All systems GO!

It’s been a long… long… haul. As an engineer, I’ve done some napkin math problems in my day, but this one has been a doozy. By my guess, Team Monkey Fist has put somewhere on the order of 700 primate-hours into refurbishing Wildfire and getting her ready for the wilds of the Inside Passage. We’ve Read More…

Re-lighting the (Wild)fire

Well, it’s been a while since we’ve posted anything here, but in our defense we’ve had a crazy month+. I (Ryan) came up to Seattle for 10 days, and we started an overhaul on Wildfire. This has included replacing the motor mount from the transom, removing most of the deck hardware from the cabin top, Read More…

MUTINY!

We’ve had a MUTINY! George had been grumbling that he hadn’t been getting his due. I had thought I had appeased him with some banana nut bread flavored Cliff bars, but here I am, tied up in the hold. He’s running around on deck, swinging my R2AK Pocketknife around like it’s a sword, trying to Read More…

Three years with this mistress

You know how your Facebook and the photo app on your phone pop up flashbacks? An out of context picture with a caption along the lines of ‘Here’s what you were doing XX years ago!’? This week, I pulled out my phone and noticed the photo app lined up four boxes:  Three years ago, Two Read More…

Setting the Spinnaker

So, about a month or so ago I managed to get some more done on the Lady Jane. If you remember, when I got it on the water for the last Wooden Boat Festival, it was sailable, but still needed some bits resolved. Sailing the boat was a two handed ordeal as I had no Read More…

Getting to know the Lady Jane.

So, She’s been in the water a month now, tied up out at Shillshole. In that month, I’ve been getting to know her. She’s been all the way to Port Townsend for the PT wooden boat festival, and thru the locks for the last Duck dodge, and again thru the locks for the festival at Read More…

Making a Splash!

Friday, I hit a huge milestone. I hauled the boat on it’s trailer out of the shop at the Center for Wooden Boats in Northlake. Took it out to the sunnyside ave boat ramp. And put it in the water. First time it has been in the water in at least 20-25 years, and probably Read More…

George meets the ‘Lady Jane’

So, it’s true. The Minnow has been sold. I’ll be taking it to the Wooden Boat Festival in Pt. Townsend this year, and it will leave there with a new skipper bound for Montana. There is a replacement. George met her today. The ‘Lady Jane’. The ‘Lady Jane’ is a Lightning. Designed by Sparkman & Read More…

Registration Confirmed!

Prep for this year has been rather minimal; I had hoped to add a Hobie drive, and get some other things done, but a layoff at work dried up alot of the R2AK money. Hence, there hasn’t been alot of updates. However, I can say that today my tax refund came, and I was able Read More…

R2AK leg one – The Recap.

Whew. While alot of my new friends are either in Johnstone Strait or preparing to enter the Seymour Narrows, my race ended a few days ago, in Victoria. It’s been a few days, I’m back in Seattle, and have finished my first shift in the shipyard after living on the Minnow for basically a week. Read More…

Let’s do this thing.

Its 4 am. In two hours the gun goes off and I’m on my way. The tracker is up at http://leg1.r2ak.com. There’s 35 miles to Victoria, we’ve got a full set of sails, half a pack of beef jerky, it’s dark out, and we’re wearing sunglasses. Hit it.

Arrival in Port Townsend.

Wow. I’m here. On the starting line two days before the gun. Sitting in a cafe where I can see semi-famous boats and people I’ve only known thru their own online logs of their journeys that brought them here. I’m thinking back on all the ups and downs since I got the crazy idea to Read More…

To meet the Sea….

I’ve heard it said that the sea finds what you did wrong; So with that in mind I set out to meet the sea. Last weekend, I sailed from Shilshole to Port Townsend as a shakedown trip for the R2AK run. I figured three days living on the boat would point out any problems with the Read More…

T-shirts for sale!

Team Hodge is set to go for Victoria in the Race to Alaska on June 23rd, 2016. To help get the last final bits we need, We’ve commissioned Ellen Exacto to create a custom design and put together a limited edition T-shirt. On the front, the shirt features an image of George, the most steadfast Read More…