Through Hell and High Water

So after 4 days here in Kodiak (the longest I’ve been in one place since being home) we found out yesterday that after all the harbor master’s bs-ing they actually don’t have a spot for us to keep the boat for the winter. That means like it or not we have to push on. The plan is to leave early tomorrow morning (Saturday) and probably make for Seward, or may go for Yakutat Bay. Seward is the next potential port where we could haul out and keep the boat for the winter. They have a large storage yard good marina facilities and there is bus service to Anchorage. Unfortunately they are undergoing some flood problems right now so we haven’t been able to get in touch with the harbor master. If we don’t stop there and go for Yakutat, we’ll be playing with fire so to speak but in reality wind and water because we have a little less than a 48 hr window of clear weather in between ugly looking low pressure systems and Yakutat is about 2 and a half days away… If you go to passageweather.com and click through the map to get to the Gulf of Alaska you can see what we’re dealing with up here. The litte arrows on the map are the wind speed, each little barb is 10 kts, and the color is also related to wind speed. At this point, especially after spending 4 and now 5 days here in Kodiak, we’re all pretty tired and are struggling to get back in to sailing mode. Once you stop somewhere, let yourself relax, and start thinking about ending the trip and going home it’s really tough to shake it off and go again. Kodiak has been cool and really fun but unfortunately we have no choice and tomorrow we dive in to the 20 ft seas and hopefully mild 20-25 kt instead of 40-45 kt winds of the Gulf of Alaska as we try to push on and find a place for Nordwind to call home for the winter.