Peeling and fleshing the Caribou took until 2 am, so we were exhausted! Bluefox Bay Atka is open to the Bearing Sea so swell kept rocking us back and forth through the night. We woke late this morning to sunshine and calm water and we moved anchorages. The 48 hour surface analysis weather reports show two low pressure systems are merging and we should expect gale force winds. We don’t anticipate winds over 30 – 35 knots, but often when NOAA predicts 30 it turns out more like gusts to 40 or 45 knots.
Our normal process for anchoring is to drop the anchor, pay out a 3 or 5 to 1 scope (depending on depth), then put our main engine in reverse until we reach 3000 rpm’s, and we watch a point onshore to make sure we are not dragging backwards. Backing down on the anchor like this has really helps to prevent us from dragging anchor. Also in cases like now we have a really good idea of how the boat will sit in high winds when the chain is tight.
As Wade began to back down on the anchor the dinghy painter line came loose, fell into the water, and got caught in the propeller. We heard a short grinding pop of a sound and instantly Wade put the engine into neutral. We just looked at each other trying to guess what the noise could be, we were worried we hit an uncharted rock or backed into a submerged log, when Sara asked where the dinghy painter was tied. Sure enough Wade looked at the dinghy hanging from the rear arch and the painter attached to the boat was tight and the painter attached to the dinghy was loose. We lowered the dingy and pulled up the painter attached to the dinghy but the painter attached to the boat was caught in propeller. Poor Wade looked a little discouraged thinking he was about to go swimming in 49.1 degree water to remove the line from the prop, when he got a really good idea. Sara stood on the swim platform and with all of her might pulled up on the line while Wade quickly put the engine into forward gear and back to neutral. Thankfully the line slowly fed out from the propeller by running it in an opposite direction, so no swim call today. This is especially nice because not 30 minutes after we were anchored came the 15 to 20 knot winds and rain.
We had heard from friends the Caribou fur is loose and tends to shed. Last night we laid the hide out to dry and the plan was to lace it today and start stretching it as it dry’s; however, today we started to notice tuffs of fur separating from the membrane. As it has been less than 24 hours we knew the hide is not rotting. Maybe it has something to do with late summer time Caribou? We’re not sure. We’ll have to learn more later. Losing the fur is a bit of a bummer because it is so soft, but not a total loss because Sara will start preparing the hide for buckskin by putting it in a bucket of water and lye. The lye will swell the hide so the fur is easy to remove. We did this with our deer from last winter and we were able to preserve the hide very well. We’ll decide later on if we want to brain or bark tan. Bark tanning is a lot less work 🙂 but we’re keeping the brains just in case.
Tucked into our anchorage we’ve continued to process the Caribou. Wade did the butchering in the cockpit and Sara did the vacuum packing and canning; it may be another late night. We tasted a couple pieces of loin by pan frying them in a little butter with salt and pepper; we could not believe how yummy it tasted, no game taste at all, sort of like a really tender grass fed filet. We’ve decide to skip making sausages and jerky’s, and we are entirely freezing and canning. There are talks of hunting again, lol.
Cheers,
Wade and Sara
Kovurof Bay Anchorage 60 feet Sand 52° 04.697’N, 174° 55.243W
No VHF Weather Signal, Great SSB Signal, We have sent the Iridium No Go off for repairs
To find where Wade, Sara, and SV Just Drifting were at noon, type these coordinates 52.07828333,-174.9205 into Google Maps!
