Across the Gulf and Home

Here is a picture of the first trees we saw in over a month. This is the North entrance to Kupreonof Strait.

Here are the pictures of the finn whales as promised. I think they are finn whales.

Across the Gulf

2014-09-06

We spent three intense days in Seward getting Gipsy ready for the trip back to Juneau. A high pressure system moved in and we had some pretty warm clear weather. I learned how to put eye splices in our eight strand braided tow line. I dove four times on Gipsy to clean the mussels off the bottom and propeller.

Travis, our new crew member showed up on Saturday, after listening to the weather once again we decided to leave Saturday night. Jeff another volunteer crew member showed up at the last minute and we shoved off.

The weather has been spectacular so far. For the most part the seas have been calm and the swell is moderate. We are travelling at a slower pace to accommodate Gipsy. We passed Kayak Island about three hours ago and we should be off Yakatat about midnight tomorrow. Then we will decide to go for it or stay and wait it out.

2014-09-08 1900hr

We have been running for forty eight hours. Out the porthole the sea is calm as glass. For the most part the weather has been perfect since leaving Seward. Right now we are thirty five miles offshore of Yakatat. We received the weather this morning and it looks like we might be able to get to Cape Spencer before the next low moves in. In the meantime we are taking it easy and looking at the gorgeous views of the Saint Ellias Mountains.  Gipsy seems to be running fine. They are following us about two miles back. They don’t have an autopilot so are using Lindy to steer by. The moon is full and it is a real pleasure to run at night and actually be able to see something.

Anyways with any luck we should be rounding Cape Spencer tomorrow at this time.

2014-09-10

We got around Cape Spencer without incident. Because of the ebb current in South Inian Pass we had to anchor up for a couple of hours. We all had supper together and then it was off down Icy Strait and the last 70 to eighty miles of our 4500 mile trip.

We arrived off Bill’s dock at about 0830 in the morning and promptly went aground due to the extreme low tide. We all had breakfast on board and waited for the boat to float off.

About an hour later we tied both boats off to the dock and the journey was over.

( 69 days 4500 nautical miles ) 

We spent two more days working on the boats then it was time to hop on the ferry back to Skagway and the road back home.

This blog thing really didn't work out very well for this trip. I hope to put together a web page and will post it here when I am finished.