Epiblogue

July 10

David arrived home Tuesday night, July 6.  Alex, Kai and Ruby spent one more day at Glacier Bay and then took Wayward Sun back to Juneau, anchoring overnight in Couverden Island Bay and arriving in Juneau on July 8. Kai and Ruby fly back to Seattle on July 10, but Alex and Wayward Sun will explore Juneau and surroundings for another week. Wayward Sun will ride the ferry to Bellingham on July 18, and Alex will then fly home. A TV station in Seattle has said they are interested in an interview on return.

We are all excited that the voyage was successful—Wayward Sun was the first solar boat to complete the trip from WA state to Alaska: 750 miles to Ketchikan and then another 350 miles to Glacier Bay! Alex and David had the option of using shore power, but they chose not to thereby demonstrating that solar alone can power the boat even when the weather is consistently cloudy and rainy. 100% solar boats eliminate the “range anxiety” of electric-only boats. With a solar boat, it’s not how far you can go but how fast you can go--obviously faster on sunny days and slower on cloudy days, but the distance is unlimited.

They collected a lot of data on the boat performance that will take a while to process. David writes:

“Starting in Ketchikan (the first spot we were allowed ashore), then Thorne Bay and up to Juneau and Glacier Bay we made new friends and enjoyed interactions with friends of friends, all vaccinated. Many appreciate the details of the boat’s performance and others just ask the speed. In Wrangell Narrows we went 11 hours at 4 knots up with the flood tide and down with the ebb without using the battery, +/- 3%. We have excellent hourly data on speeds and (lack of) sun available. The battery storage versus voltage depends on whether we are charging the battery or discharging. These nerdy details are important to making excellent Solar Sal boats.

My goal for this trip was Alaska, specifically Thorne Bay where 58 years ago I was a logger. From an isolated logging camp on the shore, Thorne Bay has evolved into a city on a road system that goes the length of Prince of Wales Island. We found nice folks everywhere, and I appreciated the chance to revisit.
Juneau was great. The trip to Glacier Bay was ice on top of the glacier.”