Tag Archives | Diesel Duck

After our return from England on May 2, we quickly turned our attention to getting ready for our cruise (the ninth, Yikes!) to Alaska.  Once again, an astounding amount of stuff found its way from grocery shelves to our lockers.

A predawn start on May 15 allowed us to maximize the benefit of currents and arrive at Reid Harbor on Stuart Island mid-afternoon.  The next day we went to Port Sidney where we cleared customs, ran an errand in Victoria and did our Canadian provisioning of fruits and vegetables we aren’t permitted to bring across the border.

The next day we motored over to Tod Inlet then dinghied to the boater’s entrance for Butchart Gardens.  They were lovely as always and we enjoyed a high tea meal at the restaurant (they should provide more clotted cream with the scones, IMHO).  It was early enough that we decided to pull anchor and spend the night at Montague Harbor to better position ourselves for slack water at Dodd Narrows the next day.

The trip up to Port McNeill went smoothly with generally smooth waters (Lasquiti Island, Gowlland Harbour and Port Harvey).  While at Port McNeill, we took part of a day to visit the U’mista Museum in Alert Bay.

Rather than stay in Port McNeill while waiting for suitable weather to round Cape Caution, we headed into the Broughtons for a couple of nights (Waddington and Turnbull) then positioned in Blunden Harbor.  Conditions were pretty good around Cape Caution and we ended up not putting the stabilizers in the water (but the poles were out and the stabilizers were ready to be dropped overboard).

Unlike in past years, we decided to try our luck with fishing in BC on the way up rather than race through.  We did pretty well with prawns in Fish Egg Inlet but struck out with salmon fishing in Hakai Pass.  After three night’s in the Fitz Hugh Sound area (Joe’s Bay, Lewall Inlet and Pruth Bay) we decided to keep heading north.  Fishing attempts were made in Laredo Channel and Otter Channel but no luck.

The next area we tried was in Chatham Sound west of Prince Rupert.  On the final troll through the area and minutes before we were going to call it quits, Marcia felt the tug on the pole and reeled in a lovely chinook salmon.  Within a few minutes of bringing the fish on board, a Canadian Fisheries patrol boat came by and inspected our fishing licenses.  I think they were impressed with the efficiency Marcia presented them with the just caught salmon already recorded.  The winds and seas were calm so we drifted in the channel and rain while Marcia cleaned and fileted the fish.

We tried for a repeat success in the same area the next morning but to no avail.  We headed north and with the permission of the CBP we crossed border to spend the night in Foggy Bay before arriving and officially clearing in Ketchikan the next morning, June 4.

We’re going to do a short trip around Revillagigedo Island (the island on which Ketchikan is located) then return to Ketchikan for a day or so.  After that we’ll start heading towards Sitka.

Our normal process for the Spring is to leave Arizona when it starts getting hot (>80° by my wimpy PNW standards), return to the boat, take care of chores and start north.  We are doing something different this year by squeezing in some foreign travel during April between our return to the boat and summer cruise.

Rather than distract from the cruising nature of the MVAlpenglow blog-site, I’ll be doing posts about our April trip on OldTripsRemembered blog-site.  We return on May 2 then putting our efforts towards readying ourselves and the boat towards a May 15 departure.

At the end of the 2018 cruising season we could see that it was Maggie’s last voyage.  The chronic kidney failure that claimed her sister, Annie, two years earlier was taking its toll on Maggie.  She ate specialized prescription cat food and was medicated with an appetite stimulant, anti-nausea and Calcitriol, but her weight loss continued.

In recent weeks the weight loss increased.  She had lost over 20% of her weight since we arrived in early November.  She became not much more than fur, skin and bones.  Her gait was wobbly and her jumps to laps or chairs uncertain.  Rather than have her suffer any further, we decided today would be her final visit to the veterinary office.

Both Maggie and and Annie joined us in 2002, adopted through Purrfect Pals.  Maggie (short Magellan) was always more adventurous than her sister.  She was the kitty who would sneak into any “forbidden” room or area if the opportunity presented.  More than once, we’d search through the house calling her name, getting no response, only to find her tucked quietly in a closed drawer or cabinet than had been opened briefly.

Being an indoor cat, the out of doors, were a particular attraction.  Fortunately, she did not have a strong hunting instinct.  The few times we took her outside, she was content to find a bit of greenery she could munch on.  We grew many containers of cat grass which she thoroughly enjoyed (often to excess based on the number grassy “urps” we’d find afterwards).

She was first introduced to boating in 2006 on our first boat.  Since then, she has traveled with us on virtually every boating trip longer than a few days.  While initially fearful of the loud noise of the “monster” in the engine room, later that sound would signal her to head to the pilot house anticipating the lap that would appear for her at the helm chair.

Even on our drives to/from Arizona, she became a good traveler.  While she had a large enclosed “den” in the van, most of the time she rode shotgun style, curled up on the front-seat center console.  She was comfortable enough with car travel to use the litter box while we drove.  Even the motel rooms became an opportunity to find a new hiding spot.

The 2019 cruise will be a quieter and lonelier voyage without our ship’s cats.

Below is a map of the places we visited on our 2018 cruise. If you click on a mark it will name the location and give some numbers associated with our visit to it.A link to the map that will open in a standalone window is here.This was our eighth cruis…

Several times during our cruise this season we encountered groups of jet skis. While in Port McNeill, we saw this group come in to refuel.  The similarity between these jet ski groups cruising the Inside Passage to motorcycle groups cruising the highways is striking.

From Port McNeill we headed into the Broughton Archipelago for a few days. We visited Turnbull Cove where we took the dinghy to the outlet of Roaringhole Rapid, a reversing rapids connecting to Nepah Lagoon.  We then anchored in Greenway Sound and did the hike to Broughton Lake.

Our last night in the Broughtons was at the Lagoon Cove Marina where we again met up with Billie & Mike Henry on Peachy Keen.  Billie is a great Seahawks fan and they invited us to watch the last preseason game of the year with them (they hooked up their dish antenna and got it synced with a satellite).

The transiting of Johnstone Straits was the usual improvisation of piecing together channels to time rapids and avoid the strong afternoon winds that were blowing in Johnstone.  This year we ran Whirlpool Rapids a couple of hours before slack against the ebb current (it was a Neap tide and not too bad) in order to hit Greene Point Rapids at the slack before the flood. We spent the night at Cameleon Harbour then the next day transited the Upper Rapids in Okisollo Channel on the morning slack, lunched in the Octopus Islands and transited Beazley Pass on the afternoon slack.  The night was spent at Rebecca Spit in Drew Harbour.

We had generally excellent conditions in the Strait of Georgia when we ran from Rebecca Spit all the way to Nanoose Harbour.  The southeast winds were picking up as entered Nanoose Harbour and we tucked behind the spit at Fleet Point for some protection against the chop.  Of course the wind clocked 180 degrees and soon we had 15 knot northwest winds sending chop the length of the harbor.

The next day, Labor Day, the northwest winds were still blowing as we left Nanoose Harbour, worked our way through Nanaimo Harbour and hit Dodd Narrows at the slack before the ebb.  We spent a quiet night with several dozen other boats in Montague Harbour.

The next morning we made an early crossing of Boundary Pass, cleared US Customs by phone (thanks to our Nexus cards), anchored in Prevost Harbor on Stuart Island and hiked out to Turn Point.

After our night in Prevost Harbor, we headed to Deer Harbor where our yacht club has an outstation at the marina.  We were able to get a space at the dock and spent 4 nights.  We took advantage of the fast Internet to research and order materials to be delivered to our Bainbridge Island mail box for the list of projects we’ve identified to accomplished in the Fall. 

As we departed Deer Harbor on Sunday, 9/9, the weather was clearly changing and we had heavy rain showers while at anchor in Parks Bay on Shaw Island.  We spent the following night in Echo Bay on Sucia where I walked the trails for a couple of hours. 

On Tuesday we headed to Anacortes where we spent a couple of nights.  While there we added fuel, had our furnace serviced and met our friends, Natala and Don Goodman, for dinner.

An early start on Thursday, 9/13, allowed us to get back to our yacht club’s outstation in Eagle Harbor in the late afternoon, completing our summer 2018 cruise.

Miles traveled this leg – 428.2; engine hours – 69.6
Total miles traveled – 3169.5; engine hours – 528.6

This will be a short post as I’ve been lazy.  I’ll probably amend this once I get back to the homeport in Eagle Harbor on Bainbridge Island

We arrived yesterday afternoon in Port McNeill after rounding Cape Caution from our anchorage in Frypan Bay on Penrose Island.  While not super rough, we put our stabilizers (i.e., the “fish”) in the water to attenuate the rolling from the waves for the first time in 2 years.  Maggie-cat, bless her heart, did not get sea sick the entire time.

The trip south from Ketchikan was fine.  We stopped in Prince Rupert for a night and at Shearwater for a night.  Otherwise, we had many fine anchorages with generally good weather. 

As we did start to see the effects of the fires in the BC interior.  First it was orange moons and suns, later it was smoke and smoke mixed with thick fog.

Some fish were caught along the way, although not as many as last year.  We did some prawning and added them to the freezer.

We visited a few new (to us, anyway) anchorages, which we can add to options for stops in future years.

Miles traveled this leg – 740.2; engine hours – 141.4 (lots of trolling)
Total miles traveled – 2741.3; engine hours – 459.0

After filling our water tanks and disposing of our trash/recyclables in Bartlett Cove we head east in Icy Strait than south down to Chatham Strait to Pavlof Harbor.  There is a perfect “bear beach” in the anchorage which didn’t disappoint, with two youngster bears (perhaps only recently sent packing by their mother) in the evening and then a sow with two cubs the next morning.

We continued south in Chatham Strait and as we approached Kasnyku Bay we saw lots of whale activity.  Since we had seen so little activity up to this point, we stopped the engine for a short time and drifted while listening to the whale exhalations.  Since whales are mostly below the water (barring the very exciting breaches), often times it is the auditory “viewing” of whales that is most enjoyable.  The sound of exhalations easily carry a mile across the open water on a calm day.  Just outside of Takatz Bay, our anchorage for the night, Marcia put a hook down and we trolled for salmon for an hour before going in.  Lots of salmon jumping but not much biting. 

The next morning, July 18, we continued down to Warm Springs Bay, and fished for halibut outside the entrance.  Marcia lost some bait to a wily fish but nothing to the bait with the hook in it.  We crossed to the east side of Chatham Strait to try fishing at Kingsmill Point but the wind had kicked up at this point and we elected to go in for the night.  The anchorage was a new one to us in Security Bay on Kuiu Island.

Bright and early the next morning, we were out at Kingsmill trolling for salmon on the morning bite.  It was pretty clear that the coho/silver salmon had not started their run yet as a couple of hours of trolling yielded only a feisty pink salmon.  We called it quits and headed over to Gut Bay for the night.

The next morning the plan was to continue the fishing activities but when we popped out into Chatham we changed our plans.  An offshore ridge was forming giving SE Alaska most sunny weather but as the ridge was building, the north winds were starting to build.  Chatham Strait, which runs for 120 miles in a N-S direction (200 miles if you include Lynn Canal with which it connects), offers a perfect channel for the wind to run.  We beat our way north to Red Bluff Bay. Turned out others had the same idea and we ended up in the outer bay rather than at the head.

The next morning, July 21, we beat our way across Chatham Strait to Frederick Sound where the winds were light and the seas calm and worked our way up towards Pybus Bay.  We spent 3 nights in the area during which Marcia caught two nice size halibuts.  We also watched some glorious sunsets and moon rises.  Both the sun and moon had an orange cast but we heard nothing about what might have contributed to it.

Before we headed to Petersburg, We checked out a couple of anchorages we had not been to.  The first was Hobart Bay and the second was Cleveland Passage.  On Thursday, July 26, we docked in Petersburg at high slack when the currents are running less strong pass the docks.

After two nights in Petersburg, we caught the afternoon high tide through Wrangell Narrows and spent the night in St John Harbor on Zarembo Island, due south of the entrance to Wrangell Narrows. From here we headed first to Thom’s Place and then to Santa Anna Inlet, doing some prawning along the way.

All during the previous week or so, we were having stunningly clear skies, warm temperatures and calm winds.  Most evenings were spent watching the sun go down from the flybridge and, this being Alaska, killing horse flies.  But by this time, the forecasts were hinting of changes.  On July 31, we made for Meyers Chuck (full size version of photo below), at the junction of Ernest Sound and Clarence Strait.

With an early start to catch the southbound ebb tide we arrived in Ketchikan on August 1 and will stay here a few days while some rain and high winds pass through.

Miles traveled this leg – 511.2; engine hours – 88.8
Total miles traveled – 2001.1; engine hours – 317.6

We have visited Glacier Bay National Park every time we’ve come to Alaska.  This was our 8th time (not counting the 1-day visit on a cruise ship in 2006) visiting the park and we still enjoy it.  It is a wonderful combination of scenery, wildlife, natural history and solitude that makes every trip worthwhile.

Different from past years was that we chose not to get an advanced notice permit (obtainable 60 days in advance) but rather a short notice permit (48 hours in advance).  That worked well this year on account of all of the disruptions we had to our typical cruise schedule (i.e., late departure and furnace repair).  By being prompt with our application we were able to get the dates July 10-16 for our visit.

We left Juneau on Sunday, July 8 and headed to Excursion Inlet on the north side of Icy Strait. The forecast we for increasing westerly winds and we thought Excursion Inlet better protected than Flynn Cove our usual pre-Glacier Bay anchorage.  When we checked the forecast on the morning of July 9, the forecast for the next day had deteriorated further so we phoned the Park Service and were able to get a 1-day permit to enter the park on July 9. This allowed us to anchor in Bartlett Cove (the park headquarters) rather than getting beat up in Icy Strait while entering the park on July 10.

We ended up spending two nights in Bartlett Cove but took advantage of the time to visit the Huna Tribal House and do the short forest walk around the pond.  The tribal house is just gorgeous inside and we saw a moose with her calf while on the walk.

At our N Sandy Cove anchorage we had quite a bear show.  It started with a black bear working the shoreline, followed up with a brown bear sow with two cubs and concluded with a confrontation between the sow and a male brown bear pursuing her.  All of this transpired a few hundred yards away. The sow chased off the male once but as the sun set, the male resumed his dogged pursuit and the drama was not resolved.

The day we went up to the head of Tarr Inlet and glacial ice, we had calm conditions and very little floating ice to deal with.  That gave us the opportunity to anchor in the small bight on the west shore of Tarr Inlet a mile or so south of the Margerie Glacier.  We were rewarded with a view of the glacial face overnight (along with periodic rumbles and crashes) and bits of ice floating by.  Fortunately, nothing large floated by to hang up on our anchor chain.

At South Marble Island we had the usual assortment of birds and sea lions. Unlike last year, we saw no goats on the cliffs of Gloomy Knob. Also not present in the numbers we’ve seen in the past were humpback whales.  Research indicates that the number of whales in Glacier Bay/Icy Strait have dropped by over 40% from their peak in 2011.  This is distressing news as humpback whales are such a key element to the Alaska experience.

Miles traveled this leg – 230.3; Engine hours – 37.1
Total miles traveled – 1489.9; Engine hours – 228.8

Job number 1 upon docking in Juneau on Monday, July 2, was removing the failed Kabola dashboard and shipping off to Marine-Tec in Anacortes. While Marcia went to the post office to check on shipping options, I removed the unit. With Wednesday being the July 4th holiday, we quickly concluded that getting it to Marine-Tec before Thursday would be impossible or cost prohibitive. We took the route we’ve taken before and using USPS Priority Mail. Because we can have USPS packages sent to general delivery, it is often the only way when you’re a transient boater.

With the package on the way, we could turn to taking advantage of that rare Alaska feature, sunshine. The forecast was for hot (high 70’s) weather for Tuesday through Thursday. We also had the happy discovery that the road construction on the Glacier Highway from Auke Lake to Statter Harbor (where we are) was now complete and it had wide sidewalks and shoulders that were bike friendly. The new pathways now connects Auke Bay with the existing bike paths and routes that go all the way into downtown Juneau. It was obviously time to break out the folding bikes.

Twice we rode the 8 miles (16 miles RT) from the harbor to the Mendenhall Glacier visitor center 16 miles. In doing so, we rode past the Safeway which is the closest grocery store at 2-1/2 miles. Another 2 miles further along the bike route is the Fred Meyers. We now can do shopping for light-weight items, such as produce, meats or bread without renting a car or taking a bus.

Given the warm weather, we decided that the appropriate lunch after a bike ride was a milk shake from Hot Bites, a fast food restaurant in the parking lot at the harbor.

The Statter Harbor at Auke Bay is extraordinarily busy this time of year. First, the transient mooring area is totally open and mooring locations are not assigned by the harbor. You must go in and look around to find a spot to tie up. Second, it is heavily used by commercial fisherman (seiners, gill netters and trollers) while they wait for the fishing openings announced by the Alaska Fish & Game. Third, many of the excursion boats for the cruise ship passengers originate from here, lots of bus traffic and camera-toting tourists on the docks and in the parking lot. Fourth, many mega-yachts (>100 feet) stage out of here while they pickup and drop off their guests and reprovision. We’ve got six on the outer dock right now. Lastly, when the weather is nice, the view up to the mountains is quite spectacular.

All in all, if you have to wait for parts, Juneau turned out to be a pretty pleasant place to do so.

This occurred as we were traveling from Funter Bay to Auke Bay (Juneau).