Shearwater to Ketchikan

May 19-26:  Shearwater is the half way point to Ketchikan on the "Inside Passage".  We arrived here on Sunday expecting to leave on Tuesday.  However, Environment Canada says there is a storm coming.  South winds on the coast: 25-30 knots Wednesday, 30-40 on Thursday.  So, we could go to Bottleneck Inlet on Tuesday but we would be stuck there for three nights.  Even though we are on the inside and not the coast the long channels we follow run north-south, more or less, with the wind.  So, we elected to stay in Shearwater until Friday AM.  Good thing because it howled for three days.  Our rigging sang for hours on end and the boat jumped around at the dock endlessly.  We were glad we were not out and about.  It was nasty.

But, Friday dawned calm and clear and we were off at 07:15.  Our course took us around Dyad Point, west on Seaforth Channel, north via Reid Passage and Mathieson Channel to Jackson Passage.  Then west through Jackson to Finlayson Channel and north to Bottleneck Inlet.  About 7 hours overall.  We spent a quiet evening with one other boat in the harbour.

Shearwater to Bottleneck Inlet

Saturday, May 24 - So, here's the deal.  Today we had intended to proceed north to Coughlan Anchorage at the southern entrance to Greenville Channel with the intention of being in Ketchikan on Wednesday.  But, It looks like the weather is going to deteriorate beginning Tuesday, and stay bad at least through next Thursday.  Beyond that we don't know because that's as far out as the extended forecast goes.  So, instead of taking five days to get to Ketchikan from here, we are going to try for fewer.

We began winding our way north with the intention of over nighting at Coughlan.  Then trying to make Greenville in one day instead of two.  We passed Butedale Bay on Fraser Reach, the sight of an abandoned salmon cannery.  Like others on the coast, the owners left all the machinery and walked away.  Cheaper than hauling it all out.  Gradually, the buildings rotted into the bay.  Lou Simoneau still lives there alone.  Over the years he has devised to ways to make a life.  For example, he built a flume to carry water from the falls to a turbine that spins an alternator from an old truck.  That charges some batteries which give him rudimentary power.  We saw our first humpback whale of the trip outside Butedale and three more in Wright Sound.  One of those came up about 50 yards off our port beam.

Bottleneck Inlet to Kumealon Island

We had good currents all the way and arrived at Coughlan early so we decided to push up Greenville as long as the good currents last.  Greenville, AKA "The Ditch" is 45 mile long and only 0.5 - 1.0 wide. We were passed by a cruise ship in the narrowest part.  Let's see.  We are going 8.5 knots and he is going 17.  We are 45 feet long and he is more than 1000.  Hmm.  What should we do?  We got out of the way and waved at the passengers on deck who waved back at the fools on that little boat.  We got to Lowe Inlet and the currents were still good so we kept going. The southern half of Greenville ebbs south and floods north.  The northern half does just the opposite.  It ebbs north and floods south.  The currents change at Klewnuggit Inlet.  We were riding a flood north and caught the north ebb so we kept going.  Finally, we arrived at Kumealon Inlet and anchored behind the island of the same name.  It was a 12+ hour day but we made great progress.

Sunday, May 25 - The weather today looks passable and Monday still looks good but thereafter, not so much.  We will cross the border into the US today.  But first we must cross Dixon Entrance which is open to the Pacific.  And, it is illegal to touch shore or the bottom in the US without first clearing US Customs in Ketchikan.  Ketchikan is too far for most boats to make from any anchorage on the southern side of Dixon.  So, we have two choices.  We can anchor in Whales Harbour in Portland Canal.  The border runs down the middle of Portland and Whales is spitting distance south of the border.  From there we can make Ketchikan.  The other option is to cross the border and anchor in Foggy Bay.  Foggy is the designated anchorage for  boats that can not get to Ketchikan in one day.  We have to call CBP prior to crossing the boarder and obtain permission to pull up short of Ketchikan.  We will head for Whales Harbour and see what develops weather-wise.

We monitored the weather broadcasts almost hourly as we passed out of Arthur Passage into Chatham Sound.  If the weather takes a turn for the worse we will go into Hunt's Inlet at the top or Porcher Island to wait it out.  But the weather was OK and even though the forecasters kept saying it was going to deteriorate we couldn't see any evidence of that out the window.  Plus, we had a great following current so we kept going.  There was an hour of close swells on our nose as we passed east of the Dundas Islands but it was OK.  So, we kept going.  The wind was predicted to be light Monday morning then get stronger in the PM.  Rolynn decided we should get closer to Ketchikan so we called CBP for permission to anchor in Foggy Bay and just kept going.  So, here we are, 9 hours later tucked away in the back corner of Foggy, bobbing in the evening sun with two other boats that were waiting out the wind with us in Shearwater.  Tomorrow, we will make the 5 hour run into Ketchikan in the morning before the wind comes up.

Kumealon Island to Ketchikan

Monday, May 26 - We were out of Foggy by 07:00, headed north towards Ketchikan.  It was an uneventful passage.  We called the Ketchikan harbormaster as we passed the coast guard station in Douglas Channel and asked to a slip in Thomas Basin, the southern most of K'kan's three marina's, but there was no room in the inn.  He assigned us a slip in  Bar Harbor North which is, as the name implies, well north of downtown.  There is a third, smaller marina in the center of town which is "open moorage"  first come-first served.  We spied a spot of about 30 feet at the end of one of the piers in front of a small boat with could be moved back.  So we tied up temporarily, moved the boat, and slide back into the newly created opening.  Here we will stay, under the bows of the cruise ships, 654 NM from Anacortes.

We do not need to be in Petersburg until the 3rd so we will stay here for a few days - a little shopping, site seeing, boat work, etc.  Probably leave on Friday for Meyers Chuck then onto Wrangle.  We may skip Wrangle and just anchor for a day or two before heading up Wrangle Narrows to Petersburg.

Intrepid in Ketchikan (We are the smaller one)