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 shaft logs and bearings over the winter (last 2 blogs). We’ll start this post at the beginning of our trip to AK
May 15th: And we’re off. Gyrfalcon is headed north for the 2023 season. Just left the Ballard locks headed north. First stop: Port Townsend.
May 16th: Second day of our trip to southeast AK…TTAK2023!
Trip ODO 36.08 mi
Highlights of yesterday:
-Bald eagle and sea lions wishing us well as we left the locks in Seattle
-Caspian terns everywhere
-Nancy Everds became a year older 
-Humpback whale sounding right off our bow
-Successful sea trial in PT after slight adjustments of bearings by Usana and Aiden of Haven Boatworks
-Good anchorage off Boat Haven in Port Townsend
Today we’re heading north across the Strait of Juan de Fuca. It looks to be a calm morning!
Bedwell Harbor anchorage–sharing it with some Canadian Navy training vessels
May 19th:
Beautiful sunset last night in Little Bull passage, between Bull and Jedidiah islands.
Slight delay in our trip north. Problem with water leakage after the recent stuffing box repair. Returning to Pt Townsend for a (hopefully) quick repair. Will keep you posted.
Trip to Alaska Take Two!
Last week, we were headed north. We got as far as Jeddediah Island in the Strait of Georgia when we discovered a slow-to-develop leak in the region of our stuffing box / floor timber repair last winter. We returned to Port Townsend for repair. Haven Boatworks was all over the project; working with the super Port of Port Townsend staff (Kelsey, Trevor, and Chad especially), we got hauled out immediately and repairs began. We had a crack team from Haven Boatworks working long days to make things right as soon as possible. A big thanks to Blaise, Claire, Brandon, and Usana for the excellent repair, and to Drew for working doggedly with Peter while we were at Haven to locate an intermittent electrical problem and to fix a frustrating bilge pump problem. Now we’re headed north once again!
Being put back in the water in the 300-ton lift at Port Townsend
I’m pretty sure Claire is wearing ear protection to drown out our chatter. Normally, this room is our stateroom 🙂
May 27th
Trip to Alaska, Take 2, Day 1
We left Pt Townsend this morning, crossed the Strait of Juan de Fuca, cleared Customs at Bedwell Harbour and are anchored tonight in Montague Harbour on Galliano Island.
While we were in Pt Townsend for the leak repair, we spent 2 extra days chasing down a couple of phantom gremlins on the Gyrfalcon.
- One was an intermittent issue with the 12 volt battery that supplies the electronics. After several hours of diagnostic tail chasing, we determined that a tiny screw had fallen out of the ground connection on a terminal block. Sometimes it made a good connection, and sometimes it didn’t….
- The other was a balky bilge pump. We replaced the float switch, the bilge hose and the check valve, before finally coming to the conclusion that the pump did not generate enough pressure to open the check valve. The pump was running, but no water was going overboard. This gremlin was very frustrating to chase down.
Both problems seem to be resolved, and we have learned more arcane facts about the boat.
Here’s a shot of the sun setting in our anchorage tonight.
Here’s the next day: a short (26 sec) compilation video of the voyage from Tribune Bay through Seymour Narrows to Port Neville, starting with Peter Mann in all his sartorial splendor in the captain’s chair, followed by short segments taken throughout the day. Our Classic Yacht Association burgee makes a good wind indicator to show how the wind increased as we headed north (fairly common conditions for the Straits in these parts).
Here’s another video, taken while entering the Southgate Island anchorage. It’s a beautiful location to start our open water crossing tomorrow!
tube.com/shorts/5drpaTqlA9s
Crossing at Cape Caution was not at all bad. The waves were consistent and predictable and fairly small. We have worked very hard to have all gear secured, but each crossing reveals yet one more thing that can come loose. This time it was not bad–just some cutting boards that decided to take a walk, and one drawer that decided to open.
Once inside, we went to Kwakume Inlet for the evening.
The next night, we anchored tonight in Shearwater, just across the channel from Bella Bella. Here are several shots of boats we saw on the way up. The first is a small boat with 12 ducklings attached. Our guess is they are fishing boats headed to a resort. The second is a tanker we passed on its way to Ocean Falls.
Mama duck and ducklings
Tanker boat
Yesterday, we had an awesome encounter with Dall’s porpoises on our way to Reid Passage from Shearwater (in Seaforth Channel). This video is over a minute but these acrobats are so amazing I didn’t want to cut any of it. I hope you enjoy!
Our boat has a lot of red trim (Gyrberry Red). Hummers seem to think we’re just one big flower. We saw a few buzzing around the boat yesterday, so we put up a feeder. It wasn’t up 2 minutes before three rufous hummingbirds were fighting over who got to drink the nectar.
That’s all for now–we’ll try to update more frequently in the future.
