Summer In Alaska
It’s been three months since I last posted - and what a whirlwind it has been. Returning to Alaska the first of May meant watching the snow disappear and spring arrive - bringing with it all the greens: the chartreuse of the emergent birch leaves, the hunter green spruces and the emerald green grasses. It also marked the beginning this year, of what we called “wedding season”.
Our youngest daughter was married at the end of the month in a small coastal fishing town on a beautiful, cool, clear day surrounded by friends and family from all over the world. She and her husband had finely tuned every small detail of their special day culminating in a beautiful ceremony followed by a joyful party, delicious food, great music, endless dancing, and the rekindling of friendships. And it didn’t end there! Many friends and family extended their stay to explore Alaska and provided us an opportunity to share with them some of our favorite places and experiences. I believe the last of our guests left twelve days later!
We quickly regrouped and left home within the week to attend our borrowed daughter’s wedding. At the age of seven, twenty-four years ago, this little girl became a constant in our house. We had a new daughter and our three children had a new sibling. We shared her with her “first parents” whom had also seamlessly slid into our family. She was married in mid-June beside a swirling creek in front of the mountains and the sea, surrounded by all of her loved ones. We are so very fortunate to have her and her entire family in our lives.
We left for our third and final wedding just four days later. This was the marriage of our Danish daughter - who lived with us as a high school exchange student thirteen years ago. She has returned to visit us several times over the years but this was our first visit to her family home. We were welcomed with open arms and spent a glorious few days learning about Danish weddings and traditions.
It was now closing in on July and we had a bunch of projects we’d hoped to accomplish while home. We managed to squeeze in quite of few of these projects while still finding time to ride our bikes, hike in the mountains, and spend lots of time camping, boating and fishing with friends and family.
The end of the month came all too soon and it was time to return to Meraki. We flew back to Barcelona at the end of July. This time our re-entry was a rough one. It started when one of our pieces of baggage was lost in Frankfurt. The next day, after launching the boat at Arenys de Mar, we discovered several systems were not working. Amongst other things, the grey water tank wasn’t pumping, the black water sensor was stuck, the fresh water filter was clogged, our Starlink wasn’t connecting, and our electrical issues from last winter resurfaced. Over the next few days Tom worked on the minor repairs and maintenance and also managed to schedule a return visit by the electrician who came last April. He was, thankfully, finally able to correctly diagnose the problem - our isolation transformer which eliminates any direct electrical continuity between shore power and the boat, completely isolating the boat from the shore ground. We currently (pun intended) have a work around, allowing us to connect to shore power for the time being. Fortunately the component is under warranty so we just need to wait for it’s arrival and installation.
The missing luggage, meanwhile was cause for concern. We had filed a claim when the piece didn’t show up in Barcelona, naturally trusting it would be delivered to our marina. We had put an Airtag in it when we packed so we could see that it arrived in Barcelona later that night. When it was still at the airport the next afternoon I called the number on my claim form and was told it would arrive the following day. Perfect, tomorrow would be fine - it gave me time to stow more of what we’d already unpacked from the other bags. Unfortunately this did not transpire. A day would pass without our delivery and I would call the number and be told my bag would be “delivered tomorrow”. So we continued to wait. This went on for FIVE days. We actually tracked the Airtag drive 60km beyond us and then return past the marina and back to the airport! We spent one day in Barcelona sightseeing and actually went to the airport to pick up the bag, but were told it was out for delivery. I was beyond frustrated since we could see from the Airtag that it was nearby. On the morning of the sixth day I called and was told that after a bag has been missing for five days, the claim is suspended and the only recourse is to file a reimbursement form for the value of it’s contents - up to 1500 euros ($1600). Arrrgggg! I have a list of the bags’ contents - it contained equipment and supplies from home totaling well over $2000 USD which, by the way, could not be purchased in Europe. Seeing that the Airtag was again at the airport, I changed the suspended claim from ‘deliver’ to ‘pick up at airport’ hoping that we would somehow be able to retrieve it (a 2.5 hour train ride each way from the marina) the next day. To our surprise, for some miraculous reason, our bag appeared at the marina later that night! Hallelujah!
When I wasn’t working on the issue of the missing baggage, I spent my days unpacking and stowing things, provisioning and cleaning. Our planned 4 day stay at the marina to get settled has now turned into nearly two weeks. We decided to move to a marina closer to the city to await our isolation transformer so we left Arenys de Mar for our first cruise of the season. The seas were calm with barely any wind. As we were in no hurry to get back into a marina, we stopped the engines along the away and drifted awhile so that I could take a swim and cool off. Reluctantly we continued on and berthed that afternoon where we are presently still awaiting our trusty electrician and our replacement transformer.
It is quite hot here, especially for two unseasoned Alaskans. Luckily it is but a five minute walk to the beach from our berth so I am enjoying my afternoon swims and the cooling sea breezes under our brand new beach umbrella (essential kit for summers here). We are eager to get moving and are busy planning our upcoming cruising season. Stay tuned.
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