SE Alaska Cruise: May 29 - June 11, 2014

May 29 to June 11, 2014

We remained in Juneau for a week, waiting to get our alternator fixed.  Donald and Dorothy Peterson were really good sports about our delay and we did all sorts of sightseeing, walks to the cruise ship shops, and dinners at the lovely “Twisted Fish” restaurant.  By Thursday, May 29, we were SOOOO ready to go. We'd even explored the ins and outs of the tide grid...$10/day and no stay longer than 96 hours.  I don't think we'll try that with Cosmo Place!

Ray from Glacier Electric had ordered a new rectifier, for the generator, thinking it would come easily from Seattle.  Apparently Seattle was fresh out of them and so we got one from Salt Lake City.  Remember, this is Alaska…no Fed Ex overnight, no UPS….just the USPS!  Finally about 1700 on Thursday, May 29, our hero, Ray, came down the ramp with our repaired alternator in his hands!  Yay!!!  Jerry and Ray hooked it up, I started the engine, and immediately the repaired alternator was fried!  Danger!!  Danger!!  I quickly shut it down and we were back at square 1.  Probably the alternator had been incorrectly rebuilt and Ray was “peeved”, to say the least.  Luckily, Ray had a local source where we could acquire a new alternator.  At 1830 Ray was back with a bright, shiny new model…one he usually installed on big fishing boats.  This time the engine start went well and we were back in business.  Problem #1…stay tuned, there will be more!

Friday, May 30, we left Juneau…perhaps for the last time?  The eagles bid us good-bye from the Harris Harbor breakwater, and, after a quick gas stop at Petro Marine across the channel, we were off…bound for Swanson Harbor, and points west in Icy Strait.  















As we passed downtown Juneau (aka Cruise Ship land) we spotted the cruise ship “Disney Wonder”, and noticed this funny little scenario on the stern of the ship!  Clever.

To get to Icy Strait our route took us SE down Gastineau Channel, a sharp 180^o turn at the end of Douglas Channel, and then NW across Saginaw Channel.  We kept a lookout for whales, and did see a few spouts, but nothing spectacular.  Our view of the Point Retreat lighthouse was our prettiest sighting.

Swanson Harbor, our destination, provided good shelter from the wind and waves in Icy Strait.  We moored at one of the free-standing concrete docks and were surprised to see that there were only two other fishing boats there.

Saturday, May 31, we were up early to listen to the weather and heard that the waters ahead of us in Icy Strait were less than desirable:  winds SE 15 knots and seas 4’.  These conditions are on the outside edge of our comfort zone so we decided to give the weather a day or two to calm down and explore Port Frederick instead.  We cruised right by Hoonah and made our way to North Bight, Neka Bay. 

We had been having trouble with our Espar heater…the primary heat source on the boat that runs on diesel fuel.  After a little problem-solving, Jerry decided that the pump needed to be replaced and we had one with us.  Yay!!  So, in the back of beyond, Jerry and Don replaced the heater, as they stood on their heads in the lazarette…the storage area under the cockpit.  After about 4 hours of contortion and cussing, Don and Jerry accomplished the change!  Yay!  Lovely heat on our boat once again.  Time to keep track!  This was problem #2, but we weren’t done with trouble yet!

We had this pretty little anchorage all to ourselves…just as we like it!  It reminded us of Devilfish Bay on Prince of Wales, another spot that we loved.  Don was up early the next morning, June 1, Sunday, to capture the beautiful sunrise.  The info on the photo says it was taken at 3:51 AM!

The rest of us awoke to beautiful fluffy white clouds and sunshine.  After a leisurely breakfast, we decided to get the dinghy down from the boat deck and go for a spin.  We were eager to explore the shoreline of this little bay and see if we could find bears along the tide lines.  We didn’t have any luck with the bears but did see lots of dolphins fishing in the relatively shallow water.  

The seals sunning themselves on the rocks caught our eyes too.  What characters!

We were on our way back, and about 2 miles from Cosmo Place, when Jerry and I heard a whine and a bang and the Honda outboard quit!  After several tries on the starter, Jerry was practically standing on his head trying to figure out what happened to the outboard.  Half an hour of head scratching, gradually drifting to the rocky shore, and diminishing options, we decided we needed help!  Luckily we brought our handheld VHF radio with us (a relatively recent acquisition!) and so we called the Coast Guard!  Yikes!!!  This was a serious step for us conscientious boaters!  We had to concede we were in trouble and needed help.  You might expect that the Coast Guard (Sector Juneau) would quickly send out a rescue boat, but, nope, that’s not what they do!  Rather, they broadcast a notice on the common hailing channel (VHF 16) requesting any boat in the area to provide assistance.  How embarrassing!  

In about half an hour, a C-Dory with 3 fishermen (who could have been stand-ins on “Duck Dynasty”) came to the rescue and towed us back to Cosmo Place.

We counted our blessings that we were quickly rescued, hadn’t been in any real danger, and had a real adventure!  It all seemed good until we realized that the anchor of the C-Dory had gouged a hole in the gel coat!  

In the photo, I used my hand and finger to give some perspective. Problems #3 and 4, but we're not done yet with boating "opportunities"!

Don and Jerry loaded the dinghy and took a look at the motor while we fixed lunch but couldn’t find why the motor had shut down.  We decided we could live without the dinghy and perhaps get the issues resolved once we return to Petersburg at the end of June.

After lunch we were ready for a change of scenery and decided to go to the SW corner of Frederick Arm…only about an hour away.  Anchor up and away we went!  Only 15 minutes after we were under way, we smelled a “scorched cotton” smell…oh, no!  Of course, we all suspected the new alternator (refer to Problem #1)and Jerry quickly dove into the engine room.  He found a water hose against the very hot alternator.  Jerry pulled it away and secured it with a wire tie, but the smell persisted.  You can imagine…we were really twitchy at this point and were certain that our new alternator was about to fail on us!  Rather than another remote cove, we rerouted to Hoonah…a quick 45” away.  

Certainly this little Indian town didn’t offer all the services we might need, but tied to a dock sounded a lot better to us than anchored in a cove in the back of nowhere.  Besides, the eagles were there to greet us on the breakwater...seemed like a good omen!

After talking with Ray (the Juneau electrician) and Chuck Schleich (an old friend who is “one” with electrical systems!), Jerry decided that the new alternator was ok, but unable to handle the additional load of a start up when we’d been at anchor.  (I hate to get really technical here…and it’s beyond my knowledge of electrical systems to do so…but when we’re moored at a dock, we have shore power to keep all the batteries charged, but when we anchor, the house batteries provide our electricity until we start the boat engine and the alternator re-charges the house batteries.)  So, Jerry ran the generator as we made our way to Hoonah, which made the alternator happy, and planned to do so whenever we pulled anchor after a night away from the dock.

June 2, Monday, Don, Dorothy, Jerry and I decided to play tourists at Point Sophia, the cruise ship dock a two-mile stroll north of Hoonah.  We were really interested in the cannery and museum displays that we had heard so much about.  The walk through Hoonah, from the harbor to Cannery Cove provided all sorts of entertainment….everything from someone’s quirky “yard art” to the cemetery…a combination of Indian and Russian cultures.

We made a quick tour of the cannery and museum, did a little whale watching from the shore (I’d add photos here but we had such spectacular whale sightings later, I’ll save the whale photos!) and a quick lunch of salmon tacos at “Chipper Fish”, we were back on Cosmo Place and ready to depart.

Our plan was to do the short run to the SW Arm of Port Frederick (yesterday’s destination) and be sure the alternator continued to perform well.  

We found a quiet little spot to drop the anchor in 37’ of water!  From the map you can see that we were at “the end of the road!”

Tuesday, June 3, we were up early for a big day of cruising.  Jerry was very watchful of the alternator’s performance and our power usage, but everything seemed to be working ok.  Jerry was not sleeping well, worrying about the alternator problem, so, fingers crossed, nothing else would go wrong.

Two years ago, when Donald and Dorothy were with us, we had explored Glacier Bay, so on this trip we wanted to explore the two bays to the west, Dundas Bay and Taylor Bay.  Our route took us through Icy Strait, full of marine wildlife.  These three sea lions kept an eye on us as we passed. 

We headed for Taylor Bay first, to see Brady Glacier.  Although this glacier has receded to the point it was no longer a tidewater glacier it was still dramatic.  The front of the glacier was covered with dirt and mud, and in front of it we could see a strip of beach with alders growing.  Of course we didn’t see any dramatic calving but it was still an awesome sight.  It was one of those spots where the dynamic forces of water, wind and ice were very much in evidence

Our final destination was Dundas Bay, between Taylor and Glacier Bays.  This bay, although obviously carved by glaciers had been free of ice a long time.  We made our way into the west arm, looking for the perfect quiet place to drop the anchor.  We found a that spot in the beautiful “Horse Fly Cove” (fortunately there weren’t any!) and spent the evening playing cards.  Don was up early the next morning to take some lovely sunrise photos! 

Wednesday, June 4, we took a good hard look at the weather and decided that we would not take the “outside” route to Sitka.  The predictions were for gale force winds and 8’ seas out in Cross Sound!  Too rough for us!  We pulled the anchor and headed for Chatham Strait and Tenakee Springs.  This was definitely whale country!  We saw dozens…the most we’ve seen on any trip!  This humpback was right off our port side as we cruised through Icy Strait! 

It's great fun having company join us on "Cosmo Place" as we cruise through SE Alaska.  Each visitor brings something new to the time with us, but usually everyone gets involved in one or two things...piloting the boat 

and petting Smokey!

We stopped to fish just outside the entrance to Tenakee Inlet since it was early…only about 1400.  We had caught a 55-pound halibut here 2 years ago and were ready to catch another one!  Of course, Jerry had to “prime the pump” by catching a couple of rock fish!  Don was at the helm, ready to reposition the boat, when he could not get the engine started!  I tried to start it with my limited knowledge…nothing!  Jerry tried…still nothing!  It did not even turn over!  YIKES!!!  Problem #5 and the scariest one of all!!!

We quickly dropped the anchor and 150’ of chain in about 40’ of water, on a rocky shelf at the edge of Chatham Strait.  Without our engine, we could not even be sure the anchor had set.  For the next 6 hours, Jerry and Don tried to figure out what had gone wrong.  We notified the Coast Guard of our problem, allowing boaters in the area to also weigh in on the discussion.  The boat captain of “Alaskan Story” was particularly helpful and offered all sorts of good suggestions.  The boat captain of “Erebus” was also full of ideas and would meet us in Tenakee Springs to lend further help.  Of course, we had to get to Tenakee Springs!  A rendezvous in our precarious position was not an option.

Finally about 2030, Jerry and Don threw in the towel.  The motor simply would not even attempt to turn over and they had decided that the started had died!  This trip was turning in to the trip of disasters!  Just like when we were stranded in the dinghy, we called the Coast Guard to request a tow.  Within minutes the captain of “Restless Spirit”, a 37’ Carver, called to say he was at Point Augustus, up in Icy Strait, and would reach us about 2200.  Great!  Assistance was on the way.  

We had a beautiful sunset while we sat and waited, and as you can see in the photo, the water was calm.  It would have been borderline terrifying if the wind has picked up and/or waves began beating against the hull, challenging our poorly set anchor!  

Hooray!  “Restless Spirit” came in to view right on time!  Jerry and Don secured two 50’ tow ropes, our rescuers efficiently created a harness, and we were off at about 5 knots.  We were 12 miles from the marina and it was almost dark…but we were safe and “Cosmo Place” would soon be secured.  As we slowly made our way down the inlet it got darker and darker, of course!  We were quite concerned about how we would dock…or rather how “Restless Spirit” would manage this feat.  No worries…these guys had it figured out! 

Once we were in the marina, our rescuers made one 90-degree turn into a long empty finger and got us side-tied to the dock.  Of course it helped that “Restless Spirit” had 5 young men aboard who were capable boaters!  Three of them were quickly off their boat as they approached the dock, to grab our lines and get us secured!  Huge sigh of relief!!!  Once settled, we jumped to the dock to hug, high five, and hug these guys again.  All five were from Houston and were in Alaska fishing on Mark’s new boat.  The boat pilot, Mike, was amazingly modest as we praised his superb skills.  We tried to pay them, but they would only accept a loaf of bread I had baked that day, some fruit and veggies, and some celebratory beer.  So, we all fell in to bed about 0130 Thursday morning, greatly relieved to be in Tenkaee Springs.

Later, June 5, Thursday, Jerry was up early to call Ray the electrician in Juneau.  Tenakee Springs was a tiny little village of about 50 people.  The main “road” through town was a dirt ATV track and there was not a cell tower to be seen!  We could connect to the outside world through one of two landlines, “downtown” on the princess phone by the hot springs or on the desktop rotary dial model at the top of the marina ramp.  This photo of Jerry, which I took much later, is rather deceiving.  I can guarantee when he made that call to Ray he did not have a smile on his face!

Ray reached the same conclusion that Jerry and Don had:  the starter had died.  He told Jerry to pull the starter to get the model numbers so he could begin the process of finding a new one.  Once located, he would put it on the next floatplane to Tenakee Springs!  Kla-chink.  Kla-chink (as our friend, Doug, would add!).

To get to the starter, Jerry had to unbolt the grounding strap that went from the starter to the engine block.  He saw a polka-dotted (my words not his!) burn pattern on the strap and realized that the ground was making a marginal connection only through the attaching bolt.  AHA!!!  The smoking gun!  (Okay, at this point I should add that Jerry and Don had looked all sorts of possible solutions, taken all sorts of electrical data with meters, and had even directly connected the starter to power, while we were out there precariously anchored.  It was a miracle Jerry found this!)  To say the very least, this was a surprise!  Five minutes of   with a piece of sandpaper, a quick hook-up and the engine turned over on the first crank!  AAAAARRRRRGGGGHHHH!  I told Don I didn’t know whether to laugh or cry.  Problem solved by 0800.  

Soon after, “Erebus” came into the marina and we learned that Gary, the captain, had an amazing pedigree of marine electrical experience…Navy, Coast Guard, and Washington State ferries…and he was quite interested to hear the story.  I was more interested in this photo of his cat!

Well, we were back in tourist mode and wandered ALL the roads of Tenakee Springs…took a couple of hours!  The hot springs in the middle of town just aren’t that appealing to me.  Men and women “soak” separately (hours posted), one must soap down and rinse beforehand, and no swimming suits are allowed.  Patrick, our boater friend on "Spirit" told us that he loves going for a soak late in the evening with some good Scotch in his hand to hear all the local gossip!

We left Tenakee Springs about 1300, bound for Appleton Cove.  As we motored down the inlet we saw an amazing sight:  humpback bubble net feeding!  Although we had heard about this behavior we had not seen it before!  A Wikipedia description:

A group of whales swims in a shrinking circle blowing bubbles below a school of prey. The shrinking ring of bubbles encircles the school and confines it in an ever-smaller cylinder.  Some whales blow the bubbles, some dive deeper to drive fish toward the surface, and others herd prey into the net by vocalizing.  The whales then suddenly swim upward through the "net", mouths agape, swallowing thousands of fish in one gulp. Plated grooves in the whale's mouth allow the creature to easily drain all the water initially taken in.

Soon we were on our way again, bound for Peril Strait and Appleton Cove.  As you might expect, Jerry was keeping an eagle eye on the electrical system, taking temperature readings of the alternator (which seemed to be running hotter than he thought it should), and generally still in “high-worry” mode.  He realized that the house batteries were not charging!  OH NO!!  More huge problems!  Problem #6.  One more dive into the engine room and he found that a sensing wire had not been reattached.  Easy fix!  BUT, fixing it required shutting off the engine out there in the middle of nowhere.  Five minutes of furious praying on my part as Jerry corrected the problem, a flip of the ignition switch, the engine started and we were off again.  Whew!

Appleton Cove was one of those pretty, protected spots, just off the route, that is a boater’s dream.  When we pulled in we found only a fishing boat anchored well away from 40’ hole where we wanted to drop the anchor.  After several worry-filled, sleepless nights we all slept like the dead!

Friday, June 6, we pulled out of Appleton Cove into Peril Strait and were soon greeted by the fast ferry “Fairweather” as she blew by us.  Travelling at 32 knots, she was bound for Sitka…just like us!  Unlike us, she made the trip to Sitka from Juneau in 4.5 hours, whereas it would take us 2 days!  Fortunately, the pilot radioed each time he approached a narrow pass or tricky turn, as the channel pinched down, and we quickly pulled over as far as we could to let the ship pass.  His wake was considerable and whoever was piloting our boat had to be ready to respond.

One more check on the weather, and we decided to bypass Sitka for one more day and made our way to Leeoffskaia Inlet SW of Sitka for another night at anchor.  As we made out way across the bay we had a great view of Mount Edgecombe, the extinct volcano near Sitka, and were surprised at the dearth of snow on its peak.  Our destination was only about 4 miles beyond Eliason Harbor, but was another one of those secluded anchorages that we love.

Our decision to spend the night here was a good one.  We arrived mid-afternoon and had bright sunshine!  We quickly made our way to the boat deck to enjoy the views and cocktails…sans shoes.

This trip had provided us with lots of sightings of whales, eagles, otters, seals, sea lions, and a zillion birds but we were still missing bears.  Saturday, June 7, Don and Dorothy spotted a yearling brown bear on the far shore.  When we arose, we thought we’d missed the whole show, but soon, that yearling’s bigger brother showed up.  Perfect!

Eliason Harbor, where we have moored many times is on the north side of Sitka.  Our approach to Sitka from the south took us past downtown and under the bridge to the island on which the airport sits.  The Russian Orthodox church’s dome stood out dramatically in the middle of the city…right across the street from the Lutheran Church.

We had a superb visit with Don and Dorothy and they were great help during all of our travails!  And such good sports!  They flew out of Sitka June 9 and we’ll soon depart as well.

Don brought his iPad on the trip and used his navigation software to plot our routes.  He provided us with a summary map of our travels and I thought you might like to see our wanderings.  The various colors are the various legs of our trip, beginning in Juneau at the top right and ending in Sitka at the bottom left.

I thought I should give you an update of all these problems:

1. The alternator seems to be working fine.  Jerry spoke with the company who made the alternator and was assured that the 125-degree temps he was getting when it was running hot were no problem.  The alternator is much happier with the solid ground and is charging the house batteries like a champ!
2. The Espar heater has worked without a hitch since the pump was installed and we think that problem is solved.
3. The Honda outboard is toast.  Jerry has ordered a new one from the Honda dealer in Wrangell which we will pick up on July 7 or 8.  Since it comes by barge from Seattle, it takes awhile to get to SE Alaska!  Kind of fun to think we'll have something on one of those barges!  
4. We’ll repair the ding in the gelcoat when we return to Washington. Duct tape is our temporary patch.
5. The engine is fine.  Fixing that ground was the key to the problem
6. The charging of the house batteries was quickly resolved and not a problem at all one the sensor wire was reattached.

We plan to depart Sitka Friday June 13 (nope, I'm not going "there") and make our way back to Petersburg.  Our next company arrives on June 24…Jerry’s sister Becky, brother Don and sister-in-law Sally.  They’ll be with us for a week and we hope to cruise into Endicott Arm.