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
Clarence Strait, more than anywhere else in Alaska, has beaten me up. It’s a big body of water, open at the south end to Dixon Entrance, and even with just 15 knots of wind on the bow, it gets uncomfortable. From McHenry Anchorage I planned to head south in Clarence Strait to Kasaan Inlet to meet up with Tom and Caroline on Silver Bay. The weather had other plans. I … 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
From Petersburg I had two goals: see as many new anchorages as possible, and make it to Ketchikan (only about 110 nautical miles) before a flight out of town in a week. Easy! After a morning of chores in Petersburg, I rode the flood south, to arrive at Papke’s Landing (roughly the mid-point, where the flood current from each side meets) at high water. The timing worked out nicely, but … 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
When I first came to Alaska, I was unprepared for the scale. Even Southeast—the relatively small portion of the state where I’ve cruised—is truly vast. Somewhere around 70,000 people inhabit an area that stretches more than 300 miles south to north and a hundred miles west to east. Even a few miles from the population centers, it’s easy to find solitude. By solitude, I don’t just mean a lack of … Read more