Curran's Captain's Log

120 days at Sea and 2,840 nautical miles.

2010-09-15T11:00:00.000-07:00

Very late on a Monday evening, the Alize' is shuffled through the Ballard Locks and into the stagnant water of Seattle's shipping canal.

Back into the grubby hands of Babylon -

The Alaskan voyage is over.

Ryan Miller checks in for the final leg

2010-09-11T16:19:00.000-07:00

Springer is out and Miller is in -

Rolling into the homeland - customs clearance at Friday Harbor - the end is in sight.

Vancouver

2010-09-11T16:06:00.000-07:00

Vancouver - city of blue tinted glass and high density progressive internationals.

Making way into False Creek under the Burrard Bridge.

The 'China Steel Excellence' waits patiently in English Bay for its next assignment.

Springer returns triumphant to his city.

Desolation Sound

2010-09-11T15:50:00.000-07:00

A strong westerly came down Johnstone Strait and into the Northern Desolation Sound Island group.

This made for a fast downwind sail - and then it picked up a bit more and blew out the main sheet tackle.

The blown out traveler and the jury rig main sheet tackle.

Tying up on abandoned pier pilings makes for a bad night sleep.

Broughton Archipelago

2010-09-11T15:32:00.000-07:00

After returning from the hardscrabble northern regions of the Inside Passage - tucking into the Broughton Island Group felt a little soft. The 'Soft'en Archipelago. We knew we had returned to the leisurely class when we woke up at an anchorage and found the blue hulled 'Princess' bobbing next to us.

After a slow day moving south through the Broughton's - Steve needed some alone time.

Steve finally realizes why Steinbeck's 'The log from the Sea of Cortez' is so quotable for biologist's power point presentations.

Sullivan Bay is sort of the Disneyland of BC port towns. On par with Skagway in regards to faux- 'old-timey'.

2010-09-11T15:00:00.000-07:00

another Steve Springer creation -

The Alize' at rest among the Namu ruins.

Bow riding porpoise

Clearing Cape Caution

2010-09-11T14:31:00.000-07:00

Bottleneck Inlet - the most symmetrical anchorage of the entire trip.

Klemtu is a stunning native town just below Finlayson channel. Salmon were jumping, the sun was out and the locals were in rare form.

The Klemtu long house.

The Kitlope Wilderness in Douglas Channel - I heard great things about this stretch of water - but this is as close as we got - the entrance. The Kitlope stone remains unturned.

Miles Inlet remains the nicest way to recover from the exposed crossing of Cape Caution.

Heading south down central British Columbia

2010-09-11T13:59:00.000-07:00

Helmsman Springer sails the turn into Seaforth Channel - a partially exposed section of central British Columbia.

Oarsman Steve Springer shows Lake Namu what's what. We caught and ate some incredibly tiny rainbow trout in this lake.

The 'Chilcoot Princess' crashed into the decaying dock at Namu - and then just stuck around in a state of benign neglect.

Dominic and Karolina - a very nice Polish couple we met sailing the Inside Passage.

Northern British Columbia

2010-09-06T09:39:00.000-07:00

Paul Nicklen, a photographer for National Geographic was on assignment in Douglas Channel to raise awareness on a recent attempt by Enbridge to transport oil tankers across the ecosystem.

Paul is using Pat Freeny's sailboat, 'Nirvana' as his base of operation while searching for the elusive spirit bear, Ursus americanus kermodei, in the isolated islands of the region.

Apparently this guy takes good pictures because there was a 10 person film crew at the Kitimat dock capturing footage of him loading his gear onto 'Nirvana'.

Father and son filleting a good sized halibut and lingcod.

The Alize' rests at the dock of Bishop Bay Hot Springs.

No shortage of rain in the Great Bear Rainforest.

southbound: Kitimat to Vancouver

2010-09-06T09:24:00.000-07:00

Stevan Springer arrived in northern British Columbia in style - with a Cuban pork roast sandwich for the skipper, air delivered in an iced cooler from the kitchen of Paseo in Seattle straight to the desolate aluminum smelting town of Kitimat.

Clarence Strait: Petersburg to Canada

2010-08-17T18:18:00.000-07:00

There is no gender bias on the Alize'.

Every man, woman or child takes their turn hauling anchor.

Brianna brought a level of sailing experience and enthusiasm that was unprecedented by previous crew members on the voyage (no offense fellas). She hails from the rich sailing culture of Missoula, Montana - where she skippers her own boat in Flathead Lake.

Her expertise was timely because we had high winds and high seas as we crossed the Dixon Entrance into Canada. As usual - none of these high seas are captured in photos.

The second day was notable for its lack of visibility. This only became a concern when we realized we were spinning backwards in tide rips and the engine's water intake had cut out.

But all issues were quickly remedied and we continued south through Snow Passage.

We flew the new spinnaker on a leisurely day before crossing Dixon Entrance.

Salmon continue to spill their blood on the decks of the Alize'.

All in all - it was a pretty chill section - Dixon Entrance notwithstanding

And we ran into the Time Bandit from 'Deadliest Catch' outside of Mektalatka - they were living large.

Baird Glacier and another crew rotation.

2010-08-17T17:50:00.000-07:00

This ice represents the final glacier cocktail of the Alaska voyage. We visited Baird glacier in Thomas Bay - but due to huge outwash rivers, could not get onto the glacier. So we busied ourselves by collecting floating icebergs - which kept the ice chest cold for many days. And it gave Ryan a bittersweet 'good-bye' gin and tonic. Not Sapphire, but certainly Bombay.

After a 24 hour re-provision in Petersburg - Ryan is off the boat and Brianna is on the boat till Prince Rupert.

Chatham Strait: Angoon to Baranof Island

2010-08-17T17:08:00.000-07:00

Angoon is a beautiful town - a Tlinget community - on the eastern shores of Chatham Strait. But it is a dry town and so it is best not to show up there with a hankering for a cold draft beer - because - that's not their thing. They have other things - but not that one. So, we headed back out to the Straits at sunset - looking for that elusive cold beer.

Incidentally, we would not find a cold beer until Petersburg - about 7 days later. But, the sail that night was one of my favorites from the entire trip. Just perfect winds and nice lighting. Ryan brought out his fish eye lens to class up these shots.

sea mammals and salmon in Chatham Strait

2010-08-17T16:41:00.000-07:00

Dalls Porpoise bow riding the Alize'.

Ryan got a beautiful shot of this porpoise right in the middle of a very fast rooster kick.

A single salmon provides about 3-4 meals on the Alize', so we have been bringing one in ever couple of days to keep the Omega 3's up.

and another one.

Harbor seals line up like a team of neoprene clad divers.

An Orca patrols the top of Chatham Strait.

Another very difficult shot by Ryan - a Humpback in mid-breach caught with a telephoto lens.

gorgeous tail-lob.

Ryan takes the helm.

Heading down Chatham Strait: Chichagof Island

2010-08-17T15:57:00.000-07:00

Pavlof Harbor is famed for its grizzy residents. We saw this hungry fellow as the tide dropped. Many salmon were flopping around the bay right next to him - but he wasn't about to jump in the water and throw out a disc trying to land one.

He patiently paced the intertidal rocks, sniffing about and waiting for a salmon to get trapped in a tidepool.

I am sure this is an energetically efficient strategy - but we didn't see him snag any leftover salmon that evening - and he looked really thin.

So, it might be time for him to step it up a bit.

Blue mussel shells collecting in dune-like clusters along the coastline at Hawk Inlet.

The Alize' alone and at rest in Basket Bay.

as the tide recedes.

Chichagof Island houses all sorts of gems. Basket Bay has a limestone cave at the head of the anchorage. Fortunately, Ryan just finished his doctorate in geology so he could help make sense of the rock situation over here - turns out its a jumbled mess of a little bit of everything.

At high tide, we portaged our kayaks over the Pavlof waterfall and found a freshwater lake.

Two eagles kept a discerning watch on our portage.

Photo credits: Ryan Peterson

Tenakee Springs on Chichagof Island

2010-08-17T15:46:00.000-07:00

After not hanging for 20 years - it is best to cut the formalities and head straight to a men's only hot spring - for a good soak.

We thought the interior of the hot spring looked like a Thai prison cell.

departing Juneau and heading south with Ryan Peterson

2010-08-17T14:53:00.000-07:00

If the Alize' wants to avoid wintering in Alaska - she must turn tiller and head south before the days get any shorter.

...so goodbye Juneau and your gargantuan cruise ship culture.

The boat is re-provisioned.

and the diesel engine is maintained -

and the next crew rotation brings in a friend from wayback - Ryan Peterson - the guy I used to blow up GI Joes with in third grade. Haven't seen him much since then - but here he is - ready to go.

All the high quality images from the Juneau south to Petersburg jaunt are his handiwork.

He is excused for bringing so many bags because one of them held a bunch of fancy camera lens's and another one held food.

Margerie Glacier

2010-07-29T12:43:00.000-07:00

This was the farthest North the Alize' will be sailing. We reached the top of Glacier Bay at the junction between Margerie Glacier - the brilliant blue one and Grand Pacific - the dirty black one. The face of Margerie is 250 feet high and 2 miles wide. The glacier stretches 21 miles down a valley - fed by a massive ice field - the glacier is slowly marching into the saltwater at an equal rate to the formation of ice at the top of the valley. So, this glacier is deemed stable.

This is the spot where we dropped the anchor and spent the night. We fell asleep listening to chunks of ice calving off the glacier - the Tlinget call the sound, 'white thunder'.

Some of the front fingers of the glacier calved off while I was kayaking near the cliffs. You can see the wave generated in the bottom of this picture.

Black-tailed Kittiwakes colonize the cliffs adjacent to the glacier.

Down time on the Alize'

2010-07-29T12:17:00.000-07:00

It's not all bears and breaching whales, there are also lots of power naps and quiet introspective moments on the Alize'.

Micah briefs himself on local birds while Kitson tries to ignore the soaking wet auto-tiller line pressing on his thigh.

Micah takes his turn in the quarter berth.

Micah holds court in the cockpit.

This concoction is named the 'Harry Fielding' - named after the geologist who analyzed the glacier which is now chilling the gin cocktail.

The engine overheated when a long section of bull kelp sucked into the water intake - so this meant a chilly dip below for the captain.

Hoonah is a native town that was formed as a result of the recent glacial maximum in the 1700's when advancing glaciers chased the Tlinget from their idyllic life foraging and hunting in Glacier Bay - across Icy Strait and into a new bay that was not choked with ice.

At some point in the process they built a nice bar there called 'The Office'.

Grizzly bears feed on Humpback whale carcass

2010-07-29T11:06:00.000-07:00

We received a hot tip from Kevin 'Linblad' Freeny that a dead humpback whale had beached itself on a rocky shore halfway up the main channel of Glacier Bay National Park. Rumor had it that the whale had become a feeding ground for Grizzly bears and wolves.

We sailed into this shore, deployed the kayaks and found a rotating pack of 4 or 5 grizzlies vying for hearty portions of rancid whale blubber.

The alpha of the pack stands on hind legs to peer over the carcass and check whether other bears were daring to approach the feast.

After determining the others were cowering subserviently at a distance, the alpha returns to the feast.

Stopping occasionally to stare blankly at us.

and then back to the whale meat.

if the smaller bears could just get near the whale meat then maybe they would also get distended stomachs ... then perhaps they would get a chance to throw their weight around....
but it is not in the cards today - when alpha is not eating he is patrolling.

Alpha continues scraping meat off of the massive whale ribs.

Grizzlies will double their size in the summer time (from 300-400 pounds to 600-900 pounds) as they gorge on salmon, shellfish and the occasional whale carcass - before heading back up the hill to hibernate through the winter.

Ryan points out another approaching bear while trying to maintain composure.

Ryan bought this really nice digital camera that can fit a giant telephoto lens - but Nikon hasn't released the lens yet or something like that - so, with no ability to zoom whatsoever, Ryan resorted to holding up one end of my binoculars against his camera to get these shots. There is no stopping this guy.

Glacier Bay - Reid Glacier

2010-07-28T19:53:00.000-07:00

Glacier Bay did not exist when Captain Vancouver and Captain Cook passed by in the late 1700's because the glaciers extended right up to the mouth of Icy Strait.

About half of the current park had melted into deep fjords when John Muir paddled up with native Tlingets in 1879.

When we entered in mid-summer 2010 it was pretty damn thawed out - but there is still lots of ice to explore.

Joe and Muz Ibach built a cabin in Reid Valley before it became a National Park. We tried to find the cabin using Kim Heacox's book, The Only Kayak, as a guide. We never found it - but that is not to slander Kim. We all like Kim's book - we just never found the cabin. But we did find some of Joe's mining claims.

This is the only timer picture from our journey with the three of us in the frame. We just walked up the shoulder of Reid glacier. Reid is not a shiny blue glacier - its a dirty glacier, but that shouldn't take away from the shot.

Three old friends resting on their haunches on a dirty, receding glacier.

Kitson knew the glacier would be grayish, so he planned his wardrobe accordingly.

Reid Glacier was a tidewater glacier but in the past few years it has receded to the point where only a high tide will slap salt water at its ankles. It is enjoying its last few months of enjoying tidewater status.

Harvesting the fruits of the Sea

2010-07-28T13:49:00.000-07:00

We were treated to a generous halibut harvest this past week.

We were real proud of these - until we got to the docks and saw the locals carving up fish five times the size. The locals said the term for these little guys is 'chickens'.

Salmon and halibut steaks on the stern rail BBQ. That's how we do.

The cockpit has never been so slimy.

Before reaching a gruesome end, Kitson's coho salmon had just swallowed a capelin without any chewing whatsoever.

Isn't that breaking two rules? - no eating while swimming and always chew every bite.

Kitson caught the most fish but Micah caught the largest fish. This halibut weighed 26 pounds and was caught on live bait.

Humpback whales at Point Adolphus

2010-07-28T13:22:00.000-07:00

Icy Strait hosts an incredibly vibrant biological community. Long summer days and nutrient rich upwellings of cold Pacific Ocean waters keeps each of the trophic levels well fed. The whales come here to gorge on small fish an invertebrates- then migrate to Hawaii for romance. They are so satiated from their feast in Icy Strait that they don't eat while procreating in Hawaii. Not one luau - nothing.

The whales at Point Adolphus tired us out and filled up our memory cards. After an incredible afternoon, we left them alone to continue slapping tails, blowing, breaching and fluking without us.

Departing for Glacier Bay with the lads

2010-07-28T12:31:00.000-07:00

This is the only picture we have of Freeny, Kitson, Micah and myself. It is not a good picture but it is the only one we have from the trip. We all met in Ashland in the late 90's at a small college of moderate quality named Southern Oregon University.

We are luxuriating in the lounge of the eco-cruise ship which employs Kevin Freeny as video chronicler. After this photo, Freeny would soon head off for another work week, while Kitson, Micah and myself would depart for an 8 day trip to Icy Strait and Glacier Bay.

Freeny's National Geographic/Linblad mini-cruise boat.

In this mural the Tlinget creation myth is told. Ravens, eagles and bi-valves play a central role. We would soon get more snippets of Tlinget culture in Hoonah.

With the boat fully provisioned and the wrist rocket in good working order, the mutiny meter had nowhere to go but 'Calm'. We slackened the dock lines and headed out to Sea.

60 degrees North - Whitehorse, Yukon - Canada

2010-07-28T11:40:00.000-07:00

The Alcan Highway.

Most cities are built below 60 degrees North - Oslo being a rare exception. Before this trip I had never been North of 55 degrees. Whitehorse is now my high water mark for the Northern hemisphere. After taking the Alaskan ferry to Skagway - we rented a car and drove into the Yukon and retraced the 1890's stampeders trail to the gold fields - except without the 40 pounds of nails and denim.

White Pass. An eerie landscape which spends most of the year buried in snow.

We hiked the Chilkoot Trail - or at least one third of it. There was a gorgeous hanging glacier suspended above the trail.

This is a mural of the stampeders carrying their required 1 ton of supplies over the pass and into the Yukon.

I don't want to say that the gold mining history of the Yukon and Skagway has been grossly commercialized, but suffice to say - there's a lot of fudge in these towns.

My mom got the 'cool under pressure' award on the Chilkoot hike. While my Dad and I were wandering around looking for the ruins of Dyea - Joan ran into two grizzly bears and pulled out her new iphone and snapped this shot. This shatters my claim that my mom will never smoothly operate an iphone.

Tracy Arm

2010-07-28T11:13:00.000-07:00

My folks flew into Juneau for a week. First thing we did was take a charter boat up to Sawyer Glacier at the terminus of Tracy Arm. Harbor seals colonize the floating ice near the glacier. The seal's predator, the orca whale, is dissuaded by the ice and so doesn't hamper the seal's mellow.

This is my first photo stitch from the trip - please click on this to expand the photo. The colors and crannies of Sawyer Glacier are incredible.

We took a brief cruise around Douglas Island - one blustery day and one very mellow day. My parents quickly adopted to the comfortable, albeit chilly, cockpit ambiance.

The Mendenhall Glacier serves as Juneau's ambassador. If you don't see it while flying in, hopefully your host will whisk you up there immediately upon arrival - as it is a ten minute drive from the airport. The airport landing strip is built on the terminal moraine, at the end of this valley.

Russia in Alaska

2010-07-08T12:26:00.000-07:00

Peter the Great had a vision. Incorporate the highest ideals of post-Rennaissance Europe into Russia. That vision manifested into the city of St.Petersburg - but it also drove Peter's desire to learn more about his land to the east - east of Siberia.

He hired a crew of explorers including Captain Vitus Bering and the naturalist George Stellar - and charged them with the goal of determining what lies beyond Kamchatka.

This eventually led to Russia's aquisition of Alaska - which, later in 1867, then led to Russia's sale of Alaska to the US for 7 million.

I know this because I have been reading James Michener's novel, Alaska.

For years I have considered reading one of his books - just to see how he could possibly have so much to say about such disparate geographical topics. But when would I ever have the time or inclination to read a James Michener historical fiction novel? Well, as it turns out - a 6 week sailing trip to Alaska provides both the time and the inclination.

So - with this history fresh on my mind, you can imagine how auspicious it felt when my friend Russia called to say she was flying into Alaska, her homeland, the week I arrived.

Russia was returning to Alaska - what are you kidding me? Is someone setting me up...

Russia with a healthy Dungeness crab.

This Pacific cod provided dinner and its head provided bait for the crab pot.

We anchored in Oliver's Inlet - a spooky anchorage on Admiralty Island. This island is famous for having the most dense population of Grizzly Bears in North America.

The island has a 3 to 1 ratio of bears to people.

We saw 5 - all from a safe distance.

This was our one venture onto land the whole weekend - we had bear spray, a flare gun, a knife and tons of anxiety.

The wood burning stove doing its best to keep the salon dry.

We returned to Juneau to find a bleak Independence Day celebration. It is difficult to discern between the low ceiling of rain clouds and the smoke from the fireworks.

Juneau, what they lack in clear days, they make up for in Bears.

Juneau!

2010-07-08T12:13:00.000-07:00

The Alize reached Juneau, the northern terminus, on June 28, that is about 6 weeks after leaving Seattle. It could have been done easily in 4 weeks if I took a direct route.

After considerable rainfall between Petersburg and Juneau - we pulled into Harris Harbor in brilliant sunshine.

It was time to air out the boat - and the bedding and the clothes and the shoes, and towels - well everything was fairly damp - but that is the price of admission when you sail to Southeast Alaska.

2 days after arriving in Juneau - the crew departed so as to return to their lives in Portland, Oregon.

Endicott Arm and Ford's Terror

2010-06-28T11:12:00.000-07:00

Bald eagle lifts off the ice.

Arctic terns align at low tide.

The water in Endicott Arm has a milky turquiose color on account of the glacial activity pulverizing rock and putting it in suspension.

The denser ice has a blue color on account of .... some other reasons .. or this other thing...I think.

Glaucous wing seagulls

A juvenile eagle trying to keep as much distance as possible from the adult eagle - without leaving home.

Dan emerges from the quarter berth, chomping at the bit for his next turn at the tiller.

We snagged some smaller pieces of floating ice to mix into gin and tonics.

Freeny says this is pre-industrial water - since it takes a few hundred years for the water to pass from rain to glacier, to floating ice - so that makes it cleaner than Perrier.

John Muir paddled up Endicott Arm in 1879.

Black bear getting distracted from scraping mussels.

A true beast from the Animal Kingdom.

A Grizzly bear scavenges for shellfish at low tide.

Our anchorage at the terminus of Ford's Terror.

Killing time while we wait for the slack-water high tide at Ford's Terror. In between high and low tide, water races at 15 mph through a narrow break in immense glaciated granite mountains.

Even at slack-high, the water is boiling and running fast across a narrow shoal with poorly marked rocks. Fucking stressful.

Dan paddles out to retrieve water to top off our tanks.

Humpback whales mulling about Holkam Bay at the mouth of Endicott Arm
Kevin Patrick Freeny in the flat, gray shadow of Sumdum Glacier.

If you have a broad definition of the word 'dry', then you are never actually wet on the Alize.

Le Conte Glacier

2010-06-23T13:24:00.000-07:00

This is a first for boat and crew alike. We creeped our way through a sea of broken iceberg chunks - or bergy bits, as we approached Le Conte Glacier. Le Conte is the most southerly tidewater glacier in North America.

Dan stood on the bow with binoculars to keep watch on the ice as we weaved a course to Indian Bay - a little anchorage which offered us temporary protection from the shifting and potentially dangerous ice.

Freeny kept his fancy video camera rolling and then cooked up a delicious Rice-a-roni lunch while Dan and I kayaked further into the bay.

No rest for the galley wench.

It is an odd thing to see blue glacier ice with such a temperate forest and climate as the backdrop.
Dan signals victory while quietly praying this ice block doesn't roll over while the shot is framed.
The mountains outside of Petersburg fall off into the mist as broken ice shifts north with the ebb tide.

Petersburg

2010-06-23T13:02:00.000-07:00

Petersburg is tucked into the northern end of the Wrangell Narrows - it is an active fishing town founded by Elizabeth Buschmann's great great great grandfather - Peter Buschmann. In the 1890's Peter choose the location partly because him and his Scandinavian friends could carve ice out of the nearby Le Comte Glacier, then use the ice to store their fish. If you see Elizabeth around Seattle - you should buy her a beer - her ancestor put together a nice little town.

Stellar sea lions crowd in on channel marker '52' with Petersburg trailing off in the wake.

In the middle of Petersburg marina, Alize rests in the shadow of trollers, pure-seiners, gill netters, crabbers and long-liners.

This is the best crew shot we have so far. We just docked up at Meyers Chuck.

Wrangell

2010-06-19T19:10:00.001-07:00

now that freeny is on board - we have a professional spotter for wildlife
- i think he is keying in on a common loon in this shot

approaching wrangell from Zimovia Straight

The sun is out - the tide is low - good friends are on board. We are in a nice little fishing town in Southeast Alaska - called Wrangell. I just bought a James Michener paperback called, Alaska - it is historical fiction. I have never read historical fiction.

We have crab legs in the live hold - and when I say live hold - I mean that the crab are dead and cooked and resting on block ice. Tomorrow - we sail through the Wrangell Narrows and then hook over to the most southerly glacier that rests at sea level, Le Comte Glacier - sounds French. I think we have entered into the easy part of the trip. Days are long. High pressure systems. Light winds. Lots of stuff to look at.

Ketchikan

2010-06-19T18:54:00.000-07:00

Crystal Skille proved a wonderful host in Ketchikan - the gate way to Alaska for the gold miners, and now for the cruise ships - and so it goes.

Dou gave me a bottle of Tullamore Dew when I left Seattle, and told me not to crack it till i reached Alaska. But - in the spirit of full disclosure, it turns out our liquor ran dry a week shy of Alaska - so we had to bring this bottle to the forefront, but Dou should sleep well knowing that the Tullamore died a noble death in Alaska - the Frontier State.

ALASKA!

2010-06-16T08:35:00.001-07:00

We crossed the international border somewhere along the West Dixon Entrance at 10 am on June 14, exactly one month after leaving Seattle. We threw Bruce Springsteen on the music box and yelled along to 'Badlands' with the Boss man.

After a stormy day crossing to and from Dundas Island, we rolled into Ketchikan the following afternoon with sunshine and calm seas.

Ashland was well represented at the customs dock as Kevin Freeny and Crystal Skille, and her son Ike, greeted us at Thomas Basin Marina.

Ketchikan is a cruise ship town but a good spot for re-provisioning the sailboat.

We just finished 2 days of rest and relaxation at Crystal's country cabin and are now heading North again.

Freeny has very generously offered to serve exclusively as galley wench - so as not to upset the power structure Dan and I have cultivated. Let's hope this lasts.

Day 27 at Sea: Rites of Passage

2010-06-11T23:17:00.000-07:00

They say a man ain't no kind of man till he parks his skiff high and dry on the North Coast.

These photos probably look worse than it was or perhaps it was worse than it looks, but the important thing here is that the boat and crew suffered zero collateral damage from this event. Once the high tide rushed back in to Lowe Inlet, the boat returned to her happy buoyant self. She righted and shook the mud and barnacles off her hull. We started up the diesel and powered her back into Grenville Channel - never to return to that anchorage again.

The story begins the previous afternoon as Dan and I were making horrible headway up the long sinuous Grenville Channel - a 45 mile stretch of narrow fjord about three days shy of Alaska. A persistent ridge of high pressure had been sending us nothing but strong north winds for the past week. We have been taking this headwind like a bitter pill - right on the bow. Despite favorable currents, our speed over ground was reduced to a humbling 2.5 knots/hour. For reference, this is walking speed. But not a healthy vigorous walk, 2-3 knots/hour is a walker walk. It's about the speed of an old man hobbling down the sidewalk with a walker. This is good if you want to check out each mossy rock and waterfall as you sail past but not so good if you're trying to get from A to B.

So, we decided instead of walker-ing our way to Alaska - we would peel into the next anchorage that afforded us protection from strong northern gusts. Lowe Inlet was an easy decision. Charlie's Charts, the Douglas Guide and Pat Freeny's meticulous notes all agreed that Lowe was well sheltered. It also contains a historic fishing weir, a dramatic waterfall and offers the chance to watch bears scavenge the shoreline at low tide. Plus, Jonathon Raban stopped here and wrote a funny bit about it in, 'Passage to Juneau'. That sealed the deal for me - since Raban's book has served as a bit of a talisman throughout this journey. Damn you Raban.

We spent quite a bit of time deciding on the best spot to drop the anchor. We had a low tide when we dropped the hook, the depth sounder read 8 feet from the bottom. Through the night, the tide would rise to 18 feet above low water then down again to a five foot low at 7 am. My boat draws 5 feet. Anyway we knew we would be close to the bottom in the morning, so the plan was to wake up at 5 am, two hours before the low, check the depth, take in line or else move somewhere else.

Late at night, a williwaw sent strong gusts of North winds over the mountain saddle. I feared the winds would drag the anchor so I let out 30 more feet of line. This extra bit of line, when stretched horizontally with strong North gusts hovered us over a shallow shelf right around 4:30 am.

That was when Dan woke up to the awful sound of the keel settling into the muddy floor of Lowe Inlet. I woke up to Dan saying 'Curran, we gotta get out of here.'

In the dim dusk light I walked out to the bow and first noticed that the boat wasn't shifting down into the water while I moved about the deck. Then, neither the propeller nor winching the anchor line would budge the boat. That was it, we were grounded, and the tide had quite a bit more to fall.

This was the, 'oh shit' moment.

Minutes later, we began listing to port.

We moved everything from the starboard side to the port side, secured the plumbing, secured the electricity, battened down the hatches, got some food, water and clothes out of the boat and paddled to shore.

Aside from that, there is not much to tell. It was a very graceful dip. She laid down nice and easy in the soft sand, the tide reversed, by 9:30 she was back to bobbing on anchor. She didn't take on a single drop of water.

Onward and upward; what doesn't kill you makes you stronger. We motor sailed into Prince Rupert today and are currently waiting out a storm before we cross Dixon Entrance and enter into Alaska.

Lowe Inlet is a popular anchorage on the Inside Passage, so there was a smattering of other boats on anchor that morning. As people woke up, we were curious who would come over and chat with us. I mentioned it would be cool if someone brought us some coffee while we waited for high tide. Mike showed up first (blue denim on the right) nice guy, Canadian - he had some advice on what to do if she didn't right herself as the water came in - but he didn't bring coffee. Then came Petunia and 'Uncle' Roy - they were missionaries from the Prince of Wales Island. Petunia brought a thermos of warm coffee. Very awesome. I will never bad mouth missionaries again, seriously. They sail the stout motor vessel, Coastal Messenger, into isolated communities up here and spread the good news regarding the Word. Either way, great people, they took our minds off the matter at hand.

And there she is, back to buoyant. Like it never happened.

I love this boat.

Butedale

2010-06-11T21:37:00.000-07:00

Butedale was an old cannery - it began at the turn of the century around the time Roosevelt pushed through the completion of the Panama Canal. Unlike the Canal - Butedale has fallen to shambles and Lou - is there to watch as each structure fails and slips back in to the Sea.

Lou is about as real as it gets. So real, we had to mike him so as to capture his stories for the ages. He lives alone at the crumbling Butedale ruins and when he realized that we were people that enjoyed hearing him talk, he proceeded to unload three hours of stories he had on back log, waiting to be set free. Most of these stories involved diesel engines and sunken boats.

These are Lou's animals, Bert the dog and Tiger the cat. Both were born on Butedale - and have never seen roads or cars - they only know Butedale.

A steep river turns a turbine wheel, the wheel turns a V-belt, the V-belt turns a Chevy alternator, the alternator generates 120 Volt AC electricity into an inverter, the inverter turns AC electricity into 12 volt DC lectricity, the 12 volt electricity tops off a battery bank, the batteries run Lou's freezer, the freezer freezes ice cream sandwiches, Lou sells the ice cream to boaters who tie up on the Butedale docks in the summer time.

Lou had us up on one of his roofs for a bonfire.

The land here is impenetrable. It seems inviting from afar, but as you attempt to walk into the wilderness it is impenetrable and uninviting. The temperate rainforest rises from the saltwater along granitic walls dense with thick walls of vegetation. Trails are few and far between. And then there are the horseflies and mosquitos and the bears.

We hiked up to this lake. The mosquitoes were so thick we couldn't open our eyes completely, so we had to take this picture to see what it looked like.

This is one of Lou's sunken boats. He assured us he was only waiting for the next strong low tide so that he could access the bottom of the hull and patch things up. I tend to believe him. He also thinks the diesel engine will start up as soon as he drains the water from the engine block and puts in some new oil - now this part makes me skeptical.

Navigating narrow fjords along the North Coast

2010-06-11T21:18:00.000-07:00

It is hard to capture the sweeping landscapes of British Columbia with a picture, but that won't stop me from trying. Finlayson Channel - somewhere in the middle.

When you line up two of these glaciated valleys right next to each other, it almost looks like God found a comfy spot to rest his tookis.

The wiring is fixed on the autohelm - which means that on the quiet sections, we can fix the tillerpilot on a heading, thereby allowing the crew to move freely about the cabin.

You can read about a paragraph before needing to look up and check for floating logs.

The navigation table

anchorages

2010-06-11T20:43:00.000-07:00

The anchorages here are gorgeous - this is Miles Inlet - right under the nose of Queen Charlotte Sound. A little pocket of calm in the middle of open Seas.

Joe's Bay - a great little gunkhole.

Dan picked up a new pair of foulweather pants in Port McNeil.

Namu

2010-06-11T19:46:00.000-07:00

Namu - at one point - was a bustling fishery and cannery. Much has been written about the collapse of the British Columbia fisheries industry - so i won't say too much about it. It is certainly erie to sail past these rotting relics - the symbolic image of plundered resources is painfully obvious. Both Namu and Butedale are occupied solely by caretakers who reside over the dilapitated buildings so as to prevent further vandalism and theft. We have really enjoyed the company of these caretakers. Very anachronistic.

I bet someone who reads this will know what kind of bird this is...?

This bike got me all around Seattle for about 3 years, I threw it on my boat when i left town and figured I would take it north till it started fouling the lines. When I saw that the caretakers Peter and Reanne rode a bike around the Namu ruins - I figured I would leave my bike with them to use and then to eventually become a part of the rotting cannery landscape. This picture depicts the final resting place of old trusty rusty. Godspeed.

Walls of shrimp meat cans.

Day 20 - waiting to round Cape Caution

2010-06-02T13:02:00.000-07:00

Dan and I have made it through the narrow Johnstone Straight and are waiting for our weather window to cross Cape Caution - an outside section of the Inside Passage.

Day 19 - Campbell River

2010-06-02T12:55:00.000-07:00

Dan has arrived!

We are in it to win it - all the way to Juneau.

Day 18 - rounding Cape Mudge

2010-06-02T12:34:00.000-07:00

Cape Mudge put a hurt on me. Strong winds out of the south as I was trying to stay clear of the shallow shoals on the north end of Quadra Island en route to Campbell River.

The winds had been howling all night and so they whipped up some 3-5 foot breaking swells. The swells were coming in all the wrong directions so the best I could do is take them on the bow and watch as things flew about the cabin. The only distressing part of this episode was watching as my fruit hammock repeatedly knocked into a wooden post in my kitchen. Since I am alone at this point, I couldn't afford to let go of the tiller for even a minute. I had to watch over the course of 4 hours as all my fruit got pummeled into a puree that then splashed around the cabin.

As usual, I don't have any pictures depicting the rough moments - only the aftermath shots.

Looking forward to Dan joining the boat in a few days.

Day 17 - Cortez Island

2010-06-02T12:15:00.000-07:00

I sailed solo across the Northern Straights of Georgia up into Gorges Harbor on Cortez Island. The shellfish are plentiful at low tide. Japanese (Pacific) oysters and butter clams are still free from shellfish poisoning this early in the seasoning. I met Sheri on the public dock at Gorges Harbor - she has been living on a small floating home named, 'Grassy Knoll' for about 16 years. She handed me a baked potato after tying up at the dock - that was the warmest reception I've received on a public dock.

The weather remains damp and blustery, but it hasn't bothered me yet.

day 13 at sea

2010-05-27T11:20:00.001-07:00

I took a four day detour up Jervis Inlet - North of Vancouver - and sailed solo up to Princess Louisa Inlet - these are dramatic glaciated fjords that make for some incredible sailing. This was the view from my forward hatch at my anchorage at the end of the Louisa Inlet. That is a 5,000 foot high granitic mountain rising right out of the sea. John Muir would have loved this place.

The mountains form a U-shaped valley, dotted with hanging waterfalls, indicative of powerful glacier activity - this place reminded me of Yosemite.

I finally got around to installing solar on the boat. I have yet to see what it can do on a sunny day, but after three hours of partial overcast - this one panel bumped my deep cycle battery up from 13.00 volts to 13.5 volts. This may not seem like a lot - but it means I am now energy sufficient. With the meager 8 amps a day I can generate with this panel - I can run my interior LEDs, anchor light LED, VHF and stereo and keep the starting battery topped off so I have enough cranking amps to start my 20 hp diesel after a long spell living on the hook.

I'm off the grid, YO!

day 8 at sea - crossing the Straights of Georgia -

2010-05-27T10:51:00.000-07:00

So far so good - fair winds and head winds - rain and sun - flood tides and ebb tides. These first few weeks are serving as a shakedown cruise to ensure all systems are working before I head North into the British Columbia wilderness - where there are no hardware stores for fix its.

I had a full boat of crew as I left Seattle - that quickly dwindled down to just Theodora Tolkin and then she left at Pender Harbor- now it is just me.

After waiting out a gale in Nanaimo - we crossed the Straight of Georgia in calm weather.

For the record, this was the second time I have waited out a gale in Nanaimo only to cross the Straights with little wind the proceeding day. The problem is . . . I am neither a fan of calm winds nor Nanaimo (no offense to locals Dianna Krall and Pamela Anderson) - so if this happens again - I am crossing the Straights in the gale.

To be clear, I have a lot of love for Canada - but there is something wrong with Nanaimo - it got hit on the head as a child or something - sort of reminds me of Bremerton back in Puget Sound.

Pre-Alaska haul out

2010-05-01T12:47:00.000-07:00

Pre-Alaska haul out.

It has been almost three years since I first bought the boat and had her hauled out to see what I had gotten myself into. This means I was only one year late for the bi-annual haul out when Alize was pulled out this week and thrown up on sticks and blocks of wood for a well deserved wash, wax and paint.

Nothing but good things to say about Canal Boatyard in Fremont. On time, reasonable cost, friendly guys - they let me do all my own work and they showed impressive concern for the environment impacts of boatyard projects.

The success of this haul out lies squarely on the shoulders of a few excellent friends who contributed multiple days of blood and sweat and risked their health through exposure to a vibrant mix of 3M toxic industrial products.

Most valuable player award is shared equally by Steve Springer, Josh Newman and Federico Prado.

Honorable Mention goes to Micah Wait for assisting western passage through the large Ballard locks and Teddy Tolkin for assisting eastern passage through the small Ballard locks.

This series of van/boat shots means a lot to Steve and I, but probably means little to anyone else. This is the first time the van and the boat have been in such close proximity. My move onto a boat was largely inspired by Steve's nomadic lifestyle. Once we get around to instating the 'Squalorship', a small stipend for doctoral students in the Biology Dept at the UW who do not live in houses, we will use this shot for the home page.

Teddy caused a feeding frenzy at the boat yard when she starting buffing the hull. Salty dudes that hadn't talked to me in three days started walking over to my boat to see if we wanted to borrow their step ladder...which we did.

So, at the end of the week - I view the haul out as wildly successful. Alize is no longer Alize II, just Alize. She has fresh sacrificial zinc anodes, the struts and shaft are true and the propeller blades are coated with Petite zinc paint. Her previous coats of SeaLife 1000 had held up very well, so the scraping and sanding prep for this coat was minimal. After spending the better part of Wednesday morning, we got the 42% copper into solution and applied 2 more coats of anti-fouling paint.
We washed the fiberglass hull above waterline, then due to a very kind gesture from the guys at Pacific Fiberglass - we were loaned an electric buffer and 3M Imperial Buffing Compound (not cheap) - so for the first time on my watch - Alize had the faded, oxidized outer layer of fiberglass removed - so as to reveal a fancy sheen (hard to see in these poorly lit images - but trust me, its there). Then we capped off the hull with a coat of protective 3M Scotchguard wax and put her back in the water.

April sail in balmy Seattle

2010-04-20T17:25:00.001-07:00

Sailboat reunion with Ashland friends - Caitlin, Amelia, Lindsay and Meghan (not from Ashland).

This was the morning after returning from 18 days of eating tacos and surfing in Mexico -

Someone that night asked me whether it was brutal to return to Seattle in April after sunny Mexico,

I think I said something like, 'nope'.

New compass!

2010-04-20T17:22:00.000-07:00

bulk head mounted Ritchie compass with inclinometer -

now, when i get lost, i will have one less excuse...

bright, white cockpit

2010-03-30T18:15:00.000-07:00

This is the whitest the cockpit has ever been and will ever be again. For a few hours last Saturday I had to wear sunglasses just to look at it - no joke.

The defense, the defense party and the T-dock dissolution party

2010-03-23T13:09:00.000-07:00

A lot has been happening in and around the Alizé II. First of all, I finished my 5.5 year pursuit of a doctoral degree in developmental biology - second of all, a bunch of family and friends got together to celebrate this event - third of all, our small community on T dock at Shilshole marina has begun to disband. Gary has left Seattle for greener pastures in Portland. So, we got together to mark the event.
the boss and I in a last minute strategy session minutes before the defense presentation.

a luciferase activity slide from the talk.

and then the Prosecco after the committee members signed their names to the final doctoral exam warrant.
Andrew Prendergrast baked me a cake designed with a melanophore, a xanthophore and an iridophore - the cell types I have been researching.

The Curran family with Ashlyn, my soon-to-be-baptized god-daughter.

My dad enlightening some friends to something, maybe Woody Guthrie, maybe ice climbing, maybe soft drink sales projections - who knows?
My Dad having a moment with my boss.
We rented out the back room at the College Inn that evening and had Indian food brought in.
Tor Linbo envisioned this as a 'Last Supper' moment. So he framed this image accordingly
the 2010 Raible Lab photo

and
the T-dock dissolution party.

a new marine head

2010-03-23T12:15:00.000-07:00

This is the latest Twist n' Lock Jabsco Manual. She is a real beauty. To welcome her in properly I also replaced the adjacent plumbing. The install was a bit of a task - but I think a new head is critical for a happy boat.

The old electric head often became a point of tension with my crew in the past. It was pretty awful - wires were corroded - the motor was weak - fuses blew - outflow was shoddy, inflow was worse - the whole concept of an aged electric head is just a bad idea on a sailboat.

I captured the following video about a year ago.
I think it highlights the tension and discomfort that was created by the old electric system.

Although the crew was trying to stay upbeat - i think you can tell that mutiny was just around the corner.

A really mellow New Years on the Alizé that gradually became the opposite of mellow.

2010-01-14T16:53:00.000-08:00

So - it was a simple idea, ring in the new years while bobbing around on an anchor. The weather was wet and mild. It was cold but a dead calm - no wind. We had loads of great food and drink, we had a stack of Uno cards, good music, good friends - this was lining up to be a real easy going New Years celebration.

So, we put on the rain gear and crossed Puget Sound to my favorite little nook, the mooring balls on the South end of Port Madison - very quiet, very quaint - a sleepy little spot.
This was sort of the high water mark for the evening and for me. At this moment you will notice we have full electricity in the cabin. The dinner came together without a hitch. I still have a look of confidence in my face - that will soon disappear (as will the electricity).
Okay, at this moment I am realizing I have a fever from a cold that I had previously been in denial about. This is not interesting except - due to the head cold, i wasn't thinking straight and forgot to switch batteries to the deep cycle. So...we lost electricity and that means we would not be able to start the engine in the morning. So we would have to sail back to my slip under sail. No big deal, I have done it before, as long as the winds are agreeable - everything will be gravy.

Aside from that - morale is soaring.

Midnight came, and under lantern light we wrote down our new years resolutions and burned them in the fire. My resolution was to remember to switch my battery to the deep cycle.

And then we played Uno which everyone excelled at, except me.

Then the next day, things became harrowing. As we began our sail home, the quiet Puget Sound picked up from a dead calm to a freakish gale. I had to drop all sails and put up a reefed main to keep the Alizé from heeling over uncomfortably.

With only a reefed main I couldn't make progress sailing upwind, so I resigned to running downwind. This meant saying goodbye to Seattle. If I had the engine, which i normally do, none of this would have mattered because I can grind the diesel into the wind.

In an attempt to keep the boat from breaching in the 5-6 foot breaking surf, we continued to run downwind. My hat flew overboard. The boat began hydroplaning, thereby exceeding hull speed. Lisa became sea sick. I will admit that I really didn't have much of a plan at this point.

We continued to run downwind. Fortunately, there is a lot of water downwind. If we had to, we could have hydroplaned all the way to Canada. This would not have been pretty, but I took comfort knowing that it was an option on the table.

Ultimately we made an emergency sail into Edmonds Marina at hull speed and hoped for the best. Which is what we got. Nobody had any a priori knowledge of the layout of the marina, but we soared in and were relieved to find this large fishing boat with huge metal handrails all around its deck. I plowed in, turned the bow into the wind to kill the speed, then tipped it towards port so that the crew could grab onto the rails and lash lines around cleats so as to secure our vessel before the winds grabbed us again and spit us into the breakwater.

And that was it, our ride was over. I felt like Sandra Bullock in Speed. Freeny said he felt like Keanu Reeves in Speed, but I have always had a thing for Sandra Bullock, so that's where my mind went.

Incidentally, nobody was taking pictures for this part of the sailing trip. So, the only images we have are these, the aftermath shots once our vessel was strapped to the Edmonds Marina.

fireside chats

2009-11-17T09:35:00.000-08:00

What's good enough for FDR is good enough for Alizé. This was the debut sail for the new fireplace. Things went well, in that the only thing that burned down were the cedar logs we picked up at 7-11. In the future i will find a cooler source for my fuel. Maybe driftwood, maybe dura-logs, maybe old shoes.

Dickinson Newport solid fuel stove

2009-10-21T12:18:00.000-07:00

the fireplace installation -
steve and i mounted the unit on the starboard teak bulkhead in the main cabin with a sheet of stainless steel behind it -

there's a three inch steel stove pipe threaded through a 4 1/4 inch hole in the deck, the balsa core is epoxied and sealed against the rain - a teak winch mount was installed to keep the chimney top level in regards to the slope and curve of the deck, the medieval looking flue cap should keep out the backdraft
-
so far so good, many warm fires ahead

Huge Day for the Captains Log

2009-10-16T09:43:00.000-07:00

that is shala in the upper left corner out sailing last summer, she is featured in the Underway section of "Latitude and Attitudes", which is the creme de la creme of the 'pirate/Jimmy Buffet' genre of sailing publications, so ya know...

my boat is finally on the express trains to complete stardom

very exciting

2009-09-28T12:16:00.000-07:00

pink salmon running off Meadow Point

2009-09-14T09:42:00.000-07:00

humback whale in Barkley Sound

2009-09-06T13:37:00.000-07:00

We had a couple of nice encounters with humpback whales and Orcas in and around Barkley Sound.

None of these moments were captured on film.
This tiny clip is all we had.

Unless Newman has more footage? Newman...talk to me.

good wind in the West Entrance of the Straight of Juan de Fuca

2009-09-06T13:26:00.000-07:00

I would never speak poorly of my crew, they are the lifeblood of each successful voyage in the Alizé. But, if I could change one component of the crew's behavior - it would be the amount of drinks they spill.

It is one thing to get your sea legs, but it is another thing to get your sea hands - this takes weeks.

taking out the dingy

2009-09-06T13:08:00.000-07:00

I don't know much about comedy, but for my money, nothing is funnier than 2 guys in a little boat - especially when Kitson is wearing his Miami beach outfit.

Thank goodness Captain has his own private kayak.

autohelm

2009-09-06T12:56:00.000-07:00

the good news is that this mechanical autohelm works, the bad news is the amount of duct tape I used to get it to work -

back to the safe waters of Friday Harbor in the San Juans

2009-09-06T12:52:00.000-07:00

sometimes houses like to get out on the water as well.

what are you kidding me?

2009-09-06T12:42:00.000-07:00

I'm not saying it was like this every day, but we had our moments of plenty.

we put this one back

2009-09-06T12:39:00.000-07:00

shipwrecks in Barkley Sound

2009-09-06T12:31:00.000-07:00

Navigating the Broken Islands was a challenge. There are many partially submerged rocks and neither my paper charts nor chartplotter had high resolution data of the area.

So, Newman and I had to be on point as we set headings and tack lines. The numerous shipwrecks served as ominous canaries in the sentinel coalmine, there but for the grace of canary warning, red flag god goes I.

rock fish and red tide

2009-09-06T12:27:00.000-07:00

this spot was hot with rock fish - and Kitson cleaned up. However, Barkley Sound was also being visited with a viscous red tide. The water was the color of Guatemalan coffee - no shellfish harvesting, and no visibility for spearfishing.

just plain nice

2009-09-06T12:19:00.000-07:00

kayaking back to the boat after exploring land is one of the high highs of boat ownership -

effingham island in the Broken Group Islands

2009-09-06T12:09:00.001-07:00

We made it to the Broken Group Islands - and tucked into Effingham inlet for the night. This spot is just as gorgeous as it is remote. We put on our land exploration outfits and hiked across the island. We quickly got into a Lord of the Flies routine. I can't remember, but I think I won the machete and baseball bat fight.

bamfield in Barkley Sound

2009-09-06T12:02:00.000-07:00

Bamfield is a remote town on the West Coast of Vancouver, no streets - just a waterway. What they lack in essential services like diesel, they make up for with eccentric oddities - like this cat house.

Out of desperation I hitched ride in an Australian's truck up into a logging road - so that we could siphon diesel out of his tractor's fuel tank with a garden hose.

That kept our operation moving forward.

dinner

2009-09-06T11:58:00.000-07:00

getting searched

2009-09-06T11:52:00.000-07:00

i have a terrible track record with border crossing. this trip was no different. Before i had a boat, I would always get searched at airports, now that I cross borders in a small boat, the boat gets the intensive inspection. These searches are always futile, since I carry no contraband. But they are always nerve-wracking. The Canadian authorities spent 30 minutes digging into all the remote holes in my boat. All they found were potatoes. Apparently potato smuggling is currently frowned upon.

royalty

2009-09-06T11:43:00.000-07:00

We don't have much royalty in the US.

Okay, we have the Kennedy's - but theyre 'dropping like flies. So, upon arriving in a British protectorate, I demanded that the Alizé be berthed as close as possible to the Parliamentary Building in Victoria. I then said, "Where does the Queen have tea when visiting?" The harbormaster replied, "At the Empress Hotel" I said, "Fine, well how close can we get to that as well?"

First trip to the Pacific Ocean

2009-09-06T11:30:00.000-07:00

Sailing in and around Seattle is good stuff, but there is so much to explore, you forget about the giant ocean around the corner. This summer trip served to remedy that wrong.

I put together a crack crew and headed up the West coast of Vancouver Island. It was a skeleton crack crew, in that there was only 2 dudes. One guy -Newman, was the detail oriented tactician with much offshore experience and then there was Kitson - an old homie who had no boat experience, but tons of good vibes.

Together, we rode the Pacific swells like native sons.

Here the crack crew is seen feasting on fresh harvest. We ate a lot of seafood on the trip: dungeness crab, salmon and rockfish. And when we weren't eating that, we ate cheese and British gin.

minutes after a summer rain

2009-08-02T10:13:00.000-07:00

crazy from the heat

2009-08-02T10:04:00.000-07:00

There are a few items of interest in this movie.

One: everyone is crazy from the heat, and by crazy, I mean giddy. You cannot tell from this video, but Seattle was 103 degrees when we went out for a sail. That is a heat record that will not be broken soon. Seattlites don't know what to do with themselves when we get over 90 let alone 100. Nobody has air conditioning, so no one can sleep. The whole town wilted.

Two: Although I dropped the sails so that we would drift aimlessly while we swam, a steady northerly kept the boat moving at 1 knot. That is why you can see a slight look of panic as Ryan and Steve attempt to remove themselves from the 50 degree waters of Puget Sound.

swimming deer

2009-08-02T09:59:00.000-07:00

I found this picture on my camera card - I didn't take the picture. So, Zack must have spotted this while I was off kayaking in search of a newspaper, somewhere in Quartermaster Harbor. Apparently, the amazing things only happen when I am not on the boat.

2009-08-02T09:52:00.001-07:00

Mudra, River and Chanci enjoy the foredeck during the Fordyce reunion tour.

2009-07-10T13:57:00.000-07:00

June was phenomenal. Brilliant sunshine, warm afternoons - great wind.
No complaints about June -

going aloft

2009-06-05T11:09:00.000-07:00

I have begun the daunting task of replacing all of the standing rigging on Alizé II. This means many journeys to the top of of the mast to pull cotter pins and clevis pins and tension turnbuckles and check for weeping pits in my swages.

meticulously sliced cheese

2009-05-29T11:23:00.000-07:00

a good day at sea can bring out previously hidden attributes -
for example, the ability to produce the perfect slice of cheddar

wing on wing

2009-05-28T17:49:00.000-07:00

As you sail into the protected side of Bainbridge Island, you pass under Agate Bridge. The bridge sits 61 feet above the water while my mast extends 48 feet above the water - so there's no problem with clearance. We took it 'wing on wing', which means the foresail sits on the opposite side of the boat from the mainsail. The boat takes on the appearance of a bird with outstretched wings.

First and Second mate

2009-05-28T11:55:00.000-07:00

Dan and Joel met while sailing on Alize II. A few months later they were living together in Portland.

True story.

first and second mate

2009-05-28T11:50:00.001-07:00

Some kids get really into trucks, sometimes it dinosaurs. For Dan it was airplanes. He can tell you all sorts of trivia about every plane that flies overhead.

'Look guys, a beavertail float plane. Dual prop - see that vapor trail - that's from the twin carbine engines'.

galley mate

2009-05-28T11:36:00.001-07:00

It is a fact of maritime law, the least experienced crew member assumes the role of galley wench. Some people struggle with this role, they become embittered and ultimately reject their duties. This is less than desirable for the rest of the crew.
But Danielle Frandina took to her job in the galley with style and grace. Every bit the Italian, she turned out many delicious dishes and enjoyed herself in the process.

a trip to Nirvana

2009-05-28T11:13:00.000-07:00

Last weekend, we ran into Pat and Marsha Freeny while docked up in Poulsbo. Kevin Freeny's parents were happily cruising their gorgeous boat, aptly named Nirvana. Pat invited my crew over for a tour of Nirvana.

They say 'god can move mountains, but you better bring a shovel'. I don't this is too far from the mark.

'Nirvana' awaits the deserved, but you better bring a paddle.

black and white

2009-05-12T17:55:00.001-07:00

thanks elizabeth for these shots

Gray whale flukes in Useless Bay

2009-05-07T09:15:00.000-07:00

The Gray whales migrate from Mexico to Alaska every year. But they always stop by Whidbey Island for a few months to feed on ghost shrimp. Apparently, our ghost shrimp is 'to die for'.

hygiene

2009-05-07T09:11:00.000-07:00

Keeping up with hygiene is critical at Sea. The huge yellow catamaran docked behind us is called 'Bananas". It is for sale, contact Port Townsend Boat Haven for details.

apres docking

2009-05-07T09:05:00.000-07:00

It has been observed that, upon pulling into a marina after a long day at Sea, the crew tends to enjoy staying on the boat a bit longer before exploring a new port. This moment seems especially conducive to conversation.

poise

2009-05-05T17:45:00.001-07:00

It is important to uphold a touch of class and poise while out at sea for a few days, I think Elizabeth embodies that sentiment.

wooden ships

2009-05-05T17:42:00.000-07:00

Port Townsend is a bastion of wooden ships. Anywhere you dock in PT Marina, Boat Haven, you'll be tying up next to a gorgeous wooden ship.

Kiwi

2009-05-05T17:37:00.000-07:00

Josh is a kiwi. He wears that like a badge of honor. Like all great Kiwis - he is a wonderful conversationalist, he travels the world aggressively and he knows his ways around a boat. Hands down - he is top notch crew.

Sirens

2009-05-05T17:35:00.000-07:00

Port Townsend is a gem. Sirens is the best reason to arrive in Port Townsend. Rain or shine, they have a great view.

Race to the Straights

2009-05-05T17:30:00.000-07:00

This past weekend, Alize' II entered her first race, or snuck into her first race as an unregistered boat. This provided our crew ample opportunity to watch as every other boat in the race passed us on our way to Port Townsend.
There are many reasons why we were so easily bested. One of those reasons is because we don't have a spinnaker. The Spinnaker is the colorful light sail used to head downwind faster than those boats without spinnakers. I can't quite afford one right now, but i will be getting one anyway.

2009-04-28T21:58:00.001-07:00

Sailing with a couple of serious homeboys like Micah and Freeny is an absolute pleasure.
I met Freeny in Ashland, Oregon. He showed up at my girlfriend's house with a pint of Ben and Jerry's and a Harvey Keitel movie called, 'Smoke'. Then the next week he showed up with 'The Secret of Roan Innish' and then the next week with 'Roadside Prophets' another obscure one starring one of the Beastie Boys. But that was a long time ago, even before his John Sayle's phase.
Micah, I met in a geology class at Southern Oregon University. He had an afro comb in his hair and had a near perfect memory for scientific minutae. I think he still does - but the afro comb is long gone.