Reconnecting

Thursday evening. Calm and 35 degrees.

It’s been a week since we arrived here in Sitka. As it worked out, we got here just as the weather turned nasty. The mooring we got was oriented roughly northeast-southwest and about 3/8 mile across open water to the breakwater. This proved to be a very uncomfortable situation as the storm winds and waves had a westerly component that rolled right through the openings in the breakwater and caught us broadside, slamming us against the dock. Sixty hours was spent checking mooring lines and fenders and sleeping little. To make matters worse, the boat tied ahead of us was occupied by a fellow named Bob who fancied himself an expert at tying up vessels. About midday on Thursday he knocked on the boat and demanded that I move further away from his boat. He was afraid my anchor was going to poke a hole in the skiff tied vertically to the stern of his boat. I didn’t really think it would as it was at least 3 feet away, but in the interests of harbor harmony I decided to humor him. He offered to help me and I took him up on it. This turned out to be a mistake as he was very drunk. After two hours of jockeying the Blue Note around in 20-30 knots of wind and 2-3 foot seas we ended up about 5 feet behind him. He was happy however, so the harmony was preserved. The mooring line and fender checking proved to be essential as we ended up collapsing three fenders and denting the topsides in two places. That night, a 28 foot Bayliner broke loose and ended up on the rocks.

I had called the harbormaster two days prior to our arrival, hoping for a slip assignment. I was told I would be put on the waiting list as there was nothing available except the transient float. I called again on Thursday morning to let them know I was here and to ask again about a slip. Same answer. Monday morning I decided to go talk to them face to face. I’m glad I did. After 20 minutes of sweet talking I now have a slip assigned to me. It will be more expensive than the transient mooring but it is considerably more sheltered AND it gets me away from drunk Bob.

On Saturday I ran into a fellow I had met in Valdez who was working on one of the seine boats on A float. He had just finished working as a diver here. We got to talking and it turned out we had several friends in the diving industry in common including a guy I had originally met in Santa Barbara over 35 years ago. After getting back to the boat I looked up the guy in the phone book. He’s listed! I haven’t gotten around to calling him yet.

This Sunday I am going in to the Larkspur Café. I’ve been told by three people now that there is a jam session every Sunday afternoon. I had intended to do it last Sunday but after Skyping with Jill I totally forgot to. My initial foray will be to see and hear what the scene is like. If I think I can add something I’ll take my toys in the next time.

The pic is an aerial view of the Sitka harbors. Eliason Harbor is in the upper left. The diagram is that of Eliason Harbor showing where we were and where we are.

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