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
Today’s forecast for Clarence Strait: SE wind 20kts diminishing to 15kts in the afternoon. Seas 4 ft. Rain. We saw nothing over 10kts, about a 1ft chop, and only a tiny bit of drizzle for our cruise across Clarence. (We left Ketchikan around 7:30 a.m.) But once we entered Kasaan Bay the wind picked up to 16kts or so and finding a non-bumpy spot on the dock was a bit of … 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
We had a beautiful cruise this morning from Foggy Bay into Ketchikan. It’s always a bit of a shock arriving into Ketchikan after being in such quiet, remote areas for several weeks. Today was no exception. Ketchikan was host to FIVE cruise ships when we arrived — four at the cruise ship berths and one anchored out in the channel. When we called the Ketchikan customs office yesterday and got … 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