Shape in the Land

Shilikof Strait, 40 nm west of Big Alinchak Bay, AK, 10-Aug-2020 — Jennifer sees things in the geology that I cannot. Generally, she sees how the land was formed, its history and future. The land around us is generally volcanic, shaped by erosion and glaciers, often by earthquakes and continental drift.

Some the land is a puzzle: how did these two type of earth end up next to each other or intermixed?

We’re in a part of the world where currents have never been studied, where coves and inlets have never been charted. There are places further west that few people, beyond those on fishing boats and the dozen or so cruising boats, will ever see.

Today, heading NW in good Caro Babbo sailing weather, we saw a giant glacier miles back from the water.

The land we see is changing. There are no trees yet. Ola and Michal wrote excitedly yesterday that there are trees(!) where they are. The land here is rounding. The razor peaks and ridges have disappeared. Jennifer says this land looks like Cornwall in the UK.

Jennifer sees old people, bent over carrying bags over their shoulders covered in the greenery rather than the rounded, worn peaks that I see.

Geographic Harbor, AK, 13-AUG-2020 — Big Alinchik Bay turned out to be windier than expected, but with very good holding where Jennifer and I dropped anchor. Thomas and Anja, arriving well after dark, had a different experience the night before.

The move over to Geographic Harbor was seven hours of motoring in dead calm into a glorious bay owned by the National Park Service. The bay is large, multiple miles across and completely protected from any waves and apparently most winds.

We have had two days of bright clear sunshine.

At first glance, the mountains appear to be partially covered in snow. It is puzzling because they only a few thousand feet tall and the ”snow” is not at the summit. The snow is volcanic ash from a 1912 eruption of Mount Katmai. The volcanoes here are still active with continuous steam vents not many miles from here.

Jennifer went ashore collecting more ballast for Caro Babbo yesterday. The ash covering the shore line was terrifically exciting. Jennifer assigns lives to the rocks, explaining that many of the rocks she collected are in their third lives. I’ll let her explain the details to you when you next speak or correspond.

Two Park Service rangers stopped by yesterday morning to say hello and tell us about the bears.

There are about 2800 bears in the park, which is 4 million acres, about the size of New Jersey. I love the parks up here. The size is always expressed in lower 48 states. Denali is always said to be the size of Massachusetts.

Here at a creek delta, the bears come to feed. They are not troubled by visitors. The recommendations are to watch from about fifty yards and if the bears come toward you, stay put.

Jennifer had a sow and three cubs walk within ten feet (3m) of her.

Here is where is gets interesting.

The sows with cubs want to stay away from the boars, who will at certain times eat the cubs and always steal their fish.

The boars are afraid of people and will stay away.

The sows have learned that the boars are afraid of people and stay very close to people as protection from the boars.

A couple we met, Kevin and Winona, said the sows will come very close to people to nurse their cubs.

We are starting to near the end of the trip. We have a couple of straits to cross, which requires planning. We should be in Kodiak City next weekend and Homer around the 9th of September.

Large parts of me (John) don’t want to go back. It feels like returning to school after the summer vacation.

We’re planning what we do between the time we arrive in Homer and when we arrive in Port Townsend. We’ve thought of a trip to Denali and possibly, if the Canadians will let us through, driving from Homer to Port Townsend.

I would enjoy the trip and Jennifer would be enthralled.

All ideas are encouraged.

A few tech notes: The Iridium Go has stopped acting up. Apparently, this is not uncommon. A factory reset, or even three in succession may be in order as might reloading the firmware if it starts failing again.

The Vesper AIS is still intermittently acting up, but we have decided to muddle through with it now that we are entering more coastal waters.

To make things interesting our inverter, which we rarely use for more than a conveniently placed voltage meter has started exhibiting the same behavior the previous unit that was replaced under warranty did. (Disconnect the very large 12V cable, then hold down the on/off button to discharge the capacitor and all will be well… for a while.)

We now have some time to reflect on who we have become and where we are, as well as what junior members of the blue water sailors club we are.

When we arrived in Hilo, we said to ourselves, ”We are in Hilo. We must have sailed here.”

Here, we realize that we sail in the Pacific Ocean routinely. As Long Island Sound sailors and Puget Sound sailors, oceans were formidable places.

We sailed in the Pacific as we sailed along the west coast of Vancouver Island, but we never lost sight of the immenseness and menacing power of the ocean.

Now we never, ever lose sight, but dealing with its moods and seasons is just part of sailing. We meet people who commercially fish routinely and have learned their respect but also their acceptance of the water.

Last year, the boat Scandies Rose went down with their full crew. Last week Jennifer and I sailed over the wreck site. The highest point of the vessel is 40 feet below the surface.

We were clearly in sight of land.

Death is here on the Pacific. We remember clearly when Scandies Rose went down. We were texting with Greg James just before he died.

We would see Scandies Rose in Seattle, where she lived off-season.

Jennifer cried as we sailed over the resting place of the wreck.

We are prudent sailors.

We are also sailors with little experience. The two sailboats boats we have shared anchorages with, Robusta and Crystal, have sailed tens of thousands of bluewater miles. Both have sailed around the tip of South America. Crystal has polar bear claw marks on her hull.

In 2021, we’ll explore Prince William Sound and decide what we will do next on the water. Across this winter, we’ll try to spend the majority of our time working on the house and property and other projects in Port Townsend… and having house guests. Lots of house guests.

Sent from Iridium Mail & Web.