Laura Domela 
We’re cruising together again! Laura and Kevin picked up Sam from the Ketchikan airport around 11:00 a.m. (how cool is an airport that has a dinghy dock?!) and we set off together to cross Dixon Entrance. We have about ten days to get down to Port McNeill to start a flotilla trip around Vancouver Island, so no time for dallying. The weather today was good, tomorrow questionable, so we wanted … Read more
Frosty Bay was gray with drizzle when we awoke — first gray day in quite a few! We made coffee and pulled anchor just before 9:00 a.m. and continued down Seward Passage and into Ernest Sound. I had plotted our course all the way to Meyers Chuck, but we really wanted to stay somewhere we hadn’t been before. Between Anan and Meyers Chuck there aren’t many anchorages that seem like … Read more
Yesterday morning we decided to check on a permit for Anan Wildlife Observatory since we’d be passing right by today. July 5 is the very first day of the high season and the first day each year that you need a permit to visit (read: there’s a good chance to see bears). Prior to July 5 and after August 25 you don’t need a permit. As I mentioned yesterday, we were … Read more
We left Point Baker and headed toward Wrangell, stopping to fish for halibut around Vank and Sokolof Islands in the afternoon. We didn’t catch anything and thought we’d fish again the next morning, so we anchored for the night in a little bight on the SE corner of Sokolof Island — a decent anchorage with a distant view of Wrangell. In the evening we saw a small brown bear on … Read more
We got an early start on Saturday morning from Red Bluff Bay. Conditions were nice and calm on Chatham Strait, barely a swell felt. We cruised the 27nm distance to Chapin Bay, on the southern tip of Admiralty Island, and anchored up at the head of the bay in about 50 feet. It rained off and on, but we went out for a dinghy excursion anyway. We chose the next … Read more
We left Takatz Bay this morning and headed back to Ell Cove so we could give the hatchery visit another shot. Conditions were gray with fog and light rain. We saw a couple of orcas just outside Takatz, which was nice. Here’s a really bad photo of one of them: We anchored in Ell Cove, dinghied over to Hidden Falls, and wandered around the hatchery grounds a little before we … Read more
This morning we had intended to walk into the village at Angoon, then take the dinghy back to Mitchell Bay during the afternoon slack. However, when we did a bit more research on the currents, we realized that Bridge Point had a reporting station, and that slack current this morning (turning to flood) was just 15 minutes from the time we were looking it up! So, instead of walking into … Read more
We left Auke Bay on Tuesday morning with a plan to cruise all the way down to Pavlof Harbor, (about 49nm) but the conditions were annoyingly snotty in Lynn Canal. The forecast was for 15 knot winds from the south with 3 foot waves, but the waves were more like 4 feet and so close together it made for a very slammy, uncomfortable ride. Why do that for two more … Read more