We sailed out of Dutch at dawn and had beautiful conditions sailing over the Aleutian islands and while we encountered some strong currents moving South of the islands into the Pacific we made great time. Soon, however, a strong Easterly built up and we were battling upwind on our mission to reach Kodiak. The wind and waves continued to build and soon we were making little headway tacking back and forth in tall but short seas falling off each wave the boat banged and shuttered aggressively. The wind was meant to clock to the South but with every weather forecast we downloaded the wind shift was delayed.
It was dark and rough and we were only a few miles from a well protected bay so we navigated in the dark into the bay and dropped anchor for some rest until the weather clocked. The next morning the wind had intensified and shifted only slightly to the South. We dragged both anchors across the bay until we hooked again and re-evaluated our options.Serious weather was developing due East and we had only a small window to make it to a safe port either King Cove or Sand Point, Kodiak was no longer in the cards. We decided to head through a small passage inland so that we could hide from the wind behind the islands. We tacked our way up the coast to King Cove but decided to push further to Sand Point. All night we tacked up wind through the maze of islands until the next morning when the wind, waves and current essentially stopped us. Moving at a ridiculously slow speed we found shelter behind an island and dropped the sails and motored along its sheltered coast towards Sand Point.
We were now only 12 miles from Sand Point but moving from anywhere from 1.5 to 0.1 knots we battled the waves for hours until we reached the fishing port elated after an exhausting upwind leg. It took us 5 days to do what normally would take us just under 2 days. We were worn out and just as we tied up in the harbour the really bad weather moved in and we were pinned until the next weather window.
We are glad that you made it to Sand Point safely. Many years ago in September 1985 we went to a Chinese restaurant while waiting many, many weeks for weather to cross the Gulf of Alaska in a forty foot longline fishing vessel. After dinner the fortune cookies both said, “Get off your boat and travel on dry land.”
We did. The weather did not let up until late that winter. No regrets. We are now 61 years old and 56 years old respectively having fished in and around the Gulf of Alaska ever since. We wish you well and many thanks for sharing your trip with us on the internet. It is ok to wait, if necessary, a long time for decent weather. Today at noon (November 2, 2012) the surface weather map shows a 948 mb low in the Gulf of Alaska for those of you who don’t see those things. Hurricane Sandy that just hit New York apparently bottomed out at 946 mb. Good luck and safe travel to all of you on the Belzebub 2!