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 current against us).
This section of the flotilla is always about options and staying flexible as we prepare to cross Dixon Entrance.
Plan A for today was to go 22nm to Kelp Passage where we would have some cell service and could check weather for our upcoming crossing of Dixon Entrance. The conditions beyond Kelp Passage looked awful for today, but just in case conditions improved, we created a Plan B where we would continue to Pillsbury Cove (across from Prince Rupert, 40nm from Baker Inlet) if we liked what we saw on the light station reports. This morning’s reports were still showing in the 20-25kts range, so we opted to stop in Kelp Passage with the hope that we will continue tomorrow to Foggy Bay, then finish the last 36nm into Ketchikan on Monday morning.
The forecast for tomorrow is pretty good (winds from the south in the 12-16kts range). The forecast for Monday is even better, so we’ll just see what we see in the morning tomorrow and make the call then.