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At 6:30am all three crews were on the bow, pulling anchor for our departure from Umnak. Our planning discussions for this leg had been difficult. Our goal was Atka, 260 nm to the west. However, a storm was coming, and would arrive in just 48 hours. This would give us plenty of time for reaching Atka, but probably not our next destination, Adak. In other words, if we stop in Atka, we will be trapped in Atka, by the weather. The unanimous preference, if we were going to be stuck somewhere waiting on weather, was to be at the docks in Adak. This would allow us to weather out the storm, safely tied to docks, rather than spending nights worrying about an anchor dragging. Put simply, we could have an easy run to Adak, 360nm away, or stop for the night, two thirds of the way, at Atka Island, and then either be stuck at Atka, or risk being caught in rough seas when we do our next leg to Adak. The GSSR has a simple guiding philosophy: we move when the weather is good, and sit still when it isn’t. The weather forecast called for 48 hours of southeast 15 knot winds, followed by a day of southeast 25 knot winds, then a day later becoming a west wind of 25 knots. We are moving west. So, for two days, we would have relatively light winds, behind us, followed by a day of fairly strong winds, once again behind us, followed by strong winds in front of us. There are many factors to evaluate when looking at weather. Some of the important ones are: Wind Speed, Wind Direction, Fetch, Current, Swell Height, and Direction of the Swell. All of these need to be taken into account to really understand sea conditions. I’ve been in 50 knot winds that I hardly noticed, and 15 knot winds that had sea water over the bow hitting the pilot house. Weather is a huge topic, and many books exist for those who really want to dig in, and it is a topic that can get boring fairly quickly. Thus I will give only a quick generalization. As a rule of thumb, if the wind is coming from behind you, you are in much better shape than if the wind is coming from in front of you. Personally, if the wind is behind me, and under 30 knots, I might worry about maneuvering in port, but the passage itself, and anchoring, are not concerns. On the other hand, if the wind is anywhere over 10 knots, and I’m going straight into it, I know that, at a minimum, it will be an uncomfortable ride. For our run to Atka and Adak, the weather report was telling us that the winds would be behind us for the next three days. For the first two days we would have light winds behind us (15 knots) and on the last day they would strength to 25 knots, but stay behind us. It would make for a messy arrival, but otherwise it should be an acceptable run. Here’s the summary from a weather report we received while underway: “…Based on the more favorable wind/sea pattern … you may wish to consider continuing to track directly toward Adak Islands while the conditions are favorable. Stopping in Bechevin Bay (Atka) then continuing onward on Friday will tend to result in increasing SE-S winds that could be near/at Gale force by the time you arrive, not to mention rain/rain showers and fog which will tend to lower visibility. …” The words ‘Gale Force’ are a real wake-up call. All of this raises the question, “Why were we even discussing stopping at Atka, and how bad do we want to go there?”
Our goal was to find a B-24 Liberator that was wrecked there, in 1942. There are only three of the B-24 Liberators in existence today, one of which is in a museum, one of which is in tiny pieces, and the other is lying near a beach on Atka, rarely seen by human eyes. Bill visited the plane a decade ago, and knew where to find it. He wanted to see how it had deteriorated over the years, and we also wanted to find it. Ultimately, we decided “Let’s just go for it, and if the weather turns nasty we’ll just sit at anchor for a few days.” We didn’t want to miss out on seeing the plane. Plus, our experience has been that any forecast over about 24 hours, is subject to change. And, in the worst case, a few days sitting out a storm at anchor wouldn’t be the end of the world. All of us have good faith in our anchoring gear, and would be just fine. Our run to Atka lasted overnight, but was as smooth as it gets. Here’s a few pictures from the run…
Here’s a look at Roberta driving the boat. On the right hand monitor is an engine room camera. Kirt was doing an engine room check, and we were spying on him.
Here’s a look at Grey Pearl running alongside. The Internet on Sans Souci is still working perfectly (Mini Vsat). Every once in a while a call will come on the radio, “Sans Souci, this is Grey Pearl. We’re going to sneak alongside to do our email.” They need to come in fairly close to pick up our wifi signal.
This is the Kasatochi volcano. I’ve got a wild story about it erupting last year that I’ll include in my next blog. The volcano may not look too impressive in this photo, but keep in mind: This is post-eruption. There is a 46’ trawler, a Diesel Duck named ‘DavidEllis,’ which has been working its way from Hong Kong to Seattle. We’ve been tracking its position, as have they ours. We were to pass near each other overnight, and frequently called them on the radio, as well as zooming the radar out to 24 mile range. And, in fact, I know now that we did pass near each other, but we never saw them on the radar or had radio contact. Darn! They were recently in Japan, and we were looking forward to speaking with them. As we were approaching our anchorage at Atka, Bill and I had a funny discussion… I switched on the Sonar. Bill was running the boat at the time, and said “I don’t need that. I’ve got everything I need to drive.” This led to a debate over the merits of Sonar. My favorite line from the debate was when Bill said “This isn’t a boat. It’s a [bleep]-ing video game!” Bill was referring to Sans Souci’s extensive collection of electronics, which can be intimidating, until you get used to everything. It was a good natured discussion, the result of which was that I learned some new tricks. Sonar allows you to look around, under the water. Physically, it is like a periscope that pokes out beneath the boat. I use it when entering unknown bays, to look for rocks. I also use it underway, to look for uncharted shoals, and while at anchor to look for any rocks, or shallow spots, that might be within my swing circle. I said this to Bill, and asked him how he could possibly know that there aren’t rocks ahead of us in the bay without Sonar. His answer, “I’ve been here before.” I said that wasn’t a valid response, because there are plenty of times we enter bays that we haven’t been to before, and that the charts can’t be relied on this far off the beaten path. His reply, “I use my depth finder.” This made no sense, and I said so. “A depth finder only looks beneath the boat. What good does it do to discover a rock, if you’re already on top of it.”
SONAR
DEPTH FINDER This led to Bill conducting a class in ‘Advanced Depth Finder’ usage. I had always thought I understood depth finders, but Bill explained some pro-tips. I don’t know that I quite understood all that Bill taught, so I’ll just give the quick overview and those of you with boats, and good quality color depth finders (aka fish finders) can experiment at home. Bill had me manually set the range to much deeper than the water I was in, and then crank up the gain. The image for the bottom was replicated. This told Bill it was a hard bottom. A soft sand bottom, such as in the image above, would not have produced the second echo. He then showed how the color could be used to warn of an upcoming rock or shoal. A blue tint meant the depth was about to change. As you are moving forward, if you look beneath the thick line that indicates depth, you’ll see some blue start to creep in. With enough experience, you learn that it is an indication of a shallow spot coming. Overall, he didn’t convince me, and I didn’t convince him, but I definitely will be working to hone my depth sounder skills. There’s more to it than I realized. Anyway … enough tech talk… now, on to the fun stuff…
Here you see the three boats, at anchor, and us tendering to shore.
Here is a short video interview, with Bill Harrington, where he gives a brief background on the plane, and how it crash landed:
Note: If you don’t see a video above, then click the link below to see the video. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HYjlOTV0ckU
Here’s our first view of the plane, as we came over a tall bank. The plane is completely hidden from view from the water.
You can still see where the plane first struck the ground, and parts are scattered over about a 200 yard area. It says something about how isolated we are, that the parts are still where they were first scattered, sixty years after the incident. We did touch things, but were careful to put them back exactly where we retrieved them from.
Here’s the strut and wheel. It appears that the plane separated from the wheel and came to rest about a hundred yards farther, where the tail broke off.
This is the tail section of the plane, upside down.
Here’s a few shots of the graffiti inside the plane. Bill remembers much of it from when he was here many years ago, and believes most of it was written by the original crew.
My guess is that this hole in the side of the plane was cut by someone wanting to take some of the graffiti home to put on display.
There is one panel from the plane where visitors have been marking their initials, and when they visited. There haven’t been many visitors. We thought about carving initials, and putting the date, but it seemed wrong. Bill knew some of the people who have their initials here.
Above is the Sans Souci crew (L to R – Jeff Sanson and Kirt Ahlquist of Pacific Yacht Management, Roberta Williams, Ken Williams, Shelby (Dog), Bill Harrington)
I looked under the plane, and the spare tire is still hanging there, looking brand new, sixty-five years after the crash. Bizarre.
Reindeer.
This is a strange looking fox. I’ve never seen one that looked like this before. It’s also one of my favorite pictures ever. The fox was watching us from just outside his lair.
A fishing boat that dipped its nose into our anchorage, just at sunrise.
At 6:30am the next morning we started our 70 nm run to Adak. As usual, everyone was on the bow with their windlasses running by 6:29am, but at 6:30am when Sans Souci and Seabird were floating free, Grey Pearl hadn’t moved, and their crew was still standing on the bow. A few minutes later, we heard on the VHF, “GSSR fleet, this is Grey Pearl. We have blown a hydraulic line and are trying to bring the anchor up by hand.” Braun went on to explain that the hydraulic break was in a hard-to-reach place, and not easily fixed. He had made the decision to continue to Adak without making the repair. On his N62, there is a closed hydraulic system, used only for the thrusters and the windlass. If he could get the anchor off the bottom, his only other problem would be on arrival in Adak. Without thrusters, if we arrive in strong winds, docking will be ‘interesting.’ I couldn’t imagine how Grey Pearl was going to get their anchor off the bottom by hand. I wanted to ask, but knew Grey Pearl had plenty on their plate, and it would be wrong to interrupt them. I’ve thought often about how Sans Souci would get our anchor off the bottom, if we were to lose a windless (the motor that pulls the chain up, and lifts the anchor from the bottom). Our anchor weighs 250 pounds, PLUS the weight of the chain, which is many times that. I do have a backup windlass, but both are powered by the same hydraulic system. In other words, if I lose my hydraulics, I’ll have lost both windlasses, and in my case, I’ll also lose my stabilizers, as well as all thrusters. There are valves I can close (I think) which would allow me to isolate parts of the system, and get some functionality back, but I’ve never done any of this. The hydraulic system has been very reliable, on this, and on my Nordhavn 62. Hopefully my luck will continue. While Braun was lifting his anchor by hand, I was trying to do circles in the bay. The wind had come up, and we were keeping busy just trying to make turns. Sans Souci has a fair amount of windage. We were seeing 25 knots and more of wind, inside the bay. Turning the boat, and doing circles was easy, kind of. It wasn’t a huge bay, and we also had Seabird circling, plus Grey Pearl at anchor, and very limited visibility (due to the sea spray and rain.) Miraculously, we only circled for about 30 minutes before Grey Pearl was on the radio saying “GSSR Fleet, Grey Pearl is ready to go.” Our run from Atka Island, to Adak, was in the roughest seas we’ve seen so far, but because the wind was behind us, the boats hardly felt it. We were consistently over 20 knot winds, with long stretches over 25 knots, some 35 knots, and even some gusts touching 50. But, it was as smooth a trip as you could imagine. The bows weren’t even pitching. If you watched the Atka video, you saw an example of our ride, and heard my comment on current. We were in strong current, that sometimes shot us forward, and other times held us back, but overall we made great time, and had a good ride. Approaching Adak we were a happy group of cruisers. Once underway I was able to ask Braun about lifting his anchor. He explained that he had a custom made winch-handle, manufactured by the Argosy company. My windlass has a place in the top where you can insert an aluminum bar, for cranking up the windlass, but there is no leverage. Actually lifting the anchor would be impossible. Apparently, Braun thought ahead, and him and Steven (Argosy) custom fabricated a much longer handle, that would provide the leverage needed to crank up the anchor. A great idea! I wish I had one… All I have is the standard-issue popsicle stick that Nordhavn provides.
We had been warned, by Bill, that the docks in Adak are ‘rustic.’ Adak really has two places to tie up; a small boat harbor, which is well protected, and very nice, but with only enough space for about ten boats, and in bad need of dredging. Depths at the entrance are only about five feet at low tide. There was no way we could enter, and there was no space for us even if we could. The larger docks also had their issues. The pilings were badly in need of repair, and the ladders that you climb to reach the dock were falling apart. On a nice day, we could perhaps have found a decent place at the dock, but in a 25 knot wind, approaching the docks was dangerous and not happening. We had received advance notification, from the harbormaster, that one of us could tie up to a fuel barge that was tied to the docks. It would float up and down with the tide. This sounded great to me, and I tied to it. Grey Pearl entered next, and quickly ascertained that tying to the dock would be impossible.
I asked them to stand by while I sought permission for them to raft to two nearby tugs. Permission was granted and Braun worked some magic approaching the tug. In a few minutes he was tied up. Steven then rafted alongside Sans Souci, and we were happily tied up at Adak.
Although our boats were now docked, we still needed to figure how to get ourselves to shore. Between Sans Souci, and the dock is a big fuel barge. Transiting from Sans Souci to the fuel barge means stepping across a three foot gap, twenty feet above the water. Then crossing from the fuel barge, to a platform beneath the dock means stepping across a gap, also 20 feet above the water, which is sometimes only a foot across, and at other times six feet across. Here we see Steven yanking on a line, trying to bring the six hundred or so tons of Sans Souci, Seabird, and the fuel barge, closer to the dock, so he could step across. With high winds, this can be quite a struggle. Once across, you climb 10 feet up a ladder. This isn’t too bad, until you remember that we usually are carrying Shelby, and a bag of trash. Cynthia from the Harbormaster’s office brought us a bucket, making life much easier. Shelby likes her daily bucket rides…
We were assisted in tying up by several Adak residents who had come out just to welcome us to town. I asked one how often they see boats, other than commercial fishing boats, or military boats, come into Adak. He said that it used not to be very common, but was starting to be much more frequent. “Usually,” he said, “we see sail boats, headed east.” I asked him to quantify how many yachts a year Adak sees. “Two,” he guessed. Wow! We had achieved 150% of Adak’s annual quota, just with our little group. Cynthia, from the Harbormaster’s office, invited us to a party in our honor, being held at the local high school. We couldn’t believe the food they put together for us! It was wonderful, and creative. The local kids played drums for us, and we had a Q&A session. Very cool. We keep running into posters around town, including a brochure on the bulletin board at the local pub with bios for each of our boats. I am deliberately saying nothing about Adak itself. This blog is already too long, and I want to give Adak plenty of attention. Just to give you a teaser, Adak is the most unusual town I’ve ever been in, and I’ve been a lot of places. It’s like a town plucked from somewhere deep in the twilight zone. By this I do not mean anything derogatory. I always say that the people ARE the town, and the people of Adak are incredible. I also say that it’s not the cards, but how you play them. The people of Adak have been dealt some tough cards; some of the worst weather in the world, and a town that is eerie, that comes with a lot of unique challenges. Don’t miss my next blog. And lastly…
I spent this afternoon playing with a new toy that is pretty cool! I used an underwater camera to check out the props on my boat, and on Seabirds. I have heard about these things in the past, but always thought they were a waste of money. A fisherman in Juneau convinced me I should give one a try, and I found one cheap on ebay. Depending on quality they cost anywhere from $200 to $1,000 new. The one I bought cost around $400 on ebay, and probably double that new (the Atlantic AUW-5600.) It’s a camera for seeing underwater. The camera hangs at the bottom of a cable, 200’ long, that you can dangle under the water. Once under water, you can turn on lights on the camera, and have remote control over aiming the camera. After looking at our props, which were clean, we decided to experiment with dropping the camera all the way to the bottom, about 40 feet below. Wow! We had a crystal clear view, and watched fish swimming, found an old aluminum gang plank, and even a rotting old wooden boat. We were hoping to see some King Crabs wander by, or a Halibut, but, no luck. A very handy device! Thank you, Ken Williams Nordhavn 68, Sans Souci www.kensblog.com PS Some of you may have sneaked a peek at the weather, and realize that we’re “stuck” waiting on weather. This is our first real weather delay since the trip began, and it is a big one. Our next major stop is the island of Kiska, 220nm west. To get there we would be fighting a 20 to 35 knot headwind all the way. I suspect we’ll be here at least another four or five days, or longer. Oh well… this isn’t a bad place to be stuck! | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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32 Responses
Response to a post by Ken Williams who said:
Kevan:
Great information! Very happy you posted. I’m forwarding your message to the other GSSR participants.
Thank you,
Ken Williams
Glad you find it interesting. Your trip sounds amazing.
Response to a post by Kevan Lynd who said:
That stupid general was my grandfather, Brigadier General William E. Lynd. And it was his collar bone that was broken. My father, age 13, got the phone call from the war department stating that his father was missing in Alaska. My grandmother called …
Kevan:
Great information! Very happy you posted. I’m forwarding your message to the other GSSR participants.
Thank you,
Ken Williams
That stupid general was my grandfather, Brigadier General William E. Lynd. And it was his collar bone that was broken. My father, age 13, got the phone call from the war department stating that his father was missing in Alaska. My grandmother called the war department and reamed them from giving that news to a 13 year old boy.
Sound’s like it may have been a mistake not to go land earlier. Glad no one else was hurt.One might ask why a general was risking his life with these types of maneuvers. As I understand it, he was an extremely confident pilot, and the mission was very important.
He survived 14 air crashes in his military air career spanning both world wars. He was #13 in the Caterpillar Club (flyers whose lives were saved by parachutes). I understand he was in charge of all training for the Army Air Corp at the beginning of WWII. He took many other great risks. The longest combat flight in a B-17, over 6,000 miles to photograph Japanese held, Makin Island. While returning he decided they didn’t have enough info & turned around for another reconnoiter before returning. Earned the Award of Air Medal for that one. Earned the Silver Star for a similar action in WWl, the Distinguished Flying Cross for sinking two enemy ships near Wewak, New Guinea on 2 extremely low altitude bombing runs in the same flight.
After 3 weeks in the hospital. They decided it was too risky to have this general flying missions. So they put him charge of the 4th Air Force and made him a Major General.
Just thought you might enjoy this little tidbit.
Kevan Lynd
Correction. I meant horizontal stabilizer.
Gord
I came across this site in 2014..
Great photo/movie of the B-24 Liberator. I love this airplane, studied its history, built a lot of models of it.
A couple of corrections. The bomber is a four engined B-24 D, not a a twin engined B-25. The ‘spare tire’ is actually one of the main landing gear tires, either tucked in the left wing or the right wing. The third tire is the nose wheel, which is undeneath the cockpit. And…
The general broke his collarbone, not his foot.
Oh yeah…The tail had two huge slab sided vertical rudders, one on each end of the veritcal stabilizer. They’re gone from the wreck in your photos but you can’t miss’em, cause they’re huge…. See them lying around?
Again, thanks for the pix. Maybe I oughta get up there and check it out for myself .
gord
The Col.
Read through the comments below. You’ll see that the question about “How many B-24s are there?” has already been answered.
The quick answer is that I was confused by a newspaper article, which was referring to B-24 Liberators.
-Ken W
Hello Sir,
Quick noted their are far more then just three B-24 left here is a link to all know World Wide B-24s
http://www.warbirdregistry…. (http://www.warbirdregistry.org/b24registry/b24registry.html)
It’s a tad dated but is correct.
Chuck asked about how the Grey Pearl was able to fix their broken hydraulic line…
Adak has a machine shop, and the guy who runs it, Ray (aka Grumpy), is a friend of Bills. Ray was able to find a piece of hydraulic hose, and the needed fittings.
If not for Ray, I still think we’d have been ok. Both Sans Souci and Seabird, and probably as well as Grey Pearl, are carrying a good supply of extra hydraulic hose and fittings. Ray saved us digging through all our boats to try to come up with something suitable.
-Ken W
How did the broken hydraulic line on Grey Pearl get resolved? Did he have a spare? Why did it blow?
eastern Aleutians Nikolski to Adak 400 am akdt Fri Jul 17 2009
…Small Craft Advisory through Saturday…
.Today…SW wind 30 kt. Seas 13 ft. .Tonight and Sat…W wind 25 kt. Seas 11 ft. .Sat night…W wind 25 kt. Seas 9 ft. .Sun…SW wind 20 kt. Seas 9 ft. .Mon…SW wind 25 kt. Seas 8 ft. .Tue…W wind 20 kt. Seas 10 ft.
FWIW
Ron
Good grief, Ken, what have you gotten us into?! At dockside and it’s dangerous to leave the pilothouse and you can see breaking waves. You, Roberts, and Shelby need to get in bed and wait this out. Leave room for the rest of us cause this sounds like a good time to stay warm and read. Shelby can reassure George as George doesn’t like the howling of high winds. I bet the fox is warm.
Ron & George
Dimma, San Souci #1 is for sale.
Sam:
I’ve always said that diversity can be your best friend. My old boat, N6209, now called Dimma, might represent a good opportunity for the right buyer.
I have no inside info on this, but the odds are that the sellers have already heard from Nordhavn that the paintjob is an issue. Painting a boat is expensive, but not difficult. It probably helps that the boat was recently painted. All of the trim will probably come off for painting simpler than if this was the first paint job. Repainting the boat means delay and money, which are fine if the price reflects it.
There are some very positive things that probably make the grief worthwhile.
– I spared no expense on Sans Souci. If something needed done, we did it, and if it didn’t, we often still did it. I’m always paranoid about something failing at sea, and tend to overkill maintenance
– It appears that the current owner spared no expense in the care of Sans Souci. The pictures indicate the interior has been redone, and I suspect the equipment has been well maintained.
– There are some trick things that only my old boat has. For instance, mine was the only N62 with a passarelle. The hard top over the back deck is incredible. It has lights and speakers. The stern bustle was better made, and more attractive than most, with a stern thruster.
All of this said, I haven’t been on the boat in over four years, and can only guess at how it has been treated since then. My best guess is “very well”, but it’s strictly a guess.
Ken W
PS I’m looking out the window at breaking waves, and we’re showing 30-50 knots of wind. It’s dangerous to leave the pilot house. And, that’s sitting here at the dock!
I just noticed a listing on Nordhavns site for Dimma, N6209. I believe this is the former Sans Souci with a very interesting paint job. It seems to me it’ll be a tough sell…
http://www.nordhavn.com/bro… (http://www.nordhavn.com/brokerage/listings/dimma/)
Sam
Hi All,
I am really enjoying your trip. Thank you for that.
Someone mentioned the autopilot and I thought of mine. This may not apply but when I head north I have to do 3 360 degree circles to somehow lock in the autopilot and, I think the chartplotter to ……..something. Anyway, it makes them work when I go north, and you are north. Maybe unnecessary with your software.
Tom
So as an arctic fox that must be its “brown” summer coat? Do the ones in the Aleutians have white coats then in the winter months?
Wx tidbit for the evening….Western Aleutians Bouy (46071) Sustained winds 21.4kts – gusting to 25.3…Sig. Wave Height 8.2′.
Keep the blog updates coming Ken – REALLY enjoy reading about the trip.
Google and Bing shall set you free!
That dark fox just didn’t look right to me. Once again a single photo taken by Ken has provoked the discovery of a little-known story of commerce and environmental impact. The whole story could be entitled “Unintended Consequences”.
< http://notexactlyrocketscie… (http://notexactlyrocketscience.wordpress.com/2006/08/16/the-fox-and-the-island-an-aleutian-fable/) >
That search also turned-up the solution to the mysterious disappearance of the submarine USS Grunion in early WWII. 1000 feet down, North of Kiska, that mystery is almost certainly solved.
< http://www.foxnews.com/stor… (http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,294356,00.html) >
Bill, you didn’t tell us the Aleutians hold so many mysteries! Ron Rogers
I guess that you don’t remember that Ken had to fix a hose, i think, before he could flush his holding tankoverboard. Carbon dating will reveal that it’s from 2009.
Ron Rogers
Ken, did you see any of this goo this article is talking about? Looks like it’s north of where you are. Any idea of what it could be?
http://www.mcclatchydc.com/… (http://www.mcclatchydc.com/environment/story/71842.html)
PS. The plane photos are amazing! I love the history behind it. Shelby looks happy!
Ken,
I read this and thought you, your crew, your fleet, and your faithful readers might enjoy on Whales
http://www.nytimes.com/2009… (http://www.nytimes.com/2009/07/12/magazine/12whales-t.html?_r=3&ref=magazine&pagewanted=all)
Ken,
On charts: I assume you are thinking of downloading on one computer and burning a DVD to transfer to your navigation computer or use Ethernet cross-over. Hope that there are no unlocking obstacles!
On autopilots: I assume that yours is slaved to your GPS compass either directly or through Nobeltec. Is anybody using a fluxgate compass? Supposedly the magnetic field is becoming weaker up there. I had Grey Pearl’s experience when I passed over an iron ore deposit (that’s what people think it is) on the Eastern Shore of Chesapeake Bay. Since the International Rules say that the last thing that you do to avoid a collision is to turn to starboard, I’m wondering if that is a default built into most autopilots when their guidance fails.
On B24s: I think the confusion stems from overly precise diction. One reference says that there are over 100 B24s lying around the world. However, there may only be 3 “D” models intact.
On GPS: I’m wondering if like Norfolk and the sub base near Seattle (Yakima?) the Russians will interfere with the accuracy of the GPS signal for defense reasons as you get closer. You should be alert to that. One source that would know is the USCG as they sent a good will cutter on a visit to the very same port you are visiting. Bill could phone his friends. You will probably be met 12nm out by a patrol/pilot boat so won’t have to worry about hitting a rock.
Ron
Anyone know what kind of fox that is? I’m curious. Adorable, but weird looking thing!
A lot of questions today!
For efficiency, I’ll respond to everyone with one long email…
** First off, HAL… who asked who we keep animals from attacking Shelby. Our primary worry has been the eagles. There were eagles everywhere in southeast Alaska and Shelby would make a good meal. We’ve kept her on a short leash, and worried whenever she goes out on the boat deck through her dog door. We think she is fine, because the railing blocks an eagle from a direct attack, but who knows? Similarly, when we’re hiking, such as on Atka, we worry about foxes. We’ve talked about leaving her on the boat, but our current thinking is to just keep her close, where we can grab her at any time. One nice thing is that the lack of trees make it tough for a fox to sneak up and grab her.
As to our advance planning for the trip, we did do a lot of planning over the year prior to the trip. If you look back at the old blogs you’ll see all that we went through. We read every cruiser blog we could find, read books on the Aleutians, I met with cruisers who have been here, spoke with commercial fisherman who have been here, spoke with cruise ship captains who have been here, etc. And, after all that, we still felt it would be smart to have someone aboard who has been here before; Bill Harrington, a commercial fisherman. There’s nothing like local knowledge.
*** Don James corrected me on the tire, that I thought was a spare, but was actually the original tire, folded up under the wing. Thank you Don. He also identified the cute little fox we saw, as a Silver Fox. Bill called it a Cross Fox. Unusual ears and eyes for a fox. Don also reminded us to thank all those in the military. Absolutely!
*** Curt C. asked if the trip thus far had been easier or tougher than predicted. Southeast Alaska was definitely easier, and much more fun than predicted. I’ve always said that I am a warm water guy, and would never go anywhere with cold water – but, SE Alaska was a blast, and I’d do it again. I now understand how people go back there year after year. From the Gulf of Alaska west, the trip has also been easier than expected. We’ve had great weather (until now), with calm seas, barely any rain, and no fog. This part of the trip though, I would not do again. I’m happy I did it, and it is a once in a lifetime experience, but once will almost certainly be enough. We’re doing fine, but there is real potential for things to go wrong here.
*** Hal asked how we got our Russian and Japanese visas. For Japan, we haven’t done anything. We have an agent in Japan who didn’t think we needed anything special. I hope he is right! For Russia, we also have an agent, who I found when I spoke with a megayacht captain who was in Petrapovlosk a couple years ago. Our Russian agent arranged everything we needed (an invite from a Russian travel agency), moorage, security, pilot boats (!) and more. We then obtained our visas from a local travel agency in Seattle. The whole process was horrendously expensive, and hopefully worthwhile. I’m still a bit nervous about Russia.
*** Brad asked about our nav software and charts. All of the boats are running Nobeltec, and we all love it (as far as I know). It has its quirks, but overall is a great piece of software, and it is handy we can so easily swap routes. Steven on Seabird has been fighting a strange problem. His charts keep disappearing, and need reinstalled, but otherwise, we’ve seen almost no bugs. The charts themselves, I am less happy with. There are no raster charts for this part of the world, or I don’t know how to get them. I’ve been using the raster charts that come with Navnet for the islands. The vector charts, for the Aleutians, on Nobeltec are poor. Although, that said, Steven seems to have better charts than I do for the Aleutians. I need to upgrade my charts on Nobeltec. Perhaps I’ll be happier after I do. A project for later today… It’s a little tricky, because I deliberately didn’t feed Internet to the computer with Nobeltec, so that I could completely isolate my nav system. Thus applying the chart updates is a little more complicated. There is a way… and I’ll figure it out (I hope).
*** Ron Rogers supplied ‘the rest of the story’ on the B-24. Thank you Ron! I can’t imagine flying here in the Aleutians, in fog and bad weather. Incredible!
Ron also asked about the autopilot failures I referred to in an earlier message board posting. I forgot to mention those. I always think of several things I should have mentioned about 2 seconds after hitting the send button on each blog. During our last run to Adak, about half-way into the run, in a particularly confused sea, just entering a pass, both Roberta and I happened to be looking out the back window at Grey Pearl when she suddenly made a steep 90 degree turn. I called via VHF to ask if all was well, and they said the auto pilot misbehaved. My guess is that the boat somehow fell out of autopilot. They put it back into autopilot, and had no other problems. Bizarre. A few minutes later, Seabird did a 360! Steven says that it was deliberate, and it may well have been. We were in a rain shower at the time, and Steven says that with the strong sideways winds, and sprays of fresh water, it was a good time to give the boat a proper cleaning. Or, at least, that’s his story, and he’s sticking to it.
*** George corrected my assertion that only three B-24s exist, by giving this link: http://www.johnweeks.com/b2… (http://www.johnweeks.com/b24/index.html) . Here’s the quote that confused me, taken from an article in the Alaska Daily News http://www.adn.com/aleutian… (http://www.adn.com/aleutians/story/636258.html) – “…Although there are earlier and later models out there, the Atka B-24D is one of only three of its kind left in the world, according to Spencer. One is on display at the U.S. Air Force Museum near Dayton, Ohio. The other, an assortment of its parts anyway, sits on a military base in Libya…”
Thank you all!
-Ken W
Ken the pictures from the B-24 are amazing, especially considering how long the plane has been sitting there. Reminds me of a P-38 they dug out of 270 feet of ice on Greenland years ago. BTW, there are a few more B-24 left than the 3 you quoted, check out http://www.johnweeks.com/b2… (http://www.johnweeks.com/b24/index.html) for more details.
My Grandfather was stationed in the Aleutians during WWII and would tell me of the bitter cold they experienced during night watches. He also stated it beat the hell out of storming beaches in Normandy or the South Pacific, which he just missed out on having to do. I wish he were still alive to hear the stories again and I had paid more attention to the details.
Thanks again for letting us ride along.
GEORGE.
Ken,
Weren’t you going to tell us about two autopilot failures on the other boats?
Ron
http://www.nps.gov/history/… (http://www.nps.gov/history/NR/travel/aviation/atk.htm)
Answers the questions I had about this intentional crash landing. Below is an extract revealing that all survived:
“On 9 December (1942) Colonel Hart and Brigadier General William E. Lynd of General Buckner’s staff, took off from Adak in a B-24 piloted by Captain John Andrews. The two officers wished to accompany the weather plane to make personal observations from Kiska and Attu. The plane reached Attu, circled over Holtz Bay, and then returned to Adak. Arriving back at Adak at 1600, the pilot found his base socked in by weather. He notified the tower that he planned to fly to the far end of Atka Island and attempt a crash landing. Atka, too, was closed in, and the plane was crash-landed . . . There was only one casualty. General Lynd sustained a fractured collarbone and the crew members and Colonel Hart spent an uncomfortable night on the beach while the personnel of Eleventh Air Force Headquarters spent an uncomfortable night wondering what had happened to them. The next day, they were signed by a Navy PBY which landed and put a rubber boat ashore. The men had adequate food and were able to gather enough driftwood to build a fire, a difficult problem in the treeless Aleutians. The castaways were picked up on 11 December by the Navy seaplane tender USS Gillis, chilly and tired but otherwise unharmed.”
Ron Rogers
Ken- As always a fascinating read, it must be rewarding to be exploring so far off the beaten path. The people must be extraordinary to live in such an inhospitable place.
Tech question- Overall how satisfied are you with your navigation software and e-charts?
It looks like you might get a window when the next cold front and associated low go by, perhaps Thursday night or Friday morning. Hopefully it will be a long enough window.
Congratulations on passing the half-way point, Ken. Someday I hope you can describe the process you had to go through to get visas for Russia and Japan.
Ken: Not sure if you caught my question from the last blog post but when (if) you have a second I was very curious if you would say things are “more difficult”, “less difficult” or “about as expected” thus far based on the extensive planning you guys did for this trip?
I see you mentioned you are using mini-vsat for your data connection. Glad to hear its working so good – I had corresponded with you back when you first starting building your new boat when Fleet 77 was about the best one could do and the BGAN/Fleet Broad Band stuff was about to be introduced.
Curt C.
Capt. Williams: That “spare tire” you mention in your blog, is in fact one of the main landing gear tires. Military planes, especially “war birds”, don’t carry spare tires unless it is a cargo plane or for some unusual reason. The fox is a silver fox. As you explored the B-24, I hope you said a quick prayer and thank you to those who served and are serving in the military.
As usual, another fantastic entry! The images and photos of the plane really radiate the past. Just incredible! I wish I were with you, in person, rather than thousands of miles away and living vicariously through your entertaining and well written blog. Your trip is likely going to change my future. Watching you has indeed cemented my desire to travel by boat when retirement comes around. I have to assume you’re paving the way for more who will follow.
I’ve been meaning to ask about “Animal Proofing” and your dog Shelby. When wandering around these islands, are there bears or others dangerous indigenous animals? What is your protection against the elements, on land? What if that adorable fox had thought Shelby looked like dinner?
While it is clear a lot of thought has gone into this amazing trip, I’m curious about some of the details.