Moving Day

Arctic Fjord in her new home at the Alaska Fish House Marina

Moving a boat that has been in its stall for 5 or more years is a little nerve wracking, even after running the engines and checking everything twice. Plus it was blowing a stiff 25-30 knots from the southeast. Greg and Pat waited for a lull in the gale, threw off the lines and held their breaths as they pulled out of the Bar Harbor dock past one of Ketchikan's beautiful yachts, Sum-Dum ( fondly remembered for the crew having brought me an icepack and a beer, many years ago, when I broke my nose on the Punchbowl trail in the Misty Fjords), which was berthed next door.  For once, everything went to plan and the Arctic Fjord turned out of Bar Harbor and chuffed happily down the Tongass Narrows towards Thomas Basin where she was tied up for the night with a big thank you to Pat for crewing on our maiden journey.

How do you get a 58x13 boat though a 20 foot gap? Very carefully and with a lot of help from our friends. We had some practice at getting things through the gap (seen above) when we pulled our dock through last December but the Arctic Fjord is longer and has propellers to worry about. We had a 16.9 foot high tide which gave us plenty of water in the gap but also lots of current both from the tide and the Ketchikan Creek. With a big crew of friends standing by to help, Greg drove the Arctic fjord bow first into the gap and up against the fenders that he had tied into place. Lines were thrown to the helpers on the dock and they muscled the boat around and into position. Big Thanks to Chuck, Micah, Pat, Bill, Lars and Dale for their much appreciated help. We think that she looks good in her new home and you can now check out the Arctic Fjord anytime on Ketchikan Web Cam number 6 at  http://www.alaskafishhousewebcam.com/.