Arctic Solo Sail

July 15, 2012

Tim and Tommy, henceforth known as “T-N-T”, are off to see
the world again, again.  Four months of intense
work on AVANTI to prepare and today is the day of departure.  Alaska
is the destination, adventure is the goal, and to sail pristine uncrowded
waters the reason, not the only reason but reason enough.

The journey really started a year ago when Tim Roberts,
sail.  Little did he know that’s all it
would take to set this trip in motion. 
“Come help me work on AVANTI and I’ll teach you everything I know about
sailing,”  I tells him.  “That should take about 20 minutes, then
we’ll go sailing to somewhere cool.”   Of
course, he thinks by cool I mean really fun and tropical but what I meant was
some place about 55 degrees or lower, oh, and rainy too.  To my amazement , when he finds out I want to
sail to Alaska and that the 20 minutes wasn’t how long we would work on the
boat but how long it would take to teach all I know about sailing, and a three
month trip would take at least four months work on the boat, he came anyway.

On the 15^th of April, AVANTI was hauled from the
dry yard to the ship yard after 2 years slumber in the log dust of the Port
Angeles water front to begin a bottom to top
overhaul.  Battle
scars from past encounters with harder than water objects in the un-deeps of
the Pacific Northwest were repaired.  She got new black bottom paint with a red
boot-top, then the top sides were painted a rich ivory and the gingerbread on
the bow and name board on the stern were coated in new varnished.  A month was gone. 

In the water again, no leaky-no sinky, and the wonderful
little engine starts right away, then the real works begin.  Varnish, decks re-caulked, lots of sanding
and lots of cleaning.   Tim took great
care with the decks and the bright work, while I started work on a hard
dodger.  Now a hard dodger is not to be
confused with a soft dodger which AVANTI proudly wore for 12 years.  Going north we wanted a Hard Dodger!  In my mind I’m thinking over and over about
gales, williwaws, rain, lots of rain as I screw and glue, screw and glue.  But in the end, the Hard Dodger looks as
though it is a part of the vessel and feels solidly anchored to the cabin top.

It wasn’t all work.  I
took a break to go to California
to watch the “Ring Of Fire” eclipse and then another day to take 200 + pictures
of the Transit of Venus across the face of the sun.  Tim went fishing and to Singapore
and to Arkansas.  Then came today and at 1055,  we sailed from the Port Angeles Boat Haven
north.