Sunday, June 27, 2021
Madan Bay to Wrangell Heritage Marina
Distance today: 18 miles
Cumulative distance: 921 miles
Motor hours: 982.0
Motor hours today: 3.5
We had less than 20 miles remaining to today’s destination at Wrangell, so we slept in a little and ate a relaxed breakfast. While retrieving the anchor, a section of our rode jammed in the windlass. No amount of tugging from above or below would dislodge it. I opened up my PC to pull up a copy of the manual, so that I’d have a better idea of how to partially disassemble it; unfortunately, the windlass manual seems to be the only one I did not download to my PC before leaving St. Louis. Realizing I wouldn’t have an internet connection until we arrived in Wrangell, I pulled up the rest of the rode and anchor the old-fashion way and left it sitting in a pile on the deck for our trip to Wrangell.
The cruise up the rest of the Eastern Passage was smooth, and we turned around the northern tip of Wrangell Island toward the town of Wrangell. We were told by the harbor master to go the Heritage Marina about a mile south of town. It’s the newer basin where they seem to put transients, and includes a long side-tie transient dock with 30- and 50-amp power stations. Unfortunately, they’re locked, so we called the harbor master, who promised to leave some paperwork and unlock the power post this afternoon. We’re sharing the transient dock with just one other boat tonight.
Once docked, I set about downloading the (not very good, IMO) documentation from Lewmar for my windlass. After analyzing the exploded view and instructions for removing the gypsy, I grabbed a couple tools and headed (with great trepidation) to the bow to start surgery. I’ve dropped enough tools and small bits into the water in my short time as a boater to view this as a high-risk operation. Not only am I not terribly familiar with the inner workings of my windlass, but losing a small part to Davy Jones’ Locker would make it that much worse. Kel sat in the cabin and held each part as I removed it. Apparently a section of the line (perhaps a twisted, rather than straight section) jammed and got mangled between the gypsy and rope guard, instead of falling into the anchor locker. Two of the strands were mangled pretty badly, so I didn’t have much confidence in the integrity of the line. The mangled section was a little more than 100 feet into my 300 feet of line, so cutting and using the remainder of the line was not my preferred approach. I have two shorter backup rodes, but both only have 20’ of chain, so I wanted to stick with my primary that has 50’. I called the Sentry Hardware in Wrangell, and they had 300’ of ½” 3-strand nylon line available.
Kel and I headed toward downtown Wrangell to get rope and ice. On the way, we passed a garage sale, whereupon I (Les) roll my eyes while Kel checks it out. Fortuitously, they had a basket-style cart for $5. This would be cheaper than a cab ride back once we were loaded down with ice and 300 feet of line. We picked up the line for a very reasonable price, grabbed two bags of ice across the street at the City Market, and headed back to the Marina.
Some of our St. Louis weather has followed us to Alaska. It was almost 80 degrees in Wrangell today and expected to be as warm tomorrow. We’ll stay here in Wrangell for at least another day – it usually only takes me several hours to execute an ugly 3-strand to chain splice. I know they’re not supposed to be that difficult, but mine never seem to look quite as tidy as those in online tutorials.
Kel and Les Rohlf
Boy was I glad my Wallas worked when I needed it. :lol: 
