Spring is here. The humpbacks and the hummingbirds have arrived. Fredrik and I are within days of sailing off on our second summer of adventures with our Salish Voyager, Wild Places.
“Here are a few photos of recent highlights from Baranof Bay, as well as some slight modifications we made to the boat for summer number two. We will keep you posted as the season unfolds.”
— Fredrik & Nancy
Click to see full size photos with captions!
(If you’ve missed Fredrik and Nancy’s previous posts of their journey last summer with their Salish Voyager in Alaska, you can find all of them here under the tag Wild Places.)
The original design for our fishing pole holder was created by our neighbor Kirby who has a Jersey Skiff. We modified it to fit the Salish Voyager. It keeps our fishing gear both accessible and out of the way.
Catching a 70 pound halibut from the Salish Voyager is less intimidating than hooking into a giant halibut from a kayak, but it was still plenty exciting. This one was caught on a hand line. We decided to row it to shore to land it, as having a live halibut this size aboard could seriously injure us.
On April 11th, the Rufus Hummingbirds arrived. We are now surrounded constantly by dozens of the little buzzers.
The middle two weeks of April brought sunny days, cold nights, and some amazing spring skiing to Baranof Bay. Conditions were calm enough that we could anchor offshore while we played.
We packed away the skis and put the sail back on the boat. Steady day breezes made for some fun practice sailing in the bay.
We have gotten questions about what to do with the oars while sailing. We keep them in the oarlocks. This spring, we added some simple bungie cords to secure the oars while sailing and when leaving her at anchor.
Last summer our lower hatch leaked quite a bit–not a surprise for a large floor hatch in a place where it can rain four inches a day. This year we added a self adhering gasket from a marine supply store. We also lubricated the small rubber gasket on the tighteners and used dry suit zipper wax on the threads. The result is a nearly dry hatch!
We really like the slightly larger pry-out deckplates that Gig Harbor Boat Works customized our boat with. We finally found the perfect hatch opener for them, an old fashioned bottle opener.
Fredrik installed a solar panel for charging camera batteries on the mast arch of “Wild Places.”