sound before moseying on to cross the rapids, but with the rotten weather we just stayed put at the dock until about half past three when we had to leave to still make it to the rapids on time.
We arrived at the Yukulta Rapids at 7:15 pm, 15 minutes earlier than planned and it looked calm enough to proceed. We'd have three knots of current against us *on average* at that point. Laszlo had piloted us through tiny vicious Malibu Rapids on the way out of Princess Louisa Inlet, at perfect slack without turbulences, and now it was time for him to measure himself against a big guy like Yukulta with current still flowing. He had read the cruising guide on how to tackle it and how to play the eddies, he had looked up the tides and currents, and I had shown him the general route on the chart. All the homework was done so in we went. The two first eddies caught him by surprise and the boat got pivotted 90 degrees each time, but after that Laszlo held the tiller with a firm hand and quick reaction times. It was fun to see our progress on the chart plotter. Even though we were pointing in a certain direction, the actual direction in which we were progressing could be 90 degrees to one side and then a second later 90 degrees to the other side! Worst speed over ground was around half a knot and Laszlo had to find another way amongst the eddies at that point. As time went by, the currents and eddies abated and we passed through the adjoining Dent Rapids at full slack at around 8 pm, which was the goal of taking an early start in Yukulta Rapids.
Over an hour later, as we approached our dock for the night in Shoal Bay, one of our fenders was dropped over board. It was black and it was night but we managed to keep track of it and fish it up. Soon we were all safely docked and sound asleep.
Tuesday we got up at 5:10 am to catch the slack at Green Rapids. Jenny took the helm to tackle this one but we encountered hardly any turbulence since we hit it right at slack. It's always weird to sail over a placid rapid that doesn't seem different than the rest of the channel yet to know that at full strength it has the power to swamp boats or to smash them against the rocks.
We kept motoring on, all the way to the Johnstone Strait where we started sailing the wind that was forecasted to keep increasing. At he end of our run with the current on the Strait, to avoid the coming counter-current of the flood, we turned back into the side channels where we first had to motor again against the now strong winds. (In the Havannah Channel).
The depth sounder had been acting up and was now refusing to display our depth at all. Since we were headed towards the Chatham Channel, which is shallow and narrow, I wanted to check that thing out and simply started by wiggling the wires. To my surprise water just dripped out of the enclosure! (Thank you so much, hate rain.) I took it apart and the thing isn't even caulked. It worked for a while again to get us through the Channel but then gave up on us and life and the universe. It stubornly displays two dashes, no depth. We'll see if its attitude changes after a night of drying.
When we neared the Chatham Channel our ever intrepid Laszlo decided to unfurl the headsail to motorsail against over 25 knots of wind while I was inside. Needless to say that the result was a big roll while I held on to all our stuff inside, followed by lots of flogging of sail and sheets, and then a neetly furled headsail again after I had come out to lend a hand. Somewhat subdued by the events, Laszlo and Jenny then motored most of the way downwind in the Chatham Channel. I came back outside in the cockpit a while later and promptly fell asleep with Jenny at the helm. When I awoke we were in Knight Inlet and found there was good wind and lots of space. The engine was shut off altogether and we sailed for nearly the remainder of the day.
We even passed in between the islets located between Spring and Retreat Passages under sail, which required a lot of play with the ever shifting and dissapearing winds of those near landlocked areas, and good fun was had avoiding the shores and reefs under those conditions. Then we motored into Waddington Bay, our landlocked anchorage for the night, forecasted to be pretty stormy.
No pictures were taken due to the weather again.
We first docked at the public dock failing to find a fuel dock. Somebody pointed out that fuel would be available at the general store when it would open at 9 am. So I walked over there to check things out and found a tiny dock with a single fuel hose leading to it. I peered into the water and saw it was deep enough for Mariposa. So we moved her to that tiny dock and eventually the store opened and we went at our business.
A guy walked up to me and said he owned the same sailboat as I did and thought I was very "brave" for daring to dock there since at low tide the whole dock would be aground... Needless to say we moved Mariposa back to the public dock as soon as we were done!.
It rained badly all day. While we had lunch, safely moored to the public dock, with the little fuel dock now nearly hitting bottom, we were lashed by unbelievable downpoors of hate rain again. There was a continuous stream of water over the portholes as we were looking out, not rivulets but a thick uninterupted layer of water gushing down the entire side of the boat like a waterfall! We stopped eating and watched in amazement.
We would have toodled around Deception Sound before moseying on to cross the rapids, but with the rotten weather we just stayed put at the dock until about half past three when we had to leave to still make it to the rapids on time.
We arrived at the Yukulta Rapids at 7:15 pm, 15 minutes earlier than planned and it looked calm enough to proceed. We'd have three knots of current against us *on average* at that point. Laszlo had piloted us through tiny vicious Malibu Rapids on the way out of Princess Louisa Inlet, at perfect slack without turbulences, and now it was time for him to measure himself against a big guy like Yukulta with current still flowing. He had read the cruising guide on how to tackle it and how to play the eddies, he had looked up the tides and currents, and I had shown him the general route on the chart. All the homework was done so in we went. The two first eddies caught him by surprise and the boat got pivotted 90 degrees each time, but after that Laszlo held the tiller with a firm hand and quick reaction times. It was fun to see our progress on the chart plotter. Even though we were pointing in a certain direction, the actual direction in which we were progressing could be 90 degrees to one side and then a second later 90 degrees to the other side! Worst speed over ground was around half a knot and Laszlo had to find another way amongst the eddies at that point. As time went by, the currents and eddies abated and we passed through the adjoining Dent Rapids at full slack at around 8 pm, which was the goal of taking an early start in Yukulta Rapids.
Over an hour later, as we approached our dock for the night in Shoal Bay, one of our fenders was dropped over board. It was black and it was night but we managed to keep track of it and fish it up. Soon we were all safely docked and sound asleep.
Tuesday we got up at 5:10 am to catch the slack at Green Rapids. Jenny took the helm to tackle this one but we encountered hardly any turbulence since we hit it right at slack. It's always weird to sail over a placid rapid that doesn't seem different than the rest of the channel yet to know that at full strength it has the power to swamp boats or to smash them against the rocks.
We kept motoring on, all the way to the Johnstone Strait where we started sailing the wind that was forecasted to keep increasing. At he end of our run with the current on the Strait, to avoid the coming counter-current of the flood, we turned back into the side channels where we first had to motor again against the now strong winds. (In the Havannah Channel).
The depth sounder had been acting up and was now refusing to display our depth at all. Since we were headed towards the Chatham Channel, which is shallow and narrow, I wanted to check that thing out and simply started by wiggling the wires. To my surprise water just dripped out of the enclosure! (Thank you so much, hate rain.) I took it apart and the thing isn't even caulked. It worked for a while again to get us through the Channel but then gave up on us and life and the universe. It stubornly displays two dashes, no depth. We'll see if its attitude changes after a night of drying.
When we neared the Chatham Channel our ever intrepid Laszlo decided to unfurl the headsail to motorsail against over 25 knots of wind while I was inside. Needless to say that the result was a big roll while I held on to all our stuff inside, followed by lots of flogging of sail and sheets, and then a neetly furled headsail again after I had come out to lend a hand. Somewhat subdued by the events, Laszlo and Jenny then motored most of the way downwind in the Chatham Channel. I came back outside in the cockpit a while later and promptly fell asleep with Jenny at the helm. When I awoke we were in Knight Inlet and found there was good wind and lots of space. The engine was shut off altogether and we sailed for nearly the remainder of the day.
We even passed in between the islets located between Spring and Retreat Passages under sail, which required a lot of play with the ever shifting and dissapearing winds of those near landlocked areas, and good fun was had avoiding the shores and reefs under those conditions. Then we motored into Waddington Bay, our landlocked anchorage for the night, forecasted to be pretty stormy.
No pictures were taken due to the weather again.
Report from club member Marc May 20-21
On Monday morning the crab pot yielded only one starfish:
We refueled at Shearwater and then slowly motored and sailed the first bit of the Seaforth Channel to allow Laszlo to trawl for salmon. No fish were encountered, not even on the fish finder. The second part of the Seaforth Channel, which is open to the ocean, was a hard pounding into the waves at a high RPM and a slow speed. Near the end of it we tucked into Reid Passage and started trawling under sail. In Percival Narrows quite a few fish showed up on the fish finder but we just lost our lure and hook again, one of the new ones bought in Port Hardy.
We sailed all the way to Rescue Bay where we anchored for the night. It is located on Mathieson Channel and Jackson Pass. A dark sky compelled us to unfold the tarp over the cockpit and soon enough light rain trickled down till darkness fell.
The next morning we found a single crab, male, and of legal size, in our crab pot to our delight! This is only the second one we catch during this whole trip. The remains of the little rock fish were used as bait.
We motored at a really slow pace to preserve fuel and visited the whole Fiordland area. A radiant sun dissipated the rain and clouds within one hour of our departure and the tarp was slid aside. The weather got so warm that at some point I considered sailing in T-shirt but I just quite didn't. It was perfect to take many pictures again.
In Fiordland there are oodles of towering waterfalls, many of which can be approached by boat until you can almost stretch your hand out and touch them.
Jenny declares this one to be the coolest:
A few falls later, another one is declared to be her favorite and she has stuck with it ever since. Kynoch Inlet in Fiordland park:
Kynoch Falls. We switched off the engine and had lunch drifting around with this awesome background. We found quite a bit of a yellow algal bloom in this inlet:
Report from club member Mark May 19
From Ada Cove we motored the short distance to Shearwater which is next to Bella Bella. It being a Sunday in Canada, everything was closed including the fuel dock. We still managed to shower there and refill our tank and jugs with their yellowish water, to which we added some bleach.
We heard that the fuel dock in Bella Bella was open so we motored back that way.
About six crows and bald eagles were chasing and harassing another with a fish in his claws. Ultimately he dropped it and another bird caught it in flight. Obviously that just made it the next target and when the fish was dropped again it fell all the way into the water and was lost to all. I'm sure there is a powerful message here but don't ask me which.
After tying to the fuel dock and checking things out it turned out that on Sundays you can call the attendant over the phone and ask her to come to the dock but you have to pay a "call out" fee of $25 for the privilege.
She came over for another boat that did just that but then still wanted us to pay that fee too even though she was already there and in all logic we couldn't possibly "call her out" anymore and therefore also not pay a "call out" fee. The logic was lost on her. It was already 2 pm by then so we opted instead to anchor next to town and to go refuel at Shearwater the next day.
Ventilating our stuff at Bella Bella fuel dock during endless wait for attendant on this radiant day:
At anchor we even removed the tarp from the frame over the cockpit to enjoy the sun! It was a perfect time to caulk the depth sounder. It is drying more and more and is now working more or less reliably in shallow depths but we don't use it anymore. There is a fish finder that came with the boat and that I thought didn't work until the depth sounder quit on us and we started tinkering with it. The fish finder gives us our depth reliably.
During our endless wait at the fuel dock we had chatted with another boater there. He'd been throwing out fish at the bald eagles to photograph them and that's what we had seen them fight over. I used this opportunity to take a few shots of my own (with my good camera, not with this iPod so I can't send them along).
This friendly Canadian also explained to us how to fish for bottom feeders such as rock fish and halibut. Obviously we don't have the gear for halibut which can weigh hundreds of pounds but we tried for smaller fish.
Laszlo went at it for a while without result. I myself don't really care about eating fish and even less about catching the slimy things but seeing how low the morale of the troops had fallen on the fishing front I got up and grabbed the rod and loudly declared: "It's time for some beginner's luck!". I had never fished in my life before and just did what the Canadian at the dock had explained to us.
10 minutes later:
We had finally caught our first fish!
The deal was that fishing would be allowed on this trip but Laszlo and Jenny would have to do the killing and cleaning. Laszlo had fished on lakes and rivers before but never done either of the above himself.
His plan was to hit the fish with the back of the blade of our kitchen knife to knock it out and then to cut off the head.
The hit only produced a dull thud without any other effect and the fish gave us an indignated look:
The poor little rock fish was not much of a struggler so it was attempted to go straight to the cutting part but the blade broke from the handle!
After more fumbling with another knife the poor thing was finally out of its misery.
Before the grill:
After the grill:
After this victory, Laszlo had tried to catch more before dinner but we got only the one. Its flesh didn't feed the three of us of course but the morale was greatly boosted. Personally, I would have let the little guy go.
Report from club member Mark May 18
Saturday 18 May
We left Fury Cove in furious rain. Even though we waited for it to calm down before exiting the cabin to pick up the anchor, we had no more than 10 minutes reprieve and by the time we motored out of the cove into Fitz Hugh Sound both Laszlo and I were drenched, tarp or no tarp. Fortunately it didn't get through any of our clothing. Laszlo offered to stay out by himself in the hate rain and I took him up on it. Jenny had opted to stay inside from the beginning.
Fortunately it didn't last and less than an hour later we went back to normal light rain after which we had a pretty dry day overall.
We managed to put quite a bit of sailing in too, in between bits of motoring and motorsailing. At some point I was inside and heard Laszlo crank the winch followed by a loud bang! Out of the corner of my eye I saw the starboard sheet block (pulley) kind of explode. Then it was dangling on the sheet (a rope) in more or less one piece even though partially distorted and Laszlo reported that only the clevis pin had snapped. I was already with my head in my tool bin and passed him the right tool as he opened his mouth to ask for it. I had a little trouble finding a replacement clevis pin of the right size and had to take the cotter ring off a spare block but nevertheless, about 10 minutes after the incident all parts were bent in shape again and reassembled, good to go.
Laszlo fixing the block:
Grilling at sunset in Ada Cove:
After Dinner Laszlo wanted to fish some more, but after 10 days of trying nearly all day long every day without any luck he suddenly quit in disgust and exclaimed: "There is no fish in British Columbia!"
Report from club member Mark May 17
Friday 17 May
At 6 am we extricated Mariposa from her spot on the dock which was smaller than herself (yes you can park your boat in a spot that is smaller than itself because unlike cars, they're not square and you can overlap bows). We then moved from the inner bay to the city warf in the outer bay from where it was an easy walk to Cafe Guido, the only place in Port Hardy that I know of where you can get free internet. We arrived there at 7:02, just when they opened up. With hot beverages we stayed for nearly an hour. It was the first decent internet connection we had on this whole trip. I could finally see the pictures in e-mails I had received earlier but unfortunately my iPod already no longer listed some of those.
A Coast Guard found us in the cafe to warn us that there wouldn't be enough water at low tide where we docked the boat but this time that was fully anticipated. We had approached our spot on the dock with the utmost prudence with the intermitently working depth sounder and had a fair guess of its depth. We were only staying for an hour around high tide anyway.
Port Hardy at 6 am:
The other bit was that there is no fish this year. So yes, congratulations to ourselves! We finally did it. We killed all them scaly bastards!
After our internet fix we motored away and were engulfed in fog pretty rapidly.
Motoring in fog:
Jenny was at the tiller and remarked how easy it is to get completely disoriented. Fortunately it didn't last more than half an hour. We motored for a couple more hours before we had enough wind to kill the engine.
It was a really slow sail, mostly between 3 and 4 knots across the open stretch of Pacific Ocean. With the frequent rain showers we didn't hoist the spinnaker since as you can imagine, there's no practical way for us to dry it. When our speed finally fell to under 2 knots, we motored again for 3 hours then could sail a bit more but still had to motor for the last hour. The weather forecast had been for 20 knots of wind pushing us... We ended up motoring for about 7 hours out of 13.
The mild ocean swell didn't agree with Jenny. She took a pill and skipped most of dinner.
We surprised a sea otter on the way. It was clearly asleep resting its head on some kelp and only about 2 meters from us did it start and dive under.
Fury Cove was reached well before dark, my favorite anchorage in the Pacific Northwest. We're in the boonies now and should finally have frequent encounters with whales! It is getting bitterly cold but we're mostly acclimated. I'll still add a third layer of socks.
It was a really slow sail, mostly between 3 and 4 knots across the open stretch of Pacific Ocean. With the frequent rain showers we didn't hoist the spinnaker since as you can imagine, there's no practical way for us to dry it. When our speed finally fell to under 2 knots, we motored again for 3 hours then could sail a bit more but still had to motor for the last hour. The weather forecast had been for 20 knots of wind pushing us... We ended up motoring for about 7 hours out of 13.
The mild ocean swell didn't agree with Jenny. She took a pill and skipped most of dinner.
We surprised a sea otter on the way. It was clearly asleep resting its head on some kelp and only about 2 meters from us did it start and dive under.
Fury Cove was reached well before dark, my favorite anchorage in the Pacific Northwest. We're in the boonies now and should finally have frequent encounters with whales! It is getting bitterly cold but we're mostly acclimated. I'll still add a third layer of socks.
Wednesday, May 29, 2013
Report from club member Marc's Alaskan Adventure
Friday 24 May
We got 3 crabs at Nettle Basin but only one was both male and borderline of legal size and after some debate we decided to release all three.
The day was bitter cold and without much visibility. All of it was spent motoring boringly in a straight line up Grenville Channel with only one person outside at any time. I did a number of hours starting in persistent rain that was rivuletting from my face. Then Laszlo spent the rest of the day exposed but fortunately for him it wasn't as wet anymore. Inside we mostly did some reading and napping.
Before the anchor had touched the bottom, Jenny had ignited the heater and we all enjoyed its caloric output very much that evening.
We're now roughly 20 miles from Prince Rupert, the last town in British Columbia (where this e-mail will probably be sent from) before we hop over to Alaska. We should arrive in Ketchikan Sunday or Monday.
We got 3 crabs at Nettle Basin but only one was both male and borderline of legal size and after some debate we decided to release all three.
The day was bitter cold and without much visibility. All of it was spent motoring boringly in a straight line up Grenville Channel with only one person outside at any time. I did a number of hours starting in persistent rain that was rivuletting from my face. Then Laszlo spent the rest of the day exposed but fortunately for him it wasn't as wet anymore. Inside we mostly did some reading and napping.
Before the anchor had touched the bottom, Jenny had ignited the heater and we all enjoyed its caloric output very much that evening.
We're now roughly 20 miles from Prince Rupert, the last town in British Columbia (where this e-mail will probably be sent from) before we hop over to Alaska. We should arrive in Ketchikan Sunday or Monday.
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