Meandering to Juneau – June 7 to June 28

Meander seems to be the operative term to describe our cruising style this season. Similar to our previous leg out of Ketchikan, we first did a short excursion near Sitka then returned to stay a few more days.

South of Sitka for about 30 miles is a section of coast that has offshore islands that create a protected travel route with many good anchorages. From Sitka, we cruised to Kliuchevoi Bay, which is next to the very popular Goddard Hot Springs. This was our first visit here because we’ve been put off by the crowds that we expected to find here. Perhaps because it was still early in the cruising season, the hot springs were not crowded, and we managed to have one of the two USFS constructed bath house to ourselves on the two days we were in Kliuchevoi Bay.

From here we made a short jaunt to First Narrows Cove, nestled between three islands with a narrow entry channel. It was rocky and had no functional beach, so we then went to Seven Fathom Bay where the USFS has a recreational cabin. In front of the cabin was a grassy area above a shallow rocky beach on which we landed our dinghy. Drake thought the beach perfect, so we suspect we’ll be visiting again. Our last night before returning to Sitka was in Leesofskaia Bay, a short distance from Sitka.

The next morning, we docked back in Eliason Harbor of Sitka, coincidentally in the same  slip as we had five days earlier. While in Sitka we attended one of the evening concerts from the Sitka Music Festival, did lots of walks on the trails around the town, and picked up all the packages we were expecting.

On Friday, June 19, after a luxurious seven days in Sitka, we headed out. We had been communicating with Kathleen & John Douglas on Laysan (a sister ship to Alpenglow), and had agreed to rendezvous on Kuiu Island. We made an intermediate anchorage at Ell Cove on Baranof Island, before meeting up with Laysan. Also joining the rendezvous was Luck Dragon owned by Ed and Carlene (aka, Charlie). Luck Dragon is a “classic” Diesel Duck 462 that is a cousin ship to our sedan style Diesel Duck. We dropped our dinghy to shuttle folks between the vessels for our evening gatherings on Laysan. After two nights in the Shelter Bay area of Tebenkof Bay, we all went our separate ways.

Our next stop was a relatively short distance north to Rowan Bay. There is a USFS dock here but it isn’t advertised as a public dock. We went and checked it out with our dinghy hoping for convenient shore access for walking the roads. As best, I can determine, it is more likely a work float or designed for float planes. The USFS has an extensive road system on Kuiu Island and they may stage some of their support activities from here. There were several trucks parked at the top of the dock. We did a short walk and found what we believe were moose droppings.

We then crossed Chatham Strait to Gut Bay where we dropped our prawn pots before anchoring. The catch the next morning was skimpy so we did not reset but instead headed back across Chatham Strait to Saginaw Bay. John Douglas had mentioned a trail that led from the anchorage at its end to connect with the Kuiu Island road system. This was a “new to us” anchorage and perfectly fine but a long ways back. When I had talked to John about the anchorage, I neglected to ask which stream fork led up to the trail and, of course, when presented with a choice, chose the wrong fork. Something for another visit.

A long day from Rowan got us to Pavlof Harbor on Chichagof Island and a shorter one the next day to Whitestone Harbor. We were positioning to go into Juneau but with a windy forecast, rather the moving to Funter Bay about 12 miles closer to Juneau than Whitestone, we elected to stay two nights in Whitestone. A very early start on Sunday, June 28 had us in Juneau before 10 AM.

Leg 3 – 13 Travel Days, 385.5 NM, 66.7 Engine Hours

Meandering to Sitka – May 13 to June 3

In recent years we have set goals that get us north of Ketchikan quickly (e.g., Little Norway Festival in Petersburg or beating the start of the commercial prawning season). This year, absent such a goal we took a less scripted and meandering path.

First, since it had been a few years since we we’ve been around Revillagigedo Island  (this is the very large island on which Ketchikan is located). The circumnavigation of the island is about 125 miles (not counting diversions for anchoring) but since we don’t particularly enjoy the SE corner of the route, we traveled clockwise around the island as far as Walker Cove on the east channel of Behm Canal then turned around to retrace our route counterclockwise. Besides, Walker Cove, we used Yes Bay and Traitor Cove as intermediate stops in both directions. Traitor Cove was a new stop for us. It has a public dock which we were able to use on the return leg of the trip. After this 6-day jaunt we returned to the Bar Harbor docks of Ketchikan.

After two nights in Ketchikan, we started our northbound journey in earnest and traveled first to Frosty Bay, about 2/3’s of the way from Ketchikan to Wrangell. We’ve gone past Frosty Bay many times since it is only about 4 miles north of Santa Anna Inlet, an anchorage we’ve used often. There is a USFS cabin at the bay but we didn’t have time to check it out before leaving the next morning. We continued the next day to Berg Bay, which also has a USFS cabin. Here we did have time and we launched our dinghy, taking Drake to shore and playing ball with him on the grassy patch in front of the cabin.

From Berg Bay we traveled to Wrangell for the Memorial Day weekend. One of the attractions of going to a dock in a SE Alaska town are the walks we can do. Wrangell has sidewalks along most of their roads as well a few trails, so Drake is always anxious to get off the boat and start exploring the different scents. It being spring-time in SE Alaska, one of the scents are the blooming skunk cabbages.

Up to this point we had not done any prawn fishing. The commercial prawn season started on May 15 but it was now closed in most districts. We decided to try some of the areas in Fredrick Sound that were productive for us last year. We traveled first to Sanborn Canal in Port Houghton. The next day, we dropped our prawn pots on the way into Hobart Bay for the night. We were disappointed by the slim harvest of prawns but attributed some of the shortfall to the octopus that was in one of our pots when we pulled it up.

From here we traveled a little north to Windham Harbor to drop pots. The next day’s harvest was pretty good, but we had to work for it. Both this year and last year, we've been surprised by how strong the tidal current is here, and by its timing. We pull our pots by hand, and the current makes that harder: the boat drifts with the current, but the pot sits still on the bottom. So, as we haul the line in, it's dragging through moving water the whole way — like pulling a drogue. The stronger the current, the harder the pull. We thought we were pulling pretty close to slack (an hour after low) but the current was acting like nealy a one knot ebb current.

Even though it had only been a few days since we had been in Wrangell, Drake was getting antsy, so we headed to an anchorage with a nice play beach, Honey Dew Cove on Kuiu Island. Two nights here seemed to do the trick. To reward ourselves as well as satisfy Drake’s needs, we headed next to Warm Springs Bay on Baranof Island. We were able to get on the public dock which made accessing the trail to Baranof Lake and the hot baths convenient. Again, two nights seemed to do the trick.

An “oh-dark” start from Warm Springs Bay allowed us to get to the DeGroff Bay near Sitka in one day. The next morning, June 3, had us on the dock in Eliasen Harbor in Sitka completing this leg.

Leg 2 – 16 Travel Days, 569.4 NM, 93.5 Engine Hours