May 22   Sitka

We had a nice overnight in Wrangell ...it is not Seattle and is nothing like what we are used to but it has a certain charm and the people were extremely friendly and helpful.

                                                              Wrangell waterfront.


We got an early start in order to take advantage of the current in Wrangell Narrows.  That is a 22 mile long, narrow stretch of water, well marked with 54 buoys and channel markers but with enough current to produce high anxiety.  You do need to be observant but honestly, it was nothing compared with Rocky Pass.
                                                

We cruised on past Petersburg and into Thomas Bay for a bit of glacier viewing and for Gary to catch a 60 lb halibut.  What to do with all that fish???  I found room in the fridge and freezer and we've been eating halibut ever since.

                                                                   Baird Glacier

The next day we went into Portage Bay on Frederick Sound.  It is a big anchorage...big enough for several yacht clubs.  The USFS also has a well stocked cabin and mooring buoy there. When Gary pulled anchor in the morning he pulled up enough kelp to all of the sushi bars at all of the Benihanas in the world.
From Portage we cruised Frederick Sound again on absolutely flat water....my favorite kind.

                             Not terribly scenic but it gives an idea of how flat the water was.

At the end of the day we pulled into Chapin Cove on Admiralty Island, our first time there.  What a beautiful place and we were lucky enough to get to see a great big brown bear combing the beach grass for dinner.

On the 19th we left Chapin and ran into some very bumpy water on the SW corner of Admiralty.  We went from flat to 6 feet in nothing flat.  When we rounded the corner and headed into Chatham Strait all was flat again.  From there it is only an hour to Warm Springs Cove.  There is a public bath there with private tubs of hot spring water.  As you bathe you look out your window to this lovely waterfall. It is one of our favorite places and we ALL left clean and refreshed.

Chatham Strait continued flat so we continued north into Peril Strait and spent a bumpy night off Dead Tree Island in Hanus Bay.  We thought we would be protected but the current changed and we bounced all night.
The next morning we started out but it got bumpy pretty fast so we ducked into Appleton Cove for a few hours.  Put the crab pots out and got skunked.....a first for us there.  About 2pm the water looked better so we headed west in Peril Strait for Hoonah Sound where we know we can get prawns.
We spent the first part of that night in bumpy water again but it calmed and we got a good night's sleep.
Yesterday morning we left there and headed for Sergius Narrows....another testy little spot but much much shorter in duration.  We ducked into Deep Bay to wait for tides and currents and then scooted out and through without any trouble.  (Waiting for current and tide is a new adventure for us....we had a twin diesel fast boat in the past and we didn't wait for much of anything because we could run at 30 kts and could pretty much out run any current around here...with a couple of exceptions)
After getting through the Narrows we pulled into Shulze Bay and dropped the hook behind Piper Island where we spent a calm night on the hook.
We got into Sitka this morning in time to reprovision, pay bills, cattch up on e mail, have dinner and post this.  We are going to head back north in the morning and get some more prawns.

                                                           Mt Edgecomb at Sitka

                                                                       Sitka Harbor

5/15 2015  HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO ME!
Going to play a little catch up on the blog.  Seems I got ahead of myself with the last post.  When we are in Ketchikan we like to moor at Bar Harbor for a couple of reasons.  Ktn does not stand on formality..in fact no where in AK can you be snobbish.  The pleasure craft are moored right alongside and with the fishing vessels.  It does tend to give you a sense of the flavor of the state.  Thomas Basin downtown is a bit more of a "yachty" environment BUT at Bar Harbor you are right there at Safeway and the laundry for easy shopping and wash.  And after you have been aboard for 2 full weeks you need a lot of groceries and trying to get all of that back to the boat when you have to take a bus or cab is just too hard for me.  I'll take Bar Harbor anyday and if the office is closed (and it is on Sat andSun) the harbormaster will give you a form to fill out.  You can then call the office and pay over the phone.  We actually went in there three years ago with a credit....to our surprise.
We also take the local bus system around AK and BC when it is available.  The schedules are posted at all the stops and there is a free shuttle to downtown Ktn from Bar Harbor.
So on 5/11 we got away from the dock at 0730 and headed up Behm Canal for Misty Fjords.  It was a beautiful day and w e were cruising along and saw three boats coming toward us.  We monitor 16 and 68 on a regular basis.  One of these boat drivers said to one of the others....Greg, do you see that boat coming at us?  The white one?  I've never seen one of those.  Do you know what it is?".  Greg replied, "The ugly one?  I know those boats.  Tom, don't even look at them they are so ugly"

                                                     This is the ugly boat they referred to.


.  Gary just said...."Hello there" at which point Tom said"  I think the owner is on the radio".  That was the last we heard from them but needless to say, they put a bitt of a pall on our morning.  I wanted to offer them radio etiquette lessons but Gary said no.  I do hope to run into them again along our path.
We pulled  into Marguerite Bay at 1300 and put out a couple of crab and prawn pots and tied to the lovely and secure USFS dock, nestled right next to a huge rock.
We got some nice crab the next morning and moved on to Vixen Harbor, a favorite anchorage of ours.  Gary is having some dinghy motor issues and having a small bay to test it out in was good.  Pulled a few more crab out and made a quite nice Pesto Prawn Gnocchi for dinner.  Going to try it with crab next.
The next morning we tried to go to Frosty Bay but the float there stated it was for USFS cabin permittees only.  The bay is not well charted and what is charted is deep to we moved on to Berg Bay.  Still waiting to see a bear on this trip.  Saw a whale yesterday.

                                                                      Berg Bay

Anchor up at 0640 today and on to Wrangell to finish the bills and try for the dinghy repair one more time.  Gary is taking me to dinner tonight to the Stikine Inn.  We asked about dress and they laughed...it is Alaska!!  We are tied up to behind a large seiner who doesn't look like it is going anywhere anytime soon.  There is a very nice grocery store here.  Sage, the checker, asked where we were from.....she is from Anacortes.  Here with her parents for one year and heading back to Atown at the end of the summer.
Forgot to mention that when we were in Ktn, we ran into a couple cleaning a fish on the dock.  She also asked where we were from (we must have tourist stamped on our foreheads) Her mom is Betty Wilson in Shelter Bay.  We know Betty...talk about small world.

May 10, Ketchikan
It has been awhile since I posted....this is our first internet connection in over a week...and our first real dock in a week.
We got out of Pt McNeill at 0545 for a Cape Caution crossing.  The winds were light and thewater flat.  Conditions at Sea Otter were 6mph and 1 meter seas!!!  Away we go.
Rounded Cape Caution at 1130 witth no wind and only moderate swells.  Since the water was so fine we continued on past Milbrook Cove and into Fury at 1430.

                                                                        Fury Inlet


 As we made our approach I was sure that since we had seen no other boats on the water and the season is still so early that we would have the place to ourselves....not so...found one US boat already there and another followed us in later.

On 5/4 we puĺled anchor at 0530  to find Fitzhugh Sound flat.  Flat water trumps EVERYTHING!  Cruised on north to Llama Passage and took that into Shearwater where we docked at 1400.  Picked up some Cheezies....a staple for boating snacks and refueled and then headed out to one of our favoarite places...Discovery Cove, east of Shearwater.

                             

                                                                Discovery Cove
 We dropped the prawn pots before we headed in and found our cove empty.  Finally a place to ourselves.  The wind howled and it poured rain but we remained secure.  Gary is a real stickler about setting an anchor well every time and it pays off;  He pulled in a couple of crabs in the morning and we got enough prawns when we left to have 5 meals.  Love livin' off the sea.
On the 5th we pulled anchor at 0630....do you see a pattern?....and headed back to Shearwater to mail a card and then headed to Higgins Passage to anchor.



We have been through this tricky little pass before but always on a twin engine boat.  This was a new adventure but we timed the tides perfectly and cruised through the shallowest pàrt with a full 6 feet under our keel!!
5/6  0550 anchor up and chain clean.  Off we go through Laredo Sound and up the outside of Campania Island through Estavan Sound.  We like the outside if the weather is calm.  It is more open and wilder without cruise ships.  We have taken the inside passage a couple of times but to be really honest it is boring!  And Laredo Sound is actually inside of Aristazabal Island and Estavan Sound is inside Trutch Island so there are just a couple areas where you get the swells of the Pacific.  Keep in mind....we do this when the weather is predicted to be
Calm.  We dropped the hook in Gung Ho Bay at 1500 and tossed out a crab pot.  Once again, we awakened to another fishing vessel whick came in after we were asleep.

                                                 
                                                   Sunrise while leaving Gung Ho Bay

On 5//7 we pulled anchor at 0545 and pulled up 4 crab.  We spent a lovely day on flat water of Principe Channel and pulled into Hunt Inlet on Porcher Island at 1600.  Denny and Eunice  were there on the dock when we arrived....see Channel Dancer Adventures for more about Eunice' quilting expertise.  I took a gold cart ride...no roads  on Porcher...to a greenhouse that Eunice is attending for a friend.  Their tulips and daffs are just now in bloom...about 6 weeks behind us.
May 8  Away from dock at 0530 bound for Dundas Island.  Seas flat and winds calm at all reporting stations.  AT 0900....oh My how things change in a hurry.  Winds reported a Green Island at 12 knots and seas rippled.  Suddenly we were in 6-7 foot seas and 20-25 kt winds out of the NW. ! Where the hell did that come from??  The only thing we figured was that it was an outdraft from the Portland Canal.  We hid behind Dundas Island, pulled into Hudson Bay Pass Cove

                                            Looking south from Hudson Bay Passage Cove
                                                             

 and dropped the hook to regroup.  Winds there were maybe 10 from the SE so we had lunch and decided to try for the west side of Dundas with the idea that if it was ugly we would head to Edith Harbor and give it a rest.  Surprise, surprise.  The water on the west side of Dundas AND the north side was FLAT!  Just a quirky little patch of nasty water that we were so fortunate to find!!!
We did find a big rock covered with bellowing sea lions.  A huge herd.

                                                                       Sea Lion Herd


By the time we made it to AK waters it was 1700  and we had been hard at it for almost 12 hours.  We called US Customs and told them our plight and they agreed to let us just drop a hook wherever we chose and call them when we hit Ketchikan....and we were grateful.
We did get welcomed to Alaska by the sound of a humpback plopping its tail on the water and then kindly breaching for us!!  Welcome to Alaska!!
We spent the night at Morse Cove on Duke Island.  It is almost like a lagoon with a narrow entrance with a mid channel rock.  By favoring the north shore, mindful of some shoreside shallowrocks as well, you can get through the entrance.  The least amount of water we had under us was 9 feet on a 12.4 tide.
5/9  Anchor up at 0500. Winds calm and away we go into Ketchikan.  A lovely humpback surfaced alongside our boat as I was making breakfast....about 100 feet off the galley.

                                                                 A Ketchikan fixer upper

Managed a trip to Safeway and then to Bar Harbor Restaurant for a lovely prime rib dinner.
Home to bed early for a sound night sleep.  Hangin in Ktch today for a bit of housekeeping and internet catch up.
Have been having a few issues with loading photos onto this site.  Maybe I can get that fixed today too.

May 2, 2015  We have finally made it almost to the north end of Vancouver Island....it only took us a full week.  We have had wind, wind and more wind.  We left Nanaimo at 06000 on the 28th on flat water and made it ot about half way across the Strait of Georgia when the winds picked up and so did the waves.  We got very salty but we rode it out and so did Magic.  It was her first řeal test of big water and she did very well.  I would have liked a smoother ride, and so would Diesel, but you get what the water holds for you.  By the time we got to the north end of Texada the water was flat, the sun out and cruising was glorious.

                                                                 Strait of Georgia

There was even a small pod of Orcas off Texada to welcome us to the Desolation Sound area.
We anchored in the Copeland Islands in time for Gary to harvest a bucket of oysters from the beach....always a treat for the early part of the trip.

                                                                   Desolation Oysters