Alaska Pictures!!

I've finally uploaded some of our favorite pics from our time in Alaska this summer. You can check out all the fun here:

• Alaska - Sitka and area
• Alaska - Glacier Bay
• Alaska - Juneau and area
• Alaska - Prince of Wales Island

One of these days, I might attempt to tackle our pictures of the BC coast and Haida Gwaii! 

Haida Gwaii - Skedans

We left Sandspit following SV Piraeus over the bar and south along the coast of Moresby. After a beautiful sail south, we rafted to Pireaus in front of the ancient Haida village of Skedans or K'uuna Llnagaay.

Mary and Walter, the on-site Haida Watchmen, welcomed us on the beach, and
gave us a tour of the site. We were in awe at the old longhouse pits and
felt fortunate to see memorial poles, mortuary poles, and even house corner
posts. Their tour was excellent, and we were able to compare the current
artifacts with pictures taken in the early 1900s. Very cool.

Our hosts were quick to forgive John's comment about the tasty looking deer
on the beach (which turned out to be Mary's pet) and they were kind and
generous hosts, teaching us about this site and the Haida culture.

Mary was filleting a halibut when we arrived, and generously shared some
with Bill and his guests aboard Piraeus. He invited us to join them for
dinner, and we gladly pulled together some appies and chocolate cupcakes to
celebrate George's birthday aboard. What a feast we had!

We followed s/v Piraeus out of the inlet and over the bar.

Mary's 'tasty-looking' pet.

Mary filleting a nice halibut behind John

This is a horizontal memorial pole. Look closely at the pic below.

Yep - one and the same.

A memorial pole for an important member of the Eagle Clan - whose wealth and importance must have been great, as evidenced by the number of potlatch rings on the pole.

This pole is slowly returning to the earth, yet markings of a whale fin are still visible.

Prince of Wales

Here's a few pics from our trip down the west coast of Prince of Wales Island, Alaska.

Humpback whale in Sumner Strait

Entering Hole in the Wall

Faithful captain keeping watch in the rain

Tlevak Narrows

Totems in Klawock

Totems in Klawock

Sea Otter in Sea Otter Sound

Three bears playing in Waterfall

Humpback breaching (Blurry...but you get the idea)

Sunrise in Nichols Bay

Glacier Bay

What an amazing place. We were able to get a four day permit to visit this
National Park and UN Biosphere Reserve. We weren't planning to come here,
but we're glad we did. Our first day, we were able to see orca, humpbacks,
sea lions, sea otters, and a moose! And it was sunny!

Here's some fast Glacier Bay facts:
- The Park is over 3 million acres - the size of Connecticut
- Last night, the tide went from 18ft to -5ft.
- 250 years ago, there was no Glacier Bay - it was all ice.
- Glaciers have now receded 60 miles to the head of the bay.
- Most glacier here are receding, except two (one growing/one stable).
- 2 cruise ships, 3 tour boats, 6 charter boats, and 25 private vessels are permitted in the park each day.

Here's a few snaps...
 

 

Puffin

Sea Otters were EVERYWHERE...and crabs were not

This guy was near the visitor centre!

Brrr...a chilly Alaskan day

Hanging with the bergs - an amazing way to spend one's birthday!!

Charged by a Grizzly Sow

Yep - thought I'd get right to the point with that title. No guessing here.

We were walking returning along a boardwalk trail from a nice dip at the
White Sulphur Hot Springs, chatting away, when we heard THE SNORT.

Our ears picked up. I hear John murmur, "there's a bear...it has a cub".
This is not good news.

The cub quickly scampers up a tree, and the sow turns to us. This all
happens in a milli-second, and I'm still processing what that SNORT implies.
John turns and says, "RUN". Oh gawd. The fear of running in full yellow
slicker raingear, down a slipperier-than-snot boardwalk from a charging
behemoth of a grizzly bear is significant, I assure you. Of course, in my
mind, I'm thinking, this is bad, really bad. I glance over my shoulder, John
is herding me along, and this BIG BLACK face is barrelling down the trail
after us. Again - Oh GAWD.

Somehow, we decide to stop running. We've only gone maybe 20 meters or so,
but we both know you are not supposed to run. But, I've discovered it is
really hard to NOT run, from a charging bear. I cower behind a tree, John is
beside me with his pack in front of him, ready to throw it at the bear or
something. But she stops. She roars. She paws at the ground. She stands on
her hind legs. OK OK I get it. We're SO leaving.

She made these marks after stopping her charge...just 20 feet from us!

We high tail it back the way we came. It felt like we'd only been walking
for a few minutes before we met the bear, but our return trip to the
springs, and the comforting variety of guns that we'd seen there, seemed to
take an eternity. We were both babbling with the shock of what just happened
and grinning from ear to ear with the luck of being able to walk away. We
also were both straining our necks behind us to be sure she didn't change
her mind.

The crew was surprised to see us return so quickly, and were pretty alarmed
at our story. It turns out that this is not a normal Alaskan experience,
even for these guys, who live in the wilderness for months at a time. Simian
and Jenson were planning on exploring the trail anyway, so they offered to
walk back with us. After resting for an hour or so, we prepared for second
attempt to return down the trail with our dinghy.

As much as I hate guns, I've never been happier to see a couple guys holster
their pistols, and load up the shotgun. On the return trip, we saw the trail torn up with huge paw prints, and saw where she stopped, only 20 feet from the tree I was 'hiding' behind.

We didn't see mama and her cub again.

White Sulphur Hot Springs

We had a great trip from Klag Bay to White Sulphur Hot Springs. We left late in the day to time the tides, and spent the day in the cockpit despite the persistent rains. Highlights were the sea otters in Ogden Passage and many humpback whales outside of Fleming Channel.

This trip into the West Arm of Mirror Harbor was our tightest passage yet. Rocks were everywhere. We moved at a snail's pace, in neutral gear, just engaging forward every now and again to maintain steerage. the *'s on our chartplotter below indicate rocks - the ones that are charted. 
 

The red line is our boat's track. The *'s are the rocks.

Our efforts were well rewarded. We arrived late in the day, so decided to delay our visit to the springs until the next day. We packed our lunch and made our way down the short, 15 minute trail to the Forest Services site. We were expecting a cabin that is rented out by the USFS, but we had heard that it was often empty, because the site is so remote.

In fact, we arrived to find 5 people there! These were contractors for the USFS, who were there to build a new cabin, and would be staying for a month. They had just arrived the day before, and we had noticed their float plane overhead several times during the day. They took three loads to get all their gear to the site, and the building materials were arriving separately!

After a nice chat with the crew, John and I enjoyed the tub and our packed lunch.

Since today was the first day on site, the crew were having a slow day - getting set up and having a rest - they had come straight from another remote building project! We enjoyed chatting with them. And as soon as we left on our way, John pointed out the pistols that each of them were wearing and the shotgun that stood by the door. Well. This is the USA, after all. 

And...in the end, we were grateful for those guns...

Good Starfish, Bad Starfish

We are always learning on this adventure. We've learned that not all
starfish are good. The Crown of Thorns starfish are interesting
critters...central body with 'legs' similar to other starfish. But the
number of legs is more than 5. And not necessarily multiples of five. They
eat coral. They are eaten by Napoleon Wrasse and other big (and locally
absent) fish.


Here on Majuro Atoll and adjacent Arno Atoll, these starfish are in the
midst of a population boom. The scientists don't really understand very much
about them and are not sure what causes these localized explosions. But they
do know that where these leggy critters are in abundance, the coral is
decimated.

An instructor at College of Marshall Islands (CMI) and the local fishing
industry association (MIMRA) have joined efforts in an eradication program.
We were asked to join in the effort. So John, Mike (my brother), and I
joined five cruisers and 10 others and jumped on one of the local fishing
transport boats to nearby Arno Atoll. Even though we were planning to stay
only one night, we were loaded to the gills. On board was dive and snorkel
equipment for everyone, 2 dozen tanks, food, coolers, sleeping equipment and
so on. We could have stayed a week! The trip was fast, travelling at least
20 knots - we arrived in less than an hour, propelled by two huge 150hp
engines on the back of this open vessel.

We arrived and staked out the accommodations at a local B&B. Shortly
thereafter, we had a brief intro from Dean, the CMI instructor to discuss
what we were looking for, how we would capture them, and how to avoid being
stung by their sharp thorns. We were diving at night, as that is when they
are most active, and will be easiest to capture.

At 8pm, we all (remember - 18 of us) jumped into the back of a truck for the
ride to the boat. We spent an hour sorting out our gear and getting suited
up and then the boat dropped us onto the reef, just 100m away from the dock.
We worked in pairs or triplets, with some people responsible for scanning
and searching for animals, others wielding the long handled bbq tongs for
their removal, and all of us with multiple straw sacks tucked into our
BCD's/wetsuits that we were to fill with dozens of creatures.

After an hour of searching John, Mike and I had caught one starfish. ONE.
Most other dive teams had similar luck, with only two or three animals. The
snorkellers were having much better luck in shallow water, but we didn't
know that until we all rendezvoused back on the boat. Our trip definitely
added to the knowledge pool on this creature: shallow areas were preferred,
rather than the deeper sites; animals remain hidden and are not especially
active during the full moon; and coral with bleached spots may indicate a
nearby starfish.

All in all, it was a good trip. We did some snorkelling the next morning,
and a few more Crown of Thorns were added to the 45 that we collected the
previous night. The coral at Arno is some of the most beautiful we've seen
anywhere in the Pacific, such diversity and explosions of colour. Fabulous.

On the move again...

After an incredible 2+ weeks at Suwarrow, we're now on route to Pago Pago in
American Samoa. We've got a beautiful breeze from the stern and we're
sailing along wing-on-wing. We left yesterday with La Familia, and although
we may be slightly ahead of them, they are winning the fishing derby.
They've just caught a nice mahi mahi. John has switched lures and we're
hoping to catch up. After all...there is some good chocolate promised to the
winner!

Dolphins have visited on John's watch, all is well on board. The trip is
about 450 nautical miles, so we expect to arrive Sunday night, or Monday
morning.

Current Position is:
1015 Samoa Time (-11GMT)
13 24.1S
164 39.1W

Passage Preparations

For Dom's final day in Santa Cruz, we wandered around the Charles Darwin Centre - with it's tortoise breeding program and giant enclosures that let you wander around with the big beasts! We saw several different species, but had trouble finding Lonesome George - the last of his species. It was interesting, although very similar to the breeding centre that we had already visited on San Cristobel Island.

After our usual Almuerso (lunch special), John wasn't feeling well and returned to the boat, so Dom and I jumped in a cab, and went off to explore the lava tubes. Our taxi driver served as our tour guide, and took us about 25 minutes out of town to a private farm where we were directed to don rubber boots in order to stampede through the mucky farm in search of more
tortugas. We only saw one, but we didn't mind, we had seen many tortoises already on this trip. The highlight for us was wandering through the enormous lava tubes, formed by the lava flowing within hardened volcanic rock creating tunnels that were often 10 feet wide and up to 40 feet high. Only one time did we have to crawl on our hands and knees in order to creep under an unusually low overhang to pop out the other side. Our guide/driver was wise enough to drop us at one side of the tunnel, and pick us up at the far side, some 15 minutes later. Although there were a couple of tour buses also looking for tortoises on the farm, we felt lucky to be the only
visitors to the lava tubes.

We celebrated Dom's last night with lobster dinner on the malecon, and we were sad to see him leave the following morning. He's been a great crew - standing watches with us, cooking, cleaning, easy going, and hasn't even had too much trouble adapting to cruiser's midnight...usually around 9pm. (We used to laugh about that too...but you really are tired out here!)

Now we're working on our final preparations before we set off again on our next passage, to the Marquesas, approximately 3000 miles from here. We have arranged for fuel and water to be delivered to the boat tomorrow (Thursday), so we expect that we'll be ready to leave Thursday night, or Saturday morning, after all...a very old mariners' superstition dictates that you never begin a voyage on a Friday!

Arrived at Isla Santa Cruz

For our final day at Isla Isabela, we rented bikes and rode up to the Muro de los Lagrimes - the Wall of Tears. Many years ago, the island was used for a penal colony, and the inmates were forced to build this enourmous wall with severe consequences for working too slow or stepping out of line in any way. The wall was huge, and must have been extremely difficult to build. There were viewpoints and a freshwater swimming hole along the way, so we enjoyed our morning trek.

Dom has introduced us to the fabulous Almuerso...or the lunch special. Essentially this is a set menu with juice, soup of the day, and a main course with fish or meat, rice and beans or salad. And all for $3 or 4. For that price, we can't usually be bothered to cook on the boat!!

Our trip to our third Island in the archipelago, Isla Santa Cruz, was uneventful. We left before daylight, and followed our GPS trail back out of the harbour, under the light of the moon. We took turns napping, keeping watch, avoiding the rain showers, and arrived at sunny Puerto Ayora in mid-afternoon. After a brief siesta, we went ashore in search of our agent...and to check in with the Port Captain. After a couple of failed attempts we were told to return in the morning.

We spent the rest of the afternoon exploring town, and bought a lovely piece of albacore tuna for dinner. Sushimi again for dinner!!

Images from the 'Slow Boat to China'

We not-so-fondly referred to ourselves as being on the 'Slow Boat to China' on our passage from Mexico to the Galapagos. Here are a few of the images that we captured along the way.

Dolphins visited us daily, and when we were moving fast enough, they liked to play in our bow wake.


I dove mid-ocean to cool off, and to check on the status of our zinc:Once John determined that I wasn't going to get eaten by a shark, he jumped in for a dip too:

This boobie isn't walking on water - he's riding on the back of a turtle. We know this because we were adrift beside him for over an hour!!


We caught this lovely tuna, and it made delicious sashimi!!

Boobies were forever trying to hitchhike a lift:
These guys also liked to travel beneath the shade of Renova:

We celebrated crossing the equator in style:

La Paz to Isabela

Staying in La Paz, we were going squirrely,
So we left for Los Muertos, bright and early.

It was flat calm, so we motored all day,
Arrived mid-afternoon to this beautiful bay.

With the hook set, we jumped right in,
Paddled and floated, and went for a swim.

Pisces arrived very soon after,
We had dinner and drinks, shared stories and laughter.

The next day was mellow - we read our books,
But near to the shore, we were drawn to have a look,

Earl, in his dinghy, caught three big fish,
He dropped one on our boat, as if he knew our wish.

Happy hour was hosted by Earl and Louise,
Then dinner was served aboard Pisces.

We rose early to see gray whales breach in the bay,
Weighed anchor, pointed east and set the sails for the day.

The wind came and it left, we went with the flow,
We took turns at the helm and resting below.

We saw rays and turtles, on the surface they lie,
Boobies hitched a ride, by perching up high.

We were at sea for three days and two nights,
The moon was so full, behold, what a sight!

Isla Isabela welcomed us with a pod of whales,
We anchored at the south and pulled down our sails.

Looking forward to exploring the rest of the Isle,
But first we must rest - for just a little while.

Isla Espiritu Santos...Boobies!

Yes, the title is a blatent attempt at gleening more visitors via keyword searches. I'll let you know how it goes.

But it isn't completely unmerited. We spent the weekend at two islands near La Paz, Isla Espiritu Santo and Isla Partida. These are now a national park site, and are a wildlife mecca. We saw Brown Boobies, Magnificant Frigatebirds, brown pelicans, turtles and many others. At the north end of Partida you can swim with a tame group of sea lions, but we decided to save that for another day.
At the islands we hiked on shore amid cacti and gecko to explore the beaches and fishing camps. John was ever hopeful with a fishing line off the stern of the boat...and even a small line off the dinghy as we went to shore. We swam in glorious, torquoise waters (and scrubbed the hull, while we were there). We devoured a fabulous fresh-caught snapper meal on board Wandering Star, along with the crews of Magenta, and Jesse's Girl.After this quick 2-day escape, we're now back in La Paz. We wanted to try to get a spear fishing gun for John, have someone look at our non-starting 1972 outboard engine, and stock up on a few odds and ends and provisions, once again. And...perhaps one more lunch at the ever-delightful Mercado Bravo.