Our Last Class

2009-10-05T07:51:00.000-07:00

More Beautiful Bryce

2009-06-14T07:37:00.000-07:00

These were all taken on the Navajo Loop Trail at Sunset Point. This is short trail, 1.3 miles, but it is listed as strenuous. You can see that the bottom is a lonnnnng way down and, you guessed it, a lonnnnng way back up.

Going down.

This area is called Wall Street where the walls close in. Kind of like the real Wall Street at times.

Towering Douglas fir trees reach for the light above.

On the floor of the canyon I felt like I was all alone in the world. My husband, who takes lots more pictures and spends much more time along the way, was out of sight behind me and there wasn’t another soul or creature in sight. Until...

On the (huff and puff) way back up, I took every opportunity to stop and take photos. Here is a trail maintenance crew getting their marching orders. They must be in great shape at the end of the season.

Thor’s Hammer from the upbound trail. Puff puff puff puff

And a view back down the trail… puff puff puff puff. Such a wondrous hike, but I wasn’t ready to do it all over again.

And Then There's Bryce

2009-06-05T08:33:00.001-07:00

Uneventful Mother's Day Travel

2009-06-01T09:09:00.000-07:00

Unlike my Terrible, Horrible, Very Bad, No Good Birthdy this trip was just like we like it; UNEVENTFUL.

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We drove from Flagstaff, AZ to an RV park just outside of Bryce Canyon. This was all new territory for us as we had never driven all the way up Highway 89. We found it to be a good highway with lots of interesting sights. The first part of the trip took us through the Navajo Nation where we saw many contemporary hogans.

We caught a glimpse of Lake Powell as well as the Glen Canyon Dam that is very impressive. This hydroelectric plant produces 1320 megawatts of power and is over 500 feet from the crest of the dam to the bottom. No wonder it looked so big as I viewed it out the window of the motorhome!
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The many beautiful rock formations begged for our exploration, and we definitely plan to do that sometime when we have the time.

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2009-05-31T08:46:00.000-07:00

After our previous stressful, hot, expensive adventures in southern Arizona, we were glad to be further north where temps were cooler and relaxation was the order of the day. We found the visitors' center very helpful in supplying information about activities, sights, maps, drives etc. etc. After learning that Saturday was National Train Day and that there would be a FREE talk at the historical train station, we decided to attend.

Flagstaff has a long and interesting history with trains that continues to this day with both freight trains and Amtrack coming right through the center of town as often as every fifteen minutes and at a high rate of speed.

We learned that the early town was built up the hill from the present location, but because the trains could not make it around the corner and up the hill from a dead stop the depot was built on the flat. Eventually, the town built up around the depot making it much easier for passengers to get to and from the train. Of course, we heard much more about the history of the town, the trains, the train robbers, the early businessmen, and more....very interesting.

And naturally, we did some Geocaching as well. One of the most unusual sites is the Elden Pueblo very near the RV park where we were staying. In order to claim it as a Geocache find, we had to take our picture there.

2009-05-28T14:29:00.000-07:00

SWA*G Breakfast

2009-05-28T14:17:00.000-07:00

For our last S*W*A*G breakfast John and Rita hosted those of us who were still in Yuma. It was our first Boil in a Bag omelete. What a great way to feed a crowd; fun, too.

Not to mention, delicious.

Wild Burro Romantic Saga

2009-05-28T11:08:00.000-07:00

Sad and dejected; not to mention sexually frustrated burro.

The girls are watching the whole process...

Sara enjoyed watching and listening, too.

Even a jack rabbit showed some interest.

And the winner is:

Judy's Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Birthday

2009-05-28T09:38:00.000-07:00

We left Yuma on my birthday, a sad day for several reasons. No one but the young likes to get another day older not even the young at heart. It was also sad to leave our Little House on the Desert and good friends we’d made in Yuma. However, it wasn’t hard to leave the heat of the over 100 degree days.
After having trouble getting both our neighbor’s, Dick and Linda, fifth wheel and our motor home out of our lots and onto the street we should have known that the rest of the day wouldn’t go well. We drove to Alamo Lake east of Quartzite, AZ for a couple of days of relaxation but…as we neared the State Park, the compressed air in our motor home fell to a low level and we drove on into the park with bells and whistles sounding. At the same time, our frig door came open and fell half-way off, so I had to hold it back in place while all this scary stuff was going on. After finding a parking spot, the air pressure was totally gone, so there was no more moving.
Hee Haw

A mechanic was called from 45 or so miles away, and even with Bob’s good directions (Turn at the ranger station, go past the state vehicles and find us in B10), it took several hours for him to find us. Or rather, for Bob to find him and lead him to our spot. When he finally arrived we found that he was a talker who had to tell us his life history and that of the dogs that he had owned.; all this with the meter running at $75 an hour. He finally got to work and by-passed the air dryer and got us running again. We then moved to a spot by Dick and Linda where we could pick up a breeze and a view of the lake. Did I mention the hot weather; air conditioning was a must!

We enjoyed watching the wild burros scampering over the hills near us. Sara enjoyed watching, too. One male was insisting that another male stay away from his harem. Even at 100 degrees, they ran all over the hills till the interloper finally gave up with much heavy breathing and sad hee-hawing. We took the dogs down to the boat ramp for a cooling swim in the afternoon, and Sara became a retriever for the first time.
We stayed two nights and then drove back to Harcuvar for our mechanic to install a new dryer - translates into BIG BUCKS… Part of the way in, we heard a loud boom and Kerthump, ketchup, ketchup (my word processor changed ketchup to ketchup; see it did it again) that was a signal that a tire had blown. Fortunately it was an inside dually, so we were still able to drive in on the five remaining tires. A call to roadside service at 9:30 am resulted in a tire change (more BIG BUCKS) by 2:30 pm. The RV park that we had pulled in to had only 30 amp service, not enough to run our two air conditioners and not enough to keep us cool. We decided to move to another “nearby” park that promised 50 amp service, but… We didn’t find it in the nearby town that was listed as its address. I asked a UPS man where it was and he told me that it was down the road a bit. How far? Oh, about 8 miles he replied. It was actually 21 mile or so, but at least we got cooled down. We figured that he drives that stretch of road so fast that it seems like 8 miles to him.
Of course I didn’t take pictures of this extended fiasco… I felt like high-tailing it to Vegas and on up through Nevada along our usual route to Teri and Doug’s place near Emmett, ID, but no, Bob still had his sights set on a trip up through Utah and back to Bryce Canyon.

Our next stop was supposed to be at Dick and Linda’s in Cottonwood, but we bi-passed them in favor of getting further north to cooler weather. No further problems except a slight overheating issue on the grade up to Flagstaff. We unhitched the car and all was ok after that.

Good Bye Sunset

2009-05-28T09:34:00.000-07:00

This is the view from our backyard on May 4th, the night before we left for the drive north.

Sara on Watch

2009-05-19T09:20:00.000-07:00

Sara spent a great deal of her time watching for her BFF, Muffin, who lived across the street. Lying on the hot concrete in high temps didn't seem to bother her, but it did bother me. I would call her into the air conditioned house after a bit.

Always hoping for a sighting of Muffin, Sara was usually rewarded by catching a glimpse of Muffin looking for her, too.

Spring in the Desert

2009-05-01T10:57:00.000-07:00

Plants come to life during April and May in the desert around Yuma, Arizona. We have enjoyed blooming cacti, trees and bushes all spring.

A Plain 'ol Plane

2009-04-27T15:04:00.000-07:00

The auctioneer and a helper's hand.
Shade for the crowd, but it was too cold to sit there. Really!

We attended an auction just a couple of blocks from our house the other day. It was fun as auctions usually are with a chance to people watch as well as to get involved in the excitement of the bidding. Well, bidding is exciting when you win and get a good price; not so exciting if you lose the bid and then kick yourself for the next week because you didn't go just one more... That's what happened to me with a sewing table that I really wanted, but stopped when the price went to $90. I've been kicking myself ever since. I did bid on a yard blower and vacuum that I got for $12.50...oh joy of joy!

Sara's Therapy

2009-04-24T09:08:00.000-07:00

After Sara got her cast off of her broken leg, she was unwilling or unable to walk on it, so she had swimming therapy in the Colorado River. She wasn't crazy about it, but it did strengthen that leg. Now she, mostly, walks on all four.

Car Companions

2009-04-24T09:03:00.000-07:00

Teri and Sara snuggling during our lonnnnng car trip to the Grand Canyon.

Beauty in the Desert

2009-04-23T16:14:00.000-07:00

Saguaro cactus in the KOFA Wilderness near Yuma. If you look closely, you can see an aerostat, a tethered radar balloon, that keeps an eye out for low flying aircraft that may be part of a drug smuggling operation out of Mexico. Click on the photo to see it more clearly.

2007-09-26T15:22:00.000-07:00

This is our boat, Last Class anchored in SE Alaskan waters.

A young grizzly bear that looks like he has lost his momma and is suffereing from sadness as well as weight loss.

2007-09-26T11:14:00.000-07:00

This is Last Class in one of the many anchorages that we used over our five month cruise.

Close to "Home"

2007-09-25T09:13:00.000-07:00

Tuesday, September 11
Here we are back in "almost home" waters, and we had to deal with a nasty Strait of Georgia. After spending a couple of nights in Garden Bay, Pender Harbor, we decided that we would trust the weatherman that the winds would go down by midday, but no! We were in contact with boats ahead of us and were warned that the seas near Nanaimo, our intended destination, were so rough that it was impossible to stand up in the boat. This came from friends that have a
commercial fish boat and 39 years of experience. They had their poles down and stabilizers in the water. That was enough to convince us that our roll prone boat would not do well in those conditions. We made a left turn around the south end of Thormanby Island and cruised in smooth waters back to Secret Cove where we spent a quiet night and got to visit with our friends on Bleau Mist and Reel Angler.
Same weather forecast the next morning, so we trusted again and were disappointed again. This time we decided to cross to Silva Bay instead of Nanaimo. It afforded us the possibility of seas that were more astern to us than abeam. Well, that theory worked, sort of... We rocked and rolled for about 4 hours taking occasional big swells that upset things in the cabin including us
and Mac. It seems that our test of rough water is a broken wine glass. Sure enough one came crashing off the overhead holder and broke the stem. Anyway, we
were glad to be across the last big crossing of the trip. As an added bonus, we picked up a wi-fi connection here at anchor. Our slip in Anacortes is ready for us now, but we will probably not be back in it till the last week of Sept. The weather, except for the wind, has been glorius. All the way up and down the coast people have been saying, "This is the worst summer we have ever had." I guess we can't complain about Alaskan weather too much, since everywhere else had their share of clouds and rain, too.
Judy, Bob, Mac, Dinghy and Dock

2007-09-25T09:11:00.000-07:00

Wednesday, August 8, 2007
Sorry that I've been so lax in getting out a newsletter. Time to catch up which may take a few emails. Much of the time we didn't have any phone service and when we did ... well, I just didn't get it done. After Craig, we anchored in Cyrus on Orr Island near Hoot and Owl Islands. Next was Devilfish Bay where we caught 113 prawns. Heading up El Capitan Passage, a narrow, smooth water, dredged channel with rocks alarmingly close on the sides of the boat..... Will write more about our trip later, but just to catch you up to date now: We were stuck in Ketchikan for almost a week waiting for a weather window to head south across the notoriously rough crossing of Dixen Entrance. We actually had a very nice crossing back into Canadian waters. After we passed by Shearwater and anchored in one of our favorite anchorages, Fancy Cove, we discovered a fresh water pump for the engine was seeping water. On August 5th we returned to Shearwater for repairs, but got no help on Sunday and as it turned out, Monday was a holiday (BC Day) so no help then either. Tuesday morning we ordered the pump and it came in overnight, and is being installed as we speak. We plan to head out as soon as possible...on to our next major crossing aptly named Cape Caution. The weather looks good this week, so we're hopeful for a smooth trip on south. More of the highlights of our time in Alaska later, and we have some great ones to relate.

2007-09-25T09:09:00.000-07:00

Thursday, June 7, 2007
While at the dock in Ketchikan we attended the Friday night hamburger feed at the Yacht Club. Always fun to meet new boating folks. This time we met Jon Cornforth, photographer extraordinair. He and his dad had arrived in Ketchikan on their little Sea Dory. To provide extra room they had a Yakima cartop carrier mounted on their hardtop. Check out Jon's pics at cornforthimages.com I am the proud owner of one of his prints that he gave me! Leaving Ketchikan we crossed a well-behaved Clarence Strait to the tiny village of Kassan on Prince of Wales Island (the third largest island in the U.S.) As we pulled into the dock to raft onto DX the ferry, Prince of Wales, caused a large wake that rocked both boats crashing them together. Our rail hit Ernie's antenna and broke the outer PVC pipe. We were thankful that the sending and receiving functions still worked, and Ernie was even more thankful. The next day Ernie took us through the village and onto a nice trail that took us to a totem pole park and an old cemetary. We wouldn't have even known that it was there without his guidance. 5-28-29 Continuing our exploration of new spots on POW we traveled on up Kassan Bay to Karta Bay where we found a buoy to tie to. In a bay that was supposed to provide protection, we found that the wind followed us in and rocked us for two days. We were able to watch a bear on the beach for most of the time we were there. Our next spot, Troller's Cove, was blissfully quiet and calm. We had another buoy to tie to and a forest service cabin to explore. Our next stop was Dora Bay in Cholmondeley (pronounced Chumlee???) Sound. We made a stop there to see the hosts of the NW Boaters' Ham Net, Darlene and Floyd. They have built themselves a very comfortable small home on a tiny island and seem to enjoy their isolated living conditions as they live there year around. On the way into their place, Ernie had a warning sound for an overheated engine. We stood by in glassy calm water while he checked on the problem. He seemed to be losing water in his engine as fast as he could put more in. He tried starting up again, but overheated within a few minutes. We tied alongside and gave DX her first tow. Darlene directed us to a neighboring dock where we tied up and had a good spot to work on the boat. It took about 2 hours to diagnose the problem and then not much time to fix it. It was a heater hose that had disintegrated. We acted as gophers for Ernie as he crawled around the tight quarters of his engine room to make repairs. Our plans as we left Dora Bay were to explore new bays and inlets on the east side of POW, but as we headed south we kept hearing weather warnings with that four letter word, gale, mentioned in the forecast. Because we were heading for the southern most point of Alaska and an open ocean rounding of Cape Chacon, we decided to forego our explorations and make the turn around the cape while the perfect weather gave us smooth water. Looking ahead several miles in the distance I could see what looked like a boat and then a very large splash of white. The thought crosed my mind that it was a submarine, but as we neared the cape we saw that it was a HUGE scary looking breaker over the rock that sits off the cape. We followed Ernie's lead and went between that and the shore, but that breaker still looked too close... After a fairly long run and the bad weather forecast predicted to hit in another day, we decided to stop in Nichols Bay just after rounding the Cape. We spent some time in the dinghies beachcombing on the warm, sunny afternoon. Found a sunken boat and managed to salvage some fenders and such. Our son, Greg, called it piracy; we call it salvage rights... 6-2 We moved up through the Barrier Islands and stopped at a little niche called Seth Cove, but then moved on to a new anchorage for both of us, Ruth Island. The next night we anchored up in Kassa to avoid SE gale winds. Well, the winds followed us again and we had gusts of almost 30 overnight keeping me up on anchor watch for a few hours. Our Bruce anchor did well and held both boats without any dragging. As we finished pulling our prawn traps just outside the bay, I spotted a bear on the beach and two little black dots nearby. As we ran over to take a second look, mamma ran her twins back into the woods. She continued to graze in the green grass and they soon wandered into sight again, our first sighting of twin bear cubs. On to Soda Bay. Only nine prawns in the trap overnight and Ernie had only a small cod. After 10 days in the almost complete isolation of the southern end of POW, we pulled into the delightful little no cruise ship town of Craig. We stayed two days to get laundry done, eat a burger and fries, get my hair cut, do some shopping and get lots of exercise as we had a half-mile walk to get off the dock. Beautiful 70 degree weather the first day, but then gray skies and 40 degree weather arrived.
Last Class crew Judy Bob Mac Dinghy Dock

Ketchikan

2007-09-25T09:08:00.000-07:00

Thursday, May 17, 2007
If you are not inclined to read this long, detailed message, suffice it to say we arrived in Ketchikan two days ago. After our short dock stop at Shearwater (they charged $1/foot and $10 for electricity, (we decided that we could use that $50 elsewhere)so we made a short trip to Wigham Cove where we found Good Medicine already at anchor. We took the other nook and a big refurbished pleasure tug, Gulf Tide took a third nook just at dark. As we headed out Seaforth Channel toward the ocean again, I put out a call to our friend, Ernie Harding, on his vessel, DX, and was pleasantly surprised to hear him reply that he would be with us in Rescue Bay that night. We continued up Reid Passage, a narrow little smooth water route, by Ivory Island then up Finlayson Channel to Rescue Bay. The ocean looked very calm, so we could have gone outside of Ivory. An email from our friends on Passage said that they even went out one more channel and found the ocean very hospitable. Soon after anchoring, Bob spotted a wolf on the shore and then spotted another one in the head of the bay. These two were dark gray and much slighter than the blond one we had seen in Fancy Cove. Ernie rafted on that night a procedure that became standard as we continued our trip up the coast. Staying with our slower pace makes him very happy to be burning less fuel, but he said that this is the slowest of his previous 11 trips to Alaska. 5-19 We stopped at Khutze Bay, an anchorage that was new to us. We motored up to the head of the deep inlet and thought we would anchor in front of the falls. We were surprised to find 3 power boats anchored and stern-tied in the spot we would have liked. The captain of Peachy Keen came by to visit after setting some crab traps and saying that he just had to meet “The Voice.” That would be me…I have the reputation of talking a lot on the VHF radio and lots of people follow me to another channel to listen in. Don’t have the foggiest notion why… Several people over the years have made a comment about enjoying listening to me on the radio. Ernie anchored in 32 feet of water and we tied alongside (rafted). Later in the afternoon with a brisk little wind blowing we noticed on our depth finders that we were only in 11 feet of water with the tide still falling. We decided to move down the Bay farther to an area behind a spit that extends ¾ of the way across the wide entrance. We spent a quiet night there after getting anchored and rafted again. The next day we ran up to Hartley Bay an interesting First Nation village and another new stop for us. Ernie said that the moorage was free, but the new signs said that they were charging a $1/foot now. We did a little walk about on the boardwalks of the neat, little village and then left to anchor in Coughlin Anchorage. This is not a secure place to be in south winds, but even the north winds that were predicted never materialized, and we spent a quiet night. The next morning we found that our Nobeltec software wouldn’t load. Not a good thing. This is our navigation software that connects into our GPS and shows our boat position on the chart. When that fails we are in panic mode at least I am. We still have all of our paper charts, but it’s just not the same reassurance that we get from watching our boat proceed in safe waters on the computer screen. Bob started up the PC, started the program and hooked up another GPS to that system. Even though that computer is in the salon, we were able to check it now and then if needed. Grenville Channel is just a long channel that is truly part of the Inside Passage, and there are no dangers except the wake from big ferries or cruise ships. As we followed Ernie out of the anchorage, Bob tried to reinstall the program several times; each time getting an error. He uninstalled the original program, then the charts, then the waypoints and routes. Finally with the computer wiped clean of Nobeltec, the program reinstalled successfully. We were in business again, but Bob still had lots of work to do to reinstall the necessary charts, waypoints and routes. Have I mentioned that we LOVE our autopilot; except for one temporary glitch. I was at the helm and had just looked down to write some notes, when Bob said in a rather puzzled voice, “Where are you going?” The autopilot had suddenly taken a hard turn to starboard and continued to turn us in a complete circle. After checking the various wires and plugs and turning it off and back on, it maintained the assigned course with no problem and has worked fine ever since. I guess that little unexpected right turn explains why ships sometimes hit rocks when there is no logical explanation other than equipment failure. 5-21 We cruised up to almost the end of Grenville to Baker Inlet another new anchorage for us. The entrance is very narrow with fairly strong current and trees hanging over both sides of the channel. Almost a magical, mystical feeling as we entered. The next morning exiting in fog was even more mystical. The fog cleared as we motored on toward Prince Rupert. We stayed in Pillsbury Cove near the entrance to Venn Passage. We had a nice quiet nice evening though winds were predicted to blow 30 kts. 5-23 An early departure saw us heading through Venn Passage, a shallow, winding short-cut out to Chatham Sound. As we neared the end of Dundas Island, the water was getting rougher and we almost elected to make a stop before crossing Dixon Entrance. As we looked out ahead of us, we saw glassy smooth water and decided to press on. We entered Alaskan waters at 10:10 PDT/11:10 ADT. Wooo Hoooo! U.S. customs allows boats to stop in Foggy Bay on the long cruise between Prince Rupert and Ketchikan. So we called them and got permission. It was nice to get off the ocean and anchored up , even if we had had such a nice crossing with only gentle swells. On into Ketchikan and a hurtful stop at the fuel dock. It could have been a lot worse, but the attendant gave us the commercial price of $2.61/gallon. We are moored in Thomas Basin in Ketchikan right downtown very close to the cruise ship dock. One sunny day, one very rainy day and now one showery day. Typical Alaskan weather. We plan to leave Ketchikan tomorrow, but we’re not sure where we are going.
Judy, Bob, Mac, Dinghy and Dock

Half-way

2007-09-25T09:05:00.000-07:00

Thursday, May 17, 2007
We are now about half way to Alaska. We left Shawl Bay with our clean clothes and about 200 prawns; not very big, but very tasty. We made a six hour hop to Blunden Harbor and left the next morning, May 14th, to cross around Cape Caution. The weather report sounded great, and it was! There was no wind and the ocean rocked us gently with low, almost unnoticeable swells. We arrived at one of our favorite anchorages, Fury Cove, after an 8 hour crossing. It has become tradition for us to spend two days in Fury, usually we need to recuperate after the crossing... We had great, sunny weather and enjoyed walking on the white shell beaches finding Kodak moments. There were two boats with us in the anchorage each night. There was also a marine biologist who was doing a survey of the beach for the nearby First Nation village. He is researching and testing clams in order to make the beaches available for winter harvest by the First Nation tribe. From Fury, we cruised NW up Fitz Hugh Sound to Fancy Cove in Lama Passage.
Our great weather had departed overnight with a rain storm, and we found some rough water just outside of the anchorage. As we moved farther up the Sound the weather and the water both improved. We anchored in a tight little spot behind a tiny island in the cove where we had been in 2005. It turned out to be an amazing afternoon... Bob spotted our second black bear of the trip on a nearby shore. It was the fattest bear we have ever seen. As it disappeared into the trees, we noticed a Sand Hill Crane standing as still as a stick within a few feet of the bear. Later Bob was looking up at the head of the cove and saw a wolf! He (yes, he showed us that he didn't pee like a puppy when he marked a tree) walked the whole shore of the bay and we got several Kodak moments from that. We also spotted one of the big cruise ships cruising slowly by in Lama Passage. We didn't even feel the wake in our snug little anchorage. Later in the afternoon, we heard a helicoper overhead. They buzzed us a couple of times; even low enough to return my wave. Don't know the purpose, but they completed our interesting afternoon.
The crew of Last Class

Continuing On

2007-09-25T09:04:00.000-07:00

After spending two nights anchored at Newcastle Island in Nanaimo, we decided that the weather sounded good for a crossing of the Strait of Georgia on May 6th. Whiskey Golf was not open, always a good thing. WG is a naval training range that is directly in the path of cruising boats leaving Nanaimo to cross the Strait. When they are open, both U.S. and Canadian navies use the range for unarmed torpedo practice. Unarmed or not, we wouldn’t want to get hit by one. When closed, we cruisers are free to transit across the range. That was a good thing, but the swells from the SE kept us rocking and rolling for the 3 hour crossing. At one point even the captain and his chair got upset. Mac nearly had a nervous breakdown and the first mate wasn’t far behind. It was our worst crossing ever, but it could have been a lot worse. We didn’t even take any salt water over the bow! We anchored in Pender Harbor for two nights after hearing dire weather warnings. Malaspina Strait can be very nasty, too. From there we went on to one of our most favorite anchorages, Squirrel Cove. With only 5 other boats at anchor it looked a lot different than the July-August fiasco when over a hundred boats are often there. From Squirrel we have to time our departure in order to arrive at the Yuculta (yew-cla-tah)Rapids in time for slack water. Actually, there are 5 rapids to transit, Yuculta, Gillard, Dent, Green Point and Whirlpool. We usually stop after the first three, but with a fairly low current speed due to the phase of the moon, we were able to go through all of them and anchor in Forward Harbor. This is a natural stop to wait and see what Johnstone Strait is going to dish out. Early the next morning we got the weather report stating that winds were supposed to ease, so off we went. It was a very nice 3 hour cruise on water that had been nearly impassable just a few days before due to Gale Force winds of over 40mph. We went on to Lagoon Cove Marina, always a must stop. We fueled up there at $1.10 a liter!!! As we came through the Blow Hole, we spotted our first bear of the trip on the Minstrel Island shore. A very pretty, shiny, black bear. Even though we were the only visitors at the dock, Bill cooked up some prawns for us and we had a nice visit with him and his summer crew. On to Shawl Bay Marina to have another traditional visit and do laundry. We’ve done our first pawning here with catches of about 50 per pull. Our next challenge is Cape Caution, our longest ocean voyage. It’s 86 miles from Shawl Bay to Fury Cove. About 50 of that is open ocean. The weather has been nice, so we are hoping it continues.

Newsletter from trip to Alaska

2007-09-15T07:07:00.000-07:00

Originally sent to friends and family after leaving the dock on May 1st.
After a long month at the dock waiting for people to finish work that we had contracted to be done over the winter, we are finally underway. The boat is loaded down with food, water, fuel and the many unnecessary items that we seem to pack with us. However, our pockets are empty after paying our maintenance and repair bills. The most frustrating repair was the nonfunctioning alternator. After several trips to Bellingham and much head scratching by the experts, we found out that the wiring harness had been wired wrong at the factory. Fuses kept blowing and we even left the dock once, thinking it was fixed, but no.....When we did leave the slip in Anacortes on May 1, we had a bit of a scare when the engine gave a big shudder and shut down. Guess it was air in the fuel lines as it started up and has been fine ever since.We are in Nanaimo BC now and hope to cross the Strait of Georgia ASAP. Barring any other unforeseen happenings we are on our way to Alaska; our 4th trip.Will be sending out updates when possible.
Judy, Bob, two cats and a dog

Back to the Boat

2007-04-02T18:22:00.000-07:00

We returned to the boat after spending the winter in Idaho. On the way home we spent about two weeks at Long Beach visiting with Frank, Ingrid, Peter and Mom. Frank is Bob's brother and their mother has moved into an assisted living facility at the Beach. After leaving "our" Beach we drove up to Ocean Shores to spend a few days in an area that we had not visited before. We still like "our" Beach better. We are now busy off loading our stuff from the motorhome onto the boat, a twice a year procedure.

2006-01-02T12:00:00.000-08:00

This is the temperature on Christmas day in the Yuma Foothills.

2005-12-31T11:13:00.000-08:00

Here is what we can see from our RV door early in the morning; a typical Arizona sunrise.

2005-12-30T16:17:00.000-08:00

This is the first time I adjusted the ISO to a higher number in order to shoot the Christmas lights in Havasu City.

2005-12-30T07:36:00.000-08:00

That was easy! Here's one from Lake Havasu. This campsite was the best in the state park.

2005-12-30T06:42:00.000-08:00

Trying a different photo. This time the full sized one. The "wild" burros of Oatman, AZ

2005-12-29T20:15:00.001-08:00

Trying again

2005-12-29T20:15:00.000-08:00

Here is Mac protecting his frisbees.

Whale BubbleNet feeding

2005-11-17T14:51:00.000-08:00

My friend, Suzi, on the s/v Boru took this wonderful shot! Wish I could claim it, but I did get the same shot on video. Just part of our wonderful trip.

More about our cruise in Alaskan waters

2005-09-14T15:26:00.000-07:00

As we traveled on towards Ell Cove, we were treated to our secod viewing of bubblenet feeding by humpback whales. I got video shots and Suzie got an excellent still shot - National Geographic quality. About a dozen whales treated us to quite a show.
In tiny Ell Cove we found ourselves with 6 other boats; DX and Boru rafted to us and Gale, Silent Sun, Perigee, and Sea Tex all free anchored.
The next day we made the short trip down to beautiful Takatz Bay where Mercy and Boru rafted alongside. At low tide a crab pot buoy appeared rather close behind our boats. Since it was a hazard to navigation, we pulled it, straightened out the tangled line and reset it, but not before we took the 30-some legal crab and divided them between the boats.
Baranof Warm Springs was our next stop. Finding the docks full we rafted onto Mercy and Boru to DX. That evenig we had a great get together, eats and drinks on Mercy. They are the only boat in our group big enough to hold 12 comfortably. We showed our whale video among ooohs and aaahs and promised to make a DVD for everyone if we ever get our computer back. Larry and Sandy, Mercy's Texas guests left on a float plane that had some difficulty getting in and out due to the fog.
We moved to the outside of the dock after some boats including Mercy moved on. The new bathhouse was much appreciated and much used. The water is pretty hot and had some sulphur smell, but we enjoyed the bath anyway.
7-23 Mercy left Red Bluff Bay as we came in. Dx was out pulling his prawn trap. When he told us that he got nada, zip, zero we decided not to put ours down. DX came back in the bay and rafted to us along with Boru. Other boats included: Jamal, Alaskan Song, Nereida, Silent Sun, Sea Call, Snow Goose and Alaskan Story.
The bay was filled with pinks that were jumping and turning like ballerina dancers. They made me laugh when I thought of them as popcorn fish. All the fishermen had a great time catching and releasing.
Boru had an overheating problem, so they had to run slower across a very well mannered Chatham Strait to Honeydew Cove where we found Passage already anchored.

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Back in the USA

2005-09-10T07:39:00.000-07:00

After making a somewhat hurried trip down through Canada, we just wanted to let you know that we are still alive and still floating. We checked into customs at Roche Harbor, San Juan Island, WA on Saturday, August 3rd. We were glad to be back in "home waters" again and especially have enjoyed the nice weather. Bob has been getting some of the varnish work done that he was unable to do in the rain up north.
We will be going back into our slip in Anacortes in another week or two. Today we are anxiously waiting to welcome s/v Boru alongside again. They are heading back to Olympia and are crossing into US waters today.
I still plan to write more about our adventures up north, but thought I better at least get a quick update out.

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Freezer client

2005-08-01T08:43:00.000-07:00

Friends Gail and Nick on s/v Destiny stored halibut in our freezer, but after that our paths diverged. Since we didn't know when or if we would meet up again, we transferred their fish to the m/v Passage. These tongue-in-cheek emails resulted... ;-)

Dear Sir, Madam and Mascots:

It has come to our attention that our fillet account which was entrusted to your institution has been transferred to another account without our authorization. Further more we believe the status of said fillets may be endangered due to illegal pilfering by untrustworthy freezer operators. It is commonly held that the M/V Passage has a past history of unsecure fillet handling. Specifically, we are worried about the possibility that our fillets could be exposed to fire. M/V Passage has been known to remove banked fillets and place then near or on a BBQ. In addition, we have received no statement of our account while banked at your institution. We were hoping that the account would have earned some interest while in your care (even bottom fish deserve interest). We are also concerned that our entire account may be frozen - thus limiting our ability to liquidate same.

Dear Valued Customer:
We would like to assure you that we would not have transferred said fillets unless we were certain that they would be safe with the current freezer operator. About the interest incurred: we must remind you that this was not a savings account that earns interest, rather we have fees associated with your account that have been left unpaid. We accept legal tender, meals, salmon fillets, dominoe games and various and sundry other items as payment for said fees. Again, we want to assure you that you are a valued customer and we would welcome your deposits after our fees have been met. We are only slightly concerned that we will not meet up with you again to settle this matter as you seem to be traveling in areas where our "chicken of the sea" crew does not intend to go. We are also concerned about your mental health as the fish stories you tell are quite the works of fiction.

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Traveling with friends again

2005-07-31T19:12:00.000-07:00

We waited in Pavlof for friends, Suzie and Roger on s/v Boru, who we met last year in BC. We spent a total of 5 nights in Pavlof, a new-favorite anchorage. We saw another sow with twin cubs and several individual bears. One day as I kayaked up towards the falls, watching the schools of pinks, I looked up to see a bear on the bank very close by. He was headed toward the falls and was also interested in the pinks. Pinks are also known as Humpbacks and are unbelievably thick in SE Alaskan waters this time of year. They school up by the hudreds at the mouths of streams getting ready to spawn, and because they're there so are the bears.
We had wind one night that kept me up on anchor watch. With Boru rafted to us we had more weight on our anchor and also more responsibility. Of course, our big Bruce anchor held us fast as usual. It was the first night of anchor watch, but that's not surprising since we have been tied to docks so much.
We met Ron and Becky on Conquest at Swanson Harbor earlier and again in Pavlof. They introduced us to beach asparagus and brought us some that they had made into a salad or salsa. mmmmm
Boru needed fuel and needed to see the interesting little village of Tenakee Springs, so we returned. By the time we arrived, the fuel dock was closed, and we were surprised to find that they have very limited hours. Didn't stop Suzie. She called someone and talked him into opening the fuel dock for a sale of about 20 gallons of gas. I think she could talk a brown bear out of a salmon he'd just caught.
On our way into Tenakee, we saw the yacht Le Grande Bleau, one of the world's largest. She is over 300 feet long and has a sailboat with 4 spreaders and a power boat that must be 40 feet long carried topside. She is owned by a Russian billionaire and, according to one of our magazines, was previously owned by Paul Allen's brother.

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Chichakof and Baranof

2005-07-31T07:16:00.000-07:00

We left Tenakee on calm water on July 13th and made the short trip up to Pavlof where we anchored. Much to our chagrin we have spent 44 nights tied to docks and 2 nights on a buoy since we entered Alaska 52 days ago. This is not our usual M/O, but gen set problems, weather, and Alaska's free state docks have limited our time on the anchor chain.
But finally we were swinging on our own hook in Pavlof. Sherry on Augenblick had told us via radio that it was a delightful place with bear sightings and halibut catching. Sure enough, Bob went out in the dinghy and caught his 2 halibut easily, both chickens. A pod of Orca's came very close to him while he was fishing, but they were intent on their own fishing as their tall black fins sliced through the water nearby. These are the first Killer Whales we've seen in Alaska on this trip.
While we were eating dinner, I heard a change in the sound of the generator. Upon checking the exhaust we found only steam exiting. When we checked the filter we found it filled with jellyfish parts and pieces. These are the lion mane jellyfish that can sting, so we extracted the slimy mess being careful not to touch it with bare hands.
After a couple of boats left we moved in closer to be more protected in case the wind blew.
We saw a doe and fawn on shore and later a single doe. Bob caught his limit of 2 halibut again. One was a 3 ft 21 lber. Just a poind over chicken-size.
We were seeing lots of wildlife on the shore. To our surprise we saw two men walking on the far shore with no vessel in sight. We surmised that they were from the sailing vessel (umiak maybe) that we had seen pass by late last night.
Later we saw a grizzly sow (brown bear) with twin, black cubs walking in the same place where we had seen the men earlier. These mamas with cubs are very dangerous and should always be avoided, but we had to get them recorded on video so we can bore you all with it later. We dinghied in for a closer look. The sow got very nervous when she saw us and soon hustled her babes off into the woods.
The other wildlife brought their vessel into the bay and anchored for the night on the far shore. They made us nervous, too.

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Gen Set problems

2005-07-19T06:27:00.000-07:00

Our gen set started steaming while at the dock in Elfin Cove. After checking the through hull, Bob found some mussel shells blocking the opening. After getting that cleaned out, the generator continued to steam and got worse. The dock experts determined that we needed a new impeller, and we didn't have one.
We traveled to Pelican to visit with friends, see a place we hadn't seen before and get plugged into power in order to keep our batteries charged and our freezer frozen. We had to take a spot that no one else wanted and we soon found at why. Wilth the wind blowing and no breakwater, we were soon having an uncomfortabe, bouncy ride. When another boat left at 4:30 the next morning, we quickly moved into their more desireable spot.
6-30 Back to Elfin Cove where nasty weather kept us at the dock an extra day. The big swells also kept most of the air traffic away.
On our way back to Hoonah, we almost ran over a group of humpback whales in Icy Strait. Actualy got so close after the engine was in neutral that we had to back away. We have video with these gentle giants right under our bow. They were bellowing like elephants in heat; pretty scary!
Back to Hoonah where we paid $50 for a month's moorage. That was much cheaper than the $19 daily rate. We even got the best spot in the harbor, the outside slip with great views and no bouncing in the will-protected harbor.
After having a lot of rainy weather, we were glad the sun came out for the 4th of July parade and all the Native village activities.
Rain or shine, Bob spent lots of time out in the dinghy fishing and catchng salmon. Finally got our impeller on the 9th. Jerry or Jericho came down and gave Bob a hand installing it and reassembling the gen set. These units are so compact that they have to be disassembled in order to fix even simple things like replacing an impeller.
We had a pot luck with Ernie and Aileen and his new friends on Telos. We were glad that bad weather had brought them back to Hoonah instead of down the outside to Sitkah as they had planned.
7-11 We left the dock ahead of DX and Telos, but they soon caught us and arrived in Tenakee at least an hour ahead of us. Found the docks clogged with seine boats. Lots of activity, lots of noise. We got to see the crew of Christian S, a seine boat out of Everett, again. Captain Ross even sent over a bottle of wine to us. In 2003 Bob had fixed his Nobeltec Software for him. Thats the electronic navigation software that recreational boaters as well as most fishermen use.

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Icy Strait to Cross Sound

2005-07-19T06:26:00.000-07:00

We traveled from Hoonah to Flynn Cove in hopes of catching a halibut. Did get a banty rooster and a chicken. When anchoring, we didn't go deep into the bay due to a lack of detail on the chart. After 6 boats came in and anchored inside of us, we felt pretty foolish stuck out in the middle.
6-23 On the way to Elfin Cove, we kept cutting back rpm's in order to arrive at South Inian Pass when our computer told us it would be slack water. Turns out the computer seems to be about an hour off; now we remember that a friend had mentioned that a couple of years ago. Our speed got down to 3.3 knots as we chugged against the current that was supposed to be slack. Elfin Cove is a delightful, little, busy village. There are 8 charter fishing businesses there, a post office, bar/cafe, museum, fuel dock, gift shops, salmon smokery etc. Approximately 200 people are in residence in the summer, but the billage is much quieter in the winter with only 8-12 folks. There is an inner as well as an outer harbor with free Alaska state docks. We chose the outer harbor where we could see all the activity; float planes coming and going, charters bringing in the daily catch of salmon and big halibut (200+ lbs). We also got a beautiful view, in clear weather, of the Fairweather Mts and th!
e glacier beneath them.
We enjoyed being at the dock with Silver Star and Whatever again. One day we all went fishing in the dinghies. After not catching any salmon, Jerry (Silver Star) rigged up for halibut with a spreader and salmon belly. Down to the bottom it went and immediately caught a big fish - a 35 lb white king salmon!

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Icy Strait

2005-07-18T17:26:00.000-07:00

After leaving Auke Bay early to avoid the morning dock count (if you get counted, you have to pay for that day even though you are paid up for the nights you have stayed-and they bill you) we headed around Pt Retreat and on to Funter Bay. We were the only boat except for a couple of local boats. Most people think that the only public dock is on the south side, but we found out in 03 that both are state docks. We were visited by a group of land otters searching for tasty morsels under the dock. Mac had a great time trying to spot them through the cracks in the dock as they chomped, growled and splashed.
Bob trolled for salmon, caught a King that we promptly canned. Then he caught a halibut on his trolling gear.
6/17-18 Swanson Harbor at the entrance to Icy Strait has two detached docks. We took the outside of one across the dock from a young couple from Whitehorse, Yukon Territory. They left for Hoonah, but soon the docks were filled with Juneau-ites. The weather was hot and the horseflies were thick enough to keep us inside the boat behind screens most of the time. The second day the west wind came up and blew 30. Now we know why the people from Juneau choose the inside of the dock!
6-19 On the way to Hoonah we stopped at a halibut hill just off Sisters Islands. Caught two more halibut to add to the freezer in just a few minutes. We found Silver Star and Whatever at the dock. Had a good time visiting with them. We all took the shuttle out to Cannery Pt to see the cannery that has been renovated for a tourist attraction. It is only open two days a week for two cruise ships. We enjoyed the museum and the gift shops at the very well-done facility. We enjoyed talking to a couple from England who were on the cruise ship. Trying to understand the queen's language was a bit difficult though.
6-22 When leaving Hoonah, we were excited to see our first view of bubble feeding by a large group of humpback whales. This is an interesting feeding method they use. They all dive at nearly the same time and then make a column of bubbles that rises to the surface. This column confuses and traps small fish which the whales then catch in their open mouths as they all come to the surface at the same time. As you can imagine, it is quite a sight and a real treat to see. Some of the people being transported from the cruise ship to the cannery dock got a close-up look as the whales surfaced right by them.

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Cruising

2005-07-13T07:56:00.000-07:00

We stopped at the Argo halibut hill at Five Fingers, but no luck this time. We did find room at the dock in Hobart Bay, Entrance Island.
6-12 We had quite a Dahl Porpoise show just south of Tracy Arm entrance. They just kept racing toward us as some got tired, others took up the game. Always a thrill to see them move effortlessly across our bow. Of course we are only traveling about 7 miles an hour, but it's still amazing to see.
Only one other boat at the dock at Taku Harbor and they moor at Anchor Cove, our marina in Anacortes! We had not met them before though. The dock was pretty well filled up overnight. It is scheduled for complete renovation in a few days and will not be available for some time.
6-13 Auke Bay, north of Juneau, actually had room at their all-transient docks. In fact we docked at one spot, but had to move to another in order to get power. When we called the harbor office, she immediately told us that we had two big boxes waiting for us. This was our old computer that Teri had sent to replace our crashed one that we had sent to her. After we set up the computer, we found that it wouldn't even recognize our navigation CD, so we still didn't have a backup. Nobeltec has discontinued that version, so they were unable to send us another disk...unless we sent them $350 for an upgrade.

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More cruising notes

2005-07-13T07:24:00.000-07:00

6-6-05 We traveled with Destiny in good weather to Roosevelt Harbor on Zarembo Island where we found a small, sturdy dock. We took the front face of the dock and Destiny rafted to us. The shallow water and a morning low tide had them concerned, so they moved off the dock to anchor out. The Nordic Lady came in later and rafted to us. The captain raises hazelnuts in Oregon and we were pleased to get a sample of his crop. Gail and I took a walk on shore while Nick and Bob went fishing in the dinghy.
The next day, we had to plan for current in Wrangell Narrows, a narrow passage that leads to Petersburg. We anchored in halibut fishing ground just to the west of the entrance while we waited for a favorable current. Bob caught only a crab, but Nick caught a nice chicken halibut, small but the best eating.
As we entered the Narrows a huge tug and container laden barge was just behind us. We decided that it would be better to let him go first rather than have him pass us in a narrow spot. We traversed the 21 mile passage without meeting or being passed by any other large vessels. Almost all north- and south-bound traffic uses this route; ferries, tugs, large yachts, but not cruise ships. There are over 60 navigational aids and are quite a sight at night, or so I've been told. We don't cruise at night! The green and red lights give it the nickname "Christmas Tree Lane."
We stayed in Petersburg in nice weather for 2 nights then moved on to Portage Bay where we tied to the forest service buoy and stayed 2 nights in rain.

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Still catching up

2005-07-13T06:34:00.000-07:00

The marine weather forecast, our counselor for travel decisions, told of wind warnings for several days, so we pulled away from the dock with some trepidation. We headed south and east to get into more protected waters. We had good conditions for awhile, but then we started to see very wide white cappy water ahead. Soon Clarence Strait was us to its old tricks. We were in 6-8 foot breaking seas; rougher seas than we ever want to see again. Of course our boat handled it all better than we did. After turning into Ernest Sound, we had a following sea that gave us a much smoother ride. At least the sealife seemed to be enjoying the rough conditions. We saw a humpback whale breach clear out of the roughest water. We also had bow chasing porpoise with us for a time. A huge Stellar sea lion also poked his nose up to take a look at us. We had a nice, quiet, well-deserved anchorage in Santa Ana. The next day we traveled up Zimovia Stait in a brisk wind but fairly smooth seas. In the !
beautiful Anita Bay we enjoyed the same view of the mountains that we had seen in Burnett.
The "Long Ranger" was already in the anchorage and we were delighted to see Destiny enter a short time later. We dinghied over to catch up on each other's adventures. We also dinghied over to Long Ranger just to say hello. They insisted we come aboard their beautiful boat and share some freshly caught crab. We learned that their new-looking boat had about 30,000 miles on it.
The next morning we spotted a doe with twin fawns along the shoreline, but still no bear.

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May 31 to June 3

2005-06-24T11:21:00.000-07:00

As we motored up the east side of Clarence Strait, DX and Mercy were coming up the west side to all meet in Burnett Inlet. We anchored up, rafted onto Mercy, in the little bay behind Cannery Pt. As in the rest of Alaska and BC the canneries just show up as ruins; testiment to the early days of bountiful fish. We needed to wait for high tide to enter the head of the Inlet. The narrows is just that and has thin water, too (reported to be just 1 and a half feet at low tide. We found 10 feet as we crossed the lowest point. Interestingly we also found 10 feet when we took the dinghy through at low tide. How did that happen?
We again rafted onto Mercy and spent two days in the very pleasant bay. The nice weather prompted us to get to shore for some needed exercise. We all took a long walk on a gravel road that connects to Anita Bay; except we went left instead of right. We found many bones along the way and scat that had deer hair in it. We found out later that this was a sign of wolves.
Ernie, Bob and I took his whaler down to the fish hatchery for a very interesting visit. We were impressed by the very complicated operation and surprised to hear that it is a fisherman's co-op. They tax themselves 3% of their catch to support the hatchery which raises and releases coho and sockeye salmon. The fish must be fed every half hour all day and all conditions carefully monitored. Before they are released, 10% of the coho become pinheads. They are put through a machine, by hand, that inserts an identification pin in their head. The sockeye are marked by changing the water temperature in their tanks alternately between warm and cold. This puts marks on their otolith (ear bones) that identify where they were hatched and when. FASCINATING!
We all moved to the dock at the hatchery on 6-2, and even had electricity provided. Their hydro plant produced plenty. We had the two young men, who were working at the hatchery, onboard Mercy for a dinner that we all contributed to. I think they were really happy to get the good food as well as the company and conversation.
6-3 Ever restless Ernie was up early and away from the dock, headed to Point Baker. We had been listening to wind warnings for several days, but this day seemed to be the best for travel in Clarence Strait. Before long Ernie was calling back to tell us he had wind (one 42 kt gust) and rough water, and that we should stay tied to the dock. After clearing the dock for an incoming supply plane, we suggested that Mercy move off the net pen and onto the dock proper. We then rafted onto them and then spent several hour bouncing up and down as the south wind picked up and brought swells and whitecaps into the Inlet.
More later......I need to catch up.

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Meyers Chuck

2005-05-30T19:13:00.000-07:00

After leaving Ketchikan with a good share of our money,for the stay at the dock and the generator parts and repair, we headed up Clarence Strait to Meyers Chuck. We left in light rain; Ketchikan is going to have to do better than that to get their totals up to average this year(12 feet). Clarence was behaving very nicely, but it was a slow trip due to running against the current. We have been spoiled with good, pushing currents for sometime.
Arriving at Meyers Chuck we found the floats full with the only option to anchor out or raft onto another boat. We rafted onto the fish buying tender "Savage". A 90 footer that we learned was owned and operated by a very petite little woman who has had the boat for 16 years. She looks like a kid, but it seems that she does very well with that big, old boat.
This morning there was a general boat shuffling and we took the dock space that Mary Grace left. The Provider moved to the inside of the dock and the boat that was anchored out, Huntress, rafted onto Savage. We had a rain shower in the early morning, but then the sun came out and it has been a beautiful day. We thought DX was coming in today, but he is across the channel from us and we'll probably meet up tomorrow. It's been fun visiting with the folks on the dock here; local residents as well as visiting boaters. And the best thing is that these state docks are FREE in Alaska.
My tomato plants (from the seeds I found in a Geocache in Idaho) is blooming up a storm and has set on at least 3 tomatoes so far. Life is good. Except Bob has not caught a fish yet...it's still early.
More later...

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On to Alaska (cont)

2005-05-29T00:00:00.000-07:00

Our plan was to anchor in Coghlan anchorage the next day, but that is not a very secure spot and gale winds were predicted overnight. We ended up running 75.6 miles to Lowe Inlet, a more secure spot but very deep. We dropped the anchor in 100 feet and then kept an eye on the depth sounder as we alternately went from 60 feet to 19 feet over the shoal. We kept the anchor alarms set to alert us to movement of over 150 feet.
After the long run, we decided to make a few easy ones. Klewnugget was our next stop. We put our prawn traps down on the way in and pulled up 130 prawns as we left the next morning.
With lots of storm warnings, even hurricane force winds predicted, we decided to stay put till conditions eased. We stayed in Kumealon for 4 nights with Destiny. The storm didn't materialize in our area, but we were faced with Dixon Entrance next, and we would rather have good conditions out there.
On May 22 we awoke to fog in the bay, so we delayed our departure for a bit. Even with a late start, we left the constables on the police boat that had shared an overnight anchorage with us still snoozing. They missed their chance to check our entrance number into Canadian waters. We thought we'd go as far as Dundas Island, Brundige Inlet, but we found conditions so smooth that we decided to go on to Foggy Bay, Alaska. We crossed into Alaskan waters at 3:04 on May 22 and arrived in Foggy Bay at 5:45. By that time Mac was showing yellow eyeballs, so the first order of business was to get the dinghy down and get him to shore. Well, we did take time to get an anchor down and set. We fell into bed not too long after that after a 83.2 mile, 11 hour day. We shared the quiet, peaceful anchorage with Destiny and Inspiration.
Even though it was a 5 hour run into Ketchikan, it seemed like a short day. We had the roughest water we've seen yet; 3 foot following seas, but we still haven't put any salt on the boat.
We have been in Ketchikan since the 23rd waiting for generator parts. They finally arrived today, Saturday the 28th, and we are ready to depart tomorrow.
The weather has been beautiful during our stay, and it has been fun watching all the hustle and bustle of this busy little town. Some days there are 6 cruise ships visiting adding about 10,000 people to the streets and shops. Bob was shocked one day to see someone he knew among the many cruise ship tourists, Keith and Bonnie Morris. Bob and Keith coached football in Warden and Bob had coached Keith in track in Grandvieew in 1964. They were equally surprised to see him.
More later...depending on phone service.

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Crossing

2005-05-11T19:49:00.000-07:00

After getting our expensive cat back Saturday afternoon, we watched him carefully and determined that his plumbing was working quite well. At 0:dark30 on Sunday morning we were the second boat away from the dock, and headed out around Malcolm Island and on across Queen Charlotte Strait. This was a new stretch of water for us, but we were pleasantly surprised by the strong current that pushed us at an average of 8 knots all the way to Miles Inlet. In our 6.5 knot boat burning expensive diesel, that kind of an assist is always welcome. The water was smooth all the way with only slight ocean swells rocking us gently as we approached Miles Inlet. It is only 10 miles south of Cape Caution, so we thought we'd spend the night there and go around the Cape in the early morning. After getting anchored up, getting down the dinghy and transporting the dog to shore, we listened to the weather. We spend a lot of time listening to the forecasts and current sea conditions. When we heard tha!
t the wind was calm and the seas smooth at Egg Island, just above the Cape, we looked at each other and decided to pick up and go for it. It meant another 4.5 hours added to an already long day, but getting around the Cape would be worth it. By 4:30 in the afternoon we were rafted alongside DX in one of the prettiest anchorages in BC, Fury Cove. When he left the next morning we dropped our anchor and spent another day of rest there. We spent part of the day exploring the nearby islands by kayak.
On up Fitz Hugh Sound and into Codville Lagoon where we trapped 115 prawns overnight. We also had to put up with a growly anchor as the chain drug across the rocky bottom.
Today it was on to Shearwater where we were pleasantly surprised by all the improvements including a new store, post office and laundromat. We were unpleasantly surprised by the amount charged for the stay. We stayed in Port McNeill for almost 3 nights for the price of 1 night here.
The weather has changed, we couldn't expect to have that great weather forever. It's cloudy and cooler and winds are predicted. Our little heater is keeping us nice and warm. We're glad to have it.
Weather permitting, we plan to get on up the way in the morning.

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Departure

2005-05-07T12:56:00.000-07:00

We get the cat back this afternoon, and if all goes well with him (interpretation: his plumbing is working) and the weather cooperates we will be leaving Port McNeill in the morning. SE winds are predicted, so we may not get too far, but we will be up the coast a little farther.
More later....

Port McNeill

2005-05-05T13:17:00.000-07:00

We had to cross to the Vancouver Island side of Queen Charlotte Strait because our cat, Dock, developed a health problem. We brought him to the vet here on Tuesday and he has been in the hospital in Port Hardy since then. We will be able to pick him up on Saturday. This has been an unscheduled and expensive stop.
The weather has been nice...sunny today, but windy. Hopefully things will be calm when we cross to the mainland side to head upcoast around Cape Caution.

Shawl Bay

2005-05-02T14:47:00.000-07:00

Came to Shawl Bay for a visit with Loren, Shawn, Rob and Auntie Jo and to do laundry. Just us and some shrimp boats at the dock. Mac always enjoys visiting their dog, Shilo, too. We are watching weather reports to see if we can sneak around Cape Caution before long. Actually, our sneak is more like a crawl. Will take us a couple of harbor hops and 6 hours or so to make the last jump. This is one of our two open ocean crossings, and it's always stressful for me at least. Won't be able to post again until we make the crossing and get up the way.
Bob has set our prawn traps here and after a couple of pulls has harvested 75 mostly BIG prawns. Ummmm tasty!

Lagoon Cove

2005-04-30T21:31:00.000-07:00

After Squirrel Cove there are three rapids that we must transit near slack water. With these rapids often traveling faster than our boat speed and developing whirlpools and overfalls, it is prudent to figure out the best time to be there. Another concern is the "highway" traffic; tugs and tows going about their business. It took about 3 hours for us to arrive at the Yuculta Rapids (pronounced you-claw-tahs) only having to adjust our speed slightly on the way. Had it timed perfectly to get through Gillard and Dent at just the right stage of the current.
Our next stop was at Oleo's in Frederick Arm. This is a "quaint", rustic little floating restaurant where you can have a wonderful, tasty meal for two and stay at the dock overnight for $44 Canadian. We have stopped several times and have always enjoyed our visit with Ruth and Katrina. This time Leo was away, but we still had a great meal and visit.
Two more rapids of the lesser kind, Greene Point and Whirlpool were no problem. We stayed in Forward Harbor, Douglas Bay last night all by ourselves.
Today we tackled the notorious Johnstone Strait with a very unusual prediciton of light winds. We had our first rain, but enjoyed calm seas. Bob spotted our first bear of the trip as we went through Chatham Channel, a very intimidating looking narrow channel. After going through many times, it isn't at all intimidating - at least if you don't meet a tug with a load of logs.
Arrived at Lagoon Cove with Bill's friendly greeting on the radio. He remembers everyone's names, so you always feel especially welcomed. This is a fun stop where we meet and greet friends old and new. There is always a happy hour or potluck scheduled, and this time Jeanne invited us up to the house out of the cold.

Squirrel Cove

2005-04-28T09:38:00.000-07:00

We crossed the Strait of Georgia Tuesday in beautiful, calm weather. One of our best crossings. The only problem was that Whiskey Golf was open, so we had to transit around the torpedo practice area. Added a little to our trip, but with such calm conditions it wasn't bad.
We anchored in Ballet Bay with one other boat. A beautiful peaceful spot. The weather has been very warm, but the forecast has been for a cold front to move from Alberta into BC with strong to gail force winds. We waited to leave yesterday till 11:00, a very late start for us. After talking to some friends out on Malaspina Strait, we decided to give it a try. No Problem Nice calm water all the way.
Stopped here in Squirrel Cove for the night and plan to go through the rapids today at 2:00. Still very warm and nice...
More later

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First Leg

2005-04-25T13:20:00.000-07:00

Our first leg of our cruise is done. Well, it's more like a little toe... We are in Nanaimo, BC and planning to cross the Strait of Georgia, our first of the big crossing events. We hope it is a non-event.
Friday night we anchored in Prevost Harbor on Stuart Island, WA. From there we went to Bedwell Harbor, BC to check in to Canadian customs. NOT... They don't open till May 1st. The customs agent on the phone told us to report in to Van Isle, so we dutifully backtracked and checked in there. It was just a phone call, so it seems that they could have done that from Bedwell. I guess we should feel lucky that crossing the border by boat is pretty easy. The US is making it much more difficult within the next year or so.
After that little trip, we headed for Montague Harbor where we tied to a buoy and then went walking in the park to find our first Canadian Geocache. We left Yuma lettuce seeds; probably an illegally imported item.
To get to Nanaimo it is necessary to pass through Dodd Narrows where the current can really rip. In our slow boat we need to figure to go through near slack water. We figured it would take us about 5 hours, but we figured wrong and got there too early. We kept slowing down as we got closer and finaly just drifted; waiting for the current to slow down a little. Made it through fine then.
On to anchorage at Newcastle Island. A nice 2 mile walk on the island brought us to another Geocache.
Visited Ernie on DX in the late afternon, and he offered to take us up to his son's house in the morning so we could get on the Internet to log our caches and check email.
After doing that we dinghied back to the boat and then to town. We took Jr. Smiley Face, the Travel Bug that we found in Anacortes, with us and dropped him off in the Newcastle View Cache. One of his objectives was to travel to other countries, so now he has traveled to one.
More later...

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Cutting Loose

2005-04-22T06:50:00.000-07:00

Looks like today is the day to start our cruise, someone told us that leaving on a Friday is bad luck, but we are going anyway. We finally have all our provisioning done (except those things that we will realize that we forgot when we get away from the dock), our diesel heater is in, our forwarded mail has arrived, our autopilot has returned from repair in CA, the engine is all set to go, the bottom has been cleaned and zincs replaced, the pets have all had their shots, the motorhome and car are stored... I think we're ready.
I will update when I have access to a pay phone or the Internet, which won't be too often. Check back to see how we are doing and what adventures we have had along the way.
Yesterday, we did some Geocaching in Washington Park in the Anacortes area. It was a beautiful day and the views out over Rosario Strait were spectacular. To top the day off, we found our first Travel Bug, Jr Smiley Face. He will start out with us on the cruise. We plan to drop him off in a cache near Nanaimo, BC, but he may end up traveling all the way to Alaska with us.

Heat today, Maybe

2005-04-16T06:13:00.000-07:00

Maybe today is the day to get our diesel heater installed; just in time for the weather to warm up, scheduled for next week. Anyway, it will be nice to have as we head north. That should happen next week, too.

Bob found that an elbow on the exhaust system showed signs leaking. Our mechanic has taken it off to his shop to check it out and replace it if necessary. More $$$$. The diver is expected today to change zincs and clean the bottom of the boat. $$$ A new voltage regulator is due to be installed on the cruising generator. $$$. The automatic pilot has had a new compass installed and should arrive soon. $$$ My 6 months prescription of Lipitor is due here next week. $$$

Are we having fun yet?

Worked

2005-04-15T19:30:00.000-07:00

Now another try from Hotmail via Outlook.

Using Blogger Support Suggestion

2005-04-15T19:29:00.000-07:00

Let's see if this works.

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2005-04-14T13:03:00.000-07:00

I’m so tired of getting the following failure message:
“This is the Postfix program at host blogger.com.
I'm sorry to have to inform you that your message could not bebe delivered to one or more recipients.”

This is what I sent:
Waiting for the next storm to move through. Looks like there is good weatherafter this one passes. Heater installers will be here tomorrow and finish onSaturday... We'll see.

I listed Geocaching as an interest on my profile and found 40 other fellowGeocachers with Blogs. Also found a list of the Blogs on the Geocaching Forum.Lots of interest in this sport, adventure, game...whatever it is.

Testing from Hotmail via Outlook

2005-04-13T13:49:00.000-07:00

Just a test... 1, 2, 3

Failed email post

2005-04-13T12:26:00.000-07:00

Might as well post this from the Blogger site, as it failed through email. Only got 1 of 4 through yesterday...
Still chilly here, but the sun is shining so that makes a big difference in themood of the day. We seem to be getting closer to a warm, cozy boat. That's goodbecause we are getting closer to cutting the lines and heading out. Ourinstaller is busy looking for the best buy he can find on stainless steel touse as a heater surround. He is also fabricating a thimble to go through deckas protection for the heat generated in the flue. Still lots to do, but theprocess is underway.Yesterday we took the folks from sv Willow along on a Geocaching hunt. Wefinally found the Anacortes Artistic History cache after several attempts overseveral days. Some confusion over one clue and the math necessary to solve thelat long of the final cache. We also found Ferry Godmother - Annie's Corsets.Our friends were glad we introduced them to the sport and plan to do someGeocaching in Seattle while they are there for the next couple of weeks.

Heater installers

2005-04-12T09:33:00.000-07:00

We currently have diesel heater installers onboard. They think they can get it done this week. That's good news!

Another try

2005-04-11T08:45:00.000-07:00

From Hotmail through Outlook.

Winter Weather

2005-04-11T08:13:00.000-07:00

The winter weather that Washington wished for in the middle of winter has finally arrived. (How's that for alliteration?) Cold, windy, snow in the mountains, rough water; glad we are still tied to the dock. Today we are waiting for an expert to check our VacuFlush for air leaks and take a look at our diesel heater installation. With this weather, it will be nice to have a warm, cozy boat.

BTW: The leg is much better, thank-you.

Another BTW: Just when I get confident that emailing posts is going to work with some regularity; it doesn't. This is posted online.

It's Painful

2005-04-10T07:54:00.000-07:00

While out Geocaching yesterday (If you don't know what that is, check it out at geocaching.com )I slipped on a muddy trail, my foot went one way and my leg another and I heard an ominous POP. After getting it checked out at the Emergency Room, I found that I had no break. Just extreme pain later in the day. After taking my 4 Ibuprofin that the doctor recommended and sleeping with the warm electric blanket, I feel much better this morning; can actually put weight on it. Rain is on the way; so due to rain and pain there will be no geocaching today.

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Good Morning!

2005-04-09T07:02:00.000-07:00

It looks like a beautiful day in paradise. Won't rain again until tomorrow. Looks like a good day to do some Geocaching in the area and go to the local quilt show. Oh that's right, Bob says that we need to finish unpacking the motorhome while it's not raining.

The Big Test

2005-04-08T22:28:00.000-07:00

Posted from Pocketmail Composer via cell phone.

Nothing posted today

2005-04-08T22:13:00.000-07:00

Guess the gurus are having problems figuring out this email posting. Well, maybe they have it now. I've been frustrated for post after post, then all of a sudden one gets through; just enough to make me think it will really work everytime now.

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Better posting

2005-04-07T20:57:00.000-07:00

So far today postings have been more consistant. Maybe they are getting the problems fixed.

At Last

2005-04-07T19:32:00.000-07:00

Got an email posting from my Pocketmail device. Hooray! Now trying Pocketmail
online.

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Emailing posts

2005-04-07T13:19:00.000-07:00

Still trying to get email through. Here is an answer from Blogger Support...hasn't worked yet.

Hi there,

We had to turn off the Mail-to-Blogger feature recently, due to database
issues. This should now be working again, though there will sometimes be
considerable delays in posts reaching your blog. We apologize for the
inconvenience and we are working on making this service more reliable.
Thanks for your patience.

Sincerely,
Blogger Support

Another from Outlook

2005-04-06T19:18:00.000-07:00

We found our cat; actually, he found his way back to the boat. The boat next to us had started up, and he must have thought we were leaving the dock without him. He came sheepishly slinking home, and has been alternately purring and sleeping ever since. He seems to be as happy to be home as we are to have him back.

Still having problems with emailing posts

2005-04-06T10:04:00.000-07:00

One of our cats, Dock, decided to jump ship. His boat brother, Dinghy, would never even contemplate getting off the boat, but Dock is the braver of the two. I'm sure he is out exploring somewhere. We just hope that he is not on a boat that is pulling out of the marina with him onboard. We are also hopeful that someone hasn't opened the door to his pitiful meow. Between looking for the cat, I'm still trying to get posts online.

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No weather worries; Yet

2005-03-29T15:24:00.000-08:00

We are glad to be on this side of the mountains, as the passes are getting snow again. Good for the drought; bad for travel.

2005-03-29T10:45:00.000-08:00

Our motorhome looking Christmasy

Back on the boat

2005-03-29T09:14:00.000-08:00

We're finally back on the boat after spending the winter in Emmett, ID in our motorhome. We are busily moving back aboard and preparing for our cruise to SE Alaska. Our plan is to leave the dock here in Anacortes next month and return October 1. Depending on sea conditions and weather, it should take about 3 weeks to get to Ketchikan. We will send updates along the way, once we get going.

Mac Sleeping

2004-10-06T05:57:00.001-07:00

Mac Sleeping
Originally uploaded by Last Class.

Bob and Mac take time to relax in the salon.

Dock Sleeping

2004-10-06T05:57:00.000-07:00

Dock Sleeping
Originally uploaded by Last Class.

Dock also enjoys the warmth of the sun in the front window.

Dinghy in sunbathing

2004-10-06T05:56:00.000-07:00

Dinghy in sunbathing
Originally uploaded by Last Class.

Our pets enjoy their summer on the boat. Here's Dinghy sunbathing on a lawn chair on the top deck.

Blake Island Dock

2004-10-06T05:41:00.000-07:00

Blake Island Dock
Originally uploaded by Last Class.

As marine hosts at Blake Island State Park, we received moorage and power. For this priviledge, we worked very hard organizing the dock space. However, we enjoyed our two weeks there and encourage everyone to visit this magical place.

Returning to Anacortes

2004-10-03T11:42:00.000-07:00

After a great cruising summer, we have returned to our moorage in Anacortes. We left our slip on May 1 and headed into Canada for a haul-out. After getting the zincs changed, bottom painted, hull waxed, and various other necessary tasks, we crossed back into Washington waters. We spent several days in one of our favorite anchorages, Reid Harbor on Stuart Island. Then we returned to Anacortes for a scheduled marine survey for insurance purposes.

After our trip to Alaska last year, we (translated: Judy) decided that we needed a more relaxed cruising summer in 2004. We headed south to visit some spots that were new to us and some old favorites: Silverdale, Poulsbo, Blake Island, Gig Harbor and others. We were able to moor in Tacoma for Bob's mom's 85th birthday party. Our son, Greg, and his wife, Shannon, and two of our grandkids were able to join us on the boat for a few days. We had a great time visiting with family.

From June 22-July 6 we were volunteer marine hosts at Blake Island State Park. We worked very hard at keeping the dock space organized, assisting boaters with docking, and selling state park marine passes. An interesting, fun experience.

After we left Blake Island on July 6th, we anchored in Oak Harbor. Winds kicked up to 30 mph and our usually reliable Bruce anchor drug (turned loose of the bottom). As Bob went to pull the anchor in, Judy was to start the engine. There was no response at the starter switch, so this left our boat drifting quickly toward the breakwater in front of Oak Harbor Marina. Bob dashed to the engine room and found a loose wire on the starter. I started up after his command to "Try it now." We got reanchored and then spent the rest of the afternoon and night on anchorwatch in winds up to 50 mph.

to be continued...

2004-10-01T16:11:00.000-07:00

Bob and Judy with Our Last Class

Just Another Chore

2004-09-30T18:05:00.000-07:00

Today Bob unloaded the anchor chain out of the chain locker in the bow of the boat. It needs to go to Seattle to be galvanized or we need to purchase new chain due to the condition (rust) of the current chain.

Moving

2004-09-30T15:22:00.000-07:00

We are busily moving from the boat to the motorhome. I will post a journal of our summer boat cruising as well as our winter land cruising at a later date.

Our Last Class

More Beautiful Bryce

And Then There's Bryce

Uneventful Mother's Day Travel

S*W*A*G Breakfast

Wild Burro Romantic Saga

Judy's Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Birthday

Good Bye Sunset

Sara on Watch

Spring in the Desert

A Plain 'ol Plane

Sara's Therapy

Car Companions

Beauty in the Desert

Close to "Home"

Ketchikan

Half-way

Continuing On

Newsletter from trip to Alaska

Back to the Boat

Whale BubbleNet feeding

More about our cruise in Alaskan waters

Back in the USA

Freezer client

Traveling with friends again

Chichakof and Baranof

Gen Set problems

Icy Strait to Cross Sound

Icy Strait

Cruising

More cruising notes

Still catching up

May 31 to June 3

Meyers Chuck

On to Alaska (cont)

Crossing

Departure

Port McNeill

Shawl Bay

Lagoon Cove

Squirrel Cove

First Leg

Cutting Loose

Heat today, Maybe

Worked

Using Blogger Support Suggestion

Testing from Hotmail via Outlook

Failed email post

Heater installers

Another try

Winter Weather

It's Painful

Good Morning!

The Big Test

Nothing posted today

Better posting

At Last

Emailing posts

Another from Outlook

Still having problems with emailing posts

No weather worries; Yet

Back on the boat

Mac Sleeping

Dock Sleeping

Dinghy in sunbathing

Blake Island Dock

Returning to Anacortes

Just Another Chore

Moving

SWA*G Breakfast