Sans Souci is now about 50 miles south of Cape Flattery. This will be their northern most point before making a major right turn into the Strait of Juan De Fuca around 2pm today. Almost immediately after turning, they’ll stop at Neah Bay, relax for the evening, and then I’ll meet them Thursday around noon for the last 65 mile run into Seattle at Port Angeles.
 |
When I spoke with Jeff last night, and today, he has been in high spirits. It has been a long trip, and the end is in sight. The weather isn’t great, but it’s not bad. It is supposed to turn bad again late afternoon, but he’ll soon be in protected waters, and life is good.
In the chart above, the left-most arrow is the boats current position, the second arrow is where I’ll jump on board, and the third arrow the ending point for this 4,000 mile run.
I don’t know how to phrase this correctly, so I’ll just say what I’m thinking: I am VERY impressed that the boat made it here on its’ own bottom. This statement can be taken several ways, so I’ll clarify what I mean. I am saying this as a positive, not a negative.
Roberta and I pushed the boat through commissioning last summer, then ran the boat to Seattle, where we almost immediately turned it around and headed back south, another 4,000 miles to Costa Rica. When I left the boat in Costa Rica, it was slated to be loaded aboard a freighter for delivery to Seattle (that’s a whole story itself…). Because the boat had been on the move non-stop, I hadn’t had time to get various warranty repairs that I knew about done. Neither Nordhavn or I were particularly worried as they have a commissioning group in Seattle that would be able to do any work I needed done. If someone had told me, when I left the boat in Costa Rica, that it would be moving north on its own bottom, I would have said “no way.” The boat was in good shape, but there were definitely maintenance items that needed addressed. If someone had said that it was not only going to come north but do so during the height of hurricane season, and during the onset of winter in the Pacific NW, I would have said “Impossible.”
I think its a major tribute to both Nordhavn and to Jeff, my delivery skipper. I don’t think any boat manufacturer would recommend taking the first boat of a new model, directly from a rushed commissioning effort, and running it 10,000 difficult miles – but, we did it. There were a few bumps along the way, but the maintenance issues we have now are essentially the same ones we started with. Both the boat, and Jeff, have done an amazing job.
By comparison, we now have six months to prepare for a comparitively “puny” 6,000 mile trip across the Bering Sea into Japan. It’s going to be fun!
10 Responses
Greetings everyone! I’m just home from an exciting day. Lots to talk about, and some fun pictures.. but, I’m too tired. I’ll try to post something tomorrow morning.
My cell phone was forwarding all the blog comments, plus I was getting various emails all day .. we were amazed, amused, and overwhelmed today, as all the messages flooded in. We even received a call from someone telling us a coast guard vessel was off our port side! No sooner had we tied the lines when an email came in saying we had been watched docking the boat via a webcam.
A great day!
-Ken W
http://alaskandave.smugmug…. (http://alaskandave.smugmug.com/gallery/6484568_LDzJE#411653801_jqweg)
Ken….watched the journey today via the Marine Traffic site from departure to the Ballard Lock and down to see Jeff back her into her moorage via the webcam link you gave us…
MarineTraffic.com (http://MarineTraffic.com) its quite resourceful..if you select the boat name from the drop down menu it will then leave the route line behind along with all the data as the vessel changes coarse…speed,heading and time, etc
There was a drop-out, for me anyway, at 20:16 and it came back on at 22.45 so that confused the route line…which put you guys around the point at Fort Worden, making the boat look like it traveled overland…..I shot some screen shots if you are interested
My 7.5 hours was simply a quick calculation via Google Earth using the Tools>Ruler option and I put you at the locks around 5pm…looked like I was about 10 minutes off is all as I watched you guys come under the RR bridge…
Dave…
Welcome home … just watched you dock on the webcam at Salmon Bay.
I agree with John S, known pirate areas would be my only reason for concern. As marinetraffic.com (http://marinetraffic.com) only shows specified areas around the world i dont consider this to be too much of a problem. I live in a major shipping port in Australia, no coverage at all be marrinetraffic.com (http://marrinetraffic.com) At the moment coverage from your boat is intermittant….i guess a poorly tuned antenna.
I think the only fear I would have about AIS would be in pirate infested waters. They can see exactly who is coming, where they’re going and where they came from, what type of vessel, etc. Is it possible to turn off the transmitter if you have one that transmits and receives, or is it such that if you have one that does both, by law, it must remain on?
San Souci departed Port Angles about 9:30 am this morning…speed 9.8 knots….now approaching Dungeness Spit.
Looks to be about 7.5 hours to the locks….
Steven: I am still amazed every time that I see Sans Souci appear on http://www.marinetraffic.co… (http://www.marinetraffic.com/AIS) . It seems so “Big Brother!”. I don’t know if I should be excited, or afraid! In any event, I’m just looking forward to seeing it first thing tomorrow! – Ken W
Hi Ken,
At this moment I am watching Sans Souci enter Port Angeles Harbour. The Boat is finally in home waters again and I guess you will be happy to see it again.
A job well done to Jeff & the crew. Now for the task of getting the few problems rectified and updating some of the systems. A great effort for the boat with so few problems.
Steven
Many of you that read these Blogs are old salts and have had your share of experineces in the boating world. Jeff Samson and Pacific Yacht Management handled an extensive remodel of a Westport for us severals years back and did a tremendous job. Jeff and his company are first class, honest hardworking guys and should be seriously considered wheather it is a simple delivery like Kens(ha)or a complete refit. Great job Jeff!