Pacific NW

Expeditions

For the past 5 days Ryan and I have been riding out a major wind and rainstorm in Thunder Bay. The williwaws came the first night. Incredible blasts of shrieking wind swept off the mountains. At times the entire surface of the water became a white foam. Modulus flipped over several times and we veered wildly at anchor. I cannot believe how the trusty Forfjord held us fast! That first night, we felt like we were in an amusement park ride swinging to the rode. Many times swirling gusts lifted the foaming waters up into the air, forming water spouts. Everything loose in the cockpit was getting sucked out, and I cleared the decks and prepared an emergency anchor. I tried to inform the Coast Guard of our position, but we’re too far out there for radio reception. That first night was hellish. All night long I monitored the GPS for anchor drag, tested the rode, and must’ve made a trip out on deck every 10 minutes to monitor the situation. We spun around so much that night that we covered a distance of 3 miles in 3 hours at anchor! Directly outside the harbor behind the ridge is the wild Gulf of Alaska, and we feel very exposed to the elements. As the rain picked up, hundreds of waterfalls formed all around the bay. They pour from the mountains in torrents and get blown sideways in the wind. Huge breakers are crashing on the far shore as the greybeards and combers sweep by the mouth of the bay. Somehow amidst all the chaos a few bears roam the shore and we see the occasional whale arch its back in the anchorage. After that first major round of wind things got a little better. We were still flogged by the occasional williwaw, but nothing compared to that first night. It is still raining as it has been doing for the last 5 days. We are filling our time as best we can. On day 2 or 3 I became very lethargic, possibly due to fatigue and the gloomy state of the weather. The highlight of my day yesterday came when Ryan and I were flipping beer caps out of the hatch. They had to pass through a narrow slot and then curve so they wouldn’t hit the dodger in order to make it to the water. I did it on the second try. There was a moment of zen-like silence as the cap disappeared from our world. We sawed up several pieces of frivilous teak trim from inside the boat and made a fine set of dominoes. Ryan has taught me how to play, and I really enjoy the game. Yesterday we divided a chocolate bar into ten pieces and gambled all day for it with dominoes, poker, and cribbage. On our 3rd or 4th day in Thunder Bay we made an attempted escape from the bay and its williwaws. We discovered as we weighed the anchor that the williwaws had twisted and stretched the rode so much that it separated all the strands. Each strand was curled like a tightly-coiled spring. At the entrance to the bay we were hit by blasting winds that halted all forward progress, huge groundswell, and more of those crazy waterspouts. Williwaws or not, I became very thankful in that moment for the protection Thunder Bay has given us from the storm. With some difficulty I rigged up our spare anchor rode and we settled back into the anchorage for another few days. Ryan and I went a bit crazy that week in Thunder Bay. I will always remember fondly our countless and spirited games of dominoes, all the hours of staring out the hatch into the rain, placing value on our remaining food and then gambling it away. Each day of that week the weather radio extended the “small craft advisory” another day. It was East winds 30-40 knots, seas 18 feet every day, day after day. Ryan and I cut up a magazine about Homer and created a “mural to Homer” above our new domino table. When lit by candle light it made for quite the shrine. Our battery, food, and wood supply slowly dwindled as we passed this unforseen delay of a week in Thunder Bay. One day the rain stopped for 2 hours. We jumped at an opportunity to leave the cabin of the boat and rowed to shore. We hiked up the banks of a raging river that was flooding with all the recent rain run-off. Its shores were laced with bear tracks. Dead ravens and possibly other birds littered the forest floor everywhere. We don’t know what had attacked them, but their feathers and skeletons were all over the place! It was very strange. I also noticed hundreds of dead birds on the other side of the bay too. And then there were bugs. They are finally here. Enough has been written and imagined about the Alaskan mosquito. All legends are probably true. They were there, and they swarmed.