Paroled from Port Angeles

North to

Alaska Seattle 2008 Series

13 July 2008

Lat N48.07.072

Lon W123.27.367

That’s how we feel today…like we were just granted “parole” from our long internment in Port Angeles.  It’s certainly not that we have anything against the lovely city of Port Angeles or its residents.  As a matter of fact, people couldn’t have been more helpful and friendly to us in the past three weeks.  For example, our Marina Manager, Todd brought over half of a fresh Salmon already filleted along with lots of freshly caught Dungeness Crab he cooked for us.  How nice is that!  I tell you, if you’re going to get stuck - this is not a bad place to do it!

It’s just that we’re ready to get on with this adventure…and see someplace else, like the rest of the beautiful Pacific Northwest.

 So, to catch you up…here’s the short story on the past few days.  The parts that were supposed to arrive last Thursday didn’t.  So, it was another day of NOTHING getting done except miscellaneous boat tasks which need to happen regardless of where we are.  Friday, our next crew member, John Mirus flew in to Victoria and we met him at the Ferry station in Port Angeles.  It’s good to have him back aboard!  We picked up our rental car for the Enterprise weekend special (a pretty good deal if you ever need a rental car for any extended period of time).  We used them in Hawaii too.  Also on Friday, Mike our engine genius returned but with only the injector pumps (a new one for the engine and a rebuild of our Christine’s original pump).  The injectors didn’t make it for some reason and were supposed to be flown in for a Saturday delivery.  Needless to say, that didn’t happen as the UPS guy called Mike at home Saturday morning to tell him they weren’t on the plane…what a shock!  Sunday we spent a lovely day driving the rental buggy out to Cape Flattery which is the farthest northwest point on the contiguous United States.  While it was surrounded by a dense layer of fog, it was a beautiful scene.  We took lots of pictures after we walked out the last ½ mile of trail through the rainforest.  There were a surprising number of people out there looking for whales and other marine life.  We could hear seals barking in one of the deep caves although we never saw them.

Monday morning, the parole hearing started.  Mike called early with good news.  The rest of the parts were in and he was on his way over.  After installing everything…we waited with baited breath to see what would happen.  To our joy and amazement, both the engine and the generator cranked up just fine.  Christine held a heavy load for an extended period of time and sounded better than ever.  The engine (yes, still unnamed) also cranked up effortlessly.  We went out for a test ride and things worked just fine.  As you can imagine, we were ecstatic!  Now, we can finally plan our departure.

Monday also brought us an unexpected visitor.  Our good friend, John Starke (we bought John and Pat’s house in Florida) called to say he was on his annual Miata roadtrip and was in Port Angeles, WA.  That gets a BIG – GO FIGURE!  He was with his friend Bob in their twin yellow and blue Miata’s.  Anyway they spent a good part of the day with us to include joining us for the test ride and then back for pupu’s and off to dinner.  So, this turned out to be a great day!

Tomorrow we leave for Victoria, BC.  Victoria is the capital of British Columbia and a beautiful little city.  We will clear through Canadian customs there and plan our next step as we begin to north through the Gulf Islands of British Columbia.  Perhaps we will even catch up with some of our friends who are already up there.

Probably won’t get much internet connectivity or cell phones once we’re in Canada, so we’ll be back on the Iridium system for the next couple of weeks.  We will keep updating our Position Report through YOTREPS so everyone can track our progress and of course look forward to your emails and comments on the website.

Also added to the website are an assortment of pictures taken on our passage from Hawaii.  Check them out in the Gallery Tab at the top of the page…

We look forward to continuing the adventure and hope you’ll continue to join us!

Roger, Elise and John

s/v Cutthroat

North to

Alaska Seattle 2008 Series

4 July 2008Lat N48.07.072

Lon W123.27.367

Still in Port Angeles…

As cruisers throughout the world say, the definition of cruising is “fixing your boat in exotic places.” Now if you think about it, that implies that it broke down or suffered some form of trauma somewhere enroute and you need to get to a place (hopefully exotic) where you can fix it.  The reality is that despite all the preparation, planning and accumulation of spare parts, things are going to break, wear out, and/or disintegrate…whatever you want to call it.  Some work is typically required at the other end of your journey’s rainbow.

Well, I wouldn’t call Port Angeles, WA exotic by any stretch of one’s imagination.  But we could be in worse places…like someplace where you also can’t get work done.  At least we have a plentiful supply of fuel experts and engine mechanics.  On a positive note, we could also be in Sitka, AK where I’m sure you could get great work done, but we would up against a time clock – the weather.  So all things considered, we continue to count our blessings!

Yes, I’m looking for the positives after 10 days here, and no end in sight yet.  Whenever you discover that the monthly slip fee is now cheaper than the per day cost, you know you’ve been there too long.  We had 225 gallons of watered down, emulsified fuel sucked out of the boat, an inspection plate installed (that was the time delay, waiting for the part), and 280 gallons of new fuel added.  Everyone was very hopeful that the clean fuel would solve the problem and we’d be on our way.  The engine mechanic, Mike, is here now…and not exactly the bearer of good news.  He is removing the injectors and injector pumps  from the engine and generator.   Those will be sent to the big city of Seattle to the injector doctor.  Unfortunately he’s not as enthusiastic about the outlook for poor Christine, the generator.  Perhaps our burial at sea theme would have been best.  Needless to say, it doesn’t look like we will be “well on our way” by Monday…so much for that thought. 

As far as things to do here, the list is a long one.  Olympic National Park is right at our doorstep offering great views and hiking in the nearby rainforest.  The Olympic Peninsula is full of Indian Villages, and small towns with beautiful lavender plants.  We’ve driven to Port Townsend twice (a bigger small town about 45 miles away that offers everything in boat fixer-upper options plus your typical array of artsy-fartsy shops and eateries).  From Port Angeles there is a ferry to Victoria, British Columbia…a virtual city.  We spent Saturday there enjoying the Tall Ships exhibit that happened to be in town for the weekend.    It was a beautiful day with the temperatures in the mid-80’s and clear blue skies…not a typical day here, by the way.  With the exception of the weekend, the weather has been cold and dreary.  Sometimes the sun pokes its head out and reminds us it is really summer, but we’re dressed in jeans and sweaters – jackets if you go anyplace, and of course socks.  Those sandals and T-shirt days are long gone. 

We packed Paul out and put him on a flight to meet his Mom in Georgia and continue to New York to attend a cousin’s wedding.  He was a lot of fun to have aboard - an excellent crew and worker.  We are already missing the “little boy” along with his sense of humor and high energy.  He did eat a lot; however, and in addition to requiring food every 3-4 hours, was always looking for brownies and ice cream thus ruining our diet.    Fortunately, we’re still benefiting from the at-sea 10 lb weight loss.  Another week with Paul, and that benefit would be gone too. 

Well, Mike the engine guru just left.  He mailed off the injectors and injector pumps and promises to return probably next Thursday with the repaired parts.  Then we’ll see where this takes us.  Hopefully, things will be functioning again…but there’s no certainty right now.  I’m so glad we’re not in Alaska…and glad we got fuel yesterday…God knows what the price will be next week. 

We’re looking forward to a rip-roaring Fourth of July and wish you a wonderful holiday celebration of the liberties and freedom we enjoy in the USA.  Thanks to all our soldiers, sailors, airmen and Marines for the ongoing sacrifices they make to preserve our freedom.

I’ll add pictures from our voyage this coming week. 

Lots of Love to our Friends and Family,

Roger and Elises/v Cutthroat

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.

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North to Alaska Seattle 2008 Series
21 June 2008
Lat N48.00.000
Lon W128.29.649

Apparently my attempt at humor served only to cause some of you alarm.  My apologies…we are getting a little giddy out here at this point and find humor in lots of places.  Just for clarification, the sad news reported was the death of our dear Christine…the generator - the thing that provides power and water making capability.  I didn’t want to tell the whole story because I was afraid of jinxing the engine…but that no longer matters as it is also incapable of providing any battery power.  The good news is that our batteries held up very well last night and with a bit of a solar boost today should take us nicely into the Strait.

We continue to be in power conservation mode, so we’re not making a lot of phone calls or emails any longer.  The winds are now with us and if they hold up (that’s a big if too…) we should arrive in the strait sometime tomorrow.  As soon as we get to Port Angeles, we’ll get an update to you.

Roger, Elise, Bob, Chuck, Pat and Paul…
s/v Cutthroat