Before we left Lowe inlet this morning, Airship pulled our crab traps and had a couple of nice keepers – after several consecutive days of empty traps. There will be crab dip tonight.
We left Lowe early to find the calmer winds in Grenville Channel, and to catch the currents at a more favorable time.
The wind part worked. The currents – not so much. Grenville currents are complicated and fairly unpredictable and tend to do just about everything except what the tide and current tables say.
We had a solid three knots against us for the first hour or so. Then things mellowed out and we were able to cruise close to our normal speed.
We’ve seen remarkably little traffic this year, with only a handful of other pleasure boats and comparatively few commercial barges, fishing boats, or cruise ships.
Kelp passage is not the most scenic anchorage by far, (or the best protected), but it’s an efficient place to drop anchor for the night in preparation for Dixon Entrance the next day. Prince Rupert is nice, but we don’t typically need any supplies or fuel just before re-entering the US in Ketchikan, and the side trip through Prince Rupert and Venn Passage puts several extra hours in the trip.
The forecast has been looking consistently good for a Dixon crossing tomorrow (Thursday) morning, so we wanted to be in Kelp Passage tonight to be ready.
We all arrived near mid-day, and had a nice happy hour discussing our plans for crossing Dixon tomorrow. We should be underway near first light.