July 27, 2015
We spent the day in Petersburg, in the rain, of course,
which was heavy at times. Patrick
delivered two more boxes of fish to Community Cold Storage, making a total of 7
boxes awaiting shipment back home.
July 28, 2015
Departing Petersburg for the last time in 2015, Spirit
headed south down Wrangell Narrows and then east to Wrangell. The weather was calm, but with heavy
rain. Spirit was moored without incident
in Heritage Harbor, Wrangell.
July 29, 2015
After walking to town in drenching rain, which we are
getting very tired of, we spent the day relaxing on Spirit and then had an
excellent dinner at the Stikine Inn. The
inn provides transportation both ways, so we managed to avoid walking in the
rain both ways.
July 30, 2015
Patrick went fishing in the Grady White and returned with
another halibut, pretty small at 30 inches, but enough for 4 meals for the two
of us. We sponsored a potluck halibut
dinner on Spirit with the Lennon’s and Davidson’s on the Selene 53’s
“Tranquility” and “Three Wishes”.
July 31, 2015
After a last minute walk into town for provisions, we
departed Wrangell and headed south through Zimovia Strait to Santa Anna
Inlet. We decided to not set prawn pots
and enjoyed an evening without rain, although it had rained most of the day.
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| Old Machinery in Santa Anna Inlet |
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| Fog coming over the trees in Santa Anna Inlet |
August 1, 2015
Retracing our northbound route under sunny skies down Ernest
Sound to Clarence Strait and into Tongass Narrows, we arrived in Ketchikan to
find the docks full. We spent some time
fueling Spirit with diesel, gasoline and propane and then anchored north of
Pennock Island. We had no sooner set the
anchor when the harbormaster called with a berth that had opened up in Bar
Harbor. Quickly pulling the anchor we headed
into Bar Harbor where we tied up at the end of Float 10. There was plenty of space, but no power, and
the slip was exposed to all the wakes from passing boats and seaplanes, so the
tender bounced all over, and even Spirit rolled heavily at times.
August 2, 2015
We played tourist in the rain, which returned overnight, and
assessed our provisions for entry into Canada in a few days. All the chicken was cooked, along with hard
boiling the eggs, and potatoes were converted into salad. That evening we had a great dinner at the Bar
Harbor restaurant, which has moved downtown to cruise ship berth 4.
August 3, 2015
We slipped the lines from Bar Harbor in heavy rain at 0810
and headed south down Tongass Narrows.
Stopping near Mountain Point we fished and released three pink
salmon. Continuing south down
Revillagigedo Channel we stopped again north of Mary Island and fished for
halibut, where Miriam landed a 37 inch fish.
In the process of fishing, Patrick punctured his finger on a dirty
halibut hook, but thought nothing of it at the time. Continuing south, we
stopped at Foggy Bay for the evening. By
sunset there were five boats anchored in the inner bay.
August 4, 2015
Departing Foggy Bay at 0505, we headed out in rain and had
to dodge gillnetters, logs and deal with wind and seas until we were south of
Cape Fox. When Patrick got up, his
finger which was punctured had swollen, was oozing pus and looked ugly. The wind ended, the seas were just gentle
swells, but the rain persisted all day.
We docked at Prince Rupert Rowing and Yacht Club at 1335 local time
after the 51 nautical mile trip. After
finding out that there were no walk-in clinics in Prince Rupert, Patrick walked
the 1 ½ miles to the emergency room at the hospital. The doctors confirmed a potentially serious
bacterial infection which needed IV antibiotics, so an IV line was put in and
after the first treatment, Patrick walked back with the IV line still in place,
but covered with gauze. The process for
a US citizen is “cash up front” and the emergency room fee is $975 Canadian,
but they take Visa. The whole process
took over four hours for the first visit, with two more visits scheduled. Internet searches revealed that fish and sea
water are full of nasty bacteria which can get into the blood stream from fish
hook puncture wounds, and can be fatal if left untreated.
Another note: The
city is building a new marina at Atlin Terminal to help the transient moorage
situation. The docks are designed for
larger boats (greater than 50 feet), and should be finished by the end of the
summer. The new marina should relieve
the tight moorage situation we all deal with, since we all have to clear
Canadian Customs at Prince Rupert when southbound.
August 5, 2015
We resupplied Spirit with fresh produce and Patrick made
another trip to the ER for another dose of antibiotics via IV. The finger is responding well, with the
swelling and redness rapidly receding. This
time it took only two hours. Dinner was
at the Cow Bay Café, which we highly recommend.
The rain held off for the evening, so we could have eaten on the deck of
the restaurant, if it had not already been full.
August 6, 2015
Another rainy day in Prince Rupert. Patrick’s last visit to the ER only took a
little over one hour for the last IV antibiotic infusion, after which the IV
was finally removed from Patrick’s left wrist.
The doctor prescribed an additional 7 day course of oral antibiotics,
but felt that the aggressive IV treatment was successful.
August 7, 2015
With medical clearance to finally leave Prince Rupert, we
pulled out shortly after 0900 and headed out in heavy rain, southbound towards
Grenville Channel. Entering Grenville
Channel we were pleased to see that we had cell phone coverage until we were
south of Baker Inlet. The currents were
not favorable, and were as much as three times higher than the predicted values,
so we did not arrive in Lowe Inlet until 1830, having covered only 58 nautical
miles. But nightfall there were 10
pleasure vessels anchored in Lowe Inlet, with 8 in Nettle Basin alone.
Verney Falls was running hard, Coho salmon were jumping, but
we saw no bears this evening. The Coho
were not biting either.
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| Verney Falls,, Nettle Basin |
August 8, 2015
The rain continued overnight and into the morning. Nonetheless we tried fishing, but with not
even a bite, though there were fish jumping all around. Also, no bears, and according to one boat
that had been there all week, there had been no bears for 4 or 5 days. In mid-afternoon the rain stopped and we went
for a photo cruise in the Grady White.
By nightfall there were 10 boats anchored in Nettle Basin, so the parade
south has really begun.
August 9, 2015
After a leisurely morning in the rain, we pulled the anchor
from the bottom of Nettle Basin and headed out into Grenville Channel. As we headed south into Princess Royal
Channel the rain lowered visibility to less than ½ mile and we were reminded of
the dense fog we experienced going north three months ago. This time, however, the rain stopped as we
approached Butedale, so we could see the continued decay. There was one boat moored at the remains of
the dock, and the vessel following us also stopped there for the evening. We continued south and entered Khutze
Inlet. Knowing there were several AIS
targets in at the head of the inlet and knowing the limited room for anchoring
we anchored instead in 60 feet of water on the inside of Green Spit. We had anchored there in 2010 and by evening
we were joined by 5 other vessels. The
winds were calm and the anchorage was very satisfactory.
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| Butedal continues to deteriorate |
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| Gull in Khutze Inlet, Green Spit |
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| Sailboat emerging from the fog, Khutze Inlet |
August 10, 2015
There was patchy fog in the morning, especially further into
Khutze Inlet. To make best use of tides
we left at 0905 and continued south down Princess Royal Channel under sunny
skies after the fog lifted. We had timed
our arrival at Hiekish Narrows for slack water so that was a non-event since
currents can run to 5 knots. By 1245 we
entered and anchored in Bottleneck Inlet.
The sun sent the temperature soaring, so we were soon down to
shorts. Patrick went fishing for Coho,
but no luck. By evening, as we cooked
London Broil on the BBQ there were 9 vessels in the inlet. One of those was “Voyager”, from Long Beach,
that had been at anchor at Bottleneck Inlet in May as we headed north. We had a chance to meet the live-aboard
owners in Petersburg several weeks ago.
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| Spirit anchored among the vessels in Bottleneck Inlet |
August 11, 2015
By 0600 four of the vessels had already departed the placid
waters of Bottleneck Inlet. Spirit
departed at 0900 for the 45 mile journey to Shearwater. Finlayson Channel was calm and the tide was
favorable, so we headed out into Milbanke Sound to save one hour on the
journey. There was a lot of debris in
Finlayson, including some large trees with the root balls apparently still
attached floating in mid-channel. Passing
Ivory Point we readied the fishing gear and a few minutes later stopped at Idol
point where we caught one Coho and released a small Pink salmon. By 1630 we were anchored outside the
breakwater at Shearwater. The docks were
full, but the anchorage is good and it is free.
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| Large trees floating in Finlayson Channel |
August 12, 2015
After shopping for some fresh produce at the store we pulled
the anchor and headed down Lama Passage to Fisher Channel and Fitz Hugh
Sound. We diverted from the deep water
route and went down Ward Channel and across to Meay Channel and into a foggy
anchorage at Pruth Bay. There were
already nine boats anchored, and by nightfall there were 15.
August 13, 2015
The anchorage had emptied out by 0900, down to 6 boats. We headed out fishing in the Grady White and
returned shortly after noon with another nice Coho. The sun came out and although the breeze
picked up, it was still pleasant. By
evening the anchorage had filled back up with 12 pleasure craft, but there is
plenty of room. The free wifi from the
Hakai Beach Institute was suitable for e-mails, but each session is limited to
100 MB of traffic.
August 14, 2015
Although the weather report was not ideal, with the West Sea
Otter buoy reading 7.2 feet, the lighthouse reports for Egg Island and Pine
Island reported only a low westerly swell, less than 1 foot chop and minimal
winds, so at 0715 we headed out from Pruth Bay and down Fitz Hugh Sound. There were a number of humpback whales
feeding in both Pruth Bay and Fitz High Sound, as well as many small sport
fishing boats working the shoreline of Calvert Island. As we cleared the tip of Calvert Island the
swell increased, nearly on the beam and we could see a fog bank in the
distance. We kept going and the swells
increased to an average of 7 feet, with some twice as high as we passed Egg
Island. We wonder what the definition of
a “Low Westerly Swell” is, since it was matching the West Sea Otter readings,
which by then had increased to 2.4 meters or 8 feet. With Cape Caution now only a few miles away
we kept going and when 2 miles abeam of the cape we were able to alter course
so the swells were now almost directly on the stern. Surfing down the swells, which gradually
diminished as we proceeded, we finally entered Allison Harbor and were anchored
by 1425, after a 54 nautical mile day.
The harbor was initially empty, but by early evening there were four of
us anchored in the soft mud bottom.
Setting the anchor gently to avoid plowing a channel across the bay, we
relaxed and prepared Spirit for the final 36 nautical mile run to Port McNeill
in the morning. There are several
hazards in Allison Harbor and we took a picture of one to show the difference
at low and mid tide.
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| Humpback feeding near beach, Pruth Inlet |
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| Reef at low tide, Allison Harbor |
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| Same reef at mid tide, Allison Harbor |
August 15, 2015
Since we wanted to maximize the boost from the flood tide
southbound in Queen Charlotte Strait we delayed our departure from Allison
Harbor until after 0900. It was a good
plan, but the reality was that the boost did not materialize until we were
almost at Port McNeill. What did happen
was that the swell we had experienced the previous day had persisted and made
Spirit roll for several hours until we could alter course and get the swells
directly astern. However, there was no
wind and mostly sunny skies, along with several humpback whale sightings, so it
was a pleasant transit to Port McNeill.
We docked at 1405 and found we had just missed Orca Fest, the annual
parade and celebration we had seen last year.
We met up with several cruising friends for dinner at Gus’s Pub near the
head of the docks and shared fishing stories from the summer cruising season.
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| Humpbacks in Queen Charlotte Strait |
We have now travelled just under 3000 nautical miles since
our departure from Anacortes 116 days ago.
