Ketchikan to Wangell

I almost forgot to tell about the most excitement we've had the whole trip.  While we were in Prince Rupert, the wind kicked up.  We were getting 45 knots sustained with higher gusts.  Jon and I were sitting on the boat reading and such because it was also raining pretty good.  Suddenly we noticed that the docks were moving.  At first we couldn't figure out if it was our dock or the outside dock.  We soon found out as people started running down the docks screaming, "we have to move our boats, they lost the dock!".  So about 6 of us, transients and locals, all moved our boats out and had to move to the outside dock, WHICH IS REALLY BUMPY!  It seems the anchor chain holding the dock in place broke.  It's over 100ft at the dock so there are no pilings, the docks are anchored.  We had a really bumpy night but the next day a crane came in and divers went down and replaced the anchor chain.  By about 3:00 Friday, all was well with the world again.

Now back to the trip.  We left Ketchikan and made it as far as Meyers Chuck, about 35 miles away. Meyers Chuck, according to Steve who's lived there all his life (and he's 78!), has a population of 7 in the winter and up to about 30 in the summer.  He says "it's so loud he can't hardly stand it".  His wife is the postmistress.  Mail comes once a week and each week the whole town goes to the post office for coffee and gets their mail.  The post office is really the only building, other than homes, in Meyers Chuck.  But the float for visiting boats is really nice and the price is right.  We spent two days there because the winds kicked up. The forecast called for 20 kts in Clarence Straits and 4 ft seas.  Jon and I thought we'd verify their weather forecast and guess what!  They weren't kidding!.  We tried to leave Wednesday morning and turned around and came back to Meyers Chuck.  It's supposed to be vacation!  Our extended stay allowed us to meet quite a few a few of the residents of Meyers Chuck.  Very friendly place!  And the sunsets are amazing

The grid at Meyers Chuck at low tide.

The next day, though, calm as could be and we cruised up to Wrangell through Zimovia Straits.  We get here to Wrangell and the first person we meet is someone from Vashon.  He lives on Vashon but comes up to Wrangell every spring to fish.  Then the next day, we met another person who used to live on Vashon, but came up to Wrangell to fish and met a woman, married her and now lives in Wrangell.  Small World.

Wrangell is a pretty small town but has, I think, 3 hardware stores.  We know where their priorities are. Only two grocery stores.

We walked down to the Petroglyph Beach but didn't find any petroglyphs.  They're all pretty much washed away by thousands of years of water and sand.  But it was a nice walk and Molly got tired out.  Tomorrow off to Petersburg.

Prince Rupert to Ketchikan

Well, we made it to Ketchikan.  We are officially in Alaska.  We had an absolutely wonderful crossing.  The seas were calm, to the point of no swell to speak of.  We left Prince Rupert at 5:30am with about a dozen other boats.  We had a parade heading out Venn Passage to Hecate Strait and Dixon Entrance.

Dixon Entrance

Once we made it into Ketchikan we were stopped and boarded by the Coast Guard.  We passed that with flying colors and Molly got some pets.

We've spent the last couple of days wandering around Ketchikan.  The cruise ships come and go pretty frequently and they seem to be getting bigger.

Once the cruise ships are gone, which they were Sunday evening, the town rolls up the sidewalks and everything closes up.  We had a hard time just finding someplace for dinner.  Today we visited Creek Street and the downtown area.  I'm sure it's changed immensely since some of you were here.  Everything is geared toward the cruise ships.  Below are some pics of Ketchikan.  The first two are the tram that runs from Creek Street up to Cape Fox Lodge.

Creek Street

Deer Mountain

Ketchikan from Cape Fox Lodge

This afternoon we sat out on the back deck of the boat in the bright sunshine.  The weather is supposed to stay nice all week.  Leaving tomorrow morning to points north.

PortHardy to Prince Rupert

Sorry for the delay in posting but we had about a week of no connection or cell signal while cruising up the Northern BC Coast.  The northern BC Coast is an absolutely beautiful area to cruise but very remote.  If you want to get away, you will do it here.  Now we are at Prince Rupert waiting on weather.  It’s really been blowing in Dixon Channel so we’re waiting with several other boats for the front to pass.  We thought we might have had a window Wednesday morning but we decided it was too small a window  with the worst of the storm still to come.  So we decided against going and so did everyone else.  So here we sit, in the rain, in the wind, dark clouds, feeling like we can touch Alaska. 

We’ve combined our posts that we did while we had no connectivity so you’re getting a lot at once.

We had a wonderful crossing around Cape Caution.  Seas were calm, light winds from the SE, so all was well. 

 Once we were around Cape Caution we headed inside FitzHugh Sound (another whale siting) for Fury Cove.  What a Place!!  Beach between the trees and you could see out over the beach into FitzHugh Sound to see what it was like outside, but inside was one of the calmest anchorages we have ever found.  A little tricky to get into, through the rocks and shallows but well worth the effort.  The swells from FitzHugh Sound disappear as soon as you get inside the rocks.  We ran Molly until she was good and tired.

Fury Cove to Ocean Falls

This was kind of a long day on the water all the way up to Ocean Falls.  The town in the middle of nowhere.. ..  and I mean nowhere.  Get a load of the sign pointing to the grocery store, which is open only 2 hours 3 days a week, and the bar.  Nothing else in this town.  But the docks are in really good shape and only 50cents/foot.  Water and power are iffy and internet is really weak, but what can you expect.  Didn’t really expect any power, water, or internet.  So very pleasantly surprised.  There we ran into 2 other boats headed for Alaska.  We have been so lucky with weather.  I can’t believe how nice it has been.

Ocean Falls to Oliver Cove

Another beautiful day.  We reached Oliver Cove much earlier than we thought because in talking to the folks at Ocean Falls and searching the charts, we found some shortcuts.  Get a load of the narrow passage and rocks in Gunboat Passage. 

Also the narrow entrance to Reid Passage.

 We spent the afternoon sitting on the back deck in shorts and teeshirts.  Had to put the sunscreens on the windshield to cut down on the sun in the boat.  The guide book talks about a small beach at Oliver Cove.  They weren’t kidding!  So Molly went swimming to use up some of her energy and that did the trick.  She was out for hours.  What a day!  But weather is coming.  Although you’d never know it tonight.

Oliver Cove to Lowes Inlet

We left Oliver Cove and decided to go all the way up Fraser Reach to Kynoch Inlet to see the waterfalls.  So many waterfalls!!!  Get a load of these pics

That night we stayed in Windy Cove.  Wasn’t windy at all, just deep.  But we found a nice corner out of the wind and had a very pleasant night.  We woke up the next morning to fog but made our way to Bishop Bay Hot Springs

More waterfalls along the way

When we got to Bishop Bay we were informed that we were coming into Canada’s Holiday weekend.  Bishop Bay is too deep to anchor (over 110 ft deep).  There is a small float at the head of the bay for smaller boats and two mooring balls.  We got there early enough to get one of the mooring balls and one the boats we had met earlier in the week was able to get the other one.  We went in and took a dip in the hot springs and then had a rousing game of Mexican Train with Jim and Peg from Nightfall.

The hot springs are in a little building, open on 2 sides looking out on the water.  Had planned on getting pics of that but a few things happened.  After our Mexican Train game we all went to take our respective dogs to shore for “potty before bed” and in comes a fishing boat.  It’s after 9:00, (it stays light until 10 now) and the float is full and so are the mooring balls.  Remember, holiday weekend.  So he decides to just tie up to us, WITHOUT PERMISSION.  And, since we weren’t expecting anyone to raft, we didn’t have any fenders out.  We get back to our boat and rushed around to put fenders between the boats.  Fortunately it was a calm night.  Their piece of crap boat against our newly painted hull.  We weren’t happy!! To say the least.  We came out of it with just two tiny scratches and a bunch of crab junk on our hull.  Then we had to roust them in the morning so we could leave.  They promised us they would be gone by 6 am to go fishing.  THAT DIDN’T HAPPEN!  But with all the excitement, we didn’t get back to the hot springs to get pictures of the tubs.  We might have to stop on the way back, as long as it’s not a holiday weekend.

The next day we made our way up Grenville Channel to Lowe Inlet.  There we ran into more boats headed to Alaska and a couple headed south.  The attraction to Lowe Inlet is, you guessed it, a waterfall.  This waterfall doubles in size between low and high tide.  Fun to watch.

A couple of boats were anchored right in front the waterfall, like is done at Princess Louisa, so we anchored off to the side.  Another peaceful night.

Lowes Inlet to Prince Rupert

The next morning we got up early in hopes of catching a favorable current up the rest of Grenville channel.  We had to fight the ebb for about 1 ½ hours and then what was supposed to be a strong ebb never seemed to happen until we were almost out of Grenville.  Once in Prince Rupert, we ran into Mairead, another boat headed to Alaska and they had left Lowe after we did and had the same experience.  The tides and currents in Grenville Channel are based on Wrangell Alaska and it appears, not very accurate. 

So here we are in Prince Rupert.  We have seen eagles flying all over the place and roosting on pilings right next to the sidewalk.  Wish I’d had my camera then.  Hopefully, we’ll get some pics of them before we leave.  It’s pretty stormy today so we’re holed up in the boat.  Not many people out and about. 

Next stop Alaska.  Hopefully on Friday!

Almost forgot to talk about the whales.  We had our first whale sighting in Johnstone Straits.  Two humpbacks fairly close to the boat.  We stopped to watch them but they disappeared pretty quick.  Too quick for pictures.  Hopefully, we'll have more opportunities.

Sunday, May 11 to Monday May 12

Happy Mother's Day!  We left Campbell River after spending a day shopping.  DANGEROUS!  We met another boat headed to Alaska.  This guy was a wealth of information as he has been to Alaska 12 of the last 14 years!  Lives in Seattle and keeps his boat in Campbell River and goes to Alaska every year.

We spent Sunday on a glorious cruise up Johnstone Straits.  We know Johnstone Straits have quite a reputation but we had favorable light winds and sunny skies.  At times it was downright hot!! We went through Seymour Narrows at slack water under blue skies.

The scenery was breakthtaking!

 It was such an easy ride that we decided to go further than we had originally planned and anchored at Growlers Cove.  As soon as we anchored, of course, Molly needed to go to shore.  So Jon went in search of a place to land the dinghy, which wasn't easy.  He finally found a place (kind of) and then it started to rain.  But it turned out to be a very nice anchorage.

A little local color.  We passed this boat at about Alert Bay on our way to Port Hardy.  Clearly homemade!

We woke up Monday morning to rain but had a relatively short trip today from Growlers Cove to Port Hardy.  Winds from the SE and pretty light.  But it has rained all day.  Tomorrow we'll make the trip across Queen Charlotte Straits to the BC coast.  We have light SE winds forecast so we're going to take advantage of it.

Not sure when we'll have wifi again.  The northern BC coast is pretty remote but these days you never know.  We'll keep taking pictures and post when we can.  

Big Howdy to Mike Cunningham as we see your sister boat here in Port Hardy.

Montague to Cambell River

We are making good time going North.  Four days to Campbell River from Vashon.  First two days were great but now rain.  Spent last night at the Nanaimo Yacht Club in the rain so we didn't even go to town.  We met a couple at Nanaimo Yacht Club who is also going to Alaska in their Island Packet.  And they met a couple the night before going to Alaska.  So the convoy is on.  After a long day on the water today we went to the Riptide for Nachos.   The bartender said he's been seeing people for the last two weeks or so, all heading for Alaska.  I'm sure we'll meet more people along the way.  We'll spend a couple nights here to wash off the boat and rest up before the trek up Johnstone Straits to Port Hardy.  After that, it's all new territory to us.  So pics will be forthcoming.

The further north we go, the less wifi we will see, so we'll publish a post whenever we can.

Vashon to Montague BC

Two sunny days on our cruise outset.  Spent the night in Port Townsend at Boat Haven Marina.  Reciprocal's are a wonderful thing.  Averaging 8 knots and making good progress.
Only tagged one small deadhead so far.  Even Molly is playing underway which tells you how calm it is.  Just now passing Stuart Island on our way to check in to Pender Island Bedwell Harbor.  We will then go to Montague and tomorrow hit Dodd Narrows and Nanaimo.
Thanks to Chuck we have a departing photo..

See you next post...