Alaska Trip Day 79

8/31/11

Kxngeal Inlet, Grenville Channel, B.C.

Miles Travelled:  45

Today started off pretty rough…the boys woke up early and cranky, and then Odin fell off of the berth today right onto the hard floor.  I had left the enclosure down for just a minute and they were playing on our berth, I went forward briefly and looked back and saw as Odin flipped out over the half high enclosure, did a somersault in the air and landed on his back.  As I was watching it and moving towards him, the most primal scream came out of me.  He looked so tiny as he was flying through the air and onto the sole, I think I will always remember that horrible sight.  Fortunately after cuddles and nursing he was okay and giggling again.  What a horrible, horrible thing.  We've always been extremely careful about closing the enclosure all the way,  but lately we’d gotten a little lax as the boys gained strength and control, but now we’ve gone back to closing it up completely at all times, I just wish we didn’t have to learn the hard way.  Poor Odin!

The day started out calm and foggy and the fog burned off and we had a beautiful sunny day to transit Grenville Channel.  Grenville Channel is supposed to be the super highway of the Inside Passage to Alaska, but we saw only one other boat the whole time we were in it today!  We had a heck of a current pushing us and we made it further than we had originally hoped, which is great, it’s all progress Southward towards home.

Tor made pineapple peanut stew for dinner while I piloted the boat down Grenville in lovely sunny conditions…maybe summer isn’t completely gone.

An unusual tug and tow as we were leaving Prince Rupert.  It appeared to be a floating fishing lodge, complete with 9 sport fishing boats the guides must use for customers.  What a strange sight!

Beautiful sunny day in Grenville Channel

Alaska Trip Day 78

8/30/11

Prince Rupert, BC

Miles Travelled:  45

Our crossing of Dixon Entrance was as glass smooth as it was when we crossed it on the way north in June.  Whew!  No more sea sickness and our early morning departure worked pretty well too.  We were worried that since the boys weren’t used to being on the boat any more that they would wake up when we started the engine and weighed anchor at 5am, and they didn’t!  Of course they did wake up at 6am which is about an hour too early and we had some unhappy campers, but that was soon taken care of with milk and breakfast.

The crossing was uneventful and sunglasses were even required!  We had another day of getting back into the swing of things, and naps could have been better, but all in all it was good.  Until we got the Prince Rupert.

After we checked in with customs (easy, done over the phone with no problems), we radioed to the Prince Rupert Yacht Club to see if they had moorage.  We were told we could have slip 23 and to radio when we got close.  No problem.  We called when we got close but didn't get any response (they use handheld VHF radios which don't have as much range as a radio with an actual antenna and we expected that was the problem...later we discovered that our cockpit radio was on the fritz).  So pulled into the marina and couldn’t see any slip numbers, the guy who had been speaking to us on the radio popped up on the dock we were paralleling and said he had been trying to talk to us on the radio and that we needed to come in to the other dock.  We went back out into the opening outside of the yacht club to get back into the other area of the marina.  We reestablished radio communication and he directed us to come into the “marine,” we told him we were working on it and were in the process of turning in.  Then he asked us if we could back in instead of come bow in...when we were already heading in.  We called back for clarification and couldn’t get him.  The wind was starting to pick up, and boats don’t back up like cars, so we chose to go in bow in and we would readjust later if needed.  We headed into the marina and Tor called for clarification on where the slip would be, if it would be on the right or the left.  The guy said “go into the marine {sic} and you will see me, I’m making this very easy for you” in a snotty tone.  Again, we asked if it would be on the right or left and we got the same response.  This same exchange happened at least 3 more times and by the time we got into the “marine” we could finally see him.  Yare is a full keel sailboat and is about 26,000 pounds.  She is tricky to maneuver in tight quarters, like a marina, and we need to have as much information as possible so that we can make a plan.  The PRYC is a TIGHT marina and not knowing where we were going was difficult, fortunately the slip next to our assigned slip was empty, so Tor could pull in, back up and readjust to get into our slip.  We got there without any damage to people or property, but it was clear that the slip wasn’t big enough…turns out it was a 35’ slip for our 38’ boat which is why at the last minute he wanted us to back in.  Then he pulled our bow line tight enough that he caused our bowsprit to hit the piling (not bad, just HIGHLY irritating), and at the same time he is yelling at us for “making things too complicated.”  By asking if the slip was on the right or left????  He was pissed that we didn’t come in stern first, and when we tried to explain why we didn’t, or why we needed to know if it was on the right or left, or that we would turn around, because we understood we couldn’t be hanging out into the fairway that far…he was uncommunicative and lashed out at us because things went badly.  He said “I’ve been doing this all summer and there hasn’t had a boat that couldn’t handle those instructions yet.”  Gah!!!  I was pissed and Tor, Mr. Calm, was trying to communicate with him while our boat is in the slip at an angle taking up two spots.  He finally stormed off and told us we were on our own and that the boat needed to be turned around or “we could go anchor somewhere else.”  Jerk.

Even though we could have turned around and made the slip work, I was NOT going to give that place any of my money.  I did want to find his boss and tell them about what a jerk their employee was, but in the end I just wanted the hell out of there.

Meanwhile, the boys were down below and calm and happy.  They were kind of fussy when I went on deck to help with docking, and when I closed up their enclosure I gave them a few books and told them I needed to help Papa on deck.  They were interested in the books and through all of that they were absolutely calm and happy.  It was exactly what we needed, and we are just so proud of them.

We ended up pulling into the Rushbrooke marina which is run by the Port of Prince Rupert and found a spot.  It was farther from town and a Laundromat, which is why we went to PRYC in the first place, but as we walked towards town with the boys strapped on us in the carriers, carrying our buckets of laundry we happened upon a bus stop with two people waiting for the bus.  They assured us the bus would be there soon and would take us downtown.  Excellent!  We found the Laundromat and to kill time while it was washing, we did the most Canadian of Canadian things (if TV is to be believed) and got a doughnut and coffee at Tim Horton’s.

We took the bus back to the marina and though it took a different and scenic route on the way home, we eventually made it back to the boat.  After a long day we are all tired and hopefully will sleep well. 

Tomorrow we are getting out of Prince Rupert!

Alaska Trip Day 77

Day 77

8/29/11

Fox Island Cove, Cape Fox, AK

Miles Travelled:  46

In the flurry to get down to the boat yesterday, Tor and I forgot our pillows at Dad and Lynn’s house.  We realized it once we got into town, which is about 13 miles from the house, too far to go back.  Oh darn, that meant we would need a visit from Dad when he came into town for work this morning.  Dad showed up with our pillows, and coffee…what a guy!  We were really glad to have a final visit with Dad before we left Ketchikan.  The boys were glad too, because they got to play with Grandpa for a little while longer too.  Dad figured out that the top step of the companionway ladder made a perfect seat for little boys, and Odin put it to good use and screeched at the big steel wall  behind the boat that was made of the cruise ship we were docked next to…that echo was too cool!  It was so cute to watch, but I wonder what those cruise ship passengers thought we were doing to him.

On our way out of Ketchikan, we stopped at the fuel dock to fill up and were on our way by about 8:30.  We were expecting to fight a contrary current for most of the day, but fortunately we didn’t see much once we got out of Tongass Narrows (where Ketchikan is).

Our original plan was to stop at Foggy Bay for the night, but conditions were so good that we decided to press on to Fox Island Cove.  Unfortunately as we passed Foggy Bay, we started to feel the ocean swell from Dixon Entrance…I started feeling a little funny, then Odin clearly didn’t feel well so I cuddled with him and he laid down, Lars got fussy but wouldn’t cuddle with me, amazingly Tor who always get sea sick didn’t.  I’ve never been seasick, and though I never threw up, I felt really bad.  I now have a whole lot more sympathy for those who do get seasick.  Odin threw up a few times, and that seemed to make him feel just fine, so he just kept playing.  Lars didn't throw up, he was just fussy.

By the time we got to Fox Cove, it was time for dinner, so we anchored quickly and got the boys their dinner really quickly.  Fortunately Dad and Lynn sent some frozen pastisio with us, and I had been with it enough before I started feeling sick to put it in the oven, so it was thawed and warm when we needed dinner.  Whew.  I certainly wasn’t up for cooking.

Once we got the boys to bed we realized that we hadn’t taken the tides into account well enough when we anchored for the night, and that if we waited until low tide at about 7am tomorrow morning, we would likely be aground.  So unfortunately we will be getting up and underway at 5am tomorrow.  Bummer.

After almost a month away from the boat and living on land, it’s amazing how quickly we have gotten back in the swing of things.  From everything to the muscle memory of the contortions you have to put your body through when putting the boys in their beds, to the rhythm of life aboard.  We are likely to experience some of the same adjustment pains we had at the beginning of the cruise as we learn to do this again, but it feels right to be back on board our good little ship.  It also feels good to have made such good progress towards getting across Dixon Entrance, and the weather forecast is still favorable.  There will likely be some grumbling over the next few days as we work all the kinks out again, but it will just be grumbling, we made the right choice for our family to get the boat south instead of leaving it in Ketchikan.  Since we are heading south late in the season, we may very well run into some bad weather, but we will just hole up and wait it out.

Odin finding the cruise ship echo with Grandpa Bill

On the Road Again...

Actually, on the water again.  Tor arrived in Ketchikan yesterday after his work obligations were complete.  Fortunately his arrival seems to have coincided with a good change in the weather and we are hoping for 10-15 kts of wind from the NW for a Dixon Entrance crossing.  We are in the process of packing up our belongings at Dad and Lynn's house and will spend tonight on the boat and leave tomorrow morning for an anchorage that will put us in a good place for making the crossing.  We'll start using the SPOT again tomorrow and those of you who are interested in following our progress south will start seeing the sailboat icon move on our spotwalla page (link on the right sidebar).  We'll update the blog as we get internet access on our trip south.

In the meantime, here are some little boy photos to tide their fans over.

Playing on the deck (yes, Lars is wearing a WSU sweatshirt, for those of you who care...blame Nana Lynn :) )

Unposed mirror image...I guess they are twins

Odin cooking dinner!

Sluggo!

Raccoons

We are sailing with two raccoons.  They are curious, smart, tenacious and have incredible manual dexterity.  Actually, we are sailing with one year old human twins.  Lars and Odin have inspired a lot of creative problem solving in order to keep them out of dangerous situations.  We aren't talking keeping them from the obvious risks inherent to cold water, we are talking about child proofing down below decks in our home.  Off the shelf child proofing solutions designed for houses just won't work on the boat.  I tried to take pictures of everything we've done to child proof the boat and will let them show how we've created a safe environment for our kiddos.

Looking forward on the port side (left) you see Odin's 'crib.'  The table leaves are bungeed together so they can't be moved when little boys are playing underneath the table.  Lars' bed is underneath the booster seats that are set up for the boys to eat, and it just clips up like Odin's.  The booster seats are attached to the ceiling material along the sides of the hull with clips, so when little boys start rocking they don't do a face plant onto the edge of the table.  Thanks to Nana Lynn for designing and sewing these cribs.  They work beautifully and we couldn't have done the trip without them!

Odin's 'crib' with access panel zipped up.  The green carabiner clips around the strap to prevent the zipper from coming down.

The master berth enclosure.  This is where the boys play most of the time.  It was also designed and sewed by Nana Lynn and again, we couldn't have done this trip without it.  It comes down easily when it is time for us to sleep in our bed!

The play area with one side of the enclosure down.

Ahh, green tape to the rescue!  This is inside the master berth, where the raccoons boys play and were getting into all sorts of mischief.  First, the light bulb in the lamp needed to be protected from getting chewed on or broken by errant toys, so we taped a yogurt container over it.  Second, the wiring is all exposed, it doesn't run behind the ceiling materials and little fingers were pulling it, so green tape saved it.  Third, the top slat of the yellow cedar ceiling material on the hull wasn't completely nailed in because there just weren't places to nail it, we never felt the need to pull the slats down even though we knew they were just placed there, unfortunately the boys just couldn't be convinced that they too could leave them alone.  Oh well, green tape saved us.  We went with green tape because eventually we won't need to worry about child proofing and hopefully by using green tape we'll be able to get it off without ruining the finish.

A net across the head (bathroom) door.  We do have a head door, but it is inconvenient to leave it closed all the time, and when it is folded back, it covers a gap in the master berth enclosure that Lars did fall out of at the beginning of the trip.  When the boys were on the sole (floor) at the beginning of the trip, they were very interested in chewing on the head itself, um yuck!, so we needed a way to keep them out of the head.  The net just slips down into a puddle on the sole when it's not needed and it works well.  We installed two brass rings (top and bottom) on either side of the head door and slipped doweling into it, the net slides up and down on the dowels and clips to the brass rings on the top.  Pretty slick and effective. 

Keeping the boys from climbing the companion way ladder was important, and cardboard and bungee cords so far are doing the trick.  We just cover the bottom most step and they aren't able to climb up to the next step.  The ladder is still usable for the adults, though it's not easy to skip that first step, and I dread the time when one of us comes down the companion way and forgets it is there, but we are very careful to warn each other when it goes up and we are very watchful of the other adult when the cardboard is in place.

The house bank switch cover.  Green tape didn't stick well enough, so we busted out the duct tape.  If little fingers flip this, we lose power to the house electrical panel and everything that is hooked up to it, like lights (interior and exterior), the VHF, the radar, the stereo...uh, everything electric on the boat. If the starter battery switch (red knob on right) were to be swtiched off while the engine was running, the worst that would happen is that we couldn't turn the engine off (but it could be done manually), if the engine wasn't running and it was switched on, the buzzer for the engine alarm would come on which would alert us that it was switched on.  It isn't a big deal like the house bank switch, so we didn't do anything about securing it (besides that...what would we do?).

My Raccoons.

Land Based Life

The work induced hiatus from our cruise this summer has been great so far.  I can't believe how time is flying by, we've already been in Ketchikan for a whole week.  The days have been really busy with fun things as well as just trying to maintain our routine on land.  The boys have acclimated to land based life very well, in fact I'm a little worried about hopping back on the boat in a few weeks to continue our trip home with two little boys who are very used to lots of space to roam around in, ah well, we will cross that bridge when we get to it.

Tor is out to sea on his research cruise and so far things are going pretty well it seems.  He was a little sea sick for the first day, but seems to have come out of it now.

We've been having a blast with Nana Lynn and Grandpa Bill.  We've had fun hanging out at the house, playing with Kayla the big black dog, playing on the deck, playing at the playground and playing at the beach.  We took in the sights at the annual blueberry festival and have gone on several long walks...the stroller Grandpa Lee and Grandma Jean shipped up for us has been a lifesaver!

It is really nice to have access to a car and a washer and dryer!  It's also been great to have a bathtub at the ready for post dinner baths when dinner has been particularly messy.  There is definitely something to be said for the conveniences of land based life.  That said, I am excited to get back on the boat when the time comes.  Life seems a little less busy when your world is 32' long with a 10.5" beam (width), though we will miss Nana and Grandpa.

Below are some pictures of all the fun we've been having.

Yum, this newspaper bucket is yummy!

First frozen junk food, a push up

Odin gobbled his up

It's empty!

Yep, the newspaper bucket is cool!

Lars sitting on the couch like a big boy

Fun with "As Seen on TV" gyro bowl

Odin likes the playground!

The only puddle at the playground...the boys used their pants to dry it up.  The children of Ketchikan thank them for their sacrifice.

I conquered the puddle!  I'm a dirty monster!

Lars is not to be outdone in the puddle!

Swinging with Nana

Lars thought this was lots of fun, until it most definitely was not.  I think he was feeling motion sick, poor kiddo!

The newspaper was fun for little boys and the dog.

A creature of the deep

Nope, that's not a cookie!

While Lars was up the beach sorting through rocks, Odin made a beeline for the water.  Kayla enjoyed swimming.

No, that is not a shark

We couldn't keep him out of the water.  Remember this is SE Alaska, not Hawaii.  Brrr....

Soaked kid having a blast

Lars got in the water action too

Asleep on the 7 minute drive home...he slept through lunch for 2 hours in a salt water soaked diaper covered in sand.  He had a GREAT time at the beach!

Odin was trying to tie string like Grandpa.  It was a serious job!

Alaska Trip Day 76

7/31/11

Ketchikan, AK

Miles Travelled:  34

Happy Birthday Uncle Karl!

There were 6 visiting boats on the dock at Meyers Chuck yesterday, and when we got up at 5am to get out into Clarence Strait, we were the last boat on the dock!  We sort of felt like we were late to the party, but conditions were beautiful for our transit.  What a difference from 2 days ago.

We made good time to Ketchikan.  We tried to get moorage in Knudson’s Cove which is close to Dad and Lynn’s house, but that wasn’t going to be a possibility so we headed into downtown Ketchikan.  We tied up at City Dock which requires you to go between two cruise ships, and tie the boat up at the base of them…talk about making your boat seem small.

After the boys napped we packed up and Dad and Lynn came down to pick us up.  Yay!

Tor flies to Seattle on August 4^th for a research cruise for work, and the boys and I will be staying with Dad and Lynn while he’s gone.  Tor flies back to Ketchikan at the end of the month then we will bring the boat back to Seattle after he gets back.

Though we will all miss Tor, we are looking forward to spending time with Dad and Lynn, and I’m really grateful I won’t have to be a single parent on the boat for 3 weeks!

We won’t be using the Spot while we are here, and I won’t be writing daily blog updates, but I do plan on doing some blog posting.  When we head back south, the blog posting I’ve been doing up to this point will continue.