The raven calls

Blue Fox Bay, Afognak Island, AK — 18-Jul-2023 — The raven call is deep, dark, and humorous. It is the mad joker. Oftentimes, there are groups of them calling back and forth. Today, in the cherry-fruit of this labyrinth of water we are in, a single Raven calls from the west end over a stand of trees. I can’t see him, just hear him, alone.

We feel like we’re far away from things here. We’re not. Boats pass by outside of our sight, not often but they do. We keep the radio on 24 hours a day to channel 16. Once a day, sometimes less, we hear chatter. Generally, too far away for us to hear all of it, and never both sides of it, just the Coast Guard asking for latitude and longitude and how they will get a vessel to the caller. Rarely, we will hear two vessels passing by calling to each other.

Yesterday, for the first time ever, we downloaded a weather report about the clouds. It has been so dark here that we wanted to learn whether will it stay dark forever? The report is, no, not always, but the light will not lift for an entire day, just whisps of sunlight passing overhead, perhaps with lessened humidity, enough to, perhaps, dry out the boat. Continue reading “The raven calls”

Time is on my side, yes it is…

Big Bay, Shuyak Island, Alaska – July 16th, 2023 – We left Homer five days ago. It has been rainy, dark, except for two days.I’ve been sleeping 12 hours a day after the first two days. Jennifer has encouraged this much sleep, I was resistant the first few days, but gave in. We’ve been making about the same distance as normal, but we’ve only managed to sail about three hours one day. There just has been no wind, except when there is tons of wind from the wrong direction.Jennifer says I’m healing and have to let that happen. It is happening in that I can feel, or did feel changes in the first part of the trip. I presume I’m back because I’m not really feeling those changes anymore, or perhaps it’s because I’ve had one hell of a sinus infection and vertigo which either masks the changes or hides my feeling them.

The boat work in the yard went well. The engine mounts did not seem to need work; it was the screws holding in the cutless bearing that were the problem. I bought a tap and reamed out the holes, and the screws went all the way in. They did not the last time I worked on this.

The boat itself needed normal things. I rebuilt the water maker which works much better now. Continue reading “Time is on my side, yes it is…”