Greetings everyone!
Alaska’s Inside Passage already seems like a distant memory. As we venture past Whittier, Alaska and Prince William Sound, we are heading to places where few boats, other than commercial fishermen, ever visit. There is both a specialness about the isolation, as well as a heightened sense of adventure, in both positive and negative ways. We are moving ever closer to what I call off-grid cruising.
The good news is that we are now around 2,500 miles into our Northwest Passage trip.
The bad news is that those were the easy miles (compared to what lies ahead)
A SAD FACT OF LIFE ON THIS TRIP
During this 8,300-mile voyage, we are going to visit some incredible places. However, if we visit them on a nice day, we’ll need to move on quickly. There is no time to hang out. Our rule is that if the wind is down, and our weather router says it is safe to go, we go. We have an insane amount of distance to cover and it is the weather, not us, that sets our schedule. We need to be positioned in Nome, Alaska by August 1st to be ready to enter the Northwest Passage as soon as enough ice has melted that we can push our way through. We will then need to transit the Northwest Passage, hustling south from near Greenland. We will then run down the US East Coast, before winter arrives. Where exactly we will stop on the East Coast is an open question. Boston? Or … will we just keep going? Who knows? Not me. There will be days when we take time to “stop and smell the roses,” but they will be rare — and there won’t be any roses. We’ll have to make do with sniffing icebergs.
Knight Island
We wanted more time to explore Whittier, Alaska but had to get moving. The weather in the Gulf of Alaska was a little dicey, so we decided to move a fairly short distance to an anchorage on Knight Island where we could quickly enter the Gulf of Alaska when weather would permit.
At anchor on Knight Island. It’s painful to be in a beautiful anchorage and not be able to stay for a while
A BIT OF THE BIG PICTURE
Most of you already know this, but for those of you who don’t…
We are heading from the West Coast of the United States to the East Coast via a passage… (called the Northwest Passage) across the top of the Earth. Basically, we are going as close to the North Pole as one can get via a boat, north of Canada, skimming the polar ice cap, and exiting near Greenland where we’ll head south to the East Coast of the United States.
The path beyond Nome, Alaska is currently blocked by ice. Our hope is that sometime in August enough ice will have melted that we can enter the passage.
Our starting point for the passage is Nome, Alaska. We will wait there checking the ice reports daily hoping enough ice has melted that we can enter the passage. Our hope is that we will be able to start our journey in early August. The most recent information we have indicates that the ice is thinner than usual on the east half of the passage, but thicker than usual on the west half of the passage, which is where we will start our journey. That probably means we will have to wait in Nome until mid-August or later. If the passage doesn’t open (enough ice melted) by late August we will be forced to discuss abandoning the passage, which would be a very disappointing turn of events.
In many ways, this is a trip of “hurry up and wait.” We need to reach Nome ready to head into the passage as soon as the ice allows. Our goal is to reach Nome by August 1st, ready for the transit. Once there we will be waiting for days or weeks. And actually, it’s a little trickier than that. We move when weather permits and as I am typing this we still have around seven hundred and fifty miles to reach Nome. We can’t take a chance on arriving late to Nome. At any time we can be stuck waiting on weather.
One question that pops up is, “Why not just go? Can’t North Star handle any weather?” North Star is an extremely seaworthy boat. She’s a heavy steel boat built to handle rough seas. Prior to my purchasing North Star she had already made several trips across the Atlantic, explored Europe and cruised the Baltic. That said, never underestimate the power of the ocean. Massive freighters have been snapped in half by waves. With careful planning, a highly skilled crew, and by picking your weather, a boat like North Star can travel safely anywhere in the world. But that said, the ocean is unforgiving. Plan poorly, make mistakes, or get blindsided by extreme weather, and you will have a bad day, regardless of the boat.
Kenai Fjords National Park
Our next major milestone was Kodiak Island, roughly 500 nautical miles (nm) to the west. We were looking forward to Kodiak, for provisioning, fuel, restaurants, and a bit of “civilization”.
We also knew we’d be running along one of the prettiest coasts in the world.
I saw a tourist sign in Whittier promising a tour of 26 glaciers. That seemed impossible, so I looked it up and there are over 150 glaciers in the Prince William Sound area
Running past enormous glaciers. To get a sense of the scale, look at the forest of trees beneath the Glacier
RUNNING AROUND THE CLOCK
We had a good weather window and wanted to make as much distance as weather would permit.
We cruise most of the time at 1,400 RPM, burning 17 gallons per hour in the main engines, and moving at 10 knots. We decided to run for twenty-four hours, covering approximately 240 miles west to an anchorage called Hallo Bay.
When running overnight we are splitting time at the helm into eight three-hour shifts.
0000-0300 – Lydia
0300-0600 – Hudson
0600-0900 – Garrett
0900-1200 – Ken & Roberta
1200-1500 – Lydia
1500-1800 – Hudson
1800-2100 – Garrett
2100-0000 – Ken & Roberta
One benefit of boat ownership is getting first pick on shifts. Roberta and I had it easy, with only a three-hour shift at 9am and again at 9pm.
We don’t see many boats this far north, but during Garrett’s shift we passed through a crowded area of tourist and fishing boats
The radar on a 3nm range. Lots of targets to keep life interesting
I’ve been impressed by our stabilizers. A beam sea and no noticeable rolling. Prior to the trip we “beefed up” the stabilizers replacing the hydraulic fins with much larger electric fins from ABT (www.inov8vmarine.com)
I took this picture while running half a mile offshore, testing my zoom lens. A mama bear and three cubs! You can only see two in this picture
Roberta stole my computer for a bit. She used the excuse that she was editing my blog, but I know the truth. She wanted the view! Her desk is in the Master Stateroom (aka “the belly of the beast”). A nice place to sleep, but no view
Hallo Bay
After running all night we were tired, but eager to anchor, drop the tender and explore.
Running at night can be a tense experience. You can’t see the water and always fear an encounter with some floating debris, or more likely a whale. That said, one nice thing about this trip is that the days are long and the nights virtually non-existent. We are far enough north that night only lasts about three hours and it never really gets completely dark
Bear watching from the tender
My guess is that there will come a time that we are tired of seeing bears, but we’re not there yet
GEOGRAPHIC HARBOR
Sidetracking on this trip is rare. We have a lot of distance to cover, and little time to do it, but we were feeling good about the schedule, so we headed to Geographic Harbor. There’s a tricky entrance to the anchorage, which sits in a semi-enclosed basin, but it rewards you with an amazing place to drop anchor.
Entering Geographic Harbor is not easy. There is an underwater rock (within the red circle) blocking the entrance to where we wanted to ultimately anchor (Letter B). To enter and anchor at location B we had to first drop anchor at another spot where you see the Letter A. We then sent Lydia out in the tender to scout the exact location of the underwater rock so that we could avoid it. That worked perfectly, and we had the pleasure of anchoring at location B — a wondrous and amazing place!
Lydia on the tender, ahead of the boat guiding North Star through the narrow passage, after doing a careful grid search to find the rock called out on the chart
Happily at anchor inside Geographic Harbor!
AND ON A COMPLETELY DIFFERENT TOPIC
I’ve recounted several times our dropping the tender, so I’ll swap topics completely for a minute and talk about North Star’s crane and our recent refit. One of our many large projects during the refit was to completely replace the davit (crane).
When Roberta and I first discussed putting a hot tub on the top deck of North Star I planned for the hot tub to sit in the middle of the top deck where there is a big wide-open space. My vision was that we’d buy an off-the-shelf hot tub, drop it in an unused space and plug it in. It didn’t turn out that way and you’ll see why the hot tub is relevant in a minute.
Roberta and our interior decorator looked at my design and said, “No way!” We’d be losing some valuable deck space and it would look kluged (aka half-assed). Their idea was to replace the sun pad (bed) that is at the back of the top deck with the hot tub, and make it look like the hot tub had been there when the boat was originally built. I balked at the idea, and lost the argument. A major issue with replacing the sun pad was that it had all of the guts for the crane beneath it. If we tried to remove the sun pad it would be a major project and expensive.
Anyway, I reluctantly agreed and we tore apart the sun pad and the crane. Tens of thousands of dollars later we put everything back together. We then tested the crane only to find that it was in need of serious maintenance. One of the many “joys” of buying a used boat is that you can encounter surprises of this sort. I won’t bore you with the gory details, but if you watch horror movies you can understand how I was feeling as I watched $60,000 US dollars and months of time go by while trying to repair the crane and order needed parts out of Europe. After months of fiddling with the crane I finally said, “What would it cost for a new one?”
To make a long story short, a new crane was ordered (a 3,000lb model Steelhead davit from AvanTec Marine in Canada). Removing the old crane, buying the new crane, and shuffling the davit mechanical parts wound up costing a small fortune. Ouch! As part of it, I decided to go with the electrically powered hydraulic pump that came with the new crane. North Star has a large electrically powered hydraulic pump that could be used with the stabilizers, the crane, the windlasses and the davit. Both the stabilizers and the crane have now been removed from the boat’s hydraulic system.
To add a bit more detail to this discussion, the old crane was rated for only 2,400 lbs. The new crane is rated higher than that, but it mounts to the boat’s aluminum superstructure. Rather than take a chance on warping the top deck, we deliberately locked down the crane so that it couldn’t lift beyond the prior crane’s limits. Also, we removed the old tender which was maxing out the prior crane’s limits and replaced it with a lighter tender. I’ve been in a lot of anchorages where we were lifting the tender when a jetski zoomed by causing the tender to bounce, potentially overloading the crane. I like to have “margin for error.”
To summarize all of this: At great expense, I have a new crane. Everyone loves it, and raising and lowering the tender is a delightful experience. It was money well spent (if there is such a thing!)
AND WITH THAT SAID, BACK TO GEOGRAPHIC HARBOR
Visiting Geographic Harbor was important to Roberta and I. We took our prior boat, a Nordhavn 68, from Seattle to Japan in 2009 and visited Geographic Harbor as part of that trip.
For that trip I hired a local commercial fisherman out of Kodiak named Bill Harrington. If someone were casting a movie about commercial fishing in Alaska, they couldn’t have done better than to hire Bill. He acted and talked the part. Despite his gruffness, Bill was very well educated and had a heart of gold. He stayed with the boat from Kodiak all the way to Japan, including our stop in Siberia. Sadly, Bill passed away a few years ago and I miss talking to him. As seems to happen frequently, he followed his wife, Cindy, who had passed away a couple of years earlier.
Anyway, with that said, Bill had some of the more memorable comments about our Nordhavn, exclaiming, “This isn’t a f&(*king boat, it’s a damn video game!”, the first time he drove my boat. Apparently we had a few more gadgets at the helm than Bill was accustomed to. Or, on another occasion when we were deep in the Bering Sea when the weather gods threw us some surprises, and we felt compelled to wake Bill up from a deep sleep to ask how much trouble we were in. He ran up to the pilot house in his underwear, took a look out the window and said, “What are you, a bunch of p&*sies? It’s not like we’re going to die or nothin’!” And, back down to sleep he went.
Geographic Harbor brings back a wealth of nostalgic emotions about the good times we had exploring, and one more Bill incident worth mentioning. One of Bill’s “jobs” was to carry a rifle on the tender as we explored. Bears may be cute, but only the stuffed ones are cuddly. They can run fast and they can swim fast. Bill, Roberta and I were in the tender to photograph bears. Near shore in Geographic Harbor the water stays shallow for a while. The water is transparent and the bottom seems inches below the boat. One day we saw a particularly interesting bear and came within a couple hundred feet of shore to take its picture. After hanging out for a bit, watching the bear, we suddenly realized the tide had gone out and the tender was now touching the bottom. It was the bear’s turn to watch us! Bill put down the rifle and all of us exited the tender lifting it as best we could and dragged it to deeper water. Oops!
One would think we’d learned our lesson, and we kind of did. On this trip we once again found ourselves in shallow water photographing bears. Thanks to Roberta and I remembering the story we stayed safe, but with 20/20 hindsight even more caution would have been a good thing.
Left to right: Me (Ken), Capt Garrett, Chef Dani and a very happy Roberta. Less happy are Keeley and Pixie, who are hunkering down and wondering why they can’t have a home with a yard like all the other dogs
Prior to the trip I practiced running sprints. Roberta asked, “Why? You can’t outrun a bear!” I responded, “I don’t need to outrun the bear, I only need to outrun you.” Apologies. That is an old joke poorly told. I couldn’t stop myself
On our 2009 run to Alaska I remember how excited I was to photograph an eagle. After the first wave of excitement wore off I realized that eagles are everywhere in Alaska. Finding one to take its picture is not a major challenge
Pulling anchor on a foggy morning
Lydia on the tender, in the fog
Saying goodbye to Geographic Harbor, while Lydia guides our departure from the tender
UGANIK ANCHORAGE
One night was all we allowed ourselves in Geographic Harbor and then it was time to head to Kodiak. We wanted more time, but when the weather says we can go, we go.
We made a six-hour run to an anchorage closer to Kodiak. This would put us in a position where we could reach Kodiak with another six to eight hour run, only a couple of hours of which would be exposed to rough weather.
At the end of this email newsletter there is a link to a video. Make sure you watch it! Uganik Bay was good for bear watching!
Underway heading to Kodiak
DRONE USE
We weren’t able to use the drone at Geographic Harbor as (I believe) it is a national park and drone use is restricted, as is using it in close proximity to wildlife. We’ve also been hesitant to launch the drone while running the boat. It’s a $4,000 drone and although it takes good pictures and videos, that’s not our priority. We need it for scouting pathways through the ice once we get to the Northwest Passage. For us, the drone is a safety feature. Losing the drone would be really bad. We have a smaller backup on the boat, but hope never to need it.
KODIAK
It felt great to arrive in Kodiak!
The welcoming committee greeting us as we entered the marina
North Star at the dock in Kodiak
Click to view a video with scenes from this Email Newsletter. You’ll be glad you did!
https://youtu.be/xbK-WsZJ940
A bear encounter gone right (just something I saw on x.com that I thought you would enjoy)
If this link works for you, it is well worth clicking. It’s a very frightening bear encounter.
To view it, click this link:
https://x.com/tonylanenv/status/2070342640332407150
FYI
As I am typing this the boat is arriving in Dutch Harbor, Alaska. There is a lot of significance to this event. It represents our farthest West point. From here we have another 700 or so miles north to reach Nome. There really is no place to stop along the way. We might find a way to break up the trip, but if we see a long weather window we’ll just do three days of around-the-clock running and head straight there.
Roberta and I have now flown back to our home in the San Juan Islands. July is a beautiful month and sitting around in Nome waiting for ice to melt doesn’t seem all that fun. The crew can do the run north without us.
I’m in daily communication with the boat and we will rejoin the boat as soon as the trip can continue past Nome. For now there isn’t much to do except one long (hopefully boring) passage and then a long period of reading daily ice reports.
Of course, I will still publish my email updates, and I still have a YouTube video to work on that corresponds to the trip reported in this blog. Even though you may have watched the supplemental video that is part of the newsletter, don’t miss the YouTube blog (https://youtube.com/@mvnorthstar). I try to make the content different and always keep some surprises to make it interesting.
AND LASTLY
Your questions and feedback are the best part of my blog! I have an incredibly smart group of readers, and I’ve learned more from my readers than could ever be imagined.
You are encouraged to participate in the discussion! Email any questions directly to me. I’ll answer you via email or include some subset of the questions in my next newsletter. If I include your submission in the newsletter I’ll list only your first name and last initial. If you wrote to me, and don’t see your question answered here, and if you really want an answer – email me and ask again. I’ll answer you directly, if not in my next newsletter.
Write to me at: ken@mvnorthstar.com
That’s it for this edition of the blog.
Ken and Roberta Williams, with Pixie and Keeley
Email Ken at ken@mvnorthstar.com with your questions. I’ll answer most of them in the next issue of the blog (or email newsletter, whatever this is)
I really enjoyed the latest edition of the blog, and your comment on the weather forecast after 24 hours not being something to bet the farm on had me thinking. I can imagine there were times where everything seemed to line up, weather looked like it was going to be great, and off y’all went towards the next destination. Do you have a story you wouldn’t mind sharing of where that suddenly changed to a degree that you were really concerned for safety? How did you all handle it? Did it ever make you second guess taking another cruise?
Anyways, this was a WONDERFUL read, and I’m going down the Whittier, Alaska wikipedia rabbit hole. What an interesting town. You don’t really think about an American town existing in one building, together. Feels like the start of an outline for a small town thriller novel! 🙂
Wishing you all safe travels,
Allan K
============Response from Ken=============
Roberta and I do indeed have some stories to tell about almost wrecking the boat, but surprisingly they have to do with being at anchor, NOT crossing oceans. We have gotten very good at knowing not to go to sea in potentially rough conditions. We also work hard to break up long trips into a series of small trips. One reason we crossed the Pacific to Japan via the Aleutian Islands was to minimize the number of overnight runs.
Our biggest potential disasters have come from windy anchorages and other boats. We believe in having a great anchor and pay a lot of attention to how we anchor. Setting the anchor is only a piece of what we do. We evaluate where the wind is coming from. We anchor based on the highest possible wind we can imagine, not the highest wind forecast. We anchor away from other boats and are usually the farthest boat out in any anchorage. We test the anchor after dropping it.
Not every boat in every anchorage has a captain who is well seasoned at anchoring. There’s always one rookie, and in the popular anchorages in the Med there can be dozens of rookies. When there is too much wind and your anchor drags, it can drag fast. One minute you can be happily sleeping and a few minutes later your anchor can be sliding along the bottom as your boat moves quickly towards shore. We were off an island called Formentera in Spain on a beautiful blue sky day when 60-knot winds hit in the middle of the night. Our anchor was one of very few that held. Dozens of boats were blown onto the sandy beach. On another occasion we were anchored in a tight bay in Croatia in a packed anchorage with probably fifty other boats. We were all hiding from predicted high winds. We were the farthest from shore, but the wind funneled around in the bay blowing the boats away from the beach and straight at us. Croatia has many charter companies that will rent sailboats to virtually anyone. It is rare that any of these tourist charter boats knows anything about anchoring. As the wind crept past 40 knots their anchors started dragging one by one. Looking out the front window all Roberta and I could see was darkness punctuated by red, green and white lights. Every 15 minutes or so one of the boats would break anchor and start coming toward us. We watched on the radar and would move as best we can, recognizing that we were anchored to the bottom and our options were limited. Somehow we evaded a direct strike, but it was a very tense evening.
My friends and I grew up playing Sierra games and I can’t help but picture your adventures on the North Star as a good old-fashioned Sierra game! Have you ever considered creating a mini adventure game about The North Star?
Mark R
=============Response by Ken===============
We might do that some day! Actually … probably not. We are very happily retired. I just released a Marine Radar Simulator (https://www.NavSimAcademy.com) and I’m planning to add more sims in the future. And, Roberta is working on a top secret new original game title. But … generally speaking, we don’t see ourselves ever being a major player in the video game market ever again. Of course, I keep saying “never” and keep thinking of more projects, so …we shall see.
I noticed in one of the photos in the most recent newsletter a red book called The Yacht Log.
What logs do you all keep in there and do you keep those logs only for good housekeeping or because there are legal requirements to do so? Frankly I was surprised to see a paper log book; I figured most logging would be electronic nowadays.
Enjoy your new Mac! I was also thinking of getting one to play around with LLM Studio and local models.
Wishing you all nothing but calm seas,
Mike
——–RESPONSE FROM KEN——–
Thank you! I’m not sure what statutory requirements there are for log books, and I’m sure there are automated log books that are sold. I prefer a good old fashioned pen-and-paper log book for a variety of reasons.
• I’m a computer geek, but not everyone is, and on long trips I’m not the only one driving
• There isn’t a computer at the helm (other than the ones used for navigation)
• Computers have a nasty habit of losing things
• In the event of a lightning strike you can lose all electronics. At least with a paper log you know where you were the last time you noted your position
• Tradition!
• It’s easy to write things down
• It helps keep the driver alert. Falling asleep at the helm is fairly common, and often dangerous
As to what gets written down… This varies from Captain to Captain, and varies according to the cruising. On major ocean passages I am much more rigorous than for typical day cruising within a relatively small area.
Things I always log:
• Maintenance items (things that should be fixed, filter changes)
• Location and key stats (where I am, where I’m going, how many hours on the mains, hours on the gensets, fuel levels, water levels, black water level)
On long passages we write down our position hourly. It keeps the driver alert, and gives a recent known position if the electronics fail. Depending on what you write down, you can evaluate the log later to study fuel consumption in various weather conditions, currents, at different speeds, etc
I own a 60′ cat in the BVI which generally stays local to the island chain but will stray to Turks & Caicos or down the island chain.
I have a set of supplies and parts that I keep on board to do routine or emergency maintenance. This list can be quite extensive even though I’m only a chase boat call away from getting things I may need
I’m interested to know the type and quantities you keep on board for routine and contingency/emergency maintenance on your boat. If you would like to share that it would be greatly appreciated.
Thanks,
Brooks.
——–RESPONSE FROM KEN——–
I’ll think about posting our spare parts list in a future blog entry. It seems like I shouldn’t but I can’t imagine why not. It’s not like anyone is going to sneak aboard and steal my extra impellers…
A story on this topic. There are various automated systems for tracking spare parts. For example, I was a longtime subscriber to a subscription-based website called Wheelhouse Technologies. I wasn’t very good at keeping them updated (my fault, not theirs) and finally gave up. Instead, I did a simple spreadsheet in Excel to track spare parts, noting the part number, a description, the supplier, how many I have on hand, and where I hid the parts on the boat. I was very proud of my spreadsheet and sent it to Captain Garrett as an example of what I want for North Star. Instantly, he shot back a spreadsheet many pages longer than mine, better indexed, with spares I never knew existed and far more extensive than my own. It’s a thing of beauty. I planned on studying it, but it was quickly obvious he had given it great thought and I had little to add. Where we’re going it won’t be possible to order parts. We’ll either have any needed spares on board, or North Star risks becoming a permanent fixture somewhere in the Arctic.
Hi Ken and Roberta, thanks for the update. Your writing brings the element of realism. Especially if you’ve been to those ports. Imagine 3 large cruise ships in Whittier. The way you explained weather and how fast it can change there is amazing in its own right.
One thing I noticed about pure yachts versus expedition type vessels like yours are handholds and railing both externally and inside. No long stretches without a rail or grab rail in the overhead on expedition vessels. Did you design any upgrades in these areas on Northstar.
Last any issues with sediment in your fuel as you are definitely stirring the tanks.
Thanks again. Looking forward to the next episode
Chris P.
===========Response by Ken=============
North Star has some massive handholds. The railings on the staircase are two inches thick. That said, our Nordhavn had grab holds on the ceiling in the main salon and galley. North Star doesn’t have them, and should. I’m in no hurry to go back to the shipyard, but when we do, more overhead grab holds will be discussed.
As to fuel, North Star has an Alpha Laval fuel purifier. I haven’t had to spend time fiddling with it (yet) but believe it uses a centrifuge to remove sediment and water from the fuel. We run all fuel through it prior to consuming the fuel. It runs nonstop when we are underway.
A question arose around your provisioning. I’m sure you have overstocked and conservatively estimated fuel consumption, but I would be very curious to hear how you are planning around the potential for significant weather and ice disruptions on the fuel front. I’m sure most marinas are well suited but I would assume pricing at some of the more remote locations, combined with environmental regulations and potential restrictions make this an ‘anything but as straightforward as the layman like me might think’. I do hope you will keep us appraised of the progress there. I’m a former tech person who did a side quest as a federal regulator so I can only imagine the headaches you must endeavor as you plan and operate this voyage.
Safe travels, calm seas and I hope you, the crew and the pups are all well.
Thanks again! Best,
Sultan
============Response from Ken============
One of North Star’s best features is its extreme range. We carry 8,000 gallons of fuel and at 10 knots we have a range of over 4,000 miles. If we were to slow to 8 knots we could probably add a couple thousand miles to that number. We have already arranged for fuel at several points on our journey. My philosophy is to never cut it close. The lowest we’ve been so far is 6,000 gallons. We are filling up in Dutch Harbor and will top off again prior to entering the passage in Nome. We’re also arranging a fuel stop halfway through the passage at Cambridge Bay. I am paranoid about fuel and would freak out if we ever get so low we can’t run for weeks without a fuel stop. As to pricing, fuel is crazy expensive once you get to these remote locations. There’s nothing I can do about it except to keep reminding myself this is a once-in-a-lifetime trip I’ll remember forever.
I also enjoy the written blog over the video although the video does convey the scenery and expedition activities better.
I was wondering about alternate fuel. The ship is diesel and has large purpose built tanks and systems. The tenders need gasoline. That is a restrictive issue for us on our Nordhavn. How much gas do you carry and how do you store it. How do you handle excess propane if you use that.
Safe travels.
Dean R
=========Response from Ken==============
We have both gasoline, for the tender, and propane, for the BBQ, aboard.
I thought about an electric BBQ, but they just don’t grill well, or perhaps I’ve had bad luck with the ones I’ve had in the past. We do have an extra propane tank aboard but my prediction is that we’ll run out somewhere along the way. At that point, we’ll do without barbecuing for the balance of the trip or until we can find somewhere to refill the tanks. Maybe Cambridge Bay?
As for gasoline, we have several five gallon gas cans attached to the railing on the top deck. In aggregate I think there is 30 gallons. It’s not much, but the tender is used only for shuttling people back and forth to shore. We will top off the gas cans and the tenders (two) in Nome, and then be very conscious of not wasting any gas.
I wanted an electric tender but was talked out of it, and suspect I’ll regret that decision. I don’t like gasoline onboard. We’re storing it as safely as it can be stored, and it is outside of the boat lashed to the railing, but gasoline is flammable and in my opinion a bad idea on a boat. We also store propane outside the boat (in a cupboard on the fly bridge) and have a series of safety measures to make sure there is no leaking propane.
For those of us stuck on land enjoying your travels, I was wondering if we will be able to follow your route through the NW Passage on the Marine Traffic app through your AIS? It would certainly be interesting if we could but I have no idea if your signal would even be seen on their system.
Thank you and safe travels!
Dave S
==============Response from Ken================
I’m guessing we won’t be able to be tracked once we enter the Northwest Passage, but …. maybe we can be. I really don’t know.
Our MMSI is: 368417280
You should be able to track us on MarineTraffic.com using the MMSI
Hello Ken
I was for a time fascinated by the tragedy that was the Franklin Expedition.
Coincidentally, while traveling in the Canadian Yukon on a local flight, I sat beside the deck hand that was aboard the small ship when it found the Terror. It was truly enlightening to hear the story first hand when I already knew the published story and the government story which were not the same and then again the real story.
Since you will be passing by the area the ships were found I am sure you will have researched the voyage but you might not have come across this Canadian singer and his Franklin song. It would be fitting to play it as you passed.
Dean R
==================Response from Ken=============
I should be an expert on all of the history but haven’t yet focused on it. We will have a naturalist on board who will give constant briefings as we go through the passage. I figure I’ll spin up to speed when the time comes.
A few months ago we watched a tremendous documentary by a boat called Yeti about their trip through the NW Passage. I remember them visiting some graves. Perhaps that was the Franklin Expedition? Apologies for being so ignorant on something that has dominated our lives for a year (and drained our savings accounts). I’ll be an expert on the topic when the time comes…
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CHECK OUT OUR LATEST VIDEO GAME: COLOSSAL CAVE 3D!
Roberta and I are video game developers when we aren’t on a boat, having published literally hundreds of games during our long career. Our most recent game is a re-imagining of a fifty-year-old classic game called “Adventure (aka Colossal Cave).”
NEW: KEN JUST RELEASED A MARINE RADAR TRAINING SIMULATOR!
If I had to go to sea without a life raft, or … without a working radar, I’d choose the radar. A well tuned radar and the knowledge to use it effectively is mission critical. I’ve gone out on days with perfectly blue skies only to be blindsided by fog so thick I couldn’t see the bow. I’ve had to pick my way through crowded seas where the ability to predict which of the surrounding ships represented danger meant the difference between a safe passage and a really bad day.
To make a long story short: I combined my tens of thousands of sea miles with my long record of building software to create a Radar Simulator. I believe there is no better way to learn than by experiencing it yourself. Check out my radar training course, which is built around a very realistic simulator. https://navsimacademy.com/
