Yakutat, Alaska - RESCUED!

As we motored out of Kodiak Alaska we bumped a submerged log.  On it's own not really a big deal, but it turns out it may have been just enough to take 40 years of stainless steel oxidation and corrosion to cause our rudder post to snap about 60 nautical miles from the shore as we approached Sitka Island, AK.

We called a PAN PAN which is just one radio message under a MAYDAY (life and limb are in danger).  The Coast Guard from Juneau, AK answered our call and attempted to get someone in the area to assist us...  After a few hours we knew no one was coming.  We worked to build a temporary rudder from an interior cupboard door and a spare aluminum mast from our sailing dinghy.

The rudder we made worked a little bit with a sail up, but there wasn't a breath of wind.  We tried the motor and the thrust from it was WAY too much for the rudder and it failed miserably.

By now we had drifted for about 10 hours.  The Coast Guard made the decision to send a patrol boat from Sitka to assess our situation.  We then decided I needed to go into the water to secure a line around the flopping rudder before we got towed.  The water temp was 48 F!  Needless to say it was a very short swim to get the line secured on the rudder.

24 hours later Coast Guard Vessel, Adelie arrived on scene and the seas were flat calm and there was still no wind.  They generously decided that they would take us under tow to the closest port that could haul us out.  This turned out to be to small fishing village of Yakutat, 107 NM from where we were.

At 1800 (6PM) we got underway being towed at 5-6 knots.  We arrived in Yakutat the next morning at 0800 (8AM).  Once in the harbor, the crew from Adelie got us safely moored in the small boat harbor before setting off on the rest of their patrol.

I want to say, the people were AMAZING!  The crew from Adelie were skilled, competent and incredibly kind to us as we struggled through this frightening ordeal.  We feel that they went way beyond the "call of duty" with us and we will be forever grateful. FYI -Adelie is a type of penguin

Once in Yakutat, it wasn't 5 minutes before Steve (our new best friend), a local man, came up the dock to offer us whatever assistance he could including a ride into town to try to figure out what to do next.  The crew from Adelie had notified the folks here of our arrival and by the time we arrived on Saturday morning they had organized the haul out for Monday and had asked a local man, Les to look at our boat and help us get going again.

In town, it seemed that everyone knew who we were and did everything they could to help us and make us feel welcome.  I can't say enough about the good people of Yakutat.  In town we picked up a few groceries and found some Internet.

We were given this great salmon as a gift less than 3 hours after arriving here in Yakutat!

Best Coffee & Smoothies EVER!  Located at the harbor!

On Monday at high tide, Irvin (the Harbormaster), Ron (the town Engineer) and a few others had us hauled out and on dry land.  I ended up in a wetsuit in the cold Alaskan water to make sure Bubbles was securely on the trailer.   Yes, the water was cold!  Thank you too to fellow cruisers, Paul and Kate (SV Iolea) for helping us get the boat to shore for the haul out.

The idiot in the water was me... (Kyle)

Once the boat was on land we got the rudder off and received the bad news that it had completely failed.  Ordering a new on up here will be next to impossible, so it looks like Les will weld the old one back together and it should hold well enough to get us to Vancouver, where we will have to order a new one.

We picked up some horrible hitchhiker in Japan!

The shaft was  originally 2 3/16" (55mm).  It had corroded down to less than an inch (20mm)!

I suppose that if something awful had to happen to us, it couldn't have happened in a better place at a better time.  We are horrified to think of what could have happened if it failed between Japan and Alaska, thousands of miles from anywhere!  We hope to be back in the water in the next week or so, and will do all we can to embrace this lovely community who seems to have embraced us!  What an awesome world!