Day 318 Heading back!

We covered 1400 miles in 10 weeks and now have started the trip back to Port Townsend.

Last night, we filled the water tanks and that was the last thing we had to do other than walk up the hill to sit outside the library and get on their internet signal to post our blogs. When I got back to Zephyr, I ran into our neighbors--Nick and Monica who have the boat in the next slip. Real nice couple. Nick's a State Trooper. When a power boat came in at full speed(in a no wake zone), the owner of a boat at the end of the pier that got thrown around got ticked and started yelling at the other boater. More verbal confrontations continued until the treat of "meet me at the top of the hill and we will settle this" came out. Ah, the joys of testosterone overflow(and alcohol)!!! Both took off for the top of the hill and Nick headed below to put on his uniform to stop the up coming fight. I guess, they are never "off duty". I never heard any ambulances so I guess he put a stop to it. As I said, a great couple of people.

We left at 0510 this morning and headed out headed South in the Gastineau Channel. Six plus miles to the end and what do we find there but the Carnival Spirit about to make the turn to head up the channel. They called us and Tracy told them we would turn to starboard and so we would pass port side to port side. That seemed fine to them and off they went. I had just booted our computer to see if there were any other big liners out there and found(much to my amazement) that their AIS wasn't running. They didn't appear any where on my screen. I called them on the VHF radio and let them know that either my computer wasn't working or their AIS was down. They seem quite surprised and about 10 minutes later, on it came. Then off a few minutes later, then back on again. On and off. I think they had a problem getting it up and running and that is not a good thing when so many other boats rely on AIS to tell them who is out there and where they are going.

We kept heading South being passed by numerous small and larger fishing boats. A new fishing season started today and everyone wanted to get out there ASAP. Of course we had wind straight at us and a bit of an opposing current but we still managed to make over 6 knots the entire way.

Since the trip back is going to be much longer everyday, we will be in the cockpit in shifts. Two hours on and two hours off. It will help the 10 hour plus days seem much better and easier to handle. I went below and took a nap during my break.

We saw the occasional group of porpoises as they passed Zephyr playing in her wake and then off they would go. Hardly any other ships other than a few fishing boats were seen. It's one of the things that has surprised us this trip is the lack of other cruisers up here. We've seen just about none since we left Ketchikan. We don't think we are that early, we think that there just aren't as many this year.

We pulled into Gambier Bay(57 29.065N 133 56.609W) and dropped the anchor at 1500 hours. Just short of a ten hour day covering 62.9 miles. Not bad. Tomorrow, we are off for Portage Bay. A short day--only about 35 miles since we can't get through Wrangell Narrows at the right time till Monday afternoon. The narrows are a four hour trip at best and as it is, we will be heading in about 1400 getting us out about 1800 and then we will be heading over to St. John Cove to anchor if all works out well.

WIth luck, I'll be able to go "War Driving" again going through Petersburg and find a stray internet connection so I can get this posted.

Stay tuned folks, it going to be a fast trip!!