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Jill & Doug Princehouse write from the M/V Passages
May 5, 2006
We're in Lagoon Cove tonight-gale warnings for tonight
in QCS. We came down Johnstone Strait in steady 25-30
knots with gusts to 41-and tide and wind opposed. It wasn't
a killer-better than our crossing of Georgia Strait. We're
planning to go to Miles Inlet tomorrow if we can. I'd
rather hole up there to get around Cape Caution than here
or in Blunden. Only time will tell.
May 7
We left Lagoon Cove yesterday and traveled Johnstone Strait
at the beginning of the gale. We did fairly well and went
into Miles Inlet last night. Doug wanted to continue on
around Cape Caution and into Fury Island Anchorage, landing
at dark, but I was too beat and we were not doing well
or steady on our speed to predict our landing time accurately.
I didn't mind the thought of getting into the anchorage
in the dark, we've been in there so many times before,
but I didn't want to travel any distance in the storm
in the dark. We no longer are so cavalier that we do that
for fear of hitting a log or deadhead. So, we went into
Miles, leaving again this AM.
I think it's a guy thing
that wants to be able to say, "I did it." Well,
the wind was howling, the swells were breaking, and I
don't know how big the wind waves were. But we were uncomfortable,
averaging about 5 knots, and finding our well-battened
boat was not well-battened at all. So, we braved our way
into Slingsby, about 2 miles down the road. We'll hole
up here until the gale really quits-I hope. It was howling
in here this afternoon; and we had, not a snow shower,
but a good sleet shower, with it's sticking on our rails,
and lots of white caps off and on all day. Right now,
2025, the sky is clear and it's dead calm. Dark clouds
that look like thunderheads are approaching. There was
a warning midday today about continued gale force winds
in Queen Charlotte Sound. :-( We were planning to be in
Petersburg for the festival, but no way now. Saratoga
is in Brundidge. We have other friends in Allison Harbour,
and others in Blunden Harbour. I hope this isn't a run
for your life summer in SE. If we had a board, I'd put
our name on it and install it on the island in the middle
of Nakwakto. It'd be great entertainment. We both have
good books, but constant reading's getting boring.
May 8
Well, we had decided we'd wait until tomorrow to leave
Slingsby. Looking at our Buoy weather report, tomorrow
on the flood seemed to predict a relative calm—almost
no wind and not bad swell. Note I say relative. But then
we listened to the weather report on Canadian weather
and it said winds switching to gale SE overnight, so we
decided we'd better leave today. Buoy weather hasn't ever
done us wrong, and we know Canadian weather is very conservative,
but what if the VHF report were true and we got stuck
in Slingsby another 3 or 4 days for the new gale to pass?
So, hi ho, hi ho, it's
out into the swell we go—today, instead of tomorrow.
Doug thinks it's the worst crossing we've ever had. But
the winds were still from the NW, so we headed straight
to Calvert Island for some protection. When the swell
is so big, especially from the west, we've had trouble
with reflected waves when we're too close to land, ducking
behind the islands route. So, we wallowed around out in
the middle.
We passed the Alaska ferry
Malaspina headed south. I got on the radio and asked them
if the waves were worse or better north of them and was
told worse. So, altho' we'd put the stabilizer poles out
after we left Slingsby, we hadn't yet put the fish in
the water. On the report from Malaspina, we slowed down
and put the fish in the water.
Once we'd reached the calm
of Calvert Island, we were beat, but we'd already wasted
the day, so we opted to continue on to Kisameet where
we are now. We're smelling restaurant food, so we'll head
to Shearwater tomorrow unless the sun is so exquisitely
positioned on our dead-calm boat, that we decide to take
a lay-over day here. We do really love this bay.
I'm anxious to see if the
new gale from the south shows up in the morning or later.
Then we'll see if could we have rounded Cape Caution in
relative calm tomorrow had we waited two more days.
May 15
We think we solved the mystery of Saratoga Rock in Foggy
Bay!
[NOTE from Don & Réanne
DOUGLASS: PLEASE SEE THE CORRECTIONS LISTED ON THIS WEBSITE,
as well as on the FineEdge.com Website. M/V Saratoga hit
the rock in question and reported their data to NOAA early
in 2006. ]
Right at the 6 fathom mark
on the chart (where Saratoga hit the rock)is where that
asterisk should be that's showing off that little island.
We left Foggy Bay this AM on a -1.7 tide, and there was
no asterisk showing off that little island, but there
was a nice reef on the "6"!!! Unless there's
another rock that wasn't showing yet, which is unlikely
at such a low tide (it would be a + instead) off that
little island. That rock that covers and uncovers(the
asterisk) is mis-located on the chart and should be on
the 6 instead.
Looking at chart 17434
and your drawing in the Alaska book, and looking at that
pointing finger island north of your course in, I believe
that plus off the "nail" of the finger doesn't
exist there (on a -1.7 to -1.9 tide we never saw it.)
But, we did see a rock at, or slightly north, of the "6"
that was exposed about 1.5 feet, meaning it dries on about
a -0.5 foot tide. It looks like the asterisk on chart
17434 off the "nail" is mischarted and should
be a hair north of the "6" instead.
If I remember correctly,
Saratoga's course was right over the "6." And
she banged her starboard stabilizer fin quite nicely.
But, her beam is 20 feet, and she draws 9 feet. So, probably
most of us (who aren't 20 feet wide) could actually go
right over that "6" with nary a scratch because
the rock is probably a hair north of the 6. Anyway, that's
what we think. There was no kelp on the miserable thing
on May 15th, altho' kelp was just starting to show up
in other areas. It's been so cold (like still frosting
at night), we've seen almost no kelp so far. And that
rock is truly a miserable thing. Saratoga was lucky it
eat only her fin.
[BAKER INLET] Another sad
change we noticed: we went into Baker Inlet night before
last. There's a logging barge in there on the southwest
shore. They were running a loud generator. We couldn't
tell exactly what's going on, but we've seen this outfit
before in Canada. They were helicopter logging before.
Anyway, they kept flying
a small helicopter (not a big logging one) back and forth
to the woods and back to the barge. There was a road behind
the barge heading to Grenville Channel, but I'm not sure
it went all the way in. On the way up the channel, south
of the entrance to Baker Inlet, there was another barge
which is the living quarters for the crew. It's the one
we recognized.
Our suspicion is they're
either there to build roads for logging trucks, or they're
setting up to helicopter log the north side of the inlet,
fly the logs to the south side, truck them to Grenville
Channel, raft them up there and tow somewhere. Or . .
. they may be fixin' to build roads for logging. Either
way, I suspect they're be setting up this summer and logging
next. . . both a miserable distraction (and unsafe) for
boaters. I wouldn't want a helicopter carrying a log flying
over our boat.
We're headed to Ketchikan
now and will spend the night there tonight. Then on to
either Meyers Chuck or Vixen Harbor. But we change our
minds a lot. We've had 3 lovely anchorages the last 3
nights. Hazy today.
May 16
We left Ketchikan at 0500 hoping to be out of Clarence
Strait before the wind, but we left Thomas Basin in the
wind! We're now tucked into Meyers Chuck at a minus tide.
We'll see if high tide brings swells from the strait into
the bay here. We have a place at the dock. Otherwise it
is filled with permanent boats. There is a sailboat from
Sweden anchored in the bay. We hope to be able to visit
with them.
There's new stuff in Ketchikan:
-a boater used to be able
to be assigned a vacant slip (vacant because the work
boat was out and the transient was sub-letting) in Thomas
Basin; and the dockmaster would come down and unlock the
power for you to use. Not so this year. There is no power
available to the transient boater in Thomas Basin (unless
maybe at the yacht club which is impossible to get into).
-the residents of Ketchikan
have passed a bond issue to build more cruise ship dock.
I'm not sure where, but they're also building a new mall
in front of downtown, or in the downtown area, I assume
to service the additional cruise ships. However, they're
also re-paving the street on the north end of the tunnel,
and on the waterside lanes, they've added a new driving
lane by eliminating a huge chunk of sidewalk. The new
sidewalk accommodates one-only one-pedestrian. Where are
all the existing and new pedestrians going to walk?
May 29
We are in Tracey Arm Cove for the 2nd night (stayed 3
nights in Ford's Terror until it started to rain), and
a flotilla of Grand Banks came in today.
July 15
Our last night in Whale Bay we spent in Small Arm at the
head. We'd heard there was a cliff drop-off there-e.g.,
anchor in 50 feet with boat in 300'. We didn't find that
true at all. There was a huge 5-6 fathom shoal for easy
anchoring and we were in around 40 feet. The anchorage
is surrounded by high peaks reminiscent of Fiordland.
We slept with a Brown Bear sow and 2 cubs, while other
"singles" appeared periodically in the nearby
creek looking for fish. We were really glad to have gone
from Kritoi Basin (after 3 nights) up the arm. It was
a gorgeous anchorage and we awoke to sun and 4 deer grazing
on a spit after we turned the corner on the way out.
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