RIVER’S INLET TO SULLIVAN BAY (UPDATED)

Saturday, July 25^th

5AM Alarm, 5:15 Start Your Engines, and 5:30 Underway. The forecasts all point to a smooth crossing but as we know, sometimes forecasts are wrong. Not today! The forecasters were spot on and how thankful we were. We had probably the best crossing of this trip, and perhaps the best crossing John and I have had in recent memory. At times we had huge 6’ rollers but they were big and lazy, no chop whatsoever. We took the inside route along the mainland coast, the only hazard of which is passing the Slingsby Channel. On an ebb tide, the water gushes out of Slingsby Channel at very high speeds dumping it into the Queen Charlotte Straits colliding with ocean swells coming from the opposite direction, along with any other wind and tide action going on. It can be super volatile and dangerous with stacked waves appearing out of nowhere. Luckily, Slingsby was on flood tide when we drove by which was no issue, we had researched the night before to make sure it would be a safe crossing. The last 4 hours of the trip were just glassy smooth waters, couldn’t have been better. I did not sleep last night finally getting up around 3AM so that John could rest without me flip flopping and keeping him awake. Thus, I felt 1000 years old today, so exhausted. I was able to take a cat nap while underway so that was a bit refreshing and helped but tonight will be an early night for me. We are all secured at the dock at Sullivan Bay, where it is currently pouring, and it appears that the weather will be rainy in the coming days as well. Sullivan Bay makes the MOST delicious cinnamon buns on the planet, and we have two on order for tomorrow morning. I don’t know how they make them, but I wish I could be there to watch. No frosting or any topping, just gooey with sugar and cinnamon that is caramelized throughout. So incredible. John and I are heading out to see if we can catch some ling cod soon, even in the rain. There’s a place nearby where we always catch them so hoping for a repeat. The forecast for the next 5 days is pretty much rain. The Broughton's are our most lucrative hunting grounds for fish and shellfish so we are going to “buck up buttercup” and dress for the weather and hunt and gather anyway! Off we go! Will report back later. I love ling cod fishing....so fun (and it doesn't last for 5 hours at a time like salmon fishing, but don't tell John I said that). 

AFTERNOON UPDATE: Lingcod fishing is bottom fishing, meaning you let your lure hit the bottom and quickly reel it up several feet so it doesn't get caught on the rocks. From there you jig your pole up and down to make your lure "swim" and look like a distressed herring. Well, I have clearly lost my touch as I lost 2 lures right off the bat. The first one got stuck as we drifted from 85' of water over a 25' shoal and I wasn't paying attention. John handed me his pole which was down, so he could try to dislodge the one I got stuck. As he was doing that, his pole also got stuck on the rocks and we lost that one too! Sheesh. From there on out I said "I will just watch from now on!!" John caught a couple undersized ling that we had to throw back, and then 3 beautiful spiny rockfish in a row, also released.  Finally the third lure we had brought also got stuck so we packed up and left without our lings! First time ever we've been skunked there, but oh well, our fault, or should I say mostly my fault!! It was pouring the entire time as well, but was a warm rain at least so we didn't get cold, and we were all bundled up in our rain gear anyway. Whipped out some TJ Potstickers for dinner from the freezer, played a few rounds of Rummy then hit the sack. 

One of the many charming buildings at Sullivan Bay

The manager rides the docks on an electric bike and here we see him dragging a wheelbarrow full of tools and maintenance materials behind the bike

Our trip video for today

GOOSE BAY ON ANCHOR

Friday, July 24^th

It’s our last full day in River’s Inlet and the boys went out one more time at the crack of dawn for a last attempt at fishing. I spent the morning cracking all the crab from the day before, while listening to a podcast to pass the time – such a slog to pick crab, but the rewards are worth it! Today the boys came back with three fish, all Coho Salmon, but at least it’s something for all the hours they put into it!  Plus it provided some fish heads and spines for future crab bait. A check of the crab traps and we came back with 3 more for the Abells and zero for the Maddens, just a soft shell which means the crab is molting and you are required to return it to the water. I pulled my pots for the day as 7 crab from the day before is plenty for us and I also didn’t want to mess with cleaning and cooking crab at the end of the day. Connie wanted to do one more set so left hers out until the evening – and rewarded she was! 4 more large keepers! I went fishing with John in the afternoon, caught nothing. Just not a good fishing year up here. Dinner was steak and crab, baked potato, and Caesar salad topped off by brownie sundaes with coffee toffee ice cream. We eat well and our waistlines show it. The Bryans who have been on their own journey since Lowe Inlet, rejoined us late last night for our group crossing of Cape Caution tomorrow. 

My only two pictures from today are of this Eagle we saw while out fishing, blurry because I was in a bobbing boat with only an iPhone camera!

GOOSE BAY ON ANCHOR

Thursday, July 23^rd

This morning we looked like a scene out of the old Alfred Hitchcock move, THE BIRDS. For some reason a huge flock of barn swallows descended on our boats, circling and diving and checking out all the nooks and crannies. Since we’ve been here a couple of days maybe they think we are a new nesting opportunity! The boys left for fishing at 5:30AM this morning. We had a little rain overnight so it wasn’t as socked in this morning as before. When the boys got back (skunked again) we checked crab pots and I got 3 beauties, and Abells also got 3 keepers. Crab!! Finally! Sea Otters haven’t found this place yet. John went out fishing by himself but again….skunked. Just rock fish and shakers (baby chinook), with the occasional pink salmon which he doesn’t keep. Our afternoon crab pull resulted in another 4 for me and 1 for Connie. When I processed the salmon a couple days ago I cut off the thin belly sections and saved to cook separately as they cook so much faster than the rest of the fillet. Tonight I grilled it on the BBQ and being so fatty it caused a lot of flare ups and fire fighting, but the result was a beautifully charred salmon belly – paired with some pearl cous cous and salad – a delightful dinner!

                                                                      CRAB! Finally!

Barn Swallows all lined up conferring on where to build a nest

Went for a paddle today and this vibrant seaweed caught my attention, draped on the rocks like cobwebs

And the cutest nurse log/snag!

GOOSE BAY ON ANCHOR

Wednesday, July 22^nd

So we have a problem with the Garmin on the whaler – the depth sounder is working but none of the charting, which makes fishing a bit difficult. The boys were going to go fishing regardless this morning but at 5:30AM it was socked in pretty good so they had to wait for a little clearing of fog before setting out. Since we’ve been here a number of times, John felt like he knew his way around enough to manage without charting, may have been a bit white knuckle for Greg! I had a glorious lie-in, would wake up then doze back off again on repeat, finally getting up at 9AM! For those that know me well, my usual get-up time is somewhere between 5:30-6:30, every day, so this was probably an indication of sleep deprivation! Just as I sat down with my first cup of coffee for the day, the boys motored back into the bay, John caught a nice fish but lost his brand new downrigger ball – ouch - $55. Apparently, they were busy trying to fix Greg’s reel and didn’t notice the depth came up so basically the steel ball hit the rocks below, broke the line, and that’s all she wrote. We spent the rest of the morning trying to fix the Garmin, downloading new software and charts, and as of this writing it is still downloading. We are hoping, fingers crossed, that this will fix the problem! Mai Tai Tai pulled out this morning but now we have a new boat next to us, anchored a little too close as well, and he’s on top of crab pots! A huge Nordhavn – so another bad choice on his part being too close to us and the pots. We hope this goes ok for all involved.

SUCCESS! After hours and hours of deleting files on the SD card for the whaler Garmin, reformatting, and downloading software and charts, and 4 hours of our life we will never get back….the new information now works on the whaler Garmin! Hooray! We have navigation abilities back. Before it was finished however, the boys went back out fishing and were skunked, two fish lost right at the boat. I am secretly glad because I am the chief fish processor after it’s filleted, and I wash and carve into portions and vacuum seal. I wasn’t in the mood! I did get a nice paddle in my kayak this afternoon into the back (very shallow) bay, where there really wasn’t much of interest except what appeared to be a seagull nursery. I noticed a large group of gulls, stationary and some resting on their bellies on a sandbar. As I got closer two gulls were chattering at me and flying overhead clearly upset I was close (which I really wasn’t). As I paddled close enough to see with binoculars, it appeared there were baby seagulls learning to harvest food on the sandbar while the adults watched. I couldn’t have gotten closer if I wanted to short of getting out of the kayak and walking to shore, it was 6” deep! There were some abandoned docks on shore, a flock of Canadian Geese, and two sets of Mergansers (ducks) that have the funniest get-away routine. They are rather skittish and would take off in a group power swimming away from me when I wasn’t even remotely close. So unique!

We set out some crab pots this evening, and I made a sheet pan taco dinner and passed off half of it to the Abells on their boat as Connie isn’t feeling well. It was a late dinner so after cleanup of the galley, my book and bed were welcome.

Remains of some sort of raft or floating home foundation

The seagull nursery, hard to see in either of these pictures with them blending into the background

Another abandoned dock

Looking northeast out of Goose Bay, the old cannery on the right (built in 1926), now a private co-op type fishing lodge

Huntress looked so pretty today with the background, had to take a shot

Note the Mergansers swimming away frantically 

BOTTLENECK INLET TO GOOSE BAY (RIVER’S INLET)

Tuesday, July 21^st

We have an ambitious running day today, attempting to get all the way to River’s Inlet which is about 110 miles, which meant daybreak departure. Daybreak is now closer to 5:30AM however, so that’s when we departed. We had quite the humpback show the first few hours with grand displays of breeching, fin slapping, and lots o’tail. The water was so glassy and smooth we could easily spot them. On today’s route was the transit of our nemesis, Milbanke Sound, exposed to the outside. Milbanke Sound has been surly and nasty nearly every time we’ve been through, but today was an absolute dream. Not so much as a ripple, even though we had some lazy short swells – we’ve never seen it this calm and thanked our lucky stars. After a one hour stopover at Shearwater so UnforgetAbell could take on some fuel, and so I could run up to the store for a couple things, we were back underway on the second leg of today’s trip – the remaining 63 miles to River’s Inlet. It was beautiful water and beautiful cruise all the way down, so many humpbacks feeding in Fitz Hugh Sound! Nice water until the last 2 hours when we had the confluence of outside waters and Hakai Pass which stirred things up, then it calmed some, then it really stirred up the last 10 miles when the wind picked up and we had rollers from Queen Charlotte Straits (Outside water), and opposing tide. A bit of a “mixmaster” as I like to describe it. Just as we are pulling near the entrance to Goose Bay with UnforgetAbell right behind us, a boat hails Greg and says he’s going to overtake him on the Port side, to which Greg said “thanks for the heads up”. What we didn’t know is this guy was going 20knts into the bay, threw an enormous wake at Greg and Connie that they had to speed up and surf so things wouldn’t go flying. This boat (78’ Sonship named Mai Tai Tai) then proceeded to continue into Goose Bay now backing down to 10 knots (which still throws a wake) by Duncanby Lodge and rocked all their boats (we had all backed down to 7 knts, no wake) then rocked the boats on the other side of Goose Bay at a smaller lodge, the lodge owner getting on the radio and admonishing all of us (was NOT us) for swamping their lodge. Still this Mai Tai Tai didn’t have a clue. Once past the lodges, we look across the bay and notice that they sped up again, so John decided to pace him because CLEARLY they were being super rude about trying to beat us to the head of the bay to grab a spot first. Eventually they gave up and stopped their boat, and we continued on and anchored just fine. They then pulled in to the Duncanby Lodge mooring buoy(for small boats) which was way too close to us and tied off to that, I doubt with permission as it’s privately owned. Anyway, another shit show on the water, remember the cat hull boat that outran us going into Takatz Bay, AK to claim the best spot in that harbor? What is up with these people, and they were both folks with huge boats. Manners, people, MANNERS. It was now 7PM, and after a very long day, we quickly threw together a burger dinner and all retired to bed. Glad to be here, hoping to stay 3-4 nights before crossing Cape Caution, our next GATE. 

Sunrise through the window

Our whale show, I have a great video but it's too large to upload to this blog

Lighthouse near Shearwater

Our trip video today

LOWE INLET TO BOTTLENECK INLET

Monday, July 20^th

Today is another long run as we continue on our mission to arrive at River’s Inlet for some fishing for a few days. We are retracing our steps but overnighting in different coves along the way, so while we’ve seen this scenery, we haven’t seen everything. Just a little while ago a HUGE humpback surfaced near us and dove down displaying its enormous tail! It was a beauty and all happened so fast I couldn’t get a photo. The water this morning was a bit rough at first, although seas were following, but evened out into glassy smooth waters with lots of sun for a beautiful trip so far. It’s only 9:45 in the morning but we’ve been up for 4 hours!

Fast forward, the water got skunky as the wind funneled in and stirred things up. As narrow channels converged and tides and currents collided, we had another mixmaster of an afternoon, but mostly following so again, not unbearably rough for us. There has, however, been an inordinate amount of wood in the water so it was a lot of dodgeball. We finally arrived at Bottleneck Inlet at 1:30PM, anchored, secured UnforgetAbell alongside, and even before the engines were off those (&%^$) horseflies were on attack again! Not as many as Lowe Inlet but still annoying. After some pouting on my part I decided I was going kayaking regardless, so Connie and doused ourselves in OFF bug spray and set off for a super nice paddle to the head of the bay. Occasionally horseflies attempted to land on us but were repulsed by our repellent and flew off before landing and biting. SUCCESS! Dinner on our own tonight but we played a round of 5 Crowns and I lost again!! Maybe next time. 

6AM Departure from Lowe Inlet

A not very exciting picture of a Humpback

We think this was a dock being towed but not sure, early morning light

We've had a lot of junk in the water and here's a raft of JUNK

This was like a village of trees that were in the water, maybe a slide

Scenes from the Kayak Ride

We thought this was the cutest Nurse Log ever!

The Bryans stayed another day in Lowe and were rewarded with this experience, a bear actually feeding at the base of the falls and catching! CREDIT: L. Bryan

Our trip video for the day

REFLECTIONS ON OUR TIME IN ALASKA

Monday, July 20^th 

How does one say goodbye to Alaska? I miss it already. Yes, it rained a lot, but that is also far down the list in the visual memories created. I miss the impossible scale of the scenery, the towering snowcapped peaks, the glacier bowls with all shades of green trees and foliage, the cascading waterfalls trailing down the granite walls, the thrill of Bear sightings, the plethora of Humpbacks thriving in the cold waters giving us great pleasure, the daily sightings and antics of the Eagles and Ravens, and most of all the people – the people we met along the way who live in these remote places and their stories, and also learning about and experiencing first hand the native culture. I felt it as soon as we left Ketchikan and arrived in Prince Rupert. A shift. It’s not a bad feeling by any means, I am full of gratitude for what we experienced, albeit with sweaters, beanies, puffies, leggings, and wool socks as the daily attire, and many days topped off with raingear! The weather has shifted too. It’s warm even when windy, it’s just warm – even at night. We’ve had probably 10 days of sunshine in a row, and even experienced a heat wave in Ketchikan of back to back 80 degree days ~ quite a change from the cold winds up farther north. Today I retired the heating pad to the closet, it’s been living next to the bed and heating up the sheets for me before my shivering body climbs in each night. I changed out the flannel sheets for cotton sheets. The diesel heaters haven’t been on for days…..it’s summer, it really is here for us finally! Thank you ALASKA, until we meet again.

Morning in Grenville Channel

PRINCE RUPERT TO LOWE INLET

Sunday, July 19th

An early start today as we have a long run ahead of us – 65 miles down (somewhat boring) Grenville Channel (The Ditch) to Lowe Inlet. We like to travel as early as possible and tolerable so that we can arrive at our destination and have the afternoon to play and relax, not rush right into dinner – otherwise it really feels like a long day (with no play). We had hoped to go the outside route along the west side of Pitt Island but decided it was too far out of the way for just one night, thus we conceded to traveling down Grenville again. We arrived at Lowe Inlet around 1:30 and glided into the bay to find it empty, it will be just us tonight we hope! We all decided to anchor individually this stop, which is nice from time to time. Wait, we are not alone, forgot to mention we were attacked by horseflies upon arrival. Those (expletive) horseflies are predatory, they don’t sting they BITE your flesh, and they are relentless. It was so bad we couldn’t relax outside. John and I took naps then decided to venture out to tour the bay, armed with our electric bug zapper – I sure we were quite the site cruising along in the whaler swinging our racquet like we were at Wimbledon. I still managed to get bit 6 times. Lowe Inlet is home to Verney Falls which is the outlet from Kumowdah River, a critically important salmon spawning site. The head of the inlet around Verney Falls has been an aboriginal fishing site for centuries and is now part of a marine reserve belonging to the Kitkatla First Nation. A fish cannery operated in the inlet from 1890 to 1934 and there were also logging operations during the 1930s. The cannery was built in 1890 by Lowe Inlet Packing Co. and absorbed by the BC Packers Association in 1902. The cannery was closed after the 1930 season and used as a camp for nearby Claxton Cannery. The remains of the cannery are visible on the shoreline in Lowe Inlet. The salmon have arrived here and we had hours of enjoyment watching them with binoculars from the boat and also up close in the whaler gathering at the base of the falls, jumping out of the water in the area approaching the falls, and attempting to scale the falls only to be slapped down by the cascading water. We saw schools of salmon skimming the surface with just their fins out of the water, Sharknado style circling the back eddies waiting their turn! In mid-August the bears are reportedly on the rocks at the falls feasting on the salmon, but we didn't see any. Alas the horseflies made it so unpleasant to drift around and watch nature at its finest so we continued our journey around the bay, visiting the remnants of the old cannery and basking in the beauty of the shoreline. Connie had her appetite queued up for an Aviation Cocktail, which has been the featured cocktail this summer on our boat, so they dropped by in their tender for a visit before dinner. Teriyaki Rice Bowls were on our menu tonight, followed by books, TV, bed. 

Gulls roosting in a nearby tree

Overexposed photo but I did catch a salmon jumping

And another one, just the splash

Our anchorage today in Lowe Inlet, Far Niente to the right, Huntress in the middle, UnforgetAbell far left

Archived photo from Prince Rupert museum of the Lowe Inlet Cannery back in the early 1900s, and the remnants shown in the photo below

What's left of the Cannery, above

Another old photo below of the cannery in its heyday

This structure is in another part of the bay, no idea what was here

Our trip today

KETCHIKAN TO PRINCE RUPERT (DIXON ENTRANCE CROSSING)

Saturday, July 18^th

One of the dreaded or more stressful days of boating is when we have to do an open water crossing, and today it was Dixon Entrance which is exposed to the Gulf of Alaska. We’d been watching the weather for the past week with apprehension because it just wasn’t looking great for the crossing. The challenge is that you get the swells on the beam (from the side), coupled with whatever wind and tidal action you get for the day, so you just never know until you are out there. Winds were predicted out of the NW and they instead were coming from the SE today so that threw us for a loop, actually it seems par for the course – the conditions are never as forecasted! We set the alarm for 3:45AM – yes – ugh, with the intent of pulling off the dock at 4:00AM, but there was not enough light yet to safely travel, so we had to wait until 4:30AM (insert fingers drumming). Leaving Ketchikan you enter the Tongass Narrows which in our experience is a wind tunnel, and sure enough we had chop right away. We got further out into the journey and it would be smooth one minute then big swells and confused water the next. Confused meaning it is coming from all directions. Just when I was worried it was getting too sporty to continue, it would all of a sudden go flat for awhile. 10 minutes later….all worked up again. And that pattern continued the entire day, which was 10 hours of run time. So it was somewhat of a sloppy crossing but it was tolerable, and never escalated to where we had to bail, thankfully, so it’s great to have that “GATE” behind us. We arrived to no rain or wind in Prince Rupert – what?? It’s always raining and windy here!! As we were docking and securing our lines we heard a giant explosion and saw a puff of smoke onshore behind some buildings and wondered what happened? We quickly found out that a transformer had blown which shut power down on the dock even before we could plug in. Not a big deal, we have a huge battery capacity, and the power was back on later that evening. We later learned it was an unfortunate Raven that landed on the wire and then must have touched something up there that wasn’t grounded – instead it was roasted bird. Or more like exploding bird. And here I thought they were so smart. After a hike to the grocery store for all the produce that we couldn’t bring across the border, we had dinner at the Pub and an early night to bed, I think it was only 7:30 when we shut our eyes – really it was 6:30 Alaska time – which we’ve been on since June 1^st – but now we are back on Seattle time. We've had a wonderful 6 weeks in Alaska and it's hard to believe how fast it has flown!

Good morning Ketchikan! Wee hours....getting off the dock. I am in the whaler about to motor over and get hooked up for towing.

Goodbye beautiful Ketchikan, beautiful Alaska, it's been a great 6 weeks!

Another pretty fishing boat with Coast Guard facility in background

Our trip video for the day

KETCHIKAN AT THE DOCK

Friday, July 17th

Another stellar day in Ketchikan! Warm and sunny! The Bryans left this morning to reposition down to Foggy Bay so they would have a shorter crossing tomorrow. The three amigos, John, Greg, and myself ventured out in the morning to the hatchery at -4.0 tide for one more attempt to see bears – score – ZERO. It was crawling with cruise ship tourists this morning and no bears to be seen so we got outta there quickly. John decided he wanted to wash the boat while he had unlimited water available, so Greg and I went back to the grocery store so he could provision up, and I picked up a few more items after researching what produce I was actually allowed to take into Canada. Later that afternoon, John had plans to go uptown for some errands, so Greg and I decided to go on a hike at Ward Cove Lake, which was a beautiful trail! Returned the rental car, got cleaned up, then it was time for cocktails on the back of the boat before heading to an early dinner at the Bush Pilot Lounge again, early because we had to get to the airport by 7:30 to pick up Connie. Dinner was fantastic! Greg had Halibut encrusted with cashews, I had blackened Sockeye Salmon with a cilantro cream sauce that was spicy, and John had a beautifully roasted  slab of Prime Rib. Our server Louise, who was Swedish, was delightful and engaging rounding out our perfect dinner experience. After that we walked back to the boat and started motoring up to the airport dock just as Connie’s plane landed! We scooped her up and had a nice ride back down the channel -- without wind for once! Early to bed because tomorrow is a daybreak departure, at first light.

Scenes from our walk around Ward Cove Lake

Just one of the pictures hanging on the wall at Bush Pilot Lounge, reminds me of our friends' plane, Len and Steph!

Skipper and Gilligan on the way to the airport to pickup Connie

Just one of the many cool fishing vessels in Ketchikan

Here's a video route we took from our moorage to pickup Connie at the airport. How many airports have a DOCK?!! So efficient. 

KETCHIKAN AT THE DOCK

Thursday, July 16th

Last night we ended up having a late snack and drink at the Bush Pilot Lounge, a cute little restaurant a couple blocks away. We ended up having a late lunch so weren’t super hungry but wanted to get off the boat. Our bartender was SO FUNNY and so fun to talk to, her name was Sam and she had been living in Ketchikan for 10 years. She was a public defender for 6 years before deciding that she wasn’t cut out for that so now bartends and plays outside as much as possible. As we were sitting at the bar looking out at an Eagle perched nearby, we were debating whether it was a male or female. Sam tuned into that and said “Nope that’s a male and his name is Jack, as in Jack Ass.” She proceeded to tell us that Jack and his mate were performing a mating ritual, which entails dramatic aerobatics that include locking talons and spiraling towards earth, releasing before they hit the ground. Well apparently “Jack” didn’t release his mate “Crash”, as she was thereafter known, she crashed into the ground and broke a wing and was subsequently shipped off to the Raptor Center in Sitka for rehab. She was rehabbed and released in Sitka, and they are not sure if she will find her way back to Ketchikan. So, Jack sits on the piling right outside the restaurant day after day, perhaps waiting for Crash to find her way back. Sam felt he was a bad Eagle for not releasing Crash in time, thus his moniker.

This morning we took the boat out to the fuel dock to refuel, Greg joined us which made it super efficient. The fuel dock offered two hoses so we could fill both sides at a time and not have to wait for the crossover to level out the sides. I was in charge of watching the fuel gauges below. We were fueled up and back in our moorage by 10:30AM. Today I threw caution to the wind and booked a hair appointment at a local salon. She did a great job and it was cheaper than I pay at home, so it was a winner! Afterwards I stocked up on shelf stable groceries for the next 6 weeks of travel, which entails hosting a couple groups of our kids and lots of time on anchor, which means I will be cooking a lot! The five of us went to an early dinner at New York Café which was excellent! The weather continues to be warm so we were in short sleeved shirts and basking in warm sunshine well into the evening.

Dolly's House, the original brothel from Gold Rush days

Sharing the channel with a giant cruise ship on its way into port

Ketchikan was so colorful today, just some hillside homes

Ketchikan waterfront