Shipmates

Keeping a schedule is antithetical to goals for Jupiter’s voyage, thus when friends visit logistical planning can be challenging.

After landing by seaplane in Taku Harbor guests transfer aboard by tender

The best solution is to fly to a nearby town served by commercial air, and take a floatplane to wherever Jupiter lays at anchor.  The seaplane lands, guests and their luggage are transferred aboard by tender.   This was efficiently accomplished recently by friends Sally & Allan.

Along with their good company, wealth of mechanical, photographic and navigational skills, and domestic cruising acumen, these fine people brought a change in our fortunes in three important regards:

Weather:  With the new crew aboard we abruptly profited from sunny, warmish, dry days courtesy of the tenacious Seymour Pacific High, offshore SE Alaska.  Slickers and boots have not been seen on deck.

Credit to Allan for this and several other photos from their stay

Bears:  After weeks of peering into the gloaming at every estuary from Victoria to Juneau we were finally rewarded with an entire day and night spent observing a family of Grizzlies with three cubs fishing and splashing in a meadow adjacent to our Cannery Cove anchorage.  The spawning salmon that attracted the bears also drew the attention of numerous bald and golden eagles, a pair of great blue heron and a sub-aquatic frenzy of seals and sea lions – hunters and prey in a knotty food chain.

Returning from setting the winning crab pot

Crabs: Subsequent to multiple failed attempts at catching crustaceans in our pot, we finally hoisted the haul of our dreams, harvesting sufficient creamy sweet crab meat to feed four hungry crew for two days.

In addition to these happy changes in circumstance, we took advantage of extra hands and eyes to traverse fjords filled with challenging icebergs and the narrows at Ford’s Terror.  As a reward for the adventurous we brought aboard a bergy bit to add some thousands of years of compressed cooling power to our drinks.

Although the time spent with our guests was so remote, denying any voice or data communications, even satellite news and weather, we created our very own BBC Alaska Service – Bears, Bergs and Crabs!

“You have enough buttons here to push to keep anyone happy!” – Allan, contemplating Jupiter’s Pilot House

Back on land in Petersburg, Alaska

 

What we were pondering:

“Strictly speaking the moon doesn’t orbit the earth, the two are orbiting each other around a shared center of gravity that is 2,900 miles from the center of the earth.”

– from the perplexing chapter Currents and Tides in How to Read Water by Tristan Gooley

The end of the tale

Leave a Comment

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *