Brian, I hope things are going well for you in Thailand. This will be our third trip to AK. Our shipping of the boat from FL was somewhat trying. Watching them load the boat made the hair on my neck raise. They would not listen to me where the straps should go. When I received the boat in Victoria BC is was able to get aboard and check her over. They did a good job of securing the boat but I did not see that they had bent over a large section of rail on the port side. With a lot of levering with 2X4s and some long screws my son and I were able to get the rail back in place. Other than that everything was fine. I figure that it would have cost about 40% as much to drive her around. Not figuring the engine hours and wear and tear. I had gone the other way twice before and looking at doing it again against the weather and current did no appeal to me. There is a chance that after two or three years going to AK we will take will her back to the east coast and back to our home waters of Lake Superior. The engines now have 4,000 hrs and the boat has used about 50,000 gal. and traveled over 60,000 miles. She is now 10 years old. She has had the same set of LIfeline AGM's. We are replacing them just in case and will use the old ones in my home emergency power system. I think they will go for a long time yet. I have never discharged them more than 50%. This will be our third trip to AK. We have found that if we start in April the weather is less rainy till about the end of May. The weather is usually nice and the snow is still low on the mountains. The salmon aren,t in yet but the crabs and shrimp make up for it. We stay in the protection of Vancouver Island till early may and get back behind the Island by late Aug. or early Sept. Lots of guests are coming and our son who will be taking over the boat will be alone with his wife while we are home for the admirals six best weeks of summer. This has been a requirement when I said we were going back to AK. Regards, Dennis Raedeke Wild Wind IV

Hi again Dennis, I see you continue to be very active with your cruising adventures. I'm almost surprised that with age you haven't sought out warmer climates...ha...ha. I've decided I can't retire to Thailand full time...at least for the next several years, so I am spending time back and forth. I'm over in Thailand at the moment for a couple of months, and next week I will be making a trip down to the Gulf of Thailand to look at several boatbuilding operations. I may also be looking for a place I might keep a 'picnic cat' or a floating Thai cottage for those times away from the north. Here is what I have in mind for a 'picnic cat'....saw this on one of my previous trips. http://www.boatdesign.net/forums/powerboats/weekender-picnic-powercat-33751.html Hope you have a great trip, and if you get a chance send some photos and messages of your trip. These folks on Domono Cat are fun to follow,...and they are covering some territory http://www.dominocatamaran.blogspot.com/ Cheers, Brian On Fri, Feb 3, 2012 at 12:38 PM, Dennis Raedeke <dennis@wildmountain.com>wrote: > Brian, > > I hope things are going well for you in Thailand. > > This will be our third trip to AK. Our shipping of the boat from FL was > somewhat trying. Watching them load the boat made the hair on my neck > raise. They would not listen to me where the straps should go. When I > received the boat in Victoria BC is was able to get aboard and check her > over. They did a good job of securing the boat but I did not see that they > had bent over a large section of rail on the port side. With a lot of > levering with 2X4s and some long screws my son and I were able to get the > rail back in place. Other than that everything was fine. I figure that it > would have cost about 40% as much to drive her around. Not figuring the > engine hours and wear and tear. I had gone the other way twice before and > looking at doing it again against the weather and current did no appeal to > me. There is a chance that after two or three years going to AK we will > take will her back to the east coast and back to our home waters of Lake > Superior. The engines now have 4,000 hrs and the boat has used about 50,000 > gal. and traveled over 60,000 miles. She is now 10 years old. She has had > the same set of LIfeline AGM's. We are replacing them just in case and will > use the old ones in my home emergency power system. I think they will go > for a long time yet. I have never discharged them more than 50%. > > This will be our third trip to AK. We have found that if we start in > April the weather is less rainy till about the end of May. The weather is > usually nice and the snow is still low on the mountains. The salmon aren,t > in yet but the crabs and shrimp make up for it. We stay in the protection > of Vancouver Island till early may and get back behind the Island by late > Aug. or early Sept. Lots of guests are coming and our son who will be > taking over the boat will be alone with his wife while we are home for the > admirals six best weeks of summer. This has been a requirement when I said > we were going back to AK. > > Regards, > > Dennis Raedeke > > Wild Wind IV > _______________________________________________ > Power-Catamaran Mailing List >