Small Boat, Big Adventure – S/V Teleport

 S/V Teleport

Why the name 'Teleport'?
Teleportation is defined as "When an object disappears from one place, and reappears in another" - and that, in a nutshell, is what sailing is all about...

We met Chris Bray and Jess Taunton in July when the s/v Teleport tied up across the dock from us at Baranof Warm Springs. The boat's unusual rigging and friendly, outgoing crew invited queries and conversation, so we popped over for a meet and greet with our new dock neighbors.

After a bit we traded boat tours and spent several hours visiting and swapping cruising stories. Oh my, did they have a unique cruising tale! The couple were completing the final legs of an awe-inspiring journey, their 2012-2013 transit of the Northwest Passage in that compact, 29-foot, junk-rig sailboat. I guarantee you'll enjoy browsing their website archives at www.YachtTeleport.com to read the journal posts about their extensive preparation and progress across the top of the continent. 

Western explorers had searched for a northern passage since the 15th century, repeatedly meeting with failure and occasionally disaster in their hunt for a shorter route from Europe to the Orient. Finally in 1903-06 Roald Amundsen took three years to make the first successful crossing. Others eventually followed, but it was another forty years until Sgt. Henry A. Larsen, an RCMP officer, sailed through in a schooner in 1944 for the first single-season transit. Since then ever increasing numbers of commercial vessels, small cruise ships and recreational boats have transited the passage. A large cruise ship plans to run the passage in 2016 (link)... really? a large cruise ship?! Recent changes in the ice pack as well as improved charting, equipment, icebreaker support and satellite imagery have all contributed to the growing number of successful passages, but it still remains a major challenge.

To reach the Northwest Passage from the Atlantic requires a hazardous voyage through a stream of about 50,000 giant icebergs, up to 300 feet (90 m) in height, constantly drifting south between Greenland and Baffin Island. The exit to the Pacific is equally formidable, because the polar ice cap presses down on Alaska’s shallow north coast much of the year and funnels masses of ice into the Bering Strait, between Alaska and Siberia.(link)

Armchair explorers can relive the challenges of the NWP by reading the several online journals that describe the challenges of travel, and by viewing the photographs of scenery and Arctic wildlife. I'm not tempted to make the trip and actually cruise the Northwest Passage, but I do love the photos of Arctic scenery and wildlife.

Ah yes, the images, those all-important visual memories of any good journey, which takes me back to Chris and Jess and their well-traveled s/v Teleport. Spend some time viewing their photographs and marvel at the scope of this undertaking. These adventurous Australians, professional wildlife photographers, also offer photo classes and lead wildlife photo safaris throughout the world… when they aren’t out sailing. (link)

A guided photo adventure sounds very tempting... some time when we're not out cruising in SE Alaska.

Wrangell Narrows

Duncan Canal to Petersburg

Day 21                    34.5 nm

Photo: Jagged, snowy peaks signal Petersburg is just around a corner... or two 

Sun shining though an overhead hatch woke me before the 0400 alarm had a chance to ring. The Capt. had planned an early start, scheduling us to catch the end of a flood tide with a favorable current through the 24-mile long Wrangell Narrows. This narrow, twisting, dredged waterway is a main route connecting Sumner Strait and Frederick Sound and carries a lot of interesting traffic, commercial vessels as well as pleasure craft. On this transit we met sailboats, fishing boats, powerboats, an Alaskan ferry and two tugs guiding a log raft around the various bends and channel markers. Of course we met the largest vessels in the narrowest turns, just to keep things interesting.

Nanaimo Harbor

Nanaimo. Now there's a name to call up memories, some recent and others decades old. Nanaimo meant sunny summer boating in our early-married years. We felt oh! so adventurous after we upgraded to a fast 24' Sea Ray and finally cruised north of the American San Juan Islands, crossed the Georgia Straits and the Canadian border to spend RL's too-short vacation time in British Columbia. Scuba diving, fishing, water skiing and exploring filled our days with non-stop activity, and our time in port was just as busy. Nanaimo Harbor featured a shopping mall with convenient access to replenish ice for the coolers, and to buy the groceries and beverages that we couldn't legally bring across the border. Then there was the year we hit town the weekend of the Bathtub Race - OMG, what a crazy harbor happening! The bathtub boats departed Nanaimo Harbor (on Vancouver Island) and headed across some big water to the city of Vancouver (on the mainland), but the party reportedly went on for days. 

In recent years we've just passed through Nanaimo on road trips to and from the boat. We use the Duke Point ferry as our Vancouver Island access point, lingering in town only when necessary to sit in line at the terminal's parking lot, waiting to board the ferry. My August seaplane stop in Nanaimo (link) doesn't count as a visit since we were back in the air again minutes later. 

The shorter hours of winter daylight didn't encourage us to wander through town on this month's cruise south. We did meet some interesting boaters on the dock and enjoyed a leisurely cruise of Nanaimo's working waterfront the next day as we departed. I'd like to spend more time shoreside exploring southern Vancouver Island, the parts we don't see from the water.

Photo: Containers and container cranes line the waterfront.

Photo: Small but mighty yard tug works the log booming ground.

Photo: This large Colossus of a ship had an unusual bow profile.

Photo: B.C. ferries link Vancouver Island with the mainland and smaller islands.

Trivia question: What do you call a Canadian harbormaster or dock master?
Answer: Wharfinger