8/28 Dolphins in Pelican Bay

Other than one power boat we were alone in Pelican Bay the second night of our R&R on Santa Cruz Island. Island Bound sat bouncing lightly on the swell tucked in close to the cliffs. As the sun dropped behind the Santa Cruz Island Bill called me on deck to watch the pelicans dive for their dinner. The bay was alive with thousands of small bait fish rolling and skipping along the surface all around us. The pelicans were lovely to watch as they hit with a splash again and again in search of their dinner. They were wary and would shy off at any noise or movement so we stayed still and quiet in the cockpit. They would fly into the bay, circling then seem to shorten themselves, cock their heads and dive strait down into the darkening water. Off in the distance near the west end of our cove we could see dolphins as they cruised the bait fish too.

Eventually we were forced in by the mosquitoes. A short time later as I lay on our bunk reading Bill called to me again, “dolphins!” They were so close that as I grabbed for a sweater I could hear their clicking and calling coming right through the hull of our home. I hurried up the companionway stairs straining for any other sounds.

As I stepped into the cockpit the waters around us were quiet again. There was no moon in the sky and it had gotten much darker since the pelicans were diving. It was hard to see in the darkness but then off in the distance I could see them moving towards us. I stood silent and still I could hear their breathing and the breaking water as they moved closer to Island Bound. There were several dozen now in the cove with us totally focused on the bait fish around us. They would swim by and then off into the night then come around again for another pass by the boat. The darkness seemed to open up around them as they neared, water rolling off their shiny backs as they fed.

Eventually Bill was driven below by the bugs but I was not ready to give up the moment and so stayed and swatted as I watched. Over a craggy cliff to my east a nearly full moon was slowly rising as I stood quietly in the darkness. The moonlight unfolded until finally there was a huge golden face shining a thick bright streak across the dark waters. The moonlit water now shimmered and glistened off the wet backs of the porpoises as they passed. They would near in a pack, rising and falling along the surface as they fed. Some jumped clear out of the water with a twist. Their soft splashing sounds moving towards me as they neared and then off again.

Finally the night was still. The neighboring boat was completely dark and quiet off to my side. The rising path of the moon that had slowly opened up the world around me stared down as the mosquitoes buzzed my head. The dolphins had moved on and out of our cove. With a sigh I quickly headed down again into the cabin and back to my book.

The next morning we dropped the dink in the water to do a little sight seeing. We could see dolphins in the distance as we headed east around the edge of the bay. I thought we would scare them off with the little outboard motor but instead we were soon joined by a handful off our bow. It was clear they knew we were there as they deliberately slowed to match our speed. We slowed they slowed, we sped up and they quickly moved into our bow wake. They were almost close enough to touch.

Soon there were a dozen or more close in. We could see many others in groups off in every direction in the distance. The ones who first joined us broke off as our engine died. Then as it coughed back to life and we sped up again they swam back into view. After a few minutes sadly (with the outboard acting up again) we decided to head towards home. We slowly dropped back and turned west again back to our cove.

Our days of R&R were more than over due. Lots of time to read and sleep and putter along with our very first dingy and dolphin encounter. The R&R was needed. The dolphins were pure bonus. Kat

8/23 Santa Barbara Vacation

Tomorrow we leave SB for the Channel Islands for some much needed down time. We finished all our must do projects and were able to find a sail maker to help us with our batten problems. We ended up at Paxton Sail and Canvas today using his loft space and expertise to oversee four new battens and a repaired torn batten pocket.
The other big job of our time so far here in SB was to find and purchase two full sets of dive gear. Bill and I got our certification in Seattle one early winter right before we flew to Kauai for our wedding. Since then we have only gone diving during our warm weather vacations. Now that we will be in warm water more regularly we decided to finally purchase our own gear. It will be wonderful to be able to dive whenever and where ever we choose. We bought a small dive compressor before we left Seattle just so we would have the luxury of filling tanks whenever we want!
We will return from the islands on Saturday in time to get out gear over to the dive boat for an early Sunday three tank boat dive. We have been so busy working on the boat it has been a couple of years since we dove. Plus having all new equipment it seemed wise to have our first time out again be in the company of other divers instead of in some remote anchorage all alone.

With that I am off to sleep. Will write again soon and tell you all about our vacation and about the dive! Keep your fingers crossed for dolphins!

8/19 Southern California Arrival

After leaving SF very early to catch an outgoing tide on Tuesday we have been steadily sailing due south. Winds have been a little light in the early mornings but building to a wonderful 12 to 20 for essentially the whole trip. We rounded Point Conception in a 30knot wind in the wee hours this morning, day 12, the last big land mark before Santa Barbara Channel. We are hoping for a berth in Santa Barbara Harbor but will have to see when we arrive.

We had planned on doing a little more harbor hopping once we left SF but Josh has work waiting for his UCSB Controls Engineering Doctorate Program that he is anxious to get back to. He had been hoping to do some work on the way but anything more than light reading is difficult on a long passage. So we decided to beat feat to SB where he will jump ship to get back to his work. Ryan will also be leaving us to take a train to see his sister soon after we arrive. So soon we be back to a crew of two. We will miss their company but it will also be nice to have our boat back.

Though the entire crew remained focused and intent on the trip I believe the “boys” are getting a bit bored. The excitement wore off some time ago and now it is just a slow slog with nothing but homework or a plane ride home to reward them when they finally step ashore. It makes me remember my first long passage. For Bill and I the passage itself was the focus and at the end we knew we had a week or so of vacation time in Hawaii waiting when we finally arrived. Now I know they are a little bored because the big excitement of today was the ensuing hilarity when Ryan’s life jacket spontaneously inflated. We had been kidding him during the stormy weather off Cape Blanco that if he got much wetter from the boarding sea water it was going to go off. This morning it is perfectly calm, we are motoring under brilliant blue skies, then wammo! Instant May West. Josh is getting it rearmed as I write this but the giggles I suspect are not over.

Ryan by the way has been a lot of laughs for the whole crew. He has a very active REM sleep dream life. Perhaps it’s intensified by the odd watch hours interrupting his sleep but he has regaled us with his fun house dreams escapades nearly every day. He has some doozies. If your looking for a crewman to help you laugh away the hours Ryan is your man.

Passage making is hard work. It is long and tiring and often rather cumbersome with the sail changing, log entries and constantly working the time in your mind for off watch next watch. “Now how much sleep will I get if I fall asleep right away?” The beginning of the trip is all anticipation then the middle gets broken up with weather or fish on or wildlife and the like. For this passage after leaving Washington waters we have seen very little wild life. Bill and I were spoiled with 5years in BC and then AK waters. There is such an abundance of marine life there that it becomes a big part of every day. Since WA we have seen only a couple of whales off in the distance and had dolphins nearby a handful of times. They are not even coming to play! The two tuna caught were definitely highlights though.

For me I know that if there was not the big payoff of having a new country to investigate and new friends to make at landfall the crossings would be tedious and excruciatingly long at best.

Cruising is sort of the next step in I think in the boating world. First there is buying the boat and spending weekends and vacations aboard. Hours filled with lots of packing and unpacking and a feel sort of like camping out. Then if you decide to sell out and move aboard it gets different. People ask you why in the world you would want to live somewhere where you had to walk a ½ mile from your car to your boat or load your laundry into a dock cart every week and schlep it off to a laundry mat? All those regular day to day things get just one or two degrees harder.

For instance grocery shopping takes a whole evening. First you shop then you load it in your car then you load it in a dock cart then you unload onto the boat deck then you hand everything below. Then you try and find someplace to put everything then you return the cart and make a trip to the dumpster to unload all the unnecessary packaging into the recycle.

Then if you decide to cruise to foreign ports you get to first make the crossing. Then possibly clear through customs with its requisite allotted time. Some foreign countries take a day whole day to clear. Then you must unload all the dirty laundry for a chance to get laundry done and inventory your groceries to see what you need to try and find. Then you unpack the bikes and ask someone for directions to the nearest grocery. Plus you get the added excitement of trying all this in a language you don’t speak fluently and with money you don’t yet have a real handle on. Then once done with customs, clearing, laundry and food you can take some time to look around and try and be a visitor. Oh, I forgot. After customs and before anything else you get to begin making repairs on whatever broke while you were underway. Find a boat store or a hardware store or maybe just a handy man on the island who if your lucky has a cousin who knows a guy. Well you get the picture.

This stop in sunny southern California will be easy though. I already have a freezer full of frozen meals and only need to replenish some vegetable and fruit. Hopefully we will spend some time relaxing and visiting with our daughter in law Dianna and getting caught up on emails and sleep. From here we will likely go to Ventura looking for a sail loft and then some time for just Bill and I at the Channel Islands. One passage down……..Next big stop Mexico.

PS This afternoon while walking to East Beach after a lovely dinner ashore for the whole crew I saw a pigeon nest complete with a baby Pigeon! I had always wondered about their existence but have never actually seen a baby one. He was terribly cute as he peered out at me from his nest high in the rafter of the covered boardwalk. Just good to know they do actually exist. Like the man who empties the phone booth of quarters or the people who fill the ATM's with moola! Santa Barbara, the home of baby pigeons.

8/13 Stormy weather

- Or the great North pacific tries to kick our butts!-

Day four brought some serious seas. The forecast was not at all what we received. As we neared Cape Blanco the winds and seas built. By late morning we had 20kn winds with gusts to 30 with a 6-8 foot wave from the north coupled with a westerly swell. By early afternoon we had 30kt winds with gusts to 40 and the waves were now about 12 feet and still burdened by the westerly side swell.

Earlier we had realized we had two battens loose and decided to lower the mainsail to keep from having the battens tear through. Unfortunatly once the main was down and the winds rose we had effectively limited our options. With out a main we can't heave to.

As the afternoon progressed we were running under nothing but our stay’sl and then later under bare poles. As the big waves stacked up behind us they pushed our stern sideways and put us in danger of breaching. Because of the side swell both “Carly” our windvane and “Otto” our autopilot were unable to keep us square on to the big waves so we were forced to hand steer.

It was virtually impossible to stay below so all four of us were in the cockpit with PFD’s and clipped in with our safety harnesses. We lost our salmon net overboard, had a flailing BBQ lid threatening a deep sea escape, the dive compressor on our back deck was shaking loose, our bifold companionway doors kept jumping down below like a deadly projectile and had to be replaced with storm doors. Then “Carly’s” vane was taking a beating and needed to be brought below decks. PLus it turns out that early on before we lowered the main one of our new batten cars had cracked so in addition to two loose battens the car was ruined too.

Many things below deck that seemed tucked in tight turned into projectiles as we rolled around in the unsettled seas. The carpets wouldn’t stay flat when stepped on and it became hard to stay tucked into a corner of the cockpit. Ryan managed to be in the wrong place at the wrong time and took a wet wave at least three times. There was no way to cook and it was difficult just to try and grab some crackers or a piece of fruit.

There were a couple of breaks in the wind but the waves kept on so after hours of hand steering we decided to check the cruising book and charts and see if there was someplace to duck in for the night. Bill began to consider using our storm drogue or laying out a couple of warps of line to slow us down.

Completely unfamiliar with this part of the coast and having planned on a direct shot down to San Francisco we didn’t know if we should risk moving into shallower water for a safe port nearby or if it would be safer to stay in the storm. The crusing books we had onboard didn't actually say “this is a safe harbor to enter in bad weather. We could see that Brookings Oregon was about 3 hours away so looking at our options Bill had me contact the USCG on our VHF. I stood by while they checked conditions and double checked to see if we needed to get under a cable crossing or a bridge the guide mentioned in order to reach the marina.

The USCG was able to report that once we got closer in we would be protected by a small point where the winds currently were virtually nonexistent and the waves would drop to 2 to 4 feet as we entered the harbor channel. They do add the caveat though that entry would be at our own risk regardless of the reported conditions.

By seven thirty we motored into the calm windless marina just past the Chetco River in the Port of Brookings. We were tired and cold and worn out. The day had been stressfull on everyone. Tempers were short and emotions were bubbling. In all honesty I don’t think I was terribly worried. Less worried I think than the captain. He seemed to be especially aware of the added responsibility of having crew aboard. If anything I think he was more conscientious than ever and I never felt scared. I had moments of wondering if I should be scared but felt confident throughout. My only problem was turning my slowly healing tennis elbow (demolition elbow/kayak elbow) into storm elbow from my turn at the wheel while we were forced to hand steer. It is still tender. As soon as we tied up we walked ashore for a quick dinner and I was fast asleep within 15 minutes of returning to the boat.

The next day (Thursday) we spent the day doing chores. I did 4 loads of laundry and cleaned the boat while the guys worked to fix our windvane problems, re-hang the man over board pole, re insert the battens and switch out the top batten car (the short one) with the cracked batten car from the bottom and generally get everything ship shape again. We met several of the locals and found a great little chandlary a few blocks away who were able to set us up with the gear we needed to put up my galley stove crash bar and be able to connect my harness! No more juggling while I try and cook.

Friday morning after visiting at the harbor coffee bar we were off and headed to San Francisco. Yesterday and today we have barely enough wind to sail. So it has been sail, motor, sail, motor….so far we have used 35 gallons of diesel and we are about two days away from SF. Everyone quickly got back into the rhythm of watches and if anything the battle with the weather has caused everyone to redouble their efforts to getting enough sleep. The excitement of the first few days meant we were working with a bit of a sleep deprivation. Not horrible but enough that I think we all realized we needed to be sure to get in the zzzzz’s when we could.

This morning on Josh’s 6 to 10 am watch he hooked another albacore tuna! This one nearly twice as large at close to 30 pounds! Grilled tuna sandwiches for dinner!!

8/10 Headed south.

We’re cruisers, we’re cruisers we’re really truly cruisers!



We have been underway for a little of 48 hours and have come roughly 240 nm. Not close to breaking any records but we are about midway down the Oregon coast and should hit California sometime after noon tomorrow.

Our first day out we were lucky on several front. Comfort wise the most important was that we motored away from the drizzle in Neah Bay. As we left Neah Bay it looked like it was going to be a wet one but not only did not a drop land but as the day rolled by the blue sky came. The crew met each small patch of blue sky with enthusiasm and high hopes for more.

Then in the afternoon we began to see humpbacks. For Bill and I whales are all a part of a day at sea but for Ryan they were his first whale encounters. Way better than TV! They put on quite a show, tail slapping and breaching and spy hopping right up until they slipped from sight into the fading light. Josh said they were out catching bugs in the evening air.

That first day was spent getting Ryan and Josh familiar with the onboard systems and going over the safety gear and procedures with everyone. This is Ryans first time on a sailboat and he had the first watch so we spent the morning going over the how’s and whys’ of sailing. He is a fast learner, has a great attitude and head full of quick one liners. . The only touchy spot of the day came when Ryan became the first ever person to get physically sick on the boat. It isn’t unusual for a newcomer to get sick right off. We aren’t sure if he was actually sea sick or if he got sick from the “cure.” I gave him a piece of candied ginger and a ¼ of a Sturgeron which promptly made him heave. But he has been fine since then even in some really rolly seas.

Contrary to the forecast day one started with a south wind. As we motored along it slowly clocked around behind us and we were finally able to sail. But the pacific coast weather also brought a NW swell confused by SW waves which left us rocking and rolling for hours on end. Poling out our yankee stopped the flog and bang of the sails but it has been tiring for everyone.

The first nights watch brought dolphins on the bow for Ryan and the first fish on for Bill. Whatever hit the line ran away with one of our new rigs but about 7am on day two Josh brought our first tuna to the boat. He was in the cock pit alone when a 20 pound albacore took a bite out of one of our tuna rigs. Josh easily got him to the boat and expertly bled and fillet him. Seared albacore for lunch and the boys went back for seconds grilled on the back deck after dinner. So exciting to get one aboard in our first 24 hours.

Day three seems to have brought an easy rhythm to the boat. No more heavy roll and everyone has pretty much eased into watch times. The nights get quiet but the days are fleshing out with puttering and visiting, eating, reading and some serious sleeping.

There is a great luxury for me in having a crew. In exchange for only one watch per day it is my job to keep everything neat and clean and everyone well fed. Once out in the great north pacific though the roll canceled out all my Alaska miles and plagued me with a queezy stomach every time I went below. All my cooking and cleaning has been in bursts and spurts then topside for air.

The cooking underway is harder than when we just coastal cruise. Certainly the two days of rolling was difficult but heeled over it is harder preparing for four than for two. My small galley has just so much counter space. Laying out plates to fill and getting everything hot and on the plates instead of all over the floor or the inside of the tilting oven is proving more challenging. I have a harness for cooking but we have not gotten around to placing attachment points for it. Cooking at a good heel is nearly impossible with only one hand. Without the harness I have to hold on with one hand and cook with the other. Plate grab, food scoop, slide across counter grab, grab and catch before it hits the edge. I feel a bit like a bad juggler. The first landfall we will definitely install the harness and a crash bar and when we get to a chandlery I am definitely going to look for some non skid dishes!

Well enough from me for today. Fish tacos for dinner will finish off the tuna so I better remind the boys to put out the rigs again. Maybe this time I will get to bring it in

8/15 Pier 39, San Francisco

We arrived in San Francisco early this afterternoon and I have to say it is quite the culture shock. Even with our stop over back in Seattle the stark contrast between pier 39 and our 3 months in BC and Alaska feels a bit like being plunked down in the middle of a circus.

We have a birth right smack in the middle of pier 39. As we motored in we passed through a narrow break. I swear I could have rached out and stolen someones french fries. They were that close. There were hundreds of people standing along the pier watching us enter.

I remember being here before and seeing all the sea lions in the marina and thinking it looked prettyy nasty. When we checked in with the harbor master we were told that though the sea lions are not usually terribly aggressive if one is between us and out boat we need to...get this..."grab one of the blue shields on the dock....(a piece of plywood with a couple of handles attached and painted blue) and keep it between us and the lion. If that fails we are supposed to grab a hose and squirt them with water.

Bill and I would not usually pick being right in the middle of SF but the "boys" want to be in the middle of things so......

It was a wonderful experience coming in under the Golden Gate Bridge. We could see the bridge from miles off and the closer we got the more traffic there was. When we finally entered the Bay there were boats going every which way around us. Cruise boat after cruise boat filled with oodles of tourists. It is all really quite stunning.

We plan on staying two nights and then will be off towards the Channel Islands.

8/3 This really is my life.

Right now we are at anchor in the tiny boat basin on the Port Angeles water front. This is our second night here and the anchorage is rolly and windy. I am trying to recover from the bug I caught in Seattle. It brought with it three nights of fever, a cough that has now settled deep into my chest and a tiredness I don't really have time for right now. Plus my cough keeps Bill awake at night and makes him grumpy.

This morning the fog was so thick we opted to stay here and work towards getting the boat "ship shape" before we head out into open ocean in just a few days. Mostly that means making sure everything is tied down and wedged in. Everything. Our crew will sleep in the now vacant v-birth which until a few days ago looked like a storage locker. The other big job is finishing our sea anchor.

A sea anchor is a $1500 piece of equipment that we hope never to have to use. It is made of 300 feet of thick braided line with an attached bridle and 120 fabric "cones." Imagine an elongated coffee filter with six lines attached: three from the top and three from the bottom. Each of the six lines per cone is hand spliced to the heavy line at measured intervals. The idea is that in very bad weather you attach the bridled end to the back rail of your boat and throw it overboard behind you. The little fabric cones open and fill with water causing drag. Then as the boat moves back and forth on the monstrous waves they fill and spill,fill and spill helping to keep the boat steady on the waves instead of turning sideways to the seas which can cause the boat to roll.

We bought it in March before we left Seattle. In order to save $500 we purchased it as a kit which means we have to hand splice each cone onto the line. SO.....each cone requires 6 lines be spliced three for and three aft. The splices are done with a contraption a lot like a rug hook that is then followed by hand tying each end into a stopper knot. So lets see, each cone is six lines = six splices + pull six lines through plus tie six knots = 18 actions for each cone X 125 cones equals 2250 separate tasks to complete. It took me an hour to do 13! Since day before yesterday I have completed 84! We want/need to have it completed before we leave Neah Bay but we didn't start it until we arrived in Port Townsend 7/30. Too much time sitting and thinking while I work mindless knots.

I am having the oddest deja' vu kind of thinking going on. It feels like this is all just sort of a dream and that one day soon I will wake up and everything will be back to "normal." The oddest aspect of it all is being in a place where we are the ones with the knowledge and experience. For so many years we were like sponges in the boating world. So many people to learn from and so much to learn. Now standing here on the precipice of being full time cruisers the truth is we are part of the knowledgeable ones. We have sailed some 7000 miles on our boat in some pretty demanding places and we have chosen to seek out all the knowledge we could find.

Bill had a lot of prior experience but ask my family and you will know that in my previous life I couldn't have told you the difference between a wrench and a pair of pliers. The years leading to today have been filled. We have attended boat shows and classes,seminars and lessons. We've been up the inside and down the outside. We made it to Desolation our second summer. We spent three glorious weeks in Haida Gwai/ Queen Charlotte Islands in 2008. I joined a womans' boating group -NW Women of Boating - and attended classes on everything from boat sanitation to how a 12 volt system works.

We replaced our old Westerbeke deisel ourselves in the spring of 2009 with a 75 horse Yanmar turbo. Between February 1st of this year and when we left for Alaska May 1st we replaced three hatches, added an arch with solar panels, completely ripped out and replaced our entire refridgeration system from the hull up including new counter tops and fiddles and plumbed and wired a reverse osmosis water maker. We also added AIS and a new chart plotter along with a new autopilot system. Then with the help of a woodworker friend of ours we completely rebuilt the cockpits teak seating including TDS caulking and new grated floor, storm washboards and a cockpit table. Now you can see why we didn't manage to get the sea anchor finished!

I know I keep writing this in various words but it just really seems strange to finally be here- almost at the big left turn. There are so many ways that we could have been stopped along the way. We spent two nights in Port Townsend and after leaving there we heard a call out on the VHF for a boat that was fully engulfed in flames in the boat basin we had just left. The boat burned to the ground before being towed out to deeper water and sunk. We had been anchored only a few feet away. It just seems absurdly strange to be on the brink of this voyage. We are really, really going. I can hardly sleep at night.

Kat

I blame this whole thing on my cousin Brian!

I write surrounded by thick fog in Neah Bay, waiting to make the big left turn. Getting here has taken six years of hard work and an entire lifestyle change. We are waiting to meet up with our crew, son Josh and nephew Ryan for our off shore passage down the coasts of Washington and Oregon to San Francisco. From there we will slowly work south towards Mexico and eventually the South Pacific.

Our six year journey here first required “the right boat,” selling our home and giving away everything we own. We kept only a foot locker filled with family photos. Our near total refit of our 1976 Kelly Peterson 44 included more than a hundred separate projects most started and finished while living aboard. It included a self installed new engine, a water maker, a hot water heating system, new refrigeration that did NOT entail going to a big store and buying a unit in a box that we plugged in. We have new upholstery, newly refinished floors, a lovely new inner spring mattress with two sets of home made custom sheets, new standing and running rigging and new sails. We added a hydrovane, SSB, chart plotter, Rocna anchor and 300 ft of 3/8’ chain and an AIS . We have solar power and a folding bucket. We even have a portable compressor to fill our dive tanks.

Oh and did I forget to tell you that somewhere in there I needed to learn to sail? So we made one trip to Desolation, one trip up the outside of Vancouver Island, one trip up the inside to The Queen Charlotte Islands and down the outside of Vancouver and for a shake down before the big one we spent three months this summer doing the inside passage to Alaska’s Glacier Bay and back..

I learned how to make corn and flour tortillas, homemade bread, mozzarella and string cheese, and yogurt in a thermos. I can magically make three weeks of food and toilet paper disappear inside the hull of our home and I know exactly how many rolls of single ply TP it takes for a couple for a month.

We gave away two cars and found a new home for our border collie Boo. Then we said good bye to everyone and anyone again and again and again. Everything we own in the world besides those family photos at my moms resides right here in our 44 feet of fiberglass home. I know how to navigate and plot a course and handle the helm. We have a medical kit set up to handle major illness, burns, fractures and trauma. I know which medicine to use for urinary tract infections and which to use for a skin infection. We bought a Kindle and a friend gave us ¾ of a terabyte of music in two tiny little boxes.

All of this I have decided is my cousin Brian’s fault. Why you ask? When I was 12 years old back in 1973 my mom decided to pack up her three kids and drive for two entire months to Connecticut and back to see my uncle Steve and his family. Once we got to Connecticut Uncle Steve and Aunt Cris packed up their three kids Reed, Brian and Karol and took their summer vacation. We all went camping to Rhode Island and Maine.

Now my cousin Brian drug his little sunfish sailboat along with us and seemed really excited about teaching me to sail. He is a little older than me and I remember always thinking he was smart. Really smart. I trusted him. I don’t remember much about the boat. I think it was yellow. A little one mast with a hull that was basically a plastic dish that looks like a boat. Once we got to the camp ground he was excited to get put it in the water and get her little sail up. I had no idea what to expect but trusted my cousin to take care of us despite the twinkle in his eye and the chuckling laughter that bubbled out of him in excitement.

He got the thing going under us and I held on. The afternoon was warm and the lake was smooth. I could see the shore and was just starting to enjoy the movement of the little boat when he hollered hang on! Over we went. You see to Brian tipping the thing over was the fun. Sailing came in second. Or maybe it was tipping the thing over with his little cousin aboard that was the fun part. We spent the afternoon wallowing in the warm lake water, sailing and tipping and righting the boat again and again. I don’t think I had ever laughed so much or swallowed so much water. But it was great. Exciting and daring and felt very grown up for a 12 year old.

Maybe if that day had gone differently or if the weather had been colder or the boat much harder to right? When my Husband first said "well what do you think?" I might be sitting home on our leather couch watching a big screen TV or spending my days tending my garden and walking my dog. Right now it's my turn to work on the sea anchor. We have 100 more cones to splice into the 300 foot line before we take to the sea. The life of a cruising woman, wouldn’t trade it for anything. When I make it to California alive I think I will write a letter to my cousin.

7/30 Finally on our way to the big left turn

After six long years of planning, talking, boat shopping and more than 100 seperate boat projects we are fnally really and truly headed towards the big left turn. We will be in Neah Bay in a few days on course for our trip down the Wa, Or and Ca coasts. We left Seattle in heavy fog this morning after a few more days of work, work, work and all the visiting we could squeeze in.

One of the projects while back "home" was a trip to Second Wave in order to unload all the stuff we don't need going south. Second Wave is the local Seattle consignment shop for all things nautical. We had five large bags of cruising guides for all our travels north along with paper charts covering all the waters from here to Glacier Bay. It always feels good getting things off the boat we no longer need but this one felt great. The night before I catalogued all our charts for our southern trip and it was a great feeling to be reading names like Cabo San Lucas and Mazanillo.

Once again the boat is sitting pretty low in the water after putting away the piles of provisions for the trip south. It took three different grocery stores, two trips to Fisheries, three trips to Fred Meyer and two trips to the auto parts store. We will definitly not starve on this leg plus we fixed out battery problems, corrected the SSB problem and did a rebuild on the dingy engine and added a new prop to help our beach landings in the Mexico surf.

Once we make Neah Bay and pick up son Josh and nephew Ryan we don't have a single other have to be commitment on the callandar for the comming months. Will of course need to make arrangements for a couple of visitors but that is far enough away to give me a real feeling of really letting go thee dock lines for good.

Two nights ago I came down with a lovely summer cold complete with fever and cough to kick off this part of the trip and I already dread the homesickness lurking in my future. But small worries for a big new life journey.

Miss you, kat

7/13 The Mayday call that is every cruising couples nightmare.

We were on our way down Johnstone Strait. We left Alert Bay at 5am hoping to make some miles before the afternoon high winds roared up. Johnstone Strait is a long relatively narrow passage and has few available anchorages. It also has notorious afternoon winds which have potential to pile up against any apposing currents. A good weather window is essential but just as important is to research all the possible anchorages so if weather comes up unexpectedly you will have a plan for getting the heck out of dodge.

About 1030 we picked up a call to the Coast Guard on our VHF which we keep on and open to emergency channel 16. "Mayday, mayday, mayday." Instantly alert we listened to the obviously distressed male caller as the CG replied asking for his exact location. We grabbed a pen and began to work the coordinates our self to see if they were anywhere near.

The man sounded frantic when he answered and gave his location and then boat name "Maria Lee." When asked what was the nature of his emergency he stated his wife had fallen over board! With patient questioning he said he thought she had been forward doing something to the davits as they transited a passage that was ahead of us that splits around an island. The passage funnels all the wind, wave and current of Johnstone Strait into the two small passages around a small island and creates an area that is almost rapids. (Take whatever weather you have and add 5knots of current.) He said he had been yelling for her all over the boat and couldn't find her. His voice sounded like that of an old man and he was desperate and frantic. When asked he said he thought it could have been 20 minutes ago and when questioned more it became evident that he had not even stopped the boat or turned it around to back track.

Panic induces some very odd behavior in people and again it was obvious that he was beyond panic. The CG continued very professionally asking questions and instructed him to throw somethings over board to mark his position and to immediately turn the boat around and back track his course. By this time I was pretty much holding my breath and near tears while Bill was focusing on calculating how long it would take us to reach his position. After another moment or two more of panic his voice broke and he radioed that he had found her! Aboard the boat, safe and confused. We could hear him telling her he had been yelling for her all over the boat.

I wanted to cheer but I could still feel my adrenaline rolling over my own distress. Why hadn't he already stopped the boat, thrown things over, put a MOB mark on his GPS? Why hadn't he begun to use his chart platter to follow his course back like a bread crumb trail? What the hell was he doing out here if he couldn't do at least that? My mind easily slipping into anger with the adrenalin and still awash with panic and dis pare.

The CG confirmed that she was in fact on board and they signed off. That was it. Emergency over. We would never hear another word. I had to take a few minutes quietly thinking and then said aloud to Bill, " I may not be the best sailor in the world but I promise you...... that if you are every missing from the boat I will first turn the boat around and or stop it, throw over any one of our MOB markers before I stop to get on the radio and call out a mayday."

The mayday is of course important but stopping the boat is always paramount. Always. No matter how scared I am. If that woman had really gone over at that location she would be dead now and he would be heart broken. While everyone within that mornings VHF range would be going over their own safety routines and inwardly wondering if they too would sound old and panicked and filled with dispare or would they in fact be able to do what seems so easy and simple sitting in a classroom or talking bout over dinner with friends on a warm summer evening.

Just had to share.....Love you, kat

7/15 Are you my mother? The day Island Bound was adopted by a newborn harbor seal.

We left Forward Harbor yesterday bound for the double rapids of Whirlpool Rapids and Green Point Rapids. In order to hit the slack tides we were underway by 500am but happy to be under blue skies. The rapids were simple and strait forward and by 1000am we were listening to the anchor chain rattle into 20 feet of water in Handfield Bays inner cove. We had passed another boat coming out of the cove on our way in but as the anchor settled the small cove fell silent.

Almost immediately we heard a noise. Bill said it sounded like a person trying to make bird calls. We could hear something on the other side of a small islet slowly moving towards us. In a minute or two we could see something moving through the water. An otter? As Bill went below turning off switches I stayed topside with the binoculars listening and watching. Soon I could make out a tiny seal pup. He was restlessly working the cove from end to end. Ceaselessly crying out a desperate pitiful bleating noise.

I watched him for a long time and wondered where his mother was. Was she dead? Had she abandoned him? He sounded so lost and scared. I didn't even know baby seals made noise. I also know that momma seals often leave their young on rocks and beaches while they hunt but man was he was really howling.

Knowing there was little I could do, after about 20 minutes I finally went below. A few minutes later the noises got louder until it sounded like he was just outside of the boat. Worried and feeling sorry for the little guy I went up again and walked the deck looking trying to find him.I honed in on his mewling, looked over the side and found him on the starboard side of the bow. He was fluttering his little flippers and holding himself up next to the boat suckling on the cove stripe! I quickly tippitoed back to the cockpit and called to Bill to hurry and come up. He wasn't going to believe this!

The little guy continued his way around and around the boat. Suckling and slurping and doing his best to find dinner. All the while making little crying noises and sighs. He was an all over speckled gray color with dark gray fins and head. He was perhaps 20 inches long and roughly 2/3 of that wide and he still had about 3 inches of umbilical cord hanging off his fat little belly. Have you ever seen a "seal point" Siamese cat? Now I know exactly where that description came from.

He was so beautiful. He worked his way around and around but seeming to prefer the stern over the bow and the bow over the sides. He was so persistent I began to think his mom must have been gone for a long time. Maybe she was dead? We knew not to touch him but how do you not touch him and get him to not touch the boat? Was this suckling going to cause his mom to abandon him if she hadn't already? Was he going to get sick from the paint? Lots of questions and no answers.

Soon I settled in to read and he finally quieted. I just couldn't stand it so soon I went to look again and found him floating off to port completely still. My heart fell. Was he dead? I yelled to Bill. " Hon, I think he's......dead." Then suddenly he took in a couple of snuffling breaths and then again settled back to his nap. I tried to ignore him and leave him be but he was sooo cute. And how often do you get to babysit a seal pup?

The next time I checked on him he was sound asleep, snuggled up against the boat on the lee side. As I read my book and watched him the tide slowly pushed him along the length of the boat, off the aft end and out into open water. He floated the current about 15 feet off our stern then suddenly woke himself up with a snort and a start, turned and scanned for the boat, gave out a cry and came swimming back as fast as his little flippers could carry him. Then he suckled for a minute or two and then settled in again before falling quickly asleep. He did this numerous times. Each time he got too far away he would wake with a start and frantically hustle back. When he swam back he acted so scared. I had to laugh, the panic made him swim so cute...like a cartoon. His little flippers fluttering away and his head held up high out of the water. At one point an eagle perched in a nearby tree and I slipped into momma mode hollering at Bill that I was worried the eagle was going to swoop down and snatch him. He assured me he was too big to be picked off by an eagle but I wasn't completely convinced.

After almost three hours we noticed another seal in the cove and then suddenly he was gone. We took a dingy ride and dropped the crab pot and then came back to the anchorage to find another boat had joined us. If you know me at all you know I was beside myself in wanting to tell them all about the miraculous encounter. While they finished setting up their stern tie i saw that the pup was back so I radioed them and told them about our amazing furry visitor and asked them if they wanted to row over so their daughters could take a peek. Shortly the dad rowed quietly over and we all gawked as the little guy slept.

When he sleeps he folds his two front flippers under his chest and the back two fins fold over each other and tuck down under his belly until he is curved like a little shrimp. His head stays right on the surface, black shiny nostrils opening and closing with his breath. Each inhalation raises his arched back up and then he slowly settles deeper into the water again until his next breath. By this time I had begun to worry that he was imprinting on Island Bound. What was he going to do when we left? What would all this gawking do? Was it going to hurt him to watch? Should we try and scare him away? When would mom be back? Our guests returned to their boat and we all quieted down.

We had seen mom off and on but the little guy just stayed with IB. Later I heard one of the daughters next door exclaiming that the pup was swimming to their boat. Bill asked me if I was jealous! Imagine! I actually thought it was good for him to willingly decide that IB wasn't the place to be. We went off to sleep and the next morning it was silent again.

In the morning I saw the youngest girl in her jammies leaning over the edge of their boat and saying good morning to him as he fluttered next to their boat. Then we and the other boat were busy getting ready to raise anchors. As I began to raise our anchor I watched the pup as they raised theirs. He began to get agitated and tried to climb on their anchor chain. Then flung himself on the anchor itself. He slipped off and they continued raising it. When they began to motor out of the cove you could see his panic. Swimming for all he was worth and crying out he tried to follow. We were underway too by now. The pup just couldn't keep up and seemed to give up as he watched them motor off. Then he rounded towards us, saw Island Bound moving too and raised his head out of the water, flippers a flurry of motion as he hightailed it back towards us. Bill had IB at about 3 or 4 knots by then and we passed the poor pup by. He fell in behind us, eyes wide, crying , blinkid his eyes a few times and seemed to decided it was a lost cause and settled down into the water.

My heart was breaking as we motored away. Off the next point we saw another seal headed towards the cove. I hope it was mom. Maybe we should have left as soon as he came to the boat? Maybe the boat we saw leaving when we first got there had the same experience? Will he go to every boat that he sees? Will it get him killed? We never touched him but would the scent of the boat and the paint and the gray water cause his mom to abandon him? Will all this scare him for life Poor little guy could have the mother of all abandonment complexes?

I missed him immediatly and it made me miss Boo. Maybe if he is lucky no boaters will come to that little cove for a few days, let him bond with mom and learn how to be a seal. I will have to trust in nature and hope that he is fine and that his mom takes good care of him. Hmmmm, maybe a kitten in Mexico?

Love, kat

7/17 almost "home"

We received an email from Cathlyn and Doug of Penguin saying they were headed towards Desolation ,so for two or three days I have been hailing them cold on the VHF hoping to catch them. Every time we made it into an opening amidst the towering hills I would send out a call. It was rather like calling alle alle atzen free into the dark but then amazingly they heard us this morning! It was such a treat to hear the voice of friends. Unfortunately we were like two ships passing in the daylight....we were motoring out of Hole in the Wall near Octopus Islands south bound and they were leaving Blind Chanel for Johnstone Strait headed north.
Penguin wont be back in Seattle until we are well past San Francisco. ~piffle~ regardless it was good to hear the call back and hope some day we will look up as we pull into a new anchorage see Penguin there ahead of us.


So I guess we really are back in civilization. We spent two days in the Octopus Islands just north of Desolation Sound and the place was jumping. We visited here on our first trip to Desolation 4 years ago and at the time it seemed like this was out in the middle of nowhere. We felt so adventuress for making it past Desolation and were rewarded with a very quiet anchorage. Then it wasn't empty but we were one of only a hand full of boats. The main reason fewer boats come this far is that of the three routes in two are through narrows that must be transited on slack tides. This trip as we floated through on the slack from the north we were instantly in a que of boats from the south all headed to the same place. Traffic jam!all day. There must have been 25 boats and more came in once we were anchored. The next morning the exodus started with roughly 3/4 of the boats moving on and then a whole new crop making its way throughout the day.. The second afternoon we were packed in with even more including one from Japan.

We had decided to stay the second day and get some work done. Bill worked on a leak in the dingy floor and then began work on the back deck bench that will go over our propane tanks. I spent the day sewing a new shade for the V-birth and building a new cover for the vane of wind vane "Carly." The standard issue bright red Hydrovanes' nylon cover gave out on our way south. The new shade, dark blue by default as it was the only piece of material I had on board that was large enough for the job. Hopefully the UV will not eat this new on in a few months of tropical sun.

Before we left we bought my very first sewing machine. I have been sewing a project here and there since we got the boat but have always used my moms machine. The new one works well for me and I can even run it off solar power through the inverter while at anchor. The only problem with sewing on the boat is the lack of any place large and flat that I can lay out projects and cut material. It is always a challenge to work with anything larger than a hankie though the nav station makes a pretty decent sewing table. It felt good to get some projects going again though it seemed a shame to sacrifice a beautiful summery day.

From there we headed farther south into Desolation but it is taking some time to adjust to the traffic. So many boats, the anchorages are all full and the radio crackles and barks out a constant flow of radio traffic as well. But I guess we need to get used to it as it will be back to civilization from here all the way through California. By the time we find a quiet secluded anchorage in Mexico we will be jonesing for some privacy.

Tonight we sit at anchor in Nanaimo. Tomorrow we will likely clear customs in Friday Harbor. Then "home " in a couple of days. It feels like home even if there home is really here now. Will be wonderful and sort of odd to be in Seattle again. I am excited to see friends and family but know the time will fly by and then we will just have to say good bye again. Just another part of this thing we do.

See you soon, kat



Love, kat

7/10 More thoughts of having the Coast Guard looking for us.

After giving it some thought I have decided that having the USCG calling your name for all the world to hear because your mother is worried about you is an awfully wonderful thing. You see this whole selling the house and living on a boat is a emotionally fraught endeavor. It took a lot to get us here and even then the actual leaving was more difficult than i ever would have guessed.

Before we left we had a lot to learn and and a lot to get ready. It wasn't just the fact that I needed to learn to sail and navigate, and sew custom sheets so we wouldn't have to live in sleeping bag for the next ten years. We needed to buy bear spray for the trails of Alaska and we also needed to buy a life raft built for open ocean. We needed AIS to help us not get run over by a tanker and we needed an EPIRB to send out a distress signal and a ditch bag to fill with water and food and flares and fishing tackle so if we ended up in the life raft with the EPIRB calling out for help we will last as long as it takes to get rescued.

We also needed to tell our families that we were leaving and would not be back any time soon. We needed to tell them all how much we loved them and that we looked forward to seeing them in wonderful exotic ports. We needed to learn everything we could so when we left they wouldn't overly worry and we needed to tell nearly everyone that yes we have heard there are pirates and no we don't plan on going where the pirates are and if perchance they come to where we are then we will do what needs to be done. And yes we could stay here and hope not to be hit by a bus as we cross Market street in Ballard on our way to the movies but we want to go sailing.

It was also important for our families to have some time to get used to the idea and to see that we were intent on learning everything we needed to learn so we could be as safe as possible in order to have the time of our lives. We needed to fly to St Louis to see Bills family there before we left even though they can't really understand how their son could quit a perfectly good job.

Part of saying good bye was sitting with my mom and sister and giving them a sheet of paper with every piece of possibly needed information in case we ever did need to be found. Trusting that they would know what to do and when to do it. Believing that they would never have a need for any of that and that we would never have a need for half of what we have learned or any of our emergency equipment.

When my mom was worried she was able to call the coast guard because we were in Alaska not Costa Rica. The USCG was happy to be of service and not at all "bothered" by a mom who needed reassurance. We now know that every bit of information I gave them was exactly what the Coast Guard wanted and needed to know. They could tell by our information that we were prepared and likely fine. If we go missing in Malta we will know that someone who loves us is looking for us and that they have the right information to help find us.

This boating stuff is supposed to be fun even in an old boat and without everything being squeaky clean and Bristol shiny. My writing seems to be better that way too. It is more important for me to write what is is really like out here than to not write it because I am embarrassed about something stupid we managed to do. If I ever do anything with my writing later along then will be plenty of time to polish it all up -change the names to protect the innocent and all that. For now I am just going to try and enjoy the ride and continue flowing with this huge new life transition I am a part of. Content and asured that our family back home loves us and misses us and hasn't forgotten us.

Love, kat

7/10 The habits of whales.

I spend a lot of time looking for whales. I could watch them for hours. They are rarely where I think they should be yet I am becoming more aware of there habits and the likely places they will appear. In the end though they are where they are and they are just as likely to be waaaaaay over there as they are to suddenly appear right next to the boat.

Many years ago I went by myself to NW Trek. It was a lovely spring day and I was mad at someone and mad at myself so I went to NW Trek alone. So there! I was in a bit of a pissy mood but the drive south let the tension ease and I was excited to board the tram and see the animals. Though completely unfamiliar with NW Trek I had managed to arrive in the middle of the spring birthing for many of the parks residents. As we wound our way around the tram driver alerted us to the possibility of a new born buffalo in a draw ahead. AS we neared you could see the mother buffalo and long legged wobbly baby. It was bright orange and I was surprised at the color. It seemed that he would stick out like a sore thumb in the wild and be wolf dinner soon. The tram driver explained that the reason behind the coloring. Wolves see only in black and white and shades of gray. In Black and white the bright orange is transformed into the exact color of the grasslands the great buffalo once roamed so freely. Perfect camouflage made just for him.

Whales have the same magic camouflage. They are mostly black and shine as the water rolls off there backs. The spouts of there breath is just the same coloring as a breaking wave. They like to spend there time feeding along the shores of deep water. And along those same shores the incoming waves roll and break in perfect camouflage. IN the sun the sparkling waters hide the shine of the water pouring off their backs and in fog the spouts disappear it its depth. Even when they sleep they are hiding in plain sight. They float flatter while sleeping. Breathing much shallower breaths so the plumes of the spouts are shorter in height and hang time. Their black backs having just enough shape to allow them to look like they are part of the sea.

Day before yesterday we went back to Gooseneck Bay. We stopped there on our way north and were lucky enough to meet Dave, one of the Burnaby firefighters who bought the old cannery and is working on rebuilding it as sort of a giant family summer cabin complex. This time there was no one at the cannery. We motored into the neck of Gooseneck Bay under bright sunshine and the bay closed in around us and blocked out the wind leaving a smooth flat calm. The whales were feeding along the steep too banks of the bay. In 200 to 300 feet of water right in close to the trees. They were intently feeding, rolling, slapping, When they feed they seem to move along in slow motion. Erupting in half speed with their great mouths yawing open and folding closed as they slide back into the deep. We could hear them plainly and we sat, motor off, mesmerized as we scanned for the next surfacing. For me it is always magical.

Eventual we need to get anchored, it had been a long day so we turned the corner into the head of Goose Bay. I was pumped though and wanted to go back out. Bill was tired and hot. How often do you have whales right outside your anchorage. As soon as we were settled I gathered up some water, the binoculars, the hand held VHF and my camcorder-dinner would have to wait. I loaded fresh bait into the crab pot to drop on my way out and was off! #%$^*& the outboard wont start. I can hear the whales around the corner. I cant take the kayak cause my tennis elbow is trying to heal. Bill doesn't really want to tear into the outboard now. He is hot, tired and hungry. He climbed in anyway to try. I can still hear the whales occasionally. Eventually we gave up for dinner. Afterward Bill climbs in again to take the outboard apart- for me. I hear the motor start. Yea! The we look up. There is a seiner coming into the Bay. With their nets out. I am worried for the whales but the whales will be wary. I cant hear them any more. The seiner goes round and round and round. The sound of the whales is gone. I go to sleep disappointed and a little sad inside.

This morning we are up and out early. We have along day getting around Cape Caution. We motor around the corner from the head of the bay into the neck and there they are. One, no two. No, three. Slowly going about their business of feeding, rolling, slapping and disappearing. I could watch for hours- but we have to go. I will keep looking for whales.....everywhere. In places where they are likely to be and in places they are not. Just in case. We leave the confines of the bay and then the sound and move out into Queen Charlotte Sound. I go below to write until I hear a shout from Bill. A humpback surfaced right next to the boat. Then was gone again. I go back to writing. Think I will clean the boat today.

Love, kat

7/7 Klemtu's Big House.

Today we motor along under deep blue skies towards Shearwater BC. We are hoping to find a spot at their small dock so we can use their WiFi and send some emails and blog updates. Since Prince Rupert we have been backtracking through familiar territory. Yesterday though we stopped for the first time at Klemtu. It is a native Village of about 425. We found a spot at their visitor dock (we were the only one there till late in the evening.) There was a sign telling us to check in with the Tourism office but the door was locked and it turns out there hasn't been anyone there for a couple of years.

Our first walk through town led us around the bay and into the older part of the village. We met a group of missionaries who were getting wood cut and a fire pit ready for an evening "sing song." The whole group chatted us up and then a woman from their group gave me a gift of a hand knit wash cloth before heading off for their lunch. As we walked away from their group we began talking with a local artist. Jeff is self taught, started by copying comic book characters in school and now does beautiful styles native designs in acrylic on sketch book tablets. He had a portfolio of a dozen or more original drawings. We talked with him for awhile and bought one with an Orca over a black, white and red stylized killer whale with interior depictions of the eagle, wolf and raven- the four crests of the villages two bands all surrounded by a bright blue border. He showed us where the band office was and told us who to contact to arrange for a tour of "The Big House."

Later in the afternoon we took the dingy across the bay to the Big House. We soon met Doug who has lived most of his life in Klemtu. He now works in the Klemtu tourism office. After welcoming us we stepped into the dimness of the gorgeous new Big House. He gave us back ground on the two separate bands that live in Klemtu and told us the story of how it came to be here in this tiny town. The Big House was built in just under a year but it took more than 10years of work through the specifics of design, size, placement and how they would represent both separate bands culturally. A master carver was hired who then worked with local carvers to do the four stunning poles inside the house and the other carvings and drawing through out. The house is used by the whole village for potlatches, weddings, funerals and other marks of life. The most important aspect of the design was to find a way to incorporate the two distinct native cultures who live in Klemtu. He also shared a number of the old native stories to go with the poles in the house along with a wealth of other information about life in Klemtu. His job in Klemtu includes the tours giving tours to people like us who show up and ask along with mounds of paper work at the band office and then in summer he takes visitors on grizzly tours and tours of the local cultural sights.

Afterwords we did the requisite shopping and then a couple of loads of laundry. Laundry is always an interesting undertaking while underway. In Klemtu we were lucky enough to think to ask about the laundry earlier while at the band office. Turns out there was no propane at hooked up. They offered to go hook it up for me so off I went.

First I needed to find out how much change I will need. Seems easy enough but finding the right change for the machines always seems to offer a new adventure. In Klemtu the trick was that the whole town runs out of Loonies( Canadian 1$ coins.) I needed 12$ to do two loads but the grocery store only had 5 in their till. Then we went to the restaurant and they only had two. The cook overheard the hunt and quickly came back with more than I needed (after I was done I walked the extras back to the grocery instead of taking them on with me.) Then once I had the change I needed to figure out the peculiarities of the Klemtu machines.

The washers looked good and they worked fine though one of two identical machines inexplicably took 30 minutes longer to finish the spin. Then off to the boat to work on some buns for dinner then back and on to the dryer. Doug had assured us the propane was hooked up but when i payed the first machine i got nothing. So i tried machine number two. No problem I will do the drying in turns. But dryer number two didn't turn on either. Bot one to give up easily I checked the plugs. OK. Then opened the breaker box. Every breaker flipped to on except the dryers. Walla'. But.....the door on number two doesn't close and it doesn't turn off when the door is open. Luckily someone had used some duck tape and there was still enough stick for my needs. The trick was getting the clothes to stay inside long enough to get the door closed. Off to the boat to finish the buns. Then back only to find out that the clothes in the top dryer are done but the second is still wet. get the dry clothes out of the taped door while still spinning away then stuff the wet and slam the door. Finally, once again the laundry is done!

Everyday a new adventure. Love, kat

6/30 AnAn Bear Preserve

Today we motor south towards Ketchikan. It is amazing that we are only a day or three away from being out of AK. It seemed like we had so much time. It will take us three plus weeks to get home and we need to go back into Seattle for some help with our Single sideband radio. So we move ever southward with wonderful memories of Alaska but with high hopes for getting out of the rain forest and into some summer weather.

Yesterday was a wonderful day. We made a mid day stop at the AnAn bear observatory south of Wrangell. We almost didn't go but it was one of the highlights of the whole trip for me and had a wonderful bonus too when we met a great couple ,Peter and Cathie on Bee Weems . They are the owners of the Weems and Plath Company. Famous for barometers and clocks and navigation equipment along with all of that beautiful brass boat jewelry -clocks, lamps plaques etc.)

We are not big pre planners and the bear observatory requires a permit to enter from 7/3 through 8/25. We just squeaked by. We wondered too though if we were too early to see any bears. We were not disappointed as the "pinks" are already running so the bears are in the creek to feed. We got there and anchored out to take our dingy in. It is strongly advised that you leave someone on board as an anchor watch but the weather was very settled so we decided to brave leaving Island Bound alone and took the dingy in. We didn't have any problem getting anchored but somehow I managed to get the anchor tangled up first on a forward cleat and my right thumb and then the chain jumped the wildcat on the windless and my fix for that caught a couple of the fingers on my left hand.

It is a 1/2 mile walk (it seemed more like a mile) through the forest along wet boardwalk to the observatory on a river. I slipped and fell twice on my way in and again twice on my way out. All four times I wiped out pretty good and this morning between the klutzy falls and my mangled fingers from anchoring I am black and blue and feel like i got hit by a truck. Any of you who dot know this about me I am a klutz. Always have been and suppose I always will be. If I can drop it or fall over it or tangle up in it I will, twice at least. My big rubber boots make it worse. Anyway, so we took the dingy in and left it on the beach with the anchor pulled on shore and walked in through the woods. There is abundant evidence of bears all along the way. I carried a couple of my Grandma's brass bells from Spain on a string around my neck. Bill said the bears will come and eat me just because of how obnoxious i sound!)

Once at the observatory you enter an enclosed area that houses a platform overlooking the river with steps down into a blind where you can see the bears right at the waters edge. When we got there there were half a dozen people already there. I could tell they were looking at something but as we approached the enclosure I couldn't see anything moving. Then the crowd pointed behind us and we turned to see a black bear (yearling?) behind us on the trail. The bear was just walking along the fence line and sniffing. Wondering who had been eating the pizza i think. I was startled to see him so close. Truly about ten feet away. Then someone in the crowd pointed out that the gate wasn't closed. The the bear could have walked right in and said hello. The fence around the observation platform is only about 3 1/2 or 4 feet tall and it is right in the middle of a forest so there are boulders and tree roots and paths that curve about. The bears I am sure would have no problem getting over the fence. At one place he stepped onto a boulder and would only have had to step over and down and he would have been right inside with us.

After that we settled in to watch the bears. Several came and went, all walking along the path we had to take to get back to the boat and along the shoreline and into the river to fish. It was a wonderful experience to watch the bears in their natural home doing what they do to be bears. We got some great pictures and video footage of the bears catching fish and all the while we were talking with Peter and Cathie about there trip and ours. They are on their way north and we got talking about places to go and things to do. They walked with us back to our dingys' (they had come in right after us and also left their skiffs at the beach.) It was incredibly lucky on our part that they did because the tide had come in and our skiff was a deep wade away off the beach. Peter and Cathie had left their skiff on the top of a rock, in fact not even tied down, when they returned it was "just" afloat and would have been on its way to Wrangell if we had taken too much longer gawking at the bears. Thankfully they were able to retrieved their skiff and went out and drug our anchor up and back to us. It would have been a very cold end to the bears if we had not made their acquaintance.

Also Peter and Cathie shared with us the place they had spent their last night at, a place a friend had shared with them. A secret place complete with coordinates for a good prawn spot. It had started to rain on our walk back from the bears and by the time i drug myself out of the mud again and we had gotten out dinghy and returned to IB it was pouring pretty steady. We had another three hours in the cold and wet to the secret spot but it was worth it. We dropped the prawn trap on the way in and the crab trap right before we anchored then spent a short evening drying out. After a good nights sleep we pulled anchor and retrieved the crab and shrimp pots. 5 keeper dungeness-all male -and 44 huge spot prawns. Feast!

6/29 Enough is enough. Time to head to dryer weather.

After checking in with mom in Kake we decided it was high time to get away from some of the rain and headed slowly southeast. We made Petersburg on the 27th. Petersburg it a lovely little fishing town. Very Norwegian still and has the largest fish packing plant in all of SE. Not very touristy but big on sports fishing with lots of outfitters and lodges nearby and. The town itself is small and insulated. Like so many other areas of SE the rhythm of the place is is slower than what we are used to. The economy is so dependent on the fishing and other natural resources of the area that there is a great dependency. On the fishermen and on the weather. All the other businesses are dependent then those two things.

We pulled into town after 10 hours of cold and rain. Our first afternoon and evening were wet walks around town. Many of the businesses were closed. There were few places to eat and the busiest business seemed to be the laundry mat that was filled with rubber booted fish boat wives hauling in hefty sacks of laundry. By the time we went to sleep that night our cabin was full of drying boots, and two full sets of slowly drying rain gear.

The second day in town broke warmer and with some sun. Yea! And though we were the only pleasure boat in North Harbor by the time we went to sleep our second night we had had a lovely conversation with a couple on a power boat and sailboat with captain and two crew. Then we ran into Steven on Kharma who we knew from Seattle Fisheries Supply. He like us is now officially retired and a full time cruiser. He was there to drop off crew and then off farther north.

This morning we are off southward still looking for some more sun and a bit of warmth. We found a t-shirt on Petersburg that summed this weather up......being a rain forest and all....."southeast...the closest you can get to living underwater." Back through the Wrangell Narrows and on to the town of Wrangell. We only spent one afternoon and evening so didn't get to see much of the town really. We did ride our bikes out to Petroglyph Beach Park. The petroglyphs were a bit of a disappointment. There was a big hill between town and the glyphs are hard to find. There are supposedly 40 on the beach strewn about but I was only able to find 3. Turns out quite a few have been removed to the Wrangell library and various museums. There were some good reproductions on the parks boardwalk but it looks like the wave action on the beach has obliterated most of them.

On the way home we stopped for a bit to eat and I met a man who was traveling with his wife from Alberta. . Several times I heard him loudly exclaiming to the staff that he was from Alberta, "the pumpkin capital of the world." I was curious so went over to ask him about it figuring he must be a pumpkin farmer or maybe grew prized pumpkins or something. Turns out the only claim to fame was that his town has a big weigh in every year to find the biggest pumpkin. His wife rolled her eyes as we were talking, I think she is used to his .....loudness.......then as I was leaving to go back to my table he told me a joke. His lead in to the joke was his exclamation that Alberta is in fact much colder than SE. So to explain that he said..."three Albertian men were sitting around talking about how cold it was. The first man said "last night it was so cold, as I walked home from the bar I needed to take a leak and I had to step back 40 feet. The second man said that's nothing, day before yesterday I was out squirrel hunting. I shot one out of the top of a big tree and by the time he hit the ground he shattered in a million pieces. The third fellow said "that's nothing, last night I awoke in the middle of the nigh tand I could feel something hard by my feet. I ran my foot over it and it felt sort of round but not round, sort of football shaped but not football shaped. I reached down and grabbed it from below my covers and pulled it out. Sort of furry but not quite, sort of brown but not quite and sort of green but not quite. Then suddenly it just turned into nothing in my hands........that's when I smelled it. it was a frozen fart!

So much for Canadian humor eh? Love kat

6/24 Uh Oh! The Coat Guard is looking for us.

We spent the last two days being lazy at the warm springs. When we got here the place was packed so we anchored in a nearby cove and lazed around for the evening. The next morning after getting some bread started we took the dingy in and made the our way to the springs. They are small and primitive but wonderfully relaxing and the setting was stunning. There is a huge falls tumbling into the cove at the tiny town of Baronof . The springs themselves are right next to the falls high up on a ridge. They are easy to find just a half mile through the forest mostly over a cedar boardwalk (wear your boots for the muddy spots). There is no bath house just two lovely pools in the woods. Mud, dirt, rocks, boulders, mosquitos and two terraced pools of hot spring water at the end of a path. Ahhhhhh, very relaxing and it felt wonderful on my back.

Late in the afternoon we sat reading and relaxing from our soak when there was a "hello Island Bound" from outside the boat. That usually means there is someone we know who's just showed up in an anchorage or someones just come round to visit. Instead what I found when I went I popped my head out was the captain of a large power boat calling our name. They told us they recognized us from previous anchorages and that they had heard calls on Channel 16 USCG Sector Juneau announcing Island Bound as having been "reported overdue."

After thanking them Bill immediately called VHF CH 16 to the USCG to find out why in the world anyone would be looking for us. We gave them our location and explained we were in no distress. The officer on the radio was helpful, professional and reassuring. When we asked who had been looking for us he replied, "Stand by...." "um.....your mom. Over." We looked at each other still not understanding so asked "There are two of us on board.....who's mom called us in? over"........."please stand by....then " A Mary, over."

It is was Thursday and we hadn't left Sitka until Monday afternoon. How could my mom possibly be worried enough to call the USCG? I was emailing people back and forth through Sunday so we have only been away from communication for four days...less than that when the call would have had to originally gone out. I am confused and worried that there is something going on at home that I need to know about but from here there is no phone and no internet in Baronof.

It is now late afternoon and the nearest large town is more than a day away, maybe two. After going over the charts to see what our choices are we decide Kake is our closest option. We still don't know if they will have internet and we don't have a cell phone. Amazingly AK has next to no pay phones. Seems that it was no longer commercially viable for the local phone company to maintain the pay phones in this era of cell phones. In fact over the last year or so they have removed nearly every pay phone in southeast. I just try and reassure myself that some nice coast guard officer will be calling my mom to assure her we are fine and knowing that if it had actually been an emergency big enough to track us down then surely there would have been some kind of message! I of course will worry till I hear her voice.

The next morning we were off to Kake a Tlingit village of about 400. We will try and find a phone or possibly use the internet at the tribal center or a library. It takes us all day to get there and when we do it is late on a Friday afternoon. The Harbor Master offers up the phone but we are unable to make a long distance call and are also unable to reach an operator to try for a credit card call. Not giving up we ride our bikes into town to have some dinner and I decide to ask the woman who owns the (only) restaurant in town if she knows the secret of contacting the long distance operator. Warmly and openly she explains that she is a mom herself and has lots of roll over minutes...as long as i am not going to gab for an hour i am free to use her phone. She even tells me the best place for coverage...the end of the deck over looking the water or across the street near those trees."

So what happened? Now it makes sense but at the time I was surprised, confused, worried and a tiny little bit embarrassed. It seems that we had established a routine as we moved along. Our pattern had been to reach somewhere with internet and then send out a flurry of emails, blog updates and face book posts. Sometimes we would make phone calls and then before we left we would send off an quick note saying where we were headed and when we thought we would get there. In Sitka we broke the pattern! We left earlier than we had anticipated, I hadn't updated the blog and we didn't make any telephone calls or post where we were headed next. We didn't know we had a routine and again, we new exactly where we were! But moms have visions of boats floating empty in isolated anchorages and of over turned kayaks on lonely beaches. Plus with an ex-coastie son-in-law and a old friend nearby who is retired CG ..well the rest is history. The momentary embarrassment didn't matter a bit and the USCG was wonderful about the whole thing. It was great to hear moms voice and to find out that once she heard back from the USCG she was able to get some sleep.

Love, kat

6/21 Breaking the rules in Sitka

Sitka is a very pretty town. It was the center of the fur trade in the 19oo's and was the first capitol of territorial Alaska. Today aprox 8900 people live there year round and is one of the only southeast town we have visited where the shops stay open even when the cruise ships are not docked. It seems younger than Juneau in spite of the long native and Russian history. Before any sight seeing first on our agenda was a trip to the post office to pick up some mail I was expecting "general delivery, Sitka." So we unpacked the bikes and off we went. Sadly no mail yet and its Saturday so we will have to come back on Monday.

The bikes are a great addition for us. They extend our reach into wherever we are by many miles.. Sitka was especially nice because once we found our way around it is possible to ride around most of the hills. (I hate hills.) We rode through old town and out to the 100 acre Sitka National Historical Park. We walked the one mile park path through old growth forest and along the beach winding our way through eleven old Tlingit and Haida poles. Then one of the best perks of being in a town- dinner out!

Another bonus of the bikes is with a bit of a balancing act and our day packs we are able to carry a tremendous amount of groceries to the boat. We lay in a couple of weeks worth of food and toilet paper in just two well balanced trips. Then we went back into town for a bit of touristy window shopping. We had to laugh again about "you do know this is a rain forest?" when we entered a book store in old downtown and were greeted by a hand lettered sign on brown paper saying "please don't drip on the books." Then (bonus again) dinner at a Mexican place before searching for St Peters By The Sea for an evening AA meeting.

After the meeting we decided to live on the wild side and ride our bikes to a movie. in an area of town we hadn't been yet at about the time we are usually headed to bed. The theater was quite a ways from the downtown core and even farther from the marina. We headed out of town at 730 and found ourselves riding down a very long hill. During the movie as much as I enjoyed our two and a half hours of Hollywood I wasn't looking forward to biking home at 1000pm. On our trip there though i had sighted the back entrance for the Historical Park. I knew that they dot allow bike riding in the park but if we could slide back that way we would miss the hill completely!. In spite of breaking the rules it was worth the risk. Especially since the bikes are really not high performance machines. They are more like clown bikes....in fact people stare at us quite often as we pedal along. We peddled our way stealthily through the deserted park. For some reason it made me grin and giggles at our lawbreaking, racing along the gravel paths (no we didn't walk them.) At just one day off the summer solstice it was still daylight at 1015 and screaming through the forest in the northern twilight felt wonderful. As we were nearing the boat I couldn't help but think had we not taken the short I would still be huffing and puffing my way up a long hill.

This morning we awoke to lots of fog and drizzle. We had not expected to leave Sitka for another day or two but once we had listened to the weather we knew we needed to either get a move on or risk being forced to stay in Sitka for two-three more days. So, with out finishing my emails or blog posts we rushed to get a quick wash down of the anchor mud on the for deck, filled a couple of water tanks and rushed to the Post Office hopping for mail. With a lovely letter from mom we were once again slipping the lines at the fuel dock and headed out.

6/17 Headed to Sitka

After leaving Pelican we again poked out into the Gulf of AK. The winds had died down from their worst levels so the going wasn't too bad. Island Bound was designed for ocean cruising so the wave heights were not a problem for us. But the ride is always bumpy as you work your way over the shallows into deeper water. Our destination for the night was the old Chichagof village site on Klag Bay.

Rather than the more frequented "smooth channel route" we stayed off shore before turning north through "the Gate." "The Gate" is a channel that is only 4 3/4 fathoms deep and a mere 50 yards wide. We worked our way through using the day beacons that would hopefully keep us of a 1 fathom shoal that lies 20 yards into small 50 yard space you have to work with. It is suggested that you enter only on a slack ebb tide but as is often our lot our timing was off and we arrived on a rising flood tide.

Moving in off the Gulf from open water and through the surrounding islets was an odd feeling. On a high tide the surrounding islets looked almost smothered, as if the coves and bays were too full. There was little but high water marks along tree lines and small pocket beaches that looked like manicured lawns. I was ever hopeful that we would see some bears -instead the tiny beaches were deserted.

We came to Klag Bay to see the abandoned town of Chichigof. From 1905 through the late 1930's more than 13,000,000.00 in gold was taken from the ground here. Our favorite guide book wrote that the village site is the highlight of Chichigof Island for many cruisers. What we found was a silent drizzly void of time. Most of the old buildings are in much worse shape that the book depicted. Most prominent is a four story high heap of tailings' from the mining operation that is now partly covered with trees and brush. There are bits and pieces of machinery and leftover cast offs from the mining company littering the beaches. Most of the old houses are nothing but ruin. From the dinghy we were able to pick out where the boardwalk would have wound its way along the beach front but there is nothing left but scraggly timbers embeded in the beach.

West of the main town sight we were able to walk into one old building. We could tell that people continued to occupy this old cabin well after the rest of Chichigof was shut down. The stairs were long since washed away but there was an old board set in place so we gingerly worked our way inside. The floor was littered with bits and pieces of a life now gone. There were shelves with cans of soup and home canned food along with old bottles and bits of glass. An old extract bottle stood upright on one shelf, still half way full with its lid rusted on. The moldy sheets of curling wall paper torn from the walls lay along side old news papers with a date from the early 90's. There was an old gas can and a bedroom area with a couple of old damp mattresses. We could see where three stoves were and look out the windows to the beach but the floors are rotting away and we had to be carefull where we stepped.

On the other end of town along the beach where the mound of tailings are lay three twisted and bent helicopter blades??? An old barge made of massive rough cedar sits in the mud on low tide. Here, bits and piles of steam engines and the like litter the beach. The beach itself is a dark black sticky mud. I dropped a crab pot when we arrived (unsuccessful again!) and when I pulled it later is was wearing this black goo that has a decidedly rank smell. I tried fishing for some crab pot bait and only got one faint small nibble. I wondered if the beach itself and the surrounding waters have been contaminated by the what ever they used to help extract the gold. There was no sign of wildlife, no tracks or scat around the ruins and no bear in the rich sedges along surrounding beaches. All in all it was pretty and secluded and it was good to get out and stretch our legs but it was somehow a bit disappointing.

After walking the beaches in the morning we headed out into the Gulf again and off to Sitka. The weather started out as another typical Alaska summer day (rain.) But by the time we arrived in Sitka the sun was up and warm enough to strip off the rain gear before entering the harbor. Once in Sitka proper the town beaches were filled with sun bathers! A wonderful bit of warm weather and a unsurpassed warm welcome in Sitka. The harbor master and company greeted us at the dock to take a line then stayed to talk for five minutes giving us maps and suggestions on the best places to eat and what to see while we were there.