Day 14 | Flotilla to Alaska | Wrangell to Petersburg

The shortest navigable route from Wrangell to Petersburg is through Wrangell Narrows, a narrow, winding, rock-laden 22 nautical mile passageway with swift current and lots of traffic. In order to minimize opposing current, we typically time our departure from Wrangell so that we arrive at Papke’s Landing, where the flooding from the north and south meets, at high tide. That way we ride the dying flood into Wrangell Narrows, and … Read more

Day 13 | Flotilla to Alaska | Thoms Place to Wrangell

Thoms Place to Wrangell is a fun, easy, well-protected, 24 nautical mile route through Zimovia Strait. We were not particularly worried about the current through Zimovia, as it is more a nuisance than a hazard, so we opted for a 7AM departure. After all our early mornings, departing at seven felt pretty luxurious, and still allows us plenty of time to explore Wrangell during our one-night stopover. The charming and … Read more

Day 12 | Santa Anna Inlet to Thoms Place

Day 12 was an easy cruise from Santa Anna Inlet to Thoms Place on Wrangell Island. Thom’s place is a nice large anchorage on the south end of the island with snow-capped mountain views, historically good crabbing, and some fun tidal channels to explore by dinghy at high tide. The group left Santa Anna later than usual, enjoying the idea of the comparatively short two hour trip. In the morning, … Read more

Day 11 | Flotilla to Alaska | Ketchikan to Santa Anna Inlet

One consequence of our quick trip from the San Juans to Ketchikan is that we didn’t have as many chores to take care of in Ketchikan as we usually would. Many of the boats don’t need fuel, laundry, or significant provisions. We haven’t been out for weeks—and we’ve been confined aboard—so the boats are still clean and don’t need any washing. And thankfully, nothing has broken. So after just a … Read more

Day 10 | Flotilla to Alaska | Ketchikan

Today was basically chore and explore day in Ketchikan: grocery shopping, laundry for those who needed it, picking up packages at Frontier Shipping, etc. Today was a little less rainy than yesterday, but still gray and moody. A good day to work on any boat projects or just see the town in the rain. (It has rained a LOT so far this trip.) The group met for dinner at Bar … Read more

Day 9 | Flotilla to Alaska | Foggy Bay to Ketchikan

We left Foggy Bay this morning around 7:00 a.m., headed for Ketchikan. We had some light swell at first, and a little more than light swell later in morning (and some fog) but overall it was a pretty smooth cruise. Arriving in Ketchikan was uneventful compared to past years when it takes all the concentration and focus you have to keep track of the incoming and outgoing boat traffic, float … Read more

Day 8 | Flotilla to Alaska | Foggy Bay

Sleeping in this morning was difficult—something about the combination of sunrise around 4:00 a.m., several days of departing at the crack of dawn, and heavy rain pelting the deck had us up long before we should have awoken. Later in the morning, Ralph on Rubicon called on the VHF to let everyone know there was a brown bear on shore. The first brown bear of the trip! We enjoyed watching … Read more

Day 7 | Flotilla to Alaska | Klewnuggit Inlet to Foggy Bay

Our last long day! Alaska! Getting out of boat jail! We’ve been lucky with the weather this trip and we hoped it would continue today. Environment Canada called for southeast 25-35 knot winds, which didn’t sound too promising. NOAA said southeast 25 knots, still not great. The screenshot below shows the Windy route planner, which shows the predicted weather along our route as we travel it, and the worst conditions … Read more