Curiously, on the land ahead, the white tall structure is not a lighthouse but a rocket launch tower. I never knew they existed any place outside of Cape Canaveral Florida. I don’t know what they were designed to launch. I wouldn’t think any sort of military missile because we can see the tower 20 miles away.
We’ve gotten over the ”did it always make that noise?” phase of the journey. Some sounds have changed with maintenance changes I’ve made this year. Other sounds were new last year, the result of the replacement cutlass bearing, straightened propeller shaft and balanced propeller; the improper sounds of seven years of cruising are gone but not forgotten.
Yesterday day was an easy day. We’d anchored the night before in a small harbor on Long Island. The entrance to the inner pool was much shallower than any directions we had received.
We took a slip for a few hours at the St. Paul Marina in Kodiak City and were charged, to our surprise, for a full 24 hours. The answer we’ve discovered is to not call the harbormaster: tie up on the transient dock, shop, and then leave. We get the feeling is this is how it’s done, completely with the harbor master’s knowledge, but to make your presence official the harbormaster must comply with the rules and charge.
After spending some time at McDonald’s for fast Wi-Fi and picking up some heavier gauge wire at the chandlery so that I can install some additional cigarette lighter plugs, we motored across the channel to a larger marina where we met Wade and Sara of Comfort Cruising.
Sara told us she was starved for other cruisers and we talked about cruising things. She gave advice on where to anchor in this area, and I gave her the horrifying news about how poorly an IridiumGO actually works.
She had bought one IridiumGO from an unofficial dealer, figured it couldn’t possibly work this poorly, and then bought an official one from PredictWind, which, of course, worked just as poorly.
Their vessel is a 46-foot Beneteau with 5200 watts of solar panels. Enough to run all of their refrigeration and air conditioning in Hawaii!
We learned that Sara and Wade never go into the inner pool on Long Island, so their directions applied solely to the outer pool. Most sailors don’t venture where Jennifer routinely takes us.
The time together went much too quickly. Jennifer and I made a mad dash back across the channel to the fuel dock before it closed, which had been occupied by the Coast Guard cutter, Mustang, when we came through in the morning.
Caro Babbo’s new wet exhaust system works properly, although the sound of the water rushing through the exhaust hose is a little bit different. However, when I turn off the engine something between a pint and a quart of water finds it way into the bilge. This takes about 15 minutes to a half an hour; this is the problem I was trying to solve.
I need to turn on the engine, turn it off and then stick my head down into the bilge while wearing a headlamp to see if I can figure out where this water is coming from.
We started the trip with about 70 days to cover a little over 2,000 mi, there and back. Jennifer is weighing how hard she wants to push. This would be an average of 30 miles per day. If we were to go offshore and sail directly it’s not very hard, but then we miss everything along the way. Jennifer is considering our options.
At the McDonald’s, I bought airfare for myself for September: Seattle – New York – Atlanta – Seattle. I have a high school reunion I want to get to, friends to see, and further work to do on the Willivee house.
If you are in the New York region, or in Atlanta I would love to see you.
Very unusual for us, we have watched the occasional video in the evening. Most cruisers we know watch dozens of movies during the course of a trip. We watch rarely. We generally read, and I keep saying I’m going to write. I also do maintenance.
I need to do an oil change and install additional 12 volt sockets around the boat.
While I was in Homer I installed an alarm buzzer for the Vesper AIS. In addition to tracking all the vessels with AIS, it has a very good anchor drag feature. The device will notify us through an app, but if the screen is off, or the app is not at the top the alarm does not go off. Basically, it’s useless in that form. However, with the buzzer installed the device is able to sound the alarm whether or not any software is turned on. One must install the sound device and a momentary button to cancel the alarm. It works terrifically well and I am actually sleeping through the night, something I have never done except at a dock.
At anchor I generally wake up once an hour to check our swing. This is life changing.
At the fuel dock, we met Christian, who is Philippine. I mentioned that everyone who worked at McDonald’s was Philippine, Christian commented don’t go to Walmart.
He furthered that everyone at the fishing processing plant is Philippine. He’s been here 12 years, since he is 17, worked his way through the processing plant, and now works at the Petro fuel dock. He is a very valued worker because he does not like to sit in an office and wait for vessels to approach the dock: he does electrical work, welding, painting and everything that’s necessary to maintain the dock.
He was married and had a child at age 17 just before he came alone to join his mother who was already working at the processing plant. He spoke no English when he arrived. He finished high school, now speaks perfect colloquial American English and has brought his wife and now two children here. He views himself as an American success story.
As we motor towards the launch site between an island and Kodiak Island, there is a blue sky overhead and haze all around us. The water undulates like satin cloth.
The color of the top of the undulating waves is a light blue almost white, the reflection of the sky, the sides of the waves are in darker blue and now the tiniest little ripples are visible as the water passes by our boat.
The land, a few days ago, was entirely rocks: hard bare and impressive. Here there are sharp peaks, the taller ones are completely snow covered but lower everything is green. On the land there are grasses close to the water. Parts are evergreen forests with large spaces between the trees: lovely for walking. Other places, which look like they should be moss, are dense shrubbery between shoulder and head high, nearly impossible to make one’s way through.
Tomorrow and Saturday are short little hops, and then Sunday is an overnight. There will be wind and waves Saturday night coming from the southeast. We’ll anchor in a place called Japanese Bay which which is open to the Southeast but has a protuberance of land that forms a well-protected cove. We will anchor in that cove.
We’ve been eating very light on this trip as we both arrived carrying the rewards of living the high life. Living alone like this, we are able to live simply and hopefully return ourselves to the image of ourselves we carry around in our heads.
There has been intermittent and unexpected phone and internet service since arriving in Kodiak. I wonder how long it will last. I prefer to be without. T-Mobile just sent me a text about the benefits of banking with them.
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