On our way to Alaska

[Salish Nomad]

Awesome!! Ketch is a fun place. BUT!!! We need pictures, otherwise it didn't happened

I may have an adequate connection for uploading photos, will try.

 

[Gbinterim]

Funny we are back in Ketchikan also and currently tied up in Bar Harbor North, finger 12 slip 31. Maybe we can get together before we all depart.

 

[Salish Nomad]

Port Protection tonight heading for Deweyvile tomorrow.

 

[Al]

Port Protection tonight heading for Deweyvile tomorrow.

Greetings Dave, Had lunch with Jay (Westerly) today. Mentioned you as departing for the Edna Bay area. You passed by our abode abeam Pond Reef marker,early in the AM a day ago. Nice weather for the straits.
Walked the floats and ran across the Interim. No life aboard at the time.
Good to read you folks on the forum and then to witness your passing by or a visit such as with Jay.

Apparently missed the AkProf whom I have not met but Jan mentioned his being close by. I am awaiting Ken on the Hat Trick who I believe is close.

Regards to all, safe travels

Al-Ketchikan

 

[Salish Nomad]

Greetings Dave, Had lunch with Jay (Westerly) today. Mentioned you as departing for the Edna Bay area. You passed by our abode abeam Pond Reef marker,early in the AM a day ago. Nice weather for the straits.
Walked the floats and ran across the Interim. No life aboard at the time.
Good to read you folks on the forum and then to witness your passing by or a visit such as with Jay.

Apparently missed the AkProf whom I have not met but Jan mentioned his being close by. I am awaiting Ken on the Hat Trick who I believe is close.

Regards to all, safe travels

Al-Ketchikan

Thanks Al, we will see you Southbound in August.

 

[AlaskaProf]

Prof got a late and slow start, but still planning Ketchikan by June 11. Telegraph Cove BC right now.

search.garmin.com/williambutler3

 

[Alaskan Sea-Duction]

Al are you recruiting for new Ketch residents??? LOL

Nice to see TF members going through Ketch....

 

[Al]

Al are you recruiting for new Ketch residents??? LOL

Nice to see TF members going through Ketch....

"Ahhhhh Ha" The odd river rat reports in. Fresh salt air out here Tom, Flat calm, lite mist.

Reading of you and John's adventure on the river revives the vision of early youth reading of "Tom Sawyer and Huckleberry Finn". At least the variance of your boat and those rafts commingle in the thoughts drifting by in the mind.

Best to the better crew members of both craft.

Al-Ketchikan

 

[Gbinterim]

Sorry we missed you Al. Helen Marie, we will look you up upon arrival in Sitka. We are going to stop in Whale Pass as Port Alexander to visit friends and then tour Barnoff and head to Sitka.

 

[Salish Nomad]

Sorry we missed you Al. Helen Marie, we will look you up upon arrival in Sitka. We are going to stop in Whale Pass as Port Alexander to visit friends and then tour Barnoff and head to Sitka.

We're just coming in to Craig. Water, and groceries, then on to Edna Bay.
See you in Sitka mid June.

 

[AlaskaProf]

Ran from Big Bay, above Yaculta Rapids to Telegraph Cove with a roaring ebb the whole way Thursday.
Took much needed refuge in God's Pocket Friday and made uneventful crossing of Queen Charlotte Strait to Pruth Bay today. (Open wifi in the middle of nodamwhere!)

Hatt Trick appeared about 5 miles behind us after Egg Island. Good Ais target, but I couldn't raise him on 16.

share.garmin.com/williambutler3

 

[menzies]

We just got back yesterday from an Alaskan cruise to Juneau and Skagway. Passed a number of trawlers - mostly in Tracy Arm Fiord. Certainly gave us a bit of a lust to do it in our own boat.

Photos later, but here is Dawes glacier calving!

 

[Nomad Willy]

We're just coming in to Craig. Water, and groceries, then on to Edna Bay.
See you in Sitka mid June.

Edna Bay.

 

[menzies]

Hey you Alaskan lot.

I took this photo from our balcony after it landed so it is on a high zoom. It had a hell of wingspan and I wondered if it was an albatross. I did some googling, and if it is one, it could be a black footed albatross.

Any ideas?

 

[Nomad Willy]

Albatross in Alaska?

 

[menzies]

Albatross in Alaska?

Yes, the Black Footed Albatross is the only one that is can be seen off the north west coast of America. It nests in Hawaii.

 

[AlaskaProf]

Passed through a swarm of Pacific white-side dolphin Thursday, but couldn't entice them to play. Two minke whales close aboard today.

 

[Salish Nomad]

Two more Port Protection photos, our last day of excellent weather.

 

[menzies]

Guys, one of the things myself and missus were watching as we spent the last week up there was how big some of the open waters were, giving some long fetches. We noticed the water got pretty big with winds that were just above moderate - say 15-18 knots.

So we were watching to see what anchorages were available with 360 options - that is places where you could move to when the winds shifted.

There were some small island and peninsula spots, but then we wondered what the depth was, especially in the fiords like Tracy Arms.

So what do you folks see up there in the way of open water anchorages in different winds? And what chain you need to use?

 

[Nomad Willy]

I always used a few feet of chain and anchored typically in 30 to 40’ of water. Quite a number of times I anchored close to 100’ and rarely less than 25. With 23’ tides one dosn’t anchor shallow.

Most all bottoms are mud. I expected to find numerous to many rocky bottoms but that seldom happened. First trawler trip north I bought a Claw thinking there would be rocky bottoms. Just rarely happened.

In Washington there are many exposed anchorages but most all the anchorages I used in SE Alaska were protected from wind and waves. Unseen rocky mounds or reefs were plentiful though and scouting unknown anchorages is standard either w the dink or your trawler. I always used the trawler. One should know if it’s a falling tide. Most nights in SE are calm in protected anchorages. But my 50 knot anchorings were north of Shearwater.

As a primary anchor a good mud anchor seems best. That’s easier to identify than the good rock and moderate weed/kelp anchor and that’s an obvious secondary. If your mud anchor is a Claw you should have a storm anchor too.

 

[menzies]

Thanks Eric.

Our long term plan is to use Sonas to explore the Caribbean and east coast - ABC islands all the way to New England. If we can get to Newfoundland all the better.

Then the Gulf to the Panama Canal in ~10 years. Sea of Cortez, up the West Coast and the North West, all we can do up there for a couple of years. Then sell her up there as we believe she would be well suited to that area.

Back to the SE and buy a DownEaster such as a Sabre to tool around the SE coast.

Your cruising area looks absolutely wonderful though a bit chilly!

 

[Giggitoni]

Hey you Alaskan lot.

I took this photo from our balcony after it landed so it is on a high zoom. It had a hell of wingspan and I wondered if it was an albatross. I did some googling, and if it is one, it could be a black footed albatross.

Any ideas?

That is a black-footed albatross. Their migratory range includes Western Canada and Alaska. In fact they can be found on the eastern Pacific as far south as Baja California, Mexico and West to the China Sea. Congratulations, I personally have never seen one.

 

[klee wyck]

Hey you Alaskan lot.

I took this photo from our balcony after it landed so it is on a high zoom. It had a hell of wingspan and I wondered if it was an albatross. I did some googling, and if it is one, it could be a black footed albatross.

Any ideas?

I don't know a thing about the bird but if you study its bow wave and stern wave, it just may have the perfect full displacement hull form.....
Nice picture.

 

[Nomad Willy]

HaHa Klee wyck,
I was thinking the same thing.
An overdriven bird at a bit over hull speed.
Probably the perfect FD hull shape and porportions to accommodate a maximum displacement for a given general size .. especially length. Kinda like a geodedic dome makes max volume for a house.

 

[MurrayM]

...Pruth Bay today....

Have you taken the trail to the beaches on the west side?

 

[AlaskaProf]

Have you taken the trail to the beaches on the west side?

Yes. Lovely.

Ocean Falls today. Strange place

 

[AlaskaProf]

Yes. Lovely.

Ocean Falls today. Strange place

"Nearly Normal" Norman (who is 1/3 of the population) took us on a tour of the Ocean Falls Museum. I have to confess that I went along to patronize the others, but it was an absolutely unique experience. Big industrial multi-floor relic of a waterfront workshop/warehouse/marine railway filled with the most eclectic collection of ghost-town relics one will ever see.


Found Hatt Trick today! He's on the other side of my dock in Shearwater/Bella2. Nice folks brought smoked coho to the cocktail hour on Seeadler. Off to Fjordland National Park tomorrow.


Two days of big blow predicted for Wed. & Thur; gotta be in Ketchikan on the 11th to pick up crew.


'Prof

 

[Ken E.]

"Nearly Normal" Norman (who is 1/3 of the population) took us on a tour of the Ocean Falls Museum. I have to confess that I went along to patronize the others, but it was an absolutely unique experience. Big industrial multi-floor relic of a waterfront workshop/warehouse/marine railway filled with the most eclectic collection of ghost-town relics one will ever see.


Found Hatt Trick today! He's on the other side of my dock in Shearwater/Bella2. Nice folks brought smoked coho to the cocktail hour on Seeadler. Off to Fjordland National Park tomorrow.


Two days of big blow predicted for Wed. & Thur; gotta be in Ketchikan on the 11th to pick up crew.


'Prof

It was great to meet and get together with Prof. A few days ago, we also saw Sea Fever in Fury cove and in Codville. Hope to see more TFers as we go. We should be in AK in about a week, then around Sit ka for the summer.
___________________
Ken Hatt Trick

 

[Ken E.]

Greetings Dave, Had lunch with Jay (Westerly) today. Mentioned you as departing for the Edna Bay area. You passed by our abode abeam Pond Reef marker,early in the AM a day ago. Nice weather for the straits.
Walked the floats and ran across the Interim. No life aboard at the time.
Good to read you folks on the forum and then to witness your passing by or a visit such as with Jay.

Apparently missed the AkProf whom I have not met but Jan mentioned his being close by. I am awaiting Ken on the Hat Trick who I believe is close.

Regards to all, safe travels

Al-Ketchikan

Al, I'll send you a PM when we arrive in Ketchikan, in about a week. We are moving north slower this year, taking more lay days. It's different than traveling hard getting to SE like we usually do and we both like it. Getting older I guess...

Anyway, I know Jay on Westerly and I hope we see him this summer. We met Alaska Prof on Seeadler yesterday and he's on his way up. Hope to also meet the Irene crew too. See you soon.
___________
Ken. Hatt Trick

 

[Salish Nomad]

Helen Marie is taking a harbor day in Kake before tackling Point Gardener. Today's forecast is twenty five plus from the south, but tomorrow sounds good.
We are impressed by the new (to us) boat harbor in Kake. The docks are in good repair, water, and power available, and a very friendly harbor master, Les Peterson.
Grocery store a short walk away.
We shall return.