Ketchikan

We were treated to one last gorgeous view before we left. It was brief, and clouded over again. Our neighbor, Larry, gave us a beautiful assortment of fish, crab and prawn for our trip home; along with some adorable octopus mugs his son 3D printed. I heard over and over that the people make Wrangell pretty special. It is true.

We were up and at em early for a 4:30 am departure. Drats. Fog had moved in. We discussed our options about what to do. We wanted to leave as early as possible as the tide was falling and Zimovia Narrows is pretty shallow in spots. We also have an 11 hour day ahead of us and forecasted afternoon winds building Clarence Strait to 3 feet. We waited about half an hour and could tell that the visibility was improving, so we cast off our lines for the last time at Shoemaker.

Good choice. The nice thing about fog: dead calm. We had smooth seas, very light traffic and the visibility was good and improving. We have been through Zimovia Narrows several times and are SO GRATEFUL for the bread crumbs on our chart plotter. While it IS very well marked, you make two very sharp turns and each time we are questioning the best course. We made it through just fine though.

The rest of the cruise was cake. We were blessed with a gorgeous calm, SUNNY day! We saw six whales, a few herd of deer, lots of salmon leaping out of the water and relaxed up on the flybridge. Haha. So fickle. The sun was burning our legs – were we already wishing for a little cloud cover? The 3 foot seas out in Clarence never even materialized. Right outside of Ketchikan, Clarence Strait intersects with Cleveland – it’s pretty big water and can have confused seas but it was better than we expected.

The BEST part of the cruise was the ride along we got from 5 Dall’s porpoises. They stayed with us a very long time. Easily 5 minutes.

And then – Tongass Narrows which leads into Ketchikan. Now we have a barge repositioning, a cruise ship heading out, airport ferries to watch for all while sea planes buzzed us and fishing boats waked us. The cruise ship hailed us and said we would pass port to port. Thank you, Captain! We were listening to the barge working channel and had a good idea what he was doing. We followed a fishing vessel in and managed to dodge the airport ferries. Boy howdy was it sporty – the winds really picked up and now it is time to dock. Of course.

We headed to Thomas Basin to the Ketchikan Yacht Club. Drats. No spots available. We hailed the harbormaster. He had a spot for us in Thomas Basin. Yay. Safely docked. We are in the slip that Dancing Bear was in last year for the Flotilla. That made us think of Ray and I reached out to see what he was up to and say hi. Boy, I wish I was heading south with that group. If you ever have a chance to boat with buddies, do it. It’s the best.

Now. We wait. Our weather router will check in with us today. I’m thinking it will be this weekend. Meanwhile, rather than hang out in an anchorage we thought we would just hang out in town. It’s fun to watch the hive of activity. It’s 6 am and already 3 cruise ships have pulled in. Plus, we have a few items we need to pick up.

Also, the wind has been howling and is not supposed to let up for two days. That’s really no fun in an anchorage.

You won’t hear from us again until we head out.

Talk Soon.