Friday Funny 12-24/2021 (Let's Talk Some More About the Weather)

 

Here's Gus's version: 

This is a La Niña year, and we have lots of snow, and colder than normal temperatures. YAY, not. 

The view out of the pilothouse window

Opening the back cockpit curtain, the snow greeted me.

Looking forward through the forward dodger window in the cockpit.

Whoever is singing, "I'm Dreaming of a White Christmas", needs to knock it off.

I cleaned off the handrails, because we have twinkle lights attached, and I wanted to be able to see them.

If you are a friend of ours, with a boat that is over-wintering in Wrangell, here is your boat. 😀

Quiet Chaos

Mucho Gusto

Orca's Mist

Raven's Dance

It seems this year has been all about weather, prior to all of this snow, we had a huge windstorm, that snapped trees, and power poles. We were without power in the marina for about 8 hours, but some folks on the island didn't get theirs back for two days. The city found out that they didn't have back up generators for the water supply filters, and the airport went dark.

Here's a photo of one of the snapped power poles. 

The internet, and cell service went out as well, and you could only use cash/check at the stores. 1960s anyone?

Denali Rose was fine, of course, our heat is diesel, and we could always use our generator to recharge the battery bank, we're used to living off of the grid. 

As the holidays approach, Bill, Gus, and I would like to wish you a Merry Christmas, and a Happy New Year!

PS, please don't sing any song with the words, white Christmas, and please don't ask Mother Nature, "what's next?"

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

Friday Funny 12-10/2021 (Or is it Monday Musings?)

 

Monday is an anniversary, (milestone?)  It marks four years since I fell down the stairs at the Presbyterian church in Wrangell, and broke my left leg in 4 places between the knee, and ankle. 

I will never be the same. This is mainly because I have a titanium rod in place and screws on either end to hold it there. 

But I have some other effects as well. I'm very careful on stairs, and I get nervous when I don't have a railing to hold. I can feel some of the hardware through the skin at my ankle, so I protect that area from being bumped, ouch, and I don't run, hop, skip, jump, because it's too jarring to my leg. 

I'm very grateful to the evacuation service, DAN, EMTs, doctors, nurses, friends, and family that took part in my care. It's because of them that I am whole today, it's been a long haul recovery. I shudder to think about how that fall could have been so much worse, and I try not to contemplate the possibilities. 

I'll wear my commemorative hoodie to mark the day.

If you want to know the details, this is where the adventure begins in a previous blog post about how it all went down. See what I did there? 😁There's a link at the end of each post to lead you to the next episode.

Friday wasn't Funny

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

                         

Friday Funny 11-19/2021 (Wind, and Waves, and Williwaws, Oh My!)

 

What if you're at sea?

When we left Glacier Bay, we transited to Hoonah for a quick grocery shop, topped up the fuel, and water, then spent the night at the transient dock.  There were a few large cruise ships left in SE Alaska, and Hoonah is a prime stop for them.

To give you a perspective, that "little" blue boat in front of the cruise ship is an Alaskan ferry with the Alaska Marine Highway. This is the Le Conte, and it's 235 feet long, 57 feet wide, and it looks like a toy next to the large ship.

Denali Rose in Hoonah

We left Hoonah knowing that a large storm was rolling in that evening, we were trying to make it to either Takatz Bay, or Warm Springs to weather the winds. Gus, and I shared our Bonine, and with the sea state, we were glad that I'd taken the precaution. 

Takatz Bay would mean we would be at anchor, and if we went to Warm Springs, we would be tied to a dock. Our concern was that the dock would be full, and then we would have to either anchor in one of the small bays within the main bay, or go back out into Chatham Straits to back track to Takatz. 

We saw on the AIS*, that the sailing vessel BOB had joined us in Chatham Strait, and we talked to them over the radio. They had guests onboard, so we decided to go into Takatz, and let BOB have any openings on the dock at Warm Springs. We figured that the commercial fishing vessels, and anyone else out in Chatham would be headed for the dock at Warm Springs, and we didn't want to take the chance it would be full. As it turned out, BOB sent us a message from his InReach, and said that there was one more spot open. But by the time we saw their kind message, we had anchored and Bill had done all of the storm preparations/ reinforcements to our anchor, chain, and bridle [with back-up.]

We were in for a wild time. 

We found that even though we were well protected from the wind and waves in Chatham Strait, the wind would build up and spill over the tall hills, and we were constantly broadsided by williwaws* from every direction. The bow of the boat couldn't recover and point into the wind, so we were being heeled over. I sat on the settee, and watched out the window, as the wind put the toerail in the water.  There's a small cell signal in that bay, and I was texting with my friend Robin, who was reminding me of how well equipped we were, and how stout our boat was, and how Bill was  knowledgable, and capable. Bill was his usual calm self, secure with his efforts to help Denali Rose withstand the storm. Gus, and I took our cue from him, and we were calm also, (mostly). 

Since we had a cell signal, Bill was watching [and trending...] the live reports from all Wx reporting resources within 100 miles of our position- paying special attention to the closest; Point Gardner. 

Below is the final report for the records that evening: 

Here's a screen shot from Windy, there were quite a few memes made about the fact that our storm, was so much larger than that puny named one in the Atlantic. 

That's hurricane Sam, compared to Friday in the Gulf of Alaska. 

We found out later that the vessels at the dock in Warm Springs, didn't fare much better, they were hit with the williwaws also. I think this is the largest storm I've been in since we moved onboard Denali Rose.

Terms: 

AIS: (The automatic identification system, or AIS, transmits a ship's position so that other ships are aware of its position.)

Williwaws: a sudden violent gust of cold land air common along mountainous coasts of high latitudes. A type of katabatic wind caused when frigid air drops from a mountaintop to sea level. 

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

Friday Funny 10-12/2021 (Otters, Moose, and Bears, Oh My!)

 Our next anchorage was the no name cove at the head of Tracy Arm. Many boats use this small cove as a jumping off point to the Sawyer Glacier. Here's a vessel we shared it with.

Check out the line of "toys" tied in behind, jet skis, and kayaks for guests. When underway, all the toys are stowed inside a garage in the aft section of the boat.

Note the size of the 50ft boat in the distance, and the float plane that is bringing a new set of guests. Even though this was a large charter vessel, they were very respectful of others, their genset was super quiet, and their guests left the cove to zoom around on the jet skis.

We cruised to Juneau, so I could fly to Anchorage for a week of family, and fun. We stayed at my brother's cabin on Big Lake, (an hour north of Anchorage), and enjoyed popcorn, margaritas, and good company.

An incredible rainbow one evening, it circled all around, and reflected in the water.

A side story. My earliest memory is falling off of a dock at Big Lake when I was two years old, my two older brothers hauled me out of the water. I can still see the weed covered pilings in my memory, and you can imagine how this event has colored my reaction/interactions with bodies of water ever since. Believe it or not, I'm not really a "water person". This is the dock.

I returned back to Denali Rose, and we left Auke Bay headed towards Glacier Bay. The weather started out calm, and then we rounded Mansfield Peninsula on Admiralty Island. 

This is the area where Lynn Canal, Icy Strait, and North Chatham meet. Wind, waves, chop... we were taking waves over the top of the dodger, and bimini, and we were estimating 5-7 foot waves on very short intervals. Gus was very seasick while I held him in the cockpit. Poor kitty.

Bill duct taped the cabinets in the galley closed so they wouldn't bang open, and shut. We took refuge in Swanson Harbor on a state float, and that was the end of the rocking and rolling.

Gus was a much happier kitty on our way to Glacier Bay the next day.

Gus is comfy in Bill's fleece.

At the entrance to Glacier Bay, we were surprised by a major migration of sandhill cranes.

We saw flock after flock of cranes overhead, it was thrilling. If I were to estimate how many birds flew by, I'd say over 500. So cool. 

We love going to Glacier Bay in September/October. Most of the restrictive rules have ended, and almost all of the tourist, and cruise ships are gone. 

Otters are always cute.

We knew there was another storm coming, so we found a good bight at the then of Geikie Inlet, and set the anchor well. This isn't a well used anchorage, but we saw wildlife everyday, and even with the storm, we enjoyed our time. 

The glacier across the bay.

Black bear fishing

FAT brown bear

Getting ready for a nap on the beach

We saw bears everyday, sometimes multiple bears, at a time. 

And moose, we had two bulls come down to the waterline to forage. That's kind of unusual, moose typically eat willow, aspen, leaves, bark, and twigs. I didn't think they would eat kelp. We also had the usual company of porpoise, and otter.

My new favorite Glacier Bay hat. 😀

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