cruising – Riveted

Statistics from Sitka

Laura Domela — Tue, 09 Aug 2016 18:06:34 +0000

We’ve been on Airship now for 100 days since leaving Portland on May 1, 2016. Here are some stats:

93 days since we left Anacortes
26 days with guests aboard
24 nights at anchor
11 nights rafted with Safe Harbour at anchor
65 nights at a marina or public dock or float
2,365 nautical miles traveled
363 hours underway
631 gallons of fuel bought
1 oil change
1 oil filter change
1 fuel filter change
1 dinghy puncture (patched)
1 toilet clog (cleared)
1 gray water float switch broken (replaced)
1 undersized 12 volt wire melted (replaced)
1 king salmon caught (eaten/frozen)
1 halibut caught (eaten/frozen)
2 coho salmon caught (eaten/frozen)
4 rockfish caught (and eaten)
3 pink salmon caught (thrown back)
~40 Dungeness crabs caught (and eaten)
Over 5000 photos taken

Total time from September 23, 2014 (the day we bought Airship):

We’ve spent 430 nights aboard
We’ve traveled 8091 nautical miles
We’ve cruised for 1306 hours

Hey Guess What?

Laura Domela — Fri, 06 Nov 2015 21:49:23 +0000

I know, there's not been anything interesting here in ages now! That's because we're just at home working (and catching up with friends, and blowing the leaves off the deck over and over again). Kevin's had a couple business trips, and I've been cleaning up my photo studio and preparing for a few shoots. Maybe I'll post a photo of my nice clean studio!

But in the meantime, check this out! We made the cover of the 2016 Waggoner Cruising Guide! Pretty sweet!!

This was taken (by Mark Bunzel) in front of Kynoch Falls, at Kynoch Inlet at the Fiordland recreation area in British Columbia.

If you cruise by boat in the Pacific Northwest (or just want to read about the area from a boater's perspective) and don't have a Waggoner Guide, you should have one. It's full of great information about anchorages, marinas, local knowledge, and great tips. (The Waggoner Guide covers the area from Olympia all the way to Ketchikan, AK). The 2016 edition is not out yet, but I'll see if we can hook you up with a preorder link soon!

Thanks Sam and Mark!

Water

Laura Domela — Mon, 04 May 2015 20:35:03 +0000

I was tired of having that canister of bear spray at the top of the blog, so here's a pretty picture of water instead:

This is from late December, after Christmas, when we were cruising the back side of San Juan Island with our friends Jake and Patti, looking for whales.

A Few Things for Airship

Laura Domela — Tue, 07 Apr 2015 21:33:00 +0000

I've been wanting a butter bell for the boat, and found this cool one made by Red Wing Stoneware in Minnesota:

Red Wing Stoneware Co. butter bell ($35) from Duluth Pack. Butter goes in the part on the right, water goes in the part on the left, and when put together the water creates an airtight seal on the butter so it stays fresh and soft (and I don't have to keep it in the fridge on the boat, which is nice, since the fridge is small).

I picked up some of these cloth napkins for the boat (from Clear Sky Home on Etsy) … planning to use less paper products while cruising (especially cruising in more remote areas, since it's tougher to get rid of trash as often).

They don't match our plates at all, but who cares? How cute are these?

(I got these yellow ones too, which really don't match our plates. I'm thinking they might clash enough to totally work together.)

Kevin and I each got ourselves a pair of Xtratufs (also called Alaskan sneakers, Alaskan slippers, Sitka slippers, etc.). These will come in super handy in the wet Southeast AK weather and when getting in and out of the dinghy and exploring (also when fishing and oystering here at home in the Pacific Northwest). They're completely waterproof and highly recommended by Alaskans everywhere:

And last but not least, we ordered a new tandem kayak for Airship. We looked at several, and our original plan after seeing them at the Seattle Boat show was to go with the Airis Tandem by Walker Bay, but after a bunch of research, we ended up going with the Sea Eagle 385 Fast Track. It packs down remarkably small for a tandem kayak (good for carrying on the boat), is very quick to set up (also important), and has great reviews. We'll let you know after we've used it a bit.

Our "Get Ready/To Do List for Alaska" is pretty standard at this point (we've done a ton already, including boat maintenance and some extra safety provisioning). From now until when we leave in May, it's all about stuff like procuring a couple more spare parts we want to have with us, getting extra Nespresso pods and Sodastream fizzers, oil and filters for a couple oil changes, miscellaneous extra tools, a Costco run, updating the Garmin charts to the latest greatest, getting some fishing gear and maybe another crab trap, more Merino wool socks, etc.

It was exciting planning our Alaska meet up with Tiffani and Deke with them while we were visiting in North Carolina this past week. Their plan is to meet us in Juneau mid/late June and then travel with us down to Petersburg, with proposed stops at Taku Harbor, Tracy Arm and Sawyer Glacier, Petersburg, LeConte Glacier, Thomas Bay, Pybus Bay, several spots on Baranof Island (including the warm springs), and then heading around to Sitka where we plan to spend the 4th of July. They'll fly home from Sitka, and we'll continue on south.

We leave in just over a month–it's so close (and yet so far…650+ nautical miles from Anacortes to Ketchikan, and then most people do another 1000+ nm in SE Alaska. Sam and Mark said most people go at least 2300 nm on a trip like this, and that it’s easy to go 3500 nm). We're SO excited!

Airship in Fossil Bay

Laura Domela — Sat, 07 Mar 2015 17:35:24 +0000

Fossil Bay, Sucia Islands, March 2015

Work Day/Back to Anacortes

Laura Domela — Tue, 03 Mar 2015 21:08:00 +0000

We worked this morning over at Friday Harbor for a while, and then headed back to Anacortes. We're going to have some work done on the boat this week/next week (haul out, bottom paint, zincs replaced, stuff like that). Sad to say goodbye, but it's just for a short bit.

Great day for a cruise though! Mt. Baker looking pretty:

Here's our track from today (23 nautical miles):