This is our boat, Last Class anchored in SE Alaskan waters.
A young grizzly bear that looks like he has lost his momma and is suffereing from sadness as well as weight loss.
Antarctic Photowalk
3 minutes ago
Wednesday, September 26, 2007
Tuesday, September 25, 2007
Close to "Home"
Tuesday, September 11
Here we are back in "almost home" waters, and we had to deal with a nasty Strait of Georgia. After spending a couple of nights in Garden Bay, Pender Harbor, we decided that we would trust the weatherman that the winds would go down by midday, but no! We were in contact with boats ahead of us and were warned that the seas near Nanaimo, our intended destination, were so rough that it was impossible to stand up in the boat. This came from friends that have a
commercial fish boat and 39 years of experience. They had their poles down and stabilizers in the water. That was enough to convince us that our roll prone boat would not do well in those conditions. We made a left turn around the south end of Thormanby Island and cruised in smooth waters back to Secret Cove where we spent a quiet night and got to visit with our friends on Bleau Mist and Reel Angler.
Same weather forecast the next morning, so we trusted again and were disappointed again. This time we decided to cross to Silva Bay instead of Nanaimo. It afforded us the possibility of seas that were more astern to us than abeam. Well, that theory worked, sort of... We rocked and rolled for about 4 hours taking occasional big swells that upset things in the cabin including us
and Mac. It seems that our test of rough water is a broken wine glass. Sure enough one came crashing off the overhead holder and broke the stem. Anyway, we
were glad to be across the last big crossing of the trip. As an added bonus, we picked up a wi-fi connection here at anchor. Our slip in Anacortes is ready for us now, but we will probably not be back in it till the last week of Sept. The weather, except for the wind, has been glorius. All the way up and down the coast people have been saying, "This is the worst summer we have ever had." I guess we can't complain about Alaskan weather too much, since everywhere else had their share of clouds and rain, too.
Judy, Bob, Mac, Dinghy and Dock
Here we are back in "almost home" waters, and we had to deal with a nasty Strait of Georgia. After spending a couple of nights in Garden Bay, Pender Harbor, we decided that we would trust the weatherman that the winds would go down by midday, but no! We were in contact with boats ahead of us and were warned that the seas near Nanaimo, our intended destination, were so rough that it was impossible to stand up in the boat. This came from friends that have a
commercial fish boat and 39 years of experience. They had their poles down and stabilizers in the water. That was enough to convince us that our roll prone boat would not do well in those conditions. We made a left turn around the south end of Thormanby Island and cruised in smooth waters back to Secret Cove where we spent a quiet night and got to visit with our friends on Bleau Mist and Reel Angler.
Same weather forecast the next morning, so we trusted again and were disappointed again. This time we decided to cross to Silva Bay instead of Nanaimo. It afforded us the possibility of seas that were more astern to us than abeam. Well, that theory worked, sort of... We rocked and rolled for about 4 hours taking occasional big swells that upset things in the cabin including us
and Mac. It seems that our test of rough water is a broken wine glass. Sure enough one came crashing off the overhead holder and broke the stem. Anyway, we
were glad to be across the last big crossing of the trip. As an added bonus, we picked up a wi-fi connection here at anchor. Our slip in Anacortes is ready for us now, but we will probably not be back in it till the last week of Sept. The weather, except for the wind, has been glorius. All the way up and down the coast people have been saying, "This is the worst summer we have ever had." I guess we can't complain about Alaskan weather too much, since everywhere else had their share of clouds and rain, too.
Judy, Bob, Mac, Dinghy and Dock
Wednesday, August 8, 2007
Sorry that I've been so lax in getting out a newsletter. Time to catch up which may take a few emails. Much of the time we didn't have any phone service and when we did ... well, I just didn't get it done. After Craig, we anchored in Cyrus on Orr Island near Hoot and Owl Islands. Next was Devilfish Bay where we caught 113 prawns. Heading up El Capitan Passage, a narrow, smooth water, dredged channel with rocks alarmingly close on the sides of the boat..... Will write more about our trip later, but just to catch you up to date now: We were stuck in Ketchikan for almost a week waiting for a weather window to head south across the notoriously rough crossing of Dixen Entrance. We actually had a very nice crossing back into Canadian waters. After we passed by Shearwater and anchored in one of our favorite anchorages, Fancy Cove, we discovered a fresh water pump for the engine was seeping water. On August 5th we returned to Shearwater for repairs, but got no help on Sunday and as it turned out, Monday was a holiday (BC Day) so no help then either. Tuesday morning we ordered the pump and it came in overnight, and is being installed as we speak. We plan to head out as soon as possible...on to our next major crossing aptly named Cape Caution. The weather looks good this week, so we're hopeful for a smooth trip on south. More of the highlights of our time in Alaska later, and we have some great ones to relate.
Sorry that I've been so lax in getting out a newsletter. Time to catch up which may take a few emails. Much of the time we didn't have any phone service and when we did ... well, I just didn't get it done. After Craig, we anchored in Cyrus on Orr Island near Hoot and Owl Islands. Next was Devilfish Bay where we caught 113 prawns. Heading up El Capitan Passage, a narrow, smooth water, dredged channel with rocks alarmingly close on the sides of the boat..... Will write more about our trip later, but just to catch you up to date now: We were stuck in Ketchikan for almost a week waiting for a weather window to head south across the notoriously rough crossing of Dixen Entrance. We actually had a very nice crossing back into Canadian waters. After we passed by Shearwater and anchored in one of our favorite anchorages, Fancy Cove, we discovered a fresh water pump for the engine was seeping water. On August 5th we returned to Shearwater for repairs, but got no help on Sunday and as it turned out, Monday was a holiday (BC Day) so no help then either. Tuesday morning we ordered the pump and it came in overnight, and is being installed as we speak. We plan to head out as soon as possible...on to our next major crossing aptly named Cape Caution. The weather looks good this week, so we're hopeful for a smooth trip on south. More of the highlights of our time in Alaska later, and we have some great ones to relate.
Thursday, June 7, 2007
While at the dock in Ketchikan we attended the Friday night hamburger feed at the Yacht Club. Always fun to meet new boating folks. This time we met Jon Cornforth, photographer extraordinair. He and his dad had arrived in Ketchikan on their little Sea Dory. To provide extra room they had a Yakima cartop carrier mounted on their hardtop. Check out Jon's pics at cornforthimages.com I am the proud owner of one of his prints that he gave me! Leaving Ketchikan we crossed a well-behaved Clarence Strait to the tiny village of Kassan on Prince of Wales Island (the third largest island in the U.S.) As we pulled into the dock to raft onto DX the ferry, Prince of Wales, caused a large wake that rocked both boats crashing them together. Our rail hit Ernie's antenna and broke the outer PVC pipe. We were thankful that the sending and receiving functions still worked, and Ernie was even more thankful. The next day Ernie took us through the village and onto a nice trail that took us to a totem pole park and an old cemetary. We wouldn't have even known that it was there without his guidance. 5-28-29 Continuing our exploration of new spots on POW we traveled on up Kassan Bay to Karta Bay where we found a buoy to tie to. In a bay that was supposed to provide protection, we found that the wind followed us in and rocked us for two days. We were able to watch a bear on the beach for most of the time we were there. Our next spot, Troller's Cove, was blissfully quiet and calm. We had another buoy to tie to and a forest service cabin to explore. Our next stop was Dora Bay in Cholmondeley (pronounced Chumlee???) Sound. We made a stop there to see the hosts of the NW Boaters' Ham Net, Darlene and Floyd. They have built themselves a very comfortable small home on a tiny island and seem to enjoy their isolated living conditions as they live there year around. On the way into their place, Ernie had a warning sound for an overheated engine. We stood by in glassy calm water while he checked on the problem. He seemed to be losing water in his engine as fast as he could put more in. He tried starting up again, but overheated within a few minutes. We tied alongside and gave DX her first tow. Darlene directed us to a neighboring dock where we tied up and had a good spot to work on the boat. It took about 2 hours to diagnose the problem and then not much time to fix it. It was a heater hose that had disintegrated. We acted as gophers for Ernie as he crawled around the tight quarters of his engine room to make repairs. Our plans as we left Dora Bay were to explore new bays and inlets on the east side of POW, but as we headed south we kept hearing weather warnings with that four letter word, gale, mentioned in the forecast. Because we were heading for the southern most point of Alaska and an open ocean rounding of Cape Chacon, we decided to forego our explorations and make the turn around the cape while the perfect weather gave us smooth water. Looking ahead several miles in the distance I could see what looked like a boat and then a very large splash of white. The thought crosed my mind that it was a submarine, but as we neared the cape we saw that it was a HUGE scary looking breaker over the rock that sits off the cape. We followed Ernie's lead and went between that and the shore, but that breaker still looked too close... After a fairly long run and the bad weather forecast predicted to hit in another day, we decided to stop in Nichols Bay just after rounding the Cape. We spent some time in the dinghies beachcombing on the warm, sunny afternoon. Found a sunken boat and managed to salvage some fenders and such. Our son, Greg, called it piracy; we call it salvage rights... 6-2 We moved up through the Barrier Islands and stopped at a little niche called Seth Cove, but then moved on to a new anchorage for both of us, Ruth Island. The next night we anchored up in Kassa to avoid SE gale winds. Well, the winds followed us again and we had gusts of almost 30 overnight keeping me up on anchor watch for a few hours. Our Bruce anchor did well and held both boats without any dragging. As we finished pulling our prawn traps just outside the bay, I spotted a bear on the beach and two little black dots nearby. As we ran over to take a second look, mamma ran her twins back into the woods. She continued to graze in the green grass and they soon wandered into sight again, our first sighting of twin bear cubs. On to Soda Bay. Only nine prawns in the trap overnight and Ernie had only a small cod. After 10 days in the almost complete isolation of the southern end of POW, we pulled into the delightful little no cruise ship town of Craig. We stayed two days to get laundry done, eat a burger and fries, get my hair cut, do some shopping and get lots of exercise as we had a half-mile walk to get off the dock. Beautiful 70 degree weather the first day, but then gray skies and 40 degree weather arrived.
Last Class crew Judy Bob Mac Dinghy Dock
While at the dock in Ketchikan we attended the Friday night hamburger feed at the Yacht Club. Always fun to meet new boating folks. This time we met Jon Cornforth, photographer extraordinair. He and his dad had arrived in Ketchikan on their little Sea Dory. To provide extra room they had a Yakima cartop carrier mounted on their hardtop. Check out Jon's pics at cornforthimages.com I am the proud owner of one of his prints that he gave me! Leaving Ketchikan we crossed a well-behaved Clarence Strait to the tiny village of Kassan on Prince of Wales Island (the third largest island in the U.S.) As we pulled into the dock to raft onto DX the ferry, Prince of Wales, caused a large wake that rocked both boats crashing them together. Our rail hit Ernie's antenna and broke the outer PVC pipe. We were thankful that the sending and receiving functions still worked, and Ernie was even more thankful. The next day Ernie took us through the village and onto a nice trail that took us to a totem pole park and an old cemetary. We wouldn't have even known that it was there without his guidance. 5-28-29 Continuing our exploration of new spots on POW we traveled on up Kassan Bay to Karta Bay where we found a buoy to tie to. In a bay that was supposed to provide protection, we found that the wind followed us in and rocked us for two days. We were able to watch a bear on the beach for most of the time we were there. Our next spot, Troller's Cove, was blissfully quiet and calm. We had another buoy to tie to and a forest service cabin to explore. Our next stop was Dora Bay in Cholmondeley (pronounced Chumlee???) Sound. We made a stop there to see the hosts of the NW Boaters' Ham Net, Darlene and Floyd. They have built themselves a very comfortable small home on a tiny island and seem to enjoy their isolated living conditions as they live there year around. On the way into their place, Ernie had a warning sound for an overheated engine. We stood by in glassy calm water while he checked on the problem. He seemed to be losing water in his engine as fast as he could put more in. He tried starting up again, but overheated within a few minutes. We tied alongside and gave DX her first tow. Darlene directed us to a neighboring dock where we tied up and had a good spot to work on the boat. It took about 2 hours to diagnose the problem and then not much time to fix it. It was a heater hose that had disintegrated. We acted as gophers for Ernie as he crawled around the tight quarters of his engine room to make repairs. Our plans as we left Dora Bay were to explore new bays and inlets on the east side of POW, but as we headed south we kept hearing weather warnings with that four letter word, gale, mentioned in the forecast. Because we were heading for the southern most point of Alaska and an open ocean rounding of Cape Chacon, we decided to forego our explorations and make the turn around the cape while the perfect weather gave us smooth water. Looking ahead several miles in the distance I could see what looked like a boat and then a very large splash of white. The thought crosed my mind that it was a submarine, but as we neared the cape we saw that it was a HUGE scary looking breaker over the rock that sits off the cape. We followed Ernie's lead and went between that and the shore, but that breaker still looked too close... After a fairly long run and the bad weather forecast predicted to hit in another day, we decided to stop in Nichols Bay just after rounding the Cape. We spent some time in the dinghies beachcombing on the warm, sunny afternoon. Found a sunken boat and managed to salvage some fenders and such. Our son, Greg, called it piracy; we call it salvage rights... 6-2 We moved up through the Barrier Islands and stopped at a little niche called Seth Cove, but then moved on to a new anchorage for both of us, Ruth Island. The next night we anchored up in Kassa to avoid SE gale winds. Well, the winds followed us again and we had gusts of almost 30 overnight keeping me up on anchor watch for a few hours. Our Bruce anchor did well and held both boats without any dragging. As we finished pulling our prawn traps just outside the bay, I spotted a bear on the beach and two little black dots nearby. As we ran over to take a second look, mamma ran her twins back into the woods. She continued to graze in the green grass and they soon wandered into sight again, our first sighting of twin bear cubs. On to Soda Bay. Only nine prawns in the trap overnight and Ernie had only a small cod. After 10 days in the almost complete isolation of the southern end of POW, we pulled into the delightful little no cruise ship town of Craig. We stayed two days to get laundry done, eat a burger and fries, get my hair cut, do some shopping and get lots of exercise as we had a half-mile walk to get off the dock. Beautiful 70 degree weather the first day, but then gray skies and 40 degree weather arrived.
Last Class crew Judy Bob Mac Dinghy Dock
Ketchikan
Thursday, May 17, 2007
If you are not inclined to read this long, detailed message, suffice it to say we arrived in Ketchikan two days ago. After our short dock stop at Shearwater (they charged $1/foot and $10 for electricity, (we decided that we could use that $50 elsewhere)so we made a short trip to Wigham Cove where we found Good Medicine already at anchor. We took the other nook and a big refurbished pleasure tug, Gulf Tide took a third nook just at dark. As we headed out Seaforth Channel toward the ocean again, I put out a call to our friend, Ernie Harding, on his vessel, DX, and was pleasantly surprised to hear him reply that he would be with us in Rescue Bay that night. We continued up Reid Passage, a narrow little smooth water route, by Ivory Island then up Finlayson Channel to Rescue Bay. The ocean looked very calm, so we could have gone outside of Ivory. An email from our friends on Passage said that they even went out one more channel and found the ocean very hospitable. Soon after anchoring, Bob spotted a wolf on the shore and then spotted another one in the head of the bay. These two were dark gray and much slighter than the blond one we had seen in Fancy Cove. Ernie rafted on that night a procedure that became standard as we continued our trip up the coast. Staying with our slower pace makes him very happy to be burning less fuel, but he said that this is the slowest of his previous 11 trips to Alaska. 5-19 We stopped at Khutze Bay, an anchorage that was new to us. We motored up to the head of the deep inlet and thought we would anchor in front of the falls. We were surprised to find 3 power boats anchored and stern-tied in the spot we would have liked. The captain of Peachy Keen came by to visit after setting some crab traps and saying that he just had to meet “The Voice.” That would be me…I have the reputation of talking a lot on the VHF radio and lots of people follow me to another channel to listen in. Don’t have the foggiest notion why… Several people over the years have made a comment about enjoying listening to me on the radio. Ernie anchored in 32 feet of water and we tied alongside (rafted). Later in the afternoon with a brisk little wind blowing we noticed on our depth finders that we were only in 11 feet of water with the tide still falling. We decided to move down the Bay farther to an area behind a spit that extends ¾ of the way across the wide entrance. We spent a quiet night there after getting anchored and rafted again. The next day we ran up to Hartley Bay an interesting First Nation village and another new stop for us. Ernie said that the moorage was free, but the new signs said that they were charging a $1/foot now. We did a little walk about on the boardwalks of the neat, little village and then left to anchor in Coughlin Anchorage. This is not a secure place to be in south winds, but even the north winds that were predicted never materialized, and we spent a quiet night. The next morning we found that our Nobeltec software wouldn’t load. Not a good thing. This is our navigation software that connects into our GPS and shows our boat position on the chart. When that fails we are in panic mode at least I am. We still have all of our paper charts, but it’s just not the same reassurance that we get from watching our boat proceed in safe waters on the computer screen. Bob started up the PC, started the program and hooked up another GPS to that system. Even though that computer is in the salon, we were able to check it now and then if needed. Grenville Channel is just a long channel that is truly part of the Inside Passage, and there are no dangers except the wake from big ferries or cruise ships. As we followed Ernie out of the anchorage, Bob tried to reinstall the program several times; each time getting an error. He uninstalled the original program, then the charts, then the waypoints and routes. Finally with the computer wiped clean of Nobeltec, the program reinstalled successfully. We were in business again, but Bob still had lots of work to do to reinstall the necessary charts, waypoints and routes. Have I mentioned that we LOVE our autopilot; except for one temporary glitch. I was at the helm and had just looked down to write some notes, when Bob said in a rather puzzled voice, “Where are you going?” The autopilot had suddenly taken a hard turn to starboard and continued to turn us in a complete circle. After checking the various wires and plugs and turning it off and back on, it maintained the assigned course with no problem and has worked fine ever since. I guess that little unexpected right turn explains why ships sometimes hit rocks when there is no logical explanation other than equipment failure. 5-21 We cruised up to almost the end of Grenville to Baker Inlet another new anchorage for us. The entrance is very narrow with fairly strong current and trees hanging over both sides of the channel. Almost a magical, mystical feeling as we entered. The next morning exiting in fog was even more mystical. The fog cleared as we motored on toward Prince Rupert. We stayed in Pillsbury Cove near the entrance to Venn Passage. We had a nice quiet nice evening though winds were predicted to blow 30 kts. 5-23 An early departure saw us heading through Venn Passage, a shallow, winding short-cut out to Chatham Sound. As we neared the end of Dundas Island, the water was getting rougher and we almost elected to make a stop before crossing Dixon Entrance. As we looked out ahead of us, we saw glassy smooth water and decided to press on. We entered Alaskan waters at 10:10 PDT/11:10 ADT. Wooo Hoooo! U.S. customs allows boats to stop in Foggy Bay on the long cruise between Prince Rupert and Ketchikan. So we called them and got permission. It was nice to get off the ocean and anchored up , even if we had had such a nice crossing with only gentle swells. On into Ketchikan and a hurtful stop at the fuel dock. It could have been a lot worse, but the attendant gave us the commercial price of $2.61/gallon. We are moored in Thomas Basin in Ketchikan right downtown very close to the cruise ship dock. One sunny day, one very rainy day and now one showery day. Typical Alaskan weather. We plan to leave Ketchikan tomorrow, but we’re not sure where we are going.
Judy, Bob, Mac, Dinghy and Dock
If you are not inclined to read this long, detailed message, suffice it to say we arrived in Ketchikan two days ago. After our short dock stop at Shearwater (they charged $1/foot and $10 for electricity, (we decided that we could use that $50 elsewhere)so we made a short trip to Wigham Cove where we found Good Medicine already at anchor. We took the other nook and a big refurbished pleasure tug, Gulf Tide took a third nook just at dark. As we headed out Seaforth Channel toward the ocean again, I put out a call to our friend, Ernie Harding, on his vessel, DX, and was pleasantly surprised to hear him reply that he would be with us in Rescue Bay that night. We continued up Reid Passage, a narrow little smooth water route, by Ivory Island then up Finlayson Channel to Rescue Bay. The ocean looked very calm, so we could have gone outside of Ivory. An email from our friends on Passage said that they even went out one more channel and found the ocean very hospitable. Soon after anchoring, Bob spotted a wolf on the shore and then spotted another one in the head of the bay. These two were dark gray and much slighter than the blond one we had seen in Fancy Cove. Ernie rafted on that night a procedure that became standard as we continued our trip up the coast. Staying with our slower pace makes him very happy to be burning less fuel, but he said that this is the slowest of his previous 11 trips to Alaska. 5-19 We stopped at Khutze Bay, an anchorage that was new to us. We motored up to the head of the deep inlet and thought we would anchor in front of the falls. We were surprised to find 3 power boats anchored and stern-tied in the spot we would have liked. The captain of Peachy Keen came by to visit after setting some crab traps and saying that he just had to meet “The Voice.” That would be me…I have the reputation of talking a lot on the VHF radio and lots of people follow me to another channel to listen in. Don’t have the foggiest notion why… Several people over the years have made a comment about enjoying listening to me on the radio. Ernie anchored in 32 feet of water and we tied alongside (rafted). Later in the afternoon with a brisk little wind blowing we noticed on our depth finders that we were only in 11 feet of water with the tide still falling. We decided to move down the Bay farther to an area behind a spit that extends ¾ of the way across the wide entrance. We spent a quiet night there after getting anchored and rafted again. The next day we ran up to Hartley Bay an interesting First Nation village and another new stop for us. Ernie said that the moorage was free, but the new signs said that they were charging a $1/foot now. We did a little walk about on the boardwalks of the neat, little village and then left to anchor in Coughlin Anchorage. This is not a secure place to be in south winds, but even the north winds that were predicted never materialized, and we spent a quiet night. The next morning we found that our Nobeltec software wouldn’t load. Not a good thing. This is our navigation software that connects into our GPS and shows our boat position on the chart. When that fails we are in panic mode at least I am. We still have all of our paper charts, but it’s just not the same reassurance that we get from watching our boat proceed in safe waters on the computer screen. Bob started up the PC, started the program and hooked up another GPS to that system. Even though that computer is in the salon, we were able to check it now and then if needed. Grenville Channel is just a long channel that is truly part of the Inside Passage, and there are no dangers except the wake from big ferries or cruise ships. As we followed Ernie out of the anchorage, Bob tried to reinstall the program several times; each time getting an error. He uninstalled the original program, then the charts, then the waypoints and routes. Finally with the computer wiped clean of Nobeltec, the program reinstalled successfully. We were in business again, but Bob still had lots of work to do to reinstall the necessary charts, waypoints and routes. Have I mentioned that we LOVE our autopilot; except for one temporary glitch. I was at the helm and had just looked down to write some notes, when Bob said in a rather puzzled voice, “Where are you going?” The autopilot had suddenly taken a hard turn to starboard and continued to turn us in a complete circle. After checking the various wires and plugs and turning it off and back on, it maintained the assigned course with no problem and has worked fine ever since. I guess that little unexpected right turn explains why ships sometimes hit rocks when there is no logical explanation other than equipment failure. 5-21 We cruised up to almost the end of Grenville to Baker Inlet another new anchorage for us. The entrance is very narrow with fairly strong current and trees hanging over both sides of the channel. Almost a magical, mystical feeling as we entered. The next morning exiting in fog was even more mystical. The fog cleared as we motored on toward Prince Rupert. We stayed in Pillsbury Cove near the entrance to Venn Passage. We had a nice quiet nice evening though winds were predicted to blow 30 kts. 5-23 An early departure saw us heading through Venn Passage, a shallow, winding short-cut out to Chatham Sound. As we neared the end of Dundas Island, the water was getting rougher and we almost elected to make a stop before crossing Dixon Entrance. As we looked out ahead of us, we saw glassy smooth water and decided to press on. We entered Alaskan waters at 10:10 PDT/11:10 ADT. Wooo Hoooo! U.S. customs allows boats to stop in Foggy Bay on the long cruise between Prince Rupert and Ketchikan. So we called them and got permission. It was nice to get off the ocean and anchored up , even if we had had such a nice crossing with only gentle swells. On into Ketchikan and a hurtful stop at the fuel dock. It could have been a lot worse, but the attendant gave us the commercial price of $2.61/gallon. We are moored in Thomas Basin in Ketchikan right downtown very close to the cruise ship dock. One sunny day, one very rainy day and now one showery day. Typical Alaskan weather. We plan to leave Ketchikan tomorrow, but we’re not sure where we are going.
Judy, Bob, Mac, Dinghy and Dock
Half-way
Thursday, May 17, 2007
We are now about half way to Alaska. We left Shawl Bay with our clean clothes and about 200 prawns; not very big, but very tasty. We made a six hour hop to Blunden Harbor and left the next morning, May 14th, to cross around Cape Caution. The weather report sounded great, and it was! There was no wind and the ocean rocked us gently with low, almost unnoticeable swells. We arrived at one of our favorite anchorages, Fury Cove, after an 8 hour crossing. It has become tradition for us to spend two days in Fury, usually we need to recuperate after the crossing... We had great, sunny weather and enjoyed walking on the white shell beaches finding Kodak moments. There were two boats with us in the anchorage each night. There was also a marine biologist who was doing a survey of the beach for the nearby First Nation village. He is researching and testing clams in order to make the beaches available for winter harvest by the First Nation tribe. From Fury, we cruised NW up Fitz Hugh Sound to Fancy Cove in Lama Passage.
Our great weather had departed overnight with a rain storm, and we found some rough water just outside of the anchorage. As we moved farther up the Sound the weather and the water both improved. We anchored in a tight little spot behind a tiny island in the cove where we had been in 2005. It turned out to be an amazing afternoon... Bob spotted our second black bear of the trip on a nearby shore. It was the fattest bear we have ever seen. As it disappeared into the trees, we noticed a Sand Hill Crane standing as still as a stick within a few feet of the bear. Later Bob was looking up at the head of the cove and saw a wolf! He (yes, he showed us that he didn't pee like a puppy when he marked a tree) walked the whole shore of the bay and we got several Kodak moments from that. We also spotted one of the big cruise ships cruising slowly by in Lama Passage. We didn't even feel the wake in our snug little anchorage. Later in the afternoon, we heard a helicoper overhead. They buzzed us a couple of times; even low enough to return my wave. Don't know the purpose, but they completed our interesting afternoon.
The crew of Last Class
We are now about half way to Alaska. We left Shawl Bay with our clean clothes and about 200 prawns; not very big, but very tasty. We made a six hour hop to Blunden Harbor and left the next morning, May 14th, to cross around Cape Caution. The weather report sounded great, and it was! There was no wind and the ocean rocked us gently with low, almost unnoticeable swells. We arrived at one of our favorite anchorages, Fury Cove, after an 8 hour crossing. It has become tradition for us to spend two days in Fury, usually we need to recuperate after the crossing... We had great, sunny weather and enjoyed walking on the white shell beaches finding Kodak moments. There were two boats with us in the anchorage each night. There was also a marine biologist who was doing a survey of the beach for the nearby First Nation village. He is researching and testing clams in order to make the beaches available for winter harvest by the First Nation tribe. From Fury, we cruised NW up Fitz Hugh Sound to Fancy Cove in Lama Passage.
Our great weather had departed overnight with a rain storm, and we found some rough water just outside of the anchorage. As we moved farther up the Sound the weather and the water both improved. We anchored in a tight little spot behind a tiny island in the cove where we had been in 2005. It turned out to be an amazing afternoon... Bob spotted our second black bear of the trip on a nearby shore. It was the fattest bear we have ever seen. As it disappeared into the trees, we noticed a Sand Hill Crane standing as still as a stick within a few feet of the bear. Later Bob was looking up at the head of the cove and saw a wolf! He (yes, he showed us that he didn't pee like a puppy when he marked a tree) walked the whole shore of the bay and we got several Kodak moments from that. We also spotted one of the big cruise ships cruising slowly by in Lama Passage. We didn't even feel the wake in our snug little anchorage. Later in the afternoon, we heard a helicoper overhead. They buzzed us a couple of times; even low enough to return my wave. Don't know the purpose, but they completed our interesting afternoon.
The crew of Last Class
Continuing On
After spending two nights anchored at Newcastle Island in Nanaimo, we decided that the weather sounded good for a crossing of the Strait of Georgia on May 6th. Whiskey Golf was not open, always a good thing. WG is a naval training range that is directly in the path of cruising boats leaving Nanaimo to cross the Strait. When they are open, both U.S. and Canadian navies use the range for unarmed torpedo practice. Unarmed or not, we wouldn’t want to get hit by one. When closed, we cruisers are free to transit across the range. That was a good thing, but the swells from the SE kept us rocking and rolling for the 3 hour crossing. At one point even the captain and his chair got upset. Mac nearly had a nervous breakdown and the first mate wasn’t far behind. It was our worst crossing ever, but it could have been a lot worse. We didn’t even take any salt water over the bow! We anchored in Pender Harbor for two nights after hearing dire weather warnings. Malaspina Strait can be very nasty, too. From there we went on to one of our most favorite anchorages, Squirrel Cove. With only 5 other boats at anchor it looked a lot different than the July-August fiasco when over a hundred boats are often there. From Squirrel we have to time our departure in order to arrive at the Yuculta (yew-cla-tah)Rapids in time for slack water. Actually, there are 5 rapids to transit, Yuculta, Gillard, Dent, Green Point and Whirlpool. We usually stop after the first three, but with a fairly low current speed due to the phase of the moon, we were able to go through all of them and anchor in Forward Harbor. This is a natural stop to wait and see what Johnstone Strait is going to dish out. Early the next morning we got the weather report stating that winds were supposed to ease, so off we went. It was a very nice 3 hour cruise on water that had been nearly impassable just a few days before due to Gale Force winds of over 40mph. We went on to Lagoon Cove Marina, always a must stop. We fueled up there at $1.10 a liter!!! As we came through the Blow Hole, we spotted our first bear of the trip on the Minstrel Island shore. A very pretty, shiny, black bear. Even though we were the only visitors at the dock, Bill cooked up some prawns for us and we had a nice visit with him and his summer crew. On to Shawl Bay Marina to have another traditional visit and do laundry. We’ve done our first pawning here with catches of about 50 per pull. Our next challenge is Cape Caution, our longest ocean voyage. It’s 86 miles from Shawl Bay to Fury Cove. About 50 of that is open ocean. The weather has been nice, so we are hoping it continues.
Saturday, September 15, 2007
Newsletter from trip to Alaska
Originally sent to friends and family after leaving the dock on May 1st.
After a long month at the dock waiting for people to finish work that we had contracted to be done over the winter, we are finally underway. The boat is loaded down with food, water, fuel and the many unnecessary items that we seem to pack with us. However, our pockets are empty after paying our maintenance and repair bills. The most frustrating repair was the nonfunctioning alternator. After several trips to Bellingham and much head scratching by the experts, we found out that the wiring harness had been wired wrong at the factory. Fuses kept blowing and we even left the dock once, thinking it was fixed, but no.....When we did leave the slip in Anacortes on May 1, we had a bit of a scare when the engine gave a big shudder and shut down. Guess it was air in the fuel lines as it started up and has been fine ever since.We are in Nanaimo BC now and hope to cross the Strait of Georgia ASAP. Barring any other unforeseen happenings we are on our way to Alaska; our 4th trip.Will be sending out updates when possible.
Judy, Bob, two cats and a dog
After a long month at the dock waiting for people to finish work that we had contracted to be done over the winter, we are finally underway. The boat is loaded down with food, water, fuel and the many unnecessary items that we seem to pack with us. However, our pockets are empty after paying our maintenance and repair bills. The most frustrating repair was the nonfunctioning alternator. After several trips to Bellingham and much head scratching by the experts, we found out that the wiring harness had been wired wrong at the factory. Fuses kept blowing and we even left the dock once, thinking it was fixed, but no.....When we did leave the slip in Anacortes on May 1, we had a bit of a scare when the engine gave a big shudder and shut down. Guess it was air in the fuel lines as it started up and has been fine ever since.We are in Nanaimo BC now and hope to cross the Strait of Georgia ASAP. Barring any other unforeseen happenings we are on our way to Alaska; our 4th trip.Will be sending out updates when possible.
Judy, Bob, two cats and a dog
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