We’re now in Alaska!! We went to Kelp Passage yesterday to set ourselves up for a possible Dixon Entrance crossing. Dixon Entrance is the final open-to-the-ocean section of the Inside Passage. It deserves respect, and can be dreadful in bad weather. For the last week or so we’ve been watching the forecast for Dixon. Generally, there has been exactly ONE good day in the forecast between weather systems, but that … Read more
We’d made a plan to exit Watts Narrows again at high slack (or nearish, anyway) which was at noon, but this group seems not to want to wait around at all in the mornings, and so voted to go on the early low slack at 6:00a.m. instead (still a lot of depth mid-channel and no issues transiting about a half an hour after slack with a knot or more of … Read more
We left Lowe Inlet around 8:00a.m. this morning in order to arrive at Watts Narrows at high slack tide (around 11:00a.m.) Watts Narrows is a short but narrow passage from Grenville Channel that connects into scenic Baker Inlet. There’s a dogleg turn near the inner part of the entrance that makes it difficult to see any opposing traffic. It’s not imperative to go through Watts Narrows at high slack, but … Read more
Today’s 54nm cruise up to Lowe Inlet was long and gray and filled with heavy rain. We had the current with us most of the way, so that was a plus, but otherwise, picture windshield wipers going nonstop and waterfalls every couple miles. We all got anchored in Lowe Inlet just fine, but took only one photo the entire (rainy) day…and it didn’t even have the waterfall in it. Here’s … Read more
Another gray, drizzly, but beautiful day! Today was just 27nm from Bottleneck to Khutze, so we did not leave super early. We cruised past Butedale, which looks as if nothing much has changed since last year. We turned into Khutze Inlet and made our way to the head of the bay where there were….no other boats! After the rain slowed down a bit, we all headed out in dinghies to … Read more
We woke to light drizzle and some fog, with a little bit of blue sky in the distance. Our plan to transit Jackson Narrows at high tide made for an uneventful experience. Jackson Passage is a beautiful (and shorter) route from east to west, but often avoided due to Jackson Narrows, but at high slack transiting the narrows is easy. We made our way north in Finlayson Channel and up … Read more
We left the docks at Shearwater and headed out for Seaforth Channel. We expected to have some swell eventually, but swell never really materialized and conditions remained calm the entire route. We turned north into scenic Reid Passage up to Perceval Narrows and since we were a bit early, we had a couple knots against us going through (no big deal). It rained all day as we made our way … Read more
We left Codville Lagoon just before 8:00a.m. and arrived at Shearwater around 10:00a.m. We hadn’t been able to get any response from the marina regarding our moorage requests, and calls on 66A went unanswered. We all found space on the dock though, just like a regular first-come-first-served situation, and it all worked out. (We later learned that the radio base station volume had been turned all the way down and … Read more