A Long Way Home II

Pic #1: Here is where the Krogen wound up. Right where we started. And w his rode stretched out he'd be quite close to the rocks ... but not on them. Took this pic right before we left.

Pic #2: Down Principe Channel on the SW corner of Pitt Is is Mockton Inlet. A beautiful spot. The beauty and the peacefulness of this inlet was in sharp contrast to Patterson Inlet but it made me wonder what it was like here the night before. Quite a number of anchorage possibilities here. We picked a good one just no of Roy Is. A wonderful peaceful night we had.

Pic #3: Part way up into Mockton Inlet we came across this falls. Chocking itself w the rain from the gale the night before.

Pic #1: Mockton Inlet.

Pic #2: At anchor looking south.

Pic #3: At anchor looking north.

HAHA Peter I didn't see your comment. Yea ther'e bad Peter. Actually I look at these pics full screen on my 27" Stand Alone i-Mac. One can see the sailboat clearly then. Sorry. Glad someone's watch'in.

Marin said:

Best town in SE Alaska is Petersburg, precisely because the cruise ships can't get in there.

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I'll second that!

After a few years on AMHS boats and charter yachts in SE I can say that the cruise ships and their hordes are the greatest offence to the region since clearcutting.

But then the tourist industry would take a big hit.

I've been in Ketchikan when the cruise ships are in. Might as well have been in downtown LA. It's ironic that the economy has become dependent upon the tourists, but the tourists are destroying the whole reason for going there in the first place. I lived in Hawaii for almost 30 years and saw it happen there. SE Alaska is the same thing on a smaller scale.

More in Mockton Inlet.

Eric, no scale. How big was that thing swimming by your boat?

Strange. I have never seen the like.

Sd

markpierce said:

But then the tourist industry would take a big hit.

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I don't want to hijack a great thread of great photos of one of the most beautiful places on the planet but ... the cruise industry is an Alaskan parasite.

Those shops that will get hurt worst are owned by the cruise companies, they are the same shops that are cluttering up the Carribbean and everywhere else the cruise ships go. The only difference is the dock is cold and wet instead of hot and humid.

The cruise industry is like the drug trade, sure it flashes a lot of money around but it takes out much more and doesn't do the locals much good. How anyone can ride a hotel to SE and claim they have visited Alaska is beyond me.

1st Pic: In the southern end of Principe Channel w the south end of Banks Is on the horizon.

2nd Pic: Looking up the so end of Greenville Channel w Gill Is to stbd.

3rd Pic: This is about where we hit the whale. Full sized Humpback right behind the blow hole .. about dead center .. we T boned him at cruising speed (6K). I was on the port side deck waiting to take a pic of another whale and I heard something to my right .. the bow. Saw the huge blow hole only a few feet ahead and "crash" we hit him at right angles. I would have fallen down had I not grabbed the life line. Chris screamed and I scrambled for the safety (relative) of the cabin. I was thinking "boy we must have really pissed him off big time and now what's he going to do w that tail? I visualized all the Moby Dick pictures I'd ever seen. He seemed to just drop down into the deep w/o making any further presence. I checked for damage .. none that I could tell. In a few minutes we saw 2 spouts off a ways. All seemed to have survived. Including Willy. This happened in McKay Reach. The other whale I "hit" we just rubbed alongside eachother as we passed. Very exciting but hardly felt it. That one rolled so it's fluke passed gracefully alongside the hull. From now on I'm not only going to not alter course to see them better (never have done that) but I'm going to go at least 1/2 speed when they are close. The whales seem to not know where ther're going any more. But the Shearwater harbormaster seemed to think the McKay Reach whale put himself in our path purposely. He thought the other whale was momy and had calfs and he was protecting them. Could be as he could not have stopped us more effectively.

Pic #1: Clear evidence of glacial geology is abundant in this area and especially in this photo.

Pic #2: This pic shows the typical long channel scene. Many vessels including barges, ferries, fish boats, cruise ships and pleasure boats like ours are seen as a never ending parade of water borne craft.

Pic #3 Waterfalls are also common and especially in this area.

Waterfall

Thanks Eric, that waterfall is now my wallpaper shot for my computer screen.

Wow And double wow!!!.

I had one swim under my boat once but I was stopped.

Sure glad noone was hurt. You, Willy, Mother and calf.

SD

Thanks CP,
Now I'm glad I posted it rather high resolution. All these pics are about 6 MB and I have to downsize them. The ones that I think are real nice I'll post single and high res. I could e-mail a few also.

Dude,
Didn't see any calf's. That is just part of the Shearwater Harbour Master's theory. I think he's right ... at least to the extent that he put himself there on purpose to stop us. Sure did.

Pic #1: Another of the falls.

Pic #2: Butedale. This is a different falls than the previous pics. This falls comes from a lake that fed a Pelton Wheel generator and in the early 70s I stopped here when you could take as long a shower as you liked. Was free power. But for 50 to 70 years the cannery has slowly been falling into the sea. As of this year there was a caretaker but he said this year's his last. Wouldn't be surprised if he said that every year though.

Pic #3: Butedale

Feel free to email me any you like Eric, I never get tired of seeing them. I'm still keeping my eye out for those trimaran sketches we talked about. Love this thread, it's perhaps the best on this forum in quite some time.

You sure boat in some beautiful places there Eric. I hope you don't miss it too much down Vancouver way.

The few times we've been close to whales in the GB or the Arima we just stop and drift. We turn off the motor(s) and depth sounder and wait until they are well past us before starting up again. In the plane we'll sometimes land about a mile or so out ahead of them, shut down, and let them come by us. A few times they have come up right next to us under the wing to look us over. (I assume. Maybe they were trying to decide which one of us to eat first.)

A number of years ago five gray whales entered Bellingham Bay and hung around for a few days feeding. We happened to be coming back in on one of those days so we shut down the engines and depth sounder and drifted for an hour or so. All five whales ended up around our boat. Each one was considerably longer than the boat and it was something to see one come right at us and then sink down just enough to pass under the keel and then come up on the other side.

Sorry you ran into one. Hopefully it wasn't injured internally by the collision.

Peter .... I will.

Marin, I did that engine off thing too but at some point I decided to leave the engine idle to help them know where the boat is. In the 70s I stumbled into a group of about 8 Humpbacks sleeping. It was in Stephens Passage on my way to Juneau. In the fog. All of a sudden there were whales all around me blow'in and rolling their huge flukes up to dive. In 10 or 15 seconds it was all over. Just the SIZE of those guys is scary. I do'nt think I'd like being on a floatplane in amongst whales. You got more guts or whatever than me.
I remember a Grey out on the flats in front of Everett that always seemed to be coming straight at me. That was in 8 to 12' of water. I think it was a juvenile.

Since everyone liked the waterfall here's another extreme waterfall. I'm quite sure this is Mussel Inlet. We are now in Fjordland. I don't think I've ever seen a taller waterfall. And I think the face of the mountain goes basically straight down into the water.

Great shots Eric. Of course you're also pissing me off because we can't make a trip like this for a long time yet.

We never felt any concern in the floatplane among the whales. These were Orcas, mind you, not big monsters like grays and humpbacks. Orcas aren't technically whales, anyway, they're porpoises. Or dolphins. Can't remember which. We've been in very close proximity to Orcas over the years and Carey has been even closer in his kayak. In no instance that I know of were we concerned for our safety.

When we were drifiting among the five grays in Bellingham bay we were a bit concerned, not because we thought the whales would try to take on the boat but because they were just so damn big that we thought in sliding under us they might misjudge and hit us. But they never did.

There's a wonderful piece of film I've seen of some divers in the water off Maui with a mother humpback and her calf. The mother kept herself between the divers and the calf most of the time, and at one point she turns sharply away from a diver to "herd" her calf in another direction. Her head was facing away from the diver in the turn--- it looks like there is no way she could see him at that point. Yet as her huge outside pectoral fin swept around like a scythe toward the diver she raised the tip of it just enough to clear the diver's head. and then she put it back down. It was an obvious maneuver on her part, which just goes to show how aware animals are of their relationship to what's around them.

More Fjordland.

More Fjordland

Looks like a midden in your last photo in post 51.

Marin said:

Best town in SE Alaska is Petersburg, precisely because the cruise ships can't get in there.

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Petersburg is a very nice town/village.

I love the nordic influence.

If I were a young single man Petersburg would be a place to spend allot of time at.

Kasanders,
We almost bought a house there in Beacher Pass so of town. I've always been charmed by Petersburg.

Marin,
Never heard of a midden.

Pics are of Kynoch Inlet. Thousands of boaters rush by very close to this area intent only on getting to Alaska.

Great thread, Eric. I'm enjoying the spectacular scenery and great photography. What a trip!!

Hang on guys for 12 to 18hrs.

I'm being throttled by Hughes Net

Eric, this is terrific post. Out of interest for those of us across the world, how long is this trip of yours, I'm trying to find it on a map.

Fly,
"great photography"? Now you get more.

Andy'
About 1000 mi by crow 1500 mi by Eric's boat. Basically it's Ketchikan to Seattle. Port to port it's Thorne Bay AK to LaConner WA. Thorne Bay is about 45 mi NW of Ketchikan.

Pic #1: We're at the head of Kynock Inlet. A fairly wide river bar that drops off to 150' very quickly. Tried to stern anchor on the shallow flats but even my trusty old Danforth wouldn't even pretend to set. It was like dragg'in the anchor over oiled linoleum. I anchored in about 80' w a limited scope so we couldn't swing onto the beach. I set crossways and hard. Had a peaceful night.

Pic #2: Just to the right of the last pic one can see the entrance to Culpepper Lagoon. It was over 300' deep. Would probably need a shore tie as the only possible anchoring would be right next to shore. I opted the bar. There was a shallow spot that extended some from shore but the little sailboat got there first.

Pic #3: This is what the river bar looked like in the morning. Same view as pic#1 (practally) but w new personality.

Pic #1: Looking west just before heading out.


Pic #2: Looking east in the morning just pulling out. On a good computer you should be able to see the sailboat still in his original position. Perhaps we should have taken his lead and stayed a few days hiking and exploring w the dink. Probably lots of Bears up that river though however it may have been early enough so the fish weren't running?? This is one look back that I took w me.