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.