Pacific NW Summertime!

Thanks for the kudos on the blog so far! Several folks have asked what Erica and I have been up to since our Alaska kayak trip this past August... the short answer is finally being present in our own backyard! We taken a few spontaneous island trips for sunset picnics, including this one to Whidbey Island, WA:

Just the right vintage... which is any vintage with Mt. Rainier in the background...

t -14 seconds

t = 0 seconds

set begets rise.

The next morning gave way to five-star local blueberry and gluten free pancakes from the Knead & Feed (see Logistics below for more info!) in Coupeville, WA and an amazing view of Mt. Baker over Saratoga Passage:  

Labor Day Weekend we made a mad dash to the OR coast in search of cool paddle boarding spots for Erica and wind/waves for me. Here are a few highlights:

OR Coast Classic

Surfing with the giants.

I got to play too... in fact all three days from 2:00 - 5:30 pm when the Manzanita northwesterly fan turned on and I jumped for joy... 

Not all weekends can be spent on the OR coast (though how I long they could be during weekends like last)... but back at our hometown beach in Edmonds, WA this past weekend the first Fall SWerly winds came in ...

Closer than it looks...

and though the sunbreaks barely broke the wind came through with 17-22 knts and pumping up the 15m was worth it! Good things do come to those who wait...

Further than it looks... 

Hopefully we get a few more sunny days for play... this weekend if all goes according to plan we are headed to Clark Island by kayak... let us know if you want to come along!

In health and play,
Ryan and Erica


Logistics & Lessons Learned:

Whidbey Island, WA:
Best gluten-free blueberry pancakes:
Knead & Feed Bakery, Coupeville, WA
www.kneadandfeed.com

Best sunset:
Ebey's Landing

Best old growth trees meets beach experience:
South Whidbey State Park 

Lodging:
Camping is possible all over Whidbey, including South Whidbey, Fort Casey, Fort Ebey and Deception Pass State Parks, but make camping reservations at least 3-6 months in advance. All first come first serve campgrounds are switching to reservation only in 2013! 

We also like the Fort Casey Inn for a reasonable price, great location and running water:
http://www.fortcaseyinn.com/

OR Coast:

Best lunch:

Bread & Ocean, Manzanita, OR
http://breadandocean.com/

Best beach:

Everywhere

Best paddleboarding:

The standing wave at the mouth of the Newhalem River and then down river to the boat ramp in Wheeler.

Lodging:

Camping options are few and far between in this section of the OR coast. The best bet is Newhalem Bay State Park. Make camping reservations at least 1-3 months in advance. 

We also like the Spondrift Inn in downtown Manzanita for <$150/night rooms with kitchenettes that are 1.5 blocks from the beach! 
http://www.spindrift-inn.com/

This past trip we stayed down in Rockaway Beach, which is 20 minutes south of a trendier scene but we had a spotless ocean front room in the Tradewinds Motel at the last minute with fast wireless internet and a Duraflame log in the fireplace that got replaced every day! 
http://www.tradewinds-motel.com/

Prince William Sound, Alaska July-August 2012

For those of you who may not know- Erica and I love the sun. We chase the sun, and worship it when it shines. We complain (a lot) when the sun is not shining. And so, when we decided to head to Anchorage, Alaska for a Native Health & Wellness conference, I was a little surprised when Erica suggested we begin the trip with a few days of kayaking in Prince William Sound- about 1.5 hours outside of Anchorage.  Yet the odds of sun were in our favor, it is the beginning of August after all...

Our adventure started soon after our 1:30 AM arrival in Anchorage (raining and 54 degrees) when we found our "hotel"- The Inlet Inn- the cheapest option on Orbitz for good reason! We entered a room with a broken window open below to a street filled with chain smokers; moist, fuzzy carpet; visible mold on the box spring; and a green, stained cotton blanket on the bed. We could not lock the door. Eventually, we expired from exhaustion into a rigid sleep, hoping to wake without acquiring some previously undocumented infectious disease.

At first light (raining and 48 degrees) we provision, buy stove fuel (See Logistics & Lessons Learned at the end of this post for more details.), and are en route to our destination- Whittier, AK- in time to make the 11:30 tunnel, which is no joke.  My earthquake anxiety kicked in full throttle until I read the helpful safety flyer... I learned there is a station every 400 feet that includes a fire extinguisher, a fire alarm, and an emergency phone, and even better, every 1600 feet there is a "safe house" that is ventilated to the outside. These details are important and reassuring when you consider the tunnel passes through a ridge within the Chugach range for 2.5 miles as one lane traffic with bare rock overhead:

15 minutes later we are in the thriving metropolis of Whittier, AK at 60 degrees N. latitude. 

We arrived at the Prince William Sound Kayak Center to retrieve our kayak, and were happily surprised by an incredibly well organized outfitter equipped with a roof(!), hot coffee and the bright orange, rubberized rain gear one needs to maintain relative comfort while kayaking in Alaska in the summer!

 Our destination, Blackstone Glacier, is 20 miles one way from Whittier by boat (in the rain) and so we decided to take a water taxi to the 15 mile point on Williard Island so we can paddle to the glacier and then out over the next 2.5 days. 

(Erica affectionately referred to these suits as our "Umpalumpa Suits", although I could not get her to sing the song...)

We beach on Willard Island, dump our boat and gear, set up our requisite British Columbia-inspired blue tarp (...nothing but blue skies...)   and then, believe it our not, decided to go for a paddle...

...to prepare for paddling I have on over 12 separate articles of clothing...(Patagonia capilene t-shirt; Ibex hooded, long-sleeve wool shirt; Patagonia Puffball vest; Patagonia long-sleeve medium weight fleece jacket; Ibex wool tights; nylon pants; rubberized bib pants; paddle jacket; wool socks; rubber boots; wool hat; and a water-proof safari hat). Here is Erica showing off this season's finest:

... and although we were in Alaska, and we knew we intended to paddle to a glacier, the icebergs still came as a shocker!

Back safely to camp, we settle in for a delicious, though damp, meal of Asian-style beef and mustard green stew... mmm, beef...

And there was no sun- just a dim, grey light, constant rain and now 48 degrees ... on July 30. What were we thinking? ...but we had blue skies at our campsite... even if it was from the BC blue nylon... 

The next morning we started to understand why people live here. We woke from our travel and bed-bug-induced exhaustion, rolled out of the tent and ... couldn't believe our eyes!

The grey fog and 200 yards of visibility from the day before had given way to bluebird skies (no tarp!), and seven (yes 7) visible glaciers from our beach campsite!

Talk about bi-polar, this place is up and down, and today it is paradise! Glassy water, 60 degrees, radiant sun, waterfalls in every direction, and calving glaciers making the only sounds:

 After a quick morning bath... 

...we once again mounted our trusty steed and headed out for a full day on the water. Our plan was to paddle about 15 miles back to Blackstone Glacier, complete a circumnavigation of Williard Island, and head back toward Whittier with the goal of coming around Decision Point in case of high easterly winds the next day. Here are some highlights:

We shared our experience with seals, otter, and various sea birds, including this one that flew around us in circles until it perched on our stern:

And the winds did come... the next morning we woke to 47 degrees, 20+ knots (25kt g) of easterly winds, with wind waves up to 3 feet. Clearly Erica was excited:

We had about an 8 mile paddle back to Whittier, and there was nothing to do but gear up, put our heads down, and go. Fortunately, once we off the shore and rounded the corner out of the cove, the wind was to our backs and we were able to surf the flooding current and wind waves all the way back to Whittier:

Once back in Whittier, we shared a shot of well-deserved Jack Daniels to warm our innards and filled ourselves with hot, heavily peroxidated polyunsaturated fatty acids and glycated carbs (known in some parts as "fish and chips"), we were off back down the road to Anchorage... 

... and within 2 hours we were sitting in a Starbucks again, G3ed, drinking Americanos- wishing we were back in the rain with the otters! 

Erica says she is done with Alaska. That was it. Check, off the list. Not me. 3.5 hours from Seattle, and 1.5 hours from Anchorage is a sea kayaker's wonderland. Prince William Sound has less current than the San Juan Islands in Washington, is a heck of a lot closer than the Lofoten Islands of Norway, and has glaciers crashing into the sea right off your deck! All you need is a full-body rubber suit, a blue tarp, and enough fire in your belly to keep going!

In health and play- Ryan & Erica 

Logistics & Lessons Learned:

Lodging:
Pay the extra $20 for a recognizable brand hotel/motel in Anchorage. Avoid the Inlet Inn.

Gear we took with us:

blue tarp, 100' 8m nylon rope, 2-prs. tent, 2 sleeping bags (we went down and double-bagged in garbage bags and a dry bag), stove, cook kit, thermarest pads, first aid kit, 4-5 dry bags, garbage bags (light and effective), paddle jackets, many wool layers, books, head lamps, VHF radio, strobe light, & paddle gloves)

Food/provisioning:

Provision in Anchorage. Don't count on provisioning in Whittier- there may be a grocery store but we didn't find it, and you won't find compatible stove fuel.  Go to Car's (really a Safeway), which has a surprisingly good selection of fresh food and healthy options. 

For gear, fuel etc.: 

Anchorage Mountaineering opens at 9:00 AM (REI not until 10:00 AM) and sells any required gear and stove fuel.

Sea kayak outfitter:

Prince William Sound Kayak Center : (907) 472-2452
http://www.pwskayakcenter.com/

This group was so highly functional there is no reason to go elsewhere. They have free, hot coffee; rent all fiberglass boats, rubberized rain gear and rubber boots; sell charts; and have lots of local knowledge on camping spots throughout PWS. Besides, it is one of the only places that you can pull your car out of the rain to  re-pack from suitcases to dry bags after getting off a 1:30 AM flight!

Water taxi charters:

Epic Charters: (907) 276-7226

Nice guys. Steep rates (though standard for the area), but they give 40% off on shared rides, and if you charter a pick up, you get met with a cooler filled with ice cold Alaskan Amber!

St. Vincent-St. Maarten 2011

There are many ways we could start the story of our December 2011 sailing trip in the Caribbean – each provides a very different lens: 

The patches of bougainvillea coloring the lush spires of the Pitons of Saint Lucia leave no question about the source of inspiration for Gauguin’s palette in his impressionist paintings of neighboring Martinique… 

The sun shone down through 30 feet of clear turquoise water leaving shimmering rays of light and shadow that momentarily hid the silhouette of the sting ray as she nestled into the sandy bottom below…

A legitimate question. We don't know where to find fresh fish and we are willing to pay...

This season’s sail from the Grenadines along most of the Lesser Antilles chain to Sint Maartin was all of the above and countless more intensely colored moments that are still jockeying in my memory for their position as the “snapshot” of our 9 days on the 49’ monohull Miss Boucan II (Miss Boucan I, which we sailed 2 years ago, apparently sank, but we were left to speculate on the details).  

Miss Boucan II (second from the right)

This trip fell solidly in the adventure genre, not the leisure cruise, and a fairly intensive sailing lesson was gained indeed. Our stated goal (aside from soaking up as much sun and saltwater as our pale Seattle bodies could tolerate) was to end this trip with some confidence in rigging and moving our floating home using not much more than the power of the wind.  

In doing so, we covered over 300 miles, 7 countries/colonies, 12 different islands, and something close to 50 hours under sail. St Vincent, Canouan, Tabago Cay, Mayreau, Bequia, St Lucia, Martinique, Guadalupe, Pigeon Island, St Barths, Il Fouchet, and St Martin/Maartin. 

Of course we were not entirely alone while under sail.  We shared the sea with porpoises on several occasions – once treated to the show of their playful leaps and spins, turtles, flying fish that travel hundreds of feet before diving back into the sea (sometimes to be snatched up by a bird tailing right behind like a plane with its target locked in its sightlines). 

Most amazingly, a whale surfaced mere feet from the stern! No kidding!  She crossed under the boat and continued shallow breeches along her perpendicular course completely unphased by the presence of the fiberglass creature that we were. 

Can you see the whale?

We snorkeled in many places, seeing dozens if not hundreds of unique species of coral and fish.  The reefs seem to be healthy and perhaps returning as there were regions with fairly young colonies of coral rich in diversity and color; staghorns, brain coral, sea plume, and many others waved gently in the current and hid the myriad crustaceans, snails/shells, fish, and anemones that live within the coral.

On land, we experienced an entirely different diversity of color and species of the human variety.  While we visited 7 different countries/colonies, we only spent a few hours ashore at each.  These ranged from the rough and authentic sand-floored bar in Salt Whistle Bay in Mayreau to the rows of mega-yachts (that’s the technical term) harbored in St Barths.  

Mayreau, The Grenadines

Mayreau, The Grenadines

St Barts = MEGA yachts

In many of the bays in which we moored, entrepreneurial locals would come out in their brightly painted motorboats or kayaks to offer us fresh fish, help with the mooring balls, to take away our trash, or any number of other services.  In general, these fellows were friendly and casual, some remembering Noah from previous moorings and some others a little too high-pressure sales for our style- 

so we started offering to sell them fruit and fish!   

Entrepreneurial locals

Yet some of them offered merchandise no sane person could refuse: we purchased 3 live lobsters one evening that provided a dinner feast we prepared on the boat and an amazing lobster frittata the next morning (kudos to Ryan for waking early to crack the claws and make this incredible breakfast!)  

Lobster frittata

Another evening, we purchased fresh baguettes that were delivered by boat the next morning still warm! Gotta love the French!

St. Barts = French

The best parts of sailing are the simple details- like that the computers never left the suitcase. 

Or that you have nothing better to do than take pictures of life preservers.

Or take an impromptu shower.

Or that we saw both sunrise and sunset (willingly!) many, many days in a row. 

We are inspired and want to share the experience of connecting with nature through playing on the sea. 

We have planned a wellness-at-sea sailing retreat next winter and we want to invite others (you!) to share in the vitalizing, invigorating, inspiring experience we just cannot get enough of.  Of course, this trip will all about comfort, relaxation and time for yoga on the beach!  

You should come with us!