Star Bound Alaskan Adventures
7-4-09
From Kodiak- around Kodiak Island to wide bay and then back to anchorage. Arrived Back in Anchorage on June 11th at 11:15 AM
The last update was when we were still in Kodiak. This update is the rest of the paving the way trip. Since Leaving Kodiak and until we got back to anchorage we were without any internet service and was not able to update anything. Had we actully had internet access it would have been very difficult to update thing simply because the days were so long and exhausting it was For this I appologize. The next time I will have a Web master on staff that I will be updating Via Sat Phone and the updates will be consistent and regular. Just one of the many lesson learned on this trip.
When we left Kodiak and headed to Old harbor, 85 miles or so. The water was brutal rough and the going was tough for about 50 miles. When we reached about half way down the island around the Missile defense rocket launch site the water started to calm down and the riding became bearable. The closer that we got to Old harbor we started getting into more of protected type water and the going smoothed out some. But since we were staying with the film boat we didn't really make any better time but it was a nice break from all of the beating we had been taking. About 20 miles or so from Old Harbor we encountered a bunch of whales that started blowing all over the place, I personally counted over 50 blows within 30 minutes. It was amazing. Everywhere we would look we would see a blow and then on a few occasions we would see a nice shot of a Tail come up out of the water and dip down. I am no whale expert but was told that they could have been Humpbacks and Grays. It was nice to just sit still for a break relaxing and having all of the whales around us. While we were taking the Break, Petr dropped his line down and caught a nice halibut for us to have dinner. That was the second Halibut that Petr Caught on this trip. I will have to try and round up a picture of that when I get on my other computer.
After watching the whales for while Gina, couldn't stand it and need to go to the Bbathroom and she told us she was going on to Old harbor with or without us, So Gina, Ron, Ralph and Petr took off at full speed (around 50 MPH) and headed to Old Harbor . I decided to stay with the boat because if there was nice country along the way I wanted to be able to film it with a PWC in the footage.
About 2 hours after the others got to Old Harbor My self and the film crew arrived, it was raining in Old harbor. The rest of the crew had already secured us a place to stay with the Ocean View Lodge so it made it easy for the film crew and me to just grab our gear and get settled in.
I should mention that when we left Kodiak we picked up Brad Z with the Kodiak Mirror and he rode with the film crew and every day that we were on Kodiak Island the Wet Dog Race Ambassadors Dominated the Newspaper. Front page and 2 - 3 articles through out.
The next morning we took off for Alitak and Akihok. During the time that we were making contacts for places to stay, we could not get find any contacts for this area so we had no idea where we would stay or what we would find. While at old harbor local residents suggested that we try the Cannery that was located in Lazy Bay in the Alitak Bay .
The water was calm for the most part, 3 foot seas and 25 mph winds and then after we left the protected portion of the water we got out into the gulf of Alaska and the seas picked up to about 5 foot. The going was slow until we got near the south end of Kodiak When we arrived at the cannery we were greeted by the General Manager of Ocean Beauty Seafood's Woody K. Woody welcomed us to their little home away from home and offered us all a room in their Bunkhouses and hot meal after his crew had finished eating. We actually had arrived at Alitak at the right time. It was the last day of the herring season and they had just unloaded the last boat and were processing the load of herring so we got to see how the operation worked. It was very interesting to say the least.
The next morning the water was nice and the forecast was for winds 10 knts and seas 2 feet. Which in the ocean, this is the type of water that dreams are made of. We took off with the intention that we would head to Larsen Bay . But when we got just outside of Alitak Bay the water was like a mirror. I called the team together and asked what they thought about taking off across the shelikof straits and heading straight to Chignik. The team all thought that it was a good idea. I called the support boat on the radio and had them stop and caught up to him and told him that we wanted to head straight to Chignik. The captain told me that he did not have enough fuel to get to Chignik and that he needed to go to Larsen Bay to fuel. In hindsite I wish had told him to go back to Alitak and take on fuel and that we had crossed from there to Chignik. We could have avoided a massive storm if we had crossed at this point. He also said that Brad with the Kodiak Mirror and Arron with my Film crew had already made flight arrangements from Larsen bay. So we agreed to head on up Larsen Bay . The water stayed somewhat calm for most of the day and it was about 3 to 4 foot seas at the worst. But the country along the inside coast of Kodiak islandis Breathtaking to say the least. We arrived in Larsen Bay around 4:00pm to a big crowd cheering to us and then the tribal president Mary Nelson came to the docks and welcomed us to there village. Her and her husband Bill helped up unload our gear and then they made arrangements for us to eat dinner at the Icicle Seafood's Cannery. Then Mary made arrangements for us to stay in the clinic housing since no one was using it. Later on that night Bill and Mary took us for a tour of Larsen Bay and the drove us around and showed us the New Hydro Power plant that they had just put online that day just before we arrived. They have a water pipe around 6" coming from the top of a mountain lake dropping down about one thousand feet and feeding a 500,000 watt Generator. If something happens and they run out of water or have to shut down the Hydro plant, they switch to a diesel generator. Everyone there was so nice that we met and they were so excited that Larsen Bay was included in our trip and that they really want to be a part of the race when it comes together.
After our tour and a nice dinner at the cannery we went back to the clinic housing and tried to get some sleep. Early morning came quickly but we wanted to take off as soon as possible to try and take advantage of the good weather.
At this point Brad with the Kodiak Mirror Newspaper had to leave and then Arron Kinser, one of my film crew had an emergency back at his company and he had to fly out and go take care of business. This left us only Scott Hough on our film crew.
Forecast was for 30 MPH winds and 15 foot Seas in the evening for the south end of the Shelikoff Straits. It didn't sound all that good but we were hoping to beat the bad weather and make it to Chignik. Up to this point we had already been delayed due to Mechanical Break downs and Gale Force winds in the Barren Islands and we were all anxious to try and make up lost time. Since leaving Kodiak all of our crafts had been doing well. And we had been keeping to our schedule for the most part. So we took off. As we left the protection of Larsen Bay and ventured into the Straits again the water looked like it was going to be smooth sailing. In the middle of the Straits about 2 hours after leaving Larsen Bay we were treated with a Pod of Porpoises that came up and started running in our boat wake. This was about the third time we had them come up and run with us for a ways. After about 4 hours the water started getting to be about 4-5 foot seas and the wind was starting to pick up. After 5 hours of riding we had gone close to 80 miles and the water was starting to get 6-8 foot seas. I called the boat captain and told him to plot a course for Wide Bay . It is a location that I have considered placing a fuel barge and I needed to investigate it. Plus I was hoping that we could find cover out of the wind and take a break. The Captain called back and said that we were 18 miles from there. By now the water was getting bigger and the going was slower. It took me half a tank of fuel to go those 18 miles and over and hour to get there. When we pulled into Wide bay we found some flat water areas on the south side of Terrace Island on the inside of the wide bay. Petr wanted to take a break and build a fire and warm up so he went to the shore and made a nice fire. There was plenty of drift wood on the beach but it was rocky and there was not any cover to speak of. They Wind was blowing even harder by now. While all five of the ambassadors were on the island warming up we decided that we should go ahead and set up Camp and stay the night here. So we broke out our tents and started to prepare for staying that night.
The team decided that where the first location where the fire was made was not a good place to set up camp because nothing was level and it was solid rock. Personally I was fine there. I didn't need anything fancy, there was a good fire going and it was starting to rain some. I was set up next to a big rock that was about 6 feet long and 5 feet high and at the time if I crouched down behind it, it would block the wind. I was happy enough. I never bothered getting out my tent at this point. I just got out my space blanket and made a lean to. Then I gathered up some flat chunks of driftwood and made a bed and nested down where I was. The rest of the team moved south down the beach to a more of flat location that had some grass and (soft) area. While they were setting up their tents I went around and was gathering up drift wood to keep my fire going.
The film boat at this time had dropped anchor about 100 yards out from the shore. I noticed numerous camera flashs from inside the cabin of the boat like Scott was trying to take pictures through the window. I thought to my self, "now that's silly. There is no way that picture is going to come out flashing through the window like that." Then I went back to what we were doing and never thought anymore about it.
Camp got set up and the team finally was able to get another fire going at their location. They ate their Dehydrated meals and I continued to comb the beach gathering up drift wood. I would get a big pile of drift wood, stoke up the fire, and then lie down in my little nest and take a catnap. Every 30 minutes or so I would get back up and re-stoke the fire and gather more wood. I did this all night long, I was not about to let the fire go out and i kept it burning all night long.
I know that out there a fire is the one thing that will keep you alive and once you have a fire going, it is better not to let it go out. You might not be able to get another fire going.
By the time morning broke the wind had increased 2 fold. The day before when it was about 30 mph, now the wind was blowing around 50 to 60 MPH and it had shifted direction and it was blowing straight from the water up the cliff that we were camped below. There was not any place to get cover from the wind. The wind was blowing so hard that the camera boat could not stay anchored in place and it drug anchor and they were about 500 yard away from us.
The team got up and I told them that we needed find cover. ON the GPS it showed that there were supposed to be some Cabins on the west side of wide bay so we decided to break camp and go find the cabins. After breaking camp and loading our PWC up. We drove out to where the Camera boat was and told them what we were planning on doing. I also asked Scott why he was taking pictures through the window with his flash.
He just laughed. "Dude, I was trying to get your attention so you all would turn on your radios. While you all were setting up camp there was a HUGE bear watching and walking along on top of the cliff above you and we were just trying to warn you all".
WOW... We were shocked. We had no idea. Who would have thought on this little island in the middle of the ocean it would have had bears on it? There can't be anything on there for them to eat.... except maybe some PWC riders. ;o)
So we headed out to find cover in wide bay looking for those cabins that were showing on our GPS on the west side of the bay. I should note here that the wind is blowing to the west from the east and the closer we get to the west shore, the worse the water was getting. Wide Bay seemed like it was only about 3 miles wide. When we got to the west shore, we could not find any cabins at all. Besides that, the waves by now are white capping and breaking around 10 feet high in the bay and there was not any place to get out of the rough water much less just anchor there. It only made sense at this point to get to the mainland on the east side of the bay and on the mainland. This should provide us some protection because the wind is coming out of the Straits on the east side through the group of islands and blowing west. We were hoping that we could find an area on the leading edge of the wind behind the Mainland and that it would block the wind for us.
To go 5 miles in Wide bay the waves were so big and it was so rough it took over half a tank of fuel and over 2 hours to go that short distance. It was one breaking wave after another that were 6- 15 feet high in the bay it's self. After we reached the east side mainland portion of bay it was as we had hope, the water calmed down and it was flat enough that we were able beach our crafts and find a decent place to camp. The tide was on its way out so for the next 10 hours or so, we didn't have any issues with our boats. They went dry and the set up camp. While we were setting up Camp we heard a Bear Snort/bark like the do when they don't know what you are. We never seen the bear but we did hear it the one time. After the tide started coming back in the waves starting throwing our crafts around and we were going to try and anchor them out in the water but that was a futile effort so we ran them out into the water and then turned and ran back to the shore and ran them up on the beach above high tide mark. That is where they stayed while we stayed camped out.
We managed to get another fire going mostly because it was not raining at this point but it was still windy. It would blow a constant 30- 40 and then at times it would gust up to and estimated of 60 plus. We could be lying in the tent and suddenly the roof of the tent would be pushed down on our face and held there for a few moments and after the gust would slack up, the tent would pop back up. This wind did not have a prevailing direction. It was more of swirling all the time. We all gathered wood and had a nice pile ready to go but the wind would blow so hard through the fire that it acted like a furnace and it could literally burn a big log down to nothing in very short order. Trying to keep a fire going turned out to be full time and tiring ordeal. I suggested to the others that we needed to have a fire watch and take shifts keeping the fire going. But no one wanted to stay up and keep the fire going so they all voted against me. They said just let the fire go out and rebuild it in the morning.
Well I was not about argue with them and I was too tired to deal with the fire myself. I knew though that the next day it was going to be harder trying to get a fire going because it was starting to rain now and it would be next to impossible to try and get it going again in the wind and rain.
When we left originally I had with me a small 2.5 gallon Propane bottle that I carried. This was not my first rodeo and I know what its like to camp in this environment and when you want heat and you want it now, Propane is the way to go. Regardless of the how much weight it is, it needs to be high on the priority list as far as I am concerned.
So the fire went out, we all crawled into our tent, and I broke out my propane heater and I was nice and toasty through out the second night. The Wwind continued to blow through out the night as hard if not harder and then the torrential Rain came. It felt like the rain was falling from the ground up.
i woke up half way through the night and there was about 2 gallons of water in the bottom of my tent. i was on a slight side hill with my head facing up hill. My feet were sitting in the water. (Of course i am still wearing my rubber boots and sleeping in my dry suit.) I got out my bailing bucket and bailed out the water. And drifted back to sleep. Never could figure out how the water was getting in my tent but in the Morning there was another bunch of water.
Early next Morning, everyone got up and started trying to build a fire, By now the wind was blowing super hard, all of the wood was soaked. I took my hand saw and cut down several small dead birch trees. Even then it was near impossible to get the fire going. It took over 6 hours finally get this fire going. By now we are all exhausted and ready for the storm to be over so we can move on. We decided to get back in our tents and stay there hoping that we could get a break from the weather.
That night I rationed my propane. I would start up my heater, wait till I was warm and then shut it off, if I felt like I was getting chilled at all I would start it up again and warm up. We had no idea how much longer we were going to have to wait.
The stormed continued to beat on us that night and when we got up the next morning I called the film boat captain and asked if he had been able to get a weather report. The boat owner had texted the weather report through the Sat phone and the forcast called for the storm to continue for another 4 days fro where we were and south of us, but there was a break in the weather north of us from where we came from. I gathered the team together and told the what the forcast was. We came up with a plan to call for the film boat to come over and pick us up, and we would leave our PWC sitting on the beach tied up and we would make a run back to Larsen Bay . to wait out the storm. After the storm passes the thought was that the boat could bring us back to our PWC and we could continue on from there.
So that is what we did. Called for the boat, he came over to where we were, We took and pushed Petr's boat into the water since it was the closest to the water and Petr ferried us all one at time out to the support boat and we loaded up. After we had everyone on board, Petr rode his PWC beside us and we made our way back to Larsen Bay . It took over 12 hours to get there and rough as heck. We arrived back in Larsen bay and Bill and Mary Nelson came back down to the dock and picked up up and took us back to their house and put us up. For the next few days they entertained, fed, and put us up in their place.
Scott Hough at this point needed to go home. it was June 2 and he was only going to be able to stay with us until June 5th due to previous obligations. So Scott decided that he need to leave and leave now. The next plane that came in he jumped on it and left. SO now we don't have any camera crew. The weather had gotten bad at Kodiak and the plane was unable to land and the ended up coming back to Larsen Bay . Scott was not a happy camper. Over the next couple of days Scott kept trying to get out but the fog in Kodiak was keeping planes grounded while the weather in Larsen bay was beautiful. Finally on the 4th Scott was getting so Anxious to leave I called Smoky Bay air in Homer and chartered a Plane to come to Larsen bay and pick up Scott. Scott was so happy to see that plane. The Pilot Deb Mosley did a quick check on her plane and then got Scott loaded up and away they went.
After a couple of days, we decided to go stay at the Larsen Bay Lodge. They had room and they offered to let us stay there. By now everyone is reevaluating the time, Ralph decided that he needed to get home and was not going to be able to continue the trip. Petr had to get home because he had some business meeting that were imperative and that left just Ron Paye, Gina Poths, and me left to continue the trip.
Our contract time for the camera boat was about to be up and it was obvious that we were not going to have enough time to finish out our plan. so we decided to cut it short and head back to Anchorage. So the next day Ralph and Petr caught a flight out and flew back Kodiak and then back to Anchorage .
We made some calls and found out that the "Lazy Bay Landing Craft" was going to coming to Larsen Bay on Sunday and that they were willing to run by Wide bay and pick up our crafts for us and transport them back Larsen bay. The landing craft said that they could pull up drop the gate and drive off with a Loader and pick up the PWC and drive back on the Landing craft and load them that way. What a great Plan. This also was a good time for us to test the Logistics of PWC recovery for the race its self. We decided to proceed that way and on Saturday when the weather broke, Gina, Ron, and I chartered Andrew Airways from Kodiak to come pick us up in Larsen Bay and fly us down to Wide bay so we could check on our crafts and assist the Landing Craft in loading them.
The weather was nice and the flight down to wide bay was amazing. When we got to Wide bay the landing craft was just arriving and we were able to see the entire bay. We flew over Terrace Island looking to see if we could spot the bear that watched over our camp while there but did not see any. Then we flew over Hartman Island we spotted 9 big Bear and then when we reached the Mainland we spotted a big Boar running down the beach towards our PWC.
The one thing that concerned us about leaving our PWC on the beach the way we did, is that Bears love to come by and destroy those kinds of things.
Dean Andrew landed in the bay and taxied up the shore as close as possible. We got out and waded up to the crafts. They were all in good shape and just as we left them. This was very refreshing to say the least.
It was low tide and the crafts were over 75 yards from the waters edge. As we were looking over the crafts we could see the landing craft pulling up front off in deep water about 1/2 Mile away. The water was way to shallow for him to be able to get up close enough and they were going to wait for high tide before they could access the PWC. This was about 8:00 AM and High tide was not going to be until about 3:00 PM.
I asked them again about being able to load the PWC with the Loader and they called back and informed me that the loader had broken down at the last stop and they were not going to be use it. So their plan was that they were going to drag the crafts off the beach until the were floating and then hoist them on with their crane.
None of us like that thought. Its not like there is sand on this beach, its all rocks and sharp rough rocks at that. Ron volunteered to stay with the Landing craft and help them get the PWC loaded and make sure that they did not hurt them. Gina and I then loaded back up in the plane and flew back to Larsen Bay . We would have stayed longer but Dean had other charters scheduled and had to get back.
It was Sunday morning early around 5 AM when the Lazy Bay showed up in Larsen Bay and offloaded our PWC. Then since Ralph and Petr had already left
a couple of days before we shipped Petr boat back to Kodiak on the Landing Craft. Since I had loaned Ralph my Brand new Boat I decided to use it rather than ride the one I was riding. The one I was riding is an 03 GTX 4 tec Supercharged Seadoo and it works great with one Draw back. I could run about 2 hours i needed to fuel. The new PWC is a GTX 4 tec Non Supercharged and it could run 5 hours without fueling. BIG BIG difference. I wanted to compare the difference. So one of my Boats and Petr's got shipped back to Kodiak Via the landing craft and then Gina, Ron and Myself loaded up our Gear and packed them on the boats getting ready to leave on Monday morning.
By now, Arron Kinser is supposed to be returning and I had chartered Smoky Bay Air again with Deb Mosley to get Arron and now Glen (a new Camera Person) back to Larsen Bay . The weather was not being very nice. It was foggy and socked in around Larsen Bay , But it was nice in Kodiak. So Deb held in Homer for several hours and we were on the phone with her keeping her posted waiting for the ceiling to lift. At one point it was high enough and she decided to try it but when she arrived it had socked back in and she had to divert to Kodiak. They sat in Kodiak for several more hours and finally they were able get in. Arron and Glen had been on the road for 2 days coming back and they were tired. As soon as they got in they went to bed.
After packing a bunch of gear on the PWC I started the new boat to move it over to the fuel dock and the oil sensor alarm went off. Brand new boat and my other boat is already on its way to Kodiak. I checked the oil, it was full. At this point I don't have many options. I know that the oil sensors go bad. I found the sensor and unplugged it. The way I see it, I am stuck here in Larsen Bay , we are ready to leave, one of two things are going to happen. It's going to run fine, or its going to Crater, either way, I am going to end up having to tow the Craft. I may as well run it. And as it turned out, The craft ran like a dream after I unplugged the sensor.
We left on Monday morning; We had three Crafts, a new film crew, flat water and clear skis. It was awesome. We traveled north through the Straits between Raspberry Island and Kodiak and made it to the city of Kodiak in record time. Shaw Patterson a friend of our support boat captain came down and picked us up and let us stay that night in their Bed and Breakfast.
The next day we got up, took care of some business and loaded up and took off. It was 8:24 am when we pulled out of the harbor at Kodiak. Just as we cleared the Channel Gina called to us cause her boat was not running right. After checking it out, we figured out that her spark plugs were getting fouled. We changed the plugs out and took off again and made a B-line for Anchor point. For the most part it was nice, flat water and Clear Skis until we reached the Barren Islands . We hit a Fog bank about 10 miles from the Barren's and it was like someone turned on a switch as soon as we hit the fog the water went from Flat Calm to wicked rough. When we arrived at the Barrens the fog lifted at the island its self and the water was calm. but still the Fog was on both sides of the islands but clear at the islands its self.
When we left The Barren Island again Gina's Boat started acting up. We changed out the plugs again and continued on. As soon as we hit the fog back on the other side of the islands it got wicked rough again.
We continued on to Anchor point. When we got to Anchor Point it was 5:00 PM.
Petr and My Brother Roy were there with our trailers and the tractor launch folks ( Anchor Point Enterprises- Justin and Alicia Carper Clark 907-299-2686) hauled us out. We stayed the night at the Alaska Experience B&B and then the next day took care of business. Gina, decided that since her boat was messing up and fouling the plugs she was just going to have it hauled back to anchorage. So now that just left Ron and I to continue on.
The weather was amazing all day and it took most of the day to get business straightened out. We did some filming with the sun setting and a few runs back and forth and then Ron and I took off thinking that this 50 miles or so was going to be a quick run. The water was calm. and the weather was nice. How deceiving it can be...
About 10 miles north of Anchor point we hit a strange fog like we had experienced out at the Barrens Islands . And as we got into the fog we ran into some of the roughest water we had seen the entire trip. With out exaggeration I am sure that the waves we encounter 20 - 25 foot waves. For the most part it was not an issue as we rode over them but on a few occasions (no less than 15 times) we would end up getting stuck in a trough and completely submerged.
One time in particular as I was riding up a wave it was building and i was climbing and then i broke over the top and it was super steep straight down. I literally free fell through the air for about 10 feet and submarined into the next wave that was building. I went completely under water and was holding my breath waiting to pop back to the surface and I felt the wave I had just came off of break over the top of me and it rolled my PWC over on is side and then another wave hit me from the side and rolled me off my craft. I held on to the side of my PWC until I surfaced, Embarrassed but laughing. The nice thing about my PWC it did not roll completely upside down. The rack that I had installed on the side had 4 gas cans I credit those with providing extra buoyancy to keep the PWC from rolling upside down.
I pulled my craft around and got back on it from the side. Ron came back to check and make sure things were ok. We laughed about it for a few moments and then took off again.
We were close to each other and then another wave hit me and I ended up going completely under again. When I popped back to the surface I stopped and reached up and wiped my eyes so I could see and then looked around to find Ron. He was gone. As I started scanning in all directions trying to spot him a Whale started spouting right next to me, It startled me and I turned to the right and goosed it to get out of the way and when I turned back straight I watch Ron pop up out of the water. He had been completely underwater and what I thought was a Whale blowing beside me was just his Jet wash from his pump. When he got engulfed with wave he throttled up and shot back up.
After that we continued on a steady pace and made it to Kenai. There was numerouse times that we ended up submarining were completly My brother was there with trailer and had it in the water and we pulled in and loaded up and went to a hotel to get some sleep.
High tide was going to be at 10:47 AM in Anchorage and we need high tide to get out of the water there so we timed to leave at 7:00 am so we could make it there. It was rough at the start of that segment but it smoothed out enough that Ron and I were able to complete the trip back to anchorage at 11:15 AM.
We have a lot going on to try and reschedule to complete the rest of the route and as soon as we are able to come up with plan that is going to work for everyone. We will keep you all posted.
We are also working with Capital Broadcasting in California who is producing some TV shows from the footage that we took on this trip and they will be soon around Alaska and also around California and soon across the nation. It is our plan that within a year we will have shows appearing around the world.
Capital Broadcasting is also working to develop an improvement to this site where we will be including a media section that will include our shows and pictures.
I am told that by August 2009 we will have the first show ready to go and it should playing in Alaska and California. Please stay Tuned.
5-27-09 1:17 AM
We arrived in Kodiak last night about 7:30 PM. We were met by a bunch of really nice and wonderful people who were standing out on their Decks of their houses, on bridges, and on other boats waving and yelling for us.
The team would like to say a special THANK YOU to all of the Rohrer family for their overwhelming support and generosity by loaning us their Van to get around town, and for feeding us lunch at the Subway of Kodiak (907) 486-7676.
A special THANK YOU also goes out to the Comfort Inn in Kodiak for hosting our stay and going above and beyond any expectations to be sure we received a hot meal the day we arrived. If anyone one of you decides to come to Kodiak and you need a nice place to stay, we highly recommend the Comfort Inn. Nice rooms. Good Food and very friendly staff to make your stay the best experience. Call 907-487-2700 and tell them that the Wet Dog team referred you to their place.
Heather Stewart. You're Awesome. Thank you for loaning us your trailer so we could do maintenance work on our Crafts.
Kodiak is so awesome. What a gorgeous place. Kodiak is going to be a great stop for the Alaskan Wet Dog Race.
We are very encouraged with all of the positive responses that we are receiving from everyone. We look forward to working with you all here in the near future on the Alaskan Wet Dog Race.
Our Next stop is Old Harbor , We are going to try and leave here around 9:30 to 10:00 AM. We have to fuel our crafts and then we are going to be taking off. A few of the local riders Debbie Rohrer and Heather Stewart will be heading out with us for short ways and we are looking forward to having them escort us out of town.
THANK YOU KODIAK. See you soon.
The Wet Dog Ambassador Team.
5/24 /09 2:00 A M
Today we worked on changing the oil on the 4 of the 5 PWC and refueled them and our spare cans that we are using. (the 5 brand new ones). Our ambassadors are now repacking all of their gear and our film crew was able to complete a major milestone for them with this weather delay and were able to cut and upload a video to You Tube and you can see that video here. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QpZgqUlBJbw
Or you can click here to watch the video from our web site. Our plan is to take off take off in the early AM and head out to Port Graham first and visit those folks and then we are going to head towards Kodiak depending on how the weather is around the Barren Islands. they are having Gale force winds tonight but its suppose to get better soon.
Keep watching and we will do our best to keep you informed as we go along.
If you are following our progress from any of the proposed checkpoints and you are interested in or know of someone interested in helping with our film crew as an assistant, we are willing to hire you for the short time that we are staying in your area. Feel free to contact Arron Kinser at arron@wetdograce.com or just come to the harbor when we arrive and tell Arron you want to help.
Thank you everyone for watching and rooting us on.
The Wet Dog Race Goodwill Ambassadors Team
5/22/09 1:30PM If there is anyone out there watching this event thinking to themselves, "I would sure love to go on this trip" and you know how to run a video Camera. then you could have an oportunity to be able to come with us. We lost one of our film crew who got sick and had to leave and we sure could use someone else to help out running one of our camers. If your interested send an email to john.lang@wetdograce.com and arron@wetdograce.com and ask for more information. Let us know that your interested in helping out being a part of the once in a lifetime trip. You could also send us a link of some of your work and or resume.
5/22/09 - 1:15 PM
We are going to be testing our repairs that we made on our boats to fix the water in the fuel. We do not want to run on down the ocean with out testing everything first. So when you see us running around in front of Anchor Point that is what is going on. in case you think we nuts. We are having to wait out a Gale Force wind warning in the Barren Islands. 35 Kts Wind with 10-15 ft seas. It is suppose to be letting up around sunday and that is when we are going to try and get out.
we will try and keep you updated as often as possible.
5-22-09 - 4:00 AM,
ello Everyone, We apologize if it seems like we have been ignoring everything, We have been having a terrible mechanical problems andH have been working on the PWC here in Homer. The ION earth seems to be working as far as what we have been checking on so far. Here is a break down list of what is going on. From the start we had a 2 boats break down within 15 miles of the start, Three of the ambassadors went on to Kenai while we turned around the other three and went back to anchorage to fix the 2 which had broken down. We were able to repair one and rather than work on the 2nd one just purchased a new one. It took time to get this established and got those to boats to Kenai via road to catch up with the other 3 this took us till 3:00 AM The other three that had continued on to Kenai got stuck at low tide at the mouth of the Kenai River and we had to wait 12 hours for the next high tide to recover them and take off again. Started out from Kenai the next day at high tide and just dealt with the water conditions that were at least 4 foot chop. This made a slow go. Fifty miles in the leg from Kenai one boat sucked up a rock while fueling up on a rocky waving beach. This caused the boat to have a fouled impeller which made it impossible get up on step and pick up any speed. We limped along hoping to reach a point along cook inlet where we could pull the boat out of the water to repair the fouled impeller. After about another 50 miles of only being able to go less than 10MPH we reached a place called Whisky Gulch. We called for a truck and trailer to come to us at Whisky gulch. while we were waiting for the truck to show up on of the other boats started acting up and was only firing on 1 Cylinder. Our Support boat captain was waiting for us to arrive and so he gather up our film crew and and brought down our truck and trailer. After they arrived the tide was at point that would have been impossible for us to recover the boats from the beach and Bruce (Captain of the support boat) told us of a Launch just 3 miles from where we were so we limp ed our crafts up to Anchor River and we tied them up and took the 2 out that needed to worked on and carried them back to Memory Makers Charters. By now its 3:00 am again. We chose to go to bed, When we got up we started working on the boats and we discovered that the reason Petr's boat quit running it had water in the gas. After investigating this it was discovered that the the aux fuel tanks that had been installed at the last minute had water in them and that it was getting forced in through the vent caps . after figuring this out it was decided that we need to check the other 2 boats that had the same aux tanks and we found around a gallon of water in each tank. It took all day and night working late to correct this issue. after we corrected the issue we listened to the weather station and it was calling for 10- 15 foot seas 35 MPH winds in Barren island the day we wanted to get there. Rather than risk anyone's life or equipment we opted to hold up until the weather calms down since we needed to have Internet and this would give the film crew time to get catch up. . Our transponders work! We are land locked with 3 boats at Anchor River and the other 2 boats are at Memory Maker's B&B where some repairs were being done. You might notice one boat is showing at a place called the Salty Dog. That was a joke by one of our more boisterous participants! You can track us correctly, so don't worry about that. We haven't updated the website because we've been working on the boats till 3 am every night. Be patient, keep tracking us! We'll be moving again soon! This is not a race at all. We are doing what has been called "Paving the Way" for the future Alaskan Wet dog Endurance Race coming soon! Today was actually the first day we were actually able to check and work on the computer. Thank you for your continued support, we really appreciate it and we'll try to update the site a little more often. But remember, there are some remote areas we'll be visiting and we won't have internet access unless we fire up the satellite. Our film crew should be able to upload some videos in the next few days of our experience so far since we are going to have to hold up in homer until a storm gets through the Barren Islands.
What a brutal first few days for us. Whew! Please stay tuned! Sincerely, The Wet Dog Good Will Ambassador Team
SEE THE GOOD WILL AMBASSADOR TEAM Here
You can see the paving the way course by clicking here.
These Good Will Ambassadors would like to thank the following list of Platinum Sponsors for their Support in helping us make this trip possible.
- ION Earth Global Race Positioning, Michigan
- TEAM CC - Wasilla, Alaska
- Comfort Inn - Kodiak, Alaska
- Riva Motor Sports - Pompompano, Florida
- ERA Helicopters LLC - Anchorage, Alaska
- Happy Trails Kennels - Big Lake, Alaska
- Watercraft Innovations/PWC Industries- Ft Myers, Florida
On May 19, 2009 a team of good will ambassadors (six have committed so far ) will be leaving the Port of Anchorage on their personal watercrafts to begin an almost two thousand mile expedition through Alaska's oceans, rivers, and lakes.
Our support boat that will be carrying our film crew is a 35 foot Sea Wolf owned and operated by Memory Maker Charters from Homer Alaska.
We will be riding our sea-doos' around the lower portion of the proposed course to pave the way so to speak, for the Wet Dog Race.
Our film crew will document the entire trip. There are several reasons for this. First is to get an estimate on how long it will take to run between checkpoints. Second is to see what it is like at the checkpoints. We will be passing out flyers to hire and recruit support personnel for the Alaskan Wet Dog Race when it actually happens.
This Trip is the final stage to our planning process that we have been working on for the last 6 years.
We will be stopping at each village along the way and introducing ourselves and letting them know what we are planning. We want the people in checkpoints to understand that they are going to be an essential asset to our cause. Other items that we need to know at each location is how much fuel costs, fuel storage capacity, what kind of services they have like restaurants, hotels, and fishing boats.
The plan will be to leave Anchorage and meet up with our support boat around Anchor Point. From this point we will head south to Kodiak Island. From there we will go south as the course shows to Old Harbor, Alitak Sea Plane Base, Chignik, Perryville, Cold Bay, False Pass, and then we will cut across into Bristol Bay and head North to Port Moller, Port Heiden, Egegik, Naknek, Igiugig, and then on to Iliamna.
Once we reach Iliamna we will hook up with Williams Transportation Company and have them take our crafts from Iliamna Lake down a 15 mile road to Port Williams. Then it will be a short 60 mile trip back to where we met up with our support boat and film crew. We will say good bye to the support boat and then we will all head back to Anchorage.
All in all we will have traveled around 1850 miles. We will be seeing country that very few people will ever get to experience. This trip will be nothing short of amazing.
We have been working closely with ION Earth who supplies GPS trackers and they have assured us that they will be providing us with those trackers and then everyone around the world will be able to watch us make history by tracking us on their computer.
I am still inviting anyone who wants to go on this adventure to contact us as soon as possible. Presently we have 14 people signed up to go. We will make every effort possible to make sure who ever does want to go will be able to but we cant guarantee it.
If you do go, you will go down in history as one of the first pioneers to make this trip.
It will not be free. Be prepared to spend some money to do this. The only up front cost that we would ask is that everyone help split the cost of the support boat.
For our current estimate on cost feel free to contact us at info@wetdograce.com and we will get that information to you as soon as possible.
You will be expected to pay for your own food, fuel for the craft that you are riding, your own hotels or rooms when we stay overnight, and you will be expected to help share the cost of the support boat.
We have worked up a reasonable budget so that everyone that goes helps spilt the cost.
If you would like to go on this adventure with us, please fill out this form and we will be in contact with you soon with all the details.
Thank you for showing interest and we look forward to talking with you more about this opportunity.
Since 3-29-08