Ketchikan, AK to Shearwater, BC August 11 - 19, 2011

Downtown Ketchikan from Tongass Narrows

     We departed Ketchikan on Thursday, August 11, bound for Judd Harbor on Duke Island.  I think I can count on two hands the number of days we have had bright beautiful sunshine since May, and I sure wouldn’t count this day!  It was at least clear when we cruised by the city of Ketchikan on our way to the fuel dock, and I was able to snap this photo of the city.  The church in the right foreground is the one we attended in June.  Just to the right of all that along the waterfront are the cruise ship docks. 

Halibut carcasses at Judd Harbor

     Our weather soon got overcast/misty/foggy and our six-hour cruise to Judd Harbor on Duke Island proved to be our roughest trip yet.  I’m certain we were in 6 – 8 foot seas.  Although I know the boat can take it, it is quite disconcerting to see the bow rise up on top of the wave and then come crashing down again.  Needless to say, poor ol’ Smokey was on my lap, decidedly unhappy.  We were relieved to reach our anchorage in Judd Harbor.  We chose this spot because it would have us all set to cross Dixon entrance early in the morning.  It proved to be a quiet, lovely anchorage and we chatted over the radio with the other boat anchored there…Doug and Jill on “Passages”, a 50-foot Ocean Alexander.  We had seen them out on the water, but had not talked to them.  We all commented on these filleted halibut carcasses hanging from a tree on the shore.  No one had a good guess why they were there!

     After our rough trip to Judd Harbor, we were a little concerned about our cruise across Dixon Entrance…known for its rough water.  So, we were up early on Friday and hauled anchor at 0545, knowing the winds and seas are usually calmer early in the morning. 

     Imagine our surprise and delight when the crossing was very calm, not much wind and just a light chop.  Whew!  We cruised with “Passages” and “Royal Sounder”, owned by Linda Lewis and Dave Parker, whom we’d seen in Ketchikan.  Everyone agreed that we had a great trip across and enjoyed cruising through Holliday Channel and passed this lovely lighthouse on Green Island.  Canada certainly knows how to build beautiful lighthouses!

     We safely arrived in Prince Rupert, BC, cleared customs, and were safely moored at the Prince Rupert Yacht Club by 1330.  “Passages” and “Royal Sounder” were also here, so we met them for dinner and had a wonderful evening listening to the stories of these two seasoned cruising couples.  They’re all from the Seattle area, and I’m sure we’ll see them again.

Grenville Channel waterfall

     Saturday our cruise took us down “The Ditch”, as Grenville Channel is known by the cruise ships.  This long, fjord looks like it could have bee manmade, it’s that straight.  Tall, forested mountains are on both side of the channel, so we saw lots of waterfalls.  When we came north through here it was cloudy and overcast so we hoped our southbound trip would be prettier, but no such luck.  We had the usual rain/mist/fog and even ran the radar periodically. We also saw many lovely waterfalls.  No drought here!

Canadian Coast Guard boat in Lowe Inlet

Cosmo Place at anchor in the rain at Lowe Inlet

     Saturday night we stayed at Lowe Inlet, a lovely spot that we had missed on our way north.  We knew “Royal Sounder” would be anchored there, as we had chatted with them over the VHF on the way south.  We didn’t know how many other boats we would find in this popular anchorage.  There were a total of 8 boats anchored here, including this Canadian Coast Guard boat. 

In addition to “Royal Sounder” we saw “Osprey” owned by Steve and Elsie Hulsizer.  We met them in Juneau where we had Elsie autograph our copy of her book about Alaska.  We all congregated on “Royal Sounder” for a visit and a glass of wine.  Thankfully, Linda and Dave’s tender, “Green Devil” was already in the water, so Linda came and fetched us.  That saved us the hassle of getting our dinghy down from the boat deck and into the water…yes, it was raining again!

     On Sunday, August 14, we slept in and awoke to a nearly empty little cove!  Both cruising couples were in a greater hurry to head south than we were, and it was lovely to sleep until 0800!  Our destination was Hartley Bay, an Indian village that was reputed to be very friendly and have wonderful moorage.  We had skipped this spot on our way north and we wanted to stop and take a look.  The rest of our passage down Grenville Channel was misty/rainy/foggy (of course!) and we didn’t see much of the pretty mountains and many waterfalls.  Three hours later we moored at the last open spot on Hartley Bay’s dock and felt pretty smug about our good fortune.  This little community is primarily a fishing village and, although the docks are public docks and maintained by the government, they are covered with fishing paraphernalia! 

Canoe Journey arrival

One of the canoes decorated with cedar.

     As we were finishing a late lunch we heard what sounded like drums and chanting.  We popped out the door to see five native canoes coming into the bay!  Totally amazing!  We dashed over to the central dock and learned that this “Canoe Journey” had taken place over the last 10 days and 300 kilometers.  The stop in Hartley Bay was the end of the journey.  Through a lot of organizing and support, this journey was created to celebrate the Indian heritage of these small communities and help the young people connect with their backgrounds.  The Canadian Coast Guard boat (that red and white one) we had seen anchored in Lower Inlet was one of the support boats for the travelers.  This is something I’m definitely going to look up on the Internet, whenever we return to civilization!

     That evening, the Canoe Journey participants had a huge celebration in the high school gym, complete with chanting, dancing and native costumes.  A few photos:

The little drummer must have been about 3 and did a great job!  The dancers in the red and black were the hosts and invited other groups to step in and do a dance amid their drummers.  That’s what the folks in the white T-shirts are doing.  We were sitting next to the crew from the Coast Guard boat and were invited to join them in their dance.  It won’t surprise you to know that Jerry declined but I jumped right in there!

     It was a most impressive evening and something we’d not experienced before.  You will notice that not everyone participating is a Native American.  In fact, the leader of the “red and black crowd” looked decidedly Scandinavian!  It seemed that this cultural celebration was supported by many folks in these little communities.  Way cool! 

Boardwalk thoroughfares in Hartley Bay

     One more interesting tidbit about this community:  Although we did not venture too far in the rain, it looked like there were very few roads in the village.  Everyone got around on quads over many, many raised wooden boardwalks.  Hmmm, gonna have to do some research into all of this…my curiosity is piqued!

     Monday morning, August 15 we were off once again.  We crossed Wright Sound and entered Princess Royal Channel to continue our travels further south.  These steep sided fjords don’t offer a lot of stopping places so, even though we wanted to stay in new places on the way south, we decided to stay in Khutze Inlet.  We had anchored even here with Chuck on the way north.  The good thing about doing a repeat is that we know exactly where to anchor.  In my little logbook, I record the latitude and longitude of the spot where we drop anchor as well as the depth and amount of chain we put out.  Sure makes the second time around easier!  This was not a huge day for us and dropped anchor about 1430.  Jerry changed the pencil zincs in the engine and I baked bread.  Yum!

Salmon jumping in Khutze Inlet

     We could see the salmon jumping like crazy in this little inlet.  At the east end of the inlet is a stream and these poor little fish were doing their best to get to that stream to spawn.  It was almost comical though…sometimes there would be 6-8 fish in the air at once!

     Well, don’t tell Canada, but we just couldn’t stand by and ignore all these salmon jumping around.  Surely one of them needed to be our dinner!  Jerry fished for half an hour or so and had several hits.  One big one even broke his line and took off with his new lure!  I took over while Jerry went up to the boat deck to retrieve the net and look what I caught!

Jan and a pink salmon

     I have no idea what kind of salmon she is nor how much she weighed, but she was 22 inches long.  We managed to filet her and will have her for dinner one of these nights!

     Tuesday morning we set off again, down Princess Royal Channel and into Tolmie Channel.  Our destination was Alexander Inlet, to a very protected anchorage about 5 miles from the opening to the inlet.  We decided we must be spoiled!  This winding channel included a mediocre narrows, some steep cliffs and a lot of wooded hillsides…we thought it was a yawn!  Hardly worth the 4 miles it took to get to the head of the inlet.  We anchored in a quiet spot and watched it rain and rain.  We didn’t even cook our salmon…too wet to uncover the BBQ!  The best occurrence in this dreary spot was our discovery that our TV and satellite receiver work once again.  We’ve come far enough south for our satellite antenna to “capture” satellite signals.  We won’t get local coverage until we’re further south, but we can watch the national network feeds once again.

Gulls in Rescue Bay

Jerry dinghying in Rescue Bay

     Wednesday morning we were off once again and crossed Mathieson Channel to proceed further east through Jackson Passage and Jackson Narrows.  We had chosen a different route going north and wanted to see what this pretty little route had to offer.  We certainly weren’t disappointed…a narrow channel, beautiful clear water, evergreen forests on the hillsides and sunshine!  Our first sunny day in quite awhile.  It’s amazing how rejuvenating a little sunshine can be.  We even got the dinghy down ad took it for a spin…hadn’t used it since Beth Was with us at Swanson Harbor!  It ran like a champ and the most interesting thing we saw in this little bay was this collection of gulls.  I have no idea why they were congregated on this log or what they were waiting for!

Cosmo Place on left, Passages on right

     The next morning as we were pulling our anchor, we heard an announcement over the VHF from “Passages” that they were coming east through Jackson Narrows.  We had last see Jill and Doug at Prince Rupert, where we’d had dinner together and gotten acquainted.  They were also bound for Shearwater and invited us to join them in Mouat Cove, Berry Inlet, that night.  The plan was for them to drop anchor in this little, rocky cove and we would tie to them…rafting, it’s called.  This sounded great to us!  We’d not done this before and were eager to learn how this all worked.  Jill and Doug have been cruising Alaskan waters in their 50’ Ocean Alexander for 12 – 15 years and are old hands at all this stuff.  We had a beautiful, quiet night in this little cove and awoke to amazing calm water.  Look at this beautiful reflection!

Rock and reflection in Mouat Cove

     We were off again the next morning and arrived in Shearwater about 1230.  When we stopped here on the way north, this little marina was literally a wreck…no power or water on the docks, very little activity, and frustration all around as they worked madly to recover from a severe winter storm.  Well!  Quite a bit of difference today!  The docks are repaired and packed full, the store and restaurant are open, and we realized we were lucky to find moorage without a reservation.  Passages came in as well, so we’ll spend another night telling tall tales with Jill and Doug.  

Jan, Jerry, Chris, & Jim on "Mariah", April, 2009

     A boat from our past is also moored here…”Mariah”!  That’s the 42’ Nordic Tug that we rented in the spring of 2009 and took cruising in the San Juans with Jim and Chris Munch.  We’ll have to catch up with the crew…another story or two to hear!

   As always, we wish you could be here with us to enjoy this amazing trip.