We stowed the dock lines for the first time in over a year! Today we left Kodiak(town) and motor sailed the east side of Kodiak Island for a well protected anchorage in McDonald’s Lagoon. The winds were better yesterday, Thursday, but shortly after a 7 am departure we found ourselves turning around because our radar wouldn’t connect to our chartplotter and our wind instrument wouldn’t display wind speed. As technically we left on a Thursday for our big voyage we do not believe the old superstition “Never start a voyage on a Friday” apply’s to us.
Today was beautiful and chilly. We left a frosty dock at 6 am and we could see our breath. Light began to color the sky around 9 am and the higher the sun rose the more our enclosed cockpit steadily warmed, so only a light jacket was needed. In addition, our furnace vent to the cockpit also helped (More to come on our furnace install at a later date). Our solar was loving the sun and Wade made good use by spoiling Sara with a pot roast, cabbage, carrots, and potatoes in the electric pressure cooker.
The chart shows tide rips around Ugak Island and to our good fortune the direction of the Ebb was 244° so we had a sweet current with us getting the boat speed up to 6.8 and 7 knots motor sailing.
Entering McDonald’s Lagoon was a little spooky for our first anchorage, for not only was the surface water slushy with ice, but we were concerned the chart only showed a shallow entrance. We were told by locals we’d have no troubles. Sure enough the channel to get in the lagoon was 30 feet deep at low tide. However, before entering the channel the shallowest we saw on the northwest side of the entrance was 11 feet. We could see bottom just as the sun was setting, so we felt confidant we could back out if more shallow water came up on us quickly.
We are so happy to be back out on the water again together. We are looking forward to exploring more of Kodiak. There are a lot of fisher folk out on the water as crab season just started January 15th.
“Where did you go for your honeymoon?” We cannot wait to reply…”McDonald’s!” Bahahahahahahahaha!
Cheers,
Wade and Sara
McDonald’s Lagoon Anchorage Mud Bottom (No VHF Weather) 57$deg; 09.867N, 153° 03.535W SSB did not work due to COM port failure
