Sitka to Ketchikan

We had no significant boat chores to perform in Sitka so we did lots of walking around the town and on the nearby trails. We did meet up with our friends Dan and Marsha and toured their new (to them) Selene 53, Turnagain. Their previous boat was a troller on which they fished for salmon, often near Sitka or in Chatham Strait. Drake was excited to meet their standard-sized bernadoodle, Meaka. They played once or twice in the dog park near the Eliason Harbor marina.

We pulled out Sunday, June 30, after four days in Sitka. Since on the way to Sitka we enjoyed our walk to Lake Eva, but not the slog across the tidal flat, I noted that the high tide for July 1 was in the morning and would be covering the muddy tidal flat. The plan was to anchor in the same location in Hanus Bay as we had a week earlier and do the hike in the morning before proceeding to our next anchorage. Unfortunately, the weather did not cooperate.

Peril Strait often gets snotty in southerly winds coming up Chatham Strait which pass through the low divide between Catherine Island and Baranof Island. It was a steady 15-20 kts head wind with steep 3-foot seas. While it was a bit better near the shore, we decided not to get beat up at anchor by the wind. We ended up anchoring in an open bight on the north shore of Catherine Island about 3 or 4 miles further. The small cruise ship Liseron was already there which gave us some confidence it would work.

The next day was calmer, and we proceeded to Takatz Bay on the east shore of Baranof Island where we anchored for two nights. Because of its size, Takatz Bay often gets charter mega-yachts with their attendant vessels. Later, kayaks were launched from the one we sharing the anchorage, adding another layer to the “turducken” nature of their crusing.

From Takatz Bay we traveled across Chatham Strait into Fredrick Sound and anchored in Honey Dew Cove at the north end of Kuiu Island for two nights. While there, we had a couple of furry animals roaming the beach, one more fearsome than the other.

After Takatz Bay we continued east further into Fredrick Sound. We were in “fishing” mode so we dropped prawn pots in a few areas and the hook for halibut. The halibut were elusive but we did manage to pull up some prawns as well as an octopus (which we released) in our pots.

When we left Fredrick Sound we cruised on by Petersburg and instead stopped in Wrangell. We stayed for 3 nights to give Drake some extra shore time and make up for the 13 nights at anchor since Sitka. While there, we crossed paths with our first boat, the Selene 36 Dragontail, now named Dancing Bear.

From Fredrick Sound, we spent 3 nights in the Ernest Sound area doing a little more prawning, two nights on the dock at Meyers Chuck and finally arrived in Ketchikan on July 21.

Our return to Ketchikan is about a  week earlier than normal as we have a yard date in Port Townsend on August 19 for a haulout. Mostly it is for maintenance but with a boat, the list often gets longer by the time your get there.

Juneau to Sitka

We spent 3 nights in Juneau and tried to make it as productive as possible. We did cross paths and caught up on our travels with fellow Queen City Yacht Club members, Wanda and Rico on Wanderer and Lynn and Dave on Willawaw. They arrived in Auke Bay from the south having stayed in Taku Harbor the night before, while we came from the north.

In past years, we have rented a car for a day to run our errands but have now decided that we can get by with riding our bikes, taking the bus or using a Lyft/Uber. The Lyft/Uber drivers are very accustomed to taking people from the Juneau Costco to the harbor at Auke Bay.

During the summer, the Statter Harbor at Auke Bay is very busy with locals coming and going, whale watching tour boats, commercial fishing boats and transient recreational boats such as we are. Another very noticeable presence are the mega yachts. It is common to see 2 or 3 tied to the breakwater dock at Statter Harbor with another anchored out in the deeper section of the bay. Most mega yachts abound with glamour and luxury in their appearance.

On this visit there was a yacht that stood out for its purposeful look. The vessel,180’ Power Play, is in the category of a “support vessel”. Its purpose is to carry the necessary accessories to a larger mega yacht, such as a large (e.g., 50’) tender, jet-skis, or helipad that might interfere with the appearance of the owners primary mega yacht. A little searching on the internet revealed that Power Play was built for Jan Koum, a co-founder of the company WhatsApp (later purchased by Facebook for a reported $19 billion). Sadly, the vessel supported by Power Play, the 241’ Mogambo was not present (its AIS position was in the San Franciso Bay area) at the time.

We departed Juneau on Wednesday, June 19 and headed back towards Chatham Channel. We anchored again in Cedar Cove in Freshwater Bay near the more popular Pavlof Harbor. We dropped our three prawn pots in Freshwater Bay as we went in. This time we were alone in the anchorage.

The weather deteriorated overnight and, while the anchorage was calm and protected, as soon as we poked our nose into Freshwater Bay, we had 2-3’ foot seas. It was a challenge to retrieve our gear, but Marcia’s sharp vision spotted all three pots bobbing up and down in the waves. All our efforts were wasted as we had zero prawns. We won’t be trying there again anytime soon.

We had arranged to meet up with our friends John & Kathleen on Laysan in Takatz Bay. They were coming north up Chatham Channel from Gut Bay and had the wind and seas on their stern making for a relatively comfortable ride. We slogged south down Chatham Channel in 15-20 knot winds and 3’ head seas. We breathed a great sigh of relief when we arrived at the protected entrance channel to Takatz Bay.

We joined John & Kathleen for a paddle in our kayaks to the head of the bay at high tide (at low tide it is a large mud flat). There was a brown bear feeding on sedge grass at the shore’s edge who was not bothered by folks watching him from a respectful distance.

That evening we were invited with John & Kathleen to dinner on the vessel You Dear, belonging to Peter & Gail who are John & Kathleen’s “neighbors” in Petersburg. Peter & Gail were buddy boating with their friends Doug & Karen owners of Peregrine. The meal was seafood recently caught by Peter, Gail, Doug & Karen.

After our second night in Takatz Bay, Alpenglow and Laysan both departed. The wind and seas had calmed down considerably from the day we had arrived. When we departed, John & Kathleen continued north up Chatham Channel with the goal of Hoonah where a haul out was scheduled two days later. We continued south towards Gut Bay.

During our two nights in Gut Bay, we dropped prawn pots which yielded satisfactory results. The salmon fishing, however, was not successful. We decided to return to Sitka for another visit.

Along the way we stopped in Hanus Bay and took our kayaks to shore to access the USFS trail to Lake Eva. The hike was fine, but our timing was poor because we landed on a following tide and had to drag our kayaks a long way across a muddy shoreline and even further after our hike. Not wanting a muddy dog, we carried Drake across the muddy parts of the beach.

After one last night at anchor in the outer cover to DeGroff Bay, we returned to Sitka the morning of Wednesday, June 26.

Sitka to Juneau via Glacier Bay

While we may blame Drake for our spending more time tied to the docks in towns, truth be told, we enjoy the time as well. We spend a lot of time during the day walking as we leisurely work through the few tasks that make it on to our project list.

After six nights in town, on Friday June 7, we headed north out of town along Olga and Neva Passages, retracing our earlier path into to Sitka. Our plan was to apply for a short notice (72 hour) permit for entry into Glacier Bay National Park then head into Juneau afterwards. For our first night, we headed into Appleton Cove on the north shore of Baranof Island. If the wind is blowing along Peril Strait, you don’t get much protection from it at anchor. It was blowing and we didn’t, but winds lessened as the sun dropped lower on the horizon. We did see two brown bears (widely separated) feeding on the ample sedge grass along the shore.

The next day, June 8, we exited Peril Strait and headed north along Chatham Strait. We had applied for our Glacier Bay permit for entry on June 11 earlier in the morning and received notice later that morning that it was successful (it is “first-come, first served”). So, we now had more structure to our plan. For that night we went into Cedar Cove in Freshwater Bay. This was a “new to us” anchorage and we used data provided by Lynn & Neal Parker on the Krogen 48, Navigator to enter this poorly charted area.

The next morning, we made an additional successful application to the National Park Service for entry into Glacier Bay for that day for the purpose of anchoring in Bartlett Cove and attending the mandatory annual boater orientation program. While an entry permit is needed to get to Bartlett Cove, you don’t need a permit to remain in Bartlett Cove. Pets are allowed on shore in certain areas, and we’ve found a suitable area for Drake to play while on a long lead leash.

While Bartlett Cove can be pleasant to spend some time, if the wind has a strong westerly component, it can come pretty much straight in, especially at higher tides, and be bouncy. With a weather forecast for west wind, on June 10, we made one more permit application to the NPS and received a one-day permit for entry into the park that day. That permit, combined with our original permit, allowed us to begin our trip to the upper bay a day earlier. We headed to North Sandy Cove, one of our favorite Glacier Bay anchorages.

The next day, we headed up the west arm and anchored in Reid Inlet. This is a dramatic anchorage with a glacial snout over hanging the beach at the inlet’s head. It feels like you are anchored in a high mountain lake. Unfortunately, the anchorage can be very cold and windy from the winds racing down Reid Glacier. We plunked our anchor down and quickly were blown back on to it, setting it firmly.

An early start the next morning got us to the head of Tarr Inlet and the face of the Margerie Glacier before the first cruise ship of the day. We ended the day anchored on the east shore of Russell Island, another stunning anchorage and without the brisk winds of the previous day. On paddle to a nearby island, I was “encouraged” to leave by a local oyster catcher who apparently had a nest nearby and didn’t want my size10 XtraTuff boots anywhere near it.

After Russell Island, based on the recommendations from another vessel (the small cruise boat Sea Wolf), we anchored in Sebree Cove. It is a fair-weather anchorage looking south across a vast expanse of Glacier Bay. The weather was perfectly acceptable but we didn’t see the extensive wildlife that Sea Wolf had the night before.

After one last night in Glacier Bay at Shag Cove, we made our way to Funter Bay on Admiralty Island. A very early start had us at the busy Statter Harbor Marina (Auke Bay) northwest of downtown Juneau shortly after 8 am, Sunday, June 16.

Petersburg to Sitka

Following our ten-day stay in Petersburg, on Memorial Day, May 27, we headed south with John & Kathleen on Laysan to anchor in Ideal Cove, about 15 miles south of Petersburg.

About ½ mile north of Ideal Cove is beach access to a trail that passes some lakes and eventually reaches one of the roads on Mitkof Island. Laysan launched their dinghy and graciously took Marcia, Drake and I over to the trailhead. By this time is was the afternoon and we only walked about a mile along the trail before turning around and returning to the anchorage.

The next day we parted ways with the Douglas’s who were still in shakedown mode and were planning to stay a few more days before moving on. We headed up to Pybus Bay where we dropped three prawn pots in our usual spot. Starting last year, the Alaska Department of Fish and Game had moved the commercial prawning season from October to May. While the commercial prawning season in the district encompassing Pybus Bay had closed we weren’t sure whether our pots would be able to harvest any prawns leftover from the commercial prawners. We anchored for the night in one of our favorite spots west of the West Brother Island.

The next morning, the weather had deteriorated a bit, and the anchorage was a little bouncy. We headed over to Pybus Bay to retrieve our pots. The wind and sea conditions made it a little challenging and while we did a respectable haul of prawns, we elected to not reset the pots but instead headed further west in Fredrick Sound to the Honey Dew anchorage. This is another favorite anchorage of ours as it has a lovely beach to which we paddle kayaks to shore and play ball with Drake.

The weather continued to be unsettled so we decided to repeat the route from 2023 in which we headed to Warm Springs Bay. In the early season, the dock there isn’t as crowded and finding space is easier. There is a small community of vacation homes along boardwalks leading up from the dock and three tubs fed by a piping from the hot springs up the hill from the dock.

We got our soak in the tubs after we arrived, but soon heavy rainfall and its runoff overwhelmed the flow of from the hot springs and the tubs became tepid and discolored by the tannin from the ground water. We decided to cut our losses. After two nights, we did an early start, rode favorable wind and current and made the 83-mile journey to Sitka, arriving the afternoon of June 1.

Petersburg

The annual Little Norway Festival in Petersburg honors the town’s and communities’ Norwegian heritage. It is Petersburg largest community event and held in the middle of May over a weekend close to the Norwegian Constitution Day, May 17.  Like many small town celebrations, there are parades, contests, demonstrations and many opportunities to eat and drink.

We arrived on Friday, May 17 which was the day of the parade followed by the very popular herring toss and street fair (crafts, food vendors and beer gardens).

I’ve red circled the herrings in flight in the photograph.

We made the extra effort to get to Petersburg in time for the festival in part to meet up with friends also attending. John & Kathleen arrived a two days ahead of us to start bringing their boat out of its winter hibernation. Not exactly intended, we ended up moored next to them on the dock.  Their boat was built at the same time as ours at the Seahorse Marine boatyard.

Also arriving ahead of us were Natala and Don Goodman accompanied by Dave Adams. Dave owns two aircraft that he built but neither are on floats. Don, Dave and I were on the successful 1981 Denali South Buttress climb. They had flown up on Don & Natala’s Cessna 182 equipped with floats.  The US Forest Service has many cabins in SE Alaska only accessible by float planes or boat available to rent.  Don & Natala have done several previous trips visiting some cabins and where possible we’ve met up with them along the way.

On Saturday, the highlight of the day was the Kaffe Hus. This is a fund raiser for the Sons of Norway in which homemade traditional Norwegian treats are laid out buffet style and you can fill your plate to your heart’s content. Bringing a container or ziploc bag to carry something back to the boat is always a smart idea.

Later that day Marcia watched intently while a 90 pound halibut was swiftly carved up into four portions by a professional from the local processing plant.

Both Friday and Saturday evenings we gathered as a group on the boats to have beverages, snacks and conversation. Weather permitting it was outside on the flybridge.

Don, Natala and Dave flew out on Sunday in a weather window ahead of an approaching weather front. Before leaving the area, Don flew east towards the coast range separating the SE Alaskan Panhandle from British Columbia.  They had beautiful weather for a flyby of Devils Thumb, a prominent peak visible from Petersburg.

The last Little Norway Festival event we attended was the Rotary Club Seafood Bake & Barbecue. The seafood served were ample portions of king salmon and black cod. The setting is at the Sandy Beach park which looks east out over Fredrick Sound.

We haven’t quite figured out when and where we’ll go from here.  Since we bypassed Ketchikan, we are “spending” those days we “saved” here in Petersburg.  There are places for Drake to play and for me to walk, so no hurry.

Alaska Cruise XIV

We started our 2024 cruising season on Saturday, May 4, one day earlier than we originally targeted. The winds looked to be less fearsome on Saturday than Sunday so we speeded our preparations up a bit.  The first stop was Anacortes where we took on fuel and had some work done on the boat.

Because the work was done on Monday, we needed three nights in Anacortes and didn’t depart until Tuesday.  We cleared BC customs in Port Browning on North Pender Island in the Gulf Islands.  Our yacht club subsidizes our moorage at the marina there (it is considered an “outstation”), it has a nearby grocery store, a restaurant and a huge lawn for Drake to play on, all very attractive features.

After this leisurely start, our northward grind began.  Over the years, we’ve fallen into the practice of traveling “fast” on the northbound trip to SE Alaska and “slow” on the southbound journey. When in that “fast” mode we travel when conditions allow and take advantage of all of the daylight, routinely leaving at first light and stopping at the last good anchorage before last light.  This year was an example of that.  From Port Browning, over the next 10 days until our next port of call we covered 713 miles in about 112 engine hours until Petersburg.  As we traveled north, we realized that we could get to Petersburg in time to attend some of the best parts of the Little Norway Festival we enjoyed so much last year. The US Customs and Border Patrol’s mobile ROAM app allowed us to clear customs without going into port so we were able pass by Ketchikan without stopping.

The map below shows our route from Anacortes to Petersburg. 

While we didn’t do a lot of photography on the way north, we do have two photos of us (or at least our boat) as we headed north.  The first is a photo taken by fellow Queen City Yacht Club members, Lois and Geary Long, as they passed us in their Selene 62, Raven, north of Cape Caution approaching  Calvert Island.  The second is a photo by our friends, Kathleen and John Douglas, owners of our sistership Laysan.  The photo was taken from the Alaska Airlines flight they were on to return to their boat in Petersburg as the plane was making its scheduled stop in Ketchikan.  It was quite a coincidence that their plane made its landing approach as we were passing by in Tongass Narrows.

Boat Data

I’ve always been comfortable working with data and computers. It turns out that boating generates gobs of data that provide me ample opportunities to do both.

When, in August 2021, we replaced our lead-acid house bank batteries with lithium ferro phosphate (LFP) batteries, their cost, the desire to maximize their longevity and the associated monitoring equipment we installed gave me the impetus to try “up my game” on the analysis of data.

To help me along, I installed a Raspberry Pi (RasPi) microcomputer that connects (and is powered by) the NMEA 2000 (N2k) data bus (installed when the boat was built) running through the boat. The bus cable connects lots of the devices (e.g., inverter/chargers) and sensors (e.g.., voltage and current sensors) onboard.  To collect all the data on the RasPi, I installed the SignalK server software. Fortunately, I was able to use this very helpful blog post from another boater (far more skilled than I am) to work my way through the process. .

The first goal was simply  to display all of the data being harvested. I ended up using the WilhelmSK app on a used second generation iPad Mini. After a few false starts, I created four screens, one for each operational state of the boat (i.e., “At the Dock”, “Cruising”, “At Anchor” and “Generator Running”).  In each screen, I try to display the most relevant boat data for that state that isn’t already being shown elsewhere.

After running the SignalK system for the 2022 cruising season and finding it to be very reliable, I added data logging to it by installing the InfluxDB timeseries database. To keep that data logging manageable, I identified 22 data fields (e.g., wind speed, battery voltage, battery state of charge) to be logged.  The raw data is retained for 24 hours but every 5-minutes is downsampled to summary data (i.e., means and max’s).. Again this is to keep the data manageable. The 24-hour raw data from just 22 data elements is about 800,000 observations. The 24-hour downsampled data is about 6,000 observations.

I load the downsampled data to my laptop computer into a database (PostgreSQL). From the database I can further analyze it with Excel. I even installed the Grafana software which allows the creation of “dashboards” that can graphically show large quantities of data on one screen.  In my usage, It isn’t a real time data but it does give insight in the relationship between various measurements and any trendlines.

The example in the graph to the right is from our June 26 departure at anchor in Bartlett Cove to go further up Glacier Bay.  It is the raw data (i.e., not down sampled to 5-minute increments) so the 2-hour period shown in the chart has several thousand data points for each parameter. After the engine starts, the alternator output is limited to what it can produce at idle, about 90-100 amps. After the anchor is pulled and we increase the engine speed to normal cruising (~1500 rpm) the alternator output goes to a little above 150 amps (about 4KW of power). The alternator temperature goes up from an initial 70°F to a little over 170°F. Our Balmar 624 regulator is now operating in “bulk” mode where it is trying to output as many amps as the alternator or battery can handle. Because our house bank batteries are LFP chemistry, the battery voltage hardly budges (most lead-acid batteries have a fairly linear voltage response in bulk mode) until we reach a 93% State of Charge (SoC) at which point the battery voltage begins rising more quickly..

When the voltage reaches the absorption voltage, the regulator switches to “absorption” mode and holds the voltage relatively constant adjusting the alternator output amperage to accomplish it. As soon the alternator output begins to decline, the alternator temperature begins falling. Our Victron battery monitor (BMV-712), also detects the falling output and the 99% SoC and decides to says “close enough” by jumping the SoC to 100%..

To protect the battery from being over charged, the alternator is programmed conservatively and only holds the absorption voltage for about 12 minutes before transitioning to “float” mode. It gradually drops its target voltage over a 6-minute period from 28.4V to 27.2V.  Because the battery has been “stuffed” full of electrons at 28.4V as soon as the alternator lowers its target, the batteries actually deplete slightly. Our normal cruising load (e.g., electronics, fans, furnace) is about 30 amps, so as the voltage drops, part of that is provided by the alternator (e.g., 24A) while the remainder is provided by the battery (e.g., 6A).  Once the final float voltage of 27.2V is reached, the batteries settle down and the alternator takes on the full boat electrical load.  The alternator temperature also reaches its normal cruising temperature of about 110°F, down 60°F from its highpoint only 20 minutes earlier.

Fortunately, I don’t have to analyze the data to this level every time we operate the boat. While at the helm, I’ve stared at the display screen I described at the beginning of this post for two years now. At least at the gross level, I think I can see what is normal operation and any variation from the expected (famous last words). 

All-Years Cruise Totals (through 2023)

The table below shows the end-of-cruise numbers from our log sheets for the thirteen cruises through 2023.  Most of the tallies are self explanatory but some comments about the methodology of my logging:

• As a practice, I don’t include the last travel day of our cruise back to our home port in the “@ Dock” numbers for where we spent the night. Consequently the sum of where we spent the nights is generally one less than the length of the trip. The year 2020 is an exception because we did an overnight run without stopping to speed our transit through British Columbia during the Covid lockdowns.
• The engine hours are taken from hour meter at the lower helm and reflect the time from starting the engine in the morning until the it is turned off at the end of day.
• The distance is captured by the Coastal Explorer (CE) navigation app running at the navigation computer at the lower helm which records our position every one-tenth of a mile.
• I started recording our “Time Idling” in 2014 when we started to do more fishing activities that required us to idle while stationary or while trolling.  I did this so that my “average speed” calculations (distance traveled divided by engine hours) weren’t distorted by the time we were fishing or sightseeing (e.g., in Glacier Bay).and not actually trying to go somewhere. It is guestimate and not recorded with any rigor. Time anchoring or docking are not included in idle time.

	Year	# of Days	At Anchor	At a Dock	On a Buoy	Distance Traveled	Engine Hours	Gen. Hours	Time Idling
	2010	129	57	66	5	3,221	517.1	40.4
	2011	115	81	33		3,465	577.4	31.3
	2013	151	99	50	1	3,667	630.0	53.3
	2014	141	86	48	6	4,052	720.8	34.8	48.5
	2015	104	67	31	5	3,580	629.2	28.7	42.4
	2016	141	99	39	2	3,979	700.0	51.9	68.6
	2017	140	91	46	2	3,817	656.5	62.2	51.1
	2018	112	71	40		3,170	528.6	33.9	38.2
	2019	118	82	35		3,816	649.5	16.3	56.6
	2020	63	42	12	6	2,527	399.7	32.8	11.5
	2021	110	81	26	2	3,317	554.0	66.0	27.5
	2022	139	88	47	3	3,584	613.6	19.5	42.9
	2023	139	84	54		3,024	510.4	36.0	33.7
	Total	1,602	1,028	527	32	45,219	7,686.8	507.1	421.0

The map below shows all of the places we have stopped overnight during all our cruises. It is similar in style to our yearly cruise maps except that when the marker for a particular spot is selected, the data for the spot is the total number of times we’ve stayed and in which years.