Sitka to Juneau

While in Sitka, I had a phone conversation with Dave Nagle cruising on the Diesel Duck DavidEllis. He was in Chatham Strait headed towards Sitka and we agreed to rendezvous in Douglass Bay on our first night out from Sitka and the night before they went into Sitka, June 29. We’ve stayed in Douglass Bay numerous times, but it would be their first time. We both arrived about the same time and rafted together. The evening was spent catching up with boat projects and solving the world’s problems.

The next morning, we parted ways with the Nagles and continued east in Peril Strait, targeting Point Moses Cove in Hanus Bay for the night. We arrived early enough that I considered putting the kayak in the water and paddling near shore. The consistent 10-15 knot west wind persuaded me it would be more pleasant to stay aboard and listen to an audio book.

Our original plans when we left Sitka were to head towards Icy Strait, fishing for halibut along the way, with the goal of getting a last-minute permit to enter Glacier Bay National Park. Those plans changed when I went to turn on the furnace the morning July 1 and found the furnace control panel had failed. The furnace is the key to our comfortable Alaska cruising. Not only does it heat the boat, it heats the water while we are anchored and underway. Running the generator can accomplish some of those tasks but is a lot less efficient. Pretty quickly we decided our best course was to head up to Juneau and get the failed part repaired or replaced.

We had good speed up Chatham Strait, boosted by the flood current. The winds were light until we reached the junction of Icy Strait, Lynn Canal and Chatham Strait at which time they picked up to a steady 15 knots out of the south. Not long after, we anchored in Funter Bay on Admiralty Island. The anchorage didn’t provide much relief from the winds which stayed 10-15 knots all night long.

The anchor was well set by the wind the next morning, when we pulled it from the bottom for the leg into Juneau. We were fortunate that the commercial salmon openings had not closed yet so we were able to quickly find a space on the Auke Bay transient mooring docks without having to compete with the seiners, gill netters and trollers.

Miles traveled this leg – 156.6; engine hours – 24.9

Total miles traveled – 1256.9; engine hours – 191.7