Author: Dave Ungless

Eight Fathom Bight Cabin

“Do we Brits need to carry a gun? It’s totally alien for us to be armed but the locals here in Hoonah say we are crazy. Not only can we not protect ourselves if we hang out down in Eight Fathom Bight but how have we managed to sail all the way from England without weapons. What about all the other remote bays we’ve anchored in? How do we feel safe? We reply that we’ve never encountered any situation when we’ve felt we’ve needed weapons… and we wouldn’t know how to use them anyhow.” Dave

The standup arguments we have are always friendly enough but most Americans we’ve encountered just don’t understand how we cannot contemplate carrying weapons onboard Sänna. Of course, such discussions are primarily with white, middle-Americans… the regular American guy, but here in Hoonah we’ve been taken to task by a few women too… not the local Tlingit people let me tell you but, well, you know, those more affluent type who somehow feel there’s a threat, the ones who need to carry at least small handgun in their glove compartment ‘just in case’…

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Grizzly Bears

“The general rule is, if it’s a black bear try to fight back but if it’s a brown bear then hit the ground and play dead. So, remember this if attacked by a bear… ‘Brown go down, black fight back’. Of course, the chances are that you won’t survive in either case but bears are rarely predatory, you’re in their territory and they see you as the threat. Which in most cases is true, in many instances bears are simply shot dead for being where they at the wrong time – as a wrongly perceived threat.” Bear Attacks of Canada

Henry has now joined us onboard Sänna whilst in Sitka and he’s so pleased to be finally out of school for the summer. Braden, our good friend from the fishing boat Icy Queen also stopped by in Sitka to stock us with fresh halibut and he told us the Coho salmon were now arriving in large numbers before heading up the creeks. So Henry and I fished with a fly reel off the head of the Baranoff River and caught ourselves a large Coho for dinner. The bears are gathering beside the creeks for their annual salmon feast so our exciting project can finally get underway…

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North

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“We thought our voyage north, back to Alaska, would be a cinch. A straightforward journey under sail along the Pacific west coast of Vancouver Island to Alaska’s Prince of Wales Island, taking us to the wonderful harbour of Sitka on remote Baranoff Island. The whole thing turned into a wild adventure we hadn’t reckoned with at all…” Dave.

Leaving Anacortes in Washington State after a fairly benign winter and a new engine transmission gear box meant saying goodbye to our good friends Tom and Donna. At first we couldn’t decide where to head but Alaska again toyed with our hearts – and we needed to be further north if our Northwest Passage plans were not to change for the second time. Being in the south, in the lower forty eight States wasn’t for us… the majority of boaters were of the more monied Seattle type with monster luxury motor cruisers that seem to be used only once in a while for, well, you know, sporty weekends and that sort of thing. No hardcore fishermen with their tough working boats here and not too many wild sailors around either…

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Finding Alaska

“Our good friend Ken onboard Island Rover said we’d need to penetrate the ice-flows calving from the John Hopkins Glacier if we wanted to somehow reach the huge Marjorie Glacier. He said it wouldn’t be easy. It wasn’t easy, but we did it, we did it by following the National Geographic vessel Sea Bird which cut a convenient path for us through the pack-ice. Once through this frozen barrier an incredible world opened up; we were all alone in this wild wilderness.”

Dave

We’ve produced a five minute video trailer of our sailing adventure from Hoonah on remote Chigacoff Island to the depths of Glacier Bay. We were joined by our best friend and step-brother Gary Cole who assisted in the filming of our amazing voyage… it’s a fascinating insight into wild Alaska.

Our full thirty minute long production will be released shortly. Please view our trailer for ‘FINDING ALASKA’… and please don’t forget to add your YouTube ‘Like’. You can also subscribe (free) to our newly launched SV Sänna YouTube Channel.

We have a series of video productions in the making, each detailing our liveaboard experience whilst in Alaska and British Columbia. These include ‘Bear Hunters of Alaska’, our planned filming this coming year of the extensive grizzly bear population on Chichagof Island and ‘Finding the Aleutians’, recording our anticipated voyage to the extremely remote Alaskan Aleutian Islands as we head north to the Arctics’ Northwest Passage.

We always appreciate your support!

Well, We Need To Eat Too!

“The invention of the wheel would have come to nothing if it wasn’t for man’s inherent instincts for advertising… to let those around him know that something’s up. And whoever first invented this most simple of devises wasn’t the genius either… it was the guy who thought to add style.” William Henry Hoover

Telling a story is in my blood and, like all story tellers, I don’t always let the facts get in the way of a good tale. Why would I? And we’re gonna have a good story to tell when we sail north from where we are now – easily as good as the one we’ve already told. We also think there’s going to be a deal of interest and we’re gearing up our website to take it…

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Holed and Sinking…

Sänna emergency haul out in Anacortes — Emergency Haul Out in Anacortes

“For the first few minutes both of us thought we were sinking. Marie quickly dug out the emergency grab-bag containing our personal possessions we’d need if we abandoned Sänna and we donned our life jackets. In somewhat of a panic, I checked our life raft and we were ready to go. Marie manned the VHF radio to call an emergency Mayday…” Dave

We’ve been dodging dead heads all year; huge waterlogged trees in the water that are partially submerged and incredibly difficult to see… especially in poor light or when the sun is ahead of the bows. Most of these sometimes enormous monsters originate from the endless forests that make up the shorelines of Alaska and British Columbia or they are washed down from numerous logging operations up river.

This collision just had to happen! Leaving Bedwell Harbour on South Pender Island in British Columbia and heading for Friday Harbour in the US, the wind suddenly rose out of nowhere as we crossed the Haro Straights. I quickly unfurled both the mainsail and the jib to get us under sail whilst Marie was still below, sending her slipping, sliding and cursing across the galley because I’d forgotten to tell her the sails were coming out! She was not best pleased and we lost breakfast! Then the wind kept rising and rising and we both realised we urgently needed to reef the sails as fast as we could. This whole situation was crazy! Then we struck the submerged dead head…

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Dear Deirdre

Can a Loving Relationship With My Volvo TAMD22P Still Work?

“I’m gonna let you into a secret. It’s been bothering me for a while now, so much that I desperately need to tell someone everything. I have to get this off my chest before things deteriorate so far there’s no going back, before I get to the emotional point of no return. I’m at the end of my tether right when I feel things can’t go much further. You see, I think my engine hates me.

These days we have an uneasy relationship and we’re not in love anymore, not like the old days when we’d lie next to each other and I’d lovingly take care of everything. I’ve tried, sometimes I’ve really tried to sort things between us but nothing seems to make any difference. Most days, when we’re alone, just the two of us, I can feel my engine watching me… there’s no real trust between us now and the physical side of our relationship is non existent. How can we re-build and sustain a relationship when things are so bad? And I must tell you, not so long ago, only a few months in fact, I spent good money trying to fix things but the fucking thing still smokes more than Chernobyl. And do you know something more? I know that, as soon as my back’s turned, my lecherous lump of green Swedish junk will hit on my wife. Dearest Deirdre, I desperately need you to tell me what to do?” Dave – British Columbia.

Dear Dave

I receive many letters like this. My heart goes out to you and to everyone else who has the misfortune to be in a relationship with a Volvo Penta. But physical love isn’t everything you know? Things can get better if you’re prepared to work hard…

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Barnacle Bob

Up and Coming Singer Songwriter Joins Crew

“Do you know Dave, I feel inspired to play and sing all my favourite sea shanties. This is the perfect occasion… and I don’t even feel seasick now I’m wearing one of these patches behind my tab. I’m gonna stick around, let my Scouser soul loose and give you everything I’ve got.” Bob Jones, Crossing the Straights of Georgia, British Columbia. September 2015.

My very good friend Bob joined Sänna here in Vancouver whilst Marie returned to England with Henry. We go back a long way do me and Bob – and I have to say we had a decidedly good time. Of course, being an accomplished musician he brought along his ukulele and his harmonica to add a marvellous musical atmosphere to our maritime buddy experience – all original material you can only listen to here if you have a mind to explore real live music in tune with the ocean wind. You can be among the first to preview the great ‘Barnacle Bob’ Jones in his traditional sea-shanty performing element…

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