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June 21, 2009 – Gulf of Alaska, 54 32N 160 55W
by Herb McCormick
(June 21) The first day of summer is here, and what a beauty. The summer solstice, for those readers in the Northern Hemisphere, has arrived, and with it, the longest day of the year. Aboard Ocean Watch, it’s quite hard to believe there will be another day in the history of civilization, past or future, longer than yesterday, but who are we to scoff at the calendar?
And another observation: I’d hate to see what the winter solstice looks like in these parts.
Anyway, it’s downright summery here off the Aleutian Islands: Since we’re making negligible headway southward in staunch headwinds and seas, we’ve tacked inshore to make a run through something called Unimak Pass, the opposite side of which will put us in the Bering Sea. Assuming we get there: Skipper Mark Schrader is checking current tables at the moment, and right now the rips at the pass are coursing eastward at five knots. We, naturally, are going westward. But it’s better than the 7-knots of foul current an hour ago.
In other upbeat, related news, last night the temperatures and barometer both toppled harder than the housing market, with the sea and sky plunging into the 40s (Fahrenheit) and the glass tumbling steeper than my 401k, finally bottoming out around 998 (the barometer, that is). There is no mistaking the Aleutians for French Polynesia.
But, hey, it’s summer!
And there is reason to rejoice. The summer solstice is also the day of the “Summer Sailstice,” and from one side of the U.S. to the other, and in other bays, harbors and rivers around the world, sailors in boats ranging from modest dinghies to Grand Prix racers are hoisting sail to celebrate the occasion.
The Sailstice is the brainchild of John Arndt, a Northern California sailor who runs the advertising side of the business at Latitude 38 magazine. Last fall, while the Ocean Watch crew was roaming the aisles of a boat show in Annapolis, Maryland, we ran into John, and like so many others who’ve come to our assistance, he asked what he might do to help out.
John launched the Sailstice in June of 2001 as a grass-roots affair on San Francisco Bay. The idea was to get more sailors and boat-owners out on the water enjoying their boats. In the intervening years, the annual event has caught fire, with participation from sailors in all fifty states, and twenty different nations. Literally thousands of boats, and tens of thousands of sailors, have set sail in honor of the Summer Sailstice. Participants who sign up and register their sailing plans on the Sailstice website (www.summersailstice.com) are eligible for all sorts of prizes.
Each year, John takes the entire program one step farther by backing environmental causes in support of the oceans, and this year he’s chosen the Around the Americas expedition. So as we close in on what surely appears to be a rather imposing group of hardscrabble isles, sailors of all stripes to the south-and we sincerely hope you’re well south of Ocean Watch-have pledged to raise or donate a dollar for each mile they’ve sailed to our cause.
“The goal is to make it like a walkathon,” said John. “It’s an opportunity for sailors, who are already environmentally conscious, to give something back to their playground.”
To say that we are honored by the gesture and support of those who’ve generously decided to back our project would be a mammoth understatement. Thank you. We can report with certainty that there are no other Sailstice sailors in our immediate vicinity, though we did sail through a vast pod of spouting pilot whales very early this morning-the sea was a wet, blue field of geysers, which was far and away the singular highlight of our last two days. We wish everyone, everywhere, a perfect day of fair winds and following seas.
And wouldn’t you know it, as I’ve been writing the sun has peeped out and a quick glance at the barometer shows it’s on the rise, as well. Perhaps summer is coming to the Gulf of Alaska after all.
- Herb McCormick with photographs by David Thoreson
This crew log submitted by Iridium OpenPort and Stratos
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