Our actual time under sail for this trip has been far lower than we expected. About 90% of the time we have been under motor. Raising sail consistently becomes the kiss of death to any wind. To our amazement, it doesn’t just dwindle off. It just stops like somebody shut the door. Like our fishing, we optimistically hope for better, longer wind windows.
Janet and Tom Schmitt join us in Ketchikan. We have a final farewell dinner with Jane at (for once) a very good little restaurant. One thing we have noticed about the Alaskans is that, though their cooking leaves something to be desired, their friendliness and sense of humor are refreshing and fun. For the most part, they are eager to talk and engage one in conversation, and they love talking about their locale and land.
Tom, to my joy, is a fisherperson. He arrives with recently procured license, fi
shing pole and a collection of weights, spoons, spools and other stuff. However, this type of fishing is not what he is most familiar with so, like me, he engages any fishermen he sees in conversation. The difference is that he knows and understands what they are talking about. I do not. Next thing I know, Bill is into fish talk. They manfully discuss different weights and lures. They disappear into every fish or hardware store we pass to buy new gadgets that they know will work this time.
And they fish and fish, but they don’t catch and catch.
They keep trying and trying. Their luck has to change or their skill must improve.
Janet and I remain prepared - optimistic that the galley will be called into action.
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The attraction of this leg of our trip is Tracy Arm with its 2 glaciers at the end of a magnificent iceberg-ridden fiord. Along the way, we will stop in Wrangell and Petersburg with our final destination being Juneau.
Meyers Chuck is our first anchorage. The harbor is protected with its own natural breakwater of rocks.
We get out and explore. Columbine are blooming along the paths. Just like home! Tom eagerly engages the dockside fishermen in talk. We enviously admire their freshly caught salmon. We set out the crab trap. The guys fish in the bay. Nothing, nada, but we love our setting and are treated to a magnificent sunset.
Saturday, June 23rd, we anchor in the early afternoon in Frosty Bay. The weather has turned cold with rain threatened. We drop the trap, and the guys fish a bit, but rain soon drives them below. In true Americano fashion, we put on a movie and make popcorn. The movie is apropos for where we are. It’s about a bear cub orphaned in the BC wilderness. Having expected to wake up every morning to bears on the shores and not having that happen, it is nice to at least watch one in film. We watch those bears catch fish. Maybe we’re going about this all wrong.
The next day we motor to Wrangell in overcast and mist. We walk out to the beach where some very old petroglyphs can be spotted at low tide. There’s a mountain formation called The Elephant off the coast. We are told we are fortunate to be able to see it as it’s usually covered in clouds or mist. Not only do we see the mountain, but the clouds have even given the fellow an eye!
Earlier when we entered the harbor, we had been directed by the harbormaster to raft up against any appropriately sized boat already there. Fortunately we spotted the boat that we had rafted next to in Prince Rupert. Its owners, Joe and Jane, have become cruising friends and helped us tie alongside. As we’re all heading north, we keep meeting in various spots along the way. After a short discussion about Wrangell restaurants, we decide to pull together a joint dinner and eat on their boat. Their 65’ trawler with full size everything in the kitchen is much more comfortable for 7 than ours. It was a fun evening which we reluctantly cut short when news is dispensed to all that the 2 captains have decided that a 4:00 a.m. wake-up call is in order
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for us to leave Wrangell in time to reach the Wrangell Narrows at slack. Being an old hand at this stuff now and having First Mate Tom on board, I (and Janet) cozily sleep thru the harbor exit. The Wrangell Narrows, which we reach in 3 hours, is tricky with a myriad of buoys and markers. At night with all the marker lights on, the stretch has the nickname of Christmas Tree Alley. We pull into Petersburg in the late morning and eagerly walk the town before stopping for a good Halibut Sandwich lunch.Janet and Tom decide that they need to do a load of laundry. I add all our towels to their load. Now, the towels I have on the boat are micro fiber, the benefits of which are that they don’t take up a lot of space and they don’t grow mold. A negative is that using fabric softener on them will gunk them up, but without fabric softener, they and everything else in the wash with them stick together with static. To decrease this, I found these nubby-looking rubber balls that you throw in the dryer with the laundry, and they’re supposed to reduce static. It’s questionable, but I have them so I use them. Janet heads off to the Laundromat which, as Petersburg is first and foremost a fishing town, has about 6 rugged, young fishermen in there fumbling with their loads of laundry. Janet, who grew up at a time when mothers did not tell their children not to talk to strangers and who is also of the same congenial ilk as the Alaskans, immediately engages them in conversation. She’s having a grand time talking and learning from them when she opens the dryer door and out explode these 4 missiles. It’s the nubby rubber balls. I had forgotten to warn her about this propensity of theirs. The fishermen are aghast. What the X?X?X are those? As everyone is scrambling around the floor of the Laundromat struggling to corner 4 nubby rubber balls before they bounce out the door, Janet attempts to explain that the balls weren’t her idea really and that she has this stupid friend with micro fiber towels who……..Well, that’s the last time Janet will offer to do the laundry!
That evening, Tom walks down to the end of the dock and buys several pounds of freshly caught shrimp off the boat selling it. We feast on Shrimp sautéed in Garlic Butter. There certainly is something soul satisfying about eating
‘off the water”, whether we catch it or buy it.
After several overcast and rainy days, we wake to blue skies and sun
. We leave Petersburg for the final stretch to Tracy Arm stopping by Baird Glacier along the way. An eagle welcomes us to the land of Glaciers and Icebergs.
Heading to Baird Glacier, the water turns an icy cold green from glacier run-off.
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Depending upon the sunlight, the color of the water will change from a chilling green brown to a very pretty, non-threatening crystal green.
The deeper we travel into a fiord, the colder the air temperature becomes and the more layers we keep adding. Other than gloves, I am now in full regalia.
The day clouds up. With no wind and the water so very still, we feel like we are on a large mountain lake rather than the Inside Passage with the ocean only a few short miles away. As we
motor into Cannery Cove for the evening anchor, the sun again breaks thru.
We wind our way thru a group of islands to enter Cannery Cove
By habit now, we drop our trap as soon as we are anchored. This time we are very hopeful. There are a ton of other crab traps out. This must be a good spot. Tom and I drop it right in the middle. Next morning, Janet and I retrieve the trap. Nothing! Absolutely nothing. We pass a man going to his traps. Janet, in a sweet voice, sadly wishes him better luck than us. He nods and says that he thinks a good many of these traps have been there for days. We climb on the boat and, as we’re securing The Dingbat, this same man motors up to the boat with 2 very nice male crabs for us. How nice that Janet will engage all and sundry in talk! The man was so taken by our plight that he offered up 2 of his. We happily accept and thank him delightedly. Two more Dungeness Crabs to add to my Fishing Tally. I realize we didn’t actually trap these guys, but if we had not been crabbing, we would not have gotten them. So the total now is 5 Dungeness Crabs.
We head north to the only anchorage in Tracy Arm.
The wind is coming from the south. Bill decides to go thru the exercise of launching the spinnaker, and exercise it is with sheets, halyards and tackle going all different but definite directions. I don’t think of myself as 3-dimensionally challenged, but maybe I am. There will never be a time when I understand how to rig this sail, but Bill handles it neatly.
As Bill unfurls the sail, there’s a binding twist in the sheath that covers the sail, and we struggle to unsheathe the bugger. When the sail finally unfurls and is flying, it’s absolutely gorgeous. We sail smoothly on.
One pleased and satisfied Captain. Ours is the only spinnaker we have seen in the Inside Passage.
We glide along beautifully for a few hours and then we have what Janet afterward labels an “SI” – Spinnaker Incident. As we near Tracy Arm and start to take down the spinnaker, the wind rips up to 20+ knots and the bind in the sheathing really kinks. We are fighting wind and sail. The sheath to contain the sail only comes halfway down before binding. Tom turns the boat into the wind as Bill commands. The boat heels over with the force of the sail. Janet heads for higher ground with the First Mate not too far behind. The First Mate then gives herself a few good mental kicks in the posterior and, next thing you know, she’s scrambling topside to help Bill pull down the cover. Then, Janet’s out there pulling in sail. Tom’s at the helm. We’re all working together. What a team! Go Team! We get the sail in, breathe a collective sigh of relief and continue on to anchor and our donated crab dinner!
June 28 – Today is the day we go into Tracy Arm. Magically, we are under blue skies and sun. The day is even somewhat warm. Before heading into the fiord, we do a photo shoot of Avante and the icebergs. Tom and I are in The Dingbat, and Bill and Janet are on Avante as she gracefully passes by a few well-positioned icebergs. The day is so bright. The water so still and sparkling. The whole effect is surreal.
Tracy Arm – I do not have the words or the elegance to describe this place and this day. It was more of everything than any of us expected. The blue skies, the relative warmth, the iceberg fields, the steep chiseled walls, the views, the glaciers --- so very much more.
Entering Tracy Arm we find a few scattered icebergs which add to the effect.
We continue through 21 miles of gorgeous scenery.
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Sunlight and water create pastel reflections.
Steep, chiseled cliffs rise above as we glide over unfathomable depths below us.
Five miles before the glaciers we encounter a minefield of bergie bits
Fending off the ice becomes impossible as the pack ice thickens
Around every corner we encounter more ice, but we continue to be able to pick our way through.
Concentration at the helm
Eventually, we spot North Sawyer Glacier, but not far ahead, the path is obstructed by thick pack ice that the wind has blown to the north end of the arm
We round yet another corner and there with the clouds upwelling like a celestial version of the Alleluia Chorus lies the blue tinged South Sawyer Glacier. Maybe you had to be there to feel it, but we all caught our breaths in awe and surprise at the sight.
A half hour later, Bill declares victory. We’re as near the glacier as is safe and feasible. We have a quick lunch while drifting with the ice. Then we begin picking our way back through all the ice. The trip back is just as much work as the trip in. The wind and the current have changed the ice positions and erased our entry path. At the end of a long, wonderful day, we thank and toast a very tired Captain.
The next day begins our final miles to Juneau. It dawns grey and settles into rain by the afternoon. We anchor early hoping to fish, but the weather drives us all under cover. It’s a bridge afternoon! We all marvel at what a difference a day can make.
June 30th, we dock in Auk Bay roughly 15 miles from Juneau. The bridge one needs to go under to enter Juneau harbor is too low for Avante's mast so Auk Bay is where the big boys go as well as a good many of the local fishing fleet. It's an interesting combination of boats and boaters. We find out that you can fish from the docks and your boat as long as you don't tangle your line in somebody's prop. Sadly, we say good bye to Janet and Tom on July 1st. Bill and I will rest and restock for the next 3 days in Juneau, and I intend to fish!
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