Sitka Roll-up – July 5 through July 16

We arrived in Sitka on Saturday having completed our trip from Wrangell to Sitka. Rather than a day by day journal, I’ll give a description of the highlights with photos. At the end will be a log of the anchorages and distances traveled.

For this leg of our trip, joining us were our friends Ginny and Ken Crowder. They had never been in Alaska before so we set so goals for the trip:

1. Get the Crowder’s safely to Sitka
2. Experience some of SE Alaska communities
3. Experience the slower pace and quiet of cruising
4. See whales
5. See ice
6. See bears
7. See sea otters

After the 4th of July celebrations in Wrangell, we started off towards Petersburg via Wrangell Narrows. We anchored out in Deception Cove at the south end of Wrangell Narrows in order to time the current correctly for the next day.

Before we docked in Petersburg we gave the Crowder’s another boating experience, that of boat problems. Since we passed by Petersburg at 6:30 AM, we went out into Fredrick Sound to kill some time and sight-see. As we were traveling along, we suddenly heard a very loud fan-like noise unlike anything we’ve heard before. After a minute of panic trying to figure out what it was, we identify it as the bow thruster. Flipping the breaker off solved the immediate problem. Some quick diagnosis, isolated the problem to the bow thruster control at the upper helm. As best we can figure it out, the control unit failed and sent signals to the bow thruster motor causing it to operate in a mode it ought not to.  A replacement was ordered and will be picked up in Sitka.

At the parking lock adjoining the docks was a tree adorned with 14 eagles. There are several seafood processing plants in Petersburg and apparently the eagles find easy pickings from the seafood waste released.

For whales, in the area just north of Cape Fanshaw, we were fortunate to watch for over a half-hour two humpback whales feeding nearby. They dived repeatedly and resurfaced five minutes later only a few hundred yards from where they went under.

Humpback whales remained common occurrences the rest of the trip and we even added porpoises surfacing our bow wake and a pod of orca whales to the cetacean list.

For ice, we headed into Tracy Arm where the tide water Sawyer Glaciers pumps ice into the water. The South Sawyer Glacier where we visited last year was too choked with ice to get to but the area in front of the North Sawyer Glacier was nearly wide open.

Most SE Alaska tide water glaciers are receding. In the case of the North Sawyer, it is nearly 3/4 of a mile further back than the nautical charts show. It is a little disconcerting to see your charted position as being somewhere on a glacier. While bobbling in the water a 1/2 mile from the glacier (we are cowards), we did see a big chunk of the glacier fall off producing a significant swell which struck us several minutes later (photo courtesy of Ken Crowder).

After Tracy Arm, we headed towards the Pack Creek Bear Viewing Area near Windfall Harbor in the Seymour Canal. Last year we went to the Anan Wildlife Viewing Area. The two have different feels. Anan is very intimate because the viewing platform is only 50 yards or so directly above a plunging stream. At Pack Creek, you are more distant and the surroundings are more open. Both are worth the trip.

From Pack Creek we headed towards Sitka via Peril Strait, enjoying several quiet anchorages along the way.

On the last day of the cruise, instead of going directly from our anchorage in the Magoun Islands to Sitka, we threw in a loop out into Sitka Sound around St Lazaria Island, a protected island for sea birds. On the way back in, we got the last item on the to punch  list of things to see, sea otters.

	Date	Destination	Distance
	7/5/2011	Deception Cove	22.5
	7/6/2011	Petersburg	44.9
	7/7/2011	Sandborn Canal	55.0
	7/8/2011	Tracy Arm Cove	38.9
	7/9/2011	Tracy Arm Cove	49.5
	7/10/2011	Windfall Harbor	43.6
	7/11/2011	Windfall Harbor	0.0
	7/12/2011	Henry’s Arm – Pybus Bay	49.8
	7/13/2011	Ell Cove	45.0
	7/14/2011	Appleton Cove	31.4
	7/15/2011	Magoun Islands	39.0
	7/16/2011	Sitka	30.4
		Total miles (nm) traveled this leg	450.0
		Total miles (nm) traveled to date	1667.5