Sam Landsman 
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
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
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
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
The forecast for crossing Dixon Entrance was about as good as it gets. Wind light, building to northwest 5-15 knots in the afternoon and 10-20 knots in the evening. Environment Canada, NOAA, Windy, and Windfinder all basically agreed, too. We’d have a lazy, three foot swell and basically calm winds. This is the longest day of our trip at 64 nautical miles. Given the long day and the possibility of … Read more
Today felt like a longish day from Lowe Inlet up Grenville Channel to Kelp Passage. It wasn’t actually that much longer than any other day, it’s that it was a day of gray, rain, fog, and not a lot of scenery or wildlife. Grenville Channel can be a bit boring when the weather is less than stellar and visibility is poor, and today was one of those days. As soon … Read more
We awoke to the pitter-patter of raindrops falling on the deck. Outside, clouds hung low on the horizon. Environment Canada warned of 25-35 knot winds out on Hecate Strait, and we worried some of that wind might whip up rough seas even on the inner channels we’re traveling on. Thankfully, that wasn’t the case. We had a bit of a following sea as we headed northwest in Fraser Reach, but … Read more