Pacific NW

Expeditions

Many strange thoughts go through my mind while standing the night watch at sea. Especially here in the Gulf, when I was tired but alert. Neptune was catching some sleep down below and I was all alone on deck. It was 20-25 knots of west wind and driving spray, the boat pounding violently into the waves. Steering by the compass gives you vertigo at night, producing dizziness and disorientation. I was very pleased to see a few stars despite the full moon at my back. I peered around the dodger and steered to the stars for a few hours. I thought for a long time about how everything is constantly moving–me, the boat through the waves, the mountains lifting from the sea and the glaciers pouring off them, and even the stars I was steering by drifting slowly through space. Nothing ever comes to rest. And things certainly were not at rest aboard “Silent Partner” tonight!! At one point I tried to mix up a bowl of tuna fish. The boat dropped into a trough and slammed hard. WHAM! All loose articles throughout the cabin flew about. I looked into the bowl of tuna fish and discovered a pencil, pocketknife, and flashlight that had somehow made it into the mix! Neptune and I pulled two-hour shifts at the helm throughout the night and into the morning. I caught 10 minutes of sleep here and there, drank coffee, and we listened to the radio really loud. Eventually the swell moderated a bit and the boat stopped pounding, but it was still rough enough that you couldn’t stand up. I looked at “Silent Partner” with “Modulus” perched on deck and they came alive in my thoughts. “Silent Partner” was communicating a sense of eagerness as she bounced along on her mission through the waves. “Modulus”, clinging tight on the back of the mothership, was enjoying the ride. I got the sensation that I was being pulled along across the Gulf by my two boats. Perhaps it was fatigue and delirium, but I do swear that “Silent Partner” has a mind of her own and I can sometimes read what is on it. I was so tired of the pounding in the night, but a huge smile crept across my face as I listened to my boats and it got me through the darkest hours of the night. In the twilight before the dawn we made our general approach into Yakutat Bay, the only “safe” harbor between Prince William Sound and SE Alaska’s Inside Passage. Heavy fog and an enormous groundswell were the order of the morning. Eerie silent walls of water materialized and vaporized in the fog as they rushed under the boat. The fog gave the swells a rather alarming optical illusion, making all sense of size, distance and direction disappear. Vertical and horizontal became indistinguishable with such a large swell running. We were met with a heavy west wind and towering heaping swell as we crossed the entrance bar into Yakutat, still shrouded in fog. It was a hell of a way to come into Yakutat! After we passed the first bar the fog lifted some, revealing 18,000 foot tall Mt. St. Elias and 19,000 foot Mt. Lagoon, and all the other unreal mountains that form together the solid wall of white that is the land here. We were met by a small fishing boat who contacted us on the radio. He was having a rough go of it and inside the pilothouse were two guys grinning at us and giving us the thumbs-up. “Just around the corner there the swell will die off and it will be flat as can be” he said. I told him I was really looking forward to that and he said “I’ll bet you are, Jesus!” Later he radioed the rest of the fleet telling them not to even bother trying to go out today because it was so rough. I’m glad they think it’s rough today. If it were “normal” I think “Silent Partner” would be calling Yakutat her new home! The land here is pristine with unbelievable wildlife. Unbelievable everything! The head of the bay has a tidewater glacier with a face 700 feet tall and 6 miles across! The biggest glacier in North America, along with the second and third tallest mountains on the continent, right here in this bay! Yakutat is a strange town of about 600 people. Neptune and I ran into the Chief of Police and his family in town. They were extremely nice to us. We got in the back of the Police truck and they drove us 5 miles out to the the one restaurant that is only open today. We ate breakfast with them and then they took us to the store and to the gas sation, where we filled up our jerry cans for the boat. The chief and his family were so nice that they even helped us carry the gas cans down to the boat! There are so many good people in this world. We also met a cruising couple who is sailing to Prince William Sound on their sailboat. They have done the crossing before and gave me lots of great advice. We are going to try and leave together so we can remain in radio contact with one another on the ocean. They will probably be out of sight, but it will be comforting to know we are not alone. In the meantime, I’m going to go to sleep now and get some well-deserved rest! There is so much more I want to say about how amazing the landscape is, but I can’t– it defies description. It’s hard to believe we’re on planet Earth.