Archive for November, 2012

Everyone has a Johnstone Strait story

Monday, November 12th, 2012

Up the anchor and underway for the Hole In The Wall. Timing is everything and my timing was off by an hour. At least the error was on the right side and only required waiting an additional hour for the slackening water to allow us through. A valuable lesson was learned early. The current tables of on the Inside Passage were not to be ignored. To cruise these latitudes in a small vessel demands an attunement with nature land travel never requires.

Having passed between Quadra and Sanora Islands, AVANTI joined the north flowing current of Johnstone Strait. We set our watches for a nights steaming hoping to ride the outward bound current as far as possible. There is current, then there is wind and when wind and current run strong in opposite directions water goes mad. Rounding Chatham Point we ran right into the teeth of a 40+ wind that stacked the tiderip onto itself in rolling waves with very short steep faces that tossed AVANTI like so much flotsam. From down below came the crashes and bangs of things being flung from what we thought to be very secure stowage for these seemingly protected waters. The sky was darkening early in the shadows of cloud and mountain and all fun had been washed overboard with the first three waves.

After thirty minutes of traveling up and down farther than we had traveled forward, I told Tim to brace himself, we were turning around. I watched for a lull which never came, then put the rudder hard over. We made the turn taking only one sea on the beam and then quickly gave up all our hard won progress. Acceptance is the only appropriate emotion with which to meet the sea.

We met two fishing boats coming north in what could only be interpreted as a race. As they closed in on the turn at Chatham Point , the large took the inside between the light and the rocks, (a mighty skinny channel I must add). Tim and I watched expecting a crash of hull against rock that never came. Local knowledge won the race. There are many captains willing to do things I’d never do.

I use every available source of information when on the water. I listen to weather reports and radio traffic. I watch the radar and scan the horizon. I check the plotter every thirty seconds. I read and reread the Coast Pilots and the cruising guides. Then I take that knowledge and blend it together to come to a course of action tempered with good seamanship. My mantra is this “situational awareness, keep your situational awareness”. Around the corner from Chatham Point Light is Otter Cove. We anchored and listened to the wind howling ashore. The Johnstone strait would be best taken in the light of day.

To Hole In The Wall

Monday, November 5th, 2012

 Waiting

Waiting


The passage of mankind over the water leaves its mark as surely as it does on the land. Trash thoughtlessly discarded, bilges slops, plastics, cigarette butt; it’s all there. The oceans vastness can handle only so much before it pukes it back on the land. But, if one is careful though, and travels slowly in a small vessel, the impact can be so small as to take but a moment to erase the foot print on the water.

By motor sailing, that is running engine at just above an idle, a little extra lift is added to the light airs across the sails, AVANTI makes a scant 4 knots in a motor sail toward Desolation Sound. A beautiful cool night passed uneventfully. The bow cut the water, the stern stitched it closed again. The sound of the tea kettle whistling pulled away the deep sleep. The steady upright keel confirmed there was no wind, but then none was expected. It was morning and time for my watch.

I had given the watch to Tim at midnight with Texada Island to port and a track line on the GPS. Six hours later, I relieved him with Cortes Island to port. It had been a good run even though the currents dragged down the speed over the ground. My watch would see slack water, then a turn to north. The days goal was to reach Hole In The Wall, anchor and wait for the slack water that would allow us through the tight squeeze into northern Vancouver Island waters. I chose this route for its sheer beauty and remoteness. Seymour Narrows had more traffic and less interesting terrain. We would save that passage for another day.

AVANTI’s tender most times is my wonderful and old Easy Rider Beluga kayak. It looks a little odd hanging from the davits a full 5 feet wider than the boat but what function. I believe the kayak to be far superior to the dinghy as a ship’s boat. I’ve been in seas in it that would have swamped an open boat and felt completely safe.

We anchored AVANTI near shore to wait the turn of the tide. Tim went fishing and came back with a lingcod and a rockfish. Supper!

Ready for cleaning

Ready for cleaning

Underway

Friday, November 2nd, 2012

Transit of venus

Transit of venus

Alpha Male escorting us out of his domain

Alpha Male escorting us out of his domain

Into Canada

Into Canada

I found the perfect crew in Tim, the son of an old Coast Guard shipmate. Tim is a Marine Engineer with an immense amount of sea miles under foot having sailed on LNG tankers since graduating from Kings Point. At 27, he has seen more of the world and done more raw adventures than 99.9% of people will in a lifetime. To describe him in a sentence I would say “he is an adventures soul.” So when he off-handedly mentioned wanting to sail to Alaska some day. I simply told him, “I have boats, I have time, and I have the inclination. Lets do it” and we did.

Though far easier to say than do, it still had to be said to be set in motion. First, the idea, then the word, then the action, then the reality. We put dates on calendars, and began preparations. Three months, we worked with only a few breaks for important stuff like a trip to California to watch the Ring of Fire Eclipse of the sun, two weeks of unavoidable commitment to the Naval Reserve in Singapore for Tim and a day photographing the transit of Venus across the face of sun for me. Then we left Port Angeles on the turn of the tide on a beautiful Sunday morning sailing a light northwesterly breeze to Haro Straits

Northbound in Hero Strait an Alfa Male orca from the resident pod residing off Lime Kiln Point surfaced close aboard in AVANTI’s wake and escorted us clear of his territory. Off to port, close in to shore, the females were feeding. We reached Bedwell Harbor BC to clear customs into Canada just before they closed for the evening. The adventure was underway.

Our first anchorage was in Annette Inlet on Prevost Island BC. We came in the dark, drop the hook and settled to wait the turning of the tides. The ebb and flow of tidal currents became an integral part of our lives. What were the predicted currents and how did they reconcile to the reality of observation was always taken into consideration as we planned our next day. Though the laws of the tides are predictable and true, the depths and currents they produce need to be carefully observed for the sea is full of surprise. The art of navigation is perfected in constant situational awareness.

Background on an Adventure

Thursday, November 1st, 2012

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My first voyage up the Inside Passage to Alaska was aboard a Coast Guard Buoy Tender in 1977. We were on a mission, there was no stopping. Still, my imagination was captivated by the coves and channels on the charts. The names were so wonderful and compelling and they tickled my sense of adventure, as we weaved our way past and through them There were places like Point No Point, Juan de Fuca, Seymour Narrows, Hecate Straight, Revillagigedo Island, Wrangle Narrows, and Icy Straits. On the large scale charts were even greater detail of the passage coves and fjords, places like God’s Pocket, Elfin Cove and the Sumdum Glacier. Thus began the years long yearning to sail my own vessel north, a vessel that would fit into those pristine places seldom cut by bowwake. I just wanted to go there.

Years were passed. Oceans were crossed. Boats were bought and sold. Other adventures were had. My Coast Guard career was completed and my Merchant Mariner career began.

I was a tree climber when I was a boy. The trunk was my mast, the branches my yardarms, the imagination my ocean. I was about seven when first envisioning myself captain of a mighty sailing ship off to see the world. Ah,but a dream is a mere fantasy without action. In ’07 I shipped aboard the Brig LADY WASHINGTON as mate and in ’11 I came aback to her as Captain. Never mind I was 65 when it happened and never mind I was 66 when setting sail for the Inside Passage voyage. Age opens opportunity youth seldom can. And so it was I set sail for Glacier Bay in the year 2012

North To Alaska, the great sail of 2012

Thursday, November 1st, 2012

p7152426-resized On July 15, 2012, Captain Tommy and 1st Engineer Tim Roberts departed Port Angeles Washington on their epic voyage to Glacier Bay Alaska. You come to.