Petersburg, a tidy productive well-organized place, lacking only good internet reception and more restaurants.
Weather Forecast: "Today Variable winds 5 kt or less. Seas around 1 ft." As forecasts go, this is truly the very best one could ever hope for, not only in SE Alaska but just about anywhere.
And for the 1st ~2/3 of the day all was exceedingly well. Flat seas. Full speed. Truly it couldnt have been better.
But then it got rougher, and, as it became: roughest of any day [so far, damn] on the trip.
How could that be, with the most perfect possible forecast?
4' waves. Which are not huge waves, we're not claiming 'Perfect Storm' here. But i'm a tiny boat. And the sea is so big.
I'd have video'd it for you, but i was too busy hanging on.
A cruise ship passed. If the Captain was watching, he couldv only thot: o my that poor tiny-boat bastard, he shouldnt be out here.
But there was nowhere to go. All the potential ~anchorages were oriented fully to the wind, so no possible shelter at all, & besides they were beset with rocks.
Coming up, the bigger-water channel between me & my goal. There, it could only be worse. I had 2 altermativs: cross that channel, or, upon reaching its edge, turn left head northward, go with the wind, which had its own issues, waves from the stern quarter.
I donned my "offshore" PFD, stuck a big knife in my pocket to cut the ropes securing the raft to the roof, planned what i'd take with me upon the sinking: cel-fon, computer, and surely most important, gadget3, all to the dry-bag.
And then, then... the waves, miraculously, abated.
I sped on, thanking god of course (i dont deserve it, nor any of us, grace), to Ketchikan.
map: boating south
1 comment:
You’re so funny. That ship captain probably called the coast guard and told him to keep an eye on the tiny boats in the big sea!
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