Video – Page 2 – Caro Babbo

Commercial grade gear

‘‘Until something breaks’’ is the watch phrase of all sailors.

Homer, AK, 9-Sep-2020 – We’ve been reading, watching, and talking about equipment failures. A typical ocean crossing is 15 to 35 days. On every boat, things break during a crossing. It’s something sailors have come to expect and prepare for. I’ve also come to realize we, as sailors, expect this very expensive equipment to fail after a very short duty cycle.

In small harbors, where we hang around with commercial fishing boats, I try to envision a commercial vessel living with the meantime between failure (MTBF) measured in days of service. The bits and pieces of their boats are up to the task and not generally pretty: Stainless steel in some places, aluminum in others, and galvanized steel wherever that makes the most sense. We rarely see full-chain anchor rodes.

Lady K nearly sinks, and a Saturday morning reflection

Port Townsend, WA, 5-JAN-2019 – It’s ten after seven on this Saturday Morning. It’s dark and won’t be light for another while. I’m trying to think where have we spent that last few winters such that I am surprised it is dark.

I remember winter sailing from Lake Union the first year we had Caro Babbo. We left the dock at 6.30; it was very dark.

This morning I have a bit of panic: I don’t know what to work on. For a moment, I had a ‘‘I’m retired’’ panic. What do I do with my time? I’m not head down in a house to be sold, I’m not literally head down in a boat bilge.

Work has translated into physically doing something. And I don’t have anything physically to do.

The great refuge is email and the web. An email from Darrel Walters suggests I watch a video of a Canadian pleasure boat sinking in the Bahamas. Their nightmare lasts ninety minutes and all is well at the end, but it makes me look at Caro Babbo in the light of their calamity.

Two Sailing Videos

Lake Union, Seattle, WA, 7-OCT-2018 – These are two short sailing videos shot when we were heading north in British Columbia this past May. They demonstrate most of the sailing we did this year: to windward.

The first video is taken in Johnstone Strait. The night before the video, we anchored in Billy Goat Bay with two aluminum French boats. They had sailed north, with a third boat, from Polynesia to the Kenai Peninsula and were now working their way southward. The idea to do the same would take root in us after we spoke with Tom Kelly in Juneau.

Sorry to be out of touch.

Decatur, GA 14-JUL-2018 – Everyone, I’m sorry we’ve been out of touch.

We went a few weeks with no internet, except for the Iridium, which does terrible internet. I did not write posts to be posted when we received internet and still haven’t set up the facility to post by email. I don’t feel like a slug, but apparently have been.

It has been a busy time, divided amongst sailing, motoring, and surprisingly, engaging in social activities with people we’ve met before and people we’ve met for the first time. Continue reading “Sorry to be out of touch.”

Cooking in Meyer’s Chuck

6-AUG-2017, Meyer’s Chuck, AK – I get asked often about what we eat aboard, about what we eat and what we cook when we’re ashore.

We don’t use prepared foods, including bread, and on board we have no refrigeration – though we occasionally buy ice. The ice allows us to have fresh meat and fish until it melts. (It is worth mentioning that even fresh meat and fish will keep for a few days without refrigeration – Remember the Ben Franklin quote about guests and fish, both stink after three days.)

I’m working on a ‘‘simplest’’ bread video for our friend Heath, which I’ll post on YouTube in a day or two. I also outlined a 13-part cooking show, which I abandoned as too much like work. Perhaps I’ll dust it off.

At Jennifer’s urging I’ve started to keep a food journal so that we can go back to things that I’ve cooked that we both liked.

Continue reading “Cooking in Meyer’s Chuck”

We tear out a cleat, anchor in tight quarters and see bears.

5-AUG-2017, Frosty Bay, AK – We ripped the aft starboard cleat out of the boat today, then glued it back it in at a little two-boat dock in Frosty Bay.

Continue reading “We tear out a cleat, anchor in tight quarters and see bears.”

Punchbowl, AK – This year versus Last

It’s difficult not to compare that second time one does something with the first.

Jennifer and I find ourselves doing that often these last couple of days.

We compare our calendar and where we were last year against where we are this year. The comparison is a false one: so much was different.

We feel like we’ve sat at anchor for days this year doing nothing, while last year at this time we‘d sat at anchor waiting for parts, and then sat a t a dock waiting for parts. Jennifer and I spent weeks apart last year as Jennifer flew to Owen’s graduation and I flew to say good bye to my dying friend JoAnn.

Yesterday, we were in Punchbowl, two day’s sail from Ketchikan, though we took three days, stopping in a small cove we knew a few hours south of Ketchikan that contained a mooring buoy. And then staying at a further cove, with a Park Service cabin and buoy. Continue reading “Punchbowl, AK – This year versus Last”

No Lions, No Tigers, but Bears. Oh My! and Wolves.

5-JUN-2017, K’tzim-a-deem Grizzly Bear Sanctuary – It has been a very different trip this year.

I find myself thinking that the lack of things breaking has decreased the excitement of the trip: There is little adversity to overcome.

Jennifer often points out that we’ve been here before. The continual acknowledgement that this is as far north as we have ever been is also missing.

Things are different. Hilary is a much larger burden and we have no guests to look forward to. Continue reading “No Lions, No Tigers, but Bears. Oh My! and Wolves.”

Small Inlet, Johnstone Strait, Hilary, Two Whales Feeding and things that work

17-MAY-2017, Johnstone Strait – Yesterday morning we had two conflicting weather reports. Environment Canada said wind on the nose up Straits of Georgia and in to Johnstone Strait.

Our GRIB files said four knots the entire day.

The Strait outside Campbell river was flat and calm. As we made our decision to leave all 100 feet of Discovery, who was docked across the finger dock from us, powered up.

The night had been a real windstorm with moments of driving rain. When on an anchor, the boat general points into the wind. The portion of the cockpit in the dodger’s wind shadow stays dry. Continue reading “Small Inlet, Johnstone Strait, Hilary, Two Whales Feeding and things that work”

No Denying that We’re Home: Port Townsend

Yesterday, we sailed from Roche Harbor to MacKay Harbor. The day before from Sidney Spit to Roche Harbor. Today from MacKay Harbor to Port Townsend. There is no denying that we’re home: blue Skies, light winds. Continue reading “No Denying that We’re Home: Port Townsend”