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

SNUG ANCHORAGE TO KETCHIKAN

Wednesday, July 15^th

Today we were able to enjoy a more tolerable departure time of 7AM as conditions in Clarence are predicted to be favorable all morning. As you may recall, we had a lot of swing time on the anchor the past two days with gusts clocking over 20mph in Snug Anchorage. When John pulled up the anchor today, an impossibly large scoop of mud was securely embedded into the plow and it took a good 10 minutes to offload! Once that was accomplished, we were on our way. Clarence started out with just ripples of wind on the surface but continued to build over the morning into blowing 20mph from the northwest, which was good for us because it’s behind us. We had following seas most of the way, even with the tide change which was opposing a couple of hours into our journey, creating some stacked up waves. Then all of a sudden the last hour, the wind just died off. One never knows what is actually going to happen out here. Once again, we were fortunate to be going south as it would otherwise have been a sloppy trip. We arrived in Ketchikan and attempted to go straight to the fuel dock because fuel is $1 cheaper here than in Canada, and when you have to onboard 1000+ gallons, that’s real money. Nope – no room at the fuel dock so we’ll have to do it tomorrow. We arrived at Ketchikan Moorage, a small private facility we always patronize, and all settled into our dockage. There was big drama and scuttle on the dock – apparently the night before, or more accurately at 3AM this morning, a fishing vessel aptly named "Predator" rammed into the yacht moored next to us, nearly killing the two crew members sleeping in their forward bunks, and tearing an enormous hole in the fiberglass hull. They think the fisherman fell asleep at the wheel. To make matters worse, after punching a hole into the yacht the fisherman engaged in reverse to try and extract his bow from the yacht’s bow and ended up dragging the yacht right off the dock, snapping all the lines in the process. Now that is a LOT of pressure applied to shear off probably 4 to 5 thick braided lines. From there we were told they had to load 600 pounds of sand onto the fisherman's bow in order to lower his bow enough so it could be extracted from the yacht. The dock was also damaged and they weren’t sure to what extent, but the owner was down there, the coast guard were on site, it was a big event. The unfortunate folks that owned the yacht will have their vacation cut short, they weren’t on the boat at the time but were coming back up to continue their trip. Only the two crew were onboard when this happened. That will be a big insurance claim! Thank God nobody was hurt. We then walked up town to do some quick perusing because Connie only has a few hours today to shop as she is leaving today to fly home for a couple days. The rest of us get to hang out in Ketchikan, dine out, catch up on sleep, reprovision, and get some walks in!

HUGE scoop of Mud - but what great holding in this bay

Huntress headed into our moorage, I was in the whaler trailing behind, John had folks to catch the lines for him

Alaska State Ferry

The fishing boat had dragged the yacht right off the dock, snapping all the lines.

Still attached

The resulting hole in the hull

Lots of Seaplane Traffic here in Ketchikan

A Map of Our Journey Today

SNUG ANCHORAGE AT ANCHOR

Tuesday, July 14^th

Another beautiful morning! Wow, the weather has truly turned into summer….FINALLY! After our coffee infusion, John went out with me to check pots around 8AM – and the score is….CRAB – Zero, although we did catch some spider crab and a really pretty starfish, and PRAWNS – 100!! And nice ones! So happy to finally have some success, just when I was thinking the otters had eaten everything. We rebaited the Prawn traps and put them back down, and moved the Crab traps to a completely new location, but I don’t have much hope – it’s pretty rocky around here. I spent the rest of the morning cooking the Prawn haul and peeling them for our dinner tonight. Bill and Lorraine went and checked their pots later in the morning and caught a nice haul of large prawns and a rather large octopus which they let go, since it had eaten all the prawns that were in the trap. Greg and Connie went and checked their crab pots later in the morning, and they too were skunked on crab. The wind was once again whipping through our bay, and all of us are on one anchor….ours. With each gust swinging the flotilla around, the lines would squeak as they became taut and the anchor chain clanked as it came tight. As it was still warm even with the wind, I decided to take my kayak out for a paddle around the bay which was absolutely delightful. Next up - time to go check the second trap sets! CRAB – ZERO. PRAWNS – another 75-80? I didn’t count but I am quite pleased with the results. I was able to feed everyone chilled prawns and cocktail sauce for Happy Hour, and also stash away a nice haul for my freezer. Speaking of Happy Hour, another spontaneous happy hour on our back deck, basking in the evening sun once again – absolutely glorious, we are all Vitamin D deprived and drinking it up! 

PRAWNS!!

No bears on the beach but deer visited us each morning

Another Pristine Morning at Anchor, Snug Anchorage

The Gulls were also plentiful and feeding at low tide

Just love the reflections!