Week Five - to Juneau and Skagway

We've continued to have pleasant water conditions, and we are so thankful for every comfortable day at sea.
We spent a couple of days in Auke Bay, which is the convenient mooring location for boaters near Juneau. There we rented a car for a day, and were able to stock up on more supplies. the next morning, we were joined by Neil & Myrtle Snider, who flew in to spend a week of cruising with us. We toured the Mendenhall Glacier Park, did a rigorous hike to huge waterfalls, climbing over house-sized boulders from a rock slide over the pathway. It was challenging and rewarding, to get to our destination and stand in the waterfall spray. Kaiser made it all the way bravely too. There will be pictures to follow.

Yesterday we blew in, literally, to Skagway, our most northerly destination. It's my favourite of 'touristy' Alaska town, and we are enjoying our time here. But the harbor seems to be a windbowl, and docking was so tricky that Kaiser took an unplanned dive from the bow of the boat, and thankfully swam in the direction of a dock where a kind person plucked him out of the shivery sea. Actually, it was his second swim of the day, having gotten spilled out of the kayak earlier in the morning!!! Brave dog, is right. He sure is clean now.

We are enjoying our experiences; glad for every sunny day, even though the wind is chilly. And when it rains, we stay inside the boat where we are dry and warm.

til next time..........

Week four - to Wrangell & Petersburg

Our previous post is sketchy, as sketchy as the strength of the internet signal we can find. Sorry about no labels on the pictures.
The first one in Ketchikan speaks for itself. Then there's a 'pillar', which is one 230-foot rock on a small island in the middle of a canal. We spent a night in a canyon called Punchbowl Cove, which is shaped like a huge bowl of sheer cliffs all around. at the water's edge, the reflections look like horizontal totem poles.



When we left Ketchikan on Sunday, June 15, we took a side trip around the Behm Canal into some fantastic wilderness passages; we got our first whale show, which was pretty exciting. We stopped the boat and turned up some music on the back deck and one killer whale came within 20 feet of our stern to check us out, but he did a big dive and disappeared. maybe he doesn't appreciate Norah Jones.
Our next town to visit was Wrangell; very rustic typical Alaskan fishing town. We took a tour boat into a remote glacial inlet, and had a wonderful afternoon taking dozens of pictures of icebergs and 'bergy bits', as they're called. This inlet is a haven for seals with their babies; they know that the whales and other predators cannot get into the iceberg-laden inlet, and we saw many dozens of mother seals with their cubs sunning themselves on the many bergs. It was a memorable trip, well worth it.

We got to Petersburg via a 20-mile long very narrow channel that is a tricky bit of navigating around 54 marker buoys, that looks much like a waterskier's slalom course. Petersburg is a norwegian town reminiscent of Poulsbo, Washington.

next stop Juneau.

Week Four - Ketchikan to Petersburg

End of Week Three - Ketchikan, AK

We are in Alaska!
Leaving Prince Rupert on Wednesday at 6 a.m. we had a beautiful cruise across Dixon Entrance and opted to end our day in a little cove called Foggy Bay. It was only 1 p.m., and we were enjoying the warm sunshine and a quiet afternoon. Had we known that we would awaken to a horrendous storm the next morning, we would have bypassed this stop and carried on another four hours to Ketchikan. Obviously, that was hindsight....
When we tried to leave the Bay on Thursday we were head on into huge seas and winds that made the journey intolerable. Dan had the wisdom and the strength to turn the ship around and return to our safe haven, where we settled in for a day of heavy rains and solitude. We are grateful for a cozy ship.
What a difference a day makes! On Friday we enjoyed the entire trip to this First City of Alaska, beautiful scenery and comfortable cruising the whole way. It seems uncommon that we have yet to see any wildlife or whales during this trip. There have been many sightings of grizzleys and other bear, as well as grey whales and humpbacks, but they have eluded us.
The land of the midnight sun is not disappointing us with long long evenings and early sunrise! This will continue for another few weeks, especially as we get farther north. At this point there are about four dark hours of night.
In Prince Rupert, Dan left for his fishing adventure at 4 a.m., the beginning of daylight. Our friends there took him in their smaller boat to Humpback Bay off Porcher Island, and within two hours they had more fish than they could use. It was pretty exciting for Dan, and we got about 50 lbs of salmon in our freezers. Now we're hoping for some halibut, and will look for more prawns and crab in the next week around Behm Canal.
We will be out of internet range, so will likely not update here again for a couple of weeks when we get to Juneau. Til then, here's hoping your summer weather arrives in full swing.

Prince Rupert

After numerous nights at quiet anchorages, Dan and Kaiser have made their peace with the kayak! When it seems too cumbersome to launch the dinghy (and hoist it back up onto the bridge), the 'boys' go ashore via the one-man kayak. Dan's getting his exercise! Normally, we look forward to lots of hiking, but this trip we find that all the shorelines we've seen are rocky and dense forest, so we are noticing the absence of Exercise. It's a pretty sedentary lifestyle in these small quarters. Our cruising hours typically amount to 4-6 hours per day; by the time we prepare and clean up meal-making, there's just a little time left to read something before we doze off for another sleep. Ah, retirement! We're getting quite used to it.

Our travels from Shearwater have brought us through many picturesque narrow passages, past many islets and a few desolate depleted villages. Once prominent and active with fish canneries,etc, they are now mostly deserted and ramshackle. Sad.

We anchored in the small Oliver Cove (in honour of our grandson Oliver) for one night, then onward thru Percival Narrows to Klemtu and into Khutze Inlet. We were anticipating the wonderful crab that should fill our trap left near the waterfall, and were we disappointed! awh. Nada. It was a beautiful inlet with spectacular waterfalls, raging full with recent rains, but no crab.

From there we found our way into Bishop Bay, just off Douglas Channel which goes up to Kitimat. At the head of Bishop Bay there is a Hot Springs, which has been developed into a small marine conservancy, with well built boardwalks and a sheltered hot springs pool. We made use of the pool and it was a nice soak. We met our new neighbours on the small dock, Richard and Kathy from Friday Harbor, WA, and enjoyed a visit with them. We both left the dock before 6:00 a.m. and cruised a long day up Grenville Channel, past Harley Bay and Gil Island where the BC Ferry left its mark. It is a dismal feeling to pass that way...

Grenville Channel is quite impressive, at the south end narrow with currents swirling the many drifting logs and debris -- a land mine to navigate through. Toward the north the Channel opens up broad, and becomes a pale green colour. We spent the night in another tiny cove just sheltered from the channel by a few small islets but able to see the cruise ships and container barge go by; a very pretty spot.

That was our last stop before Prince Rupert. We arrived here Sunday midday and are enjoying the PR Yacht Club docks. On Sunday the weather here was a heavy dark rain and strong winds. We were so glad to be tied up securely and look forward to several days here, catching up with our land legs, and finding a few stores. Tonight we will have supper with the Kristmansons, friends of the Greenes (Kurt's in-laws). There will be lots of talk about fishing......

It is now a sunny day and we will go for a walkabout, myself reliving my brief stint in this town, while I worked with CIBC here a very long time ago. Interesting changes since then. We will be listening to marine weather forecasts to choose the best day to proceed north through Dixon Entrance, another long stretch of open seas that we'd like to take in the calmest conditions. That is the crossing into the US waters of Alaska, hopefully Wednesday.

Prince Rupert

Week Two

I write this on Wednesday, from Shearwater Marina on Denny Island, near Bella Bella. We are not successful with uploading pictures due to very weak internet signal here, so will just give a brief update of our week.

We stayed in Lagoon Cove for two nights, then proceeded on to Port McNeill where Dan was able to collect some mail that was being forwarded to us. He was much relieved about that as it provided the newest version of electronic charts needed for northern waters. We dined on great fish and chips with Colyn and Connie; spent a short night and were casting off at 6 a.m. Friday to cross Queen Charlotte Sound, which is the open water stretch that is most intimidating. We had excellent conditions for our crossing, and enjoyed the experience. We bypassed Duncanby Landing, even though we were curious about the new updates we've heard about; however, after numerous nights at docks we were looking for a secluded anchorage. The Cove at Fury Island exactly filled that bill. What a beautiful spot, a shell beach and wonderful view of the open straight, while still protected and restful.
On Saturday we got adventurous and took a 25-mile return trip to Dawsons Landing at the head of Darby Channel, in our dinghy! Let's just say it was a lot more 'fun' than I (Mimi) was wanting.... read terrified! whew, I won't be doing that again for a while!
A second night in that idyllic spot renewed my heart, and the next day we got as far as Goldstream Harbour where we stayed two nights. Goldstream is at the entrance to Hakai Passage, and there were a lot of gale warnings, etc so we enjoyed the protection of this fine bay, getting to know new friends on the neighbouring boat. We enjoyed roasting hotdogs and hamburgers on an open fire, and a bit of exploring with the dinghy -- kind of like facing your fear after you get thrown from the horse...

We managed to catch up with two BYC boats here at Shearwater, enjoyed learning their Cape Breton Card Game and had a great evening aboard Sambuca. Now we're heading out to an anchorage, as we continue northward.

We are thankful always for such fine conditions and everything on the boat is tickety-boo. Cheers til next week...... hopefully in Prince Rupert.