Racing up the Alaskan Peninsula

2014-08-31

One of the reasons we stopped in Dutch Harbour was to drop off David who had to go back to school and to pick up Monty a good friend of Bill’s who will be sailing with us back to Juneau.

Here is a picture of David and Ken whooping it up on the back deck.

Here is a picture of a dragger, the life blood of Dutch Harbour.

 They harvest 2 billion pounds of pollock a year. Here is a picture of a grizzled old sea otter that was hanging out near the dock.

Well we haven’t been doddering around since we left Dutch Harbour.

We left Dutch Harbour at about eight thirty in the morning and arrived at Akutan Pass at slack tide. Much to my disappointment there were not as many birds around as when we came through in earlier. I did snap a bunch of pictures of Auklets and hope to identify them later. I did nail a picture of a Whiskered Auklet. It is not cover material but you can see the field marks.

 As we headed out into the open Pacific and Unimak Pass the wind increased to about twenty knots behind us. We did see one ship carrying logs but visibility was good and it was easy to avoid.

 I went to rest up for my night watch. When I awoke we were approaching the Alaskan Peninsula and we got some great views of a smoking volcano through breaks in the cloud.

Later as I started my watch I got to see a sky bright with stars, a sight not seen since early spring.

All day we have been motoring along behind a bunch of Islands hugging the Alaskan Peninsula. We did see a small sailboat go sailing by. He had perfect wind and was on a beam reach heading Southwest down the peninsula.

2014-09-01

This morning we put up all the sails and the boat has been moving faster with a lot less rolling. Later in the afternoon I took some kite aerial shots.

2014-09-02

When I awoke this morning we were just entering Kupreonof Strait which seperates Kodiak  and Whale Island. We got to see our first forest since July 15^th.

Got to see some finn whales on the west side of Kupreonof Pass.

will post whale pics later

0200 am Sept 3^rd

And now we are racing across the Gulf of Alaska towards Seward. It is blowing 20-25 and seas are big. Things are rocking and rolling. We should be in Seward tomorrow afternoon. Then the other adventure begins. The trip across the Gulf with two sailboats.

1130 Sept 3rd 

Arrived in Seward. Weather is gorgeous.