The lost blog !!!
I've only just realised i never published this part of the blog from last year.
Very remiss !!!
25th & 26th Sept 2014
We do a few minor jobs on the boat, washing her down etc etc.
Go for walks and do some shopping.
Later we see a sea lion in the harbour looking for scraps off the boats, he does quite well !!!
We meet a guy called Paul, one of the fishing boat skippers, he gives us some good local information and says he would leave tomorrow to get to Homer. We look at the gribs and think it looks better on Sunday morning........we'll see tomorrow.
Heavy rain on the 26th
27th Sept
Lovely morning this morning after all the rain.
Around lunch time after downloading some more gribs we decide to take Paul's advice and have a go at it. So we release all the lines about 11:30 and head out.
Not too bad for the first hour or so................then it starts...........port beam reach..25 to 35 knots and getting rough.
We carry on and it gets worse, we have a reefed main up on the aft mast, this suddenly blows out, the reefing line has snapped !!!! Blooming heck that's not good.........no second reef on the aft main now, it's impossible to run another line in these seas.
During the evening and over night it gets worse and the seas get bigger.............talk about a "sting in the tail" !!!
The Alaskan Gulf is being a bit of a sod !!!!
28th Sept
Still rough and windy.We had a text from Fred overnight .............Sunday NW winds ...40 knots .......oooooooooooooo joy !!!! We decide to carry on and see how it pans out. There are a few bail out ports on the way, so we'll keep those in mind !!!
It gets rough and windy, however, we never saw any 40 knot winds..........yyyyyahoooo !!!!
Very slow going though.................quite a lot of 3 to 4 knot sections....................just big seas slamming into us on the bows...............not fun !!!
Above Foggy cape and just before we entered the Shelikof Strait proper, Steve decided enough is enough..............
"bear off, we're heading for Kodiak......we'll over winter there".
Best news ever, we were all getting a bit pi##ed off with it.
So off we go.........SE now for about 60 miles.......................good run....wind a bit up & down, but far more comfortable.
29th Sept.
We entered the channel between Kodiak Island and Aiaktalik island, just about 07:30..........the sky just showing the first signs of light. In the pilot book it says, " beware strong currents and tidal rips, rocks, kelp beds and shallows...........BRILLIANT......i'm at the wheel..............we're flying in at about 7 knots....massive sea behind us and around 25 knots of wind.........................
GORDON BENNETT !!!!! here we go..........into the channel, passed Russian Harbour.............blimey...........winds dropped, seas have calmed down.............blooming easy peasy this (mind you we had timed it just right with the tides, they were on the ebb and flowing out at 1.5kn).
We flew through....9.2 knots at times............tide carried us of course.....brilliant we're out on the east coast of Kodiak Island.......wind good, sea calmish, brilliant sunshine...........all is good !!!
It's fairly barren up the east coast of Kodiak, however, there are some cool looking fjords on route. We may well come and have a look around these next year when we get back. Kodiak should be in our sights on my watch from 20:00 to 22:00. Then that's it the end of the voyage for this year folks.....................LOL !!!!!
We entered Kodiak harbour at 23:00......ok a touch late. We moored up and gratefully got into bed....after a few beers to celebrate.......of course !!!
30th Sept
Busy day today, taking down sails and generally clearing the decks ready to winterise the boat. MacDonalds for coffee.....only wifi we could find....honest Gemma !!!
I've only just realised i never published this part of the blog from last year.
Very remiss !!!
25th & 26th Sept 2014
We do a few minor jobs on the boat, washing her down etc etc.
Go for walks and do some shopping.
Later we see a sea lion in the harbour looking for scraps off the boats, he does quite well !!!
We meet a guy called Paul, one of the fishing boat skippers, he gives us some good local information and says he would leave tomorrow to get to Homer. We look at the gribs and think it looks better on Sunday morning........we'll see tomorrow.
Heavy rain on the 26th
27th Sept
Lovely morning this morning after all the rain.
Around lunch time after downloading some more gribs we decide to take Paul's advice and have a go at it. So we release all the lines about 11:30 and head out.
Not too bad for the first hour or so................then it starts...........port beam reach..25 to 35 knots and getting rough.
We carry on and it gets worse, we have a reefed main up on the aft mast, this suddenly blows out, the reefing line has snapped !!!! Blooming heck that's not good.........no second reef on the aft main now, it's impossible to run another line in these seas.
During the evening and over night it gets worse and the seas get bigger.............talk about a "sting in the tail" !!!
The Alaskan Gulf is being a bit of a sod !!!!
28th Sept
Still rough and windy.We had a text from Fred overnight .............Sunday NW winds ...40 knots .......oooooooooooooo joy !!!! We decide to carry on and see how it pans out. There are a few bail out ports on the way, so we'll keep those in mind !!!
It gets rough and windy, however, we never saw any 40 knot winds..........yyyyyahoooo !!!!
Very slow going though.................quite a lot of 3 to 4 knot sections....................just big seas slamming into us on the bows...............not fun !!!
Above Foggy cape and just before we entered the Shelikof Strait proper, Steve decided enough is enough..............
"bear off, we're heading for Kodiak......we'll over winter there".
Best news ever, we were all getting a bit pi##ed off with it.
So off we go.........SE now for about 60 miles.......................good run....wind a bit up & down, but far more comfortable.
29th Sept.
We entered the channel between Kodiak Island and Aiaktalik island, just about 07:30..........the sky just showing the first signs of light. In the pilot book it says, " beware strong currents and tidal rips, rocks, kelp beds and shallows...........BRILLIANT......i'm at the wheel..............we're flying in at about 7 knots....massive sea behind us and around 25 knots of wind.........................
GORDON BENNETT !!!!! here we go..........into the channel, passed Russian Harbour.............blimey...........winds dropped, seas have calmed down.............blooming easy peasy this (mind you we had timed it just right with the tides, they were on the ebb and flowing out at 1.5kn).
We flew through....9.2 knots at times............tide carried us of course.....brilliant we're out on the east coast of Kodiak Island.......wind good, sea calmish, brilliant sunshine...........all is good !!!
It's fairly barren up the east coast of Kodiak, however, there are some cool looking fjords on route. We may well come and have a look around these next year when we get back. Kodiak should be in our sights on my watch from 20:00 to 22:00. Then that's it the end of the voyage for this year folks.....................LOL !!!!!
We entered Kodiak harbour at 23:00......ok a touch late. We moored up and gratefully got into bed....after a few beers to celebrate.......of course !!!
30th Sept
Busy day today, taking down sails and generally clearing the decks ready to winterise the boat. MacDonalds for coffee.....only wifi we could find....honest Gemma !!!
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