Here is a map snippet of the 52 nm route:
At over 50 nm it was to be a relatively long day for us, and I wanted to be in the marina early enough in the day to get fuel and to have someone still be in the office. That meant we had to have an early departure.
We pulled out a little before 6 AM.
The mornings this time of year are still a little cool, and there is no heat on the fly bridge, so today I ended up wearing my goose down vest for a few hours until it started to warm up a bit.
On the way the Alaska state ferry Malaspina passed us.
They were probably headed to Ketchikan.
We had favorable currents most of the way so we were making good time, until the tide turned and the currents were then against us.
Once we got to Queen Charlotte Strait the waters were very calm, smooth running, which we like.
We arrived at the QuarterDeck Marina in Port Hardy at about 1:15 PM.
We took on some fuel before moving over to the guest dock.
Here is a link to their website:
QuarterDeck Marina
430 nm to this point - finally over halfway home!
We stayed here one night on the south bound trip last summer and enjoyed it.
They have a nice facility and Lisa was able to take a taxi to a nice grocery store to replenish our supplies.
I may have mentioned previously that one of the aspects of last year's trip that made it less enjoyable than it could have been was the issue of getting accurate and timely weather forecasts, most especially for Queen Charlotte Sound and for Dixon Entrance, the two open ocean crossings that are required.
I took a couple of steps in order to address this issue.
First Bank graciously gave me a new Iridium Extreme satellite phone as a retirement gift.
I purchased an Iridium Axcess Point WiFi device that is designed to integrate with the sat phone.
Plan A was to use this arrangement to download what are known as GRIB files which contain weather data.
From Wikipedia:
GRIB (GRIdded Binary or General Regularly-distributed Information in Binary form) is a concise data format commonly used in meteorology to store historical and forecast weather data. It is standardized by the World Meteorological Organization's Commission for Basic Systems, known under number GRIB FM 92-IX, described in WMO Manual on Codes No.306. Currently there are three versions of GRIB. Version 0 was used to a limited extent by projects such as TOGA, and is no longer in operational use. The first edition (current sub-version is 2) is used operationally worldwide by most meteorological centers, for Numerical Weather Prediction output (NWP). A newer generation has been introduced, known as GRIB second edition, and data is slowly changing over to this format. Some of the second-generation GRIB are used for derived product distributed in Eumetcast of Meteosat Second Generation. Another example is the NAM (North American Mesoscale) model.
GRIB files can then be overlaid onto my Coastal Explorer navigational charts thus giving me the up to date detailed weather information that I needed.
Or so that was the theory.
Once I started on the task of actually making it work I ran into difficulties.
I was indeed able to download GRIB files via the sat phone, but they just didn't provide the level of detail that I needed when applied to the Coastal Explorer charts.
So then we came to Plan B, which was to acquire the services of a professional weather router.
A "weather router" is a person, or a company, that specializes in providing detailed weather information for cruising boats at any location all over the world. In most cases weather routers are used for long off shore ocean crossings, such as crossing the Atlantic. But they are service providers and if you are willing to pay the fees, they will provide the service.
I researched them and quickly came up with Ocean-Pro Weather & Routing:
Robert
Cook, Weather Router
Ocean-Pro
Weather & Routing
Website: www.ocean-pro.com
Naples,
FL: 239-775-7435
Cell
Phone: 239-877-4094
Skype
name: captcookusa
I made initial contact with him very early in the process.
I was required to fill out a long survey which provided him the information he needed about the boat and its speed and capabilities, the crew and their capabilities, the location of the intended voyage, and all the contact information that we would need in order to facilitate communications between us.
I had been keeping Bob updated each night as to our location by way of the Spot Messenger.
He was on the recipient list, so each night when I fired it up to report our position, he was then informed of where we were.
We also stayed in touch via e-mails, which I could pull in whenever we had WiFi service, or via the sat phone e-mail when we were out of regular Internet services.
So now was Bob's time to shine.
My question to him was, "When is the best time for us to make the Queen Charlotte Sound crossing, and make it in such a way that it is enjoyable, and not just survivable?"
His response was that the very next day would be fine for us to cross.
So that was the plan then.
Here are some photos we took from around the marina.
This boat was moored near us on the guest float.
Note the horsepower - 300 HP times 3!
Also, you can't see it from the photo, but these are joystick controlled engines.
That means they all turn independently under computer control, which allows the boat to skid sideways, or hold position, all under one hand joystick control, and with no bow or stern thrusters.
There was a young Japanese couple on board, and the young woman was out on the back deck when we walked by. I commented "That's a lot of horse power," to which she replied "Not working."
We discovered over time that she spoke only a little English, and her husband apparently spoke none.
A mechanic came by and worked on the engines and later on they were both all smiles as he left, so I assumed that now they were working.
Another beautifully appointed Ranger Tug.
 |
| Faraway on the guest float |
 |
| Beautiful sunset in the harbor |
Trusting in Bob Cook's weather forecasting abilities allowed me to get some sleep this night, rather than worrying all night about getting a pounding the next day as we crossed Queen Charlotte Sound.
No comments:
Post a Comment