Wed Jun 30, at the village of Tenakee Springs, Chicagof Is

Hi All

Yesterday early the fleet left Sitka , or whatever bay a few who left on Monday anchored in, and rendezvoused in Appleton Cove on the upper end of Peril Strait . The transit was one I was looking forward to and it proved even more than I expected. Not only the series of straits and narrows along the way, intricate and challenging, but we were entertained by young whales in the shallows, deer on the beach and sea otters the size of sea lions.

As I had hoped, Bill & Trish Anderson were the fountain of knowledge, like having a personal tour guide, which they are! As you may know, Bill and Trish lived in Sitka in the 70’s when Bill captained the CG Cutter “Clover” based in Sitka on it’s dual role as the only search and rescue and aids to navigation vessel in the area. Not only did we get the lowdown on Sitka area, Bill has made the transit of the many narrows in Olga, Neva and Peril Straits a hundred times! Many at night! And all in a 180 ft, 11,000 ton ship. We learned of the blasting of Whitestone and Sergius Narrows in the 70’s, which Bill worked on, very similar to blasting of Ripple Rock in Seymour Narrows , BC . The narrows had to be widened and deepened for the new Alaska Ferry system vessels. The narrows are ok now but I would have hated to see them in the 60’s, especially at low tide, more rocks than water.

The passage was calm except when we were exposed to a 20kn westerly blowing into the end of Salisbury Sound which we had to cross between Olga/Neva and Kulka Narrows . The predicted 6+ kn flood in Sergius narrows was definitely there and it got The Tillie up to 15+ knots for a bit and helped us all the way to the top end of Peril Straits.

The race today (Wednesday) was a straight shot 14.8 nm down Peril Strait to Chatham Strait . The current predictions were up to 2.3 kn but the actual was less than half. They were stronger than Friday but the experience of that leg lead to excellent scores by many. Vagabond and Mousetrap both had only 5 sec error in a 100 minutes – isn’t that 0.1%?

Tenakee Hot Springs is a quaint village of 100 souls. No cell phones but you can get phone and thus internet (sometimes) by microwave (remember that technology before it was an oven). If you get this on Thurs Jul 1 that means I successful could get on their free wifi at the library (an open atrea bus shelter size, free book, library). The hot springs bath house has separate hours for men and women, is that the Russian heritage of the area?  A few did venture but I got the hours wrong, and they turned me away. There is a Mercantile, bakery and tavern. The salmonberries & high-bush blueberries on the walk along the trail – no cars , no roads – to town were exceptional. The fleet has placed a mass order for the town bakery to be ready at 8 AM so we can have a leisurely run up Chatham Strait to Funter Bay , on a sugar high with cinnamon rolls, strawberry/rhurbarb pie and scones galore. We should have 15-20 Kn South winds on our sterns and 3 foot seas for 36 nm, so it should be a ride.

Did I mention bears and whales; the 2 largest mammals in the area. On anchor last night in Appleton Bay, during the 8 PM ritual of the “message to the fleet” from Tewasi; Mike Henry interrupted and said there was “a rather large brownie (Grizzly to others) loping across the beach at 10 o’clock (at the boats at were pointing in the same direction in the 20 kn breeze so we knew where to look)”. Don’t ever think you can outrun a grizzly, he was only out for a stroll, and looked like race horse.

The race start was nearly obstructed by a whale and we saw another on the race plus 2 more later on the run to Tenakee in Chatham Strait . One sea otter we saw the other day did look like a sea lion lying on its back with flippers and head high out of the water.

The results are in and the last standings before the final 2 legs on Friday are:

First:           Bob Gautschi, Sirena, Airport YC, Vancouver

Second:       Chuck Silvernail, Solmar; Bremerton YC

Third:           George Gregg/Bob Johnson, Noble, Poulsbo YC

Fourth:        Mike Henry , Peachy Kean, Bremerton YC

Fifth:           Dick Timmerman , Vagabond, Queen City YC

These results do not reflect the throwing out of a racer’s 2 worst legs so the race is still wide open, but these racers all get an exchange observer.

The Awards Dinner will be on Sat July 3, when we all learn the results. We are looking forward to a reception at Juneau YC on Friday.

Thanks

Bob

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