Gulf of Alaska, Alaska
I had a reasonably good weather forecast to leave Kodiak with. There was a big low with storm force winds nearby, forecast to stay far south of me. I wasn’t completely convinced it would do as forecast, so I took a longer route, more around the Gulf of Alaska than straight across it, so I would be able to get shelter somewhere if conditions changed. This is Cape St Elias, at the end of Kayak Island on the eastern side of the Gulf of Alaska. I came close to shore here to use the Iridium satellite phone. The satellite airtime plan I am using is for Alaska and Canada. I didn’t realize when I bought the airtime that the Gulf of Alaska would not be considered Alaska (which is reasonable, if not advertised), I sailed close to Middleton Island (in the middle of the Gulf of Alaska) to use the phone also, but Iridium doesn’t seem to consider Middleton Island to be part of Alaska, so the connections were rejected. Several hours after Cape St Elias, the wind went against me, and I hove-to for most of a day, waiting for the wind to change and catching up on sleep.