Part III - Bishop Bay to Ketchikan

May 25, Lowe Inlet
Given yesterday’s winds and today’s forecast, we rose at first light and decided to minimize our time in Wright Sound by going around Gribbell Island and down Verney Passage.  Waggoner’s calls Verney Passage one of the most beautiful places on earth.  I don’t know if I would go that far, but the scenery certainly was spectacular: Snow capped peaks, shear granite walls, lots of greenery, and a calm blue sea.

Verney Passage: One of the world’s most beautiful sites?

As we came out of Verney Passage and into Douglas Channel the wind started picking up.  It was on our beam across Douglas Channel and I’m glad the waves weren’t more than a couple of feet.

We entered Grenville Channel, a major artery for northern BC, on a flood tide which was pushing us along with about 1 1/2 knots of current on a wave swept surface.  After awhile, we crossed a foam line which was rough on the side we were coming from and smooth on the side we entered.  With the smooth water came an abrupt loss of speed from nearly 9 knots to about 6.5 knots.  As we continued to travel northward, I could see a foam line running up the center of the channel that was wavy with white caps on the east side and smooth on the west side where we were.  On a hunch, I crossed into the rough side with 1-2 foot waves and white caps and regained most of our speed.  Quite interesting to see that the tide was flooding on only one side of the channel and that wind against the tide caused waves and white caps while wind with the current did not.

By the time we reached Lowe Inlet the wind had risen to 20 knots gusting 25 and Grenville Channel was not a pleasant place.  We anchored for the night in front of Verney Falls in the hope that the fresh water on the surface would kill most of the marine growth adhering to Hobbit.  While the view from the anchorage was great, by evening I began feeling uneasy about anchoring the boat in the current and let out 275 feet of chain which would provide a 3:1 scope in case we slipped into deeper water during the night.  I probably won’t deliberately anchor in a current again.

Verney Falls viewed from our anchorage in Lowe Inlet

May 26, Klewnuggit East Inlet
Today we were caught between the proverbial rock and a hard place.  Currents run to 6 knots in Grenville Channel and that was the forecast on the ebbing spring tide for dawn.  By 10:00 the current forecast was down to 2 knots against us but the wind was forecast to be rising to 20 knots by noon.  The next several days were forecast to be carbon copies, so we had little choice but to pick our poison.  Eventually we decided to pull anchor at 9:00 and entered Grenville Channel about 10:00.  The wind and waves were already rising – both against us.

Grenville Channel floods and ebbs from both the north and south entrances.  The currents from the two ends meet about Klewnuggit Inlet where there is little current but lots of turbulence.  Klewnuggit Inlet was only a 10 mile jaunt up Greenville Channel but it was not pleasant as the waves hit 3-4 feet where the north and south currents met.  As we entered the inlet I tacked so that we never had to take the waves on our beam.  We chose the north end of Klewnuggit’s East Inlet for our anchorage.  A beautiful spot with high mountains protecting us from the wind and a large flat bottom where we could anchor in 50 feet of water at high tide.

Klewnuggit’s East Inlet – a safe harbor in a storm

May 27, Prince Rupert
Because Grenville Channel ebbed to the north, we were able to leave Klewnuggit at first light and head north.  The wind was calm and the current was with us.  The major obstacle was all the debris in the water including logs that could really hurt Hobbit.  For most of the day both Linda and I stood watch. 

With no need to go to a dock, after reaching Prince Rupert we anchored in Pillsbury Cove.  Kind of a bland place but the anchorage is solid.  Once there I called U.S. Customs in Ketchikan and received permission to anchor in Foggy Bay after entering Alaska.

One log, two kittiwakes, and a seagull in Grenville Channel

Prince Rupert has become a major shipping port.
It’s two days closer to the orient than U.S. ports to the south

May 28, Dundas Island, Brundige Inlet
Once again Linda and I left our anchorage at first light.  The trip to Dundas Island is about 30 miles and the forecast was for little wind in the morning and rising to 15 knots by mid-day.  During the first half of the trip Chatham Sound was totally calm but then wind waves, not swells, began to appear.  The puzzling thing was that there was no wind.  At first the wind waves were very small but, as we progressed, they slowly got worse until they were 2-3 feet with an occasional 4 footer thrown in.  By the time we were 10 miles from Dundas Island the wind had started to increase and, eventually hit 20 knots.  We were too far from Prince Rupert to turn back so just had to keep plugging on.  As we turned into Brundige Inlet, we noticed another boat continuing to cross Dixon Entrance.  Through the binoculars we could see that out in Dixon Entrance the water appeared fairly calm.  Late in the afternoon two boats that we anchored with in Klewnuggit Inlet came in.  I talked with one of the people and learned that their passage up from Klewnuggit had been calm all the way including across Chatham Sound.

This is probably the roughest ride we’ve ever had in Hobbit.  Waggoner’s discusses the crossing and mentions that outflow from Portland Canal can cause problems but doesn’t give any specifics.  What we believe happened is that we were crossing Chatham Sound on a spring ebb tide when there were significant winds in Portland Canal.  The waves generated there flowed out into Chatham Sound many miles away which resulted in our seeing wind waves when there was no wind.  The two boats that came in late in the day had crossed Chatham Sound on a flood tide.  Dixon entrance had been calm because it was out of the influence of Portland Canal.  Lesson learned that you have to understand the situation in Portland Canal as well as that in Chatham Sound and Dixon Entrance.

May 29, Foggy Bay, Alaska
Linda and I are exhausted – both physically from the rises before dawn, and emotionally from the effort to get past weather and mechanical problems and on to Ketchikan to pick up Cash.  Nevertheless, we rose before dawn one more time in order to have maximum calm during our open ocean crossing of Dixon Entrance.  Fortunately, it was very calm, and we were able to anchor in Foggy Bay by 10:00 in the morning.

Dixon Entrance: Look carefully and you can see Mt. Fuji

Hobbit resting in Foggy Bay.  Note the narrow entrance

One my favorite pastimes is to take the dinghy out to the beach on low tides to explore and take pictures.  Today was an especially good day as the tide was just under minus 3 feet.  In addition to looking for myself, I have been doing some scouting for Professor Jennifer Ruesink from the University of Washington Biology Department.  Jen is just starting a sabbatical to study seagrass in the eastern Pacific.  She has been enormously supportive of me as I attend UW as an Access student, and I am pleased to be able to be of some small help to her. 

Hungry bear at low tide

Greater Yellow Legs

Lord of the relm

Trees create a vegetation line at the high tide mark

Seagrass with giant kelp by the entrance to Foggy Bay

May 30-June 3, Ketchikan
Today we slept in all the way to about 6:30; sometimes the body wakes up when you wish it wouldn’t.  As we cruised up to Ketchikan the sun was out, the wind was calm, and the sea was glassy smooth.  What more could one ask.  Our 809 nautical mile cruise to Ketchikan took 24 days, 126 hours on the engine, and 238 gallons of fuel. 

Hobbit’s wake on a glassy Revillagigedo Channel

Hobbit parked between a derelict fishing boat and
multi-million dollar yachts

The bandage on Linda’s burn (it’s healing nicely).
A man would use duct tape

It’s most fortunate we reached Ketchikan when we did.  A day later and we might not have been able to get here in time to meet Cash.  The weather has been rainy, windy (rarely less than 10 knots), and cold ever since we arrived.  Better to be at a dock in this kind of weather than at anchor for days bouncing in the wind.  There were enough breaks for us to do the laundry and some grocery shopping.  Mostly we have just been reading, working on photographs, and catching up on the journal.