Time: 2021/08/30 00:01:01
Latitude: 59-21.88N
Longitude: 144-32.88W
Speed: 4.5
Course: 105T
We left our last anchorage yesterday in glorious sunshine. Our first goal as we began this 400nm passage was to aim for a spot at the mouth of Snug Harbor where all the commercial fishing boats seemed to prefer to work. As we were leaving there was not a fishing boat in sight so it was perfect, we slowed Maple down and trolled through what we assumed must be a prime fishing spot. And sure enough it seems within minutes the reel was running. We pulled in a gorgeous Coho salmon, enough for two generous meals. So this passage is off to a perfect start.
As we were leaving Montague Pass, a HUGE tree floated by a few boat lengths from us. It is the biggest tree we have seen yet in the water and gives us some idea of what we are in for when we reach BC waters. I mumbled something about how we better not hit one during this passage. And D gave his usual response of, it is a big ocean, what are the chances....
Our goal was to maintain 5kn of boat speed with the engine(s) but once out in the Gulf of Alaska, the winds had a different plan for us. The seas could not be better with a gentle, following swell, but the wind was square on the nose and although light winds it was definitely impeding our boat speed. So all night we ran both engines to try to maintain 4.5kn of speed, but we don't have enough fuel to run both engines the whole way so we will see how we manage over the next day or so to determine our destination.
For our first night, D and I got into our usual watch and sleep schedule. I am on watch from 6pm to 9pm, which is lovely as I have daylight for the full shift. And then I am back on watch from 12am to 3am, with a half moon it meant I did have some light to work with. However, moonlight is still not great for being able to actually see anything in the water. You do see where I am going with this, right?!
Sure enough at 1am, I hear something bump hard along one of the hulls. I immediately notice that our boat speed starts to plummet from the 4 to 4.5kn we had been doing to rapidly decline to 3kn. I quickly check the transoms and see some kelp, but the boat was behaving differently than previous kelp encounters. By the time I woke up D and he is upstairs, our boat speed is decreasing quickly to 2kn, eventually the port engine cuts out. With the boat hook, D struggles to pull up a root bulb of a tree, but the trunk is clearly snagged on the rudder and/or the propellor. It got to a point D figured he was going to have to swim on this one as no matter which way he tried to pull the tree free, it would not budge. Eventually we got smart and turned off the starboard engine, stopping all forward speed. This did the trick. D was finally able to pull the trunk free. Obviously this one was not as big as the tree we saw when leaving Prince William Sound, but it was still far more tree than I would ever like to encounter again with Maple.
The port engine turned back on without a hitch and there is no indication of any issues with the saildrive, propellor or rudder. Today the sunshine, blue skies and gentle seas continue, as do the light winds, We are now down to running one engine and trying our best to maintain 4kn of boat speed. Our goal destination is still Elfin Cove, but we will see what the forecast holds for us and have a stop in Yakutat as our Plan B if needed. Here's hoping we can avoid anymore tree encounters, suddenly kelp doesn't seem so bad.
