Meyers Chuck to Santa Anna Inlet
Got to sleep until 7:00 am today. The cruise to our next anchorage was only 20 nautical miles, so it would only takes us a few hours to get there. We had some excitement though, when a photographer who was hired by Yachting Magazine arrived by helicopter to take photos of our departure. He flew over our group, directing our speed and formation. It was pretty exciting. First he took photos of us lined up single file as we left the small chuck. Then he had us in a sort of V formation. It required some great seamanship on the part of our skippers to cruise so close together and to stay at a consistent speed. The participants were great sports and I’m sure the photographer took some fantastic photos.
Just as we were getting into the V formation, we were treated to a pod of ten orca playing just a few hundred feet from our boats. Sanctuary was the lead boat, so we got a front row seat for the show. It was so surreal, but I wasn’t the least bit surprised that it happened just as we were leaving magical Meyers Chuck.
The cruise to Santa Anna Inlet was very smooth and easy. We arrived before noon and anchored at the head of the inlet, just in front of a waterfall. A little way up the shore, we could see old pilings and rusted machinery from some old logging or fishing business that had served its purpose and been left behind to rot.
Later in the day I was treated to a ride in a Zodiac. Zodiac is one of the sponsors of the tour, and they have sent along a model called CZ-7 for us to use during the trip. One of the boats has been towing it the whole trip. The CZ-7 is pretty amazing. I think the best way to describe it is as the Hummer of the inflatable boat world. This Zodiac was originally built for military use. It is a huge black rubber dingy that can hit 60 mph. They have it configured to hold six people. On our test ride, we probably hit about 50 MPH. I was expecting the ride to be really rough and wet and was shocked at how smoothly the boat powered up to speed. It was so agile in the water and could turn on a dime. It stayed totally flat in the water and just seemed to float (at 50 MPH) over the surface of the water. Before the ride in the Zodiac, I’d been considering reading a book or taking a nap. After the ride, I wanted to go run a few miles - I was so exhilarated.
The rest of the evening was very calm, especially when compared to the CZ-7 ride. I wrote some to try to catch up with the blog. We did some clean up on the boat. At 6:00 we invited the gentlemen on Sea Gate (they were anchored to Sanctuary) to join us for dinner. Larry, our Southern Service Genius, brought along and incredible bean soup – which was more like a stew. Chef cooked up some amazing salmon and halibut left over from Meyers Chuck and we had a great meal.
After dinner, the guys headed back to Sea Gate and I went down to crew quarters to pack. Aaron arrives in Wrangell on June 2nd, and I’ll be moving off of Sanctuary and into the Stikine Inn. It’s been nearly three weeks since I last saw Aaron. I’m wondering if we will still recognize each other. I’m really happy that he is going to be able to be there for the finale. I’m glad he’ll be able to see something of the Alaska that I’ve had the privilege of experiencing. And I’m really happy that he’ll meet the 45 people that I’ve just shared this incredible experience with.
At about 10:30 pm, we were finally able to get the satellite to work. It has been very picky and doesn’t always work when we are in small anchorages surrounded by tall mountains. We tried the satellite earlier in the day and it didn’t work. But later at night it did work. Well, it worked for about an hour and a half anyway. I had just posted my blog on Meyers Chuck and gotten all of the photos loaded (this is a very time consuming process since the satellite speed is about equal to dial up) and was ready to publish when we lost satellite connection. I packed up my computer and headed to bed just before midnight.
Just as we were getting into the V formation, we were treated to a pod of ten orca playing just a few hundred feet from our boats. Sanctuary was the lead boat, so we got a front row seat for the show. It was so surreal, but I wasn’t the least bit surprised that it happened just as we were leaving magical Meyers Chuck.
The cruise to Santa Anna Inlet was very smooth and easy. We arrived before noon and anchored at the head of the inlet, just in front of a waterfall. A little way up the shore, we could see old pilings and rusted machinery from some old logging or fishing business that had served its purpose and been left behind to rot.
Later in the day I was treated to a ride in a Zodiac. Zodiac is one of the sponsors of the tour, and they have sent along a model called CZ-7 for us to use during the trip. One of the boats has been towing it the whole trip. The CZ-7 is pretty amazing. I think the best way to describe it is as the Hummer of the inflatable boat world. This Zodiac was originally built for military use. It is a huge black rubber dingy that can hit 60 mph. They have it configured to hold six people. On our test ride, we probably hit about 50 MPH. I was expecting the ride to be really rough and wet and was shocked at how smoothly the boat powered up to speed. It was so agile in the water and could turn on a dime. It stayed totally flat in the water and just seemed to float (at 50 MPH) over the surface of the water. Before the ride in the Zodiac, I’d been considering reading a book or taking a nap. After the ride, I wanted to go run a few miles - I was so exhilarated.
The rest of the evening was very calm, especially when compared to the CZ-7 ride. I wrote some to try to catch up with the blog. We did some clean up on the boat. At 6:00 we invited the gentlemen on Sea Gate (they were anchored to Sanctuary) to join us for dinner. Larry, our Southern Service Genius, brought along and incredible bean soup – which was more like a stew. Chef cooked up some amazing salmon and halibut left over from Meyers Chuck and we had a great meal.
After dinner, the guys headed back to Sea Gate and I went down to crew quarters to pack. Aaron arrives in Wrangell on June 2nd, and I’ll be moving off of Sanctuary and into the Stikine Inn. It’s been nearly three weeks since I last saw Aaron. I’m wondering if we will still recognize each other. I’m really happy that he is going to be able to be there for the finale. I’m glad he’ll be able to see something of the Alaska that I’ve had the privilege of experiencing. And I’m really happy that he’ll meet the 45 people that I’ve just shared this incredible experience with.
At about 10:30 pm, we were finally able to get the satellite to work. It has been very picky and doesn’t always work when we are in small anchorages surrounded by tall mountains. We tried the satellite earlier in the day and it didn’t work. But later at night it did work. Well, it worked for about an hour and a half anyway. I had just posted my blog on Meyers Chuck and gotten all of the photos loaded (this is a very time consuming process since the satellite speed is about equal to dial up) and was ready to publish when we lost satellite connection. I packed up my computer and headed to bed just before midnight.
posted by OCD at Sea at
8:25 AM
