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.