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SCseagoat
Trad climber
Santa Cruz
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Topic Author's Reply - Aug 15, 2012 - 11:48am PT
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3 days in Sitka, Miss EKat safely stowed on board and in one hour off to the Inside Passage.
Susan
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Reilly
Mountain climber
The Other Monrovia- CA
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Aug 15, 2012 - 12:02pm PT
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Break her in easy like. I suggest a few hours of mail buoy watch.
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BASE104
Social climber
An Oil Field
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Aug 15, 2012 - 01:20pm PT
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No, No. Fill her with fears of lee shores and all of the damn rocks and lights in the inside passage.
Give her full value. It IS an E ticket ride, afterall.
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Mighty Hiker
climber
Vancouver, B.C.
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Aug 15, 2012 - 05:40pm PT
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Have fun on the inside passage - it should be much nicer weather and conditions. Are you coming in to Vancouver, or going outside Vancouver Island?
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hossjulia
Social climber
Eastside (of the Tetons)
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Aug 15, 2012 - 06:05pm PT
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Sounds like a great adventure! Can't wait to paddle parts of the inside passage, hopefully in just a couple of years. And with any luck, sailboat support! But a much smaller boat already anchored up there somewhere.
Jealous!
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Reilly
Mountain climber
The Other Monrovia- CA
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Aug 16, 2012 - 01:08am PT
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Has eKat learned to choke the luff yet?
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guido
Trad climber
Santa Cruz/New Zealand/South Pacific
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Aug 16, 2012 - 11:41am PT
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Three Moutoneers Head South:
Hello all,
Mouton Noir left Sitka today and headed for the Inside Passage. Last night was very foggy, and the visibility was sketchy when we left the slip at around 10 am, headed for the fuel dock. Bythe time MN had gulped 100 gallons of diesel, the visibility was getting pretty good, so we headed out of the harbor and toward Olga Strait under scattered clouds with some drifting foggy bits. As we motored along, the weather improved, and a few rays of sunshine (!!) actually got through. Olga strait was pretty easy, but good practice for things to come. From fairly wide, island strewn open bays, Olga strait was much narrower, with not a lot of room. Ekat steered through this, her first time at the helm of a boat, and did very well. In a few hours we arrived at Neva Strait, a more serious test. It is entered with a hard right turn followed by a half mile section with very tight, rock strewn channel. We had to pull over to the side and idle for a few minutes to allow a big jet cat ferry to pass through. He pretty much filled up the channel. THe entirety of Neva Strait was perhaps 7 nm, after which Susan took o0ver the helm for Kakul Narrows, Sergius Narrows, and Peril Strait. Kakul Narrows was pretty narrow, but short. The current was really whipping, and we were not that far from slack water. The boat was hopping around like it had St. Vitus Dance, and the wind had come up to about 20 knots. Bythis time, we were mostly enjoying a watery sunshine. THe scenery is magnificent!! Snow covered peaks, rock formations, endless seas of trees- just gorgeous. THe entire day had been structured around getting through Sergius Narrows, one of the truly fearsome passes in the Inside Passage, at slack water. Sergius narrows is really narrow- only 100 yards wide, with a cliff on one side and a horrible looking reef on the other. The water goes from several hundred feet deep to 20 to 40 feet deep in the Narrows, and the numerous reefs, ledges, and holes in the area create horrific turbulence. Currents can exceed 8 knots, perhaps 12 at spring tides, and passing through near slack water is the only sane option unless you have vast power and shallow draft (Jet Cats...). Anyway, when we passed through Kakul Narrows we were about 45 minutes early, so we made a detour to look at schultz Bay, a very nice anchorage a mile from Sergius. It was gorgeous, and definitely worth a visit, but not this trip! Off we went, with Susan driving. The whirlpools, lumpy water and fast current, even 15 minutes from "slack" water were intense! I can onlyimagine how really dangerous this would bein bad visibility, with more current. FOrtunately, we made it through the Narrows unscathed, and into Peril Strait. THis is well named, as it is a moderately wide body of water with ocks and islets everywhere that winds along like a snake with a serious case of the grippe. A few miles up. however, it becomes a bit more reasonable. Still, one can only imagine the difficulties faced by the early sailors in the region. I cannot conceive of sailing it. A few miles on, we came across a pod of humpback whales, maybe 8 or 10, feeding. They were very curious, and several spyhopped on our approach. We passed only 100 feet or so from them (their choice, not ours!!). It was truly breathtaking.
Soon, Peril Strait opened up to Hoonah Sound, and we turned east. 10 miles further, we pulled into our anchoring spot for the night, at Appelton Cove, on the side of Rodman Bay, about 10 miles from Chatham Sound. We are anchored in an almost landlocked pool of mirror smooth water, in about 35 feet depth. For those with Google Earth, our position tonight is 57:28.266N by 135:17.307'. Our ground tackle tonight is a 110 pound Bruce anchor with about 150 feet of 3/8" high test chain.
Tomorrow, we hope to make it to Warm Springs Bay, an exceptionally beautiful spot with a big waterfall and natural hot springs. I will let you know how it all works out. The weather prediction is for more high pressure (This equals the possibility of sunshine, and is good news). We will see. Some scary clouds were passing bywhen we anchored, nut hey! thiws is Alaska.
All the best form the three moutoneers!
Michael, Susan, Ekat
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BASE104
Social climber
An Oil Field
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Aug 16, 2012 - 07:22pm PT
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OK. Totally off topic and spray, but I gotta tell the worst ocean story of my life.
Offshore of the Kongakut River in NW ANWR is a long, skinny, barrier island. The thing is about a hundred or so yards wide, and maybe ten feet above sea level at its peak somewhere.
It is covered in old logs that flow up the McKenzie River in Canada just to the east, and the logs blow up and sit there forever without rotting. It is obvious that it goes underwater because the logs are all over it.
So I am sitting around Kaktovik one year waiting on a flight when the pilot offers me a half price flight out to Icy Reef, the name of the barrier island as he picked up a couple who were out there. I planned on walking much of the length checking out some cool eskimo sites on the west side of the island.
As we load the couple up, they yack about a young polar bear sticking its head in their tent the previous night and throwing burning sticks at it all "night" to get it to go away. The ice was out a ways, so it was weird to have one onshore this time of the summer.
Anyway, the wind starts to really blow hard. The onshore wind from the ice is a regular thing, almost always from the NE. There was one day out on the coastal plain that it was too windy to walk one year. No lie. It was like leaning into a hurricane.
So I do my best to build a wall of logs into a windbreak around my little bivy tent and hunker down. As the gale went on, big chunks of sea ice (no bergs over there) the size of small trucks were piling onshore and the windward side of the island started going under water.
I pretty much nigh shat my pants because it was about a five mile swim to shore. Trapped.
In the morning I called the pilot to pick me up when the wind died. It did, and as he landed you could see a line of ice only a few feet from the crest of the bar. Those were the remains of the ground up ice boulders, and you could see that there was about two feet of dry ground on the windward side clearly marked by the ice.
Anyone who goes sailing in the Beafort Sea has my utmost respect. The wind howls like crazy, and the open water between the coast and the ice never gets too wide until recently. I can't imagine being in a boat in those conditions, and it was July or August or something.
So I was stranded on an island that nearly sank. That would have spawned some good stories.
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BASE104
Social climber
An Oil Field
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Aug 16, 2012 - 07:37pm PT
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I am plotting your course on Google Earth. Are you trying to catch any salmon? I would be really surprised if they were still around, especially that far south.
Also, don't fall overboard lest ye be eaten by the dreaded Salmon Shark, which is a real shark. I don't think it has attacked anyone, but it is damn ugly looking;
In June and July, the Bering Sea, or at least Norton Sound, is like glass. The Chuckchi has always had a fairly big swell. Those are my shoreline observations.
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guido
Trad climber
Santa Cruz/New Zealand/South Pacific
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Aug 17, 2012 - 09:32pm PT
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Mountoneers trucking southward:
Hello everyone,
Yesterday Mouton Noir motored from the wonderful Appleton Cove to the even more wonderful Warm Springs Bay, on the east side of Baranof Island. After going about 80 nm in the last two days, we are only about 12 miles from Sitka, but on the other side of Baranof Island. There are justy 42 total miles of paved roads on Baranof Island, and it is very rugged, so we might as well be on the moon, as the only way to get here is by boat or helicopter.
Warm springs bay is at 57:05.319N by 134:49.956W. It is a stunning bay with steep sides and an enormous waterfall at the end. Just to the north of the waterfall, not 50 yards away, is a public dock, to which we are tied up. A steep ramp leads to a boardwalk, which leads to a few cabins and houses, and then up the hill to a wonderful natural hot springs area, with some dammed up pools just above the raging torrent above the falls. The pools are naturally hot, and there are three of them, with temperatures ranging from very hot to quite warm. We (of course) scampered up there as fast as we could and had a wonderful soak, while looking at the incredible scenery.
After that, we went back to the boat and had a great dinner of BBQ'ed steak, salad, and mashed potatoes, with a nice piece of king Salmon given to us by a fisherman in Sitka. Then fresh baked cookies for dinner. A local charter boat captain came over and showed us some good anchorages and gave us a lot of advice on getting where we want to go. I have to say, this sailing stuff is pretty tough...
The weather seems to be holding, which is to say, it is not raining. hahaha. Overcast right now, as we prepare to depart for Pybus bay, on the way to the famous tidewater glaciers at Tracey Arm. Pybus Bay (we hope to stay in Cannery cove) apparently has a lot of big Alaskan brown bears, so we are looking forward to that. We also hope to do a little fishing, as the salmon was delicious. We spent a bit on some rods and tackle in Sitka, and maybe we will catch something. Who knows, even blind pigs find the occasional acorn, and that is what we feel like when we meet the locals. EVERYONE here fishes, and even toddlers are dragging in big ones. It is quite the technical tour de force, though, and the number and types of rigs and lures is bewildering. Perhaps we can use dollar bills for bait.....
Well, we are getting into what we came for. Hopefully the weather will continue to hold until we get further south. After Pybus Bay, we are aiming for a day to Tracey arm, a day to see Tracey Arm, then two days to Petersburg, followed by two days to Wrangell, and two more days to Ketchikan. So we may be at the southern border of alaska in 10 days or so. Nothing is certain so far, but we are beginning to see signs that if we don't keep moving we may be needing snowshoes, which are not good things to wear on deck.
All the best from Mouton Noir,
Michael
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guido
Trad climber
Santa Cruz/New Zealand/South Pacific
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Aug 18, 2012 - 11:57am PT
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Pinot Grigio and Leo Kottke and Baranof Island and enchiladas..................
Hi everyone!
Today Mouton Noir motored over a glassy, sullen looking sea from Warm Springs Bay on Baranof Island to Cannery COve, Pybus Bay, on Admiralty Island. Our current position at anchor is 57:18.428N by 134:09.267W. Fire up Google Earth!!
The sail was uneventful, but very beautiful. Baranof Island has glaciers, huge waterfalls, and majestic peaks, reminescent of the Minarets in the Sierra Nevada Range, near Mammoth Mountain. One highligh was some lunge feeding whales. They were a ways away, but appeared to be humpback whales. They would blast out of the water at an angle and then crash back in. It was an awe inspiring sight!! The sky was mostly overcast today, with a few showers, although a few rays of sunshine would occasionally illuminate something.
Tomorrow we are headed for No Name Anchorage, at the entrance to Tracey arm, a beautiful tidewater glacier. I have a photo of Mouton Noir at Tracey Arm taken by the original owner. It would be cool to get one now. We hope to rendevous with the German couple on Pagena, who we saw in the vicinity on our AIS system.
Cannery Cove is gorgeous. We are anchored in 50 feet of water in a large cove, surrounded by grassy shores leading abruptly to steep, snowfield covered hillsides, and eventually to peaks.
I am attaching two compressed photos. The first is of Mouton Noir at the public float at Warm Springs Bay yesterday, and the second was taken as we approached our anchoring spot in Cannery Cove. As always, if Guido has time he is free to post all this on the Taco (www.Supertopo.com for the uninitiated; go to the forum and search for 'Transpac', or 'SCSEAGOAT', Susan's handle. This should take you to the thread on the Singlehanded TransPac, and I hope, the return trip.
Dinner is cooking (enchiladas!!) and we are enjoying a glass of Pinot Grigio and listening to Leo Kottke as the evening falls. The water is like glass, and we are hoping to see some grizzly bears. Other than a small fishing camp a couple of miles away, we could be the only humans in 1000 miles, as far as we could tell. This is pretty isolated.
All the best,
Michael
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guido
Trad climber
Santa Cruz/New Zealand/South Pacific
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Aug 20, 2012 - 12:50pm PT
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Icebergs, sun, Yosemite style walls, Ekat on berg watch, BBQ chicken, sausages and merlot:
Hi Everyone,
Yesterday, Mouton Noir visited the incredible Tracey Arm. The other day we left Pybus Bay and motored about 40 miless to No Name Cove in Holkam Bay. The coordinates are 57:48.607N by 133:37.956W. This is a beautiful little cove just inside the much larger Holkam Bay, where Tracey and Endicott Arms meet. The entrance to Holkam Bay is fairly narrow, and entrance is made between two buoys (green and red), but actually, one uses a range on the island just to the west to find the proper channel, as icebergs are always moving the buoys. Icebergs! Did you say ICEBERGS?
Yes Icebergs! That is the name of the game in Tracey and Endicott Arms. These fiords are home to two large and beautiful tidewater glaciers, glaciers which empty into the sea. The Sawyer Glaciers are up at the end of Tracey Arm, which is about 24 miles long. We left the anchoroage at 6:30 am yesterday, with Joe and Susanna, two young German cruisers we met in Hanaleii Bay, from the sailboat Pagena. The fiord is very deep (greater than 1000 feet deep), but fairly narrow. It is very like Yosemite Valley, with the canyon walls greater than 4500 feet high. As we progressed along the Arm, floating ice chunks, and then larger growlers, and finally small icebergs appeared. About 10 miles from the end we were reduced to having a bow watch (Ekat) with a radio to direct the helmsman to steer around the ever increasing density of ice. The canyon walls are incredible, with hanging glaciers, waterfalls, vast slabs of rock, and ridges and snowfields everywhere. Occasionally one can glimpse other glaciers in the distance. Finally, the SOuth Sawyer Glacier came into view ahead. It is quite big, with a huge tumbling icefall of massive blue seracs plunging into the sea. We went as close tot he closed ice surface as we could, although very far from the actual face of the glacier. There we were, bobbing about in a greenish water (silt form the glacier), with huge ice chunks and bergs everywhere when there was a massive calving event from theglacier face. With gigantic booms and cracking noises, a section of the glacier face as big as a skyscraper separated from the glacier and fell into the sea. We were very much in the clear and there was no possibility of danger, so we all whooped and hollared and capered about the deck. It was really something to see!!
Eventually, we headed back down the arm, and spent several hours dodging ice blocks and enjoying the views fron the opposite perspective. Then last night, safe and snug in our beautiful little anchorage, we had a wonderful dinner with Joe and Susanne, with BBQ chicken and sausages, salad, mashed potatoes, with a nice bottle of merlot. Followed by cookies, home made cake, and tea and red vines. A typical cruiser's social evening. And then we CRASHED!! 11 hours of intense maneuvering through ice left us totally wiped out and ready to sleep, as ekat puts it like a "bag of hammers".
We had really lucked out on the weather, as it was sunny the whole day, perhaps the most scenic day of the trip. Today, the sun is just starting to rise, as we make preparations to depart for Portage Bay on Kupreanof Island, about 55 miles south and 17 miles from Petersburg, which we hope to get to tomorrow. We are starting to head south now, as we need to be in the Strait of Juan de Fuca in about 3 weeks. In a few days we will be going through the famous Wrangell Narrows, but more on that later. Time to get the anchor up and see what the day has to offer.
All the best,
Michael
p.s. Check out Tracey arm on google...
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HighTraverse
Trad climber
Bay Area
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Aug 20, 2012 - 04:45pm PT
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Ice bergs
bergy bits
Now that's Real Sailing.
Sounds perfectly spectacular. What a grand voyage!!!
If you have Tristan Jones' book "Ice!" aboard, don't let eKat read it till you're well South. She won't get any sleep when she's off watch!
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Reilly
Mountain climber
The Other Monrovia- CA
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Aug 20, 2012 - 04:50pm PT
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A lee shore with teeth...
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Brandon-
climber
The Granite State.
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Aug 20, 2012 - 04:58pm PT
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Über jealous right now...
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climbski2
Mountain climber
Anchorage AK, Reno NV
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Aug 24, 2012 - 09:54pm PT
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Wondering how it going.
What a trip!
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guido
Trad climber
Santa Cruz/New Zealand/South Pacific
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Aug 25, 2012 - 12:21am PT
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More on the Mountaneers saga as they continue south:
Hello everyone,
Today, Friday, August24 Mouton Noir is heading from the town of Wrangell, Alaska to the little hole-inithe wall of Meyer's Chuck. We spent last night tied up at the main float in the port of Wrangell, a small town with perhaps 1800 inhabitants. We had a great dinner ashore at the "Marine Bar", a shop worn old bar that serves great pizza.
Anyway, we have had some real adventure since the last note, so here is what we have been up to. When last heard from, our intrepid heroes were leaving NoName cove to head for Petersburg, with a stop over at Portage Bay. The sail (motoring) to Portagge bay was uneventful- lots of whales in the distance, smooth water, overcast skies. Portage bay had been touted as a secure and restful anchorage. NOT!! Finding it was a little tricky, as the entrance was a right angle fish hook move behind a small headland. THe tide was pretty high when we made the passage, and the bay was quite large, running perhaps 1.5 miles in, and perhaps 3/8 mile wide. The shores were grassy, and it looked ideal for the night. The recommended anchoring spot was not far from the entrance, so we dropped the hook in about 50 feet of water, and set it well. Soon we began to see the way things would go, however. THe tide range was about 18 feet that day, and if one wants an exercise in alarm, calculate the rate at which a body of water 1.5 miles by 3/8 miles by about 30 feet deep average will empty through a small entrance. SHortly after dropping anchor, giant strands of kelp started to whiz by the boat on the way out the inlet. Big mats started to hook themselves on the anchor chain and the rudder. THe current continued to build until we were seeing more than 2 knots. Fortunately, the holding ground was good, and the scope (large initially) got bigger and bigger as the water level dropped 18 feet over the next several hours. Then it reversed, and the fun started over. It was a somewhat nervy night, although I suspect that it was not a particularly stern test of the anchor, by Alaska standards. Anyway, we survived in good form, and the next day we shucked off the kelp collection and motored the remaing 20 odd miles to Petersburg.
Petersburg is a very interesting Town. It is allabout fishing. THe harbors are FULL of fishing boats, the fishing processing plants on the waterfront run 24 hours a day, and there is always a crowd of boats waiting to unload. THere is a lot of action, and the smell of dead fish sort of permeates the town. We tied up in a gigantic slip left vacant by a purse seiner to ancient wood docks that might have been new 50 years ago. It was very rustic (a polite term for a beat up set of docks), but on the whole, very cool. A few slips down, there were a bunch of kids fishing, so I wandered over to see what they were catching. Several little girls about 8 to 10 years old were pulling herring out of the water by the bucketfull (literally- they had several buckets full of them) using small spinning rods and herring jigs- hooks with featers and a few colored glass beads above them. They were obviously there on their own, and I asked them what they were going to do with the fish. " Why, sell them to tourists for bait!" replied the 8 year old. So I bought a bag of them from them. The little pirates charged me $8 for about 10 herring. I hope to try for some halibut in a few days...
We had a great afternoon wandering around town, visiting the (multitude) of hardware stores, the book store (VERY nice), and eating ice cream cones. That evening we had dinner with Joe and Susanne from Pagena, at the Beachcomber Inn, one of only 3 eateries in town. Expensive, but very good.
One thing we are noticing here is that there are very few restaurants in towns in Alaska. The food is expensive and often not particularly noteworthy. But when in Alaska, wear your XtraTuff boots (an essential if you want to look even vaguely like a local; google them....) and eat that pile of greasy spuds and eggs. Wahoo...
Our plan was to get up very early and do the Wrangell Narrows during the optimal current/tide state. The Wrangell Narrows is one of the most famous passages in Alaska. It is really spectacular! It is about 20 nm of twisty, rocky, trick piloting in a channel that gets down to only 100 yards or less at times. That sounds easy enough, and for a small boat, with care and good timing and piloting it is not extreme. But most all of the marine traffic in Southeastern Alaska passes through the Narrows, including 450 foot ferries, tugs and tows, and everything else under the sun. The strategy is to enter the Narrows about an hour or hour and a half before slack water on a high tide, and go like hell. The object is to make it to half-way just at slack water, and then the ebb will carry you out the other side. If you enter at an arbitrary time, the currents are fierce, and there are whirlpools, weird currents and all manner of rocks and sandbars to ruin your day.
So we got up at 3:30 am and were out of the slip at 4:15 am, into a black and inky dark. Fortunately, the rain had stopped, and visibility along the surface was pretty good. Immediately out of the slip, we made a hard left turn into the entrance to the Narrows and started to sweat right away. There are over 60 navigational aids along the passage, and the penalty for missing one or going around the wrong way is severe. Susan was driving (she drove the entire Narrows by hand- over 3 1/2 hours of white knuckle steering) whiloe I ran up and down the stairs from the charts, the computer with Nobletec, the radar, and the Standard Horizon Chartplotter, hollaring out course corrections and the characteristics of the lights. Ekat was glued to the binoculars, spotting the marks, IDing them , and watching the ranges. Many parts of the Narrows are traversed by using lighted range markers to define the path down the center of the channel. These are two marks, on higher than the other, that when lined up one over the other indicate that you are in the right line through the channel. Very helpful!!
We motored along, making turns and spotting marks as the sky gradually lightened, until we could see the actual shore of the Narrows. It is very pretty, and there are houses and fishing lodges along almost all of it on the eastern shore. The weather was very overcast, common on our trip so far, but the visibility was good, and there was no rain. We hit the center point of the Narrows within 5 minutes of our target time, and picked up the ebb at the right point. It gradually built as we headed out the southern end of the Narrows. As soon as we exited the Narrows into Sumner Strait, Susan went below and had a long nap. Her 3 1/2 hour trick at the wheel was most impressive, and she was beat. Ekat and I brought the boat the remaining 20 miles to Wrangell while she slept.
Wrangell has a nice harbor, with a very convenient fuel dock, owned by a great character named Bill, and a long float for transient boats. As mentioned above, there is not much there to see, although with better weather we would have enjoyed a chance to visit the museum and wander around more. Internet connections might have been possible at the town library, but we didn't get there. Internet access in Alaska is very poor, and not easy to get unless you work at it. I am not sure people here really care as much about what goes on elsewhere as you might expect. Most Alaskans seem pretty happy living in this isolated and beautiful place.
Today we got going around 7:15 and are headed south down Zinovia strait and (drum roll please...) Zinovia Narrows. Yes, another Narrows, although this one, although pretty tricky, is short. THis afternoon we will enter ErnestSound, and then Clarence Strait. Our destination for the evening, Meyers Chuck, will leave us about 25 nm to Ketchikan tomorrow. For the curious with Google Earth, Meyers Chuck is at 55:44.49N by 132:16.23W.
It is going to be a steak BBQ with salad and fresh baked rolls tonight.
All the best from Michael, Susan, and Ekat!
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Peter Haan
Trad climber
San Francisco, CA
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Aug 28, 2012 - 04:39pm PT
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for eKat fans, here is an postcard update on the cruise shortly after she joined onboard, dated August 24; I just got it in the mail today down in Santa Cruz. It is crafted in pure eKatSpeak and gives one a clear picture of how complex that coastline is up there:
It makes me suspect that eKat will end up buying a boat and going to sea thereafter. I mean, why in a free society would one stay on a parcel number when you could have the whole sea?
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em kn0t
Trad climber
isle of wyde
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Aug 29, 2012 - 11:22am PT
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The journals are a great ongoing TR of this wild adventure.
Fair winds and sweet seas to the magic Moutoneers -- TFPU!
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HighTraverse
Trad climber
Bay Area
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Aug 29, 2012 - 02:15pm PT
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A timely message from the seafaring trio. I was just beginning to wonder......
Oh yeah, anchoring at the exit of a pass. Like in the atolls of the south Pacific. Scary stuff. Timing is everything!
And a Bruce anchor. Of which I believe Mouton Noir has 2. The ONLY anchor to have.
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