Merry Christmas

A very Merry Christmas to you.

Mark left Seward on Monday, December 17 and they were supposed to bring the barge all the way to Seattle but due to bad weather, had to put into Yakutat.  The Captain and Mate flew home for Christmas, while Mark and another crew are left on the tug.  They will be there till after Christmas and will continue with their trip down to Seattle

It will be a quiet Christmas for Pauline, who will be working.

By the way, we did not get our act together this year to churn out our annual Christmas letter.  We are not sure if it will get done.  Our year did not include sailing on Sari Timur but lots of trips were made on airplanes and for Mark, on the tug as well.

Earthquake !

Alaska sits along the ring of fire. Volcano eruptions and earthquakes are common occurrences in the lives of Alaskans. Along with earthquakes come tsunamis.

There could be one earthquake happening every minute. Just from midnight of November 30 to 4pm, there were 146 earthquakes, 43 of these were over 3 on the Richter scale. Amazing!

At about 8.30 am, a 7.0 earthquake put Alaska in the news.  Pauline was at work in the hotel when that happened.  It was something that she had never experienced in her life.  Minutes after the shake, which lasted a long time, the tsunami warning came on. This is the part we worry about most. While that was happening at the hotel, Mark was on the tug, moving about in Resurrection Bay.  Our neighbor in the marina said that their boat did a funny jiggle.

We escaped with no harm but there were lots of damages elsewhere, like rock slides, road collapse, glass windows falling, power outages, houses splitting. Fortunately, it seems no injuries were sustained.

We just want to let everyone know that we are safe and well.

This Winter's Igloo

After we arrived back from Singapore we started work on the cover for the winter.  We learned a lot last year, so this year's version is a lot better.  It is not perfect but the good thing is we have enough left over to do it one more time.  We will carry this with us when we move further south next summer.  We are planning on spending next winter in Sitka and of course they still have lots of winter there as well!  Here are the pics.

On Our Way to Singapore

We are off to Singapore for a few weeks.  Taking the famous train trip to Anchorage tonight, then tomorrow we fly off via SF.  Hope the viz is clear when we go over the Harding ice field!


Whoops we got it wrong it is not along the Harding Ice field but along Spencer Glacier.  Anyway it was a neat trip.  United flight to SF was still lousy but we made it to Singapore with no real problems.  Met Yook Wah for lunch and just trying to beat the jet lag for today.

Heading to Fairbanks

We decided to take a long weekend near the solstice and head to Fairbanks.  Spent the first night in Talkeetna to catch up with Danny and Yvonne.  Weather is fantastic.  We left the pub last night at 02:00 and it looked like 18:00.  I think it got dark some time but I didn’t see it.  Off this morning for our furthest drive north so far.

Well we are back in Seward.  We attended the Summer Solstice Fair in downtown by the riverfront.  Went to North Pole, Alaska and saw Santa's House ate shopped and relaxed.  Had a great drive up there and back.  The weather was great up there but we did see the parking pedestals where you plug your car in during the winter to stop the block from freezing up so we know it gets cold there in the winter time.  We did find out that the International Ice Festival is on again next year, it was canceled this year.  So we are thinking pretty hard about attending it the first week of March.

Quick Update

There are a few missing posts.  Basically waiting to get some photos.  But they are of Mark's visits in Florida and his trip to Skagway.  Right now he is in Seward waiting on some permits for the barge to go back to work.  But we just had to share today.  It is the 25th of April and this morning there was so much snow on the dock it made it slippery for Pauline to get to work.  Then it started raining and by the time Mark got out most of the snow was gone (10:00 am) by noon we had hail.  Didn't we just tell you this is April 25.  Didn't Al Gore say that global warming was a problem?  Did he know what he was talking about?  Maybe we need to burn more fossil fuels so that global warming really happens!

In Seattle

Pauline flew into Seattle on Wednesday and Mark rolled in on Friday.  He has a few days off so we spent the weekend with our niece, Tayler, taking in the sights and eating, of course.

the Pig at Pike Place Market

Pike Fish Market

long line outside the dim sum restaurant

stuffed our faces with all these yummy dim sum

The Space Needle, view from our room

Back at Sea

Hey just to let everyone know Mark has taken a job on the Reece Eagle.  He is currently towing a barge from Dutch Harbor to Seattle. He is off Kodiak right now and got a chance to update the blog.

Back on the road again

Well I am a few posts behind.  My schools went well and I got to see most of the relatives.  Missed pictures of many but I will get the couple up I have soon.

Right now I am back on the road again.  Waiting for an airplane to take me to Dutch Harbor where I will join a tug to Seattle and back to Seward

Celestial and Ocean Navigation Course Complete

Mark passed his finals for the Celestial and Ocean Navigation course.  This is the US Coast Guard's hurdle that has to be met to swap the two hundred ton near coastal to full oceans and international.  This means he is now allowed to take vessels of up to two hundred gross tons internationally anywhere in the world.  He thinks the second test may have been the hardest test he has ever taken, it was certainly the longest.  Many other mariners say the same thing.  But though the 13 day course was hard work and both exams were in depth.  He really enjoyed the course, and hopes he gets to use it soon while the skills are fresh in his memory.

Everything is alright

Pauline was woken up just before 01:00 by the tsunami alert sirens.  An 8.2 magnitude quake happened just south of Kodiak.   The tsunami alert went all the way down to Southern California and Hawaii.  Mark was in Michigan so she had to deal with everything herself.  She quickly called the hotel to confirm the evacuation was in place and then headed to a friend's house to await the all clear. As many people know Seward was badly hit during the 1964 earthquake so no one in Alaska takes these things lightly.  Apparently volcanoes also erupted on the other side of the Pacific in Japan and the Philippines as well, so the ring of fire is active.

200 Tons

Mark passed his 200 ton course.  He is now heading to Green Cove Springs marina to see Isao-san Yamazaki who is arriving on his yacht King Bee from Japan.  Tomorrow he is flying up to Michigan to see the family for a couple of weeks.  Then on the 28th it is back to Jacksonville to take his Celestial course that will give him the full oceans endorsement.

Mark and Isao-san with King Bee just behind us