Onwards to Petersburg

We departed Read Island this morning just before 0900 and made our way southward in Frederick Sound.  Our destination is Petersburg, about 23 miles away.   This shot is looking towards the east side of the channel, which is the mainland of Alaska and just at the ridgeline it becomes Canada.

For some reason our autopilot started wandering about 15 degrees off course without changing its heading readout.  Most peculiar.

With Brent's guidance, we looked at the data source of the autopilot's heading info and found it to be the autopilot itself.  I changed it to the SMX20, which is my Furuno satellite compass.

Too early to tell if that fixed anything, but I didn't experience the problem once I'd made this change.

This photo is of the autopilot data source configuration screen - how exciting!   Livin' on the edge!

Back to our regularly scheduled scenery...   Those high glaciers look like the Baird and Patterson glaciers.   All the glaciers in this area are on the mainland side of the channels.

Icebergs!  As we get closer to the LeConte Glacier these become more frequent.   LeConte is still 15 miles further south and up a 10-mile fjord.   These icebergs have travelled a lot of miles.

The Safe Water buoy at the north end of the Wrangell Narrows, which is where Petersburg is located.   See the sea lions on the base.

If you ever see a red/white vertical stripped buoy such as this it means that there is safe water all around. Safe Water buoys mark the entrance or exit from a navigable channel.

Everyone I have ever seen on the West Coast has come adorned with sea lions.   That must be another telltale that this is a Safe Water buoy...

Petersburg is a working commercial fishing town with a bit of tourism thrown in.   As such, commercial fishing boats and processing plants dominate the waterfront.

The seagulls know where the food is, and it is immediately down current from the fish processing plant.

When breaking in a brand new engine, the preferred mechanism is to do so by RPM.   Run at this RPM for so long, then change to this RPM, etc. and repeat.  I noticed last night that the tachometer wasn't registering, but I didn't have time to fool with it then.

This afternoon, Taylor & I opened-up the engine to make sure the NMEA2000 bus adapter cable was plugged in (that's the connector with the 4 yellow plugs and the blue & white wires.   It was plugged in.

Next, we tried to reprogram the Garmin display that shows the tach.   It took a while, but a brute force reset, a few swear words (I covered Taylor's ears to protect him), and mostly luck - we stumbled into the configuration screen.  Note, it isn't where the manual, ChatGPT, or the Garmin dealer said it could be found...

Anyway, that did it.   Now, we have a tach!

Dinner time.   Beef stew and Brunello!   What a classic combination!

Not a great Brunello, but I'll take it!   I'd picked this one up at the Juneau Costco last month.

Evening shot looking northeast from the back of the boat.   It is about 2100 (9:00pm).

This is Impulse, a Selene 53 owned by our newest Selene friend, Scott.  He has taken this boat between Mexico and Alaska 4 times.  Quite the experienced adventurer! 

Impulse is in the slip next to us (or vice-versa).

Game time.   We started with a spirited game of RummyKub (RummiCube, whatever).   Then Lizzy decided to teach us old dogs a new trick, so we played Kings in the Corner where Taylor proceeded to slaughter us.   Repeatedly.

Tomorrow is the big surprise day!   Stay tuned for tomorrow's blog to see what is in store for our boat of valiant adventurers as they brave the Alaskan waterways.   Or something like that.

2220 hours (10:20pm) and past my bedtime!

Good Night, My Friends.