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