Airship Goes to Alaska
Wow! This is QUITE a change from yesterday's weather, for sure.
We put our Cutless bearing in the freezer last night and then went and had a nice dinner at The Rookery Cafe. (Pro Tip: if you chill the Cutless bearing first, it'll shrink a little bit, which makes it a little easier to press into the stern tube).
Dinner was delicious, but I only took photos of the appetizers (the house made pickle plate and some fennel-cured sockeye lox with creme fraiche and Gustavus peas):
We shared two entrees: the Rookery ramen with duck, and Dungeness crab gnocchi. Both were very good! We walked around a bit downtown and then returned to our boat/treehouse at the boat yard. Kind of fun climbing the ladder to get up to the boat. 🙂
This morning we took new Cutless bearing No. 1 out of the freezer, got ourselves a little dish soap to lubricate the stern tube first, and then pressed the bearing in. It only required a little mild tapping with a wood block to get it all the way in at the end, and, well, 5 minutes later, new Cutless bearing installed! We also changed the zincs and Kevin pressure washed the hull of the boat.
Just before we left for lunch, our second Cutlass bearing arrived from the Nordic Tug factory (thanks guys!) so we stuck it in the freezer and headed down to try Tracy's King Crab Shack for some lunch.
There are four cruise ships in port today and the weather is gorgeous, so there were a ton of cruiseshippers downtown today, but the wait at Tracy's wasn't bad at all.
The king crab comes from Bristol Bay and I believe is frozen and then steamed to order here. We tried the Alaskan crab roll and the crab cake roll (sandwiches) both topped with cole slaw (both with combination of king and snow crab). The Alaskan crab roll was crabby and buttery, and the crab cake roll had some spicy sauce…they were very different and both good. We chatted a bit with a super nice couple from one of the ships (they were visiting from Toronto) and after seeing their king crab leg lunch (they said it was fabulous), I think we need to splurge and spend the $24/leg for those next time. When in Rome…or, you know…close to Rome….
It didn't help that we were sitting at the window where they steam the crab legs by the dozens. Yummmmmy:
We stopped and looked in a couple of shops that were closed last night: Annie Kaill's, where I bought this ring, because it's right up my alley, style-wise, and also because they didn't have the cute little fish measuring spoons that I really wanted:
Next we headed over to Trickster Co. Trickster Co. was founded by Rico Lanáat’ Worl (a Tlingit/Athabascan formline designer) to promote innovative indigenous design focusing on Northwest Coast art and Native culture. They began by designing skateboards for friends and family, but their product line is expanding pretty fast.
We bought a couple decks of the Tlingit Language Edition playing cards (these are so cool!). Each card has the Tlingit word for the card name as well as the standard numbers/suits. This deck was created to provide additional teaching material for people studying the Tlingit language (or for those who want to support the Native language revitalization).
…and Kevin got a great T-shirt with the Eagle Raven Tessellation design by Rico Worl:
Love it!
We got back to the boat and did some waxing and buffing on the boat waterline. Now we're just working a bit more and doing some laundry while we wait for the second Cutless bearing to chill out. The last part we are waiting for now is the new Shaft Seal from PYI, which should arrive tomorrow or Saturday. We can install it ourselves as soon as it arrives, so I think we'll be ready to go back in the water on Monday. Woohoo!! Can't wait to get back out there (posting about whales and icebergs and stuff again)!
Worse places to get stuck in, I suppose!