Day 47 - McMcKing Inlet to Shearwater

The weather is changing so we opt to go as far south as we can. Although the sea is a bit rolly, it's a head sea (we are going into it) and we make good time to the bottom of Aristabel Island. To cut about 20 miles off of the trip and get out of the waves, we take a route not recommended for many. Our trusty books notes that Higgins Pass has a drying channel at at 5' tide. So in order for our boat to get through, the pass must have a tide level of at least 9-10 feet. We draw 3.5 feet and in order for all of our "under the water" parts to clear the bottom we need this 3.5 feet to pass through without incident. Since math is my weak subject, it helps to write it out - bottom dry at 5' tide, plus 3.5 feet = 8.5 feet of tide to squeak through. to be on the safe side, we like to have a few extra feet. We arrive at the drying point at 11.5 feet of tide and sigh a huge sigh of relief when we go through. This is surely a "pucker" factor of 8. With Haley on the bridge watching the depth sounder and tracing the route from the paper chart in the book and Betty on the bow rock spotting and Captain Mike steering on the helm, we all smile a little bit bigger when we make it through! its always an adventure when you are with Mike. Thank you for good instructions in your book Mr. and Mrs. Douglas!

It's raining cats and dogs and we make it into Seaforth channel to calm seas and Shearwater. In the meantime, on the radio we hear the other three boats who have popped out from the inside passage without incidence and we all get help on moorage from Cap't Bob who helps to make the arrangements for us all to get securely tied to the dock. A great birthday dinner in the restaurant to celebrate Pat's Birthday.

Day 46 - Anger Island to McMcKing Inlet

Funky Rock formations here

Mike Beachcombing

A great variety of birds in this inlet

Morning Mist view from our anchorage

Miles of sandy beaches here

Another peaceful anchorage (until nighttime!)

We cruise for about three hours and once the fog lifts, we end up cruising into another glorious sunny day. We opt to take the outside route down the coast and the rest of the group went inland using the inside passage. We find out a few days later that they never did see the sun again. Funny how 30 or 40 miles makes such a difference There are miles and miles of white sandy beaches to explore.Mcmcking Inlet has all sorts of tidal bores and interesting birds to see. We head off exploring in the dinghy and to do some beachcombing. We see that there is a kayak camp around the corner from where we are anchored, this does not bode well for beachcombing as no doubt the kayaker’s have found all the glass balls and such. We see human footprints on most of the beaches we go to and end up with some nice abalone shells as a souvenir for Haley.

We are anchored in an exposed anchorage overnight, which was fine until an unexpected wind came up at 3:00 am. The wind was not bad and it just brought in some chop, but nonetheless, no more sleep for me. On the bright side, it gave me the opportunity to finish the book I have been reading!

Day 45 - Prince Rupert to Anger Island - "Ire Bay"

"On The Edge" sneaking through the opening

"Ladner Lass" leaves in the morning fog

Anger Island amongst other little islands

Bettys Moose

We enjoy 2 days in Prince Rupert in the sunshine and head off on our return trip south. The four boats are all spanky clean, cupboards and fridges and liquor cabinets are fully stocked and we are off like a herd of turtles.

Our first stop back in Canadian waters is Anger Island. The place naming people had a field day with this place...."Anger Island"...."Ire Bay"....

The story in the cruising book about a sailboat cruising through the narrow entrance to Ire Inlet and having a tree fall on them is a bit daunting – good thing Marko has a chainsaw on board. Mike and I have stayed in this inlet before and it’s the only place we have ever seen a wolf. A white or Silver one at that! The photograph is a bit grainy from 2004. We do not see wolves this trip, but at dinner time a very old and tired bear comes down to the beach for a feed. This poor old bear appears to have ticks and is missing an eye and is very scarred up. The ticks have caused major fur loss on his hind legs and side and drained enough energy that he lays down to eat. Nature is often cruel. We see a few mink swimming around the bay going about their business and nothing to speak of in the crab trap (just some undersized rock crab) The group splits up from here in the morning, we head off on the outside and the rest of the group heads of on the inside channels.

Day 44 - Dundas to Prince Rupert

Proof in the Photo - Its sunny in Rupert

Leaving Dundas - Flat Calm

Immature Bald Eagle watching over the fish tray

Prince Rupert Yacht Club - "Full"

An uneventful trip from Dundas to Prince Rupert. Seas very calm and the sun is burning away the fog nicely!

A beautiful sunny day in Rupert was had by all. Customs was cleared via phones and after our onshore duties were all done, a relaxing day in the sunny Prince Rupert. Having Sunny and Prince Rupert in one sentence seems a bit of an oxymoron, but its true! We watched the Newshour and with a bit of cackle we reveled in the sunshine until around 10:00 pm. We note that Southeast Alaska is also bathed in Sunshine, while the lower mainland is on flood watch and its rainy and cold. Ladner Lass left some money behind in Rupert for a diver, while moving from one dock to another she lost one of her long lines overboard and fouled a prop. Luckily there was a diver at the ramp able to help out! A few of the group take in the Museum here, for those that have not been and enjoy native art, it’s a must see when in Prince Rupert. Finer pieces of Haida and Tlinget artifacts you will not find.

Throughout the trip, I have had a "Hit" list of things that I wanted to see, among them was the Kermode Bear, the Puffin etc. One animal was a moose, although I did not see one in the wild - it appears that there are moose in Prince Rupert - I came back from shopping to see a moose on the bow of my boat --- it must be from the same family as the Puffin is for Dave!

Day 43 - Rudyerd Bay to Dundas Island

Sunrise at Dundas

Orca cruising by

Haley + Fish = 5' smile

A 5 hour cruise brings us back into Canadian waters for some fishing. We anchor the big boats in behind an island at the top end of Dundas Island. Bob, Mike and Haley go off fishing and return victorious with Haley catching her first Spring Salmon! A nice fish to be sure, at least 30 pounds! Oceanaire and Ladner Lass have opted to continue through to Rupert and we will see them tomorrow.
We are now fll up with fish and are looking forward to fuel, water, groceries, laundry and of course the ever present need to go to the liquor store. Hopefully Dave will have found a replacement bottom end for his motor. if not, Scupper will be using the facilities of the "Betty Boop" for the next week or so.

A beautful calm crossing with some summer sunshine await us in Rupert.

Day 42 - Bell Isle to Rudyerd Bay

Gunkholing up the river

Our boats on the mooring buoy

A huge crater or bowl in Rudyard

Plenty of Lupin to be found

Mike wonders about his ice cave collapse

A humpback show before we enter Misty Fjords

Another lovely cruising day – a mist of rain and some sunshine greet us when we hit Rudyerd. The small floatplanes with cruise passengers have scared any possibility of wildlife away as there is a steady stream of them coming into the bay, landing and then taking off again. Betty does her first side tieing docking against Ladner Lass....Jamies is happy that there is no white paint on her burgandy boat and Mike is happy that there is no burgandy paint on his white hull. Piece of Cake!

No takers on the hike to Punchbowl lake (the group is tired from trying to find the Bailey hot spring yesterday) We opt to go high speed gunkholing to the end of the inlet to visit the remains of Mike and Penny’s Snow cave…. The snow cave is no more....another collapse....Mike keeps going on about global warning, I say that it was just time for the snow to melt. 8 years since we first saw the snow cave, so I would think that it’s a long enough time for the snow to melt! No wildlife to be seen – just a few birds. This trip into Misty Fjords finally gave us some “Mist” --- it is truly a magnificient place to visit.

Day 41 - Yes Bay to Bell Isle

One wall still standing

Not much left of the lodge

Barely standing still

We were last here three years ago and what sad sight when we pull up to the docks. As documented by some other blog readers, the main lodge is now collapsed, the docks are sinking, and basically nothing has been done to clean up the mess that we last saw. If this place was in Canada on a fish bearing stream, the owners would have been forced to at least clean up anything on the stream. The house and bridge are all collapsed into the stream and the place is mess! Besides our little “herd” a sailboat called “Impossible dream” with two brothers aboard also tie up. Turns out that their boat once belonged to Ray Disney (brother of Walt) --- Tom and John end up coming to shore with us and having dinner with us.
The pool (hot spring) is still full of water and someone has taken the time to reconnect the hot spring water enough to keep the pool from freezing, but not enough to heat up the pool. Please refer to this link to see the “before” photographs and how nature starts to take its own back in a relatively short perod of time when no-one is around to maintain. Some yahoos have come through and broken all the windows on all the remaining cottages and someone has been trying to take the diesel fuel that is left and try and get it down to the dock.

My turn to cook to night, so I opt to stay behind while the others trek off to see if they can find Bailey hot springs. Someone in the last few weeks told us it was a 10 minute walk. Judging from the complaining, its more than a 10 minute walk. Its almost 3 miles through rivers and up the side of mountains, we will save this seek and find for another time. Meanwhile...back at the boat, Betty is feeling pretty full of herself being on schedule with the cooking tonight and having a lemon Meringue pie in the oven. She should know better than to be so smug....calamity is about to reign! First I run out of propane - so I head upstairs to switch over the tanks, done! Cooking proceeds. Next, I am on schedule so a little clean up is in order and a table to set. While I go up stairs to set the table, I start the sink filling up with water to do some clean up so that there are minimal dishes after dinner. Must be old age or something, I can't find my lighter to light the candle and see it on the dock....I am so chuffed with myself, I stop to have a smoke and a chatter with the brothers....meanwhile, a steam bath is happening on the boat. When I go back to te galley to get the plates, I hear the cascade of waterfall and suddenly remember that I have left the tap running on the kitchen sink....in I run and I do not see the water on the floor, after promptly slipping and falling on my face, I finally get up to shut the water off. The water is overflowing from the sink and cascading over the edge onto the floor.....OMG.....there are 80 lbs of clumping kitty litter in the hold under the galley (where all the water is seeping down to) --- I quickly hop down below and manage to get the 2 boxes of kitty litter out before they turn to cement along with all the other items getting wet. While picking up the 20 lb flour bag to put it out of the waters way, the bag bursts, so now I am not only wet, I am white (covered in flour) and in the humidity, I am quickly becoming a human glue stick. I change my clothes and proceed to mop up the mess.....for days after, I am opening drawers and finding things are still full of water.


We are thankful that we saw it 3 years ago before it came to this ruin and with our memories of what was, we have a nice dinner with our new neighbours and call it a night.

Day 40 - St. Johns Harbor to Yes Bay

A long day of travelling to cover some ground today. A 12 hour day of travelling down Chatham Strait to ‘Yes Bay”. This bay has a fishing lodge and some great anchorages in it. We all get anchored and tied up when one of the lodge fishing boats comes roaring through the islands behind us at about 30 miles an hour. Not only is there a wash but dangerous if people are out in their dinghies. They zoom past us into the far reaches of the bay. Mike chased after them and asked if was really necessary to be going those crazy speeds in between the islands and so close to the boats…..well you guessed it….a confrontation occurs. The kids (early 20’s) in the boats proceed to egg Mike on by saying “Come on – bring it on!!” and “We have guns in Alaska” --- Luckily Mike was composed and just turned around and came back to the boats. Both these young fellows need a kick in the ass and smack across the side of the head from the lodge owner…..threatening people with guns is nothing short of a criminal offence (even in Alaska) – and we are very disappointed the next morning when these hooligans come back up into the back of the bay and proceed to shoot off guns. It’s really not worth getting the law involved at this point of our trip. We debate talking to the lodge owner but again, is it really worth it to start something we are not prepared to stay around to finish. We don’t let it spoil our trip nor taint our views of the rest of Alaska. Just some small minded, more than likely bored kids with their red necks showing. Hope some of their high paying guests don’t end up with these two kids guiding them about.

Day 39 - Tracy Arm to St. John's Harbor

Fisherman at work outside the bay

Just us and the Seagulls

Carbonated underwater spring bubbles

Scenic but sad

Oceanaire anchored in St. Johns Harbor

The next morning we take Haley and along with “over the Edge” – we head up to see if we can once again get into Dawes Glacier. There is considerable more ice in Tracy Arm than the previous 3 weeks when we were last here, so one of the glaciers has been “calving” a lot. The way is very clear so by deductive reasoning, it must be Sawyer Glacier bergie bits that are making their way into the arm. We see some calving and there are lots of big pieces ready to fall off, but nothing major. We head out at noon for Petersburg and through Wrangell Narrows to St. John’s Harbor. Enroute, Dave makes phone calls to try and find a new bottom end for his motor. Its hard up in this country to be without a dinghy. St. John’s Harbor is a new stay for us. It’s a great bay with some interesting things to see. We read in the book about a natural “carbonated” spring that wells up in the bay --- we found it and sure enough, a lot of fizzy bubbles are making their way up from the bottom of the ocean. It’s a phenomenon that we have not seen before. The scenery is magnificent here but then we have found that the scenery has been stunning everywhere we have been up here (other than the towns) This anchorage is large and can accommodate a lot of boats and this bay is where we have seen the most amount of boats up here (8) – due to it being later in the summer, it is definitely getting busier up here.

Day 38 - Juneau to Tracy Arm

Shaman playing in the Bergs

Bubble Feeding Humpbacks

Photo D. Thompson

Being towed - Broken Motor (waaaaaaaahhhhh)

Photo D. Thompson

Haley Gunkholing in Ford's Terror with Mike

With the Crozier precious cargo on board (Haley), we head off back to Tracy Arm to start the trip south. There are commercial fish openings everywhere with seiners in one area, gillnetters in another area and trollers and long liners lazily inching along. We see lots of humpbacks but none very active. It’s a beautiful sunny day interspersed with a few rain showers. The seas are flat calm and we arrive in Tracy Arm in about 5 hours. We head off to Fords Terror to our favourite anchorage and everyone hops in their dinghys to go up the rapids into “Fords Terror” – we missed this particular section last time in as we simply ran out of time. I opt to stay on board and putter about. When we go out gunkholing and someone stays behind, we always leave the vhf radio on. But due to the area we are in, the radio contact is sporadic. I hear lots of yelling on the radio and wait in anticipation to hear what was going on in the inlet. One by one, they all make it back through the current driven river with Bob coming in last with something in tow. It appears that “Peaaire” (tender to Oceanaire) is peopleless and on a lengthy rope being towed in. There are some grumpy faces a missing piece of “skeg” (sp?) off of the bottom of Daves dinghy motor. And then the ribbing starts….. it appears that all of the dinghies very carefully went up river as there were large boulders to be traversed, and all but one of the dinghies when returning went slowly out. Peaaire was anxious to get back to the big boat as she lept over the waves and straight over a large boulder breaking the shaft on the bottom end of the motor. Always happy to help out a friend, we take on shore duty with Scupper with our dinghy. Surprisingly enough, I though if anyone was going to do damage to their dinghy, it would have been Mike (Crazy River Runner that he is) --- guess the calming influence of Haley was good for our dinghy!

Day 36 & 37 - Juneau

Mendenhall Glacier - Juneau - Photo H. Crozier

The Trade of the century - Vodka for Tanner Crab

Fourth of July in Juneau is actually celebrated on June 3. Fireworks are weather permitting tonight in Juneau at Midnight. Don't know if we can stay awake that late, but it might be worth it. Naps for everyone!

A "rent a wreck" was had by the group these few days to shuttle groceries, booze and laundry down to the marina. Yo can easily travel the town by bus, but there are too many heavy items to lug around that splitting the cost of a van makes economical sense. The neophytes have headed up to Mendenhall Glacier this morning and then a quick ride into town to see whats what. There are 10,000 people in town today with 5 cruise ships at the cruise terminal. There has been a steady stream of helicopters over our heads heading up to the glacier as the current tourist fad is to take the helicopters up to the glacier and go dog sledding. It feels like apocolypse now around the marina. There are at least 25 large jet driven boats that are taking cruise ship guests out to see the whales. Some of the boats carry upwards of 100 people. I guess if it keeps the economy going, then the residents put up with it.

Gunkholing this afternoon through the "ditch" to Juneau as the book says we can't do it by big boats. Off early tomorrow morning to start heading south. First stop to be Taku Harbour or there abouts and then an evening stop to see Fords Terror. We will be out of range until we hit the US Canada Border, so look for updates in about a week to 10 days!

Day 35 - Swanson Harbor to Juneau

Lots of whales this morning and a flat calm ride to Juneau to pick up our friends daughter, Miss Haley!

Day 34 - Swanson Harbour

Swanson is a split bay with a spit in the middle

One of the two docks in Swanson

"Ladner Lass" coming out of Swanson at low tide

Two state docks greet us at the end of the bay but they are called floating docks as there are no ramps to shore even though they are on pilings. One of the docks has our friend from way back in Cashman Bay, the Mary L (Dennis and Mary Lou) . We are first in and opt to go to the empty dock. This is our most difficult docking yet, the wind is howling and the current is flowing against us as we try and tie up, Its takes both of our muscle power to winch the boat into the dock. Even with the motor running in forward, its still a struggle to keep the boat at the dock. A quiet night here for our little herd to celebrate Canada Day! A great meal at Chez Marko’s and a few drinks with the tolly that comes in with people from Juneau and their friends from New York.