Crossing the Gulf of Alaska

This is not the first time we crossed the Gulf of Alaska.  The last time was 4 years ago, when we went from Homer to Seward.  The Gulf is known for nasty weather but if you time it well and find a good weather window, it is a piece of cake crossing.

Well, we found a perfect window!  Very light winds and no opposing seas.  The only problem is that we could not sail very much, even though we had most of our sails up.

Mark remarked once that he had not seen the Gulf so placid but then again, the times he crossed the Gulf were during the winter season.

We left Sheep Bay in the Sound on Thursday and got into Pelican in Lisianski Inlet on Sunday.

The trip over was not too eventful.  We did discover we have bad fuel or bad fuel filters.  We were trying to fill up our day tank when it stopped filling.  We saw that the Racor filter was dirty and changed that and were able to do a couple of fills before the transfer pump shut down again.  We found another dirty filter but unfortunately the spares that we thought we had did not fit.  Long story short, we made do without the filter and were able to fill up the day tank.

We encountered lots of wildlife.  Plenty of sea birds, Dall Porpoises, a pod of Orcas that swam really close to the boat and a couple of sperm whales feeding of a fishing boat’s long line.

We had sunny days and apart from the first night when it got really foggy and wet, the other nights were bearably warm.

So, all in all, we had a good Gulf crossing.