Iridium Go has become more like an Iridium “No Go” lately. We hung around King Cove a little this morning trying to get our Iridium Go data connection fixed, to no avail. We’re still using our Single Side Band (SSB) to get weather grib files and send Noon Reports and it is working great.
The wind was light but just barely the right direction for us to motor-sail. We made such good time we arrived two hours early, something we are not used to with our recent extent of motoring. We hung outside the Isanotski Straight fishing while waiting for slack tide. When the time was proper for to enter False Pass we stayed in the center of the channel according to our charts and took caution around Whirl Point, but overall the US Coast Pilot 9 instructions were more intimidating than what we actually experienced. The aft end of the boat felt a little squirrelly at times and we also did have a couple of knots of current with us, so we would advise waiting for slack tide.
Upon approaching the False Pass cannery we were greeted by a pod of Dall Porpoises, which swam in front of our bow as we made our approach to the city marina. The marina was empty so we had our choice of mooring slips. After getting docked we learned that we would wake to a full marina as all of the fishing vessels were returning.
Sara went to greet our neighbors as soon as they were tied up to get the 411 on Japanese fishing glass balls. But we had a special surprise! Our neighboring boat is one of Alaska’s sweethearts, Emma, who is one of the two Salmon Sisters! The Salmon Sisters actually designed the very boots Sara was wearing so she had to get a picture, haha.
The winds for the next few days are predicted such that we are going to have perhaps four days in the False Pass area. We look forward to exploring this area, maybe finding glass balls in the shoreline and maybe netting some salmon.
Cheers,
Wade and Sara
False Pass Marina Moored 54° 51.966’N, 163° 24.528W No VHF Weather Signal, Great SSB Signal, No Data Iridium Go connection
To find where are Wade, Sara, and SV Just Drifting, copy and paste these coordinates 54.8661,-163.4088 into Google Maps!
