Exploring Chichigof and Relearning old Lessons

Dear friends and family,

Hongvi and I are at the dock in Sitka waiting for guests and to enjoy the small town vibes of an old fashioned Fourth of July festival here. I also had to get patched up for an infection on my back and the urgent care doc did a good job at that. I thought maybe I could do it in the mirror with a scalpel, but in hindsight am glad I waited until someone else, slightly more capable than I, could do it. If you are readying this Dr T know that I am joking. 

I was told by the Harbormaster that indeed, the recreational boat traffic is way low this year and the only time that it might be hard to get a slip would be the week before and the week after the fourth. Perfect timing, since that was the plan for this year, but got a dock and am hanging on to it through the holiday.

I wrote in my last post about the rough water in the Gulf of Alaska, with the waves from one direction and the swell from another, causing a weird and uncomfortable motion at sea. Almost (saved by time exposed to it) enough to get this skipper sick, which does not happen often.

I guess I am a slow learner, or have forgotten what I used to know. My father used to say “I’ve forgotten more than you know” which always confused me about whether that was a compliment or not to whoever he was speaking to or about.

Anyways, I had forgotten. Forgotten a lesson learned the hard way (which one might think would stick) about leaving just after a storm and not letting the sea have a day or few to settle again.

When I left England for Spain in 1986 on our newly constructed 36 foot steel boat, we were in a hurry to depart, as any days stayed after the seven we were granted post delivery from the builder would trigger a 15% VAT tax, which we for sure wanted to avoid.

The tale end of a hurricane named Charlie had crossed the Atlantic following the Gulf Stream to arrive past Falmouth, on the southwest part of England. I was following it and knew that we would leave just over a day after it passed, so figured we would be safe sailing south.

Turned out that we did leave, but the sea state was still really rough, leftover from the storm. We got as far as the separation zones at the start of the English Channel and what looked like highway traffic of ships and the rough seas forced us to turn back and head back into Falmouth Harbor. 

I went immediately to the customs office and pleased “force majeure”.

Force Majeure is a legal term that means that due to unforeseen and unavoidable disasters that any legal contract can be temporarily nullified. Like a VAT tax due in seven days if there is a potential disaster at sea for us. They followed the maritime law and granted us three more days to let the sea settle and reset the VAT clock until then.

And off we went two days later into a much better sea condition.

But, since that was such a traumatic start to my first ocean voyage, you might think that if I saw a low pressure gale system in the Gulf of Alaska, that I might wait more than one day after to enter those seas. One might think.

So, reinforced by more learning now, I got to enjoy the remainder of my voyage down the outside of Chichigof Island. I had every anchorage to myself and saw two boats from a distance going by, but no one anywhere near. It was just me and the bears and eagles.

Being on a boat it is easy to get unfit, so I try to either swim if the water is 50 degrees F or over (it was 51 out there) or row my sliding seat dinghy or lift weights and do core exercises using the exercise bands and kettle bells. I sure sleep better post exercise and it keeps my anxiety about the weather and boat under control. I might pay more attention to where I am going while rowing, facing backwards as I almost rowed right up to a rather hulking brown (grizzly) bear on the shore. 

As I was mostly motoring around the island of Chichigof I got to thinking that to make this enjoyable it is not the destination nearly as much to me as the journey of being on a relatively small boat and running the boat systems and navigating carefully and working with the weather presented.

A small boat like this is a bit like running a small city. I have power plants to manage, sewer systems, water supply, food and cooking gas and all the systems to run those. It takes planning and management of those as well as maintenance and repairs. 

I find it a very rewarding experience, that whole system management. I love planning with the navigation, the tides, the currents, and getting thet boat safely though all of that. If my only enjoyment were the arriving at destinations and visiting there, I would not partake in this lifestyle. 

Now I am off to enjoy the beautiful city of Sitka. It feels quite hot here, yesterday got up to 56 degrees F, so will have to be careful of the heat. Believe it or not, there are heat warnings here when the forecast shows above seventy or even into eighty degrees inland. Kind of Alaska’s version of the heat dome in Europe. 

Until then, sending love,

Charley