Monday, November 19, 2007

Gulf of Alaska storm

In 1990 my husband, myself, our nephew, and our friend headed out on the beginning of a major sailing adventure. We left Whittier Alaska on a rainy June day to head out into the Gulf of Alaska. Once you clear the islands of Prince William Sound you are on a lee shore. In other words, the wind and currents move toward the land. We had what we thought was an open window of good weather to make our crossing which ususally takes a few days.

The 3 guys were taking turns standing watch while I had the job of food preparation and navigation. In those days we did not have a GPS but rather a Loran which was not easy to use.

This is what I wrote about the trip:

It was a dark, rainy and windy morning in June when the storm hit our 40 ft Passport sailboat about 72 miles west of Cape Spencer, the western entrance to Icy Strait and the protected waters of southeast Alaska. The weather report had announced a small craft advisory, but in reality, the wind was blowing a full gale force.

I was off-watch, sleeping, when we started going up and down the waves. The motion became intense as my body went up and the bunk went down before reversing the process and crashing together. We had stored the sewing machine under the my bunk, and I thought for sure it was going to come up through the plywood and foam mattress, and I would sink into the chasm it created.

Soon green water was breaking over the bow--some managing to get into the anchor locker, and due to the huge volume, into the cabin. The bed was soaked. I did not want to move. I only wanted the slamming to stop. Cupboard doors were flying open and shut like hungry mouths as we rocked and rolled along. The contents were flying every which way. Books slid off shelves into scrambled piles. With the skipper's encouragement, I tried to put them back. They would not stay! The whole inside of the boat looked like someone had turned on a mixer - a real mess! Chaos!

TO BE CONTINUED...