Wrangell to Ketchikan, August 4 - August 11

     It has not been that long since my last blog, but we’ll leave Ketchikan tomorrow on our way to Canada, so I’ll post a short “catch up”. 

     In my last blog, I think I’d said we would take off for Anan Creek Bear Observatory on Thursday, August 4.  That assumed that we would receive Jerry’s medicine on August 3, as planned.  Well, it did not arrive until about noon on August 4, so we decided to wait to leave until Friday the 5^th.  By this point we had crossed the observatory off our list.  The weather was less than ideal and we had received several conflicting reports about the feasibility of anchoring near Anan Creek.  We’d looked around for an anchorage close by, but they just don’t exist.  Finally, I went on the observatory web site to cancel one ticket…I’d purchased 3 anticipating a guest…and inadvertently cancelled all three reservations!  It seemed like divine intervention!  So, long story short, we didn’t go.  We’ll try again next year.

Thom's Place.  Sunny!!!

     So, on Thursday, we headed down Zamovia Strait and anchored in Thom’s Place, a pretty little cove near the entry to Ernest Sound.  The weather was overcast and foggy/misty so we were perfectly happy to park and swing on the anchor.  We stayed there through Saturday.  We did such ambitious things as finish a jigsaw puzzle, read, and watch a lone eagle watch us from a tree on shore.    You’d think we would get bored with this, and we probably would after several days, but a day of quiet relaxation seems to suit us just fine!

Shot of navigation screens

     Sunday morning dawned with pretty weather and light winds, so we pulled the anchor and proceeded south.  Anan Creek was just around the corner so we decided to take the detour to see what the little bay in front of the creek looked like.  There was definitely very little good anchorage.  The bottom went from 100 feet in depth to 20 feet very quickly.  We did see one medium-sized tour boat anchored, but there wasn’t room for more.  We did explore the shorelines a little but, again, found no good anchorage.  We’ll have to figure out plan B for next year.  It was a busy spot, though, with a tour boat parked, as well as this floatplane loading up and taking off.

Float plane leaving Ana Creek

     After our inspection of Anan Creek, we proceeded down Ernest Sound and out into Clarence Strait.  This is one of those bodies of water that connects to the Pacific Ocean, so we listened to the weather on our VHF radio…our primary source of weather forecasts.  Since we don’t have Internet access or TV reception, getting solid weather information can be a little dicey.  Fortunately NOAA broadcasts forecasts throughout SE Alaska.  The information we got was that we would have winds out of the NW at 15 knots and seas of 3 feet.  That sounded doable to us!  We had decided to head to the east side of Prince of Wales Island, which borders Clarence Strait on the east.  We cruised to Thorne Bay and Thorne Bay City Marina.

Jan and "The Claw"

     Thorne Bay was heavily logged in the 60’s, 70’s, and 80’s and, at one point, had a city entirely built on a float.  The hillsides still show the scars of logging…no reforesting here!  The little town of about 100 people is quite proud of its logging history and even bought this huge claw when the logging industry pulled it.  It sits on the edge of town and greets motorists who are approaching Thorne Bay City. 

Beautiful Tollycraft and a curious little dog

     We took a walking tour of the town to enjoy the beautiful sunshine.  We realized we could probably count our sunny days in SE Alaska on one hand!  It seemed strange to be out walking without a raincoat!  We chatted with our marina neighbors in the transient slip behind us.  They were from Canada and had spent hundreds of hours restoring this beautiful Tollycraft cruiser.  They had two cute little dogs in life vests running around the boat’s decks.  Apparently they were show dogs so, both got a good grooming on the dock.

     Smokey even ventured outside in the sunny weather!

     Monday morning we had a decision to make…. continue on exploring the east side of Prince of Wales Island or head to Ketchikan.  Because of our concern about Jerry’s brother-in-law Danny we decided to forego further wandering and made our way down Tongass Narrows to Ketchikan.  We wanted to hear about Danny’s doctor’s visit and what the plans were.  Our passage across Clarence Strait was calm and uneventful.  We made the trip in about 3.5 hours and our “hour meter” turned over 1100 hours.  To put that into perspective, when we bought Cosmo Place it had 600 hours on it.  We’ve logged a lot of boat time in the last 14 months!  One more little statistical tidbit…it took us 90 engine hours to get to Canada.

This barge is carrying all kinds of stuff!

     We moored once again in Bar Harbor, the working harbor in Ketchikan.  We are well north of the cruise ship docks, although we watch them go by out in the channel.  While we’re here we will do some serious supplying for our trip through Canada, check the boat systems, and be sure we’re ready for an ocean crossing through Dixon Entrance.  Our slip is very close to the entrance to the channel so we have a great view of all the boats.  We watched this barge tow go by this morning.  It’s amazing all the things the load on these big barges.  It makes sense, when you think about it, though.  To get everything from backhoes to kitchen sinks to these islands, they have to arrive by boat.

     We’ve been amazed during this cruise that we usually see folks in our new moorage that we’ve seen in previous harbors.  Coming into Ketchikan was no exception.  Across from our slip on float 11 was “Royal Sounder” facing us on float 10.  Royal Sounder is piloted by Linda Lewis and her husband Dave Parker.  It was Linda’s “Cruising to Alaska” class that we attended at the Seattle Boat Show last winter.  We’ve seen them before…Petersburg and Cannery Cove…and here they were again!  We had dinner with them Tuesday evening and had a great conversation about backgrounds and histories.  Linda is a retired U of Washington nursing professor.  Well, come to find out, she grew up in Chicago, went to Michael Reese Hospital School of Nursing, worked in Peoria, learned to sail on the Illinois River, and worked as a nurse practitioner in London Mills during the 80’s!  Yikes!!  (Note:  London Mills, Illinois, is the little town nearest the farm where I grew up and where my folks lived after they retired.  I’m sure they both knew Linda!).  What a teeny tiny world we live in!

     Linda and Dave are heading south as well so we were able to confirm our planning about crossing Dixon Entrance, that little corner of the Pacific Ocean, to get to Prince Rupert, BC.  We will leave Thursday and get as far as Judd Harbor on Duke Island Thursday night.  If the weather on Friday still sounds promising, we’ll leave early and be in Prince Rupert before the winds and seas pick up.  After that we’ll spend a month or so in Canada, seeing all those pretty places we missed on the way up.

     Not sure when I’ll be able to add more travels to this blog.  Internet access in Canada is sketchy at best!

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