Nome - Unimak Strait - Sand Point

22nd Sept.
Interesting night last night, we have'nt seen any vessels much on this trip, apart from a tanker going into Nome when we left, but last night we had a fleet of fishing boats from Kodiak all over the place.......we did'nt really clear them until 08:00 this morning.
Beautiful day today...................sunshine, with light to no wind..........so motoring again.
We did discuss leaving the boat in Dutch Harbour yesterday, however, when Steve mentioned it to Doug he recommended we stick to the original plan and head for Homer, a far better port for shelter and  facilities. Dutch harbour was scrapped.
Saw a couple of whales today, just too far away to ascertain type...............DOH......later one came within 50 m of the boat and crossed in front of us........still could'nt tell what it was..............he / she never broke surface much.

23rd Sept
Another beautiful day breaks today, and a very interesting one. I'm woken by Steve shouting "Orca's"............it's 11:00........so, out i run in my under crackers and fleece..wooooow......amazing.
They are blowing and coming out of the water about 300m away from us......brilliant.
Later we start to enter the Unimak Pass, a strait between Unimak Island and Ugamak & Akutan islands, the volcanoes then appear on the island.
As we pass to the south of Scotch Cape, a smoking volcano appears.......it's Shishaldin volcano !!!!!!!!
Wow, that's impressive..........hope she does'nt blow.
We carry on to Sanak Island, which we reach around midnight

Orca's in the Unimak

Beautiful day for a sail

Arty farty shot

and another

ooooo and another

First sight of Unimak Island

 Into the strait proper

Steve looking a tad reflective........possibly thinking of home

Akutan & Ugamak Islands to our south west

Scotch Point

We could'nt figure out where the smoke was coming from at first

then it became a bit clearer..........Shishaldin was smokin !!!!

24th Sept
Fred contacts us by text to say there is some bad weather further on and maybe best to shelter for a day or so. Looking at he chart there is a good marina in Sand Point on Popof Island, so we head there.
On the way we see humpback whales, they appear to be followed by flocks of sea birds, we can't figure it out at fist. Then we track over where one of the whales had just "blown", there appeared to be a milky substance in lumps all over the area, it must be a residue from the whale, we wonder if that's what the bird are eating.
We run into the strait between Popof and Unga islands.............a few fishing boats are about. They all seem to heading the same place as us.
Into the marina at Sand island, we moor up just in front of a large fishing boat called "Destination".......weird name !!!
Lots of fishing boats in here, we get tied up and go for a walk..............nice little spot. There's a large canning factory.
We pop into the local bar for a few sherbets, interesting !!! The local drunk is in residence, trying to trap off with a couple of local ladies.
It transpires he is a skipper off one of the fishing boats. He has just returned from 2 days fishing with 45,000 lbs of Pollock.................no wonder he's drunk !!!!!
Everyone is very friendly i have to say........always a warm welcome wherever you go. Even people in cars passing you on the road wave and say hi.

Local fishing boat

Novara tied up alongside

A Sea Lion comes by Novara ............we wonder if he caught the salmon himself, or is it bits thrown over by the fishermen....

Nome....sweet Nome

18th Sept

After a good kip we woke fairly early , weighed anchor and motored into Nome harbour.
Interesting place with quite a number of floating pontoons that we later found out are gold prospectors............they have "airlifts" (it's a system of blowing compressed air down one tube inside another and the bigger tube brings up debris from the sea floor.) It turns out there ar 11 submerged beaches off Nome, all covered in gold dust and nuggets. Showered and smelling sweet..........well sweeter than we have for a few days !!!
Into the metropolis we venture, coffee and wifi are the main item on the agenda.
We soon find it at the Airport Pizza........a cafe / restaurant. The owner Bill, a cool guy, he even volunteered to take us on a road trip around Nome and it's surrounding interesting locations. This was really good of him, but we soon discovered we had to leave tomorrow, big winds coming in later next week around the Aleutians.............a hurricane in fact.......ooooooooooooohhhhhhhhhhhhh joy.......just what we need.........NOT !!!!
Hopefully, we should reach Homer before it hits !!!!!!! HOPEFULLY !!!!!
Arctic Tern arrive later in the afternoon and we had a good few sherbets to celebrate the transiting of the NW passage.............phew ...........too many sherbets !!!!
Tel and i found the post office, bought a few stamps and cards...............the first we have seen in the last 3500 miles !!!!

19th Sept

Mike Johnson from "Gitane" (they overwintered in Cambridge Bay last year and came through this year), came on board for a look around.
Gordon Bennett, this guy has done some stuff.
He was a US Paratrooper / Ranger. Then he went into sailing square riggers and worked his way up to Bosun on the square rigger "Churchill". He has sailed all the 5 capes in the southern ocean, rounded Cape Horn on numerous occasions and is a member of the coveted "Cape Horn Association" ....................incredible bloke and really easy to get on with........................coool dude.

Steve has arranged for diesel at 15:00, Les has also sorted some for Arctic Tern. Nic, Nicky and Randall are departing Arctic Tern here, so farewells were the order of the day. Nic & Nicky reckon they will be in Homer, when we arrive. They are going on a road trip for a week or so.
We raft up at the Fuel dock and wait. We took on 150 US gallons, that should do to Homer.
 The weather forecast is rough to start with strong winds, but improving and dying down over the next 12 hours. We decide to go for it............Homer here we come...........
We leave Nome around 16:30 and yes it's rough !!!
It's the shallow water in the Bering Sea that makes it so rough...................anywhere else a 25 to 35 knot wind would be a bit rough, but here..............it's really bad. Very choppy confused seas.
It does eventually drop off and we end up motoring & sailing through the 20th and 21st..........so nothing off any great interest to note there.
We spend our days doing sail changes, reading, watching movies.......sleeping and eating off course.

Of course !!!

The finish line for the Iditarod race from Anchorage

Sun in the wrong spot..........DOH !!!

Statue to the local militia from the second world war

This plague is a memorial to the local ethnic guard that fought the Japanese at the Battle of Attu. This was the only battle during WW2 fought on US soil.

The town square in Nome

A panorama of the harbour ............ and some of the gold dredging boats

Top of the harbour and "Boot Hill" in the background

Arctic Tern arrives in Nome........it's great to see them.......time for a few beers !!!!!

Chukchi Sea

15th Sept

Alaska has been on our port side for nearly 4 days now and we have'nt seen any of it yet.................low cloud, rain and fog !!!!!!!! We reckon it's not there at all, a figment of someone's imagination !!! LOL :-)
Winds come and go, but we are making very good time and should be in Nome by late Wednesday / early Thursday morning. Watching a few films idles away some of the spare time, or reading a book. I'm on "The Map that changed the World" at the moment. It's about William Smith, the first man to map the geological strata of the British isles, in fact, any where in the world..................it was the first ........completed on 1st August 1815.
Another tug had appeared as if by magic on the AIS in the evening, some 16 miles to our north. As he's travelling at nearly the same speed as us, he's no problem.

16th Sept

Pass Point Hope and start to cross the big open section of the Chukchi Sea that announces the entrance to the Bering Strait.......................oooeerrrrrrrrrrrrr missus.............once you're going through.......you're going through !!!!
It could be a bit like running the tide back home on the Kent estuary............i've done it in a canoe...................let me tell you, when that tide is taking you towards the railway bridge, you're going through whether you like it or not !!!!! ha ha ha
Hopefully there is'nt a 3 foot drop off the other side of the Bering Strait !!!!!! One thing at least........there's ice waiting for us , like the Bellot Strait.
We did actually catch a fleeting glimpse of the Alaskan mainland this morning, the ..................mountains...............distant, but there. Then it went haywire, the cloud came back down and the rain started again..............
We're on track to cross the Arctic circle today, we reckon 66' 33' N should be about 23:00 this evening. That is officially the NW Passage transitted from East to West.............yyyyeeeehhhhhaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa !!!! ;-)
We lost the tug this morning in a heavy swell, we wonder if he has run a shore for some shelter. However, we have a new vessel to watch, a dredger has appeared on the AIS....looks as though he is heading for Nome too.
No, he's not ......he turned away from us later in the night.......no idea where he's heading
Really rough and windy over night, especially as we came nearer the Bering Strait........just as i said. I missed some of it, but, Steve said sections were really rough and others flat calm...........weird. I've seen someting like that at Strangford Lough in Northern Ireland.........the water is running so fast, it becomes calm.
So, yes, an unpleasant night, rocking and rolling, plus i think we are all getting a bit tired, it's been none stop since Camping Island (we left on 8th Sept)

17th Sept

We are through the Bering Strait............now in the Bering Sea..........errrmmmmm......not much calmer i might add. We still have storm sails up..............around 25 to 30 knots of wind and reasonably big seas...we estimate 3.0m, possibly 3.5m.....plenty of water over the decks.
It slowly eases a bit as night approaches, we eventually had to put the engine on and motor sail the 30 or 40 miles to Nome.
We arrived late in the night, spoke to the harbour master early on, he said can we anchor outside the harbour as they work going on with the lights etc etc.........so safer outside till morning, as we don't know the port.
We anchored in about 4m of water and had a blissful night, hardly any rocking at all, a good anchorage protected by the stone moles to the north west of us.

Not easy taking a photo of the chart plotter when you're rolling about, it's night and everyone else is in bed !!!

First two shots of Alaska

Russia is just the other side of the island

Sailing down the Chukchi

Cape Prince of Wales

Steve rebolting the radar dome after we noticed it had moved in the rough weather