Welcome to Urban Alaska

 North to Alaska/Seattle Series 2008

23 June 2008

Lat N48.07.072

Lon  W123.27.367

Let me summarize the remainder of our journey after we shut major systems down in an effort to conserve our valuable remaining amps.  Fortunately, I can go back to the old fashioned means of capturing thoughts – a pen and paper…

We turned the poor engine off this morning (June 20^th).  She was only pushing out 500 rpm’s…that’s like a slow idle speed, and no longer charging the batteries – so what’s the point.  We’ve shut down just about everything – toilets, auto pilot, electronics, electric winches, and electric outlets.  The solar panels kept the battery up to 12.6 or 12.7 all day and even at 2000 hours it was still at 12.5.  I’m curious (no, apprehensive) to see how it fares over night as well as how much the solar does to reinstate it during the course of tomorrow.  Last night we turned off the auto-pilot (that’s like taking someone off a respirator, by the way).  That forced us to resume 24 hr shifts today, which is no big deal.  We were doing that just a bit more informally during the day.  Now someone has to physically drive the boat all the time.   We rearranged the shifts a bit so Paul and I take a mid-day watch from 12 – 4 PM, allowing me time to get lunch ready first and still have enough time to fix dinner afterwards.

Our speed is just pitiful!  The winds are so light and variable – we went 100 miles in the last 24 hours.  Unfortunately, the wind charts don’t look any better for the next couple of days – but at least we are sailing the rhumb line to Puget Sound.  We should arrive in the strait sometime Sunday evening…hopefully.   The GRIB files also indicate that we’ll be moving into a high pressure area, so hopefully we’ll see some clear skies as we enter the straits and the shipping channels.  I am so ready to get this boat to the dock!

Saturday, 21 June – awoke after a very long night of drifting around at the 3 knot variety.  With greater swells, that means that the discomfort level goes up significantly as the boat rolls more and the rigging makes its groans of discontent as well.  Pat was on the radio with a research vessel who spotted us on radar and was requesting we yield him a wider area as he had a submersible vessel below him…I can’t see how we were a threat in 20,000 feet of water (we draw 5…).  Actually, we heard each other’s fog horn.  We didn’t see him on our radar which is a bit scary.  Did I tell you it gets foggy up here?  It was like a scene out of Master and Commander waiting to see the enemy as they fire upon you through the dense fog and mist.  Anyway, we passed and then the wind continued to increase.  Before long we were sailing in great winds and even on the right course.  It ended up being a fantastic sailing day with many 7+ knot hours.  The batteries did extraordinarily well over night.  They were 12.4 when I got up.  The satellite phone really doesn’t hold the charge very long.  I put the inverter on to charge the phone and computers and the battery dropped to 12.1 almost immediately.  This was mostly due to the inverter which also had to be turned on to use the electric outlets.  The inverter is a little energy hog!  Fortunately, once the solar panels kicked in the charge came back up to 12.7 and we stayed fully charged all day long - much to my relief.

After a day of steady progress and strong winds tonight, we should arrive at the entrance to Juan de Fuca by mid-morning at the beginning of a flood tide and projected winds of 10-20 from the west…we should be sailing right up to the entrance of Port Angeles.  How great would that be?

Tonight is just beautiful and still very light with blue skies and more clearing every minute, even as late a 2030 hours.  Bob and Roger are on watch and steering the boat is real workout.  The boat is hauling ass.  We’ll see if the last remaining miles of this trip end up like they began…getting shot out of a cannon!

The 21^st drifted into the 22 bringing us ever closer to the coast.  With awesome winds through most of the night (at least until 0700), we were rapidly closing in on our target destination.  Then true to form, at least the form of this trip…the winds again moved dead aft and were down to 5 knots…here we go again.  The raucous winds of the night led to a tiring time for the crew as they hand-steered all night long with a pretty challenging weather helm (hard to keep the boat from heading up into the wind).  This was despite our reduced sail plan.  As the winds died in the early morning we caught the outline of the coast.  This is always a special time as it signifies the extent of our accomplishments – 2500 miles from shoreline to shoreline…pretty cool!  We got to watch that view for the next 12 hours too.  Our patience was yet again being challenged by the wind gods.  Fortunately, the batteries held up well allowing us to recharge the sat phone and run the chartplotter as we entered the strait.  We also felt more at ease about keeping the radar running through the night although the visibility wasn’t nearly as impaired as it had been the previous night.

Roger made numerous calls to secure our towing services for either our arrival at Port Angeles or further out  in the Strait if we didn’t have wind and encountered the inevitable adverse current.  We were probably more concerned than necessary, but my biggest fear was not having steerage with the currents, and getting stuck in the shipping lanes or too close to shore.  Any number of scenarios was running through my mind – none of them very good!   Everyone we spoke with sort of had that “what, are you stupid” sound to their voice.  The local conditions were blowing 15 – 25 knots out of the west to northwest.  This is perfect and what we wished for…we just didn’t see it out here.  We were bobbing around at 2 – 3 knots with 2 knots of current pushing us the wrong way…this would prove to be a very long day!  Needless to say, we were a little suspect of the information we were receiving as we were in a race with a fixed bouy…and losing!  All the towing services were reluctant to assist us this far out.  The locals were convinced we would see these great and favorable winds soon.   I think this was almost the most trying time for the crew.  They really were ready to end this saga and not too inclined to believe what we were hearing.  They were all voting for the TOW option.  The reality of it set in when nobody would come out to get us.  Our choices became very limited – we were sailing to Port Angeles!  That was actually a good thing because it got everyone refocused on the task at hand.  Poor Paul spent most of the day staring at his cell phone waiting to get a bar or two.  He would flip it up, look, and mutter words his mother probably thinks he doesn’t know yet.  Then 30 seconds later, this process was repeated.  Yes, it was a long day for all of us!

Finally, shortly after 5 PM…can you believe it…these much promised winds appeared building up to over 20 knots dead aft allowing us to now scream down the straight under a clear blue sky with an abundance of sunshine.  It was just as I’d imagined – the beauty of the mountains of Vancouver Island to our left, the rain forest of the Olympic Peninsula on our right, and Cutthroat’s sails billowing out wing-on-wing taking us to our destination.  We all enjoyed this glorious day!  We finally arrived at the entrance to Port Angeles at 0200 only to find out that the Vessel Assist team was delayed for another 1 ½ hours due to adverse weather (huge seas – like 13 ft and high winds slowing down their progress).  I told you nothing came easy on this trip.  So we just tacked back and forth under the mainsail and staysail for a couple of more hours.  By 0430 we were at the dock and greeted by Carol bearing hugs, kisses, and Champagne and Pizza!  Hans from the s/v Finte…one of our neighbors from Ko’Olina who left 8 days ahead of us also happened to be docked just ahead of us.  What a a nice surprise!

Well, that’s the final cruising essay.  We all slept late, met up for an early dinner as Pat and Carol were flying out Monday evening.  Chuck is planning on flying out next and Bob leaves for Vancouver tomorrow.  Paul remains with us until 2 July.  Now, comes the next work effort as we get the boat fixed up again and figure out the next step in the voyage.  The fuel guys stopped by on Monday to scope out the extent of work needed, so we’re already on the path to recovery.  We’ll keep you all posted as our plans develop.

We appreciate all the comments we’ve received from all of you and hope you enjoyed following our little journey.  We invite you to continue to follow the adventures of Cutthroat and see where it takes us next.

Love to all our friends and family,

Roger, Elise, Bob, Chuck, Pat and Paul…

s/v Cutthroat