Alaska in a 16 Cruiser?

[Aiviq]

The delta anchor should be good. There is usually no shortage of well protected anchorages, but in a few places water can be very deep right up to the shoreline.

I've always wanted to explore Portland canal. You might have a look at using Stewart/Hyder as an alternate jumping off place rather than Prince Rupert. The Portland fiord is 70 miles long, so you would need ample fuel to get around to Ketchikan. Interestingly, Hyder Alaska doesn't have a customs station, so it's one of the few places in the U.S. (maybe the only place) where you can enter the U.S. from Canada without clearing customs. You would still need to clear in Ketchikan, though.

Speaking of customs, be careful about stocking up your larder in Canada before crossing into Alaska. Customs doesn't alow most fresh produce or meat across the border. Most canned and packaged stuff is OK, but check their web site.

I highly recommend the Hemmingway/Douglass cruising guides (and map). Have fun.

[Aiviq]

The delta anchor should be good. There is usually no shortage of well protected anchorages, but in a few places water can be very deep right up to the shoreline.

I've always wanted to explore Portland canal. You might have a look at using Stewart/Hyder as an alternate jumping off place rather than Prince Rupert. The Portland fiord is 70 miles long, so you would need ample fuel to get around to Ketchikan. Interestingly, Hyder Alaska doesn't have a customs station, so it's one of the few places in the U.S. (maybe the only place) where you can enter the U.S. from Canada without clearing customs. You would still need to clear in Ketchikan, though.

Speaking of customs, be careful about stocking up your larder in Canada before crossing into Alaska. Customs doesn't alow most fresh produce or meat across the border. Most canned and packaged stuff is OK, but check their web site.

I highly recommend the Hemmingway/Douglass cruising guides (and map). Have fun.

[NewMoon]

Two main locations of calving glaciers in SE AK outside of Glacier Bay:

Le Conte Bay, about 20 nm SE of Petersburg has the southernmost tidal glacier.

The entrance of Holkham Bay is about 50 nm south of downtown Juneau. It includes the superb Tracy Arm and its North and South Sawyer glaciers, and the Endicott Arm with the Dawes Glacier and the interesting Fords Terror. If you can handle a trip of 75-80nm one way from Juneau you can do the Tracy Arm. For pictures check out our album.

I also highly recommend the Douglass guides. If you like I could send a copy of the anchorage list(s) we've built up over the years, picking out those that seem most workable for us. Most are described in the Douglass guides, but not all.

[NewMoon]

Are you thinking of motoring across from the mainland to Gwaii Haanas? That's about as challenging a trip for a small boater as you could find. Long, very shallow waters with lots of wind, often very rough conditions. You'd want lots of slack in your schedule to wait for the ideal weather conditions.

[AJF]

The holding ground can vary considerably through out SE-Alaska so having 2 anchors types is sometimes required. The Bruce and standard plow have always worked good for me. Yes there are other calving glaciers outside of Glacier Bay such as Tracy Arm, but they are a bit off the beaten path thus requiring some extra fuel and there is no real good anchorage close by if the weather gets really bad. Glacier Bay still has the best glaciers unless you want to head north of Cross Sound up towards Yakutat. Cruise ship wake, state ferry and fast ferry wake plus some of whale watching fast catamarans are all a pain to deal with in a small boat but hard to avoid especially in the Lynn Canal.
You might not know this but through out the Tongass National Forest there are remote cabins that you can rent http://www.fs.fed.us/r10/tongass/cabins/cabinlist.shtml if you have the desire to get off the boat.

[bjidzik]

Depends on what you use the boat for. I've seen a lot of Bruce anchors used on C-Dories here in Juneau, but I've also seen CQR & Delta anchors as well.

I haven't anchored much around Juneau, so I can't attest to the pros & cons of the above.

[marco422]

[thataway]

I personally would not want to spend a month or so in a C Dory 16 doing SE from Prince Rupert. Looking a bit longer range at the economics, if you can swing buying a 22 or 25 you will far more comfortable. If you buy a 22 keep it a couple of years, and then sell it, the chances are that you will have "lost" little if any money. But have gained a fantastic experience. (we have even run into folks "cruising" in a 13 foot whaler, and of course several doing Seattle to Skagway in Kayaks. So the "seaworthyness" issue is not really an issue if you watch your weather. This last summer we only sat out 1 day because of weather in SE AK, and one day tucked behind a trawler when it got rough, and allowed him to knock the waves down, so we could maintain 7 to 8 knots.

We have cruised in that area a total of 6 summers, and never had a concern about water--there are many ways of conservation--especially in a small boat--about all you really need is for drinking and a few gallon jugs or 5 gallon cans will get you by if careful. We have cruised almost every charted area, and a few uncharted areas along the way. This last summer in the C Dory 25, we went from Petersburg, to Pybus, then to Ford Terror, and to Juneau and had plenty of fuel for the trip--which was close to 200 miles, with our few detours along the way.

We did explore Dundas Bay this year for the first time, but had been into Glacier twice before. We found that cruise ships are there for only short times--and that with an extension you can get 2 weeks in Glacier Bay, and thus explore all parts.

I don't see any difference in Customs on either side of the border in the last 20 years, except that on the US side, they seem to want to see a video of the passports or report in person--but occasionally we had to report in person in the past.

My biggest concern in any really small boat, is the cramped area for "living" especially if you cannot spend much time ashore. The issues in SE include the high tidal ranges, the bears, the cold weather and water.

I have used CQR, Delta and Manason Supreme anchors, all with excellent success.

[Hunkydory]

We received the advice to use the Bruce style over sized anchor from the Douglass guide. Has worked great for us. Also use a smaller Bruce for a spare along with a very small folding Dansforth Fortress. Sure wouldn't disagree with any of Bob's choices though won't change from the Bruce.

No customs stop for entering Hyder, Alaska but there is a Canadian custom check when entering back into Canada. Would save having to stop for custom's at Ketchican. Have never been down the Portland Canal out of Stewart or Hyder, but did study that route as a possibility. It can produce very strong winds with very few places to protect yourself from them. With the limited information of preparing for both routes and only taking the Prince Rupert one, I would still advise Prince Rupert.

I agree fuel weight in a 16CD would be much more of a problem then water. Sticking to the main routes would I think be in easy range, but that would eliminate much of the great places. We have gone 256 miles between fueling in our CD22 and think at least 200 miles with more for a safety condition a good goal. Don't know if the CD with all the other necessary items can handle that much weight in fuel or not.

Many are concerned about the Lynn Canal, but having made the trip from Juneau to Skagway, Alaska on a single 40hp motor in our 22CD and several others including my first ocean cruise and especially with the CD16 being so easy to tow it is for me now and would be my route of choice to recommend for someone else on a 16CD or 22CD wanting to see the area between Glacier Bay and Petersburg, Alaska including Laconte Glacier.

Jay

[AJF]

I've enjoyed reading all the comments about cruising SE-Alaska and I think you've got some good information out of this thread. Though there is one area that I think you should look carefully into as you would be bringing a Canadian vessel into U.S. waters. For Canadians the cruising situation has changed for us since 2006. In the early 70's we had to get cruising permits that allowed us to cruise SE for 6 months then we had to get our boats out of US waters for a period of time before we could go back in. I forget the exact year but there was a time up to 2006 when we could leave our boats in SE all year with no problem, then 2006 came along. We now have to get yearly cruising permits, there are vessel reporting requirements, personal identification requirements have changed, and the list of supplies that you can bring into SE on your boat has changed etc. All this information is accessible on the internet.
Pointers that I can give you that will make some of this easier.
Have a passport with you for customs crossings, coast guard inspections or homeland security inspections this document can sure makes things simpler
Know what the list of food supplies you can bring across the board is. Though buying things in Alaska is expensive watching things get confiscated at the border or having your vessel torn apart during an inspection; then the alternative to buying supplies in Alaska is probably the least costly.
Most officials are quite good and pleasant to deal with but there are a few who really need a couple of good courses in people skills and those ones have ended up making a cruise in SE a less than memorable experience for me. For some other Canadians who had their boats here for many years, they ended up taking them back down to British Columbia, or ended up getting the boat registered in the Alaska to avoid the hassles.
All the above is simpler to do then trying to buck the system I find.

[journey on]

I will keep repeating this: when you anchor in the PNW, including BC and NE Alaska, 90% of the time you're anchoring in mud, with a few rocks thrown in.

The best for mud is the Bruce/claw type anchor. The Danforth seems good in mud, though I don't have a great deal of experience with that. The Delta is a plow type anchor, as is the CQR. The only times I dragged a plow was in mud and loose sand. I tried a Mason Supreme and it dragged in mud, which seems reasonable looking at the flat pointed profile. The Supreme works great in seaweed, of which I didn't find much up north, but a lot in SoCal. The Fortress' are too light for their size and are hard to set.

Note that everybody likes their own type of anchor. I use the Bruce, Supreme and danforth depending on the bottom. They're all good anchors.

Boris

[thataway]

Anchors are sort of like religion. We cruised the PNW and SE Alaska in our Cal 46 for 4 summers --Leaving Sequim in April and returning in Oct. or 6 months each year, a total of 24 months full time equavilant. We used only a CQR plow and only drug one time. That was in an exposed anchorage, with what I like to call "ball bearing rocks"--about 2 to 3" in diameter, which nothing will hold in. Our experince is that the bottom is a course mud/sand mixture which is very cohesive, not a soft mud.

In a similar bottom (cohesive mud/sand) in our local bay, we found the Manson Supreme to be best, then the Delta, Fortress and finally the Danforth HT. (Other anchors were less effective--again in our objective testing--as objective as any anchor test can be)

We have a lot of experience with soft and poorly cohesive muds on the East coast. There the plow and delta is a poor anchor, but not in our experience in the PNW. The best anchor is the SuperMax, by Creative Marine, next is the Fortress, and then a High Test Danforth. Our own experience is that in our hands we have not been happy with the Bruce, but again--like religion--what works for you is best.

You must have a passport to cross the border from Canada to SE AK and visa versa.