Our stops in Ketchikan can be quite busy! Sometimes our stops are brief and frantic, but we stayed three nights this visit. Having some down time to explore and chill and do boat chores (and go out to dinner multiple times!) after several long days in a row was rejuvenating, and the sunny weather helped a ton! People visited downtown, dodged cruise ship visitors on colorful Creek Street, took in … Read more
We left Foggy Bay this morning for a smooth cruise into Ketchikan. Brian from Evenstar/Fleming took these gorgeous drone shots as people were getting ready to head on to Ketchikan this morning: Seas were calm, the weather was sunny, and a few whales were here and there, settling into their Alaska routine. Ketchikan is quite a shock when we’ve spent over two weeks in mostly wilderness anchorages with very few … Read more
We were up early this morning to navigate Venn Passage, possibly attempt a Dixon Entrance crossing, and make our way to Foggy Bay, Alaska. The weather was a little iffy. While conditions were good, we had one forecast for five foot swells on our beam at some point, so we made a multi-prong contingency plan. We would travel the first four hours or so out through Venn Passage, across to … Read more
Today we made our way from Lowe Inlet up the remainder of Grenville Channel to Prince Rupert, our last stop in BC before we attempt to cross Dixon Entrance into Alaska. It was smooth sailing, and a couple of boats had a guest raven aboard for part of the journey. We arrived at Prince Rupert and tied up at the Prince Rupert Rowing and Yacht Club. The crew at PRRYC … Read more
We were up early and reluctantly left Khutze Inlet. It’s one of our favorite stops on the Inside Passage – stunning beauty, abundant wildlife, vast dinghy exploration opportunities, (and somewhat tricky anchoring). It was a long run up to Lowe Inlet – the site of a salmon cannery operation from 1890 to the 1930s. Lowe features a cool waterfall fed from Lowe Lake, (which we have previously tried to hike … Read more
It poured all evening in Bottleneck, so we didn’t get to do as much as we would have liked there, but the weather broke as we headed out early for a long-ish run up to the stunning Khutze Inlet. Khutze has an estuary surrounded by breathtaking mountains, glaciers, and waterfalls. Numerous bears hang out in the estuary throughout the summer. It’s a challenging anchorage (the first time on this trip … Read more
We left Shearwater at 5:00am in order to hit Perceval Narrows at slack, on our way to our intended destination of Rescue Bay. Conditions were great, we were making good time, and we made an on-the-water call to extend a couple more hours to Bottleneck Inlet. We’d still arrive before noon, and take two hours out of what will be a long cruising day tomorrow to Khutze Inlet. The rain … Read more
We departed Pruth Bay early to press north to Shearwater. Conditions looked good for a smooth transit. (No sun, but we can’t be too picky.) Coming out of Pruth Bay, Dog Star got some favorable sailing conditions and took advantage of them. Shearwater/Bella Bella is really the only good provisioning stop along the middle of the north coast. Things like produce are often scarce there, so it’s a bit of … Read more