Kodiak to Kotoi bay

19/6/15
Chris arrives at the boat 07:00 and we pile into his Focus and make for the diner. Joe is already there, but no sign of Peter................he eventually arrives about 07:30..........loads of coffee, hash browns and omelette later............i'm stuffed !!!

Chris drops us back at the boat.....cheerios all round, Chris says any problems during our time in the USA, get in touch and he''ll try his best to help...............real good bloke !!!
Get ourselves sorted, lines dropped, a few fishermen wish us well and we're off, 11:45am.
I try to call the Fuel dock, no response, so we just meander up past the fish cannery and pull in. Steve runs alongside a bit too fast and bursts one of the big black fenders off the port side...........no major problem, we can fix it later.
We take on about 500 US gallons of diesel (20galls in jerry cans / jugs).
Peter has promised to put a plane up to take some photos of Novara under full sail about 13:30 to 14:00..........just in good time, we are taking on fuel at 12:30.

Under the bridge and out into the bay to the North of Kodiak, we tack back and forth in light airs awaiting the float plane to arrive. A few pass us close and we're not sure if it's Peter or not.
Then a wheeled plane comes swooping in about 14:00..........it's them, nearly taking the masts off !!!
They do a couple of fly pasts and they are gone.......hope they got some good pickies !!!!

We decide to head for Kotoi bay for the night.........we see whales everywhere........a big Humpback ??? swims within 50 feet of us..................then flicks his tail ........amazing !!!

Into Kotoi bay............there are 2 boats fishing with nets, we call them on Ch. 16......
......."can we get past without disturbing you" ??
......"no problem is the reply, just go to the north of our nets, we'll take them in a bit"
..................what stars !!
We pass them with no problem and carry on to the head of the bay..............anchor down.....i have supper on..................FRESH, FRESH salmon....mmmmmmmmmmmm with courgettes and baked potato.
Soon the fishermen are at the boat in their skiff...............3 huge salmon for us..................wwwwwwwwwwwwooooooooooooooooooooowwww
1 sockeye and 2 dog salmon...............i can hardly see the difference until i fillet them.
The sockeye is far more pinky and subtle...................the dog, very red indeed.................beautiful fish though.
The guys come aboard for a few sherbets, they are from Kodiak and know Peter.........we have a great craiche.
Wynn (skipper, is about 25 i would say), Mike the deck hand (ex Afghan veteran) and Dieter (?) the engineer.........really ace guys, they stay for an hour or two.
During this time we see a couple of otters and next minute a Kodiak bear in the trees next to a clearing behind the beach. Unfortunaely only there for a minute or so and nobody had chance to get a photo.....darn it.


A humpback breaks surface and we see the fluke..........good shot terje

From left to right.........Steve, Mike, Dieter? (in yellow), me kneeling, Wynn.

A couple of shots taken by Peter from the aircraft, as they passed by us coming out of Kodiak

Around kodiak

30th May.........Peter comes around to the boat, we have a place for you both on the 13:00 flight to south of the island, if you're interested............."does the Pope wear a funny hat "?? too right we're interested..........wow, just great..........mountains all covered in snow. We deliver the US post to South of the island and then pick up a fisherman on the way back, Paul Dungan from Homer........good craiche, came round to the boat later.
I'll not bore you with all the boat issues...................lets just say, i was busy sorting.....STUFF !!
Until..................
5/6/15
Fisherman gives us 2 crab, boil for 15 mins in saltwater & then wash in cold fresh.......get as much meat out as possible. Gorgeous !!!!!!
Kabola photo cell arrives, connect........boiler fixed......the unburnt fuel encompassed the dock in smoke.............whoops scotties
Stak paks sorted
Blew up Peter's battery charger last night..........DOH !!!!
More work on the boat

14/6/15
Steve arrived in from France around 18:00.....made him a Salmon and rice..............fresh from one of the fishermen ..................just superb.

18/6/15
Getting everything ready for the off tomorrow.
We all meet up with Chris Johnson, Peter, Ben, David & Joe in "The Brewery".........then onto the Powerhouse Sushi restaurant, where Gill and the rest of Chris's family meet us + Joe's wife and daughter.
Good time had by all, Chris sneaked off and paid the bill for us all.......................what a dude.
Steve not too happy though, he likes to pay.......we all agree to meet for breakfast in the morning at King's Diner.........Chris will pick us up.




Terje and i doing some specialist tasting at the B&B bar

 A local pickup

A display by the Kodiak coastguard just off the pier at town dock

 Dungeness crab for lunch then ??

One of the "skiffs" used by the local fishing boats.....................retail $200,000

The boiler is fixed.................some of the passing fisherman were'nt too sure, they thought the boat was on fire

A few shots from our flight down the island to deliver the US mail with Ben.

Ben & i back at base

 Part of the City dock pier 2, some fish and mussels on the piles

Moored up at City dock, waiting for the crane

Steve aloft, re running the halyards to the foremast

Crane in position, fog clearing from behind

A diver cleaning the undersides before we leave Kodiak

Woody, our salmon supplier

Bit short of horsepower here i reckon

Novara - take 2- Kodiak to Mexico

Novara take 2 - Kodiak - 20 /5/15

20/5/15
Arrived back into Kodiak today after a long day in the air. Got up at 06:00, got ready and taxi turned up at 08:30 to take me to Oxenholme station. Picked up my train tickets and awaited the 09:12 to Manchester Airport........flight with Icelandair at 13;25.
All went well to the airport, got a trolley, for the 2 big bags and my small rucsac.
Meandered along to Terminal 1, dropped the bags and went through security, for a change no hassle form the security guys................little did i know it was all waiting for me across the pond.
Flight was delayed until 14:40, however hostess was sure i'd make my first stop in Rekjavik ok.
In fact we did, walked into the terminal and straight into the queue for the Anchorage flight.
Eventually i'm at the desk with my passport & boarding pass..................."wow".......have you been through security ?............."no ............i just arrived from Manchester".
 "Well you have been picked by the US customs computer for a random check"................yeah right............i get escorted by a very pleasant but extremely large Icelander to the US customs office. It's amazing how many flights there are through Iceland to the US.
The escort tells me every flight gets around 5 to 10 random checks from US customs..............trust it to be me !!!!! AGAIN
In we go, rucsac down for checking, stand on this bench..............what ???........yep stand on the bench so we can frisk you..............Gordon Bennett how amateur that is !!!
All's well, so i get escorted back to my flight.....................i'm now at the back of the queue............last on.
All's cool.....i'm on................with three seats to boot.....yyyahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhoooooooo.
At least i get some kip on the way to Anchorage.
US. Customs at Anchorage................here we go again.......go into that room please Mr. Morgan............gawd, what now.
Another grilling, what are you doing, where are you going, can you support yourself.................on and on it goes.
Anyway, the customs guy seems happy after about 30 minutes of grilling..............he's obviously getting all the right answers.
Welcome to the USA....have a nice trip......cool , thanks. He gives a visa until November 15th.
That's fine i'll be out on the 15th July, so no problems there.
Next......bags check.............no problems, i thought.
Think again dude, Customs guy stops me AGAIN..........."have any items of food in your bags?".........ermmmmm, no says i, well as far asi think i have'nt.
"It appears you have some apples in your black bag sir, can you open it please?"
Yeah, no problem, says i......................apples, what !!! Don't think so. Then he pulls out my foil wrapped bags (round one's) of tea bags..............."aha" he says..........."what's this"...tea i reply.
"Gee, Brits and your tea, yeah, it's tea !!"
I know it is says i.
"We thought they were apples"
"All good off you go"....................another storm in a tea cup averted !!!!!  LOL........get it !!!???

Now i meet Joe Bedford, his website is
do1adventures
............., he's cycling up to Fairbanks and the Arctic Circle.......then down to Patagonia and the Antarctic circle..........good dude..........i'll keep a track of him, we might meet up again along the way. He reckons it may take him 2 years, so we may well meet up again......cool.
Off to South Terminal to get my flight with Ravn to Kodiak, bit of a wait.........hey ho.
Good flight to Kodiak, very foggy though.
In about 22:30.............taxi !!!!
In boat at 23:00.......phew....knackered !!!! Terje welcomes me aboard Novara.
.................................................................
loads of jobs on the boat, including, boiler, water pump .AGAIN !!! etc etc etc.
We then move the boat over to Town Harbour..................quite pleased with myself here..........never moored Novara up before..................went smooth as !!!
Noice.
.
.
.
30th May.........Peter comes around to the boat, we have a place for you on the 13:00 flight to the south of the island, if you're interested............."does the Pope wear a funny hat "?? too right we're interested..........wow, just great..........mountains all covered in snow. We deliver post to South of the island and then pick up a fisherman on the way back, Paul Dungan from Homer........good craiche, came round to the boat later.

5/6/15
Fisherman gives us 2 crab, boil for 15 mins in saltwater & then wash in cold fresh.......get as much meat out as possible. Gorgeous !!!!!!
Kabola photo cell arrives, connect........boiler fixed......the unburnt fuel encompassed the dock in smoke.............whoops scotties
Stak paks sorted
Blew up Peter's battery charger last night..........DOH !!!!

14/6/15
Steve arrived in from France around 18:00.....made him a Salmon and rice..............fresh from one of the fishermen ..................just superb

 Some fishermen fixing their nets on the Town dock

Elephant seals basking on a pontoon in Dog Bay

I steer ua around from Dog Bay to Town Dock

A local Kodiak fire engine..................it's a clean machine.....

The WW2 gun battery at Abercrombie Point, about 3 miles outside Kodiak

Moss growing on the trees near Abercrombie

The Lost Blog - end of the NW Passage trip

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 !!!

British Virgin Islands (BVI's)

21/2/15
Arrived Road Town, Tortola about 15:30......................moored up at Village Cay Marina.
Had a quick celebration with Champagne all round.....................then it started........beer, wine.....etc etc................all very messy !!!

22/2/15
Very messy this morning.................GAWD, what a hangover !!!!!
Took loads of stick from rest of the crew + skipper...............

23/2/15
Work on boat, later in the evening Any and i went for a walk around Road Town......we met a dude called Marvin, he was asking for money so he can have his feet amputated......................YEAH right !!!
We eventually met Kevin in the Pussers Bar, we had a couple of "Pain killers" (Rum based cocktail)............Andy and i had 2 each and decided enough was enough and departed for the boat. Skipper, however, stayed on talking to some random guys and reckoned there were going to start an oldies rock band...................mmmmmmmmmmmmm...............rum talking we reckon.............we never saw that night ............but next morning................

24/2/15
Ooooooo......hang on hers Kevin..........or is it Death warmed up !!!!! Gwad and i thought i looked bad the other night.............what a state he was in.....................10 Pain killers dont do you a load of good !!!!!! World be warned !!!!!
In the afternoon we all jumped into the car for a road trip around Tortola............we got to Smugglers Bay and had a fantastic swim..............lovely jubbly !!!
We eventually drove further long the northen coast to Long Bay or the next one, not too sure where stops and the next starts !!!!
Into a local baech bar we all trundled.......Andy & i had Stella's , as we were'nt driving, We all ordered pizza, apparently there was a bit of a wait as the woman was making them on her on..............fair enough, no major rush......................however, an hour or so later only mine had a rrived, we waited a bit longer, then said boll## to it...........we eventually got all the drinks for free including the beers................Kevin on water...........aaaaaaaaaaaa !!!!!!!!!!!!!


25/2/15
Took Andy to the airport today..................big sad to see him go...............always have a good laugh with him, not the same without him.
Return the car to the hire company...........Kevin accidently left his bag in the reception there.............DOH...........he collects next morning.
Anyway, we get everything ready on the boat to leave in the morning.


26/2/15
Left Road Town harbour about 11:45, all went well until we were about to leave the marina when suddenly a gust of wind took my / Bryn's hat off my head and threw it into the dock....................aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa...........................luckily a guy and his wife were passing in their rib....................he swiftly went back for it and brought it back to the boat. I collected it from the sugar scoop / transom step.
Brilliant cheers mate.
Lovely sail through the BVI islands with Genoa up.................flying along at 7 to 8 knots.
Fishing line deployed.........we awaited our first fish.
Arrived Puerto del Rey 22:00 local time...................what an event/effort that was, getting onto the mooring.....the marina people were hopeless, they did eventually come down to help, we just had no idea where the finger we were supposed to be on was in relation to the entrance.........gawd, then it started to rain a heavy shower...............Kevin did a brilliant job getting us safely into what i will say was a tight squeeze..............only 30cms on one side !!!!!...............



Village Cay marina in Road Town

An anchorage on the west side of the island

Yours truly on Smugglers Bay beach, prior to the swim

getting in .............

view down the beach...............gawd......can't do with these crowds ....

yours truly .....after swim

Andy & Caro attacking me.................

house on the beach road

sunset on Long bay

leaving BVI's ..........

some passing traffic...........

about to leave the islands

a few properties on the last island

bye bye BVI's

hello AVI's

 ....and hello Puerto Rico........Marina Del Rey...........morning after the epic mooring up the night before.

Funchal, Madeira to Tortola, British Virgins Islands.................the Trans At

5/2/15
Up at 06:30, doing a few finishing touches and move the boat down the dock to the fuel berth. We top up the port tank ready fro the trip......that's another 400 litres.
We exit the harbour wall at 10:00.................surprisingly we have a decent wind and set off on the port tack on a broad reach at about 7 to 8 knots..........excellent stuff.
The wind comes and goes through the day, so the engine (better known on board as the "donkey") gets a fair bit of use.
We pass a few ships during the night, one going to Columbia.
Our course is set and we are heading for the mouth of the Amazon river.........true...........there is a large depression to our Southwest, so we are heading southeast to avoid it. This only puts an extra few hundred miles on the trip and should get us into the Trade winds quicker.............they are unusually far south this year......just our luck !!!!

6/2/15
Having the craiche with Kevin during a session of Meatloaf on the ipod, he tells us this will be his 15 TransAt.................blimey not bad, this is our first........all of us..............Andy , Carolyn and me.

7/2/15
Plying on we go, weather is still fairly cold with strong winds at times and lots of squally showers.
Generally, the sun is out in the morning for a short while then it clouds over in the afternoon.
A very serious game of "Ispy" was undertaken by myself, Andy and Kevin...........it was a tough match...............with the the likes of:
Sea, sun, sail, shackle...........but i eventually won with Stay sail..........it was recorded in the ships log !!!
My watch's are 06:00 to 08:00 ; 14:00 to 16:00 and 22:00 to 24:00...............i passed my watch onto Carolyn at 24:00 that night

8/2/15
Then at 01:00 i heard an enormous crash........the visability had been bad when i handed over to Carolyn, you just could'nt make out the horizon in front. We had the radar, which normally picks up rain showers.
However, we had'nt seen what was coming.....we sailed straight into the middle of a huge "Storm cell"............Carolyn reflects............
"it suddenly went very calm, less than 10 knots of wind...........then heavy rain........the wind then increased to 30 knots, we had some main sail up so i decided to reduce that......in the time i got to the wheel it was gusting 50, then 60 then 70 and actually hit 90 knots".......
Andy in the saloon heard her shout for assistance, he went up and due to the downpour of rain could'nt see her at the binnacle...........less than 4 metres away !!!!!
Very, very, luckily the intense rain had flattened the sea so we were'nt knocked down...........AMAZING !!! The squall of 90 knots lasted for about 1 minute and caused havoc.....later in the morning we found another "Dan bouy" had been reduced to pieces on the rail !!!!!!!!!
Thank goodness it eased later and we had a good sail in 35 knots winds for a good part of the remainder of the day.

9/2/15
Ha ha ha ........Jim lad............Happy Birthday to me................and what a way to spend your 60th birthday..............just brilliant, though, i'm missing family and friends.
Kevin very kindly allows me to skype Gemma & Bryn on the Satphone wifi......blooming expensive, so i was only on a quick chat.
We had a beautiful, wind, sun and calm seas......just superb.....how many people celebrate their 60th on a $4 million super yacht in the middle of the Atlantic...............AMAZING !!!
Andy & i decided in Madeira it was going to be a Pirate theme for the day.......i bought a cutlass, eye patch, pirate earring and put on my white shirt , leather waistcoat, tartan trousers, wellies and buff neck warmer..........good stuff, i think Kevin enjoyed it too.
We had steak pie and chicken pie for lunch and eagerly awaited Kevin's award winning Cottage pie for supper, complete with a bottle of Cava we bought in Funchal.
Kevin informed me he never drank at sea apart from when he crossed Trafalgar ..................in honour of Admiral Nelson........but, as it was my 60th, he had a drink with us too........................what an priviledge...........i'm up there with Nelson himself !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! :-)

10/2/15
Plodding on overnight, we spent half the time avoiding storm cells..............engine on all night.
Took some photos of the cells and how they form into the hurricanes later in the season.......ooooooooooooo..........and a rainbow..............we'll see how that comes out.
We did pick up some wind in the afternoon today.........lovely sail and the sun came out again as well.................
Crossed a 6000m depth today.....................blimey........pretty deep !!!
I'm doing Chicken masala curry for supper.....mmmmmmmmmmmmm

 11/2/15
Wind heading us all night (25 to 35 knots)and most of the day today, very little sailing, but, alot of motoring.
Winds are forecats to be like this ubtil Friday...........DOH........horrid...........being rolled about, just can't steady the boat in these conditions.
Donk (engine) has been on for most of the day.

12/2/15
Beautiful morning this morning, lovely clear skies, the wind has eased and the sea state is nearly flat...........just brilliant.
It gets better as the day goes on, so, Kevin says if you want a swim in the mid Atlantic..............now's the time..............into our swimmers....Andy, Carolyn and i take the plunge................it's fantastic, perfect temperature................we have a swim around for about 10 to 15 minutes...................depth 6000m !!!!!!
22 04.3'  N...............   36 46.8'   W
We are very aware there maybe sharks about , so Kevin stands on deck with a fog horn (for a warning).................just in case !!!!!!!!!
All's well though..................really another one off the bucket list

13/2/15
Wind picks up and veers to the East.....................at long last a decent wind we can sail. The sails are set up as "Goose wing"..........for non sailors one sail is set out to the port of the boat the other to the starboard........................we start slowly but soon pick up to around 6 or 7 knots.
Overnight is interesting .............a few rain squalls pass over, we are all ready to trim the sails, however, they carry on over with no great problem.

14/2/15
Stronger winds this morning, mean we are averaging 8 to 9 knots................yyyehhhaaaaaaaaaaa....eating up the miles...............only 1200 to go..............tomorrow should see us break the 1000 nm marker.
Whale broached about 100 m to the starboard of the boat this afternoon..........we reckon he/she was just having a look at us......... it soon peeled off to the North...................last seem about 2 miles away.
Red Thai curry tonight.........and blooming good it was too.....though i say it myself

15/2/15
We have now not seen another boat or aircraft since the Canaries.............is there anybody out there ???
So, a sweep............who will guess when we see ournext boat..............
Phil........... 16/2/15.......between 06:00 & 12:00
Carolyn...... 17/2/15.........12:00 to 18:00
Kevin...........17/2/15.........18:00 to 24:00
Andy............18/2/15.........00:00 to 06:00
We'll give a prize to the winner
Still on Goose winged sails...............East to South East winds..............anything up to 35 knots.......especially when we get a squall passing over.
Stood out in the rain today..........it was great...lovely and warm............i dried out in about 10 minutes.
Some excellent shooting stars tonight.

16/2/15
Well my time slot came and went ...................no ships...........nowt !!!!
Not even an aircraft.

17/2/15 to 19/2/15
Same as....same as...............eat , sleep, watch.........sail.
Winds are very fickle, vary from South East to East and the seas are very disturbed especially in the squalls, which are quite regular at nightime...........a good soaking has been had by all. However, Kevin does seem to get more than his fair share !!!!!!!!!!! :-)
The one redeeming feature is it's lovely and warm.........even the rain and you soon dry out.....................cooler than a cool thing from Coolsville Arizona !!!!!!!!
500 Nm to go comes and goes, then 400...then 300............we are down to the last 200Nm.
i play a few tricks on Kevin as the days meander along.......invariably with my gnashing skeleton as the main theme.................he pops up all over the place...........oooooooooooo Kevin does think it's funny .........;-)
20/2/15
Got Kevin good styley this morning................i managed to get behind him (without being seen) on deck during his watch this morning.................gnashing skeleton and mouth organ were with me...................