Hello All,
When I was in Homer last Saturday I was interviewed by a radio station and by a local paper Homer News. To my delight our local paper The Peninsula Clarion also picked up on the story. They gave me a whole page story with pictures in the recreation section. That really tops off my welcome home events and I will enjoy my 15 minutes of fame.
Mom and I went to Homer on Wednesday and I got most of the food and a few other things off the boat. I am amazed as to how much stuff I had onboard. I will be returning to Homer next week and gather up a few more things and start winterizing.
I have been slowly adding more pictures to the web site and when I receive my new computer I will add more videos .
I will post the Homer news article so you can read it online.
That's all I have for now. http://homernews.com/stories/090512/news_home.shtml
PEACE
Friday, September 7, 2012
Thursday, August 30, 2012
Freestyle safely tied in Homer Harbor
I made it into Homer Harbor at 1400 today. I had friends, family and 2 Homer news reporters greet me at the dock. In reality I made it to Kachemak Bay at 0600 this morning but because it was so early I moored the boat across the bay at some family friends homestead. I got some well deserved sleep after the 20 hour crossing and headed across at 1300. Even the bay welcomed me home by giving me beam reach winds gusting 30 knots. It was a bumpy 30 minute crossing but I got to finish the trip by sailing right on in.
The crossing from Kodiak to homer was excellent, the weather in Kodiak was sunshine and not a cloud in the sky. As the day went on I saw the clouds coming and before night fall it was overcast. I had all the sails up and moving right along but I did have the engine helping just to make good speed. The area between Kodiak and Homer can be very fickle for weather turning into a gale in hours so I wanted to get through in a timely manner.
I am home with Mom at the moment, we have been visiting and catching up. This will be only the second time in 3 years I have spent a night off of the boat. I will have to adjust my self to the real world again, it will be good to keep both feet on the ground for awhile.
I will return to Freestyle tomorrow and gather up food and things I have collected for years and bring it back. She will winter in the harbor in Homer and next spring I will haul her out and get everything ship shape for weekend sailing when time permits.
I have a future adventure planned in 2014 so I will have to hit the bricks for the time being to make it a reality.
Thank you all for reading about my travels and I will keep the site and from time to time let you know what I am up to and keep you up to date on what I am doing with Freestyle.
P.S. I have heaps of pictures I still need to post but I need a new computer first so stay tuned and I hope to post them in a week. I will also update my route so you can see where I have been.
PEACE
The crossing from Kodiak to homer was excellent, the weather in Kodiak was sunshine and not a cloud in the sky. As the day went on I saw the clouds coming and before night fall it was overcast. I had all the sails up and moving right along but I did have the engine helping just to make good speed. The area between Kodiak and Homer can be very fickle for weather turning into a gale in hours so I wanted to get through in a timely manner.
I am home with Mom at the moment, we have been visiting and catching up. This will be only the second time in 3 years I have spent a night off of the boat. I will have to adjust my self to the real world again, it will be good to keep both feet on the ground for awhile.
I will return to Freestyle tomorrow and gather up food and things I have collected for years and bring it back. She will winter in the harbor in Homer and next spring I will haul her out and get everything ship shape for weekend sailing when time permits.
I have a future adventure planned in 2014 so I will have to hit the bricks for the time being to make it a reality.
Thank you all for reading about my travels and I will keep the site and from time to time let you know what I am up to and keep you up to date on what I am doing with Freestyle.
P.S. I have heaps of pictures I still need to post but I need a new computer first so stay tuned and I hope to post them in a week. I will also update my route so you can see where I have been.
PEACE
Wednesday, August 29, 2012
13 hours out of Kodiak
These are the coordinates as of 10:00 p.m. August 29, 2012
58 54.59N 151 52.89W
Hope to rest across the bay from Homer Harbor before coming into dock about 2:00 p.m. on Thursday the 30th of August.
PEACE
58 54.59N 151 52.89W
Hope to rest across the bay from Homer Harbor before coming into dock about 2:00 p.m. on Thursday the 30th of August.
PEACE
Monday, August 27, 2012
Still in Kodiak
Hello All,
I am still here, I missed a small window to head north thinking I had a few days of good weather. But the window closed and now I am looking at a Wednesday departure. In the mean time I have been visiting with my family here and last night the British boat I was hanging out with in Dutch Harbor arrived. They had some problems coming up here, blown head gasket on the engine and a ripped sail. I have been helping them out by giving them a ride around Kodiak and running errands in my cousin Burts car. They have been great friends and I am only happy to help. This afternoon I gave them a nickel tour driving around showing them the sights. It was a beautiful day but very windy. They plan on taking the engine apart tomorrow and taking down the ripped sail.
I have been doing a little work myself getting the boat ready for the last 24 hours of my adventure.
I cannot believe this is it, seems like yesterday I left Homer but as the saying goes, all things must end. It's been a great trip and I am looking forward to seeing my family but not looking forward to the real world. I have a much broader scope on life and will be jaded to the every day life of American lifestyle. It will be interesting to see how I fit back in. It will be with and outside looking in attitude I am sure.
That's all for now. I will let you know when I am underway.
PEACE
I am still here, I missed a small window to head north thinking I had a few days of good weather. But the window closed and now I am looking at a Wednesday departure. In the mean time I have been visiting with my family here and last night the British boat I was hanging out with in Dutch Harbor arrived. They had some problems coming up here, blown head gasket on the engine and a ripped sail. I have been helping them out by giving them a ride around Kodiak and running errands in my cousin Burts car. They have been great friends and I am only happy to help. This afternoon I gave them a nickel tour driving around showing them the sights. It was a beautiful day but very windy. They plan on taking the engine apart tomorrow and taking down the ripped sail.
I have been doing a little work myself getting the boat ready for the last 24 hours of my adventure.
I cannot believe this is it, seems like yesterday I left Homer but as the saying goes, all things must end. It's been a great trip and I am looking forward to seeing my family but not looking forward to the real world. I have a much broader scope on life and will be jaded to the every day life of American lifestyle. It will be interesting to see how I fit back in. It will be with and outside looking in attitude I am sure.
That's all for now. I will let you know when I am underway.
PEACE
Friday, August 24, 2012
Visiting Family on Kodiak Island
Hello All,
After getting the best nights sleep I have had since Sand Point I got up and called my Aunt and Uncle that live here. I told them I would walk up to the house but only after finding a cruising couple that are leaving there boat here for the winter. Nick and Jenny on Bosun Bird. I have never met them but they wrote some very nice cruising notes for the Solomon Islands and Japan. I found this info on a popular cruising website when I was looking for information to cruise the Solomon's. They were a year ahead of me but they spent a year in Japan so that put us both leaving Japan this season and they were headed for Alaska. The long and the short of it is I met them tonight and they will be leaving on the 26th to head south to Washington on an Alaska ferry boat. They are British but now reside in Canada and Nick works for the Canadian government and has used up his time off and has to go back to work for a spell. They are staying at a local hotel and we plan to have dinner together tomorrow night. We had a great visit at there hotel room and I look forward to having dinner with them.
After I found Nick winterizing the boat that is hauled out in the boat yard and to say hello and I would talk to them later I walked my way up the hill to my Uncle Carl and Aunt Nina's home. I worked here with my dump truck in 2001 and 2003 so I knew my way around. It has been a long time since I was here but like I told my family, it is like visiting an old friend. I had a nice visit with my family and my Cousin Burt loaned me his spare car to get around. I will go back tomorrow and let them know my plans and the dinner I have planed with my new cruising friends. After being absent from the Island for 9 years I was surprised to see my Aunt and Uncle haven't aged a day. They are just like I remember them and their home was the same. My Aunt Nina says "its the Island living". She was born here and very proud of, like she says, her Island. She told me, Rick, don't go telling everyone how nice it is here, then I will have to share the place.
This is most definately a special place in Alaska and I am really glad to make landfall here to see family and new friends and see Kodiak from a new angle from the sea which is how a person should see it from.
I will keep you updated and it looks like I could leave here by Saturday, weather permitting of course. I want this trip home to be smoooooooth sailing, that is asking a lot for a crossing that could be the worse sailing I have had. It is only a 24 hour crossing, so should be, watching the weather, not to bad.
Where the Cook Inlet meets the Gulf of Alaska is a in my lingo a "Bad ass piece of water" I will do my best to make it a mill pond.
I will keep in touch.
PEACE
After getting the best nights sleep I have had since Sand Point I got up and called my Aunt and Uncle that live here. I told them I would walk up to the house but only after finding a cruising couple that are leaving there boat here for the winter. Nick and Jenny on Bosun Bird. I have never met them but they wrote some very nice cruising notes for the Solomon Islands and Japan. I found this info on a popular cruising website when I was looking for information to cruise the Solomon's. They were a year ahead of me but they spent a year in Japan so that put us both leaving Japan this season and they were headed for Alaska. The long and the short of it is I met them tonight and they will be leaving on the 26th to head south to Washington on an Alaska ferry boat. They are British but now reside in Canada and Nick works for the Canadian government and has used up his time off and has to go back to work for a spell. They are staying at a local hotel and we plan to have dinner together tomorrow night. We had a great visit at there hotel room and I look forward to having dinner with them.
After I found Nick winterizing the boat that is hauled out in the boat yard and to say hello and I would talk to them later I walked my way up the hill to my Uncle Carl and Aunt Nina's home. I worked here with my dump truck in 2001 and 2003 so I knew my way around. It has been a long time since I was here but like I told my family, it is like visiting an old friend. I had a nice visit with my family and my Cousin Burt loaned me his spare car to get around. I will go back tomorrow and let them know my plans and the dinner I have planed with my new cruising friends. After being absent from the Island for 9 years I was surprised to see my Aunt and Uncle haven't aged a day. They are just like I remember them and their home was the same. My Aunt Nina says "its the Island living". She was born here and very proud of, like she says, her Island. She told me, Rick, don't go telling everyone how nice it is here, then I will have to share the place.
This is most definately a special place in Alaska and I am really glad to make landfall here to see family and new friends and see Kodiak from a new angle from the sea which is how a person should see it from.
I will keep you updated and it looks like I could leave here by Saturday, weather permitting of course. I want this trip home to be smoooooooth sailing, that is asking a lot for a crossing that could be the worse sailing I have had. It is only a 24 hour crossing, so should be, watching the weather, not to bad.
Where the Cook Inlet meets the Gulf of Alaska is a in my lingo a "Bad ass piece of water" I will do my best to make it a mill pond.
I will keep in touch.
PEACE
Wednesday, August 22, 2012
Arrived Kodiak Island
Hello All,
Ben and I made it here to the boat harbor. I put him on the Alaska state ferry this afternoon to get him home to Dutch Harbor. He gets to see the same scenery with the exception of a few places we didn't stop. All in all it was not a bad trip up here, except for the gale force winds for one night, so I cannot complain. The waters we traveled have sunk heaps of boats but that's winter time, you have to be careful all the same. The weather here is fickle, one day is different from the next. The weather man does his best but cannot predict local weather, like by bays and passes. I guess that's what I get for traveling close to shore but I wanted to see it and I took some great pictures on some clear days. I will post them when I get home and get a new computer so when I finish in Homer there will be more, so keep up.
The weather sucks for going north right now so I will be hanging out with my family that live here. Also a Canadian cruising couple I want to visit that has hauled out of the water.
That's all I have for now, I will keep in touch.
PEACE
Ben and I made it here to the boat harbor. I put him on the Alaska state ferry this afternoon to get him home to Dutch Harbor. He gets to see the same scenery with the exception of a few places we didn't stop. All in all it was not a bad trip up here, except for the gale force winds for one night, so I cannot complain. The waters we traveled have sunk heaps of boats but that's winter time, you have to be careful all the same. The weather here is fickle, one day is different from the next. The weather man does his best but cannot predict local weather, like by bays and passes. I guess that's what I get for traveling close to shore but I wanted to see it and I took some great pictures on some clear days. I will post them when I get home and get a new computer so when I finish in Homer there will be more, so keep up.
The weather sucks for going north right now so I will be hanging out with my family that live here. Also a Canadian cruising couple I want to visit that has hauled out of the water.
That's all I have for now, I will keep in touch.
PEACE
Almost to Kodiak
Hello All,
Sorry I haven't been writing blogs, my Mac that I used finally decided it had been on the boat long enough and quit working. I have been using the Mac through my sat phone for weather and emails. My PC is set up for my sailmail through the SSB radio but this far north the reception is not very good. The only stations close enough are in Hawaii and Washington.
I will sum up the last few days, gale winds and very rough seas sums it up pretty good. I thought it was going to be a little easier going but as usual mother nature has her own ideas. I chose to stay inside to come up here to Kodiak and when the wind blows hard there is a very steep and close together wave that forms because I was only in a few hundred feet of water the whole way.
I am currently drifting in a bay on the West side of Kodiak Island. I am going through a narrow pass to get to the other side and I need to wait for the tide and daylight to make it through. I try to time these things better but it happens from time to time. I couldn't find a good place to anchor before dark so I found a bay close to where I need to go and I am just floating around. I have been setting my drift alarm so I can catch a few winks of sleep.
I will be in Kodiak Wednesday about noon I would say, so I will have more for you then.
PEACE
Sorry I haven't been writing blogs, my Mac that I used finally decided it had been on the boat long enough and quit working. I have been using the Mac through my sat phone for weather and emails. My PC is set up for my sailmail through the SSB radio but this far north the reception is not very good. The only stations close enough are in Hawaii and Washington.
I will sum up the last few days, gale winds and very rough seas sums it up pretty good. I thought it was going to be a little easier going but as usual mother nature has her own ideas. I chose to stay inside to come up here to Kodiak and when the wind blows hard there is a very steep and close together wave that forms because I was only in a few hundred feet of water the whole way.
I am currently drifting in a bay on the West side of Kodiak Island. I am going through a narrow pass to get to the other side and I need to wait for the tide and daylight to make it through. I try to time these things better but it happens from time to time. I couldn't find a good place to anchor before dark so I found a bay close to where I need to go and I am just floating around. I have been setting my drift alarm so I can catch a few winks of sleep.
I will be in Kodiak Wednesday about noon I would say, so I will have more for you then.
PEACE
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