The Starr crew spent a drizzly and windy day exploring Seward. We headed first to the Maritime Center where live seals, sea lions, otters, fish and sea birds can be viewed up close. It is very well done, and it was a perfect day for that kind of activity. I also checked out the Seward Museum/Library, and on the way back to the boat ran across this mobile taco stand down on the waterfront. It...
The first time I saw Starr swinging at anchor outside of Kaneohe Yacht Club I was impressed by how immaculate she was. Everything was perfect. All of her finishes gleamed. Her stainless steel was blemish free. It looked like you could eat off of the engine room floor. She was in “boat show” condition. That’s how the Stabberts keep her looking, and that takes a bit of effort. As I mentioned in an earlier post,...
0800 position 60-07N 149-36W. Seward Small Boat Harbor Starr powered the length of Marmot Bay and at 9AM made the turn at Marmot Island leaving Kodiak and Afognak Islands behind. It was a cloudless windless day for our 100 mile crossing of the Gulf of Alaska outside Cook Inlet. We passed a number of logs and mats of floating debris mixed with kelp, more than we’ve seen elsewhere on the voyage. The birds were out in...
June 14, 930AM position 58-11N 151-46W. Marmot Island abeam to port, 1 mile distant.Lori emailed and asked me to include info on Starr’s position and daily run when I blog. I keep forgetting to provide that information, but if you want to know where we are at any time, just click on http://forecast.predictwind.com/tracking/display/Starr. This is a case sensitive link. We are a power boat that goes eight knots in almost all conditions. Starr will do...
I took a four hour nap after getting off watch at 4AM, and came up to the wheelhouse in the morning to find Starr landlocked in a maze of channels between the Alaskan peninsula and some offshore islands.We had intended to head up the coast well offshore, but we met a fisherman in Dutch Harbor who was kind enough to come down to the boat and mark up our charts showing us the favored routes...
Yesterday afternoon we experienced some significant tidal flow as we passed through and by the channels between the Bering Sea and Pacific Ocean. At one point we had more than four knots of current helping us along. We also had some tide that slowed us down but so far we are winning more than we are losing. Late in the day we crossed Unimac Strait, the eastern most shipping lane through the Aleutians. There was...
A few thoughts about Dutch Harbor.There isn’t much to do here in town. The Wi-Fi is glacial. The cell phone service is spotty at best. The winter month are dark, dark, dark. Kids need to use a flashlight to find their way home after school.The air service is hit and miss. During the 4 days we have been here the Alaska Airline flights have been canceled for days at a time due to fog and...
We tried all day yesterday to get Kyle and Sharry out on a plane, but the fog was so bad that all five flights into and out of Dutch Harbor got cancelled. We all spent the day in a holding pattern with multiple trips to the airport. Team Starr made the best of it though. Don cooked a great pot roast for dinner and we had movie night in Starr’s salon watching one of my...
On Friday many of the locals we encountered made a big deal about the weather. “We never have two good days in a row!”, most exclaimed. Yesterday the weather returned to normal; gusty winds, rain and fog. A good day for indoor activities. We had saved visiting museums and shopping for when the weather turned, so yesterday was the day.We spent a couple of hours in the Aleutian Museum before hitting the Aleutian War Museum....
The crew enjoyed a full uninterrupted night’s sleep for the first time in eleven days. After we got up, Clay cooked breakfast making us southern style cheesy grits, eggs, bacon, and toast.The pier we are tied to is as far from anything as you can get in Dutch Harbor, well beyond walking distance, so organizing ground transportation was our first priority. “Bong”, the Philippino fuel attendant who had helped us load diesel the night before,...