Ladyhawke

We left Valdez and motored-sailed non-stop, until we got to Yakutat 55 hours later. A big “Thank You” to Melissa and Kent Sonnek for the delicious wine and SeaSalt Caramel cheesecake! What a great send-off for the next segment of our journey. 


No seasickness to report, or really bad weather either. Our only concern was that Sydney still isn't comfortable going “potty” on the boat. This led to not just one, but two beds with accidents on them, thus making it difficult for us to find a comfortable place to sleep during each “shift.” We had to settle on taking turns on the bench seat in the galley (main cabin). These shifts basically consisted of two hours of rest, not really sleep. So while Paul would take watch looking for other ships, debris, etc, I would lay down for two hours, 2.5 if he was able to let me sleep more and vice versa. We would then switch and then he would rest for 2 (+) hours while I kept watch. After a few of these shifts, I was reminded of the movie “Ladyhawk” with Matthew Broderick, Rutger Hauer, and Michelle Pfeiffer. We would see each other a couple of minutes, report on anything to pay attention to, then the sleeper would rest. We really only did this at night and spent our days together hanging out, laying in the sun, snacking on provisions, etc.

When we made it to Yakutat, we were lucky enough to be docked next to Leonard's Landing Lodge, which offered laundry service and a computer that we took advantage of to check emails and Facebook, and to clean the bedding. Due to inclement weather, we spent around 4 days there, but are not complaining as there were plenty of bald eagles to watch, as well as black-tailed deer, and the views were amazing.







With a well-needed rest, and plenty of potty breaks for Sydney, we finally left Yakutat on Saturday, July 25th at 8:00am. This is where the next series of complications began to unravel. Almost exactly 12 hours after we left Yakutat, our engine completely cut out. The bottom line is we ran out of fuel. But that was just in the one tank. In the 2nd tank there was apparently some bad fuel. Then Paul found, as he tirelessly worked 3 hours non-stop to diagnose the problem(s), the nut on the alternator rattled loose and this affected the main battery. As soon as the engine cut out, we raised sails, but there was barely any wind. During the next 3 hours, we sailed between 1.3 and 4.5 knots. It was sure good to hear the rattle and hum of the boat motor again once he got it fixed. Paul is a pretty amazing guy.

We were finally on our way, but low on overall fuel. We added another 20 gallons from our jerry cans. We were hoping to make it to Elfin Cove and spend a day or two there refueling and seeing some sights, and we literally arrived on fumes. However, it was also the time of day that floatplanes depart with multiple passengers (no warning via radio, thanks). And wouldn't you know it, one touched down and headed for the same area that we were supposed to dock or “raft” to another boat. He came in fast, landed within 10' from it's wingtip to the beam of our boat in a narrow, shallow canal. He then pulled in front of us with his wingtip within 3' of our bow-sprit. Earlier, upon preparing to raft to other vessels, I untied our dinghy, tied it to another post, and then prepared another rope to raft to another sailboat. The advancement of the floatplane to our sailboat meant that Paul had to gun us into reverse so that we could avoid any damage from their wingtip. After a few minutes I look back to see a lone dinghy in the harbor. My heart sank when I realized it was OURS! I alerted Paul, but we couldn't turn around in the tight area we were in (also there was another issue that we would learn about soon), not to mention the floatplane loading passengers. The dinghy-rescue cost us a bottle of Jaeger when other folks in a small skiff retrieved it for us (that's how Debbie barters).


So, it turns out that when Paul reversed the boat, the dinghy line went into the propeller. We thought it bent the propeller shaft. The good news is that a gentleman named Jim of “Let's Go,” decided to send his Go-Pro camera down to take a look (why didn't we think of that?). It didn't look as bad as we thought as we feared a bent shaft. We will certainly find out the next time we run the motor for a while. Paul was able to purchase a new rope from the Elfin Cove general store, and a fisherman named Gary, who was rafted to our port side, beautifully wove an end-loop into our new painter line (dinghy rope). The people here are pretty amazing. I'm going to end this blog with a few more pictures of a beautiful sunset near St Elias, some Orcas that were playing behind our boat in the Gulf of Alaska, and beautiful scenes we encountered on our walk on one of the trails in Elfin Cove. Next stop Hoonah!







Debbie

Comments

  1. UnknownJuly 28, 2015 at 10:51 PM

    Oh my goodness, what a story. so glad all worked out. my stomach was in knots just reading this. great pics, so beautiful. Cont to be safe and have fun. Take more gas cans :)

    ReplyDelete

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