The weather looks spectacular for the next week - so we plan to take advantage. 2 days from Wrangell to Ketchikan and 2 days from Ketchikan to Prince Rupert.
8/24/2023
Early start today to catch the favourable tides from Wrangell to Meyers Chuck (one of our favourite stops in SE Alaska). We had a long ways to go today, 50nm. Normally we would have split this into two days, but with favourable weather, we want to get across Dixon Entrance and into North BC as quickly as possible. Turns out, calm seas, good currents, and very favourable wind got us there almost 2 hours early! We even sailed the last 3 hours of the 6 hour trip (across Ernest Sound) - holding about 6 knts the whole way.
We had some tag alongs in the morning - a pod of porpoises swam alongside the boat for 20 min or so. Sara was so excited about these and she couldn’t wait to tell here friends back home about this one.
With an expected 5p arrival turning into a 3p arrival, we had plenty of time to hike/explore, pick late season huckleberries, blueberries, and Salal berries on the side of the trail, and swim!
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Meyers Chuck was perhaps even more fun than the last time we were here. We found some new trails and explored a new section of beach we didn’t get to last time. No kids this time, but we ran into quite a few summer residents who were closing up shop for the long winter.
Angela and I decided to take a swim on the beach side of Meyers Chuck - the water was crystal clear (but Cold!) and we felt so invigorated by our Glacier Bay plunge that we thought it would help invigorate our spirit. I’ll spare you the pictures - as Sara protested “It’s weird to be surrounded by nakey parents!”
Sara and I went berry picking after the swim and made some cinnamon muffins with Salal berries. This was my first time cooking with Salal berries - They grow all over the place on the Pasific coast (including Washington), but they don’t taste very good. I had read that natives made jam out of them - adding sugar to help improve the sweetness - so I thought including them in a baked good would make sense. It was a success - they were delicious. We also ordered Cinamon rolls from the Meyers Chuck lady - so tomorrow will be the day of sweets!
8/25/2023
A boat arrived late last night and this morning we realized that it was “Nevermore”, the beautiful wooden sailboat we had seen in Glacier Bay the day we were leaving. I spent a few min chatting with Billy, her captain. They had come in from Petersburg yesterday - hence the late arrival. It seemed like our itineraries were similiar - heading to Ketchikan today and then on to Prince Rupert. I didn’t ask, but it seemed as though an ice berg must have gotten them - there was a huge collision scar on the port-side of her bow. It was comforting to know that even very seasoned sailors - Billy has been sailing for 40 years - and he still get scars. We feel better about ours.
We departed around 7a for our trip to Ketchikan. It was a calm morning, but the wind & seas started to build until it became quite uncomfortable. The last 10nm before we rounded Caamano Point were pretty rough. Thankfully the seas and wind were at our back and we made short work of it. Once we were well into crossing the Behm Canal entrance, things calmed a bit and we had a couple of hours of reprieve before entering Tongass Narrows. Sara took this opportunity to emerge into the world, but decided that leaving her Olaf sleeping bag would be a bit too much to bear..
Tongass Narrows, however, was a zoo. Boats everywhere, sea planes taking off and landing while swerving between them, and on top of it - 10 knt winds. Ouch. We pulled into the fuel dock and barely got fueled the waves were bucking the boat so much. After 20 min, we were all wrapped up and on our way - both docking and launching were tough, but we did it flawlessly. We called the harbormaster and he pointed us to Thomas Basin to dock. The harbor was somewhat sheltered and we only had 12 knts of wind for docking - not trival, but not the best. After some confusion with the harbormaster sending us into a slip that was being used, we found a slip that was open and docked without issue.
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Ketchikan was a bit more fun this time around - Creek Street, where the cruise ships dock, had a bit more amenities and we had a good dinner at a place that Diane reccomended - NY Cafe, which had around since the 1800s. They had a band playing live music and we had a good time eating/listening. We were off to bed early for an early departure the next morning - 5a.
8/26/2023
What a day! We were barely into the Tongass narrows before we had our first catastrophy. The autopilot stopped working. After disasembly and reassembly, it seems that all the hard work it has done on this trip has worn out the serpentine belt - and I do not have a spare. This seems like a huge oversight on my park given how much we use this thing, but I guess I had no idea how much we would use the thing before the trip started. Requiring Angela or I to stand behind the wheel is going to be rough - I order one and have it shipped to Angela’s parents (who are planning to meet us at Cortes island) - but that will mean around 2 weeks without it. Ouch.
The second catastrophy of the day - the engine starts to stutter. It revs down and then back up again without any input from us. Then it does it again. Angela is johny on the spot and pulls off into a temporary anchorage and I proceed to do everything I can think of to fix the issue - as well as some of the maintenance I was planning for tonight. I bled the primary fuel filter, replaced the secondary fuel filter, tightened all of the fittings on the fuel line, replace zincs in the heat exchanger, change transmission fluid, engine oil change, and then bled all of the fuel lines to get the air out. We get going again and things seem better, until the engine stutters again. My best guess at this point is that we got bad fuel in Ketchikan. The engine is stuttering about ever 10 min and it seems to be getting further apart - so maybe we will be able to work through the bad fuel… It doesn’t seem to be doing anything bad to the engine, the engine is running fine, it stutters, then it’s back again.
The third catastrophy of the day happened right as we were leaving our temporary anchorage. The key ignition cylinder breaks as Angela is trying to crank the engine and you can no longer turn the ignition key. I tried to fix it, but it is comletely shot and it doesn’t have any replacable parts. At first this looks like a deal breaker, but it looks like I can pull the whole key assembly out of the engine pod and hotwire it….
We finish up the push to Foggy Bay (anchorage for the evening) and don’t run into any further issues (other than the engine stuttering every 10 min - becoming 20 min by the time we pull into the anchorage).
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I’m anxious what tomorrow has in store for us, but gather our nerve and head ashore for a walk. Oakley is back to herself again and goes for a swim - collecting up sticks and kelp alike and bringing them to shore. Sara and I bushwack back into the island and make it to the other side - overlooking Dixon Entrance and all the way into Canada. Angela makes a delicious dinner (I did a bit of grilling, but she did most of the work, as Sara helpfully points out) and we tuck in for the evening.
If we can make it to Prince Rupert tomorrow - then we will have either worked through the bad fuel or we will have service again and I can figure out what else might be causing the engine to stutter like that. Fingers crossed for tomorrow!
8/26/2023
Today was a long day - not much in terms of wind and the currents were in our favor, but only barely. We ended up leaving around 6a and pulling into Cow Bay at 5p - an almost 11 hour day of motoring. Thankfully, the engine only stuttered twice - both in the morning. The last 8 hours of motoring had no issues. I don’t want to say we are out of the woods yet, but it seems like bad fuel was the cluprit and it’s mostly passed through now. I’m going to get some fuel additives tomorrow to see if I can neutralize anything remaining in the fuel and some fuel injector cleaner to flush out any residue. We have a lot of refit to do today - provision/laundry/fuel/etc before we take on north BC. Other than fuel/water, we will need to be self-sufficent for the next 5-7 days - at least we know it, unlike the trip up where we didn’t.
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I havn’t taken many photos over the last several days - long days combined with boat issues didn’t leave me with much energy for anything else. Hopefully I’ll do better over the next few days. Tomorrow we will do most of our reprovisioning and take off in the early afternoon. I don’t anticipate we will make huge progress tomorrow given the late start - but at least we will be on our way!