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Whales, whales, and more whales
Our summer has been wonderful—so much wildlife to see! The whales have been especially spectacular. The only thing that is disappointing is our throttled cellphone hotspot bandwidth, so we’ve mostly been posting on our FB page and on our miniblog through predictwind (see previous blog or website for link). We...
Follow the Gyrfalcon as we head to Alaska!
After a few weeks on the hard in Port Townsend, we are on our way to Alaska. You can follow our progress on our own page at Predict Wind (shows a chart including our route and a mostly daily mini-blog--see arrow below). Here's the website to bookmark: https://forecast.predictwind.com/tracking/display/Gyrfalcon/ The chart...
OPTIMIST’S PRE-SEASON OFFER and COVID-19 Update
We've been a little quiet on the GyrBlog front. We've been busy with work at Seagen (Nancy), keeping Nancy fed (Peter), several upgrade projects, and pondering the future of the pandemic. We totally understand hesitancy about booking summer plans when there are so many unknowns about the future path of...
Alaska 2022 Itineraries – trips now posted
We are now taking reservations for summer cruises in Alaska aboard the Gyrfalcon. We are excited to offer these Alaska Itineraries for the 2022 season. As our faithful blog followers, you're getting the first chance at a reservation! June 16-23, 2022: Juneau to Petersburg June 26 - July 3, 2022: Petersburg...
Alaska wildlife — Marine mammals
One of the best parts about Alaska was the wildlife. Thanks to our guests Glenn, Vicki, Sean, Colleen, John, and Ellyn for sharing their photos…at times, we’re too busy with captaining and hosting to shoot photos. This blog will be about marine and terrestrial mammals. Whales and dolphins The whales...
Fish tables, coping, and old wooden boats
We are going to share AK pictures at some point soon, but we have been very busy on some upgrade projects. We've described a few of them here: a new fish table, coping quarter round, and trimming out a hatch. A new fish table Several years ago, we bought a...
On our way south…
It's been a great couple of months in southeast Alaska, enjoying wildlife and time with friends. We are now in Ketchikan, heading south today. We'll write more about the trip once we have more time. In the meantime, check our FB page or Peter's miniblog for updates! Marine Traffic app...
Adventures of the Mole People (Water tank, part 2)
First was the freshwater leak. Eight years ago, we had the tank sandblasted and then glassed and epoxied. It has behaved like new since then. On our trip through Canada, the tank sprung a leak – a small hole in one corner. We (with the wise council of Ben at...
Water, Water, Everywhere
Life on a boat is never boring. Yesterday morning, we awoke to discover that the bilge pump under the guest staterooms was going on every 3 minutes (like clockwork for 20 seconds). At first, we thought we would just keep an eye on it, since bilge pumps often get stuck....
Gyrfalcon returns to Ketchikan
Gyrfalcon returns to Ketchikan! We arrived yesterday (to follow our travels and receive mini-blog updates, go to: Forecast.PredictWind.com/tracking/display/Gyrfalcon). As the US Coast Survey vessel Patton, our boat traveled to Alaska each year from 1941 to 1967 from April to October, surveying the coastline. Her home base was Seattle, but she...
Follow the Gyrfalcon on our Alaska Adventure
The time has finally come. The Gyrfalcon is returning to Alaska. As the Patton, our vessel went to Alaska every summer from 1941 to 1967, conducting survey work for the United States Coast and Geodetic Survey. Now under the ownership of Peter and Nancy, she is returning as a commercial...
Announcement: Gyrfalcon chartering in Alaska Summer 2021
It doesn’t seem like a year since we posted last on the blog. So much has happened in the world, and with us. We’ll get to boat updates later. Our biggest news is that we are taking the Gyrfalcon to Alaska in a few weeks. Peter has fully retired and...
