Friday, October 22, 2010

Inflatable boat finally reaches it's goal!

The first hard-bottomed inflatable boat that crossed the Northwest Passage along the Arctic has finally reached it's goal. We discussed it's trip on an earlier blog this month. Here is an excerpt from today's Kodiak Daily Mirror newspaper:

"The Zodiac crew that stopped in Kodiak on its way back from the Northwest Passage arrived safely in Victoria, Canada.

After more than a week waiting for a good weather window the crew left Kodiak at 3 a.m. on Oct. 6.

Across the Gulf of Alaska the weather was rough, but not as bad as it had been in the Bering Sea. The small boat reached Cape Spencer near Juneau in 22 hours.

The boat arrived home Oct. 13, somewhat the worse for wear.

“We literally had one engine hanging off the back,” navigator Scott Barnes said. “We had to use the ratchet straps to attach it. We had to pretty much limp the boat back, but we made it.”

The boat’s trip over the top of North America was the first in a rigid hull inflatable boat. The trip was organized to test the boat’s shock absorbing seats."



Back in June we talked about a group that came in the opposite direction, along the Northeast passage in a well supplied tug boat. They brought enough food for one year in case they got stranded in a port over Russia. Being French, that included wine. Check it out at http://lifeinkodiak.blogspot.com/2010/06/famous-ships-in-kodiak.html.

Here is another boat I spotted as I kayaked out to check on the Sea Lions. It travels throught the Artic Summer or winter!.



It's the Healy, the largest ice breaker in the USCG fleet. These guys carry enough supplies to live on board for 11 months, in case they get ice-locked. But, probably no wine. check it out at: http://www.uscg.mil/pacarea/cgcHealy/

The tug in the June story was about the size of the small baby blue boat in these pics. The Zodiac would be a small spec, maybe twice the length of the Coast Guard's anchor!!

Seems strange, having the largest and the smallest boat that has sailed those northern waters in our harbor at the same time.

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