Torries

january/february 2017

cruisingworld.com

55

ENDS OF THE EARTH

whales approached. One giant surfaced

just yards from Celeste. Seth and I aban-

doned the helm to the autopilot and

stood on the foredeck watching. Two

whales started lifting their heads out of

the water and then fully breached, again

and again.

As abruptly as they’d come, they left.

Equally suddenly, the wind was back in

force, which was no surprise to us any-

more. By now we’d learned how quickly

conditions could change and how much

flexibility and readiness were required

to sail these waters. Turning into King

Cove, we tacked against the funneling

north wind and entered the fishing basin.

We took a slip next to a gill-netter, and

before the night was out, we were fast

friends with the crew.

Seth and I had known little about

King Cove. We’d stopped because it was

a convenient jump-off point for our last

passage to Unalaska. Perhaps because

of this, it was one of our favorite ports.

Sheltered between volcanic peaks at the

edge of a vast lagoon, the village has no

road access. Scrub bush covers the lower

slopes, and above is open tundra. Seth

and I fought our way through the scrub,

scrambled over rock screes, and finally

gained the top of a ridge.

Below us stretched a green, untouched

valley, different in its vegetation from

Kukak Bay, where we had also hiked, but

the same in its immense wildness. The

whole Pacific lay before us, and to the

southwest stood the end of the penin-

sula. The mountainous Aleutian Islands

pierced the sky beyond. To the north we

beheld for the first time the sea where we

were bound, the Bering.

As we walked along the ridge, a golden

eagle — the eagle of Europe and Siberia

— swooped below us. Ends of the earth?

This was it.

Ellen Massey Leonard completed a global cir-

cumnavigation at age 24 and recently sailed

her classic cutter to the northernmost tip of

America, in the Alaskan Arctic. She chroni-

cles her adventures at gonefloatabout.com.

BEAR PRECAUTIONS:

➾ When ashore, make noise so you don’t surprise bears. Talk, crackle a plastic water bottle,

tie bells to your pack, or even bring a foghorn.

➾ If you encounter a bear, keep calm and move slowly away, facing it. Don’t run. Leave it an

avenue of escape.

➾ Opinions differ on defense equipment. Bear spray is common, but you must be within

feet and upwind of the bear for it to work. The biologist in Geographic Harbor carried

hand-held distress flares to set off between us and a charging bear. A few Alaskans rec-

ommended a 12-gauge shotgun loaded with buckshot to fire at the ground, with slugs for

a last resort. A long gun is required in the Arctic for protection against polar bears but is

probably not essential in brown bear country.

➾ Remember that these places belong to the bears and not you. Observe them, treat them

with respect, and you will be amazed at their depth of personality and intelligence.

VIDEO EXTRAS

Ellen and Seth Leonard have produced a

series of beautiful and entertaining videos

documenting their journey to Point Bar-

row, Alaska, the northernmost point of the

United States, on the Arctic Ocean. The ep-

isodes cover the stops they

made in Alaska on the way

north from Dutch Harbor,

and the three weeks at sea

to get south again. Check

them out at cruising

world.com/0217alaska.

CW0217_FEAT4_Alaska.indd 55 11/21/16 10:44 AM