For the past few years, we’ve been following John and Kathy Youngblood as they’ve cruised around Alaska on their 2004 Selene 54 Mystic Moon. They previously cruised more than 35,000 nm on Mystic Moon in the Caribbean and the Pacific. Now they’ve posted their latest blog, about their fall cruise out of Sitka, or “Stormy Sitka” as John calls it (see Mystic Moon at the dock there in the picture above).
Of the 16 days they were in Sitka, John writes, they had two days of partial sun, while it rained the rest of the time and every few days a new storm with winds from 15 to 35 knots blew through. Still, in their cruising days, the Youngbloods’ “critter count” grew to include 21 Dungeness crabs, two brown bears, and 12 whales (ten humpbacks and two orcas). Here’s the latest:
We finally made it back to Mystic after a three-month break. This is exactly why we brought Mystic back to the USA to allow us to do other things!!! We spent the month of July enjoying family and friends in the Bay Area as well as a trip south to see our oldest son and family in Santa Rosa Valley. Then in August for five weeks we finally enjoyed our African Safari after it was postponed in 2020 due to Covid.
We arrived on Wednesday 10/6 in Sitka….11 hours door to door so not too bad. Mystic was in good shape, having survived a high wind storm the previous w/e (wind gusts up to 70 kts, yikes). However, I’m always wondering what kind of attitude Mystic will have when we return having left her so long. Is she getting old like Kathy and me and enjoys her peace and quiet, or will she be temperamental, getting back at us for leaving her….yes, after 17 years I certainly believe boats have personalities. Well….to that point….<36 hours on the boat I had my head into the master head….yuck:….clogged toilet paper in the small bleeder tube….simple job so I hope Mystic lets me off the hook gently this time: And…how did it turn out you ask, I did spend quite a bit of time fixing things so we have an answer….temperamental…that’s my girl.
In 2018/2019 the weather was absolutely ideal….lots of sunshine and somewhat warmer. We cruised the whole month of Sept .2018 in perfect weather. Well, 2021 is the opposite. It rained every day in September and continues in October. We left the marina on Saturday, after two days of opening up Mystic and shopping in the cold rain, running everything, buying new boots for John-boy….I had blown out the heel on my favorite pair in June, provisioning and having Diver Dave dive on the bottom. The bottom paint going on two years (SeaHawk Biocop) is still looking good, but we needed new boat zincs and both props were pretty skuzzy with long algae growing on them. The thrusters OTH, were very clean….hmmmmm!!! Read more:
http://www.mysticmoonvoyages.com/captains-log/captains-log-fall-2021-cruise-out-of-sitka-alaska/
