Maps

I like maps. It occurred to me that I haven't actually posted any. Briefly, these are the routes of my bike trips. The United States took a little under six months in 2012, and New Zealand was only five weeks in late 2014.

 

For the most part, the blue marks were places I found interesting or noteworthy. Even with the sparsity of markers between Sand Diego and Dallas, I did enjoy most of it. There just wasn't much out there.

  

The red marks are the places I would have liked to reach. I ran out of time and wasn't able to explore the bottom half of the South Island. That leaves something for next time.

Back in Alaska-small update

I made it home for Christmas in December. In mid January I was offered a job a City Hall and took it. It's nice to be back working. All the traveling drains the savings account pretty quick. I am already making plans to head out again. There is more of the ocean to be explored. Robert Service wrote a poem called "Wanderlust" and it comes to mind fairly often these days.

I am training for another marathon. The last one was pretty slow, so I am trying to scape off the extra hour that really shouldn't have been there. About eight weeks left. I ran 17 miles yesterday with a couple friends. My knees are showing their age plus a few years. I have a few more long runs and lots of shorter ones on my schedule over the next two months.

Nome Sunset January 2016

Spring hit Nome about a month early this year. The ice is rotten and is starting to break off. Almost all the snow is gone and dust covers everything. Warmer weather makes running quite a bit easier. I've dropped about five pounds of cold weather gear. Running in wind pants, several top layers, and a face mask is always challenging.

The Ozzy Novel

Alex and I ran the Melbourne marathon. It was my third and by far worst (that's what I get for hardly training) and Alex's 30-somethingith. Alex finished in about four and a half hours and I waddled in a bit after. The race ended in the Melbourne Cricket Ground (MCG.) I pretended I was a cricket player as I ran around the last few hundred meters of the race inside of the stadium. My usual knee pains didn't show up at at all, but a new hip injury decided to make itself known. The last 10 kilometers (6ish miles) was a combination of painful jogging, power-walking, slow limping, and sitting on the curb stretching body parts as the paramedics swooped in. They are good people ready to help anyone looking distressed. No assistance needed by me, but I'm sure I looked like I was dying. I had no problem with the heat or the sun. The race organizers handed out tiny bottles of high SPF sun block at the race exposition and one fit perfectly in the key pocket of my running shorts. Neck and ears protected.

After running the Melbourne Marathon 10 times a runner has the option to join the "Spartans." The Spartans wear various colored shirts indicating that they have run the race 10, 15, 20... times. There are currently nine runners who have completed all 38 marathons. They wear gold and are known as the Legends. Alex wears the blue of a 10-year runner. In another year or two he graduates to the green of a 15-year runner. I have nine races to go to wear the blue. In the meantime I have joined the Sydney Striders, a long distance running club. It was fun to cheer on and be cheered by people in matching singlets.

 

 After the race Alex and I drove back to Sydney via Eden, packed the boat, and waited for a weather window to head south. While waiting another year snuck up on me and Hilary (Alex's partner) made a German chocolate cake for me for my 28th birthday.

Once the weather was favorable, Alex and I sailed south on October 29th. It took two days and one night to sail the Might Miss Berri (www.berrimilla.com/wordpress) to Eden. It was an extremely mild 40 hours on board and we motored nearly the entire way. Wind picked up in the last 12 hours or so and made for a gentle sail into Eden at Twofold Bay. 

Wildlife: The only seals I have ever seen look like giant baked potatoes basking in the sun on the sea ice in Alaska. I don't know what type they were, but on the boat trip south a group of three or four seals followed behind and alongside the boat swimming like dolphins through the waves. It was incredible to see baked potatoes demonstrating their agility.

We moored in Eden for a few days and waited for another weather window to sprint south to Hobart in Tasmania. Good northerly winds are not regular in south-east Australia so we worked with what we could get. We left on a gray morning and motored directly into the wind and rolling swells for three hours before we decided to turn back and wait for more comfortable seas. The next afternoon we tried again. We motored directly into the wind for about four hours with very little ocean swell, so the ride was much smoother. Off of Green cape the wind change that we expected finally arrived and we were able to put up the sails and turn off the engine. Green cape mildly protrudes as a rocky point, visible and easily avoidable -when traveling from the north. When approaching from the coast line from the south, Green cape is a deep lip to a bowl known as Disaster Bay. Early square-rigger ships could only sail 90 degrees off the wind, while modern sailboats can sail at 45 degrees. So for a old ship to be following the coastline with the wind at at least a right angle, there are very few option for evasive action in when a massive coastline and an hooked point block any escape. There is a memorial grave yard with the names of ships and sailors in the National Park boarding the bay.

We sailed for a few more hours, all the while the seas building, the wind and waves coming at us straight from the east at 25+ knots, and me with a aching head from being pitched head-first into the window above the galley. No bruising, but very tender. Alex stayed on concussion watch for a few days after. With everything going wrong and the seas and winds getting stronger, we turned back again. It was a full 14 hour round trip and neither of us got any sleep. It was late and pouring rain when we got back to Eden. After that we gave up on the idea of Hobart. Another day or two of waiting and we caught the next southerly back to Sydney.

The trip north took two full days and nights. We did our best to avoid the southern-flowing East Australia Current, sailed on much rougher seas than the trip south, and stayed close to the coastline for favorable tides. Hugging the coast took more navigating. My first night watch on the way back involved passing between the coast and an island in the pitch black of a cloudy night. It was eerie. The electronic chart gave our currently location, but all I could see of any sign of land was the lighthouse of the island and a few house lights along the coast. I am discovering that it is nearly impossible to determine distance of a light in the dark. Light houses miles away look like half a mile. In daylight the three or four mile gap between the coast and island would have been of no concern. Not being able to see either forces trust on an electronic that has not been 100% reliable. The chart program runs on laptop in the cabin and the computer has been known to crash or take a nap on occasion. Not so good.

By the next day the sea swell was building and the wind was picking up. By mid day we had 20+ knots and swells that seemed impossibly big for so close to shore. Over the next 24 hours we changed sail size several times, went back and forth on the different auto pilots, and did some hand-steering. Alex estimated the biggest swells were between six and eight meters. Most were in the three to four meter range. The boat would drop to the trough of a wave and all I could see of the world around was a wave in front and wave behind. When we rose back to the top I could see breaking waves for miles around on all sides. Some of the breaking waves were a little scary. Berrimilla is a good boat and has been through some incredible weather. I know she can handle the waves, but the newbie Alaskan is always a little on edge. 25+ knot winds for the rest of the trip to Sydney. Off of Point Perpendicular the waves were steeper and choppier than most places, but that was short-lived. We passed by the South Head lighthouse around 7am on November 8th and we tied up to the dock just a few minutes before 8am.

The ground was rocking for the rest of the day. Another good night's sleep and we are back to cleaning out the boat and figuring out what to do and where to go next.

Moose and Fire and Bears. Oh, my.

Back in Alaska! Via airplane and not the expected route. I left Australia about 10 days before my visa ran out. With all paperwork in order, I have been approved to reenter in October! Another adventure is cuing in the wings. The ocean isn't going anywhere. We just need to work around her moods.

This morning a thought crossed my mind. "I wonder how many people carry bear spray to get to their own front door." Lately I have been sharing the path to my cabin on the hill with several sets of moose. There is one adult cow with a very small calf, a full-antlered bull, and a young cow. At this time of year the mother with the calf is most dangerous, although I really would not want to surprise or be surprised by any of them. My neighbor two doors down warned me that the black bears are out and roaming the hillside as well. Bears. They are the reason most people in the area are devoid of compost piles. I have yet to have a bear sighting on my hillside. I hope the presence of moose mean that their predators are not in the area.

I left my hillside cabin last September and had no idea I would be gone until June. The paths were almost completely over-grown and the elderberry bushes grew to above the roof line. I spend the better part of the day digging my cabin out of the foliage. When I left I had no electricity, water, or much of a kitchen. I still don't have electricity or water, but the kitchen is coming together. It is relatively easy to get by without electricity when it is light 24 hours a day and I haul in water a few liters at a time and add it to a big water jug as I need it. I like food, so the kitchenette has been patched together pretty quickly. Up until about a week ago I had been using a one-burner Coleman stove for cooking. I was cooking (outside) when one of the gaskets failed and spewed gas. It immediately caught fire and the whole thing, including cooking pot and my dinner went up in flames. Because the stove had been acting funny for the past few days I kept the extinguisher close by whenever the stove was on. Now I have white powder all over my deck, woodpile, stairs, yard, and front door. The extinguisher was one of the first things I bought when I got back from Oz. Within a few days of buying it I went back to buy a second. Best $25 I've ever spent.

No Go. Something Else Go. Here We Go.

The big trip has been canceled. The plan was to sail from Sydney up to Dutch Harbor, Alaska, to Nome, then through the Northwest Passage. We would have wintered over in Falmouth, UK, then sailed back to Sydney via the Atlantic and Indian Oceans. Weather has foiled all. A big storm hit Sydney on the day of our would-be departure, the northern hemisphere trade winds are blowing in the wrong direction, and the Aleutian Low (permanent low pressure system off the Aleutian islands) is nasty and looks like it isn't going anywhere. I'm predicting lots of rain for southern AK this summer. A few more minor weather points included means the trip is a No-Go.
Alex and I are doing what we can and taking a trip up the Australian east coast and around the area over the next few weeks. We also made good use of Sydney's "Storm of the Century" by going out to play in the waves.

We will both still be writing to the Berri Blog while on board.

Lurline Bay, waves break over South Coogee. Photo: Peter Rae /Sydney Morning Herald

Merry Ol' Land of Oz

I am back in Sydney, Oz; land of the sulfur-crested cockatoo and P. Sherman 42 Wallaby Way. The general idea of this trip is to click my heels together and say, "There's no place like Nome, there's no place like Nome..." But instead of magic shoes and a cairn terrier, I have a worn-out pair of Xtra Tuffs and a skipper with a cat who bites.

The Berrimilla2, a Brolga33 sailboat is sitting at her usual mooring in Rushcutters bay. She has been emptied and for the most part, cleaned. Before long she will be refilled, hopefully with some semblance of organization, and ready for travel. The entire voyage is still weather dependent. Until we are on the water and sailing north we tread carefully and hope not to infuriate Neptune.

On to the Next

It has been a few months in planning and  it is not officially a go until the sails are set. Which is entirely in the literal sense. I fly to Australia in late March with the tentative, but incredibly optimistic plan to board a sailboat and try my hand at seafaring. The sailboat is the Berrimilla2 of Sydney, Australia, owned and skippered by Alex Whitworth. I have known Alex for several years and spent a bit of time on the Berri with him while in Oz back in December and January. I don't remember exactly who came up with the idea, but the plans are now coming together and my lists are gradually being checked off. I will post more as the details unfurl. Alex's blog is on the Berrimilla website. While on board we will both be posting to the Berri Blog: http://berrimilla.com/wordpress/category/latestposts/