We were up early this morning to navigate Venn Passage, possibly attempt a Dixon Entrance crossing, and make our way to Foggy Bay, Alaska.
The weather was a little iffy. While conditions were good, we had one forecast for five foot swells on our beam at some point, so we made a multi-prong contingency plan. We would travel the first four hours or so out through Venn Passage, across to Green Island light station, and around the corner of Dundas Island. Then, when we poked our nose into the open sea of Dixon Entrance, we’d decide whether to continue, or to turn left and spend the night in Brundige Inlet on Dundas Island. Brundige is an excellent bail-out point for Dixon, and leaves you well positioned if the conditions improve the next day. Since the forecast for tomorrow is a little better than today, it was a solid plan B.
Luckily, things in Dixon were just fine, and even improved as we continued north. We arrived in Foggy Bay mid-day and everyone found nice anchorage in the back bay. We quickly jumped in dinghies to go explore the lagoons, rapids, and estuaries behind Foggy near slack. (The rapids can become quite rapid and not navigable even in our speedy shallow-draft dinghies.)
We had one dinghy show an engine light a bit from continuous high-speed running, so we towed it back – choosing an abundance of caution. That caution paid off as we got to spend a little time with a “Welcome to Alaska” bear onshore.
We had a wonderful celebration happy hour aboard True Grit, then everyone returned to their boats to rest up for the morning cruise.
Tomorrow the group will head into Ketchikan for a few days: provisioning, exploring town, sightseeing, meals out, and picking up Laura!