In the Airport going North

I can't believe I haven't written this week. I've been in Fairbanks since 1 am on Monday morning, but with teaching 2 evening classes and meeting with 4 teachers, I just have been really busy. We even almost finished our taxes. It was really great weather, too, so I did a lot of walking, inspite of the ice. No falls.

On Saturday night, we went to a friend's house for fun and food. The bonfire was blazing and we saw a beautiful aurora show. You could easily see purples and greens. Very nice. The sky here is so clear and unimpeded by city lights that it feels like it is pressing down on you.

I was thinking again about our trip up the inside passage in 1986. We followed the Coast Pilot and our charts into some beautiful little coves. Sometimes we were alone anchored up in there because most fishing boats were steaming North for the season. We had a little inflatable shore skiff and one place we stopped had a sandy beach and a trail through the woods. Several of the huge trees had carved totems. The first growth forest made a great rain forest canopy.

The day we crossed Queen Charlotte's Sound, it was rolling waves. In our inexperience (and ignorance) we didn't realize how dangerous it was. We only saw the Alaska State ferry on our very slow passage. The poles were lowered for stability, but the dipped the huge rolling waves. The kids sat under the galley table occasionally throwing up. Paul had the wheel, but once he had to go to the bathroom and I really was terrified when a huge wave hit us broadside and brought Paul up from the foc's'le pretty fast.

The first time we went through Wrangell Narrows, the kids and I were in the bow. It's a narrow strait with some tidal and current effect, but mainly was ringed with rocky outcroppings. Buoys are marked with red and green (red, right returning to sea) and numbered odd and even. In the dark, the buoys also had a bell pattern. Paul was color blind so the red and green didn't help much. We would tell him- that one's green or that one's red. Only every now and then did a boat go by with a wake that make steering difficult...most went very slowly.

We were about 20 miles south of Prince Rupert when our steering went out. We were attempting to anchor when the steering cable broke. We were too shallow and the tide was going out. We dropped anchor while Paul figured it out. He finally jerry-rigged a wrench on the rear steering to allow us to move. We called the Canadian Coast Guard and they guided us to a safer harbor. In the morning, they came and tugboated us (in a small skiff) into Prince Rupert. The kids were both pretty interested.

At first, I always wanted to skirt close to shore, but we drew 6 feet so the more I knew, the more I wanted to center any body of water we were in. The radio was a constant source of amusement- the CB and VHF. There was etiquette to it...you were supposed to monitor 16 on the VHF for safety announcements, but the real chatter was on other channels.