After entering Totem Inlet on Dolphin Island, it was sort of a repeat of our time in Bottleneck Cove. Only this time it was David zoned out on cold meds for two days and me enjoying the scenery and reading. The difference was that while David slept, I enjoyed mostly sunny skies and the weather wasn’t bad at all for the first 48 hours in our anchorage. We anchored with expectations of winds from the northwest and northeast. But, in general the winds were coming from the southeast. We were getting the text forecasts along with GRIB files every night on the SSB radio; from those we knew that it was actually blowing pretty hard outside our anchorage. At one point, the winds came from the south and Mahdee swung far enough out into the inlet that we could see the narrow entrance and out into bigger waters. There we saw whitecaps and indications of far more wind than the 15 kts or so we were experiencing in our little spot.
Beryl slept away the days at anchor in Totem Inlet
David was feeling better and we began to make plans to exit the inlet and cross the Dixon Entrance. It was not to be. The gales started blowing. When we entered the inlet, winds were from the SW and we anchored within 300 ft of a western shore. As the winds swung around from the SE, we re-anchored with the anchor another 300 ft east of that point. Wind, rain, sunshine for a bit, wind, rain, sunshine for a bit…the cycle went on. We were pretty protected, and while forecast winds were for 30 to 40 knots, we only saw 10 to 25 knots. Mahdee doesn’t typically sail at anchor so we were surprised to see that she was yawing quite a bit in the blustery winds. The winds were steady but then a big gust would sneak around to enter the entrance of the inlet and change the wind direction for a bit. Yaw, yaw we did. That sort of yawing drags anchors so we weren’t exactly surprised when after about 36 hours of this our anchor started an extremely slow drag. We set two anchor alarms and just watched.
We were antsy to go but realized that the forecasts were still for nasty gales and stormy weather which we didn’t really want to be out in. A consolation was that we were eating well and getting little projects done. I had pulled out the stovepipe for the solid fuel stove when we entered Totem Inlet and I’d been happily cooking on coal or hardwood for several days and the boat was staying pretty warm, to boot.
One night I downloaded the weather forecasts and GRIB files and saw good and bad there. The good was that we’d have excellent weather in a few days for crossing the Dixon Entrance and making our way into Alaska. The bad was that we were going to see three days of stormy 40 to 60 kt winds before we could have our good weather.
Knowing we had been slowly dragging across the anchorage for more than a day, we again re-set the anchor. This time, knowing the winds would come from the SE or S, we tucked up as close as we reasonably could to the south shore of our inlet. We also went as far east as we could while still tucked behind a point of land preventing the winds from the entrance to reach us. This spot was about 800 ft from the western lee shore and we were happy with the location. We put out 300 ft of our all chain rode and admonished Mahdee to not play games yawing at anchor.
We really didn’t want to put out two anchors, so we crossed our fingers that our primary 105lb CQR would serve us well. And, we rigged our 125lb Delta ready to deploy. And, we brought up the FX51 Fortress kedge anchor, just in case.
The new anchor spot, closer to the southern shore, allowed us to see more wildlife. There, David saw what he thought were mink playing along the shore. Friday, Saturday, Sunday, the winds blew on. We don’t know how high they got outside our anchorage because we had no VHF reception. Inside the anchorage, we saw mostly 20’s and 30’s and the anchor held very steady. We were tucked much closer behind the land so only on Sunday when the winds raged quite viciously did we have the sorts of gusts that can lead to anchor dragging.
We got several little projects done while we sat at anchor. It was really too cold—and wet—to enjoy being outside for a project so we curtailed ourselves to doing things inside and bird watching. There was a lone loon with no mate, an eagle or two, some really cool ducks (oh, Sharon, had you been here you could have told us what they were…) and a few other waterfowl that I probably should look up the identification of before I forget what I saw.
The winds moderated, as forecasts said they would, late Sunday night and early Monday morning. And so it was that finally, after 9 days at anchor in Totem Inlet, we exited through the narrow entrance at sunrise, Monday April 21st and headed north up Schooner Pass to Kitkatla Channel. We put up the sails as we entered the Ogden Channel and sailed up past Pitt Island and into Arthur Passage on our way to the Chatham Sound. It was a lovely early day of sailing with mid-teen winds but our brief beam reach turned to broad and then to a run with 6 to 8 kt winds that weren’t quite keeping up with our boat speed.
David, feeling better and happy to be sailing for a bit
The views were breathtaking
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The weather made for very dramatic photographs
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In the upper Chatham Sound, we entered Holliday Passage between Green and Dundas Islands and were almost immediately surrounded by marauding porpoises. They were a huge school of Dall’s Porpoise zipping around Mahdee trying to herd the boat somehow. They were fast and furious. They look like “mini” Orca whales. Black and white and really fast. They stayed with us for more than two hours as we exited the Holliday Passage and our path wrapped around to the north of Dundas Island.
The lighthouse on Green Island
We’d seen several large logs and knew that we really shouldn’t travel at night so we entered Brundige Inlet and anchored for the night at the bitter end of the inlet. Calm waters. 6 fathoms and 300 ft of chain out. We slept very well. At sunset a little crab boat came in, set a bunch of crab pots all over the place and in the early morning he’d collected them all and was on his way out as we weighed anchor at sunrise.
We were back in VHF range and listened to the NOAA weather forecasts from Juneau, AK. The Dixon Entrance was supposed to have 15 kts of wind from the west on Tuesday. We were excited to think we’d get to sail a beam reach into Alaska. We set the sails and motored north waiting for those winds to pick up. We had a couple hours of winds in the low teens and then they moderated below 10 kts and as low as 5 kts. Our day was a day of motoring with the sails up, sheeted in tight and doing nothing for us but looking pretty. We saw a ferry and a fishing boat. Otherwise, the Dixon Entrance was empty of traffic. We crossed and noted the big long period swell indicating winds far to the west of us—perhaps out in the Gulf of Alaska—but nothing nearby.
Some wind
No wind
Washing anchor mud off the jib before taking it down into the forecastle
Jib all stowed away below deck
We entered the Revillagigdo Channel wondering how on earth to pronounce it. The area adjacent Duke Island was noted on the charts as that of “extreme magnetic disturbance.” Humm. As we passed Hog Rocks and Ham Island we thought someone has a sense of humor at least. The channel was huge and if we’d had a bit more wind it would have been great sailing.
We took down the sails as we entered into the east channel of the Tongass Narrows. Seaplanes land and take off on the Narrows in front of the town of Ketchikan. We saw one plane take off as we came in—my that was quick. There were many homes with private docks along Pennock Island. What a nice place to be—with a view of snow covered mountains, the colorful town waterfront across the channel. Nice. I’ve heard that it is mayhem during the tourist season but for now everything looked empty and calm.
Coming in, we saw this guy (turns out he’s a Swiss cruiser) bring pallets to his boat to use for heating.
His boat, a French-made steel ketch, anchored in the only really viable anchoring spot in Ketchikan.
So on Tuesday evening, April 22, we moored at the Bar Harbor marina about a mile north of downtown. We made a mistake getting into the harbor—turning down into the small boat slip area and had some…fun…getting back out of that little place and into a Mahdee-sized fairway and slip. Immediately we were met by wonderful Molly of SV Nadejda. I was so very happy to meet her in person. We’d chatted online on Facebook; David and I were already enchanted by Molly, Peter and the seven children of SV Nadejda from seeing their videos on their blog site.
On Wednesday morning, I called around to the local shops to find L-16 batteries and pricing. In the afternoon, I enjoyed the hospitality aboard SV Nadejda; drinking tea and playing Go-Fish with young Michael, checking out impressive Lego vehicles constructed by Caleb; hearing Adelaide practice her fiddle (yes, she’s good); and then later in the evening David and I enjoyed eating Molly’s home-canned salmon for dinner and Adelaide’s yummy banana bread. After finalizing my order of four 6V 420AH L-16 batteries (replacing the two in our house bank and filling up the extra spot for two more in that bank) on Thursday morning, David and I spent the rest of the week slowly doing little projects. The saltwater pump had sprung a leak allowing its electronics to be bathed in water so it was only a matter of time before it died. We got a new one at nearby Murray Pacific and David installed it yesterday. He also installed a new drain basket for the galley sink since the old one had a corrosion crack allowing a weep of water to exit below the sink drain into my cabinet. The entire trip up the coast, I’d had a 5 gallon bucket under the sink to catch any drips—and taking up precious “easy access” space in the galley.
Today I’m baking since we’re going to a concert tonight with a $5 admission each or a “free” entrance for each person who brings a homemade dessert. Brownies and chocolate-almond cookies are in the making. Two of the SV Nadejda brood are performing in the concert so we’re looking forward to it.
Our L-16 batteries arrive on Wednesday by barge and we should be set to go a’wandering in Southern Alaska then. Our plans are to visit the waterways to the east including the Misty Fjords National Monument. We hear that it is very busy late in the season, so now is the time to go visit. We paid for a month at the marina since 10 days was pretty much a break even point for that. We’ll spend a week up in the Fjords and then return down to Ketchikan for another week or so before heading north towards our goal of seeing Glacier Bay National Park before the June 1 permit season opens.
