Leaving Yakutat

Hello All,
It looks like the weather is going to finally let us leave. The weather here in Yakutat has been to bad, rain and sun off and on. when it rains though it pours. We got fuel this morning from the mobile truck and we are waiting for the tide to push us out into the gulf. We didn't meet a lot of people here, seems most are pretty busy working but we always got a wave from everyone that past.

We have a 30 hour crossing ahead of us to get to Cape Spencer and then inside, we hope the weather will treat us better this time around. We have changed our visiting ports plan because of our delay, we don't have any solid plan as of yet but I will let you know when we do.

Well we are going to cast off and get on out of here so I will talk to you soon.

PEACE

Yakutat Alaska

Hello All,
We are still in Yakutat waiting for a weather window to get to Cape Spencer and to the Inside passage. It looks like Thursday afternoon is our chance to get out of here. In the mean time we have walked to town several times. It is about a mile walk from the small boat harbor to the city proper. I will use the word city very loosely. It has 2 very well stocked grocery stores a post office, an Ace hardware store that has just about everything you may need and a bar. The main industry here is Commercial Fishing. It also has a nice size cannery to buy the fish. Everyone has been very friendly and helpful.

Outside of doing some exploring I have been doing a few boat projects that I didn't get done before we left, nothing to major, mostly organizing things inside and maintenance. I got the oil changed yesterday and changed out the fuel filters. I also retightened my rigging for the mast.

It has been raining off and on, mostly on. We did get some sun yesterday afternoon, what a beautiful place when the sun shines.

Well I need to get busy here and make arrangements to get fuel today. They have a fuel dock but they bring the fuel by a truck so I will figure out the program as to how to make that happen.

I will keep in touch and keep you up dated on our plans. Talk to you soon.

PEACE

Tied up in Yakutat

Hello All,
It's been a long time coming but we finally made a port. Not really the one I was thinking of but we will take it. We got in at 10:30 a.m. and walked to the end of the dock and back. It is a little out of town but peaceful and the water is still.

We are going to take a nap so I will keep this short. Just thought I would let everyone know all is well on Freestyle.

PEACE

Retreating to Yakutat

Hello All,
Well we got only 40 miles from going into the inside passage of Alaska when the wind that was suppose to help us ended up turning right on the bow and not just 20 knots like they said it was but 30 knots. So I am back tracking 95 miles to wait for this weather to make up its mind. We have been getting a little beat up the last 12 hours so we just want to stop.

All is well outside of that ,so far anyway I need to get outside and get the boat on coarse, I'll let you know when I get into Yakutat.

PEACE

Gulf of Alaska

Hello All,
We have been out in the Gulf of Alaska for about 36 hours now. The wind has been light thus far so have had to use the engine. The sea and swell has been tolerable with it being mostly calm. I have been watching the weather and it looks like this will hold for the next few days but I will still be holding my breath. Jon and I are making the best of the somewhat comfortable boat motion and getting some good rest. Daren gave us some Sockeye Salmon so I think we will treat ourselves tonight to a good meal.

It has been sunny off and on since we left but completely over cast as of this morning. We have not seen a drop of rain yet but I'm sure we will get our fill down the road. I just checked the temperature this morning and it is 56 degrees. I think yesterday it got to 70.

That's all I know for now, I will keep you posted

PEACE

Heading To Gulf of Alaska

Hello All,
After making it through the Northern Gulf I was watching the weather and it was calling for south east 30 knots, so before the wind hit us we ducked into Prince William Sound to let it pass. My fishing friend Daren and his wife Robin were in Main Bay in the western sound so I thought I would look him up. We arrived there at 5 pm and got there just in time as the wind started to pick up. We found a good anchorage in the bay and Daren came over to tie up to us. We had an awesome Salmon dinner and a few beers and did a lot of visiting. Our mutual friend Jason also joined us, I had fishing boats tied to both sides, I looked like a salmon tender. Funny thing is it was my tender, they topped me off with water and gave us some fresh red salmon filets.

This morning the wind had come down and turned out to be a beautiful morning. Robin fixed breakfast of pancakes, bacon and toast that was very tasty. Daren put his gillnet behind us to let it fish while we ate. He said I never get fish in this little bay, but to his surprise he did very well when he picked it back up. Jon was enjoying himself watching Daren work. He was only 10 feet away from us so we saw the whole process up close. Daren talked to his fishing tender that he has been selling fish to and asked if they could sell me fuel and they said no problem come on over and we were topped off with diesel. That was very handy indeed.

We are now heading out the Eastern Entrance of Prince William Sound continuing our trip south. We are supposed to have a few days of light winds so we will see how far we can get before the next weather system comes.

PEACE

P.S. We sailed for about 6 hours today crossing the sound, it was a good day.

Freestyle Sailing again

Hello All,
I know it has been a very long time since I wrote anything on my blog so I will get you all caught up in a nut shell as to what I have been up to. 3 months ago I took a job at a marina in East Bay San Francisco as a maintenance man. I got the job through some cruising friends I met while sailing the Pacific. We have kept in touch over the last few years and my cruising friend is the Harbor Master of the marina. He called me last winter and asked if I wanted to go to work for him. The job sounded to good to pass up so in April I packed a bag and flew out to go to work. They put me up on a loaner boat that was abandon so I could stay at the marina with the agreement that I could take some time off in July to bring my boat down to live on.

So all that being said, here I am in the gulf of Alaska on Freestyle once again. My crew is Jon from Basque. He was my crew for 6 months from Tahiti to New Zealand so I am happy to have him along. We flew to Anchorage a week ago and have been running a marathon (meaning very busy) to get my boat ready to go and also have Jon see some of our Alaskan sights. He has never been to the United States so he has been awe struck as to how Americans live.

This cruise is going to be a fairly quick one as to I have to get back to work as soon as I get into the Bay.

We have been on the water about 24 hours and the weather has treated us well so far.

I will be keeping everyone up dated as we move south so stay tuned, Freestyle is on the move once again.

PEACE