2014-02-22 Day Trip for shrimp

I had really hoped to get out over the long Presidents' Day weekend, but weather and other commitments kept me in port.  So I of course was watching the weather for this weekend like a hawk.

The forecast for Saturday was pretty good, but Sunday not so good, so I decided to go out just for the day.  I usually let my shrimp pots sit overnight, but this time they would only stay out about 4 hours.

I pulled out of my slip at Bar Harbor at about 7:45 AM.  The weather was sunny and calm, but cold, about 35 F. At least there was no ice in the harbor this time.

If anyone has read my posting on winter boating they will recall that I mentioned that dock lines sometimes freeze up.  That's what I experienced today when I went to untie my lines.  We had had snow, rain, more snow, freezing etc. and so the lines got wet, and then froze.  I had no hot water readily available so I went to Plan B, my hammer.  I had to beat on the lines to get them to break free.

Sorry there are not so many pictures this trip, but I was only out for what seemed like a few short hours, and didn't really see anything that was photo worthy.

There were 2 state ferries sitting at the shipyard dock when I went by, and it looked like they were doing something with the life boats.

 

Here's a little closer shot of the life boat.  This is one of the "open" life boats.  

 

They also have covered, self-righting life boats like this one shown below:

 

Here are a couple of shots of our airport ferry.  For my East coast relatives, if you fly in here, you will land on Gravina Island.  But Ketchikan is on Revillagigedo Island (frequently shortened to "Revilla.")  This ferry takes people and vehicles back and forth.  The ferry is actually an interesting vessel in the sense that it does not have a traditional bow and stern like most vessels.  It can go both ways, as they say.  

 

 If it is dark and its navigation lights are on, any mariner knows that the port side has a red light and the starboard side has a green light.  But this vessel swaps ends on each trip.  So if the nav lights are on when it switches over, the green light becomes red, and the red light becomes green.  Magic!

 I went NW in Tongass Narrows and then turned almost due North into Clover Pass.  It was much breezier than I anticipated since the weather forecast had been for 15 knot.  Even inside Clover Pass it was a little choppy with a very brisk NW breeze whipping through there.

That brisk breeze actually makes it easier to set the pots when I am alone.  Since I cannot pilot the boat and work the pots at the same time, when there is a brisk breeze it shoots the boat along and I can throw the pots over and play out all the line without worrying about it getting under the boat.

Now, picking up the pots in a stiff breeze, that's another matter.

After dropping the pots at 10 AM I ran slowly over to a relatively new mooring buoy that is in the entrance to Moser Bay.  I tied onto it about 11 AM and shut down the engines.  My original plan had been to spend a few hours bouncing around the area and doing some bottom fishing.  But it was just too cold out on deck for me to want to be out there.  

I spent the time paying some bills, reading, doing crosswords, etc. inside the nice warm cabin.

Here are some shots of the area where I was hanging out waiting for my pots to fill.  All in all not a bad place to spend a few hours on a sunny but cold Saturday afternoon.

 

 The pictures don't do it justice.

At the appointed time I cut loose from the mooring buoy and motored back to the shrimp pots.  Pulling them today was a challenge because as I have said my puller is kind of wimpy.  The wind was strong and was pushing the boat pretty hard.  The pots act like a sea anchor and the more wind the more load is placed on the puller, and the more elbow grease I have to add to the process.

Eventually I got the pots in and was rewarded with a haul of about 70 shrimp, mostly medium and small size.  Not bad for only about 4 hours on the bottom.  At least it was worth the effort today.

I have to admit that it was so cold on deck that for the first time ever I did the beheading operation from the warmth of inside the cabin rather than on the back deck.  

 

We deep fried most of them in Tempura batter (yummy) and just boiled the rest.

I was glad to see that the weather in town was much calmer than that in Clover Pass.

I got back to town about 4 PM in calm, cold weather and had no problems getting into the stall this time.

Total trip mileage about 33 nm.

 

2014-02-08 Day Trip

My step-daughter Cristina had been bugging me to make a trip to the Naha, but our weather has been so darn cold lately that I didn't think that was a wise idea.  Cold, icy conditions, and short daylight hours were not conducive for an enjoyable Naha picnic, so we decided to do a short day cruise.

Our weather for the last week has been clear and cold, with night time temps in the low to mid teens, and daytime temps around the mid 20's.  There was a lot of ice in the boat harbor as these photos show.

Faraway can be seen in this photo taken from shore.  As you can see, most of the ice was between the shore and the first main float. 

 

There was a little bit of skim ice around Faraway but not enough to prevent our departure.

 

Another shot of the ice taken from shore.  The closer to shore it was, the thicker it was.

In this shot you can see barge and crane in the upper right.  The City is making some changes to the harbor and they just recently took a portion of that last main float out and brought over a net float that had been in a different part of the harbor.  This is all in preparation for building what they call a "drive down ramp" in the other part of the harbor.  

Crew for the day -

 

Left to right -

     Ryan

     Cristina

     Bryan 

     Tyler

     Lisa

     Aliyah

Bryan and Tyler are holding 'Bina (short for Bambina) our puppy.

In an effort to try to keep the kids focused more on the outside, and not so much on games and things inside just prior to the trip I made up a sort of a game/competition.  I printed up 3 pages, one for each kid.  And on the pages there was a list of things that I thought it possible that we would see on the trip.  Here is a short segment just to give you an idea:

     Eagle

     Whale

     Porpoise

     USCG vessel

     AK State Trooper vessel

     State ferry

     kayaker

     etc.

Before the trip I announced the competition and said there were cash prizes for first, second, third.  It quickly became apparent that I didn't think this through very much because as soon as one kid saw something, they all saw it.  In any case, they did see a lot of the things on the list and amidst a lot of angst at the end of the trip, the prizes were awarded.  Of course I gave the hard job of deciding who was first, second, and third to Cristina.

We pulled out about 10:45 AM in clear, cold, sunny weather, with very light NW winds.

I apologize that I don't have very many pictures from this trip.  We really didn't see much, and anyone who has spent approximately 4 hours pent up in a very small space with 3 rambunctious kids knows that we had our hands full just keeping the boat on course, off the rocks, and keeping the inside damage from spilled drinks, and other minor catastrophes to a minimum.

Cristina loves to sit out on the foredeck and see the sights as we cruise, and I have to give her credit for staying out there much longer than I thought she would, given the temperatures.

She won't ever admit it, but I think she's becoming an "Alaskan Girl."

That's all the pics.  We just cruised slowly west in the Narrows, and the North into Clover Pass briefly.  Had lunch aboard.  And then back in the stall by about 2:45 PM.  Total miles, about 25.7 nm.

 

 

2014-02-01 Winter boating

Some of my readers have commented about my practice of going out in the winter and so I thought I would make a short post about that. I pulled some photos from winter trips prior to starting the blog.

I do go out in the winter whenever I can, but the opportunities are rare.  Since I am still working full time I can only go out on weekends and holidays, and getting good weather on a weekend or holiday in the winter is a rare thing.  And of course I do other activities as well, and I have a large extended family, so there are other things that can keep me in town.

 

The above shot was taken in early 2004 at the downtown cruise ship dock.  You can see the heavy ice which stretched almost all the way across to Pennock Island.  It was not thick enough to support a person but the sea gulls were walking on it.

In the winter I try to keep my trips a little shorter and closer to home, just because of the probability of rapid weather changes, usually for the worse.

There are some elements of boating that are distinctly different in the winter.

Ice in the water -

The above shot was taken in early January 2007 in Carroll Inlet.  As you can see I ran into some pretty heavy ice in the water.  I had to turn around and head back.  From what I have been told the dangers in running in ice are these.  You can damage your hull (assuming that it is fiberglass) as the ice scratches up against it.  You can suck ice up into the salt water intakes on the engines and that can plug up the water pumps.  And of course if it is thick enough it can just prevent any forward motion.

Decks and docks are frosty or even icy, and while that may just seem like a minor inconvenience, it could be a life or death situation.  If you jump out of the boat while pulling into a dock and the dock is very slippery you could fall and sustain injury, and perhaps lose the boat in the process.  My boat weighs about 21000 lbs without fuel, water and gear and so when you pull it in you really need to be on a secure surface.  I know a friend of mine was out on Christmas eve a couple of years ago and stepped out on the dock and slipped and broke his arm.  Fortunately he had someone else with him or he would have had a real hard time running the boat home in rough seas the next day.

 

You can't get pictures like this out on the trail in July!

I was out on a winter trip with a friend on a 42' boat.  We were in rough seas in cold weather and one of the windshield wipers quit.  I tried to go out on deck to take a look at it.  I had heard about and seen icing on the TV shows but that was the first time I had experienced it first hand.  I could not easily stand on deck, and all the railings and decks were coated with ice, so I could not even hold on securely.  In short, I was just unable to go out on deck and look at that wiper, something that would have been easily done in the summer.

Lines freeze up on the cleats.  Any mooring lines that have any moisture in them at all will sometimes freeze solid on the cleats.  Again, it seems like more of an inconvenience than a real problem.  But anyone who has been boating for any length of time knows that sometimes it is of utmost importance to get the line off the cleat quickly.  I have had to bring out hot water from the cabin to thaw frozen lines.  Of course that makes them wet again, so you have to deal with that as well.  When I leave for a winter trip, depending upon the outside temperatures of course, I sometimes lay the mooring lines inside the cabin so they will be warm, dry, and most importantly, pliable when I reach my destination.

I

Ice fishing in Margaret Lake, January 2010.  They actually caught 1 trout, of which they were very proud!

Lack of other boats in the area.  One of the reasons we go boating is for solitude, and so we like to be away from crowds of other boats.  But, when you have a mechanical or perhaps a medical problem, it is nice to know there are other boats in the area.  There are just a lot fewer boats out and about during the winter and so the probability of another boat being in the area if/when you have a problem is a lot lower.  Of course one can always call the Coast Guard, and they will respond, but depending on where you are at the time, it may be awhile before they arrive.

Equipment failures due to cold.  I went out one time on my old boat, the Forever, when it was about 10 F.  Even though it was cold it was sunny and clear, and so I decided to run from the flybridge.  The Forever did not have electronic engine controls as the Faraway has, and the cables for the throttles and gears froze up making it impossible to control the engines from up there.  Fortunately I was able to pilot from the lower helm with no issues.

"Cabin time."  In the winter the daylight hours are pretty short, so you have to take enough projects and diversions to keep yourself occupied during those long hours of darkness.  That is no problem for me, although it may be for others.  I take my guitar and all the music that I've been working on.  I take cross word puzzles, books to read (iPad/Kindle), boat projects and repairs to work on, and movies to watch.  Once it gets dark you are pretty limited in what you can do outside, so I try to maximize my time outside while it is light.  Food prep, consumption and clean up can take up some time too.  So I just go out prepared for long hours of cabin time (with no Internet service of course.)

As most of my readers know I use both the Spot Messenger and the Delorme InReach for trip tracking when I am out.  The Spot Messenger (the service that I have chosen) is one way messaging.  I can send preset messages with my location and of course can call the emergency services network if needed. The InReach allows trip tracking in detail, and anyone with my login credentials can see exactly where I am within about 10 minutes.  When paired with the iPad it also allows two way text messaging.  I also carry an Iridium sat phone provided by my employer, which I use primarily to check messages on my office line.  And of course there is the good old VHF radio, but since it is a line-of-sight technology sometimes I get little or no signal.  And of course there is the cell phone, but most of the time I am out of range of cell signal, so it is of little use to me.

Winter boating can be a great experience, but additional caution must be exercised to stay safe and have an enjoyable experience.