We are looking forward to Sitka, Alaska (another state we have never been to). If all is well with Tomten after the passage, we plan on spending a week or so there and then heading to Gustavus and Glacier Bay hopefully with sister Abigail and Geoff on board.
We will enjoy our time with Rosie on this passage as she will be flying out of Sitka after a few weeks in Alaska. We expect to arrive towards the end of July. We can be reached while at sea at our iridium email (no attachments or photos please!)
We wanted to leave today but Friday is Not an option for mariners leaving on a major passage- bad juju and no one on this ship wants to mess with that. So we leave at dawn Saturday (Thompson dawn is generally around 9 a.m.)
We have said goodbyes, had last swims and ice creams. I baked a monster load of bread loaves to freeze before re-filling our propane so as not to use up our LPG at sea. The boat is groaning again with food and the good stuff is hidden away in lockers including secret snacks to be “found” mid passage.
We downloaded NOAA charts for SE Alaska and had them printed on blueprint paper at the local office store. The new Alaska/British Columbia digital charts have been loaded into the chartplotter. We have been in touch with Commander’s Weather Routing and purchased weather routing for our trip. The first 8 day package of weather arrived yesterday and looks good. We will be heading north initially to skirt the Pacific high.
We have spoken with Sitka harbor about arrival protocols, British Columbia about Covid restrictions and have been looking at Inside Passage cruising guides. We have also been reading Jonathan Raban’s Passage to Juneau and have copies of Joe Upton’s Journeys Through the Inside Passage: Seafaring Adventures Along the Coast of British Columbia and Alaska and Bering Sea fishery books as well as books by Emily Carr (Hundreds of Thousands and Klee Wyck) and books about the indigenous cultures of Alaska and B.C.
Our boat jobs are mostly done! Our boom vang that partially disintegrated on the way from Mexico has new cheek blocks, stiffer internal springs and boom bracket. We look forward to using it again as an integral part of our sail trim. Our main halyard that partially chafed through where the shackle holds it to the main sail at the top has a new splice courtesy of Paul. The SSB has been tweaked and tested by Paul with the help of friend Mark Green and Peter Northlund who runs a Pacific net from New Zealand. Our new watermaker is installed, a Katadyn 40E that runs quietly in the background off our solar and can be used manually if we were to lose power. I have made repairs on the boat canvas and Rosie and I installed the vinyl windows in the cockpit to guard against the Alaskan rains. Rosie has made endless trips to shore toting jerry cans filled with diesel, gasoline and water to fill our tanks. Thanks to Paul and Rosie the bottom of the dinghy and our boat and propeller have been scrubbed clean of the marine algal growth and barnacles that grow at an amazing rate in these tropical waters.
A few days ago a container ship limped in to Hilo Bay with a huge load of containers, a number of which were buckled and leaning drunkenly over the side of the ship. It turns out about 20 went overboard near to Hilo Bay. Some have been recovered, 10-12 are still “floating” out there. Every couple of hours, round the clock since, the Honolulu coast guard issues a Securité notice about the containers, warning mariners to keep an eye out….As a result we will post a very careful watch on the bow (Rosie will be tied in there with her morning tea)
The weather forecast from Commander’s is looking good: Below is an example of what we may be looking at:
Wind forecasts
Time is UTC (HST+10): wind directions are TRUE/wind speed in kts
Sat Jun 2700: 070-090/14-1806: 070-090/15-2012: 080-100/10-1518: 070-090/12-17, near 21 30n/155wPartly cloudy, chance of squally showers. ESE swell and NE wind waves combined to 5-7 ft
Sun Jun 2800: 060-080/10-1506: 060-080/10-15, turn right w the wind12: 100-120/10-1518: 110-130/8-14, near 23 30n/154 25wPartly cloudy, chance of squally showers. ESE swell turning NE, combined with E to SE wind waves to 5-7 ft
Mon Jun 2900: 100-120/8-1406: 090-110/8-1412: 100-120/8-1418: 080-100/8-14, near 25 15n/153 45wPartly cloudy, scattered squally showers. NE swell combined with ESE wind waves to 4-6 ft
Time to sign off and sleep…..
Sailing Tomten 
safe sailing!
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Fair winds and calm seas Tomten!
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