On Boat

Summary Having spent last summer on an epic journey and needing to juggle work commitments, we decided to spend this summer much more local. To that note, we left for the San Juans at the end of June planning to spend a little less than 3 weeks exploring the smaller islands we haven’t seen yet. 6/29/2024 We spent a few hours on Friday juggling cars so that we had a vehicle in Anacortes in case we needed it. After getting back to Seattle late, we decided to spend the night on the boat Friday night - partly so we could get an early start on Saturday and partly so we could feel like our vacation was starting a little earlier. We departed early in the morning on 6/29 - targeting either Port Ludlow or Port Townsend for the night.

Sara had her Spring break last week and we decided to take a very low key sailing trip for the week. Our original plan was to sail up to the San Juan’s for the week, but the combination of inclement weather, small craft advisories during 2 of the 5 days, and other commitments had us put that plan on hold for the actual summer. Instead, we just bumped around the Puget Sound for the week. On the plus side, we had lots of wind and we able to sail for all of the trip (except for the few minutes for docking and undocking). It felt really good to be sailing given how little we did on the Alaska trip last summer.

We make our way through the San Juans, pass through Deception Pass into the Puget Sound, and then home! 9/18/2023 We had only a short move today - 11 nm from Henry island to Friday Harbor. We ended up getting in pretty early and found the place much less crowded than last time - only 3 boats vs 12 boats when we were heading north. Friday Harbor Amazingly, one of the first people we ran into was at Friday Harbor when we came through on the way North - a boat called Nisku. Apparently there was quite the stir when we mentioned our plans here 4 months ago and Nisku had been following this blog ever sense - with a particular interest in all of our mechanical challenges (and successes!). I had always assumed that the only people reading this blog were my family and maybe a few close friends - I’m going to have to watch what I write now… :)

We pick our way through the Gulf Islands and back down into the USA! 9/14/2023 We departed right on time at 8:20a this morning and made quick work of the 7 nm trip to Dodds Narrows - faster than expected with a 2 knt current - and we ended up having to wait for about 20 min before we felt comfortable running through the narrows with the current (~30 min before slack). As we were waiting, we saw some sea lions playing in the middle of the rapids. Seeing sea lions right on either side of the rapids has become a common occurance for us, they must be using the current to catch fish. It was only a few more hours from there to Ovens island and we had a bright beautiful day to do it in - and for a short while some wind to sail!

We head through the rapids, across the Straight of Georgia, and into the Gulf islands. From here on out, we are back in civilization - we have cell service & wifi most days and we will be staying in marinas/outstations most evenings. 9/8/2023 We had a very late start today - our window for crossing the rapids is at 1:10p so we are aiming to leave Shoal Bay at 11a. We spent most of the morning chatting with another boat who is from the area and they were heading to Dent island lodge. They gave us some good intel about being able to head through the rapids early on a high water slack - so ended up following them through the first set of rapids at about 12:15p. We waved goodbye as we headed through the next two sets of rapids and we saw some sea lions playing at slack water in the rapids - they were very fun to watch and very active.

We complete our north BC section of the trip, heading through Klemtu, Bella Bella, and then on to Pruth Bay. 8/31/2023 We aimed to get going at 6a again, but the last couple of days built up and it wasn’t until 7:15a when we got underway. Our goals for today were Klemtu (11 nm away) to refuel and then on to Bella Bella (an additional 36 nm) for the night. We thought this was a fairly realistic goal given how well we have done over the last 3 days. On the way north, it look us 8 days to complete what we just finished in 3 days - some of that was due to the rest days/detours we took on the way north, but much more of it is due to estimating currents when their is no prediction, favorable winds, and optimizing our comfort underway - so we can spend more hours of the day going. Something about going home just feels different as well - like some other unknown force is also pushing in our favor.

Leaving Prince Rupert, we push through Grenville & Princess Royal Channels. Some long days, but we made some tremendous progress towards our Pruth Bay on Calvert Island- our last anchorage in north BC and a location that we both very much enjoyed. 8/28/2023 We had a lot of provisioning/refit to do this morning - but we couldn’t very well visit Prince Rupert without the obligatory Cowpaccinos breakfast and back in the afternoon for ice cream. We departed the dock around 2p, and after a very frustrating 45 min wait for the fuel dock to open up, we were off just before 3p. We were hoping to make it to Gunboat Harbor (the anchorage just north of the Grenville Channel), but a nasty headwind was building and it wasn’t looking likely that we would make it to Gunboat before dark. We ended up pulling off about 10 nm short of Gunboat with a 15 knt headwind - still 20 nm day leaving at 3p isn’t bad.

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 take on the Wrangell Narrows and on to Wrangell just in time for the Anan Bear Bay. 8/21/2023 Today was our read refit day - which has truly become an art of efficiency at this point. Kicking everything off at 8a, we wrapped up laundry, hardware store trip, and groceries with everything procured and stowed by 10a. The Wrangell Narrows (today’s adventure) requires that we leave at a specific time so that we reach the midpoint (South Flats) at high water slack tide. If we do it right, the flood tide will carry us to South Flats and then the begining of the ebb will carry us out the other side.

We head out of Juneau for some long days with good weather towards Petersburg - exploring Stephen’s passage & Frederick Sound on the way 8/18/2023 We left the dock at just after 5a - making our way down Stephen’s Passage. We will spend the next two and a half days in the passage heading south before we turn east into Frederick Sound and Petersburg. The weather is cool, but very calm - a welcome reprieve from the weather of this last week. We were treated with a beautiful view of the Mendenhall Glacier as we departed Auke Bay.

The second half of our Glacier Bay excursion was heading back south towards the entrance of the park - at a slower pace than our way up to allow for more time to explore. 8/10/2023 We woke on the morning of the 10th still not totally sure what our itinerary would be for the day. Johns Hopkins Inlet was on the consideration list but we were worried about adding 20 nm to our day (10 nm to get there and 10 to get back). We all awoke around 8a and hung out for a while - drinking coffee. At the last minute, Angela decided we should do it. I threw on my clothes immediately and headed up to get going…

It’s not about the destination, it’s about the journey. But every great journey needs a destination and Glacier Bay is our destination. Unfortunately for us, the forecast calls for rain during most of our stay at Glacier Bay. Fortunately, this place is beautiful even in the rain/fog and we are all in great spirits and ready to enjoy! 8/7/2023 While waiting for Dawn to arrive, we toured the longhouse - a traditionally constructed tribal house off the Hoonah Tlingit people. It was beautiful to see, but the best part was the artist that was showing the place off - Sara had so many questions for him about how to make drums, pendants, totem poles, etc. She asked so many good questions - many were things I didn’t think to ask but resulted in very interesting answers. For example, the green color in Tlingit artifacts is made from oxidized copper mixed with Salmon eggs…

We take do our Juneau fishing charter and depart Juneau - a bittersweet departure, but it was time - and make our way to Gustavos - to pickup Dawn and head into Glacier Bay National Park. 8/5/2023 Our day involved a later start than usual with a 10a fishing charter, departing from the marina next door (15 min walk). We met up with captain Levi and his deckhand and one other client - which we later found out also worked for the fishing charter as a mechanic, but was just on this trip for fun. We headed out to the far side of Pt Retreat near Funter Bay - a journey that took about 45 min in this boat but took us the better part of a day in our boat.

This post will cover our time in Juneau - not much boating/sailing in this one, but lots of exploring in a new town with the family. 7/30/2023 We ended up spending most of the day yesterday exploring downtown Juneau - which thankfully is a very lovely town (we were worried having already committed to spending some time here). Sara and I got some magnets for the boat and ate fish & chips on the boardwalk in downtown. We also went out to dinner at a nice resteraunt in downtown - something that hasn’t necessarily been available for many of the towns we have stopped on during this trip. Last night was our last night in the hotel, so today we will move all of our clean laundry (6 bags of it!) back to the boat and get comfortable on the boat again.

7/25/2023 We woke up the following morning to a fairly strong wind coming into the bay - which meant even stronger winds in the strait. We checked the forecast on VHF and decided that today was not our day. Thankfully - we really liked this hot springs, so we did it all over again! Back up to the natural hot springs, hike all the boardwalks and explore some of the trails that lead up from the boardwalks, repeat. We ran into another family with small kids and they were painting rocks - and Sara joined for a while. For being stuck somewhere - this was not a bad place to be.

7/17/2023 We leave Ketchikan heading north to Meyers Chuck - about a 30 nm push - leaving at about 7a and expecting to arrive at just after noon. The highlight (or lowlight) of the morning was listening to the coast guard talk to a resort ferry called the “Miss Sadie” from the Calder Mountain Lodge who first fowled their prop on a bow anchor line that came loose and then their engine started smoking. They had another resort vessel that came out to unload the 17 resort passengers and 2 crew and a second vessel that came out to tow them in. The Coast Guard was mostly a observer in this, but they got all the gory details from the boats involved - which was like listening to th play by play of a car accident over the radio. Everyone was ok thankfully - all very cringe-worthy…

7/12/2023 We have been busy - the last couple of days in Prince Rupert have been a flurry of activity… We got groceries for the next 3-4 days (we don’t want to stock up too much before dealing with US customs), we did laundry, we refilled our propane, we refilled water, we got Oakley into the vet, we did a huge shopping run to the local marine store, and we completed some much needed repairs on the boat (eg re-mounting the toilet!). Turns out Oakely cracked one of her teeth - and the inside of the crack became infected. Her body fought off the infection (which is why the swelling went down) but it’s highly likely to become infected again so we need to get it removed. Fortunately, we were able to get her into surgery tomorrow and hopefully everything will go smoothly.

7/5/2023 We gave a sad goodbye to Ocean falls - the place had really grown on us over the last couple of days - and made our way toward Klemtu. Seas were calm and only a slight headwind, not great for sailing, so we motored back along Dean Channel and past Shearwater/Bella-Bella. The goal for today was to make it to just this side of Klemtu - but that was a tenacious goal of almost 45 miles. We found some slightly rough seas on Milbank Sound so we decided to take the inland Reid passage. This meant calmer seas, but we had to stop well short of our goal as we weren’t timed for the rapids at Perceval Narrows. We instead pulled in to Oliver Cove Marine Park - a small marine park on the north end of ivory island.

We got a late start from Shearwater - I think the last couple of days have caught up with us. We ended up leaving around 9a from Shearwater - making our way for 35 nm to Eucott Bay (where the hot springs are). It was going to be a long day - probably 6-7 hours. Sara spent a couple of hour reading to me, it was raining in the morning so she tucked herself on the top step of the companionway to stay dry but still keep me company. The first challenge of the day was Gunboat Pass - a narrow pass that takes you out of Shearwater and into Dean Channel. The pass is narrow and does get some current, but it doesn’t get turbulent. We choose to go with the flood tide and got a nice 1 knot push through the channel - which carried us well into Dean Channel. The current flipped around 1 pm and we ended up with a half a knot or so against us for the last couple of hours.

Monday was our rest day in Port McNeill - we considered leaving early (marina life is far less enjoyable than being on anchor somewhere beautiful), but we still needed groceries and the weather looked much better for rounding Cape Caution on Tuesday/Wednesday than it did Monday/Tuesday. Either way, we got some delicious coffee from Mugz, did some laundry, and then purchased ferry tickets over to Alert Bay - which was advertised as the place to learn about the native peoples (called “first nation” people in Canada). The ferry ride was uneventful (and thankfully the crew allowed us to keep Oakley with us - sounds like you are supposed to put them in a kennel while you are on the ferry, which seemed terrible to us). The museum in Alert bay was very interesting - we learned about the Potlach dance and all the history/meaning into the different dances. The dances are performed with Masks and some of them are quite elaborate - signifying different deities and animals. We also learned about the history of the residential schools and some of the atrocities that happened in the middle of the century. Unfortunately most of the rest of the town was closed up - we were guessing that things kinda close down when there aren’t any cruise ships in port. There are some cool looking trails through the uninhabited part of the island, but we were running out of time to catch our ferry so we will save those until next time.

We have officially entered Canada - perhaps the most anti-climactic event of our trip. We left Henry island at around 11:30a and headed for Bedwell harbor. Henry island was a magical place in the morning and we wished we could have stayed another day, but we were eager to keep going - and it will be relatively easy for us to come back to Henry island in the future. We headed for a customs clearance point called Poets Cove and docked at the dedicated customs dock.

We are off! We left Elliott bay on Thursday (6/8) around 4p and made our way up to the Blue Ridge neighborhood to anchor for the night. Our friends, Derek and Diane, recently purchased a new home there and it was closing day so we came by to celebrate with them. Pizza and 30ish year old Yamazaki whiskey was the perfect way to celebrate a new chapter for both them in their new house and us heading off on our sailing trip!

The last couple of weeks have been very busy cleaning up our house and getting the boat ready to go. We are T-9 days from departure on our 4.5 month sailing trip up to Alaska which is both exciting and anxiety producing… I’m writing this post to capture in writing some of the work we have done to get the boat ready to go and what the family has been up getting ready for this trip.