Adventures of Dunvegan... now Gandalf

Ginger here. In our last post, dated July 29, 2007, Frank wrote, "I will return to Alaska in a boat, but under different circumstances."

Today is May 30, 2016, and for the first time since 2007, we are headed to Alaska in a boat.

As Frank said he would, he left Dunvegan in Anacortes, and eventually sold her. We bought back our 20' welded aluminum fishing boat from our son Mike, and that was our only power boat for quite a while. Frank retired, we moved from Montana to Portland, OR. Frank got a Captain's license and spent several summers driving a tour boat (on Flathead Lake Montana) and captaining for saltwater fishing charters in Alaska (at Knudson Cove and South Kaigani Harbor).

In 2013 we got the cruising itch again. It started with the annual trip to the Seattle boat show. There was a 32' Grand Banks for sale, at a price we could afford. I told Frank, let's buy it! He said, whoa, wait a minute. Huh? What?

This led to a year-long quest to find the perfect boat. In January 2014, we closed on M/V GANDALF, a 1999 37' Nordic Tug. We have been outfitting, provisioning, learning, repairing, testing, spending absolutely all our money, and scaring ourselves silly ever since. We knew that a bigger boat was going to be more expensive and of course, more comfortable. I don't think either of us expected that a bigger boat would be so much more complicated and intimidating. 

And then there was a near sinking at the dock (galvanic corrosion is no joke). A son who was diagnosed with Stage 4 lymphoma and needed a year of treatment and support - now thankfully fully healthy. Never ending work demands.

The time has finally come. Yesterday we cast off from our home port of Skyline Marina in Anacortes, headed north. We made it to Nanaimo in one day - a big, tiring day.

As anyone who has attempted any kind of ambitious endeavor knows, there are about a million things that can go wrong. We are feeling a sense of accomplishment at this point, to have gotten this far. Thanks for reading, we will be posting when we can.

Full Circle

I left Nanaimo early to slip through Dodd Narrows on the tail of the ebb tide. Dodd Narrows is the last, albeit minor, tidal rapids between me and Anacortes. The weather was pretty good but I could have done with a little less breeze.

There were many options and I could have extended the cruise but I was still focused on going home. I called the Small Boat Clearance Center and was once again a bit surprised at the apparent lack of coordination in the Department of Homeland Security. However, I was able to clear Customs without another face to face. I then called the marina in Anacortes and scheduled a haul out for 1000hrs on Friday, the 27^th. The next call was to the Motor Carrier Services Division of Montana Department of Transportation to have an over-width permit faxed to the marina. Everything was in place to drag DUNVEGAN back home to Montana.

I motored to an anchorage in Shoal Bay on Lopez Island to make a short hop across Rosario Strait to Anacortes in the morning. I had anchored in Shoal Bay on a previous cruise and found it nice and quiet. This time there were crab trap buoys everywhere and crab boats zipping around the bay like it was some kind of demolition derby competition that lasted until sundown. I stayed anyway and it did quiet down.

I awoke at 0300hrs and climbed into the pilothouse. The water was like glass, the air was warm and still and the sky was light. I stood there at the bridge and looked through all the pilothouse windows, remembering all the days of the cruise. The boat had done everything I asked of her and all without hesitation. She carried me and my first mate on a wonderful passage to Alaska and, with the Lord’s blessing, returned us safely home. It was so peaceful and I felt so at ease. It came to me at that moment; I must sell DUNVEGAN.

I knew I would not be making a similar or better cruise than this one, at least not in this boat, and I would not want to diminish the experience by doing something less. I will return to Alaska in a boat, but under different circumstances. It is now time to pass this great little tug on to someone else so they can experience the joys she still has to offer. I will not be towing DUNVEGAN back to Montana. I will probably leave her in Anacortes and list her with a broker (ouch!).

I hope some of you have enjoyed this blog as much as I have enjoyed putting it together. I am thankful for the encouragement of friends and family along the way and am eternally thankful for having had the opportunity to experience the wonders we’ve seen on this trip and the ability, through technology, to share some of that with you.

I will probably make a couple more posts in the near future when I have an opportunity and will be glad to address any comments. Here are some leftover photos. Thanks!

M/V DUNVEGAN is officially for sale. Inquiries can be sent to fogillin@gmail.com.

My Headed Home Face

The weather has turned absolutely beautiful! Unfortunately, as you know Ginger has flown out back to hot, hot, hot Montana.

I have gotten the romantic vision of solo cruising out of my head and so I am now focused on going home.

For those of you who know the area, I motored from Lagoon Cove to Francis Bay (N 50 degrees 21.011' W 125 degrees 02.506') at the lower end of Yaculta Rapids, 69nm, transiting all five tidal rapids. I noticed a Sundowner Tug at the dock in Shoal Bay but I was between rapids and couldn't take the time to stop in. I think it was a 36' with red trim. The further south I get the more boats there are. Going through the rapids was like playing bumper cars! That was the day after Ginger left, yesterday.

Today I left Francis Bay and am now at anchor in Nanaimo Harbour, 88nm! New record for me in a slow boat solo. Excellent traveling weather and favorable currents.

These photos are; my going home face, another shot of Cutter Cove and an example of what I mean when I say there are too many boats. That is a shot of my radar screen while at anchor in Nanaimo (notice the scale).

I should be back in Anacortes in acouple of days. 1963nm to date.

Alaska veteran M/V DUNVEGAN may be for sale.

Changeup

(This was written two days ago and I've traveled a lot since but here is what I had to say then.)

Fog, fog, fog and five straight days of driving rain. These photos are of Lagoon Cove Marina, Ginger's ride and morning in Cutter Cove.

But today is a transition day. Same weather this morning but much improved in the afternoon. Broken skies and the sun is burning hot when it peeks through. The boat is soggy. Soggy to the point that there is mold growing in many, many hard to clean places. Everything that can be opened is now open.

The other part of this transition is that Ginger flew out of Lagoon Cove (N 50 degrees 35.939’ W 126 degrees 18.821’) on a Kenmore Air float plane. The plan was that I would see that she got off OK and then I would head downstream trying to make a full day’s transit in a half of a day. But Kenmore Air was four hours late and put me way behind the curve so I am spending the night in Lagoon Cove again. There are worse things than spending another night here. Tomorrow morning I will shove off at 0530hrs.

I am sad to see her go. Ginger has been the best first mate. I have put her through the fog, the endless rain, the five footers, the eight foot steep-to swells and the long days with not a whimper. There have also been the amazing, beyond belief days sprinkled throughout! She spent 44 days on this little boat with me, that might be asking too much. I would do it again in a heartbeat!

It is really amazing how quickly things can change. I am rapidly shifting back into my singlehanding mode. I have been aboard 65 days as of today and am feeling quite comfortable with it. I was feeling very pressed to push hard to get back to Anacortes once Ginger left but with the weather change and the experiences along the way, I am now starting to want this to never end.

Dear Owen

Owen,
As much as I sometimes worry about something going wrong, DUNVEGAN (PLACEBO) has not missed a beat. she is a natural for this kind of cruising. We have met a lot of people cruising who admire her even though she is usually the smallest boat in the harbour. Thanks for taking such good care of PLACEBO (DUNVEGAN) and passing her onto us. She has given us a once in a lifetime experience and we are grateful. (Although, this trip has convinced us that we will return to Alaska in a boat).

Tom and Ann remembered the boat and said to say hi to you and Suzette. I updated them on BOOMER, I think they would like to hear from you sometime.

My advice to you is to not wait until everything is perfect with BOOMER to cruise to Alaska, just do it! You will probably want to make some modifications as a result of the cruise anyway.

We are currently sitting at the dock in Kwatsi Bay, still as wonderous as ever. In two days we will be in Lagoon Cove where Ginger will fly from, back to the lower 48. I will singlehand back to Anacortes on no particular schedule. We stopped by Lacy Falls on the way in. Here are some shots of the falls and Kwatsi Bay.

Fog and Fish

Arriving at Shearwater after a long run we took on fuel, took showers, did the laundry, shopped for groceries and went to dinner in a real restaurant. Sorry, no time for blogging.

As I write this (7-19-07, 2112hrs.Pacific Time), we are at the dock at Greenway Sound Marine Resort (N 50 degrees 50.323' W126 degrees 46.290'). Business looks to be a little slow here but they weren’t even open when I came by here on the way up.

I will catch you up on the last three days.

We left Shearwater knowing we would find an anchorage north of Cape Caution and stage for the big crossing. Cape Caution, you will remember is the biggest crossing on this cruise and feared by many and I am at the top of the list. As we approached the SE end of Fitz Hugh Sound we were monitoring the weather, buoy and lighthouse reports and everything was looking good. Except, of course, the fog bank at Egg Island. We decided to push on to find the edge of the fog bank and then find the nearest anchorage. At some point you reach a point of no return in this area and we reached that point before we got to the fog bank. The sea state was looking good and we still had some daylight left. One thing I’ve learned on this trip is, if you see an open window, jump through it!

So we did. About a half of a mile past Egg Island we ran into the fog. At first it still allowed about a quarter of a mile of visibility but that soon went away. The rest of the crossing to Allison Harbour past Cape Caution was in less than fifty yards of visibility, we never saw Cape Caution. The approach to Allison is littered with rocks, small islets and Allison Reef. Sometimes the word "cruising" just doesn't seem to fit.

Right in the middle of trying to decipher all the little black and grey splotches chasing each other around on the RADAR screen, two targets abruptly appeared on a heading intersecting with our course making us ground zero. The targets were moving together leading me to believe a vessel was towing something and it was moving much faster than we were. The prudent thing to do would be to deviate from your course to starboard hoping to pass port to port. All the while hoping the skipper of the other vessel picked you up on his RADAR and was also prudent enough to deviate from his course to starboard. We passed within 1/8 of a mile and didn’t see each other so I guess one could say it was a successful maneuver.

We spent the night in Allison Harbour and awoke to heavy fog again. About mid afternoon we decided to spend another night due to the fog. After setting the crab trap we motored out to the mouth of the harbour to look for a good fishing spot in deeper water and could see that the visibility had improved somewhat. So we ran back, grabbed the trap and headed to Blunden Harbour 20nm away.

Blunden is a nice place and had about a dozen boats sitting in it waiting to head north or south, either way in the fog. We left in the morning at a time that would get us to Wells Passage on the flood tide and carry us out of Queen Charlotte Sound and into the protected cruising waters of the Broughton Archipelago.

We have been running pretty hard for two weeks now and haven’t done any fishing so I decided to tease some bottom fish on the way in to Wells Passage. I turned back a couple small rockfish and then found a nice wall to fish. One 36” lingcod, in the boat! In case you don't know, lingcod are really mean looking with big mouths and taste really good.

I filleted him (actually her) in the driving rain, drove to Greenway Marina in the driving rain and am writing this in the driving rain. At least it is not windy.

Tomorrow will be here soon.

We have put on 702nm in 14 days since leaving Juneau averaging 50nm per day. 1761nm total to date.

Admit It, There are Easier Routes

We left Klemtu with a favorable weather report (except for the fog which didn’t last very long) and decided to take on Milbanke Sound where I got me butt kicked on the way up. Well, that lasted about three miles, or until the swells reached about eight feet and a little too steep. Ginger didn’t much like that and I didn’t either. We reversed course and headed for Oscar Passage to take the much more protected inside route to Ivory Island. This route is very interesting in a lot of ways. At one point we transited a narrow point against 5kts of current. That is a lot when your boat only goes 7kts.

Once inside Reid Passage we saw a humpback whale in 20 to 30 feet of water! There is something amazing around every corner.

The water smoothed out and the run past Bella Bella to Shearwater put on another 50nm. As happens quite often, we were the smallest cruising boat in the harbour.