anchoring – Riveted

Seattle to Port Gamble

Laura Domela — Mon, 08 Feb 2016 14:28:40 +0000

We left Seattle yesterday around 11am and headed north.

Passing Point No Point Lighthouse:

The water was calm and we headed up to Port Gamble to anchor for the night (just inside the entrance to Hood Canal).

Sunset from our anchorage:

We anchored just past the spit on the north side, near Point Julia. Great holding…very calm in here last night.

After we finish up some work here this morning we plan to dinghy over to town for some exploring (and more testing of the Torqueedo electric outboard).

Happy Monday!

Yesterday's route (31.5 nautical miles):

p.s. OMG I almost forgot (because there were no photos)! On Saturday night we met up with our friends Kathy and Pete, who took us to the most fabulous Italian restaurant over in Issaquah. (I know!!) It's called Montalcino and it's a tiny, intimate family-run spot (max capacity 35) and there was a guy singing Italian opera and it was lovely but holy moly the FOOD. It's fantastic! We will DEFINITELY make a point to return to this place. Goodness…we haven't had food like that since Italy! I had a special pasta with wild boar and wild mushrooms that I shared with Kevin (but I didn't want to after I tasted it). Kevin had a pasta dish with some kobe meatballs (also very good, just not as good as mine). Their family house Brunello was good, the house-made Bufala mozzarella…I'm full just thinking about it. (Check out the food photos on their facebook page.) YUM!

Juneau to Hoonah

Laura Domela — Sun, 26 Jul 2015 22:35:57 +0000

Airship Goes to Alaska

We left Juneau on Saturday morning. Our original thought was to fish a bit and anchor for the night in Oliver Inlet at the north end of Admiralty Island (not a very far cruise). However, we didn't really research it thoroughly until Saturday morning and learned (too late) that this anchorage is one that must be entered at high slack tide only, which was at 8:43am (half an hour from when we read that) or 8:50pm (a little late to be getting into an anchorage so nearby). So we opted to fish a bit longer and then anchor in Admiralty Cove for the night (on our way to Hoonah). We trolled for salmon and managed to get four Cohos onto the boat (we lost two before we got them close enough to net).

They were about 25, 26, 27, and 28 inches, respectively. This was the biggest one:

We also managed to hook a small halibut, too! Bonus fish!

We anchored easily in Admiralty Cove for the night. As soon as we were set, we got to work filleting and cleaning the fish. I wanted try try filleting a salmon, so I started with the smallest one and worked my way up to the big guy. Turns out I'm a really good fish filleter! We got out the vacuum sealer and portioned the fish out into ~1lb portions, and not counting what we ate for dinner last night, we've got 16 pounds of fresh Coho in the freezer (and a couple pounds of halibut). We set aside one of the salmon bellies and had a little sashimi appetizer, and also separated the roe and put it into a brine to make some Ikura (Japanese caviar). This is the brine/caviar recipe we used, thanks to Kerri for the recommendation!

I made some more risotto to go with our salmon and we had a delicious (but late) dinner. I already took a photo of the salmon/risotto dish before, but if you missed it, here's a link to the recipe.

Admiralty Cove as the sun was setting:

Here's yesterday's track…about 30 nautical miles (including trolling):

At the bottom of this map shot, you can see where we ventured in close to the entrance to Oliver Inlet (at low tide). We got a good look at the narrow (shallow) entrance, and the many rocks that bared at low tide (kinda nice to see how it all looked, actually). According to the math, even at low tide yesterday we would have had 8 feet (our boat's draft is 3ft 8in) but it looked a little tricky and we decided it'd be much nicer to have a bit more water under us. Another time.

This morning we were up early and decided to head toward Hoonah. Our route today would take us up into the bottom of Lynn Canal, then into Icy Strait to Hoonah. Today's track (about 51.5 nautical miles):

We saw a bunch of humpbacks on the way but they weren't very close so we only deviated a short bit to watch them. A guy on the radio said he'd seen a triple breach, but when we saw them they were just hanging near the surface…nothing too exciting. (I know, I sound all "Yawn, more humpbacks" don't I? Sorry!)

The seas picked up a bit in Lynn Canal as we neared Icy Strait, but the waves were mostly on the bow, so not too dramatic.

We called Sherrie (the Hoonah harbormaster) on the radio and she told us there was plenty of space on the transient dock and to come on in.

Hoonah is the principal village for the Tlingit who originally settled Glacier Bay, Icy Strait, Cross Sound, and the Outer Coast. The four original Tlingit clans present are: Chookaneidi, T'aakdeintaan, Wooshkeetaan, and Kaagwaantaan. Numerous other clans migrated to or married into the community, as have non-native peoples. The population in Hoonah is around 750, but in the summer can swell to around 1300 depending on fishing, boating, hiking, and hunting conditions.

Passing the cannery on the way into the harbor:

Hoonah Packing Company ("HPC") built in 1912 was one of eight canneries operating in the area during the early twentieth century, representing Hoonah's major industry at the time. HPC was sold several times until coming to be owned by Wards Cove Packing which also owned Hoonah Trading.

The cemetery on Pitt Island…with both crosses and totems:

Hoonah Harbor:

Here's the marina, looking back toward Airship as we head up to the office (we're in the group of boats on the right side of the waterway, furthest one, facing out):

Sherrie, the harbormaster, gave us a little map and a ton of good tips. The Carver's Den, for instance, (also known as The Huna Tribal House Carving Project) is where carvers are currently working on the house poles, screens and totems that will adorn the Tribal House being constructed in Glacier Bay National Monument. You can go in and watch the carvers and chat with them and ask questions and stuff. They open tomorrow morning at 9am, but also, the cruise ships arrive tomorrow at 9am, so Sherrie recommended we get there right at 9am to have a non cruise ship experience.

We walked around town a bit and then down to Hoonah Trading Company. This is Hoonah Trading as we passed it coming in:

It's the hardware store, grocery store, everything store. We checked out the hardware store first. We had a short list (Loctite threadlocker, some scissors, a few downrigger parts…don't ask), and we found everything we needed (and things we wanted but hadn't found yet): all the parts we needed for the downrigger except a new weight that we'll get at the marine store tomorrow, some grill wipes, a second muffin tin, and a cool portable Eva-Dry dehumidifier for the bedroom (the E-500). This one doesn't plug in to work like our current one, but instead it's filled with bead things that absorb water. When it's "full" the beads change color to signal to you that it's time to plug it in to renew/recharge it. The beads release their water with the plug in heat (I think) and you're ready to go again. Apparently it can work this way for 10 years.

Anyway, the hardware part of Hoonah Trading was fabulous. Oh yeah, and when you walk in, you enter through this long long outdoor-ish hallway of stuff that starts as the parking lot and ends at the water. Pretty cool:

The grocery store of Hoonah Trading Co. is equally well-stocked and we found everything on our short list there as well.

Antlers on the mast of a fish boat:

And you really don't find signs like this in too many places:

We're staying in Hoonah for two nights. The cannery and cannery museum are open tomorrow (as well as the surrounding gift shops…oh hi cruise shippers!), as well as the Carver's Den and the marine store. We plan to do some exploring!

Tacoma Narrows

Laura Domela — Wed, 04 Feb 2015 22:21:49 +0000

We timed our departure from Tacoma this morning to start through the Tacoma Narrows right around slack tide and at the beginning of a flood. (Flood flows south, ebb goes north.) So at slack the current is still, and as it turns to flood, the current starts south and gives us a little boost in speed. For instance, we usually cruise at around 2200rpm and make between 7-8 knots, and through the Narrows today we were at 2200rpm and going 10-11 knots, so we had about a 3 knot boost from the current.

Farewell committee at the marina:

Some shots as we exited the Thea Foss Waterway:

There were a lot of seals and porpoise (and fishermen) around Point Defiance today. I managed to luck out and get this Dall's porpoise as it did a cute little jump!

Moody landscape on the bluff:

Some shots of the Tacoma Narrows Bridge as we passed underneath:

We had a nice cruise down to Anderson Island. It was pretty and fairly uneventful (read: no whales). We're now anchored here on our new Rocna 20. So far so good!

We took the dinghy out for a bit to check out a derelict (but cool!) 1923 ferry that's over here in the bay (more about that in the next post), but it started raining pretty good so we motored back to Airship for a cozy evening and a bit more work.

Here we are in the rain:

And here's today's track – 24.2 nautical miles. And tonight will be Night No. 70 aboard Airship. Woohoo!

We’re on a Boat!

Laura Domela — Thu, 25 Sep 2014 22:59:09 +0000

On Tuesday morning we got up early and headed to Anacortes to stay our first night on our new boat "Airship" before meeting up with Capt. Jack DeFriel first thing Wednesday morning for a couple days of on-the-water training.

Tuesday evening sunset from the back of Airship:

It rained pretty good that first night on the boat and sometime in the middle of the night the wind picked up a bit. From bed (in the bow of the boat) I could hear a little bit of the bow line as it pulled occasionally as the boat moved, but then there was this clangy sound right above our heads.

Cling, clang, cling, clang.

Hang on! There's nothing that should be making that sound on this boat. I pictured the topside of the boat and remembered there was a little Nordic Tug flag/burgee attached to the front of the rail on the bow and said to Kevin (one of the times we were tossing around, awake) that I knew what that noise was and that in the morning, that flag was coming off. Kevin replied, "In the morning, my butt" as he put on jeans and went out in the dark and rain to remove the flag. We slept well the rest of the night.

Yesterday and today we spent all day training with Capt. Jack and it has been such a blast. We've learned and done so much! We practiced docking techniques in different conditions (purist-style, without using our bow or stern thrusters), learned how to grab on to a mooring buoy, how to anchor, how to launch the dingy and go ashore and where to pay for the state park moorages (it's just like a campground, with no host), how to pump out the black water tank (so much easier than in the Airstream!) and just generally got a good deal of hands on experience using our boat while someone very knowledgable was there to help, guide, and answer questions…a very valuable two days with Jack and we'd do it all over again.

This morning (after a whole lot of docking practice, and both of us taking turns anchoring while the other one drove the boat) we headed out to James Island to anchor and launch the dinghy to go ashore. There are many spots up here in the San Juan Islands to anchor or moor your boat for the night. We went to the back side of James Island where we expected there to be some mooring buoys, but there were none, and just a very small dock, so we dropped our anchor in about 15 ft of water and called it good.

We launched the dinghy and headed over to the dock:

James Island is shaped like an hourglass, pinched in the middle. You walk up the dock and there's a little path across to the other side (and a hiking trail around the island).

We walked across the pinched part to see the other side (where there were supposed to be four mooring buoys, but there was only one). Capt. Jack said it was a pretty roll-y mooring anyway, so you'd have your privacy, but you'd be rollin'!

Captain Jack:

Walking back to the dock gave us a nice photo op of our new boat. Isn't "she" pretty? (See? I'm workin' on it.)

This is a great spot to come for a picnic. There were two kayaks beached and three people were up at one of the picnic tables having lunch. There are fire rings and it's a nice sheltered cove. We plan to explore MANY places like this with our boat in the future.

On the way back to the Cap Sante Marina at Anacortes, we were the stand-on boat (the boat with the right of way) as a ferry was overtaking us. It was cool…the ferry just chilled out a little bit and crossed behind us as soon as we were far enough past him (not that far, really):

Ferry, passing behind us:

It's been such a wonderful few days. The weather has (surprisingly) cooperated nicely, and we really lucked out finding Capt. Jack to help introduce us to our boat. If you ever need to learn a boat…hire Capt. Jack!

Tomorrow we think we'll head over to Friday Harbor for a night, and then maybe moor or anchor in some other cove somewhere for the next night. We need to practice our new skills!