Harmon and Randall's Voyage…

Leg 2

Blog 1

June 30, 2024

A super sweet HELLO! to all my friends, family and readers. It’s been a spell since my last post in the North Pacific some 700 or so miles south of Kodiak Island. Last we spoke in October ‘23, we let poor Mōli get caught in a gale with wind up to 65 knots and up to 35 foot swell – there have been worse. Our 300 foot sea drogue did it’s best to slow our course reversal, but sometime during the dark early hours of the morning, of course on my watch, some sort of maritime monstrosity (wave) rolled right on/past/through/over us from behind (we were pooped!). I didn’t realize we were knocked down sideways even though water poured in from strange angles through sealed doors and dorade boxes. 

While our initial estimate of damage was minimal, much of our electrical equipment began to falter almost immediately including our auto-pilot system and my computer. We limped into Kodiak to make preliminary repairs but found that the auto-pilot system was beyond fixing at that point, and I could find no computer on the island that would allow me to update or continue the blog – so that was the end of the story for that leg. We fixed what we could on Kodiak and hobbled to Homer where I stayed for almost a week and Randall stayed on significantly longer as he put Mōli on the hard and decommissioned her for the winter.

I returned home and went about my life for the next eight months (seeing many of you!) while Randall practically became a citizen of Homer returning two times for more than one month each to prepare Mōli for our next leg.

I arrived in Homer on June 25 from a wedding celebration in Edinburgh and walked on to a Mōli that was ship shape and ready to attempt the Northwest Passage. I will detail the immense amount of work it took to make her ready to sail in a later post, but suffice to say it was extensive, expensive, exhaustive and complete. Thank you Randall!

On the morning of June 27, we slipped lines in Homer and said goodby to the mainland. We sailed/motor-sailed back to Kodiak after having spent a peaceful and restful night in Big Bay on Shuyak Island. Our objective in Kodiak was to retrieve an engine part. It felt good to be back in Kodiak. Homer has the feel of a lovely suburb on the edge of the frontier, while Kodiak places you squarely in the frontier complete with the remoteness a distant Island filled with inordinately large brown bears.

Thank you for being patient with me as I re-grasp the technicalities of our new blog. Lots of pic’s and videos to follow.

Harmon

Saying goodby to myself as we slip lines from Homer on June 27th.

Randall raising the brand new main as we leave the harbor.

She took six months from order to arrival in Homer – but dang glad to have her up!

Outside of the one bar that we did not go into on Kodiak!

Randall checking the temperature of the transmission fluid – no hotter than 190F PLEASE!

Too many fishing boats in the harbor in Kodiak. The salmon season is late and the prices paid for all fish including Salmon, Cod and Pollock are way down. Many fishermen in this area have opted to not go out this season. Very sad. Worse news is that most of the Kodiak canneries (fish processing plants) are slated to close at the end of this season due to lack of supply. Our Kodiak guide and friend Ani reports that the Russians are flooding the market with unsustainably caught Salmon from the Kamchatka region (among others) which puts downward pressure on the prices of all fish. And the fish that is caught locally is minimally processed here and then shipped to China for finishing and packaging and then returned to us for consumption. Yikes.

Dropping anchor in the magnificent Anton Larsen Bay (outside of Kodiak) while a friendly Bald Eagle checks us out.

After spending a calm but foggy and drizzly night in the bay, we begin our exit in rather shallow water.

Longtime Anton Larsen Bay residents (accessible only by boat) Midge and Bruce maintain a magical compound on the bay that I had the privilege to visit last year. Built mostly by Midge, Bruce and friends it is off the grid with green house and vegetable garden and the most spectacular workshop I have ever seen. Bruce stayed the winter (the main residence is up the hill not visible in this photo). They report that the sea otters have contributed to the decimation of mollusks and crustaceans in the bay (also a problem anywhere the otter has been allowed to flourish). Overfishing and water temperature increases have also contributed. They used to be able to get King crab, Dungeness crab and an abundance of clams right in the bay. And the bird population has decreased significantly but we can’t blame the otters on that one!