We made a “leave whenever you want to” plan for today…some people left at 7, some at 8 and some not until after 9! Clarence Strait was bumpy for a bit (2-3ft chop, 15-22kts of wind on the nose), but it calmed down eventually and I think most of the boats saw some kind of wildlife along the way. We first saw a couple humpbacks, but didn’t get any great … Read more
We departed the docks in Ketchikan by 6am, hoping for a nice smooth cruise across Clarence Strait (which isn’t always guaranteed). We dodged (okay not really “dodged”) a couple cruise ships on our way north in Tongass Narrows, and were met with relatively calm water and not much wind as we crossed Clarence and headed into Kasaan Bay. We’ve been visiting Kasaan on our own (and once with a small … Read more
Monday morning in Ketchikan started out very windy and very rainy! Early in the afternoon the sun came out, and we even had some blue sky! We decided to pull our little wagon up to the market while the weather was pleasant and we got all of our shopping/reprovisioning taken care of. On Tuesday morning we hitched a ride with Dave and DeAnne (and Bodhi) up to Totem Bight State … Read more
At 4am this morning, while at anchor in Pond Bay, we were startled awake by what sounded like a loud and distressed “Hey!! HEY!!!” or “Hey! HELP!!!” A male voice. Kevin bolted up from the pillow and said “Did you hear that???” I had, but thought it was in my dream until that point. We threw on clothes lightning fast and ran up to the pilothouse, opened the doors, and … Read more
Conditions this morning for Dixon Entrance still looked fantastic, so we were off the docks by 5am. Turns out, we weren’t the only ones. This is what happens when the weather window is as good as it was today (and yesterday): We transited Venn Passage, a twisty but nicely marked channel, calm in the early morning (in theory), but small fishing charter boats zooming past on either side add a … Read more
After Bradfield Canal, we spent one night in Vixen Harbor on our way to Ketchikan. The entrance to Vixen Harbor is always a fun transit…we’ve written posts about it several times before (here’s one), but the charts are wrong, and the route that looks best on the charts has only about a foot of water, and the other route looks to be intertidal (which is likely why more people don’t … Read more
We haven’t ever been up Bradfield Canal, so after we left Berg Bay, at the bottom of Blake Channel we turned left up Bradfield Canal and headed for an anchorage just past the Harding River. We saw two humpbacks spouting in the distance, twice, but didn’t see them again after that. We dropped the hook in about 60 feet and promptly took off in the dinghy to explore some of … Read more
We left Petersburg yesterday morning around 8am. A beautiful, mostly clear, sunny day! We transited Wrangell Narrows riding the current in and then also out…it’s fun when the timing works and you get a current boost the whole way through! We stopped and anchored on the east side of Sokolof Bay, a spot we were in once before (over July 4 in 2018). We dropped the anchor in about 30 … Read more