Laura Domela 
It was rainy and gray when we woke this morning in Petersburg. We filled our water tanks, picked up a couple of last minute things at the market, and left our slips by about 10:00 a.m. The cruise to Portage Bay was calm and uneventful. Not much wildlife today, but an easy day on the water. Once in Portage Bay, Sam went up with his drone for some overhead shots: … Read more
Le Conte Glacier is the first tidewater glacier we encounter on our trip north. LeConte is an easy day trip from Petersburg, so we all climbed aboard Fortunate and Cassidy to make the short trek across Frederick Sound to make our attempt at the glacier. Visiting tidewater glaciers by boat is always a hit-or-miss endeavor as far as actually making it to the glacier. As the face of the glacier … Read more
We didn’t plan to leave Wrangell until 11:30 a.m. or so to get the timing right for Wrangell Narrows, so we took advantage of the late departure time and dinghied back into town for some breakfast and grocery shopping. We grabbed breakfast at J&W’s Fast Food (now serving breakfast) and it was really good — breakfast burritos, french toast, captain’s platter with eggs, potatoes, and sausage or bacon, hot coffee. … Read more
We spent a quiet night on anchor at Thoms Place and left early for Wrangell. Kevin and Laura pulled their crab traps before pulling anchor and had nineteen Dungeness total (no females, 4 large male keepers). Thoms Place comes through again for fresh crab! After an easy cruise through Zimovia Narrows (a nice, short warm up for Wrangell Narrows tomorrow), we all arrived at Heritage Harbor in Wrangell by about … Read more
In past years, we went straight from Meyers Chuck to Wrangell, a 50+nm run. This year, we decided to break it up with a stop in Thoms Place. This way, we have a relaxed day leaving Meyers Chuck, and then can make the short hop to Wrangell the following day and have much more time to explore town. And we get an extra night anchored in a beautiful, remote cove! … Read more
The forecast for Clarence Strait wasn’t great. Southeast 20-25 knots, according to NOAA. Clarence Strait is a big body of water, stretching about 100nm from Dixon Entrance at the south to Zarembo Island at the north. We’ve been beaten up there before, and weren’t eager to repeat those experiences today. Other forecast models—Windy and Windfinder—looked substantially better than NOAA. Still breezy, but more like 10-15 knots. As a bonus, the … Read more
Today’s forecast for Clarence Strait: SE wind 20kts diminishing to 15kts in the afternoon. Seas 4 ft. Rain. We saw nothing over 10kts, about a 1ft chop, and only a tiny bit of drizzle for our cruise across Clarence. (We left Ketchikan around 7:30 a.m.) But once we entered Kasaan Bay the wind picked up to 16kts or so and finding a non-bumpy spot on the dock was a bit of … Read more
The weather in Ketchikan for the past two days has been typical Ketchikan — gray and windy and raining sideways. This is a town that averages more than 150 inches of rain per year. Seattle’s 37.5 inch total is paltry in comparison. We only intended to stay in Ketchikan for two nights, but the weather on the day we planned to depart was truly bad. At the dock, we recorded … Read more