Back to Canada

We left Ketchikan again on Wednesday July 18th when there was a brief weather window between gales . It was either that or possibly have to wait another 4 or 5 days.

This guy didn't make it

It is 85 miles from Ketchikan to Prince Rupert  but the open ocean portion across Dixon Entrance is only about 30 miles which we can cover in 3 hours at our regular cruising speed or less if we decide to burn more diesel and hustle. The forecast, confirmed by weather buoy reports, was for reduced wind and sea during daytime Wednesday and it turned out OK although there was still a swell of about 3 to 4 feet which had us rolling around for a while.

Whilst in  Alaska we really noticed the absence of floating debris, logs and trees, compared to British Columbia waters .You see the occasional tree but mostly just patches of seaweed and kelp.

Anyway, no sooner had we  crossed the border, about a mile into Canadian waters, Vivian was in the galley and I guess I lost my concentration for a brief moment when there was a tremendous crash. The boat was shuddering and the propellors started to vibrate, I shut the engines down and ran aft in time to see this huge log pop up from under the boat. It was at least 12 feet long and over 2 feet  in diameter.
My first thought was that we would have a hole in the boat and I ran downstairs to check the engine room and the bilges, there was a little water as usual but nothing serious. My next thought was for the propellors so I carefully put one engine at a time in gear and slowly increased the RPM, wondering what were the chances of getting any  repairs done up here.
Thankfully all appears to be working as it should and no serious damage done. You can bet I paid more attention to my surroundings after that though.

It will be interesting to examine the bottom and running gear when we take the boat out of the water this fall.

Arrived at Prince Rupert at 4:30 with no further excitement and cleared customs in five minutes on the phone. We plan on staying here 2 nights to do some grocery shopping since we couldn't bring fresh fruit and vegetables across the border. After that we will take up to 2 weeks sightseeing our way back to Vancouver Island. If it rains too much we will get there sooner.

Gale warnings

July 13th to July 17th 2012

We stayed one night at Tracy Arm and woke up to more rain and poor visibility but decided to keep going to Petersburg. Left at 8AM and had fog and rain all the way till we arrived at 3:30

This cruise ship stopped just outside of Tracy Arm to transfer passengers to a tour boat

The passengers will enjoy a tour of the glaciers then rejoin their ship in Juneau

We saw a small pod of Orcas (Killer whales) on the way down, the first we have seen this year. All the other whales we saw so far have been Humpbacks.
We stayed one night in Petersburg. The forecast had some small craft warnings for the next morning but we decided to leave anyway as there are several safe anchorages along the way and we figured that if it got too bad we could stop in one of them.

Beacon in Wrangell Narrows

It's hard to tell where the channel zig zags around all the buoys and beacons

 As it turned out it was a beautiful sunny day, the wind was behind us and we even sat up top on the flybridge for a couple of hours for the first time this year. We also had some close encounters with whales en route.

Got the spash, missed the whale!

Big fluke

Humpback

More tail, he was close

It was a long day to Ketchikan,  8am to 6pm, 110 miles, our longest one day run ever.
We had only planned to stay overnight in Ketchikan but Sunday morning brought 3 days of gale warnings for Dixon Entrance, the open ocean crossing between here and Canada ,so we had to wait it out.

Finally on the move

Thursday July 12th 2012

Finally !! The long awaited parcel was delivered yesterday by Fedex GROUND. Hard to believe that Raymarine think so little of their customers that they did that, sent a 5 # parcel by GROUND over 4 time zones to the ONLY USA state capital that is inaccessible by road. They obviously know that your boat is down and inoperable while you are waiting but , just as obviously they don’t care!
Today started out with a  nice sunny morning, maybe the weather will change for the better now we have decided to leave Alaska.

Here are some pictures of  Auke Bay harbor activity.

Fisherman checking his texts or facebook status

How the 1% live

Typical Alaska scenery

This guy was selling direct to the consumer

Cutting out the middleman

Auke bay sunset

We topped up the fuel and water tanks (Water maker also not working any more) and went out to the bay to swing the compass and set up the autopilot. When they installed the new PC board at the factory we lost all the vessel specific parameters so had to go through a seatrial menu to reset everything. This requires turning circles and running a zig zag course while the autopilot “brain” learns and records the specific vessel’s characteristics.
This took us less than an hour after which we set course for Tracy Arm. It was a beautiful calm day, no wind whatsoever , so it was a pleasant day’s run. We left Auke Bay around 10:30 and reached Tracy Arm anchorage at 4 PM.

Ice floe in Tracy Arm entrance

Tracy Arm anchorage makes this boat look pretty small

 

Still in Juneau

Auke bay harbour is about 14 miles from downtown Juneau, there is a bus every half hour and it is only a $3.00 round trip BUT, how many times do you want to see the same jewelry and gift stores. Enough already!!

There is always something to do aboard and if not then just walking the docks, checking out the fishing boats and the mega yachts (2)  and talking to the fishermen makes for an interesting day.

Sport fishing boats rafted at least 2 deep

It is a busy harbour when the fishboats are in.

Most of the commercial guys raft together

The fishery is strictly controlled by the Alaska State Government and different types of fishing,( trollers, gill netters, seine netters etc)  and different areas have "openings" (when they are allowed to fish) at different times and places. For example Seine netting may be "open" at Juneau but closed 50 miles away.
In the Juneau area right now, Seine netting is "open" from noon Sundays till noon Wednesdays so between Wednesday night and Saturday night this harbour is extremely busy, all the boats are in doing their maintainance, provisioning and repairing nets etc.

Mending nets

Today, Sunday, the place empties out in the wee small hours except for cruisers like us , sports fishermen and tour boats.

Juneau July 4th Parade

Bob and Jack, the 2 guys on "Companionship" whom we have met at various ports and anchorages along the coast, have a rental car here in Juneau and invited us downtown to the big parade with them. Downtown Juneau is about 14 miles from Auke Bay Harbour where we are staying.

Fire department candyman

The fire truck is much older than the firemen

Decrepit dragon

Cute kids

And, of course, a pipe band. Americans are really into pipebands.

This was our first exposure to the big American Independence day bash but I dare say it is likely much different here in Alaska than in the (more civilised) lower 48. It was a typical small town parade with decorated floats from all the local groups and businesses as well as the fire department and the Coastguard.
They even had a pipe band and a marching band.

And an Elvis !!

This was on a moving truck

Leftovers from the Gay nineties?

Tattoos are big here

Something we have never seen before was that  the floats and marchers all had bags and boxes of candy (Saltwater taffy) that they threw into the crowd as they passed. All the kids along the way scrambled to catch them in bags and baskets just like Halloween. Apparently this used to be done everywhere but has been stopped in recent years because of food contamination fears, again like the halloween poisoned candy problems. Alaska is obviously not yet worried about that particular problem.

Glacier bay Video

We are not good enough videographers to capture the magnificence and grandeur of the scenery.

We were so very lucky that the weather cooperated with our visit, it stopped raining the afternoon we arrived and started again the day we left.

Uploading this whilst waiting (not so patiently) in Juneau for Raymarine to repair or replace my eqipment and send it back to me.

Waiting in Juneau

Yesterday, Monday July 2^nd ,was a beautiful, sunny day despite the gloomy weather forecast. We sat outside for a while in the late afternoon and it was gorgeous right up till dark . Well, twilight,  I went to bed at 11;30 and it  still wasn’t quite dark then and Vivian tells me that it was daylight at  4:15 this morning again. Today is not so nice, lots of cloud cover , but at least it isn’t raining.

Haven’t done much over the  weekend, our friends, Bob and Jack on “Companionship”, whom we have met at various harbours and anchorages along the way,  have a rental car,  and Bob  offered to take us shopping. A trip to Costco was hurriedly planned and executed and we are now in no  danger of starving for another month or two. At least.

Serious dive boat

Mega Yachts "Legacy" and "Ice Bear" both around 165 feet. Mega Yacht owners are typically shy about being identified but "Ice Bear" is reputedly owned by "a Nebraska billionaire" and we all know there's only one of those.

Fishing tender or packer, they receive the catch from the fishing boats out on the fishing grounds and transport it to the cannery

This is an interesting harbour with all the fishing boats, tour boats and now even mega yachts coming and going there is always something to see.

Sport fishermen with the day's catch

After great difficulty I managed to speak to a real human at Raymarine  and she assured me that my unit was repaired and in their shipping department to go out today although she couldn’t give me a Fedex tracking number.  Tomorrow is the Independence day holiday and Alaska is a long way from New Hampshire so I am still not sure when we can expect to see it here. Hopefully no later than Friday so we can leave  on the weekend.

More autopilot

Thursday June 28th 2012

Took the  autopilot computer out of lazarette and went by bus to the airport to Fedex it to Raymarine USA. Turns out that Fedex cutoff for shipment is 8:30 AM ?? Who would expect that??

Result is that  the shipment will leave Friday but still be at Raymarine on Monday morning so nothing lost.

Raymarine promise “Rapid Care” service on warranty items “less than a year old”  Big of them eh?? So hopefully they can ship it back on Tuesday (Wednesday is Independence Day holiday) and it will arrive in Juneau Thursday. I will be happy if it gets here by Friday although I am NOT confident that it will.

 I took lots of pictures of the installation and wiring  and made lots of notes so that I can (hopefully) put it back together again when it comes back.

Autopilot woes

Wednesday June 27th 2012

Just leaving Hoonah (in the pouring rain) when the autopilot stopped working, I phoned the Raymarine service centre in Vancouver where I bought it last year and gave them the error codes etc but they were less than helpful. I then tried to call the Raymarine support line in USA but as usual nobody answered the call. They did have a recording come on after a while and recommend that if no one come on the line after 20 minutes that you should leave a voice message.

At least it didn’t say “Your call is important to us” and really piss me off!!

It is a two day trip to Sitka where we had planned to go but only 5 hours back to Juneau where we can  maybe find an electronics technician but , if not, we  can get internet and Fedex service so that’s where we decided to go.

We found out last week that the commercial fishing opening is from noon Sunday till noon Wednesday so just after the  noon closing (or earlier if they have a good catch) the harbour quickly fills up with all the fishing boats, sometimes rafted 2 or 3 deep . As we arrived in Auke Bay today there was a line of them all racing for the harbour and we just managed to sneak into one of the last empty spots on the breakwater .

It was a nice trip over from Hoonah even though we had to hand steer all the way. The water was mostly calm and we saw a few whales along the way. Needless to say it started to rain  as we arrived at the dock just in time to get Vivian wet again!!

Click on the link below for our actual position on Google earth

More Hoonah rain

  Tuesday June 26th 2012

Pouring rain again today , decided to stay in Hoonah another day as the weather looks much better for tomorrow with reduced wind and seas forecast for our route.
There is a Native run facility just outside of town where several cruise ships a week anchor and disgorge the tourists. Today, being “Two ship Tuesday” according to the locals, it was pretty busy. One ship came in at 7 AM till 3PM and as he pulled out another took his place from about 4PM till 10PM. The native corporation has refurbished an old cannery and filled it with a museum and a whole bunch of gift shops (and a couple of jewelry stores). They also run whale watching tours, wildlife( looking for bear tours), a Zip line, Kayaking and canoeing , sport fishing etc.

Hoonah cannery from the water

Clan house and totems

Friendly native

Salmon canning line

Friendly bear

There is a shuttle bus to and from town so we took it in reverse and spent a couple of hours there, since it was mostly between one ship load leaving and the other not yet arriving, the friendly staff had lots of time to chat with us so it was an enjoyable afternoon.
We checked out the local grocery store on the way back, they had some frozen strip loin steak for $15 per pound, jam for $7.00 a jar and bread for $7.00 a loaf. Sure glad we topped up at Costco in Anacortes before we left.

Still raining this evening, it hasn’t stopped all day.

Hoonah

  Monday June 25th 2012


What a difference a day makes! Woke up to rain, overcast and foggy, couldn’t see any of the mountains and barely 2 to 3 miles visibility at sea level. We left the anchorage around 9:30 in a flat calm and exited the park at 11:30 arriving at Hoonah by 2 PM.

Cruise ship entering the park as we were leaving, visibility down to 2 to 3  miles, they won't see much today

The weather changed after we entered Icy Strait, getting rougher and rougher and the last hour was as bad as we have seen this summer. There were 4 foot waves and just about every one sent spray up over the top of the pilothouse. We were safe enough but just not real comfortable for a while. It changed as soon as we turned into Port Frederick Arm and approached Hoonah.
There was a 995 foot cruise ship anchored here as the 3000 passengers visited the 800 population village. Hoonah is a native village,( you can still call them Indians in Alaska) , and is pretty rough and ready but everybody you meet on the docks or on the street are very friendly and says hello to you.

Main street

Side street

More main street

Patiently waiting outside a store

Main street follows and overlooks the docks to the left

We spent some time with a native carver who, with some helpers, is creating a huge wall carving and carved House poles (Totems) which tells the ancestral story of 4 clans of the Tlingit peoples whose historical homeland was in Glacier bay.

Bob with Tlingit carver

Intricately carved masks

Traditional Tlingit carved hat

Huge wall carving

 The advancing glaciers drove them out during the little ice age several hundred years ago and they settled in Hoonah but went back to hunt and fish in Glacier bay as the ice receded during the 19^th and early 20^th centuries. When Captain Vancouver charted this area in the late 18^th century the glaciers extended all the way to Icy Strait and Glacier bay was not visible to him. One hundred years later when Tlingit guides took John Muir into the bay the ice had receded a good 30 miles. Since my grandfather was born , in 1885, it has receded at least the same again.

That's us on the end of the dock

This is mainly a fishing port

Crab traps ready for deployment when the season opens

Native fishing boat with clan symbols

The weather forecast is still not too good for the next 24 hours so we may stay over here for an extra day, will decide in the morning when we have an up to date forecast.