Lindisfarne – Forgus 37 – 7,5t (more than 9t equipped)
New Zeeland, Tahiti, Hawaii, Alaska and Canada BC
2011
Part 3 of 7
Adak to Dutch Harbor via Pribilof Islands
8 July – 3 August 2011
650nm
Adak
Friday 8 of July we woke up in our first anchorage in the Aleutians, Thumb Bay on Adak Island, to a somewhat foggy morning after a calm and undisturbed night. Very refreshing after a two weeks passage from Hawaii.
After breakfast it was time to go to Adak Harbor for fuelling up and to contact the authorities.
Just as we weigh anchor we saw our first Bald Eagle sitting on the hillside watching for salmon in the little stream at the head of the bay. We thought that was a good sign for our weeks in the Aleutians.
After motoring half an hour we cleared into Adak, that is to say, we called the harbormaster on VHF and she came to us at the fuel dock where we got 90 gallons. We had in fact almost 20 gallons left in our tanks. Then we motored into the small boat harbor where we moored and brought up our foldable bikes and biked into Adak town. Adak feels somewhat like a ghost town with all the empty houses after the military left in 1994.
Later in the evening the guy from the fuelling came and gave us some frozen caribou meat. What a treat!
The next day we planned to do a long bike ride to the Clam lagoon north of town. When we were on the wharf, loading our bikes with cameras and stuff Allen showed up with his truck. Allen was the contractor for the dredging of the harbor, and he offered us a ride into town. We declined, but when he also offered us the use of his laundry and dryer the answer was YES.
Annika collected our used clothes and we put the bikes on the back of the truck and drove to Allen’s house in Adak. After coffee and having put the laundry into the dryer we took the bikes and continued our so nicely interrupted biking tour.
Quite a tour with lots of up and down until we finally arrived at the lagoon. Two cars had offered us a lift, so biking is obviously not very common… Almost sunny, but mostly high fog made the light a bit difficult. Many larks singing in the sky made the day just perfect. The lagoon itself did not offer any spectacularly scenery this day.
A little bit stiff we turned back to Adak and Allen’s dryer. Allen just arrived home and asked if we wanted to have a shower before he brought us back to the boat! Some questions have only one answer! Especially after the tough bike ride back to town… Allen offered us dinner tonight, but we had already on the bike ride back to town been invited to and accepted the grand opening of Muggs “Man Cave”, so we had to decline his offer.
The Man Cave was Muggs garage to his house, rebuilt to a small bar. We think the main reason for this “private bar”/Man Cave was that it was not allowed to smoke in the public bar (and beer was not cheap either). We certainly helped him with the grand opening. A lot of barbecued sausages and beers were gone when the pleasant evening was done…
Before the Man Cave thing we were back in Lindisfarne and there was a Seattle boat just arriving into small boat harbor with last port Tokyo. We took the lines, but they were too tired to join the grand opening.
The next morning we invited Mary and Brian for coffee and they told us about their seven months in Palau. A paradise, that is not on everybody’s route. Already in NZ we bought the courtesy flag for Palau so we still hope to come there someday.
We also had some talk about wintering in Seattle/Vancouver Island area. Much dryer and warmer compared with South East Alaska. We now think that Vancouver Island once again has come high up on our list. The morning coffee kept on until noon, of course due to our mutual interest, and Elaine, the Harbor Master, and Brett from Juneau came and joined.
We agreed to have dinner together with Mary and Brian with their Shibui, anchored in Finger Bay after they had been fuelling.
When we came to Finger Bay Shibui had just anchored and we could anchor at a safe distance. Annika cooked a casserole made of the caribou we got the day before, and with that and a bottle of red wine we took the dinghy to Shibui where Mary had made rice and a salad. A very pleasant evening together and the caribou/reindeer was tender and delicious.
We were back in Lindisfarne at eleven, but the summer light makes you believe it’s only early afternoon. It’s odd when you set your clock after Alaska time, hundreds of mile to the east. Here in Adak the sunrise is at seven and the sunset is after twelve at night!
Quiet night with some rain and in the morning Mary and Brian decided to take advantage of the good weather and move on east. They were little bit in a hurry to a meeting somewhere east. We were in no hurry, took the dinghy ashore, and hiked up to the freshwater lake, taking advantage of the sunny weather. Very lucky to be able to see the surrounding mountains, some of them covered with a lot of snow. Extremely beautiful sceneries, now we only hope that we haven’t had our only sunny day in the Aleutians!
Just as we were going back with our dinghy, Elaine came driving with her truck from Adak. Annika had promised her to bring two stones from Adak to Elaine’s father’s grave in Kodiak. Elaine even brought some “bribe goodies”, which we highly appreciated. Some was food and some was only goodies. The bottom line is, there are harbormasters and harbormasters!
We will deliver the stones to Elaine’s mother in Kodiak and if we are lucky it is in late August when Elaine is in Kodiak.
Our powerboat friends on Ice Dancer have now done Attu and e-mailed about arriving Adak in one or two days. Presumable we will meet in two to three days in a cove further east.
Afternoon we took the dinghy fishing. We got, what we thought, two “dinner size” Halibuts and one 6 pound Cod. The “Halibuts” tasted ok, but the texture of the meat was not good… (It turned out to be arrowtoothed flounders). The Cod was as good as we remember from back home!
Kagalaska
Tuesday we left early to make Kagalaska Strait at slack water, ten o’clock according to Annika´s calculation. One knot extra all the way to the strait and after the narrow part we got one knot against us. Still sunny and everything was just too great to be true!
The goal of today was the “Salmon cove” on the south coast of Kagalaska. Its real name is Quail Bay, but it is known for the salmon run up to the freshwater lake at the head of the bay.
Anchored we could only accept that a more protected bay is difficult to find. In spite the bay faced south out in the Pacific, the entrance with its reef and swell basins completely kills the ocean swell.
The salmon stream and the nice lake makes the picture complete! Did we forget to mention that the bottom 35 feet down gives a perfect holding?
We took the dinghy ashore to find a place to be able to inflating the kayak. Then lunch and after that we spend the afternoon kayaking along the beaches of the outer part of our bay. Lots of different kind of birds in the bay; Horned Puffin, Tufted Puffin, Harlequin, Guillemot, Black Guillemot, Red Breasted Merganser, Eider and Cormorant. Even the kayak behaved to our full acceptance! The salmon was jumping out of the water around the boat, but it was obviously too early for them to run up the stream.
The second day was foggy. We were spoiled and already got used to fine weather after three days, forgetting that three to four sunny days a month is what you can expect. Salmon still jumping, but no one was the least interested of our lure!
The wind continues to be quite modest, not at all the wind Aleutian is famous for.
Ice Dancer came to our bay on Thursday and Annika made another casserole, using the rest of the caribou and treated Gail and Dick with that in Lindisfarne.
Dick had a problem with a leaking cool water hose, dripping even when at anchor. They decided to run direct to Dutch Harbor to have a new hose shipped in from Anchorage.
The next morning they left early and we were alone again. The forecast called for stronger southerly. Because we didn’t want to be caught by heavy swell in the entrance, we left in the afternoon and sailed to Igitkin Bight on the north coast of Igitkin Island, two straits northeast of Kagalaska. No swell but some williwaws. Spoiled from our previous bay we slept not that well because of all the noises and heeling due to the williwaws.
Saturday the 16th the sun was there again! We rowed ashore and then pulled the dinghy along the shore to have Lindisfarne to leeward to be able to row back.
Atka
Sunday we moved again, this time to Atka and Portage Lagoon, 30 nm east of Igitkin. Dense fog and no wind all the way to our new cove. We had planned to take advantage of the predicted westerly 10-15 knots… However, the water tanks filled up and in the completely calm water, we got company with some Dall’s porpoises. They are fast and astonishing looking animal. We got some nice photos, thanks to the flat water.
The fog eased and we got a nice kayak tour into the shallow lagoon. We saw four small herds of caribou on the sloops. But in terms of birds, the result was not very good.
A quiet night in spite the forecast had predicted gale force. In early morning the rain started and after breakfast we got the wind. This anchorage was not so close to the mountains and the opening over the lagoon to the south gave the wind a more even direction. During hours before lunch we noticed on the plotter that we were slowly moving to the north. 30 feet in two hours. Time for some thinking. Changing bay was out of the question due to the kayak and dinghy and it was “only” the holding that failed.
We started with extra scoop and an anchor rider but still we had no good holding and this in spite we had digged down the anchor, reversing the engine. We pulled our Delta and back in the water with our 45 lbs, Bruce attached to the delta with a 15 feet chain and let out 150 feet of chain plus anchor rider. The depth is 25 feet. With that arrangement we were attached to the bottom like on a heavy mooring. We did not move one inch in spite the wind increased quite a lot. We have some plans for going ashore, but in that case, we have to make use of the outboard. Try to row in this wind is dangerous, you might be blown out to sea…
We didn’t come ashore that day. Dense fog and strong wind kept us inside the whole day. We had all our meals in the cockpit, in our big cockpit enclosure, admiring the surroundings in between the fog patches when a very bright sun was shining. It was a weird, magic sight. Today, Tuesday the 19, the weather still looks windy, but we think we will be able to go ashore later…
Our plan is to move east during Wednesday, when it is supposed to blow less, 30 nm along the coast of Atka to a new cove. There we will deflate the kayak and tie down the dinghy on deck, to be able to sail in rougher conditions compared with having the kayak inflated on deck and towing the dinghy. The forecast includes strong winds at the end of the week, and that calls for a protected anchorage.
Deep Bay
We came ashore for a walk during Tuesday, and the trip along Atka was completely calm. Once again, we got company with our Dall’s Porpoises and once again, we had flat water and got even better photos than last time. The air this time was much dryer and we had them with us 90% of the time to the next cove!
We choose to stay already after 17 nm, in a small appendix to Deep Bay, completely landlocked and only 15 feet deep with hard sand on the bottom. We assumed that a better cove than this is difficult to find. Even the mountains were not very high close to water. There was even a big freshwater lake with a stream at the head of the bay.
We got a very good holding when setting the anchor and took the dinghy out into Deep Bay to get some fish. Either the moon was wrong or some other important thing was wrong, because we got no fish! Back ashore we saw a Blue Fox. We had heard it barking before, but to find it and get in photo position…
The night was very calm and the water smooth as a mirror and those conditions stayed until late afternoon. We did a long photo walk up into the grassy hills in the sun, interrupted with some fog patches. We got some great views, caribous and many birds.
Back in the boat we had to consider the coming rough weather. 40 kn predicted from first south east, then backing to south west to west. Our Delta anchor was in good position for the westerly and we decided to put our stern anchor, a 45 lb Manson Supreme, to protect us from the southeast. We moved forward to our bow anchor and put the rest of our 80m (240 feet) chain there. Then we backed down, turning the boat in right position for the “southeast” anchor on a separate chain. After a scoop of 150 feet we used the engine to dig the anchor down carefully to be sure it would keep us in place even under severe conditions. Then we brought the stern chain to the bow onto our second bow roller. This time we did not connect the two chains some meters under the boat to be able to swing above as we use to do. We wanted to have the extra security of having both chain firmly secured on deck and with separate snubber lines to the chains.
After our work with upgrading the ground tackle, we deflated the kayak and put every lose item on deck either down below or secured on deck. We left the dinghy behind the stern because we wanted to use it in between the blows.
When everything was ready, late afternoon, the wind had started to increase. By eight o’clock, it was blowing 25 knots and during the night we had 40 knots from southeast. It’s very nice to have two anchors. Of course, we only “used” one anchor at the time with this arrangement, but we rely on our anchors, especially the one we digged down in the direction to the wind, and if something really goes wrong, we still have the second anchor to give us some time to get in action.
Even if we were secured, it’s difficult to get a good night sleep due to the noise from the wind and all the noise from the boat and rig. Early morning the wind decreased and backed. Our Refleks stove didn’t like the strong gusts. It blows out and when it relit (automatically), there is a certain smell of diesel exhaust inside the boat. Luckily, we have our Webasto air heater in addition to the waterborne heater and that is fan driven and has no problem with the air pressure outside/inside the boat.
Saturday morning we could count two days with strong gale in our perfect cove. We can watch the big swell out in Deep Bay, but our cove gets almost nothing. Björn put the chimney to the Refleks back in business and the only thing that was damaged during two days of storm conditions was a missing oar in the dinghy. We have to use the kayaks paddle as a backup to the outboard until we can get a new one.
We hoped that all had blown away and we could rest and get our good night sleep back again. We would not leave the cove before the wind was down below 20 knots and the sea state had calmed, which is supposed to be happening during Monday or Tuesday.
Instead we walked ashore looking at the foxes and all the birds along the northern shoreline. The swell in Deep Bay was still dramatic.
The night was calm and it was obvious that the low was done and Sunday morning we had clear sky and no wind. We decided to sail to another cove, but when we got the stern anchor up and secured, the wind came up again and we kept the bow anchor in place and stayed.
After a late lunch we took the dingy out in Deep Bay to try our luck fishing because we were out of fresh food. Immediately Björn felt something and the reflex was “pull back”, which we know is wrong fishing for Halibut. Annika at the same time let her lure down to the bottom and were “caught” in something. What we could understand when the fish was surfaced it was probably “Björns” Halibut that her lure caught in the back fin. We had to tow the big fish into our beach and pull it ashore. The catch was something like 30 pound and the two foxes could almost not resist trying to get to it when it was flapping. Obviously there reflexes to the flapping fish overcome their instincts of fear for us.
There was lots of food for us and for the foxes, eagles and gulls.
We were happy to hear the foxes next morning, a little bit afraid that they had eaten to much the day before! The eagles are still watching the little stream for salmon, but it’s probably too early in the season.
Pribilof Islands
Monday morning the 25th, we decided to either change bay or sail to Pribilof Islands if the swell wasn’t too bad. We secured the boat for offshore sailing, which takes some time when having been anchoring with motoring in between for two weeks.
Three o’clock in the afternoon we were ready to leave. The swell was not that bad and we decided to head for St Paul, the biggest of Pribilof Islands, more than 300 nm to north.
A nice southwest 15-20 knot wind pushed us together with the swell quite fast. The current was northerly, almost one knot, made us “fly” towards St Paul the first 30 hours. Then the wind backed and declined. The now almost flat water made us still get a great speed thanks to the new wind angle. The second night the wind was down to 5 knots and we had to engage the engine. Thanks to the current we were able to reach St Paul late Wednesday evening.
After the wind had left us we got dense fog and the great circle route between North America and Asia is north of Aleutian. We had more than ten big ships passing close and thanks to AIS, we never had a problem. We have a B-transponder and those do not transmit our status of sailing or motoring. Because of that, we call all ships on our starboard side to inform them that we are a sailing boat under sail when we are sailing.
The second night, north of the big ships, we got new AIS targets “engaged in fishing”. We, together with a lot of others, who thought that fishing boats don’t carry AIS, should be ashamed!
The fog was gone when we nine o’clock moored at the new floating docks in St Paul’s small boat harbor together with a lot of small Halibut fishing boats. Everybody was interested in our boat and where we came from. We asked three guys in the lower teenage if sailing boats often come to St Paul; they told us “often”. When we tried to clarify by asking “how often” they responded “every year”. Not to be surprised we obviously were not an everyday experience!
We, who know about Ice Dancers arrival to St Paul tomorrow, wonder how they would cope with two guest boats at the same time! There are tourists on the island, but they come either by air or on big cruising ships to see the fur seal rookery.
Very nice people and on top of that no harbor fee.
Thursday morning and almost clear sky. We got our permit to use the Blinds from where you are quite close to the seal rookery and when Ice Dancer arrived, we used the sunny and calm weather and walked out to the seals together with Gail and Dick.
We were extremely lucky with the weather. St Paul had almost had no day in July without fog, and here we were in clear sunshine taking photos of seals and birds under almost perfect conditions.
We had seen fur seals in southern Pacific, but not in a rookery. This was something very different. We saw groups of cubs and big bulls watching their territory with plenty of female seals. The sound was also an experience!
On our way to and back from the Blind, we passed many bird cliffs with plenty of birds in photo distance. This was really worth the 300-mile trip from Atka.
Late dinner alone in Lindisfarne (Gail and Dick needed a full night sleep after their passage over night from Dutch Harbor).
Friday was back to normal St Paul weather, fog, some rain and a cold wind. We had to postpone the trip to the eastern bird cliffs and instead visit the museum and did some photo editing down in Lindisfarne.
Unfortunately, the foggy weather continued during Saturday. Now it was time to decide. A deep low was predicted to come Wednesday, time enough for a short visit to St George Island 40 nm in direction Dutch Harbor. Some decision is easier than other, by leaving St Paul for St George we made the trip to Dutch 40 nm shorter, which means that those remaining 200 nm can be done over one and a half day giving us only one night at sea.
One hour out of St Paul, we got sunshine! (Ice Dancer, still in St Paul told us that the fog stayed all day) We had good visibility until we were ten miles out of St George Harbor. On St George, the fog was even denser than on St Paul.
The harbor was small but well protected when in the harbor. Approaching in heavy westerly swell is probably almost impossible because of the shallow area to be passed in front of the piers. Compared to St Paul’s new floating docks, this was rugged and we rafted outside a fishing boat moored at the piling for a former processing industry. One of the four boats had been out and we got a nice sized Halibut. Going to bed we were not sure whether we were to be sleeping in the morning or have to move because the fishing boats were leaving. But Sunday morning came with fog, no wind and no fishermen.
To our surprise, the village was on the other side of the island, some five mile away over the mountain. We had concentrated on the harbor and the protection taking for granted that the village was close by. We walked around the harbor in the fog and coming back to the boat there was a truck with a guy who asked if we wanted to see the village.
Antony, an Aleut with Russian genes, drew us over the mountain to the village. When we had walked the village we knocked on his door and had a chat in his kitchen. Almost his entire family, three children and many grandchildren, lived on the island.
Back in the boat Annika continued with the somewhat interrupted baking of bread. It had almost left its bowl during our prolonged absents.
After lunch somebody knocked on the boat and Annika went up. Two women, one working on the island and a tourist friend stood on the fishing boat. They were very interested in cruising life and wanted to have a chat. Of course we invited them to see a small cruiser. Rain and fog outside, cozy and warm down in Lindisfarne… we think that they eventually got a little too positive picture of “cruising life”, not to mention the smell of bread baking…
After an hour they drew back to the village, only to knock on the boat again after half an hour. They came back with a back strap from a newly shot caribou. In fact we heard the shot when we were chatting in the boat and Karin told us about her friends that was shooting but gave her all the meat! We didn’t expect to get evidence that quickly. Now we will be able to compare fresh caribou from St George to frozen from Adak. So far the only item we bought in the expensive shops in Adak and St Paul is cabbage at the price of 2,7 $ a pound!
Dutch Harbor
Monday we left St George to be in Dutch well before the southeasterly on Wednesday morning.
Motoring for one hour before the predicted northerly reached us and the fog was gone. We got a very comfortable sail south to Dutch, although the sea built some heavy swell during late night. Swell from straight behind when sailing wing-wing using staysail is seldom a problem, mainly increase the speed.
Tuesday morning and the wind veered to west, still giving us an open reach and good speed on our route southeast to Dutch. Again, we had much use of our AIS! At one time we had three big ships within two nautical miles!! One in front of us and one behind us (CPA 0,8!) going west and a third one going southeast. A fishing boat heading for Dutch during the night was slowly catching up and CPA was down to less than 0,5 sometimes. We called him and he altered course 15 degrees to west and passed us with CPA 1,5 miles. If you think of buying AIS, don’t hesitate; buy a transceiver “tomorrow”. It’s necessary when sailing in waters with heavy traffic even if not together with fog.
Dutch Harbor and Unalaska are situated in Unalaska Bay facing north. Arriving late afternoon in bright sunshine and williwaws coming down the steep sloops was enchanting. The green sloop together with the snow on the high Mukushin Volcano, 5906 feet, in this bright light was not what we had got used to in the Aleutians.
Dutch is almost “only” a big fish processing industry with its infrastructure of shops and administration, but of course much more developed and with a much bigger population.
We got a slip in small boat harbor for 16$ a day. We have not done any shopping since Hawaii (except fueling in Adak) so our needs are plentiful. Hopefully the prices are lower than earlier in the Aleutians.
We plan to continue east late this week.
Annika & Björn
Lindisfarne
www.sailaround.info