OWNERSTORY - ALASKA
WHALES
AND WOLVES
An English couple is voyaging the world on a Bavaria Ocean
and has spent the last two years exploring Alaska.
An Elfin Cove full of hippies, at least so they say in Hoonah.
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An abandoned gold mine with an ancient spirit.
Whales and wolves, bears and otters. Glaciers, mountains,
dense woods – Alaska, it seems, has it all. And
then some more. However, it is not your typical yachting
destination as the weather, and the waters, can indeed become
quite outrageously angry. Tidal overfalls in the narrows along the
Inner Passage, sudden squalls thundering down the mountains,
chunks of ice floating around Glacier Bay. Not a sailing area for the
green, nor the anxious: “The Last Frontier”, it is also called. Those
who do venture here, and take upon them a long and not easy
journey, are, on the other hand, richly rewarded. This is what Marie
and Dave Ungless found, who spent two years in Alaska during
their ongoing, eastabout circumnavigation that started out quite
by chance.
“We bought our boat, a 15-metre Bavaria Ocean named Sänna,
one of the few with an aft cockpit, in Dubrovnik and then sailed
south from there,” explains Dave. After spending time in Greece,
Italy and Turkey, the winds favoured them to sail south for the
Suez Canal. Sailing down the Red Sea took six months, with
“desert anchorages, remote reefs and the indisputably friendly
Muslim culture,“ as the couple write on their weblog, which continues:
“An unplanned and lengthy winter anchor in Yemen, carrying
out sail repairs after a savage storm in the southern Red Sea,
meant we were then well prepared to cross the Indian Ocean to Sri
Lanka, leaving from Sallala, Oman in February 2008 after arriving
there from Aden in Yemen. Our two thousand mile voyage in the
north-east trade winds was our first long distance ocean crossing
and we came to realise that both our vessel and ourselves were
capable of sailing much further.“
And sail further they indeed did. After five months in Sri Lanka,
the trade winds were favourable for sailing across the Indian
Ocean, through the Andaman and Nicobar Islands to Malaysia
and Thailand. It was there that the two finally decided to carry on
and attempt an unusual circumnavigation eastwards against the
prevailing winds and currents. First, however, they spent two years
in South-East Asia. During this time, they also made a refit and
carried out further modifications to the boat.