Skipper’s Challenge

With our arrival in Prince Rupert, it was time to confront the next big challenge of the trip: crossing the Dixon Entrance to make the hop from British Columbia to Alaska. Lucky for us, the weather was settled and the prediction for wave state in the Dixon Entrance was forecasted to be less than 1 meter the next day. We planned on leaving early in the morning, and catching the ebb tide out of Prince Rupert and up towards Alaska.

Unfortunately our exit from Prince Rupert was poorly planned by the skipper, costing us several miles of backtracking. I had planned to go through Venn Passage, a convenient shortcut to the Chatham Sound when going north from Prince Rupert. I hadn’t paid enough attention to exactly when to leave, and a strong ebb had already started by the time we were off the docks. I was uncomfortable going through the narrow passage with a strong ebb, so we bailed and went southwest, back out the channel we’d entered the day before and circling the long way around the south end of Digby Island.

Before long we were steaming across Chatham Sound and north towards Dixon Entrance. The sea state was very calm, without much wind to disturb the surface. The swell was much lower than our passage around Cape Caution. We admired the Green Island Lighthouse as we passed by – a person that Grace talked to in Prince Rupert had staffed the lighthouse years before.

As we crossed the border into the US, I submitted our arrival notice via the Customs and Border Patrol “Roam” application on my phone. This is a super convenient way for US citizens to boat across the border without needing to go to a physical customs and immigration site. After waiting ten minutes or so, we were automatically cleared in and were free to go anywhere in the US.

There was a single sailboat that we could see somewhere near the entrance to Very Inlet, but as we moved into the inner cove of Foggy Bay we had the anchorage to ourselves. Our isolation was short lived, however, and soon we were joined by a motor yacht and later a small monohull. There was ample room in the inner cove for many more boats to anchor.

The only downsides to the anchorage were its mats of kelp and seaweed, and that at high tide some swell would enter through the shoaling gap to the west. Melinda and Grace wrote more about the bears that we saw here. We had a wonderful time watching both black and grizzly bears on the shore from the safety of our boat.

Our plan at this point had been to go up the Behm Channel to Misty Fjords and see some of the dramatic scenery there. Our NOLS first-aid instructor had talked about going to the Punchbowl there and how magnificent it was.

Our plans were soon to change however, as we received a text from one of our Boise friends Jim Bennett who with his wife Stephanie were on an Alaska cruise. It turned out that they would be in Ketchikan on Saturday, and would be able to be off their ship for about five hours in town.

We instantly changed our plans and decided we’d go to Ketchikan first to see our friends. So the next day we motored up Revillagigedo Channel towards the most “civilization” we’d seen since Vancouver.

The convergence of cruise ships was immediately noticeable as we entered Tongass Narrows. A large vessel had just left dock and was headed our direction in the narrows. We skittered to the side of the channel to let the monster pass by.

Melinda had secured us a reservation at Bar Harbor Marina, which turned out to be on the north end of Ketchikan. The docks were nice, and we were soon tied up in relative security and comfort next to a commercial fishing vessel. One of the hands repeatedly kindly helped us tie up to the dock, as we’d gotten blown off in my first attempt to land. After several instances of him retying my dock lines, I gave up trying until he’d gone away. Maybe I was doing something wrong, but I’m particular (and peculiar) that way. I like my dock lines just so.

I found the town of Ketchikan to be a bit oppressive after our relative isolation the last few weeks. It was nice to go to some of the shops there, especially the marine chandlery, and browse to my heart’s content. We had a great time catching up with our Boise friends, showing them Perception, and reliving our past adventures in the BVI.