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Tessa had a friend from Smith College that was from Wrangell, and would be arriving on the 5th. Unfortunately we’d just miss her by a day, but she was a great host from afar giving us the scheduled of events for July 3rd and 4th, and what not to miss in Wrangell during our stay. 

The town was definitely “abuzz” for the holiday, and we realized we’d need to do any provisioning on the 3rd as businesses would be closed the 4th, and some the 5th in observance. You would never know that covid was still affecting other parts of the country/world, no restrictions here – it felt like the good ol’ days.

On July 3rd we watched one of the canoe races, but missed the log rolling competition as we were visiting local stores and exploring town. The weather was perfect and the cruise ship dock (lack of ship), was great to soak in the town and festivities. You couldn’t have asked for better weather for the holiday.

We bicycled out to Petroglyph Beach, with a low tide we tried hard to spot one of the forty petroglyphs. Unsuccessful from the platform, Tessa went down to the beach to see if she could spot one. She finally did, however two locals then started writing arrows in the sand marking all of them for her. She thanked them – they were all right under her nose!

As Ketchikan was completely out of eggs when we provisioned a couple days ago, Tessa had asked Alyse if her family could grab a dozen if there was a run on eggs in Wrangell (and you’d think there would be with an Egg Toss on the festivity list!). Her Dad Kirk was so nice to deliver the eggs to Heritage Harbour where we were docked – they live half a mile down the road and have two boats (one commercial, one pleasure) docked at Heritage. Tessa had a wonderful conversation talking with him about Wrangell and the surrounding area. July 4th there can be ten salmon headed up the river at Anan, July 5th ten thousand salmon. What a difference a day makes! Ever heard about a halibut fly lure? One of his students was making them, and he had bought a couple to try – apparently they work! He also looked exactly like Doc in Back to the Future, and may have given Tessa tips on fishing in the local area.

There’s always a project to do on a boat, and July 3rd’s project was to replace the starboard windshield wiper on the pilothouse window. It took two trips to the store to get the size right (always seems that way), and a lot of muscle to get the salty bolt to come loose. But we made friends with Coda and Sudden Inspiration docked in front of us, as they were sitting on the dock enjoying beverages watching us work, and traded stories of our “transit through” BC Waters.

Wrangell does fireworks on July 3rd at Dusk at the baseball fields. We bicycled up there, and couldn’t believe the number of people. Tessa looked up the population of Wrangell: 2400. As we waited for the main event, every one came in and parked their pickup truck and started shooting off fireworks. 11:30pm, they still had not started the show we had been there for almost ninety minutes. 11:31pm we left to ride back to the boat as we were getting cold and bitten by big mosquitoes. Of course at 11:38pm the fireworks started. Tom had joked while we were waiting that they probably wanted them to end at 12:01am July 4th. And that’s exactly when they ended!

July 4th began with the parade (well there was a fun run before that, but not after staying up so late waiting for the fireworks!), followed by the logging competition, egg toss, and fast boat parade. The parade felt like we had turned the page on Covid, with every float throwing candy and goodies to the kids. It seemed like Halloween in July!

Our Rad Power Bicycles get a lot of attention wherever we go, and Wrangell was no exception. We got to talking to a guy from Petersburg, and he actually was flying down to Seattle to look at two 61’ Tolly’s. Small world!

The logging competition drew large crowds. We watched one event, and they were definitely very serious about it. 

And the egg toss was just too darn fun. Starting with the little kiddos, working their way up to the oldest. There’s definitely a technique that’s mastered with age.

We went out and set some shrimp pots with local knowledge, and watched the fast boat races from the water. It was such a glorious day, and was fun to listen to the small town chatter on the vhf.

We thought this would be the finale of the two days, but there ended up being fireworks over the harbor at 10:30pm – a much more respectable hour than last night!

We don’t have an itinerary as we cruise SE AK, but Tessa has been studying the charts on Navionics and two books on the area: Exploring SE Alaska by Don Douglass and Reanne Hemingway-Douglass, and North to Alaska by Charles and Margo Wood. From Ketchikan most cruising boats make their way to Wrangell, and she read about Anan Bear Conservatory – a not to miss located South of Wrangell. With poor holding at Anan Bay, she located Fool’s Inlet for our anchorage for the next two nights. It’d be a five hour run from Browns Bay for us, and we opted to time going with the current in Clarence Strait (sailor hats do pay off!).We were joined by white sided dolphins playing in our bow on our way to Fools Inlet

However the con of donning your “sailors hat” is that the power boats beat you to the anchorage and get to cherry pick the prime spot. So we anchored in deeper water near two islands on the East side of the inlet. It ended up being a fabulous location, as we got to enjoy the evening sun the latest – always a consideration when we are anchoring.

Anan Bay has one of the largest pink salmon runs in SE AK, which supports the high number of black and brown bears in the area. Anan (pronounced Anne-Anne), in Tlingit means “sit down” or “village that rests”. A permit is required July 5 through August 25th, and only so many are given out per day. If you are planning on visiting during this time period, do make an online reservation in advance as the permits are limited and go quickly. And they allocate even less to recreational boaters, reserving the majority for tour operators. 

We arrived on July 2nd, so no permit required. It was just us, the skiffs from the two other boats in Fools Inlet, and a family from Wrangell. As we had another two feet of tide to lose, and saw our “neighboring” skiffs high and dry, we decided to use our “anchor buddy” for the first time. We have been very skeptical of this product as it’s pushed like an “as seen on tv” product, but bought it with the hopes of it working. And work it did. The family from Wrangell said, that’s the first time I’ve ever seen someone use an anchor buddy! And we replied, it’s our first time using one! We all had a good chuckle that none of us thought it’d actually work.

The trails looked like it had just been finished recently, as there was fresh gravel packed and bridges re-enforced. We had seen evidence of where the landing craft had landed up the estuary.

They say it’s a half mile hike to the viewing platform at the falls, but we’d call it a “tourist half mile” – neither of us had our activity monitor on, but it definitely seemed like a long half mile.

There were multiple instances of fresh bear scat right on the trail, and a place right next to the trail that had been used by a sleeping bear. But we had no bear encounters along the trail.

In fact, the only bears we saw from afar across the estuary- a male and mom and two cubs. The viewing platform is in great shape, however the pink salmon had not returned up river and so there were no bears. We could see that during the salmon run, this would be a spectacular viewing of the bears grabbing salmon out of the falls.

We had set our shrimp pots before heading over to Anan, and like any area – whether it’s a great shrimping area or not – we were able to catch six spot prawns per pot. But these were the biggest prawns had ever caught, and it made for a great green curry dinner to end our stay in Fools Inlet. 

As this is our first time cruising in Alaska, and compounded by the border with Canada still being closed for non-essential travel due to covid, we weren’t sure what to expect. Would there be more recreational boaters up here this year that typically spend the summer in Canada, and went stir crazy spending last summer in the packed San Juan Islands?

Where we typically boat in BC Canada, there is limited to no cell service and limited wifi at best. Would we also find this to be the case in SE AK?

Some say the Central and North Coast of BC is every bit as spectacular as SE AK. Would we also find this to be true?

SE Alaska is known for their wet summers. How much liquid sunshine would we be able to handle before we needed natural Vitamin D and not run, but race back to warmth and sunshine further South?

Would the US – Canadian border be open to non-essential travel for our transit South? Some speculate end of July, others end of September.

But right now it was time to enjoy the exceptionally warm weather and enjoy SE Alaska. We were surprised to have cell service all tucked up and in at Browns Bay, it had to do with the proximity to Kasaan – one of two Haida First Nation Villages in Alaska with a small population and day trips of tourists from Ketchikan. The docks looked brand new, as well as some of the buildings. They’ve kept the village in great shape.

North of Browns Bay there is a shallow lake that you can enter at high tide. This is right up our alley, and we did enjoy gunkholing in here. The Navionics charts are not very accurate. Use your eyes and depthsounder, you’ll find you can go much closer to shore and the island in the middle is not quite accurate. But that’s the fun of gunkholing!

We did an afternoon soak and kept two dungy for dinner and lunch. Our first Dungeness crab in Alaska! We put the pots back down, and the next morning when Tessa pulled out chicken from the freezer, Tom asked, what’s that for?? Tessa said for refreshing the bait in the crab pots. He laughed and responded, you are welcome to bring that along, but it won’t be needed. And he was correct: we pulled up 24+ Dungy, all keepers, in two pots. We threw all but two back. Thank you SE AK, for the warm welcoming!!

Sunday June 27th: The wind forecast looked candy for our Dixon Entrance crossing: calm. As Chatham Sound is “shallow” (200ft ish) we assume the seas build here with afternoon wind – these are unchartered waters for us. And sure enough, it was only mid-morning when the wind built down Portland Inlet and squashed Tessa’s dreams of having one cruise without a boat wash.

Once we were NW of Portland Inlet, Dixon Entrance was a dream and it was smooth sailing until Ketchikan.

Tom fixed a fuse that blew on the macerator pump, and then Tessa washed the boat down in (yet again!) a warm breeze. We definitely had found our rhythm transiting eight to ten hours a day, with one person at the helm and the other doing projects and daily chores. Then when we did anchor for the night, there was just a little bit left to do and ample time to relax.

The commercial fishing season must just be starting, as we traveled with many of them North and they seemed to all be positioning themselves for the opener. We saw very few pleasure boaters, the most we saw was at Tribune Bay Hornby Island- which is a popular anchorage for its pristine sandy beach, one of the only in the area. The chatter on the vhf radio was almost nil, and the radar not really needed as there were so few boats out on the water. And ninety percent of the boats that were out, has AIS.

To check back in to the US we instinctively opened the ROAM App, however a window popped up saying it was not operable for non-essential travel during covid, so we waited until Tongass Narrows to call the local CBP Office. When we got in touch with a local officer he said, have you used the ROAM App? Doh. So if you are “transiting through” Canada between WA and AK, use the ROAM App even though there is a warning that pops up not to.

Tongass Narrows was funneling wind over current, making it the roughest water we had seen all day. By the time we got the fishboat alongside, we had to back track South to Casey Moran to check for moorage, only to find that there wasn’t room for us. So we again went North to Bar Harbor South Basin where they had 70’ slips near the store (a bonus).

Before arriving Ketchikan for your first time, download the PDF document with detailed information (and slip numbers!) on the marinas. Tessa hadn’t seen this document, so sent Tom down the incorrect side of Dock 9 the first time, only for him to have to do a tight turn between fingers with our fishboat alongside, and wind and current pushing us. He made the 180 turn expertly, and got us around to the South side of Dock 9 – only to find that the Seiner skiff had been left behind, and we wouldn’t fit with it there. This is a commercial marina, and transient moorage is “hot berthing” while a fishboat is out fishing. So, further in to shore we went with the berth next to us occupied with a Viking -like Sportfisher. The berths looked pretty wide, so we took the risk of docking with the fishboat along our port side between the two of us. Tom expertly backed the boat into the slip, Tessa hopped off to catch a midship and then stern and bow lines. We had easily a couple feet between our fishboat and the Sportfisher. Phew. And with a strong current pushing us aft, it was our midship line that was utterly taught and holding us in place.

Bar Harbor is in the process of updating their docks – with isoboost transformers for each slip. We thankfully had Philbrooks install one on our boat last year, so it was a non-issue for us if these weren’t installed on the dock.

As it was 80 plus degrees in Ketchikan, we went for a warm afternoon bicycle ride (we have Rad Bikes on board). With the lack of cruise ships, Ketchikan was a ghost town. We were happy to be here without them, but felt bad for the local economy which depends on the ships.

Mondays are days we need connectivity to “close the week” and be available for our restaurants. This week it was compounded with sweltering 106 degrees weather in the Seattle area. We were able to run some errands midday on the Rad Bikes, but it worked out that after we finished our work it was high tide and a great opportunity to do a grocery run (15 foot tides, you want to take advantage of the high tides with less angle on the ramp to the dock!).

Apparently a heat wave means a run on fresh produce and eggs. Who knew? We got back to the boat and Tessa thought she’d missed the eggs, so she went back. Only to find the shelves completely empty. Yes. She had missed them!

We biked further South to a smaller marina and caught up with fellow yacht club friends who arrived this afternoon. We hadn’t seen them in a couple years, and we had much to catch up on – we both had new boats!

The warm evening allowed us to enjoy the cockpit, while Portia explored her berth amongst the commercial fish boats. It was a productive two days in Ketchikan, it was time to commence our cruising in SE Alaska!

An 8am departure put us in Prince Rupert late morning. Narrow Grenville Channel looked completely different than yesterday evening, it was flat calm – you could have water skied.

We took a “short cut” through shallow water (15ft depth, full speed) and reminisced about doing this on the banks in the Bahamas. The water in Chatham Sound was filled with silt, as most of it is shallow with the Skeena River feeding into it.

There was another huge line of logs, or we called telephone poles, all the way to downtown Prince Rupert. It was as if a tug had lost its tow, but it was from the big tides. We picked our way through like a couple days ago (was that just yesterday??) Finlayson Channel, and multiple times brought back the throttle to idle through.

Prince Rupert was busy with both commercial and recreational traffic, and everyone seemed in a good mood – perhaps the heat wave with warm weather was to thank. Apparently they only had five days is summer last year.

We contactless fueled (the dock was also twenty feet above us, as it was low tide) the aft tank and meandered our way back to Pillsbury Cove to anchor for the night.

Don’t be afraid of the huge aquaculture farm at the entrance to Pillsbury Cove, hug it on your starboard side and you can clear the shallow water it forces you into.

There’s always something to do on a boat. Tessa worked on cleaning the vinturi and flybridge area better from the salt we took by Slingsby Channel just before Cape Caution, Tom installed a Sonos amp for the flybridge speakers and worked on tweaking the Sonos system. We tried to spend as much time as possible outside in the light warm breeze, as we know it’s not every day you get this weather this far North!

Our second Open Ocean segment was this morning, and they say to try not to transit on the peak big ebb tide as Finlayson Channel empties out into Milbanke Sound. Well, you guessed it, we were transiting on the peak big ebb. The wind was supposed to pick up at 10am, so Tessa wanted to be tucked into Finlayson Channel before that.

7:15am departure, and it was already warm. We had 4ft large rollers on our port side, the stabilizers again earned their keep. As we entered Finlayson Channel it was a land mine of logs. With the big tides, all the debris had washed off the beach. We had to slow down multiple times to pick our way through the minefield. But the water was glass and these unchartered (for us) waters were gorgeous. And it was only a down payment on what to come.

We surprisingly passed another First Nation Village in Katsoo Bay, we had taken the “fun” way on the inside of the island. We know knew why the BC ferries had a route in this narrow passage. We also lucked out that there was a cell tower at the village.

12:15pm we had come upon Khutze Inlet, where Tessa had us anchoring for the night. It was just absolutely stunning, but Tom wasn’t thrilled with the protection from Princess Royal Channel. It was also midday, we were feeling good, and the weather was amicable for more running. So we pointed the boat North.

The cruise up Princess Royal Channel was absolutely stunning. The channel had stunning mountains and waterfalls everywhere you looked. The beauty was overwhelming, and we definitely want to re-visit this area when the US – Canadian border opens to non-essential travel.

Some waterfalls were narrow and ran from the top of the mountain to the channel, others were wide and short like the one pictured.

As we exited Princess Royal Channel, we entered Wright Sound – which also was truly beautiful.

Tessa was at the helm as we were approaching narrow Grenville Channel. She heard a change in the main engines, and saw the rpms falling without touching the microcommanders. She quickly called Tom up to the helm for him to see what was happening. She also quickly did some math: ten hours yesterday and eight hours today at 15-1600 rpms drawing from the Aft fuel tank. We had sucked it dry. Tom ran down to the engine room to switch over to draw from the port and starboard fuel tanks, and the engines were happy again. He dipped the aft fuel tank, and we had one inch- equivalent to 17.25 gallons.

We weren’t happy about draining the aft fuel tank, and as we haven’t made the transit from Prince Rupert to Ketchikan before we would stop in tomorrow to put fuel in the aft tank – just for safety.

It also paid to check on the fishboat once in awhile, as the views aft were stunning.

The wind over current made narrow Grenville Channel “ok” in our boat, but it definitely would not be in a smaller boat. We had the doors to the pilothouse open, as it was a warm breeze. We passed the BC ferry just North of the narrowest portion of the channel. We put our “sailor hat” on once again going North past Klewnuggit Marine Park to go South, hoping to spend as little time as needed in the lump barreling down the channel.

Klewnuggit Marine Park is a little ways off Grenville Channel, most boaters choose Khutze, Lowes or Kumealon Inlet as they are directly off Grenville Channel. We wanted to be a little further along but not as far as Kumealon with the wind over current picking up, and Klewnuggit looked like an ideal anchorage.

Well, it turned out to be a spectacularly stunning anchorage. It is definitely worth the small diversion off Grenville Channel to spend the night.

5:30am one of us got up to pee, it was flat calm, so we pulled anchor and got underway.

It was another big ebb tide at 7:30am, which could be detrimental as we pass Slingsby Channel. It was calm seas and logs galore until the Walker Islands, and then we started taking salt over the flybridge at 7:00am with three hours to round Cape Caution. Yes, Slingsby Channel was the culprit.

Thank goodness for Tessa solving (we hope) our stabilizers issue. They were making these rough seas “comfortable”, and we use that term loosely. Fish boat … you doing ok? If not, we’re not stopping to attend to your needs (we are towing our 16’ Aluminum Riverhawk). When they say heed caution when Slingsby Channel is at a full ebb, they aren’t kidding. Dodging logs in big seas is no fun. Wheeee, who needs Disneyland for a wild ride?

But thankfully once past Slingsby Channel, Cape Caution was a sigh of relief. Low 3ft westerly swells off our port side still gave our stabilizers work, but the hard workout was in the rear view mirror.

Once tucked into Calvert Island, Tessa proceeded to wash the boat from top to bottom, as we had just had a very nice salt water bath. The water flattened out, we listened on VHF to the Canadian Coast Guard help a grey whale with fishing gear wrapped around its tail nearby, and enjoyed the beauty of transiting “The Central Coast”.

The North End of Calvert Island has the Hackai Research Institute, some stunning fine sand beaches, and some great fishing. River’s Inlet is known for their big salmon, we caught an 80lb King salmon back in 2008 at the head of River’s Inlet. Shearwater is the main stop in the area for provisioning, fuel, and a burger if you’re tired of eating seafood. This year, and 2020, all First Nation Villages are closed to outsiders to try to prevent Covid from affecting the communities.

We cruised on past and anchored in Raven Cove and couldn’t believe how warm it was.

After Tessa did some touch up work on cleaning the front windows, she mustered up the energy to go in front and around the port engine to check to see how the stabilizers oil was doing after a ten hour run. Tom was dying to know. She squealed with excitement, and Tom thought there was something wrong. She responded no, break out a glass of wine, we didn’t lose a drop of oil!!

Windy weather app showed calm conditions in Johnstone, BC Marine Weather had a Gale Force Warning in effect. Our experience is that early morning is best to transit Johnstone before the wind has a chance to build and funnel down the channel.

6am departure, the wind had already built and it was the same conditions as when we tucked into Granite Bay at 5pm the night before. We were riding a big ebb tide until late morning, which would push us through Johnstone Strait. The con was that this big ebb tide was fighting the strong NW winds.

This is where experience comes into play, as we knew where to find the “smoothest rough water”. We made great time clocking 15kts, weaving our way through Johnstone and also betting on it flattening out after Port Neville – which it also did. We were thankful to have use of our stabilizers, and turned them to “center” – on but not active – after Port Neville while transiting the calm waters, thinking we were doing them a favor.

12:30pm we arrived Port McNeill and topped up on fuel contactless. We called Canadian border control before we docked to check to see if we needed to check in before fueling. Since it was in our float plan that we gave to the customs agents in Van Isle Sidney BC, we did not and were good to go.

Once finished fueling we anchored out, Tessa got to work washing the boat down, but was curious about how much oil the stabilizers lost. So she paused her boat wash to crawl around the front of the hot port engine to find we only had ten percent oil left in the reservoir. When she reported this to Tom, he said, now we need to find the leak. She went right to work starting at the forward bilge, and tracing lines back to the oil reservoir. As she knew stabilizers were critical for a “smooth” crossing tomorrow morning around Cape Caution.

She made it back to the motor and shaft, both dry. Then a blue “cap” caught her eye. She brushed her fingers along the backside and her pinky finger came back wet with oil. She had found our leak.

She took photos with her iPhone, to report back to Tom, who then reported back to Philbrooks. It was 3pm on a Thursday afternoon. We needed to get this solved quickly, or we’d be sitting here until early next week with the weekend imminent. Tessa had said the o-ring looked off-center. And sure enough, it was not correctly placed. Tessa again paused washing the boat down to go outboard of the port engine to try to twist the blue cap off, investigate whether the o-ring is intact, if so correct its placement and tighten the blue cap as tight as she can get it.

Tessa was able to deduce that the o-ring was still intact, distorted from being off-center, ease it back into its actual home, and screw the blue cap on as tight as her small muscles would let her to ensure no more oil leaks.

She was nervous she didn’t have the o-ring set correctly, that the blue cap wasn’t tight enough, as it was still leaking some residual oil. Tom started the port engine which the stabilizers receive power from while Tessa watched for drips. She didn’t see any. We didn’t need a larger crescent wrench from North Island Marina (we made another tool work), and fingers crossed that Tessa was able to solve the issue.

6:00pm we were finally able to call it a day, after a 6am start.

We had planned on an easy morning, as Tessa planned on a 6pm slack at Seymour Narrows. We tackled what we thought would be a simple task of de-pickling the water maker (we fill the system with food grade glycol so the membranes don’t sour from lack of use over the winter season), but it turned into a multi-hour project as we couldn’t get the system to de-pressurize (Tessa was ready with a bowl to catch excess water), could only find charcoal filters and we also need a 5 microns (finally found one after tearing apart engine room storage), and then the high pressure pump wouldn’t pressurize correctly.

This is when we called it quits, shortly after 11am. What time was the slack at Seymour Narrows again? Tessa checked, and good thing, as it was FIVE pm, not SIX pm. We hurriedly got underway, as it would take us about five hours to get there.

Second “oh shit” of the morning: the low oil light was on for the stabilizers. We’d have to run without them. Which would be fine for this leg of the cruise, as we would be heading directly into the wind (and for the most part calm seas). But we would definitely want them for Johnstone Strait and rounding Cape Caution.

We kicked up the coals to 1400 rpm and made 14kts with the current (instead of 12kts) and made good time to Cape Mudge, the southern end of Quadra Island. Here, we know the current is always running South – regardless of the direction of the actual current. We also know from experience, to hug the Quadra Island shore for the back eddies running North. We had plenty of time, so we kicked it down to 1200 rpm, and again to 1100 rpm to transit Seymour Narrows forty minutes before slack with a 3kt push against us.

Seymour Narrows was relatively uneventful, as we transited with commercial traffic. North of Seymour was “supposed to be” calm. It looked like wind over tide, but we knew the current was still running with the NW wind. We used a commercial fishing vessel as a “wind block” aka tucked in behind him until our course deviated to the starboard to Granite Bay.

We put our “sailor hat” on, and went way North to come about South with the least amount of time with the swell on our beam (as our stabilizers were out of commission). We tucked behind Chained Islands out of the NW wind tumbling down Johnstone to pull the fish boat alongside, and headed into Granite Bay to anchor at 5:30pm – but our work had only just begun.

First task was to adjust the high pressure pump to get the pressure up from 400psi to 800psi where it needs to be for the water maker to make water. Like anything on a boat, nothing is ever easy – the high pressure pump is located outboard of the 20kw genset. Tessa facilitated the right tools and tested the water maker, as Tom did “boat yoga” behind the 20kw genset. We had success! However, the freshly made water still tasted like glycol. We let it run for forty five minutes or so, and the glycol content was down to a palatable hint of a taste. Check the water maker box: success.

Second task was to put oil in the stabilizers reservoir. Guess what – also outboard of the starboard main engine. This time Tessa slid her way around the front of the (still hot) starboard engine to try to complete the task. She wasn’t strong enough to turn the cap of the oil reservoir, so Tom squeezed his way around the engine to fill the oil. As we wanted stabilizers for our transit through Johnstone tomorrow morning. 2.5 qts of oil and almost as much of sweat, Tom did not recap the oil reservoir as tightly (thinking ahead that we’d have to do this again), and inched his way back inboard of the starboard engine. We were both dripping with sweat, 8pm, ready for a shower, dinner and a glass of wine.

As we’ve learned since the Bahamas, boating is just fixing issues in exotic places with no repair yard or marine store nearby. And so far this trip has lived up to this mantra. And as we have yet to detect the leak, we had more work waiting ahead of us tomorrow in Pt McNeill. Boating is FUN, they say!