Our alarm went off at 3:30 am. By 4:00 am we were pulling up the anchor. At 4:05 am Wade was rushing back to the cockpit, stating we lost power to the anchor windless. He went into the cabin to check the breaker switches, on his way and back to the anchor windless he grabbed the emergency anchor bar to manually raise the anchor. Sara informed him as he was going back on deck the power to the vessel was still good as the instruments were still on. By 4:15 am we were underway. Sunrise is around 9 am, so in the dark we left Wide Bay. We only saw one fishing boat on AIS anchored outside of Wide Bay (wish we knew about that anchorage 57° 18.260’N, 156° 18.008W), but we had endured the 25 to 30 knot gusting winds Wide Bay had to offer and we were out of there. As excepted and predicted outside of Wide Bay there was no wind, haha. We don’t want this voyage to end. We’ve had a spectacular summer, but it seems more and more frequently stuff keeps breaking. On our last over night sail the port running light stopped working. We now are cruising with our starboard running light, anchor light, and an inflatable solar red light that Sara clipped onto port life line, at least until we repair the contacts in the light.
I, Sara, feel very blessed to be so lucky to have such a wonderful husband that not only doesn’t freak out when situations arise and generally just knows how to fix stuff. Underway Wade started troubleshooting the issue. He started with the incoming power and traced it forward until noticing that the ground wire of the windlass had corroded off where it joined the heavy feed wire of the boat. The wires must have gotten hot enough to melt a small hole in a plastic bag laying against the wire, the bag holding some camping gear. We felt blessed today to have faced such adversities and everything turned out wonderful.
Tonight we set a new record and anchored in 119 feet, if we subtract 11 feet because we anchored almost exactly at high tide then we still are anchoring in 109 feet a new record for us. Our voyage back to Kodiak is narrowing to an end, but for one last little adventure we wanted to make one more stop. Two years ago we visited Geographic Harbor known for its bear viewing and epic scenery. This time we decided to travel deeper into the Alaska Peninsula and anchor in Hidden Harbor because we heard from our set-net friends that it was pretty amazing and another friend said they saw a moose. From Wide Bay to Hidden Harbor is 92 nautical miles. This means we needed to average at least 6 knots to make it before sunset. We averaged six and a quarter knots, which put our anchor down just in time to enjoy some bear viewing and sunset. There are four rivers that dump into the Hidden Harbor and we saw three bears in two of the rivers. We’re anchored in the center of the harbor so we have clear view at each river. We can’t wait to see what morning brings.
Cheers,
Sara and Wade
Anchored 109′ Sand Hidden Harbor 58° 11.981’N, 154° 29.470W
No VHF Weather Signal, N/A SSB Signal for Weather Radiofax, Returned to using repaired Iridium Go for Weather Gribs
To find where Wade, Sara, and SV Just Drifting, type or copy/paste these coordinates 58.19968333,-154.49116667 into Google Maps!
