Being Flexible

As our trip down the west coast of Prince of Wales Island came to an end, our plan was to stop in Nichols Bay for the night and then continue on east and south into Canada.  The border between Alaska and Canada is a large body of water called Dixon Entrance. Being open to the Gulf of Alaska it has the potential for very nasty weather.  We were planning ahead for our crossing, listening to the weather forecasts and looking over the various routes we could take to get us to Prince Rupert in Canada where we would clear Customs.  What we had overlooked is that we would need to be out in Dixon Entrance for several hours to get to Nichols Bay. When the time finally came, it was sunny and clear there was a pretty good swell running in from the southwest that made for a lumpy, rolly ride.  Madeline got seasick, Nicole wasn't looking too good either, and the only thing that saved me was that I had my hands full keeping the boat pointed in the right direction.  When we finally got in to the harbor and out of the swell, we agreed that it might be a good idea to re-assess our plans of two more days of travel in Dixon Entrance.  Things started falling in place for us as soon as we decided to be more flexible with our plans.  Talking to our friends Tor and Jess when we were still in Craig we learned that Tor would be out on a research ship for the month of August, and that Jess was planning on traveling with their twin boys to see her father, in nearby Ketchikan.  The timing of her trip would work perfectly for us to meet up if we detoured now and made the side trip to Ketchikan.  Other friends from Seattle, Steve and Elsie on the sailboat Osprey came in to Nichols Bay the day after we arrived there, and we shared dinner and compared plans for the upcoming days.  They gave us a good recommendation for an anchorage between Nichols Bay and Ketchikan, namely Gardener Bay, and it turned out to be a beautiful spot.  Our past experiences in Clarence Strait were not good, having hit bad weather each time we traversed it's northern portion, but when we left Gardener Bay it was sunny and calm and we decided it was now or never and had a relaxing trip across.  The final day to get in to Ketchikan started out in true pea soup fog, so Nicole got to practice her radar skills and I got to stare into nothingness for several hours until the fog finally lifted just as we got near town.  We quickly went through our in-town duties: showers, laundry, groceries, phone calls, McDonalds.  That left us a day to get together with Jess and the boys and visit, hitting the local thrift store for toys and the library (a gorgeous new library) for play time in the kids room.  The trip to Ketchikan was a couple days out of our way, but we made up for it with the savings on fuel and groceries before we entered Canada, and we got the bonus of spending time with Lars, Odin and Jess.  Sometimes it really pays to be flexible with plans.

Pooping

From the title you would hope this is a post about Madeline, but no such luck.  On occasion our lives get a bit too exciting, and Nicole and I refer to these times as "pooping myself" moments.  It has thankfully never gotten to the point of a literal expression, but let's face it, some things can just about scare the crap out of you.
I mentioned in an earlier post that we are both still a bit gun-shy about running into another rock, but there is another fear that surfaces on occasion (so to speak), and that is running into a whale.
There are a lot of whales in Alaska, and there are very few days we are traveling on the boat when we don't spot at least one whale.  Most of the time we see the spout, or blow, off in the distance, or a glimpse of a tail.  Sometimes they are closer and we get a better look, and on occasion we have to change course to avoid getting too close.
In 2009 we were leaving Point Baker through the narrow and rocky entrance channel when Nicole spotted a whale sleeping ahead of us, not off in the distance but mere feet in front of the boat.  We swerved, missed the whale and the rocks in the channel, but it was way too close.  In 2011 we were heading through Peril Strait on our way to Sitka and spotted a whale breaching off in the distance.  While trying to get a glimpse of it through the binoculars I happen to look up in time to see the back of another sleeping whale right in front of the boat.  Turned out to be a mother and calf, and again we were way too close before we veered off around them.

This year we have yet to see a sleeping whale, but that doesn't mean all our encounters have been boring.  Heading to the southern tip of Prince of Wales Island, we decided to cut through the Barrier Islands via Eureka Channel.  The route would save us some time and keep us out of the ocean swell for a bit longer, but it involves some time in a narrow, rocky channel.  I was down below just finishing my lunch when Nicole commented that there was a whale in front of us that looked to be on an intersecting path.  She was about to change course when the whale dove, and thinking it would be down for a while she continued on.  I was just coming up the companionway stairs when she used several choice swear words and then froze, at which time I jumped up the stairs and looked forward just in time to see the splash from the breaching whale.  I reached back to shift the boat out of gear, but it really didn't matter by that point.  A minute later the whale surfaced again behind the boat, probably just to make sure we got the point, and then went on it's way.  In hindsight, Nicole says it looked like a small whale, probably not much bigger than our forty foot long, fifteen ton boat.

Our new rule is that if the splash from a breaching whale gets the bow of the boat wet it means the whale is too close, way too close.

Man Overboard

I guess the title isn't exactly correct, but "Meow Overboard" doesn't have the same ring to it.  Anyway, the cat finally went in the water.  Turns out she swims just fine.

We were anchored in Mabel Bay on the southwest side of Prince of Wales Island, and Nicole and I were down below taking pictures of Madeline when we heard a splash and thrashing in the water.  We both knew instantly what it was, and I quickly handed Madeline to Nicole and raced out on deck to grab the landing net.  By the time I got the net ready the cat was swimming around the bow and headed down the other side of the boat.  I scooped her up and flipped her on deck, but before I could yell to Nicole to close the hatch Hope was down below and spraying saltwater everywhere.  The whole episode lasted six minutes, with clean-up, of both the cat and the boat, taking considerably longer than that.

Sarheen Cove

We spent two days anchored in Sarheen Cove on the west coast of Prince of Wales Island.  It isn't an overly picturesque place, it isn't very well protected from the weather, but it is on the way if you are heading to the town of Craig.  The main reason we stayed for two days is because there is good shrimping out in front of the cove, and we did well enough to satisfy my cravings for prawn, if only for a little while.  Another reason for us to stay, one we didn't know about until after the fact, was several unusual wildlife experiences that occurred here.
The first thing that happened is that we had a wolf show up on shore just after dark the first night.  We have spotted wolves a couple times in Alaska, but it is pretty rare, and even though we didn't see this one, there is nothing quite like listening to a wolf howl in the darkness.

The victim

The second event is that we witnessed a bald eagle attacking a great blue heron.  I'm not sure how often this happens, but we have never seen it before, and I've never heard of it happening, so I'm guessing it's not very common.  We happened to be on deck and heard the heron squawking, and turned in time to see it drop out of the air into the water just as the eagle flew by.  That was really the first surprise, because I didn't know herons could swim.  I've seen them wading around in the water enough times, but never actually swimming in deep water.

The antagonist

After a few minutes the eagle flew off to a tree on the shore.  The heron waited several more minutes and then took off flying in the other direction.  Sure enough the eagle was waiting, and went streaking across the anchorage to dive at the heron again.  This happened two more times, each time the eagle would go back to shore, the heron would take off flying, and the eagle would give chase until the heron ditched in the water again.  Finally the heron took off in the other direction across the channel and the eagle gave up.
Neither Nicole nor I could figure out what may have started the whole feud.  It seemed like the eagle could have picked the heron out of the water easily enough if it wanted to, they do it to salmon all the time, but it would always give up as soon as the heron landed.  What ever the case, it was an unusual and interesting spectacle to watch.

El Capitan Passage

When Nicole and I were still in the planning stages of this trip, we talked a little bit about where we would go, but not a lot.  We were really leaving it up to how well Madeline did aboard before we got locked into too many ideas.  One of the places we did mention was the west coast of Prince of Wales Island, or POW to the locals.  We had never been to the town of Craig, and the trip there involved a route called El Capitan Passage that sounded interesting.  Maybe interesting isn't the right word, more like exciting, possibly not in a good way, but not yet exactly terrifying.  The passage is choked with rocks and small islands, with a section in the middle that shows Alaskan determination by dredging a long narrow channel through a drying flat to connect either end.  The entrance to the upper end is somewhat exposed to the Gulf of Alaska, as is a section of the lower end before you get to the town of Craig, so weather conditions can play a part as well.
We have been through Wrangell Narrows several times, through Rocky Pass, taken short cuts not talked about in the guides, and poked our noses into quite a few anchorages that many boaters wouldn't risk.  That was all before putting the boat on the rocks in 2011.

Seems both Nicole and I are a bit gun-shy now, and the description and charts of El Capitan Passage was not sitting well with me.
After leaving Point Baker and Port Protection we had an uneventful trip around the corner of POW, a bit of wind and swell but nothing too bad, and then we were tucked into the narrow channels and out of the weather.  Our planned stop at Marble Creek Cove turned out to be a good example of me not reading the guide books we came around the corner and into sight of the anchorage, the huge marble mine was all we could see.  Heavy machinery, a huge looming pier with barge tied alongside, buildings and roads and lots of stuff that didn't add much to our wilderness experience.  Luckily just past the mine and around the next corner is Calder Bay, out of sight and out of mind.  The low clouds that had been with us all day continued and all we could see was the bottom hundred feet of the hills around us.  The next day started out foggy, and we decided to just stay put.  The fog lifted but the low clouds remained, and we unsuccessfully tried our hand at crabbing.  The past few days of travel included many sightings of sea otters, which tend to eat all the crab in an area, so we were not very surprised to get skunked.  The next day dawned foggy as well, but the fog lifted and the sun started burning through the clouds, so by the time we had the anchor up and were on our way we finally got a view of the high peaks and beautiful surroundings.
The route itself turned out to be no big deal.  The channels were narrow and shallow, but they were well marked with no hidden dangers and we made it through without an issue.  Within El Capitan Passage there is a hidden gem, El Capitan Cave.  Discovered in the mid 1990's, this cave system is possibly the deepest cave in the U.S. at around 600 ft.  More than 2 miles of tunnels have been mapped already and exploration is on-going.  Unfotunately they don't allow children in the cave so we had to pass by without stopping.  Maybe next time.

Backwoods Entrepreneurs

There are small communities scattered all over Southeast Alaska.  Sitka, where we have lived for the past several years, would be considered small to many folks, with a population of less than ten thousand.  Wrangell is even smaller with about 2500 people.  Contrast this with places like Point Baker with about 20 people, or Meyers Chuck with a year-round population of 6, and Sitka looks huge by comparison.  The somewhat odd thing about these tiny communities is that they each have a post office.  If anyone wondered why the postal service can't seem to operate within budget, think of these places.  A 50 pound bag of dog food ordered from Amazon.com probably costs Amazon $20 in shipping.  From their warehouse it is put in a truck, shipped to Seattle, put on an Alaska Airlines plane, flown to Alaska, then transferred to a float plane and flown out to the small community, all paid for by the postal service.  Float planes charge the post office by the pound, and float plane is the only mail service most of the communities receive.  It is amazing to me that postal service can be offered in these places, but the community would not exist without it.  When we visited Point Baker on our way from Wrangell to Craig, I had a talk with one of the locals there and he was telling me about the 20 propane tanks he had just received from Amazon.  They were clearance priced and eligible for free shipping, so he bought all they had in stock.  He didn't need any, but the best price he had seen for these at the chain stores in Juneau was about $50 each, and he got them delivered to the middle of no where for $18 a piece, so he couldn't pass up the deal.   It was just a couple days after they had arrived and he had already sold several to his neighbors.  Entrepreneurship is alive and well in the backwoods of Alaska.

Cloudy, Complete with Silver Lining

Sometimes it's tough to leave the dock.  We had planned to stay in Wrangell a couple days around the 4th of July and then move on.  Then we needed another day for phone calls and internet stuff.  Then we decided to leave but found out the fuel dock wasn't open, so we ended up waiting another day.  When we finally left, the weather turned crappy.  So far this trip we have been experiencing incredible weather.  I have got a sunburn several times, and we are rarely using the heater in the boat, even at night.  Our trip out of Wrangell was the exception, with winds slowly building and heavy rain.  We decided to push on anyway, but didn't get too far before we heard a call on the marine radio from a boat that had lost power and was drifting with the wind.  His radio was weak and he couldn't communicate with the Coast Guard, but we could hear him fine.  When he finally gave his position I found out why, he had passed us just a short time before and was within sight behind our boat.  I turned around, got a tow line between the boats, and informed the Coast Guard that we would tow him to the nearest harbor.  Not only was this a good deed, but also gave us the excuse to stay in the harbor for the night and wait for better weather.  By the time we got him towed into protected water, a friend of his from town came by and took over so we were free to anchor and relax, warm and out of the rain.  It's always nice when unexpected events turn out to have a silver lining.