Ketchikan to Port McNeill

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Tuesday August 14, 2012 Seattle to Foggy Bay via Ketchikan

Little Liza is headed home. We left Seatac at 10:30, left the fuel dock in Ketchikan by 1:30 PM and are anchored in Foggy Bay by 6:00 PM which is a nice long ways from the TV morning news. The day has been bright and clear as if it were always like this in Alaska, and I wonder, what’s the rush? The “rush” is that home is a nice place too. With a good crop to pick, a family to be a part of, and a purpose to life it is time to resume our place where we belong.

Little Liza glides through these sunlit waters as she was made to do, confident of herself, still respectful but less afraid of straits, and sounds and entrances. She’s not made for the ocean any more than she would fit in lakes and streams but for the Inside Passage and now she’s been from Budd Inlet to Glacier Bay.

Tonight Foggy Bay is enchanting. As the late afternoon sun reflects off the shoreline it is almost impossible to distinguish between the rocky shoreline and its reflection. We ate spaghetti and meatballs in the cockpit while feasting our eyes on this bay of tranquility.

Wednesday August 15, 2012 Foggy Bay, Alaska to Baker Inlet, BC via Prince Rupert, BC

Days are already becoming shorter so at 5:00 AM it’s still dawn. BJ reminds me that as soon as we cross into Canada we lose an hour so there is not a moment to lose. The tide is very low and we exit Foggy Bay between walls of rock and seaweed with dark, stubby fingers pointing at us, telling us to stay in the middle. A line of fishing trollers along the coastline reflect bits of morning sun. No wind chop even rustles Dixon Entrance but a long ocean swell finally stops on the rocks and we are far enough offshore to only glimpse rolling flashes of white. This pleasant swell pushes us on whether climbing one side or gliding down the other and we will have today’s major crossing completed by noon.

We have to clear Canadian Customs in Prince Rupert a company town that is about ten miles long and ten blocks deep. It boasts sizeable dock facilities for loading bulk ores and containers. There is a railroad terminus here. We had seen distant fog in Chatham Strait and it was not so distant when we came back out with wind and chop as well something the Admiral did not find at all amusing. An hour later as we turned into Grenville Channel we exited the fog and the day is again bright if still windy. Along Grenville Channel there are a number of inlets offering anchorage out of the wind and the prettiest one is reportedly Baker Inlet. It is accessed by Watts Narrows, about 200 feet wide and maybe one half mile long. We revved up against a current of several knots and entered a kinder, gentler version of, oh say, Ford’s Terror. Old growth forest flanks the walls instead of bare rock and a wider top lets in the evening sun. We spotted some protected anchorages near the head of the inlet and explored to the end before heading back to near the opening to drop the hook in an area that was not as nice.

Thursday August 16, 2012 Baker Inlet to Bottleneck Inlet

<strong style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"> Last night we got up to check the anchor and the stars were out, something we didn’t see a lot of in Alaska because the nights were so short and it was most often cloudy. The big dipper stood out like it does on the Alaska State flag and then I saw its reflection shimmering in the dark, still water. I realize that we are no longer in Alaska but this was close enough.

At 6:00 AM it was almost too dark to leave, partially because of the change in time zones and partially due to the low clouds. We found the entrance to Watts Narrows on the chart plotter but it’s not visible at all out the windscreen. The shoreline and forest seamlessly merge and BJ took a picture to remind us. Current soon swept us into the dark narrow slit and then by way of an early morning eye opener a fishing boat appeared coming in right at us. There was room for both of us but the two captains were too preoccupied to wave. The sun paints eerie colors of orange, blue, yellow, and green through the thin layer of overhead clouds but it all seems to beckon us on where we glide almost effortlessly down the long, long corridor of Grenville Channel. We saw lots of humpbacks feeding in Wright Sound and some breaching too far away to go see. BJ thought with all the breaching and slapping they might still be mating.

“Naw, they’re just two old geysers chasing tail,” I offered.

“Oh, you’re just spouting off,” she chided.

Across Wright Sound and into Princess Royal Channel which includes Fraser Reach and Graham Reach we continued South into a lazy cloudless afternoon. From the open flybridge I can smell the forest. The rivers which cascade out of the old glacial valleys are thinner while the smaller waterfalls have, by the middle of August, drained the snow fields we saw in May. How different this is than the endless rain we encountered last year. I’m sitting on the flybridge and the Admiralty is headquartered in the pilothouse helm chair. Chartplotters and the autopilot can be controlled from both stations and when a log is spotted ahead the captain turns to port while the Admiral turns to starboard, indicating a failure to communicate up and down the chain of command.

Heikish Narrows opens into Finlayson Channel where we have the benefit of a following current and so fly along at ten knots. Bottleneck Cove which looks on the chart like a Coke bottle reminds one of Baker Inlet only smaller. Our anchorage feels better and we will sleep more soundly tonight. We have travelled ninety six miles each of the last two days and tomorrow we need to make one hundred miles so we can cross Queen Charlotte Sound early Saturday morning.

Friday August 17, 2012 Bottleneck to Fury Cove

At 5:30 AM the smell of brewing coffee wafts through the cabin, and we have the stillness of Bottleneck Inlet to ourselves. The “neck”, or entry to the inlet is shallow at low tide, twelve feet deep this morning but before I got up to cruising speed the bottom had dropped over a thousand feet in Finlayson Channel. Sunlight climbs down the mountains on our right and reflects a subdued rainbow of colors on the water. Only little Mary Cove has not yet thrown off her cotton comforter and soon she will be too warm for it. As the sun climbs up over the mountains on the left the pilothouse is flooded with light. Long days on the water are not so bad when the weather is this nice. It’s still eleven and a half hours and 104 miles to Fury Cove – one of our favorites. Seven boats are already anchored in here and the air is still and almost hot. We would like it to be still and hot as we cross QC tomorrow.

We saw more humpbacks today in Fitzhugh Sound including one that surfaced close enough in front me so that I pulled back on the throttles for fear of running over it. Fortunately they are sensible creatures and it sank out of sight.

Saturday August 18, 2012 Fury Cove to Port McNeill

Queen Charlotte is sassy today. She stomps with rollers and pouts with fog. This was not predicted but then she’s always moody. At yet by the time we rounded Cape Caution she had settled down and the sky brightens just a little. We hear cruisers calling back and forth on the VHF with weather reports and trip experiences if it’s someone they haven’t heard from for a while. I heard boat names that we had come across earlier in the summer. One gal was yakking away on channel 16, the hailing and distress frequency telling about the time they were crossing QC (in the fog) and her husband had wanted to post an email on the sideband and in doing so switched off the auto pilot and a big Alaskan ferry coming up behind them hailed them as they were weaving all over the place and…and the coast guard came on the channel and told her to take her conversation to a working channel. And I never got to hear how the story turned out! BJ doesn’t like the roll. I’m up here on the flybridge where the roll is more pronounced. I like it because it increases (to a point) the feeling of romance and adventure (romance in the classic sense of mystery and unpredictability). Visibility is about ¼ mile and I’m in my own little white universe.

Port McNeill is busy today with boaters, people fishing, and the Orca Festival in town. This is our first time off the boat since Ketchikan and we’re a little unsteady on these hard surfaces.

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Photos

Foggy Bay, AK
Troller in Foggy Bay

Baker Inlet, Grenville Channel
Watts Narrows, the entrance to Baker Inlet

Watts Narrows
Going nose to nose in Watts Narrows

Grenville Channel
Grenville Channel is 45 nautical miles long and v ery scenic.

Wright Sound
Two old geysers in Wright Sound

Finlayson Channel
Mary Cove in Finlayson Channel blanketed with fog

Fury Cove
Fury Cove a haven from the storm on the edge of Queen Charlotte Sound