Petersburg to Sitka

After four days in Petersburg, we headed out on June 14 with plans to rendezvous with John & Kathleen (MV Laysan, sistership to Alpenglow) in four days at Tracy Arm Cove.  Until then, we were going to hit some anchorages we had never stayed in before.

First on the list was Cascade Creek in Thomas Bay.  John & Kathleen visit it often because of its proximity to Petersburg (<20 miles away).  In our past visits to Thomas Bay we've stayed in the Ruth Island Cove, just across the bay from Cascade Creek. Two other boats were already there but we followed John & Kathleen's instructions and found a fine anchorage nearby.  We launched our dinghy and motored over to the beach in front of the Cascade Creek Trail head. We only hiked a half-mile or so before coming back.  While the trail goes all the way to Swan Lake, it reportedly hasn't been maintained regularly and has blockages from tree falls.

The next day we stayed in Thomas Bay and motored 6-1/2 miles to Scenery Cove near the northeast corner. We arrived near low tide so took the dinghy to shore to see if the "sandy beach" we could see was suitable for Drake ball play. Sadly it was not suitable, being too water saturated. We were sinking several inches with each step and the sand clinging to our rubber boots. When we got back to the boat, it took many buckets of salt water to clean sand off and pump it mostly out of the dinghy.

After two days of relaxing, it was time to start fishing.  We traveled north around Cape Fanshaw and headed to Hobart Bay.  During our only visit to Hobart Bay in 2018 as we were going in, we noticed a float for a presumed prawn pot.  I noted its location on our electronic chart and this was going to be our chance to see if there was anything there.  We dropped two "test" pots as we went into the very protected NW Cove where we anchored for the night.

The next day, we went out to retrieve our test pots (hoping for good results) and then head to the Windham Bay, the next bay north.  As we exited the protected portion of Hobart Bay into the outer bay we noticed some pronounced waves buffeting us.  Retrieving the two pots became a real and unpleasant challenge but we were rewarded by a good number of prawns in one of the pots.  We proceeded north in Stephens Passage but it was clear that the conditions were not as forecasted (North 10 kts, Seas 2 ft or less).  A quick refresh of the National Weather Service forecast showed that it had been updated to North 20 kts, Seas 5 ft!  At the same time as were getting beat up, about 6 or 7 miles south of us, John and Kathleen were exiting Port Houghton and starting north with the intention of going to Holkham Bay to anchor in Tracy Arm Cove.  We were to join them the next day after we pulled the test prawn pots we were going to set in Windham Bay.  We both decided that it made no sense to bash into short steep heads so each of us turned around and went back to our previous anchorages, declare a "weather delay", and slide the schedule one day later.

Conditions were dramatically improved the next day and we did proceed to Windham Bay, drop two test pots and anchor the night in the "nook" on the south side of the bay's entrance. We retrieved them the following morning, harvesting a fine collection of prawns.  We then continued to Tracy Arm Cove in Holkham Bay, just inside the entrance bar to Tracy Arm.

John & Kathy had guests with them and they wanted to show them one of the supreme sights in SE Alaska, Fords Terror off of Endicott Arm.  We had never been there before, being intimidated by the name, the poor charting and its tricky entrance timing.  We jumped at the chance to tag along behind John & Kathleen who had been there five times previously.

The Juneau high tide time plus 50 minutes is the time John recommended for being at the entrance of Ford Terror. With a cushion so as not to be late at the entrance, for June 20 we agreed on 0540 departure from Tracy Arm Cove (an excellent description of entering Fords Terror is at the Slowboat web site). Having done it several times before, John went first and I followed.  The timing was excellent as neither the currents going over the shallow or at the 90-degree elbow were an issue.  I did have alarms from the some of my instruments that receive GPS signals when they temporarily lost their fix due to satellites being blocked by steep cliffs.

The hype about the scenery in Fords Terror is not overblown. There are an abundance of waterfalls and cascades over the rock faces which soar over the glassy waters. We were anchored in the West Arm and used our dinghy's to explore the East Arm. We spent three nights there and were fortunate to have all to ourselves the first night.  Four additional boats came in the second night and four more the third.

While our entrance to Fords Terror went smoothly, we felt a little more pressure when exiting as seven other boats were exiting on the high tide of June 23.  Though we weren't the first boat through, we did have six other boats, all faster than our stately pace, behind us.  Fortunately, everything was fine and once out of the narrow entrance channel any faster boats that needed, passed us by.

At this point, we parted ways with John & Kathleen as they needed to take their guests to Juneau where they would fly out while we were heading to Sitka. The timing of our exit meant that we had a late arrival to our anchorage in the West Brother Cove we like so much.  We spent two nights there so that Drake got to play on both of the gravel beaches bordering the cove.

We had lovely weather in Fords Terror, but after our second night in West Brother it began to change to clouds and chances of rain. We continued our journey towards Sitka stopping in Ell Cove on Baranof Island for the night.  During the low tide cycle, we got to watch a brown bear working the shoreline and looking for a meal.

From Ell Cove we traveled to Ushk Bay on Chichagof Island for one night then continued to Sitka the next morning.  It was raining in Sitka when we arrived but the winds were calm, making for an uneventful docking.  It didn't take long for Drake to have his first (of many) play session in Sitka at the nearby dog park.