2 weeks on the water now.. Around 1.900 nautical miles. Almost straight north. I’m off my plotted track just by 10 mile and  I’m crossing 51°N any moment.

I decided to make my landfall on Kodiak Island at Old Harbor.  I’m not sure what I’ll find over there but it sounds interesting  and the charts show a tiny channel which allows me to make a round trip instead of poking into the bay and head out the same way.. Its shallow but I think with the right tide it should be possible..

I’m almost there.. Compared to what lays behind me. Just another 380 nm.
I don’t know if there are any facilities.. Maybe there is nothing than harsh, cold coast..  But.. I don’t need anything right now. I still have enough fresh food, even fruits and more then enough water.. I guess I only used around 100 gal.. Out of my 300+. So if there is just a protected anchorage.. That’s fine with me.
It will be nice to sleep in my bed again.. Since I left Honolulu I slept on the settee in the pilot house. All nights except one.. OK half. It was more like being awake the whole night and just jump under the soft blanket for a couple hours..
But its way more convenient for me here on the settee.. With a blink of an eye I can check all instruments, can check on the sails through the huge windows to the front and look around almost without moving.

We had another two cargo vessels crossing our way.. One came actually very close so I could see the silhouette in front of me..  We were almost on a collision course when he first appeared on the little 7 inch screen of my chart plotter. He was around 15 miles away. I decided to wait a little more and watch what he was going to do.
Even when I momentarily think that my AIS isn’t working probably, the last ship I contacted didn’t get any AIS signal from me, he should see me on his radar at least. ZERO is producing a good echo, I know that.
He must have seen me.. Because I can see his AIS information, I could see that he changed his course. He decided to pass me in front and adjusted his course by around 15 degree. When he was straight in front of me there was only 2 nm between us.
Good to know that the crews of the big ships obviously act a little more responsible now. And of course the modern technology helps a lot. AIS is a lifesaver.. That’s why we have a transceiver onboard ZERO. We can receive and send the AIS signals.. When it is working properly..

I didn’t expect so many cargo vessels so far north. I expected the northern waters to be packed with Fishing boats.. But haven’t seen a single Fisher yet..

Since I installed the outside cap of the heaters chimney yesterday morning, I’m using the heater frequently..  Its much better than without. But every once in a while I have a back draft in the stack. That means the hot air can’t flow up and out anymore instead it blows down and in the burner. The flames mostly die then and I have a lot of smoke entering the cabin. I don’t know why this happens but it sucks! Most times the flames ignite themselves within a couple seconds but when not I have to wait until the heater cooled down and then go through the whole lightning procedure again.

I’m still on Hawaiian time. I decided not to change the clock until landfall this passage. But the days are getting longer and longer I can feel that. Its daylight at 4 am on my clock already. I hardly resist getting up at this time but have my first situation check around then.
Now it’s dark and I slowly get ready to lay down.
Tonight is movie night..
Aloha
The almost there captain