Day 11 | Flotilla to Alaska | Bottleneck Inlet to Khutze Inlet

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

Day 10 | Flotilla to Alaska | Rescue Bay to Bottleneck Inlet

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

Day 9 | Flotilla to Alaska | Shearwater to Rescue Bay

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

Day 8 | Flotilla to Alaska | Codville Lagoon to Shearwater

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

Day 7 | Flotilla to Alaska | Big Frypan Bay to Codville Lagoon

We finally got the “heavy rain” that the forecast has been promising for the past two days. It all came at once — last night! There was (finally!) a break in the rain in the morning as we pulled our anchor and left the bay, and the sun came blazing through. Our cruise up Fitz Hugh Sound and Fisher Channel was calm and uneventful. We arrived at Codville Lagoon with … Read more

Day 6 | Flotilla to Alaska | Blunden Harbour to Big Frypan Bay

Today was Cape Caution day. We often talk about the “Gates” of the Inside Passage – segments that give boaters pause, and often limit their progress north toward Southeast Alaska. Beginning in Puget Sound, where there is the highest density of boaters, these include Johnstone Strait, the Strait of Georgia, the rapids in BC, Cape Caution, and finally Dixon Entrance. Cape Caution is the first of these gates that is … Read more

Day 5 | Flotilla to Alaska | Mound Island to Blunden Harbour

We left our anchorage at Mound Island around 7:30a.m. and had a calm, leisurely cruise up to Blunden Harbor. It was quite foggy, but cleared a few miles from Blunden Harbour and turned into a nice day! Today we met up with our third boat, Great Escape (a Maritimo 50, with Bob and Shelly aboard). After we were all settled in, we gathered together for a longer dinghy excursion back … Read more

Day 4 | Flotilla to Alaska | Port Neville to Mound Island

This was our first visit to Mound Island with a flotilla. Mound Island is a small island in a cluster of islands near the west end of the Broughtons. It was nicely situated for our planned trip across Queen Charlotte Strait in preparation for rounding Cape Caution in a couple days. There is ample dinghy exploring available through the maze of little islands and rocks and small shallow and intertidal … Read more