Sailing in Alaska
Juneau Cup: Auke Bay to Funter Bay

Start of the Juneau Cup, Auke Bay to Funter Bay. July 29th, 2006. Boats: The Committment, Haiku, Spindrift, Toison D'Or, Lyric, Smoke, The
Loa'a Nalu, and Sarah Jane. I was on High Noon (not pictured), which was the boat responsible for setting the mark and timing the start.

A "hero shot" I took of the crew of Haiku at the start of the first leg of the race.

More boats prepare to cross the starting line.

There were a lot of humpback whales in the area. A pod of them surfaced right near our boat. Hearing them breathing that close, blowing water through their blow holes etc. was incredible. Later, at Funter Bay, we could hear them really close while we were trolling for salmon but couldn't see them. Turns out they were bubble netting right in front of the mouth of the harbour and I missed it!

Mike is excellent at trimming the sails for optimum performance. Here he sits watching them, trying to strategize what to do next.

Lyric (I think?) hugs the shoreline.

Dock party at Funter Bay. Mike brought a keg of Alaskan IPA. I had too much to drink and knocked over a bottle of wine onto an expensive looking sailcover and then broke a guitar string trying to tune Karen's Ovation guitar. Party foul!

Several boats catch salmon for dinner. I helped net this one that Mike caught (and is seen here expertly cleaning one) but you should have seen the one that got away! Crab pots were set at night and the next morning several Dungeonous and King crab were hauled in. Yummy!

This is a photo of a cute little cabin near the harbor at Funter Bay. It's out in the wilderness and yet as we were leaving the next day there was a man out *mowing* the grass in the front yard! The second is a mock "album cover" shot I took of the crew of the Haiku (Greg, Brian, Liz, and Adam).

Liz and Brian Playing on the rope swing, Funter Bay

It still stays light out for a long time, and this beautiful golden sunlight in the evening tends to last a long time.

Blue heron on beach at low tide, Funter Bay

Start of the second leg of the Juneau Cup race to Funter Bay. The day started nice and windy. Again, being on High Noon, the boat starting setting the mark and starting the race, I was free to take photos of various boats jockeying for position. This is the Committment and the Toison D'Or (I think).

Despite the high winds, nearly everyone set their spinnakers at the start of the race.

After they creeped over 20 knots almost everyone brought them back down again.

We were following the Haiku all the way back to Auke Bay.

Here the Haiku rounds the point first, at the scenic Light House! You can see a glacier up in the background.

Around the point, the High Noon overtakes Spindrift. Karen is driving, if you look at the slant of the stern rail you get an idea of how far over the boat was heeling due to the high winds which were running 20-25 knots all day.

We kept gaining on the Haiku but no matter what we tried, brian and his crew (Liz, Greg, and Adam) were able to keep one step ahead of us! Despite boat handicaps which makes it harder to tell who actually "won" the race, the boats didn't get very spread out on the fast leg home and it was exciting to see who would cross the mark first. This image is a little blurry because it was really windy and I was zoomed in on them. Congratulations Haiku!

Coming back into Auke Bay we passed Indian Cove at relatively low tide.

Home safely at the Auke Bay Marina, behind our tie-up you can see that the fireweed are in full bloom! A sign that summer is nearing an end.

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