Tuesday morning brought sunshine and blue skies, and this amazing view of the mountain bowl. It never looks as big or as grand in photos as it does in real life though. Looking at the conditions, we definitely could have moved to a new spot Tuesday morning to wait for the storm to pass through on Tuesday afternoon and Wednesday, but then we wouldn’t be somewhere as beautiful as this … Read more
Another 6am departure time…but really only because today was a 52nm day…and conditions out on Frederick Sound were glassy and gorgeous so why NOT be out there as soon as we wake? This view as we head north from Petersburg never gets old. Devil’s Thumb (the tallest point in this mountain range) was obscured by the clouds, but it’s fine…we may see it again next time. We even had some … Read more
We are very much looking forward to some sun, whenever that might happen. We’ll be ready!! We left the dock in Wrangell around 6am and headed for Wrangell Narrows. We had a nice push of current with us most of the day today…assuming it would switch direction somewhere in Wrangell Narrows past Papke’s Landing since we were so early, but I don’t think I ever saw any current against us…just … Read more
Conditions in Clarence Strait this morning were significantly better than they were last night! Two foot chop at most, and about 10kts of wind. We left the dock at Meyers Chuck around 6am. We had a very easy 50nm cruise to Wrangell today! We even had a few minutes or so of Dall’s porpoises on our bow. Several boats fueled up over at the fuel dock in Wrangell’s Etolin Harbor, … Read more
Today’s weather was mainly rainy and windy and we were pretty happy to be tied at a dock with good scenery all around us (and three different float plane landings/takeoffs right here in the chuck as daytime entertainment!). We hiked when it wasn’t too nasty out, and enjoyed the coziness of the insides of our boats the rest of the time. This Cessna landed, picked up people over at the … Read more
We left Ketchikan this morning after a quick refresh, reprovision, and celebration dinner for arriving in Alaska – and headed north up Clarence Strait headed for the quaint village of Meyers Chuck. On the way, we had to dodge cruise ships, floatplanes, ferries, tugboats, sailboats, and other traffic coming and going from Ketchikan’s bustling port. But current was with us and we were soon back in relative solitude for the … Read more
After a very hard rain early this morning, we woke to this: Just as we were pulling our anchor we noticed a black bear at the head of the bay, beyond Ithaka… …and then realized there were two! And on our way out through the narrow exit, one more on shore there munching on some grass, watching us as we puttered past. Those three, plus the two seen yesterday on … Read more
Up again at 4am (okay 4:30am) to check the 4am forecast and conditions for a Dixon Entrance crossing today. The Dixon Entrance East forecast for today looked about the same as last night: Last night at 7pm Green Island was reporting 5ft moderate, and the wind at Grey Islet was SSE 25kts. We were hopeful that things would mellow overnight. This morning, conditions seemed to have improved, except we were … Read more