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Faux fir for a real wooden boat
For the past 12 years, we have had 5 grey painted plywood hatches along with 2 fir hatches in our stateroom. At some point, there must have been either fir hatches that got replaced, or a fir floor that was cut up for renovations and replaced with ply. Mostly...
Updates for non-FB folks (trip to AK 2023)
We've been busy the last few months, and have been updating more on FB and less on blogs. For those not following us on FB, here's a summary of the past few months, mostly copied from FB posts mostly. If' you've been reading these blogs, you'll know that we upgraded our...
Smaller spring projects: Starboard generator seal replacement, electrical upgrades, and others TNTC
At the end of last year, a seal on the starboard generator developed a small leak. While we were hauled out, we decided to replace the seal. Ushana disassembled the generator. It was tight quarters (not usually a problem on the Gyrfalcon, but it was this time due to the...
Floor timber and associated repairs: Part 2
What we're doing Here is a color-coded diagram that may help explain these repairs. It's complicated... Dutchmen After removing the shafts and their assorted bearings, struts, etcetera, (see last blog), the delignified wood was removed from the floor timber. Fortunately, the soft wood only extended a short distance into the...
Floor timbers and other repairs: Part 1
What’s been happening with the Gyrfalcon? Well, a lot. Late last fall, we took the Gyrfalcon over to Port Townsend for some scheduled upkeep involving bearings, stuffing boxes, shafts, and a generator, and then we took off for New Zealand (by air, not by boat). This blog is about the...
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...