May 6 - Ketchikan

The last post talked about our steady northward jog to Alaska and it continued all the way to Ketchikan, arriving at the Bar Harbor marina in Ketchikan in the early afternoon.  From Campbell River to Ketchikan we plodded along for seven straight days averaging 11 hours of engine operation and covering an average of 72 miles a day.  The only variation to the normal route was taking Principe/Petrel Channel on the west side Pitt Island rather than Grenville Channel for the last section of the “ditch”.

Mostly we saw very few vessels, commercial or pleasure.  We were passed by one pleasure craft north of Cape Caution and then did not see another cruising boat until we churned up Revillagigedo Channel towards Ketchikan.  Even the commercial traffic was light.

The most “excitement” we had was when we were boarded by the RCMP on the north side of Dundas Island as we were rounding the corner to go into Brundige Inlet for the evening anchor.  I think they boarded us partly out of boredom because of so little vessel activity and the fact that we had not been inspected when we cleared into Canada at Montague Harbour (we had a telephone clearance number and waited at the dock for the required 15 minutes but no one showed up).  A few routine questions and we received a copy of their completed inspection form for our boat book.

We’ll be here three nights then will do a short trip to some favorite anchorages around Behm Canal.  We have an appointment to get the Honda outboard motor serviced at the local shop on 4/15.  They are very busy right now as everyone is getting ready for the local fishing derby coming up.

Ship’s log is 120.2 hours and 761.5 miles since leaving Eagle Harbor, Bainbridge Island.

When the weather is good . . .

The answer to the question is " . . . keep moving." And so we have.

We arrived at the Discovery Harbour Marina in Campbell River the late morning on Tuesday, April 29. We’ve been targeting that day because the slack current before the ebb flow at Seymour Narrows (8 miles north of Campbell River) was 6:22 AM right after sunrise. The ebb current from Campbell River north to the end of Vancouver Island flows north. When you are travelling in a slow boat like Alpenglow, you pay attention to the current because it makes a huge difference in your speed.

The weather on April 30 set up well and we took off at 5 AM in the early twilight. We hit the narrows about five minutes late, going through with several other boats (including the Alaska high speed ferry MV Fairweather). The moderate winds were on our tail and blowing in the same direction as the current making the ride easy. We motored along between 8 and 10 knots boosted by the current.

While the current wasn't always in our favor, by the end of the 13 hour day, we reached Cullen Harbour, 89 miles from Campbell River. While at anchor that evening, the sun warmed the surrounding air to the low 70's, pretty good for the last day of April.

May 1 dawned equally as nice and another early start found us in Queen Charlotte Strait headed north around Cape Caution. While we dropped our stabilizer poles in case we needed to deploy the stabilizing fish, the very low swell and modest chopped made them unnecessary.

We were surprised how light the vessel traffic was having seen only one other north bound pleasure craft and only a few other commercial craft going in either direction. We ended our day, 84 miles further along, in Kwakume Inlet on the mainland side of Fitz Hugh Sound. While the evening wasn't quite as warm, we did enjoy upper 60's from the flybridge seats after dinner.

The plan is to continue moving so long as the weather permits safe & comfortable travel.

Cruise 2014 - Jogging to Alaska

While describing our summer cruise to Alaska to someone, it struck me how different its pace is from most other modes of powered travel. We cruise the interstate highway's at 70 miles per hour. Jet airliners are speeding along at 500+ mph. Even the advertised "leisurely" pace of large cruise liners is in excess of 20 mph.

We normally cruise just below 7 knots. That works out to about 8 mph which means one mile is traveled every 7-1/2 minutes. As it turns out this pace is pretty close to that of a brisk jog.

As we travel to/from and within SE Alaska this summer, probably close to 3,500 miles, I'll visualize the trip as from the perspective of a persistent jogger, one with far better endurance than I ever had.

============

On Wednesday, April 23, the first "jog" was from our winter homeport in Eagle Harbor, Bainbridge Island to Anacortes. The cats, Annie & Maggie, reminded us to mind the sea conditions by both throwing up within 20 minutes of leaving the dock. Fortunately, our route shortly turned north and the following seas and current smoothed the ride out pretty well the rest of the way to Anacortes.

After a few chores and final provisions, we crossed on April 25 into Canada, stopping at Clam Bay on Penelakut Island for the night. We cleared Canadian Customs at Montague Harbour easily when the Canadian Customs officials chose not to show up to verify the veracity of our declarations (we NEVER lie to customs officials).

While crossing the Strait of Georgia on April 26 was a little rolly on account of quartering seas, we got to Pender Harbour without issue. The anchoring was another issue and we ended up taking three attempts before finding a spot for the night that we like on account of wind and the moored boats.

The bad experience continued next morning, April 27, when the anchor chain jumped the anchor roller and we had to fuss a bit to get it back in the track. Fortunately, the weather improved as we continued to Prideaux Haven in Desolation Sound where we shared the anchorage with one other boat (in August there will probably be 40 other boats).

Winter Homeport

Last March, we closed on purchasing a house in the Tucson area (Executing the Plan).  Marcia spent a grand total of five nights in it before closing up for the summer and returning to the PNW to get ready for the 2013 cruising season.

Last October, we stuffed the remnants of our Seattle house, that had been stuffed into a 10’ x 10’ storage unit, into a 8’ x 16’ moving pod for shipment to our new house, 1600 miles away.  About 10 days after our possessions left the area, we (Marcia, myself and the cats) followed on the first “great migration”.  We arrived at our new winter homeport on Halloween and have been busy settling in to it and the area since then.

Since we kept only a few pieces of furniture, we’ve had to improvise until we’ve acquired new items.  One improvisation was taking the middle row of seats from the minivan and using them as our “couch”.

So far, the transition to a land based living has been easy and luxurious.  Living on the boat forces us to compromise on space and resources (e.g., water and electricity) in ways we don’t in the house.  The weather this winter has been exactly what we hoped for, moderate temperatures, ample sun and generally dry.  We’re able to do pleasant walks directly from the house, and even better hikes a short drive away.  We’ve used our bikes more now than since 2008.

While the weather is comfortable now, we know that the hot season here will return and our enthusiasm for the area will wilt.  We plan on returning to the boat towards the end of March, prepare and provision the boat, then depart for our 2014 cruising toward the end of April.

2013 Alaska Cruise by the Numbers

We arrived back to our winter moorage on Bainbridge Island on Thursday, September 12.  With luck, we’ll fill in the blank weeks since the last log posting sometime this fall.  In the meantime, I’ll provide a summary of the trip by the numbers.

151	Total days on the cruise
99	Nights at anchor (66%).
51	Nights at a dock (34%).
3667	Nautical miles traveled
630	Engine hours
23	Days in which the generator operated
53.3	Generator hours

In terms of fuel consumption, we fueled up on the way north in Anacortes our first first port of call and again at Anacortes near the end of the trip (day 143). We tried to top off the tanks on both occasions.

1185	Gallons of fuel
600.6	Engine hours
3485	Nautical miles traveled
48.4	Generator hours
???	Hours of furnace operation

With regards to engine hours, this is from the time the engine is started (before lines are untied or the anchor is pulled) and the time the engine is shut off (after the lines are secured or the anchor is set and snubbed).  The miles traveled are from the chart plotting software I run (Coastal Explorer 2011) on my navigation computer. 

Our total trip average speed (distance traveled divided by engine hours) is “slower” this year than in previous years mostly because we did more fishing from the “big” boat rather than from the dinghy. I have not tried to back out of the data the time spent trolling at a slow speed or drifting while mooching.

Below is a map showing all of the places we stayed overnight at.  If you select one of the place markers, it will show its name and some data on our visit to it.

View Cruise 2013 in a larger map

Week 19 - Guests and more time in the Broughton Islands

On Monday, August 19 we headed for Port McNeill early (to beat any afternoon wind, which is always strong there). Indeed the wind picked up, but we were secure and started to do chores, including laundry, getting the forward cabin ready. On Tuesday, I provisioned with freshies, and our friends Ginny and Ken arrived around 4:30. We had dinner that night at Gus's Pub where they have nice prawns items on the menu. The following morning was final provisioning at 8 when the grocery store opened and then we're off.

First stop Cullen Harbor, and we saw several whales, Humpback and Orca on the way to Cullen. As soon as we arrived we launched the dinghy and Kurt went into Booker Lagooon and dropped the prawn traps. In the evening a few hours later, he and Ken went in to harvest and rebait. They were gone a long time, well the currents were stronger and they waited 15 minutes for the whirlpools to calm down in the narrow entrance. They brought back a good haul. It being Ginny and Ken's anniversary, we had a nice steak dinner. We even brought up a good bottle of wine (from the bilge wine cellar) to celebrate. We had a fabulous sunset. This has become a favorite anchorage for me, in no small part due to the very nice supply of prawns nearby!

After retrieving the prawn traps the next morning, with another nice haul, we headed to Turnbull Cove, via the outside of the Broughtons, in Queen Charlotte Strait, and we saw more whales. Shortly after arriving, we took the dinghy to shore and the others went on a short hike to a lake while I tended the dinghy (due to an injured knee I didn't go on hike). That evening we were the only boat in Turnbull and it was quite lovely. Dinner featured the prawns harvested from Booker Lagoon just that morning! They were really good.

From Turnbull we headed to Echo Bay, where we had reservations for moorage and the pig roast on Saturday night. This gave the opportunity for Ginny and Ken to do a hike to visit Billy Proctor's museum/collection. He is quite the interesting fellow, who has lived in the Broughtons for over 60 years, and done a variety of jobs, fishing, logging etc. And he has written a few books on the area and his life that are quite interesting. On Saturday we made two potluck dishes and went to the pig roast. It was lots of fun and we had a nice chat with another couple at our table who have a Nordhavn 62.

On Sunday we headed to the Monday Anchorage area, which we thought would be nice for our last night out with the Crowders. Well, we didn't like our first anchor drop location (we drifted too close to an island), we then secured in a slightly different location but concluded that though it was a good "stick" and plenty secure, the anchorage was exposed to the anticipated wind direction. Up comes the anchor again and we head to another nearby location, Joe's Cove, which was quite lovely. While there, we saw a Krogen 42 we had seen in 2007 (I recalled they had a cat)! I got their boat card and Kurt paddled over in a kayak and said "hi". Later the fellow came over in his dinghy after dropping crab pots and we asked if he still had his cat, yes he still had the cat, but then added his wife had passed away 2-1/2 years earlier. We expressed our condolences.

The next morning, Monday August 26 , after downloading the latest weather, Kurt rouses me while still dark around 6 AM (Yikes, the days are really getting shorter) because the forecast talks about SE winds from 30-35 in Queen Charlotte Straits. We've docked at Port McNeill in 25 knot winds before and don't want to repeat that experience. The trip across QC Strait is fine (see more humpback and orca whales) and the winds stay benign until right before the harbor when they rise to the upper teens. Fortunately, the Port McNeill Harbor Master gives us an easy side tie to use and is right there on the dock to catch our line as we come in. We dock without incident. Since it is just late morning when we arrive, the Crowders take a BC Ferry over to Sointula on Malcolm Island in the afternoon while Marcia and I do chores and provision.

Week 18 - A Few Days in the Broughtons

The weather reports were indicating a 2 day window for favorable conditions so Monday August 12 we headed to Fury Cove to position to do Cape Caution. On Tuesday we rounded Cape Caution and the seas were the best we had ever experienced for Cape Caution. We had our poles out, but never dropped our stabilizers into the water. We made our way to Carriden Bay in the Broughtons, the place we had departed from when we headed north around Cape Caution on April 30. The grounded log we had moved anchor to get away from back in April was still in there in Carriden in August.

We had decided to leave Alaska the end of July/first week of August and spend time in the Broughtons. And we had planned to visit most of the small marinas in the area. So we headed to Echo Bay, hoping to tie up and partake of the prime rib night there. Well we could get a place to tie up, but they were completely booked for prime rib night. So we passed on the moorage and instead went to Shoal Bay. It was windy getting to Echo Bay and windy in Shoal Bay, around 10-15 kts for a lot of the evening. The next morning it was calm and we headed to Cullen Harbor. We dropped the dinghy and tried fishing outside the Cullen entrance. No luck. Early the next morning, Kurt and I reconnoitered the entrance to Booker Lagoon and dropped prawn pots in the big hole in this large lagoon. At slack we took the big boat in and anchored. Kurt went in the afternoon to check the pots and we had prawns galore! As he said when he got back: lots! We had a quiet night and next morning pulled the pots and had more prawns, but not as nice as the haul the day before.

We departed Booker and headed to Shawl Bay, hoping to enjoy their famous pancake breakfast the next morning. They were full, so we wandered around awhile looking for a good place to anchor and finally decided to head to Turnbull Cove, as it is very large, with great depths, plenty of swing room and a good mud bottom. We saw a vessel from our yacht club anchored inside, we anchored near them and they invited us over for cocktails. We had a very nice visit.

Sunday morning we had a slow start as we were waiting for favorable current in Wells Passage, then left and found anchorage in "Let Her Rip Cove" in Monday Anchorage. The weather forecast was for settled weather and it was a fine place to spend the night so we didn't have to see if the anchorage would live up to its name.

Week 16 & 17- Getting out of SE Alaska

After departing on Saturday, July 27, I spent a few days in Virginia helping my sister with issues regarding my brother's estate. Kurt and the cats remained in Ketchikan doing boat chores (the cats supervise). Upon my return on August 1, we prepped to depart Ketchikan, though we had dinner out in celebration of my birthday. We also did the usual prederture laundry and provisioning.

On Saturday, August 3, we headed out with quite favorable conditions and anchored in Port Tongass. This is within spitting distance of the Canadian Border and allows the next day for a very short stretch of exposed waters, though the conditions the next day were benign. So we got to Prince Rupert Sunday afternoon, fairly early. Upon inspecting a document I had signed, had notarized and left with my sister and receiving her email regarding a legal document for selling Mark's property, I realized a page had not been completed. I needed to find the Canadian equivalent of a notary and notarize and fill out the incomplete page plus the new document. Unfortunately for our original schedule, it turned out that the next day, Monday August 5 was BC day, and a holiday.

While waiting out this unplanned day in Prince Rupert, I provisioned for Canada with the prerequisite forbidden-to-bring-in produce, "eyes, ears and pits" (e.g., no potato, corn or any fruit with pits such as cherries), and a few other items. I also got a Canadian salt water fishing license. Tuesday morning I tracked down a notary on the third try, first to a bank, then government offices, and finally a solicitor (attorney). The next stop was to the Post Office to express mail the documents to Cindee in Colorado. As an aside, it took longer to get from Prince Rupert, a major seaport, to Colorado Springs than when our boat builder express mailed documents from Doumen China to Seattle! We were able to depart around 11 a.m. and were glad to be heading out.

We went the inside—outside route, which avoids Grenville Channel. We had two anchorages to ourselves (the second was a total blank for prawns but sure had lots of jellyfish!) and the third anchorage, was selected because it routed us back inside, because the weather was kicking up.

When entering Cameron Cove, around 2 p.m. August 8, I couldn't help but notice that the fish (read salmon) were jumping as the song goes. Lots, in fact constant splashing sounds of fish jumping, right in our anchorage and the bay outside. So I got my gear, and we started trolling shallow. I got a bite and got a fairly large fish near the boat, but it got away, the barbless hooks you are required to use in Canada when fishing for salmon give the fish a real sporting chance! Though it started to rain, I was a little excited and so we continued. It started to rain harder. We were at a good turn around spot and I was about to say, "let's head in" when, I got another bite. I told Kurt, troll faster, I want to tire this guy out some. And so we did a lap, and I brought the fish in closer and it was fair sized and I worked really hard not to lose it, and I was able to get it into the boat, using the gaf, then bleeding it and putting it on a stringer. I did not mind the rain at all on the way back as I was fairly positive I had a king and when we got to the big boat, confirmed this and recorded the catch. A 28" king! Oh boy, oh boy, oh boy, oh boy, oh boy. I gutted the fish, put it on blue ice and shortly thereafter filleted it.

The next day was a long one and we did Princess Royal Channel and then anchored in Bottleneck Inlet, a favorite, and one we have stayed at every trip north, either going or coming back. The next morning we timed our crossing of Milbanke Sound, which is open to the Pacific, to be at slack water to reduce the sea state due to swell and wind opposing the outgoing tide. It was very foggy and we watched with concern as two opposing radar targets, not far from us, came very very close to one another. And the fast boat had not slowed down much if any. We were all three converging, but we knew we were out of the way, and saw them pass, close—to close. But they did not collide. We headed into Seaforth Channel and found the fog had cleared and tried fishing where everyone else was fishing. And I caught a nice sized silver! We were able to hail our friends on Passages and arranged to meet at an anchorage, Wigham Cove, where we had a lovely potluck dinner, each bringing our own dinner, as they mostly eat vegan and we don't. Our dinner was leftover king salmon with a nice salad. Yum.

On Sunday we headed out and went to Ocean Falls. It was windy and we had to dock in the 15 kt wind. Oh joy. It was blowing us off the dock and it took two tries. There were a couple of folks on the dock that helped us and we secured ourselves OK. It continued to blow and calmed down ~ 9 p.m. We were sound asleep when around 12:30 a.m. we were awakend by a rushing noise. I thought it was the dam releasing lots of water above us, in my sleepy state. It turned out to be a BC ferry that was a very short distance behind us, with engines rumbling. Nothing to worry about, but sure noisy.