Friday Funny 9-28/18 (WHEN it happens, not IF it happens)

A wet Aristocat, one of my favorite Disney movies.

Our grey, tabby cat Gus, was basically a feral cat when he came to live with us. He'd been staying outdoors, with Bill feeding him food and warm water, and trying to coax him into the heated garage at night. One evening in October, it was -5F, and Bill knew he wouldn't make it at those temperatures, so Gus was picked up, and brought into the house, where he has lived ever since.

"I'm cold"

This is little Gus drinking his warm water in the snow before Bill finally brought him inside.

"I'm getting warmer"

Gus is hiding behind the wood stove, getting warm. 

He had an adjustment period with the other animals, but everyone worked it out in no time. After he had been inside a day or two, we found him buried in the cat toy box having the time of his life, he couldn't believe all of these toys were for him! (Elsie had no interest in them anymore, "what, that old thing?")

This history leads up to how we care for him now. We have always brought our cats in at night, knowing predators, and bad things happen after dark. On Denali Rose, during the day, we leave the companionway cafe doors open a couple of inches, so they can come, and go. Gus, and Elsie like to watch the comings, and goings from the cockpit, or on deck. We give them a serving of wet food, one in the morning, one in the evening, and when they come in for dinner, we close the doors, keeping them in for the night. Sunday evening, Gus had been out racing around the boat, he likes to leap to the top of the dodger, the bimini, careening off, and landing back on the deck. When we are in our slip, he also races around the next door commercial fishing boat. If we wait too late to corral him, his feral tendencies take over, and it's difficult to get him back inside. We're in Wrangell on the dock, dinner was served, but we had waited too late, and we couldn't find him.

After Bill went out searching, and calling, we sat down to eat our dinner, watch a movie, kept Elsie in, and left the door open a crack so Gus could come in, when he returned. About 8:30pm, we heard a pitiful meow, Gus ran down the companionway stairs, and leaped up on the nav table where his evening vittles still sat. He plunged his head in, and didn't look up till they were gone. As he sat there, he dripped water in big puddles, and when we petted him, he was soaking wet. Bill tasted the water, it was salty. 

Soaking wet, hungry cat, sitting in a puddle of water inhaling his food.

We waited for him to finish, and then got warm, wet towels to wash him off, and dry him. What we are assuming, since we didn't hear anything, Gus fell in the water somewhere, managed to get himself back up on the dock, lost his break-away collar somehow, and came home. We've walked the docks looking for any clues as to where he went in, how he got out, or his missing collar, but we didn't find anything. [It had been raining earlier in the evening, so there were no wet paw prints to follow on the dock...]

Gus squirming while he gets his warm rubdown. 

Gus is a happy kitty, waking up the next morning, after snuggling Dad's leg all night.

He is pleased to wear his new blue collar, to replace the one he lost.

Because of the way Gus races around the boat, we have always said that it's a matter of when, not if he falls in. I braided a large bundle of old 3 strand dock lines, and we hang that off of the stern for a climbing ladder in anticipation of him needing to climb out, but it wasn't deployed at the dock.

We don't want to change his quirky personality, but we're hoping he slows down, and becomes a wiser, more careful cat.

As always, we enjoy hearing from you, either here in comments or on our Facebook Denali Rose Sailboat page.

Friday Funny 9-21/18 (Cruising or Uncruising)

Not always the case....

During the last month, we had some small cruise ships share a few of our anchorages. I'm happy to say that their anchoring distance, their crew, and their guests were all respectful of the peace, and quiet in the Alaskan wilderness. Tip of the hat to the Uncruise Adventure company.

These kayakers were skirting the edges of Yes Bay the morning we saw the orcas feeding, and listened to the wolves howling. Everyone sat very still while the whales were surfacing, they didn't try to get too close, and I can only imagine what a great experience that was for them.

Uncruise kayakers

While we were in Walker Bay, we had more than one ship come in, unload kayakers, and paddle boarders, and check out the sights. There's a salmon spawning stream off one end, and the eagles were very abundant, using my binoculars, I counted about 25 in just one area of the trees. We also saw bears here, but not while the kayakers were out.

Uncruise Adventure ship

A well fed bear.

Some of the ships were larger, though still not as big as the huge liners.

Uncruise Adventure ship

We shared this cove with others on the Labor Day weekend, it was a protected cove, and as you can see, the weather was not that great. We had secured the mooring ball before anyone else arrived, and stayed through the predicted heavy winds. At one point we got hit with a 40kt williwaw, we could hear it coming, and then bam, it whacked us, and Denali Rose pulled hard on the mooring. The wind generator loved it, that was my first williwaw smackdown.

Looking through the rainy windows at three boats rafted up, with a fourth close by, and a fishing vessel. 

Our last stop was Menefee Point, and we scored big time. A local commercial fisherman, was anchored nearby, and when he left, he delivered a bag of shrimp to us. We were very grateful, and declared them delicious! 

Took a photo before they were all gone!

Then an Uncruise ship came in for the day, and after the anchoring process, their launch headed over to us. We came out on deck to greet them, and were handed a nice bottle of wine, and a bag of homemade cookies. They apologized for disrupting our quiet cove, and hoped that the gift would make up for it. And how, come disrupt anytime!

The goodies ship.

If I ever had a desire for a larger ship experience, I would definitely look into what this company had to offer.

As always, we enjoy hearing from you, either here in comments or on our Facebook Denali Rose Sailboat page.

Friday Funny on Saturday 9-15/18 (Foggy Thinking)

Okay,  I thought Friday was Thursday, and I procrastinated...... so there it is.

Not this kind of fog.

In the fall, warm, sunny days, bring cool evenings, which then bring foggy mornings. We left Ketchikan, and headed north for a leisurely trip back to Wrangell. 

We saw a thick fog bank in the distance, and we were hoping the sun would burn it off before we got to it.

A line of fog.

The latest extreme tides had contributed to the amount of debris to avoid in the water.

I was glad we went through that tide-line before we got to the fog, imagine trying to dodge that stuff with reduced visibility, even though some of it was picked up by the radar.

Avoid those little red and green bits on the screen.

It was like entering the Twilight Zone.

What was inside the fog, will we hit something, will we ever emerge from it, or wander aimlessly forever...... ?  😮

Heading in

Inside

Leaving it behind us.

Once inside, we found that we still had about 500yards of visibility at the water level, so it was pretty much a non-issue. Clarence Strait, which is known for kicking up the wind, and waves cooperated with us as well. We finished our day with a stop in Meyers Chuck, and since the majority of personal  tourist boaters have headed south, there was room on the public dock to tie up for the evening. 

The day ended with another beautiful sunset.

 As always, we enjoy hearing from you, either here in comments or on our Facebook Denali Rose Sailboat page.

Friday Funny 9-7/18 (Punchbowl)

Not this punchbowl.

We've been in the Misty Fjord Natl Monument for the past couple of weeks. It's a beautiful area, and we found more anchorages we'd like to visit when we have more time. We'll be back again.

One of the stops we enjoyed, Punchbowl Cove, inside of Rudyerd Bay.

South Misty Fjords

We had a couple of sunny days to really enjoy the scenery.

You can see why this cove is named Punchbowl, you're surrounded by high cliffs. We tied up to a US Forest Service buoy, and relaxed, well, except for the extra company.

It's one of the main attractions for cruise ship passengers who are visiting Ketchikan, and they sightsee the area by floatplane, and boat.

Oooh, and ahhhh, coming in low, and close.

The floatplanes start coming in around 8:00a, occur every half hour or so, and quit around 5:00p

Roostertail

There were 3 different high speed tourist boats, and they each came in twice a day. You can imagine the amount of wake these guys would produce going by.

We decided to move on, after all, the rain was coming, it's misty....  get it, Misty Fjords? Anyway, we were running out of coffee creamer, (again), and the next stop with a grocery store is Ketchikan. We'll say "HI" to the cruise ships on our way to the marina.

Goodbye, to the easy to use, mooring buoy.

 As always, we enjoy hearing from you, either here in comments or on our Facebook Denali Rose Sailboat page.