Final resting place for the winter. After this was taken, the arch came down, and she was "wrapped" in plastic.
Christy standing next to our baby, prior to the "wrap"
Our boat weighs 32,000 lbs. The hoist can carry 100,000!!
Getting centered in the slip was easy, with no winds..
Sitka harbor from the town
Cousin Gene..
Salty, the cat. You've never seen a more personable cat in your life. Christy wanted to steal her. She really did!
My cousin! We met and while talking, he remembered traveling to Alabama several times a a kid visiting his cousin. He name was Posey, my mother's maiden name. I've looked them up in the geneology book, and sure enough, we are distantly related. Small world, eh?
The Lucky Puppies, who were saved from a bear attack.
Salty and Christy...she runs loose on the boat and dock all day.
Dean and Diane, departing and heading south. They will fly to Pensacola this winter and we plan to hook up with them.
Last night before Dean and Diane head south.
Rare evening without cloud cover..
Sitka harbor
Well, after 5 months of dry land, I thought I'd update our situation. Christy and I spent 3 weeks in Sitka in early August 2008 getting Undoc'd ready for the winter. The damage to the dinghy in Icy Strait had to be fixed, among about a thousand other things. The Icy Strait thing.....don't ever try to make way east into a 30 kt easterly wind, with an east-bound flood tide!! Everyone tells you about the conflicts that arise when current and wind oppose, but this was outrageous! Since my back-up alternator was out, and the "rigged" attachment not comfortably secure, I was bound and determined to get to Hoonah under almost any circumstance. I should'a waited.
We have had much fun in Sitka, meeting many, many great people. I ever met a long lost, and distant cousin in the docks. We spent time with Chris and Art Capp (an AT41 like ours named Lucky Puppy), Dean and Diane Kreider (sailing liveabourds on Talisman) and Dick and Sharon Dreschler (Last Resort, a sailing vessel). Finally, we had Undoc'd hauled out at the Halibut Point Marina. We had her covered, as well, but had to lower the radar arch to do it.
Art and Chris have two Australian Shepherds who were attacked by a huge Grissly Bear, and survived. Quite a story there to tell, but Art saved them by approaching the bear (in the dinghy) while one of the dogs was in the mouth of the bear. The bear dropped the dog, and the other dog was swimming to him at the same time. Both needed a vet's care, but have fully recovered. That is one of the challenges of boating in the area with pets.
Church in town is a Russian Orthodox. We went once, and since Christy is Greek, she knew all of the cultural do's and dont's, but I didn't. I proceeded to sit on the "best" side away from Christy, and only after we left did Christy tell me that I was on the "girls" side. Oh well...
Winterizing and "pickeling" the water-maker, draining the Gen-set, getting coolant into the engines, the Heat-pump, all the water system, etc was quite the chore. In addition, we had to get fuel stablization fluids into the fuel tanks and the outboard tank. A million things to do. Now she sits there, with 4 heaters to "hopefully" keep the temperature above 32..
