Prince William Sound and Gulf of Alaska

[Meanderthal]

We just got back from 3 weeks out and about in Prince William Sound. The second half of the trip was minus autopilot d/t the old flux gate compass dying--of course, we lost autopilot going into the Narrows four hours out of Cordova, at night with no illumination, and hand steered guided mostly by GPS through the Western Channel and into the small boat harbor.

We thought to make a jump for Juneau, but my husband thought 2 hour handsteering watches for 7 to 14 days sounded like the worst time ever. After choking down my excessively optimistic enthusiasm, I agreed. No shame in being fair weather sailors when the goal is to have fun and stay married ;-).

Of course, now we both kinda regret not sucking it up, but we had a great time gunkholing. In fact, SE Alaska after the bugs are frozen is even more splendid. I am planning to take us back out for 2 months starting in late Feb.

[Steadman Uhlich]

I like your positive attitude.

FYI: there is a recent thread about autopilot failures, which you may find helpful, or want to contribute your anecdote to too.

[JPA Cate]

Hi, Meanderthal,

You guys might try 4 on 4 off, you'll get better sleeps, with more rem sleep. Jim and I do 6 on 6 off, and trained ourselves to it a long time ago. He has trouble sleeping when it's light out, so it's really important for him to get a reasonable chunk of rem sleep at night. It is easier for me to nap, than him, possibly partly due to skippership, as well as biology.

For hand steering, well, it can be quite tiring, steering by the compass. When it's clear, pick a star to steer by on your course, and every 10 min, pick a new one to point at, but also keep checking the compass to make sure you've got it right. Also, get hold of Letcher's book, "Self Steering for Sailing Craft," and have a think, Jim cobbered up a sheet to tiller self steering on the way back from HI to Calif., with ideas from that book, which he remembered (the book wasn't aboard at that time.)

I hope you are keeping well,

Ann

[AKA-None]

I just did the transuperior with 2 hr shifts and it was brutal to say the least.

[Tetepare]

Originally Posted by AKA-None

I just did the transuperior with 2 hr shifts and it was brutal to say the least.

There is counseling for those who do stuff like that

[Meanderthal]

We did that while we had autopilot, but in 40F and colder, 2 hr is about as much as we want to stay above deck! And about as long as we can keep our mind on our tasks...

[Meanderthal]

Originally Posted by AKA-None

I just did the transuperior with 2 hr shifts and it was brutal to say the least.

Lol thanks for confirming we made the right call.

[Meanderthal]

Originally Posted by JPA Cate

Hi, Meanderthal,

You guys might try 4 on 4 off, you'll get better sleeps, with more rem sleep. Jim and I do 6 on 6 off, and trained ourselves to it a long time ago. He has trouble sleeping when it's light out, so it's really important for him to get a reasonable chunk of rem sleep at night. It is easier for me to nap, than him, possibly partly due to skippership, as well as biology.

For hand steering, well, it can be quite tiring, steering by the compass. When it's clear, pick a star to steer by on your course, and every 10 min, pick a new one to point at, but also keep checking the compass to make sure you've got it right. Also, get hold of Letcher's book, "Self Steering for Sailing Craft," and have a think, Jim cobbered up a sheet to tiller self steering on the way back from HI to Calif., with ideas from that book, which he remembered (the book wasn't aboard at that time.)

I hope you are keeping well,

Ann

Oops, I posted a response, then realized I had more to say. We shared skippership this trip--I'm captain on my watch, he's captain on his. That worked, because we argue out our stategies for various possibilities in advance, agreed to an overall plan, and debriefed each shift change. We had a Garmin Inreach bluetoothed to an old smart phone (mine) and Navionics on another smartphone (his)--so we had two handheld chartplotters, basically. Our wheel brake is in good trim, so on motoring or motorsailing, we could just make the occasional corrective to the wheel. We checked our position with dead reckoning+reference to PDF and printed NOAA charts, and stayed on compass bearings using the paths shown on our nav apps.

One note about the Garmin--we (I) used it to stay in contact with people who wanted to follow along (usually as an activity to do with their kids), and to talk to our family weather router, my FIL :-)

The bimini and dodger kept the wind and rain off of us, so we could enjoy ourselves, and I lugged around my silicone hot water bottle. At one point, the snow and cold were too much and the wool socks couldn't keep up, so I slipped a chemical heat pack in each extratuff. Happiness....

At anchor, the Espar diesel heater kept us extremely comfortable. We limited running it underway to conserve diesel, since mostly we burrowed under the covers and slept on offwatch.

[wrwakefield]

Meanderthal,

At least you're autopilot failed in one of the best cruising areas of the world. [I spent 14+ years plying the waters in Prince William Sound.]

As you know this is a tough time of year to cross the gulf in a small vessel anyway, so your decision not to is a reasonable one.

That said, if you could grab one of the highs we have been experiencing lately, you would likely be able to reach/run across and- if you could sustain 6 knots- the gulf crossing would only take you 3-4 days. [Another sailboat we know just completed the crossing the 3rd week of Oct, so windows do sometimes open this late in the season...]

If your boat balances well under sail you likely wouldn't miss 'Otto' too much during the crossing under a high...

However, you may be best off waiting until April/May timeframe when larger windows of mellower weather begin to present themselves... [If you don't already know, May in Prince William Sound is usually spectacular!]

Bugs in SE Alaska? We have only met a few, but we agree; it is best to perpetuate the expectation of hoards to help keep the human hoards away...

Best wishes nursing Otto back to good health. He is our best crewmember also...

Cheers! Bill

PS: We completed an electronics refit this summer which included a new autopilot computer. We still have the fully functioning Robertson/Simrad AP11 autopilot [brain] and RFC35R fluxgate compass in case either might suit your needs...

[northwestsailor]

Wow, you are all much tougher than we are. We left Prince William Sound after three weeks of mostly rain this Summer so we could get really warm before Winter set in. We are now down in the Bay Area and miss AK. Maybe we are getting too old for this sailing business Maybe Baja this Spring will be just the right temp for us

[Glacier Crews]

Sorry to hear about your autopilot. Things to think about: Juneau is not a deep well of shipwrights or mechanics and does not have a single store totally devoted to boat parts. Sitka, Petersburg, Ketchikan, even Wrangell will have better facilities and better assistance from experts.

Large fishing vessels often head to Kodiak, area or on down to Ketchikan, Bellingham area. If you go into Canada, it will cost you less than in Alaska.

Shared information. We live aboard and cruise out of Juneau, we take our boat to Petersburg.

Good luck and have a good time cruising. Weather will become plagued by icy waters, winds (and gusts) as we progress into winter. Weather information is somewhat hampered by the fact that there are limited NOAA weather gathering instruments in place for such a large area; that said they do a pretty accurate job for vessels out and about in winter.

[SV Sailfish]

Originally Posted by JPA Cate

Hi, Meanderthal,

Also, get hold of Letcher's book, "Self Steering for Sailing Craft," and have a think, Jim cobbered up a sheet to tiller self steering on the way back from HI to Calif., with ideas from that book, which he remembered (the book wasn't aboard at that time.) Ann

Courtesy of the author, this book is available online to read. It's a good one!
You can find it here... Self-steering for Sailing Craft

[wrwakefield]

Originally Posted by northwestsailor

Wow, you are all much tougher than we are. We left Prince William Sound after three weeks of mostly rain this Summer so we could get really warm before Winter set in. We are now down in the Bay Area and miss AK. Maybe we are getting too old for this sailing business Maybe Baja this Spring will be just the right temp for us

Hey Victor,

I don't think toughness has anything to do with it... except perhaps as a euphimism for thick headedness...

Some might argue our decision making processes are somewhat frozen and need to be [re]booted... [e.g., We are currently in the preliminary planning stages of a voyage east- via the northern route...]

I hope you made it to the SF Bay area in time to enjoy their marvelous 'Indian summer'... Mexico is great this time of year...

Cheers! Bill

[northwestsailor]

Hi Bill

Would like to know more about your plans going East. If you are planning the Northwest passage, I am all ears.

Victor

[northwestsailor]

As far as wintering in SE AK there are several options:
Auke Bay will be the warmest in the Juneau area however haul out is limited to smaller boats. Sitka will be probably more temperate than inland towns of Juneau, Petersburg, Wrangell or Ketchikan due to coastal climate but first to receive brunt of storms. Juneau (Auke Bay) has the best shopping, next best would be Petersburg, then Ketchikan. Wrangell is fairly miserable in that regard but as mentioned before has a good supply of marine services as does Petersburg.
As if you like hot springs, Petersburg is closest to Baranoff Hot Springs, then Tenakee just north but about the same distance from Auke Bay. Sitka has hot springs a day sail north or south.
All these towns have good access to air travel should you wish head down to Seattle area to buy everything you need to get your boat and A/P in tip-top shape. The Seattle Boat show is near the end of Janurary and is a good opportunity to get some high ticket items at a discount. Airfares are quite reasonable in the winter time too.
In addition to all the above becoming an Alaska citizen with a drivers license has many pluses not seen in too many of the lower 48.