Wednesday, May 30, 2012
Wrangell
We're in Wrangell, where once again, I'm at the laundromat--laundromats are usually warm and have power outlets--a good place to email and blog. Also, one of our group had all of her GOOD laundry stolen down in BC, so now we watch our belongings like hawks!
When we left Ketchikan, we spent one night in a beautiful area called Dora Bay. We visited and potlucked with two residents, Darlene and Floyd, who've built a small home there. Darlene is the "net control" for the ham group in Alaska and she seems to very much enjoy meeting her hams in person--even we non-hams were welcome, as she's been tracking us too. On the way in and out we watched humpback whales feeding and engaging in some very active tail slapping. I was happy they were about a half mile off! Floyd says that sometimes he and Darlene can hear the whales breathing at night off the small reef where their cabin is located.
Next we visited the community of Meyers Chuck; about 20 cabins, but only around 5 residents in the winter. Our friends, Rich and MJ, came very close to purchasing property there a few years ago. They were able to take us on trails that visiting boaters would not normally get to. The residents were repairing the dock with huge red cedar logs that had been washed up on the beach and a portable saw mill. They were also worrying about a grizzly that had been coming around recently. Speaking of bears, we've still had very few sightings. I'm eager to see some bears up close (from the boat, of course, while they do their thing on a nearby beach). Speaking of logs, two of us have wood stoves on the boats and we go "logging" on the beaches. We are burning lovely, dry, aromatic yellow and red cedar, plus hemlock and spruce--no fir up here.
Before arriving in Wrangell, we stayed in a cove with great crabbing. Our friend, Jerry, got 27 crabs--nearly all legal size--in ONE pull! The limit here is three, so most recovered their freedom in short order.
We're planning a swim (community pool) and a walk to see some petroglyphs today. Weather permitting, we're off to Petersburg tomorrow. After that I think we'll slowly work our way to Sitka. We need to make some itinery decisions soon, because we need to turn south early in July.
We are hoping for some better weather; we've had only a few days of sun in the last two weeks. On the plus side, even when rainy, there are USUALLY some sun breaks and the temperature ranges from the low 40's to high 50's. Kurt and I are still wearing longjohns whenever we're out on the water.
I'm sorry for the dearth of photos, but the internet connections are rarely robust enough to handle the upload. Kurt, of course, is taking some very good, high resolution pictures which we'll share when we return. I'll try some when I've posted this.
Monday, May 21, 2012
Alaska (and the internet) at last!
We were blessed with unseasonably good weather in our first five weeks of travel (about 500 miles); we experienced the opposite during the last two weeks (about 200 miles). A series of gales meant holing up for days at a time in a variety of anchorages. All had something to offer: crab, stunning scenery, or simply protection from the wind, but we would normally have stayed only one, perhaps two (crab!) nights in each. We were definitely feeling frustrated in the last few days before we finally crossed Dixon Entrance and entered Alaska.
We are currently staying for a few days in Ketchikan. The north end of town (where we are moored) is laid back and very boat oriented. There are eagles and ravens gathered in the parking lot of the local Safeway--as common as pigeons and sparrows back home. MJ and I walked to the public swimming pool this morning for the senior swim. Lots of local gossip, a lap pool, a warm pool and gloriously long, hot showers for a grand total of $1.50. Later, Kurt and I rode the bus to "downtown," where the cruise ships come in and the shops cater to that crowd. My goodness, what a contrast--it felt like San Francisco, with thousands of people pointing, taking photographs, jay walking, and chattering in a wide variety of languages. A gallery owner told us that the day's total number from the ships was 8000 (there were five in port).
Here's how we got to Ketchikan from our last stop in Shearwater. We traveled ahead of another gale through Reid passage (rock and log studded) to Rescue Bay. Once there, the group decided to press on to another storm hole called Bottleneck. Just as we arrived at the entrance and were taking our sails down, we got hit with a 40-45 knot squall with hail. Definitely my least favorite moment on the trip. After a day of recovery, we traveled up Finlayson and Tolmie Channels, then Graham, Fraser and McKay Reaches. The scenery was stupendous: snow-topped mountains in the 1000 to 3500 foot range--often a shear drop to the channel, sometimes carved and softened by river valleys. Most are studded with lakes and there were huge waterfalls, often yellow-hued from the cedar. Near Butedale, on Princess Royal Island, we were privileged to see a “spirit bear”-- a rare,white variety of black bear--that had come out onto the beach.
We stayed two nights at Hartley Bay, a small village of the GitGaat nation. Here one of our four boats (Sara & Charlie on Alli Rose) had to turn south due to complications with an elderly parent.
For the remaining three boats, the next leg was Grenville channel-- long, narrow, beautiful and WINDY. Jeannie was ahead of us by a couple of days, so Millie and Morningstar traveled this strech together. There are (luckily) several places to duck out-- we stayed in two--Klewnuggit and Kumaleon. Each of those six mornings we arose shortly before 4:00 am (Kurt at about 3:15 to start the furnace), drank coffee and listened to (usually two or three times because of difficulty with radio reception) the marine weather forecast, then called one another on the radio and discussed whether to venture out. One of those mornings we hauled anchor (a good hour of work), nosed out about two miles, found ourselves in bitter cold, driving rain, and an awful chop and turned back to our quiet and later, sunny (!) cove for another day. It is mind boggling how weather conditions can vary within very short distances up here.
We finally started the journey to Dixon Entrance (our next big, scary body of water) early on a Friday morning with a good weather forecast, but after we set out, Morningstar suffered an engine problem. We towed her (very slowly) for an hour or so until her resourceful owner managed to rig up a temporary fix. At that point, we headed to Prince Rupert, B.C.--a largish town with good marine facilities--rather than our original destination, Dundas Island.
The fix was good, so on Saturday, we left Prince Rupert at five a.m. and headed North. Dixon Entrance treated us pretty gently, so Kurt and I decided to press on to Ketchikan--a distance of 85 miles--about 13 hours of travel for us. We just wanted to get somewhere, tie up and ignore the weather forecast for a few days...as you can imagine, we went to bed long before sunset that evening
Tomorrow we three couples are renting a minivan and getting out to some hikes in the surrounding area. Our plan is to move on Wednesday if the weather permits.
We were blessed with unseasonably good weather in our first five weeks of travel (about 500 miles); we experienced the opposite during the last two weeks (about 200 miles). A series of gales meant holing up for days at a time in a variety of anchorages. All had something to offer: crab, stunning scenery, or simply protection from the wind, but we would normally have stayed only one, perhaps two (crab!) nights in each. We were definitely feeling frustrated in the last few days before we finally crossed Dixon Entrance and entered Alaska.
We are currently staying for a few days in Ketchikan. The north end of town (where we are moored) is laid back and very boat oriented. There are eagles and ravens gathered in the parking lot of the local Safeway--as common as pigeons and sparrows back home. MJ and I walked to the public swimming pool this morning for the senior swim. Lots of local gossip, a lap pool, a warm pool and gloriously long, hot showers for a grand total of $1.50. Later, Kurt and I rode the bus to "downtown," where the cruise ships come in and the shops cater to that crowd. My goodness, what a contrast--it felt like San Francisco, with thousands of people pointing, taking photographs, jay walking, and chattering in a wide variety of languages. A gallery owner told us that the day's total number from the ships was 8000 (there were five in port).
Here's how we got to Ketchikan from our last stop in Shearwater. We traveled ahead of another gale through Reid passage (rock and log studded) to Rescue Bay. Once there, the group decided to press on to another storm hole called Bottleneck. Just as we arrived at the entrance and were taking our sails down, we got hit with a 40-45 knot squall with hail. Definitely my least favorite moment on the trip. After a day of recovery, we traveled up Finlayson and Tolmie Channels, then Graham, Fraser and McKay Reaches. The scenery was stupendous: snow-topped mountains in the 1000 to 3500 foot range--often a shear drop to the channel, sometimes carved and softened by river valleys. Most are studded with lakes and there were huge waterfalls, often yellow-hued from the cedar. Near Butedale, on Princess Royal Island, we were privileged to see a “spirit bear”-- a rare,white variety of black bear--that had come out onto the beach.
We stayed two nights at Hartley Bay, a small village of the GitGaat nation. Here one of our four boats (Sara & Charlie on Alli Rose) had to turn south due to complications with an elderly parent.
For the remaining three boats, the next leg was Grenville channel-- long, narrow, beautiful and WINDY. Jeannie was ahead of us by a couple of days, so Millie and Morningstar traveled this strech together. There are (luckily) several places to duck out-- we stayed in two--Klewnuggit and Kumaleon. Each of those six mornings we arose shortly before 4:00 am (Kurt at about 3:15 to start the furnace), drank coffee and listened to (usually two or three times because of difficulty with radio reception) the marine weather forecast, then called one another on the radio and discussed whether to venture out. One of those mornings we hauled anchor (a good hour of work), nosed out about two miles, found ourselves in bitter cold, driving rain, and an awful chop and turned back to our quiet and later, sunny (!) cove for another day. It is mind boggling how weather conditions can vary within very short distances up here.
We finally started the journey to Dixon Entrance (our next big, scary body of water) early on a Friday morning with a good weather forecast, but after we set out, Morningstar suffered an engine problem. We towed her (very slowly) for an hour or so until her resourceful owner managed to rig up a temporary fix. At that point, we headed to Prince Rupert, B.C.--a largish town with good marine facilities--rather than our original destination, Dundas Island.
The fix was good, so on Saturday, we left Prince Rupert at five a.m. and headed North. Dixon Entrance treated us pretty gently, so Kurt and I decided to press on to Ketchikan--a distance of 85 miles--about 13 hours of travel for us. We just wanted to get somewhere, tie up and ignore the weather forecast for a few days...as you can imagine, we went to bed long before sunset that evening
Tomorrow we three couples are renting a minivan and getting out to some hikes in the surrounding area. Our plan is to move on Wednesday if the weather permits.
Saturday, May 5, 2012
Here's a try at some photographs:
Typical scenery in the Broughtons; mountains suddenly appear as you round a corner.
Kurt, crabbing from the dinghy. Our friends with outboard engines take pity and tow him out to the deeper water for prawns!
 |
| The view from one of our more ambitious hikes--looking down on Shoal Bay. |
Kurt, crabbing from the dinghy. Our friends with outboard engines take pity and tow him out to the deeper water for prawns!
Hello all. Internet access has been sparse and we've had many adventures since my last posting. I'll try to be brief and am hopeful I can upload a photo or two.
We are currently in Bella Bella/Shearwater getting fuel, water, ice and groceries and catching up on laundry. We've noticed that days at a dock are exhausting, because we have 5 or 6 hours of chores that require multiple trips up and down the docks and we can't necessarily time things for high tide! So lots of steep climbs with heavy loads. Water is particularly problematic--we don't carry much and so far nearly every chance to fill the tanks requires toting 5 gallon jugs from some distant place. Today we've borrowed a wheel barrow from the grocery store and the bar is graciously allowing us to fill from their filtered water supply as there is no potable water at the marina proper. We collected rainwater during some torrential downpours last week--I'm sure that rainwater hair wash I had would have cost a fortune at a spa!
Our most exciting day was rounding Cape Caution--an endeavor requiring serious planning and patience as one waits for the right tides, currents, wind predictions and sea conditions at a variety of weather reporting stations. We experienced some uncomfortable swells, but all four boats did fine. We stayed that day and the next at Pruth Bay, where we had a fabulous hike out to the ocean side of the island (don't have my charts up here in the laundry, so I can't remember the name). Most of us are, like me, very interested in plants and animals, so we've had great fun consulting our various reference books and computer apps to identify species we've not seen before, like the beautiful red-throated loon and the black-bellied plover (I think--the book is at the boat!). The eagles are becoming more plentiful and larger--we seen some truly huge ones. Only one bear sighting so far--a black, too far away from our anchorage for really good viewing.
We've continued to eat well--although with less fresh fruits and vegetables. I was pretty excited to find a decent selection in the store here. So far we've consumed 5 crab and 58 prawn (yes, we are counting). One of our group caught a few bottom fish, but so far we've not done much fishing. Rainy days mean baking and I'm pretty sure I've gained some weight from the peach crisp, peanut butter, chocolate chip, and chocolate fudge cookies, banana cake and apple cake--just to name a few of the items shared among the boats.
There's no doubt this experience will sharpen my appreciation for the "comforts of home," but any discomforts are well worth the privilege of seeing this beautiful area of British Columbia. We'll be here, on what is called the "Central Coast", for another week or two until we cross the border and enter SE Alaska.
I am going to post this text and then try a second post with some photos.
We are currently in Bella Bella/Shearwater getting fuel, water, ice and groceries and catching up on laundry. We've noticed that days at a dock are exhausting, because we have 5 or 6 hours of chores that require multiple trips up and down the docks and we can't necessarily time things for high tide! So lots of steep climbs with heavy loads. Water is particularly problematic--we don't carry much and so far nearly every chance to fill the tanks requires toting 5 gallon jugs from some distant place. Today we've borrowed a wheel barrow from the grocery store and the bar is graciously allowing us to fill from their filtered water supply as there is no potable water at the marina proper. We collected rainwater during some torrential downpours last week--I'm sure that rainwater hair wash I had would have cost a fortune at a spa!
Our most exciting day was rounding Cape Caution--an endeavor requiring serious planning and patience as one waits for the right tides, currents, wind predictions and sea conditions at a variety of weather reporting stations. We experienced some uncomfortable swells, but all four boats did fine. We stayed that day and the next at Pruth Bay, where we had a fabulous hike out to the ocean side of the island (don't have my charts up here in the laundry, so I can't remember the name). Most of us are, like me, very interested in plants and animals, so we've had great fun consulting our various reference books and computer apps to identify species we've not seen before, like the beautiful red-throated loon and the black-bellied plover (I think--the book is at the boat!). The eagles are becoming more plentiful and larger--we seen some truly huge ones. Only one bear sighting so far--a black, too far away from our anchorage for really good viewing.
We've continued to eat well--although with less fresh fruits and vegetables. I was pretty excited to find a decent selection in the store here. So far we've consumed 5 crab and 58 prawn (yes, we are counting). One of our group caught a few bottom fish, but so far we've not done much fishing. Rainy days mean baking and I'm pretty sure I've gained some weight from the peach crisp, peanut butter, chocolate chip, and chocolate fudge cookies, banana cake and apple cake--just to name a few of the items shared among the boats.
There's no doubt this experience will sharpen my appreciation for the "comforts of home," but any discomforts are well worth the privilege of seeing this beautiful area of British Columbia. We'll be here, on what is called the "Central Coast", for another week or two until we cross the border and enter SE Alaska.
I am going to post this text and then try a second post with some photos.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)