Alaska 1000 Cruiser Navigation Contest

Hi all

The fleet is all moored around the harbors in Sitka as there is a commercial salmon opening on July 1 and the comm boats are all packed in here like sardines. Some are moving out today to get to their favorite spots.

It is the best weather they have had, except for a few days, with light NW wind, sunny and it feels like 65 degrees. A few went out fishing, some went shopping and investigating Sitka and others worked on their boats. The town of Sitka, spurred on by their Chamber of Commerce director, Sheila, and the owner of “Seasons”, a card and gift shop on the main street has eagerly been awaiting our arrival. Linda Mudry has given each of the visiting boaters a welcome gift bag full of goodies. Both of them have been getting these updates so they can track the progress. Linda also has been displaying a large wall map/chart of the Inside Passage (like what you see in Marine and tourist stores) with a colored tape along the fleet’s track. She has added photos from the IPBA webpage and put stars on many of the positions of the SKymate “Position Reports” which makes a humorous journey, especially when many of the position reports are on land. Last night’s report puts Peachy Kean about ½ mi inland from their moorage in the harbor and I can assure you they are not on terra firma.

http://maps.google.com/maps?q=57.056335,-135.343414(Time:17%3A51+GMT%2C+Jun+27%2C+2010%20Latitude:57.056335%20Longitude:-135.343414)&z=7

Sue and I arrived last night and we have been getting all the stories that people haven’t had time to send us. Breeching whales, sea otters alongside the boats, a tree with 40 eagles that looked like a Christmas tree with white lights. There are eagles constantly flying around the harbor and their screeches are the music of the day.

The race leg on Friday through Peril Straits has pretty well everyone moaning about the lack of current compared to the predictions. Results will probably be announced tonight. The top five boats all have exchange observers or someone from another boat. Bill and Trish were pleased to have been assigned an observer for that leg but not too happy that they will not have an observer on the next leg. One of the other key differences is each racer can throw out their 2 worst legs of the seven in the Prince Rupert to Juneau half. This is a real wild card as an early bad leg may be thrown out and someone from the back of the pack can jump ahead. There have been few penalties and the race is really dependent on reading the water, if you can with few buoys or points of land nearby.

I was pleasantly surprised that the tag-along boat, skippered by an all lady crew from QCYC, none of whom had every log raced, have run several of the race legs. Andrea Schock on Schocking, a 50’ West Bay pilothouse, had a seven second error on one of the legs. I think they will race the rest of the legs, they might beat all the veterans.

Tomorrow, Bill, Trish, Sue and I and Dick Timmerman are going out on The Tillie to fish for salmon and Halibut in the Sitka area. Tuesday we head North through Olga, Neva, Kakul, Sergius Narrows to Peril Strait and Appleton Cove, a prime anchorage in the Peril Straits area.

I should be able to do a report tomorrow, but that might be it for a few days.

Thanks

Bob

Robert W. (Bob) Lindal;    Lindal Cedar Homes Inc.,   206-892-1234  

PS –Bill Anderson’s email to Linda Mudry:

Linda,

Thank you for getting the word out in Sitka about our Predicted Log Competition from Olympia to Juneau.  We have all felt very welcome here and some of us will be back again this summer. Attached is a photo of The Tillie.  Trish and I would be pleased for you to add it to your display.

Thank you

Bill Anderson

Rear Commodore

International Power Boat Association