We left Kelp Passage near first light for our Dixon Entrance crossing. The weather forecast looked excellent — wind NW 15 diminishing to light early, seas 1 meter. We popped up early to check the 4AM update to be sure nothing had changed for the sinister overnight. It looked even a little better, and a soft fog layer confirmed that the air wasn’t moving much.
On big crossings, fog is usually our friend. While the scenery isn’t much and we have to be vigilant on our radar and navigation awareness, the payoff is generally calm seas. We’ll take that.
Not super scenic yet today.
After a couple of hours, we broke out of the fog to a beautiful morning and got a nice view of the Green Island lighthouse as we passed between it and Dundass Island on our way into Dixon Entrance.
Dixon was smooth and uneventful, and we soon rounded the corner for our final leg into Foggy Bay, where we planned to spend the night before continuing in to Ketchikan. Since U.S. customs is in Ketchikan, they make provisions for boats who want to break the trip up and spend the first night in Foggy Bay. You can call or ask permission on the CBP Roam app. Everyone in the group cleared customs easily and there was plenty of room waiting for us in Foggy Bay.
As soon as we arrived, we hopped into dinghies to go explore the rapids, estuaries, and lagoons behind Foggy Bay. It’s among our favorite places for dinghy exploration, but you have to time it near slack for the three sets of rapids. We were about an hour after low tide, which was perfect.
After some dinghy exploring (saw one black bear outside the inlet and one brown bear inside, but no photos), Kevin took the drone up for a few shots of the anchorage. Here’s where we are!
Happy hour on Airship later this evening to celebrate our arrival into Alaska, and then probably an early night because we were up at 4am checking weather!! Tomorrow, on to Ketchikan!
