By John – Caro Babbo

The Video Version of 2024

Port Townsend, WA 24-OCT-2024 – I belong to a Zoom group that started as fans of James Everson’s sailboat Zingaro.

I spent a few weeks on James’ boat in Aruba and would do a two-minute video every morning detailing what had happened the night before and the view from the boat.

This year, given it was our last time in Alaska and we were covering ground we’d never cover again, I asked the group if they’d like me to make two-minute videos in Caro Babbo. I was quite surprised when they said yes. I made them for a while and stopped. No one seemed interested. I asked a second time after stopping for a few weeks and everyone said yes again so I restarted. In this playlist are 52 videos made on the trip down. They are in chronological order and you’re welcome to watch. They are raw video: no editing of any kind, though I did stop and start recording in some videos.

Point Hudson: Caro Babbo is home for the winter

Port Townsend, WA, 15-OCT-2024 – We’re home, Jennifer, me, and Caro Babbo. Caro Babbo is floating higher on her waterline and will for the next bunch of months.

Last Port Before Home

Eagle Island, WA, South Puget Sound, 26-SEP-2024 – In my past posts, I’ve tried to keep you up-to-date with where we’ve been as a setup for talking about the people we’ve met. People who I thought I would keep in touch with. People I thought were fascinating and worthwhile – a small subset of the people we’ve met.

Floating Southward

Eagle Island, WA, 20-SEP-2024 – We’ve been floating southward with little urgency and less stress. Jennifer does not want to sail at all, but when there is wind I’ll set sail and we’ll sail for as long as it lasts.

The Last Leg

Port Townsend, 2-SEP-2024 – There was heavy dew on the windows and a grey sky. I opened the companionway door to a whiteout: Cotton Candy.

I could hear women’s voices speaking, ‘‘I keep hitting the front stop and that’s never happened,’’ the voice said. I turned and looked at the water level and could see sixty yards to an eight-person rowing shell sitting, the crew talking amongst themselves. Looking toward town, there was no town, I could just make out the ferry terminal, the large boat nearest me, and the Hawaiian Chieftain at her dock. A sailboat outboard of us had her mast top anchor light lit without a boat below. The two sailboats with no anchor lights were a mystery. The fog horn of the ferry said she was in the bay on her way to the dock. After a few moments, I could see her at a right angle to me.

Midcentury Star

Rebecca Spit, BC, 21-AUG-2024 – We’ve run hell-bent-for-leather to get south and now that we’re here we have two weeks to get a week’s distance. We’ll relax a bit on the pace, and then get there a few days early – we hope. The weather next week looks wonderful.

Ketchikan, 2024

Ketchikan Yacht Club, Ketchikan, AK, 07-AUG-2024 – The world has changed since we’ve last been here. StarLink is the major yachting change and the cities quest for more tourists is the other.

Here in Ketchikan, we’ve started speaking to the boats we’ve seen along the way. Everyone stops in Ketchikan. There are the groups that travel together, either from a yacht club, or a tour led by a manufacturer. These seem to be the normal number moving back and forth.

The power boats are oftentimes aging sailors who sold their sailboats and opted for a power boat. They seem to enjoy them. Other power boats are working people, who in years gone by could never have come here, but now with StarLink and no need to go to the office, are here. During this summer Ketchikan harbor became completely full with no slips available.

So much has changed in five years… has it?

Chapin Bay, AK 29-JUL-2024 – We spent the last two days in Baranof Warm Springs. We’ve been there before. The town is the same, but feels spiffier, better kept and more prosperous. We knew that people generally leave the dock around 11, so we should be there around 11 to 11:30. We spent the previous night about six miles north.

Valdez/Cordova

Cordova,AK, 14-JUL-2024 – We’re still above 60º. We still haven’t officially left Prince William Sound. We’ve had a wonderful week or so in the many places in PWS. There was no wind and we didn’t even put up the mainsail to keep us from rocking: the water was generally like glass.

We motored a few hours each day, after our initial 10-hour day, when we left Valdez, and then anchor, read, sometimes row in our dinghy and do the same thing the next day.

Valdez was a very nice town. Quiet. We spent one night, went out to eat, drank beer. We arrived around noon and left the next afternoon about 2pm. OpenCPN and Navionics disagree on the tidal currents by hours. We found that it doesn’t matter, the water flows south from Port of Valdez all the time. We looked for back eddies, anything to explain it. It just does or did so on the two days we were there.

Granite Bay

Granite Bay, Prince William Sound, 29-Jun-2024 – It’s ten after eight in the evening. The sun is at 35-degrees, and the temperature is in the 70s. I’m wearing a black T-shirt, a pair of Carharts without Long Johns, and no socks. I’m sitting in the cockpit writing, while Jennifer sits across from me navigating.

For the past few years, Jennifer has taken us into places that were horizontally skinny. This year they will be vertically skinny. This means that we need to arrive within a specific time window. Tomorrow is easy, we can leave anytime and still be good leaving Granite Bay; we must arrive within a specific time window. Not too tough.

The next day we must leave within a specific time window and enter the next site also within a time window. I trust Jennifer: she counts on her fingers, but has gotten quite good at it.