Wandering the Inside Passage to Alaska

[Hunkydory]

George and Penny,

During the good times shared at the Lake Powell Gathering I remember your determined search for information on the inland channel and the honest apprehension on your combined ability to safely make the voyage, due to your limited experience on power boats. What a great example you are to the rest of us of what can be achieved in a short period of time with a willingness to learn and adventures spirit. And now, so far from home, so long on the road and sea. The Wanderer is aptly named. We have followed your adventures with envy and admiration. You've been doing and continue to do what most others only talk about and dream. Thanks for letting us share from afar your wanderings. Like Brent and Dixie said, "keep sending the updates and pictures".

Hope to see you again at a future gathering and hear in detail your adventures.

[Papillon]

Jay Wrote:

[Fun Patrol]

Don't run us down on your way back home! E-Ticket, Tosoro and Fun Patrol are northbound out of Pender Harbor, via Princess Louisa then north for another month or so. It's still too hot to return to Southern CA......eh?

Roy, Fun Patrol

[Wanderer]

Thanks for the kind remarks.

As soon as we catch up, after being home only 10 days in the last eight months, I'll try to bring our web site up to date.

Yes, we made a fast trip from Wrangell to Anacortes. I make a distinction between cruising and travelling. We spent our cruising time at a slow pace except when we had to get across a potentially nasty body of water. On the way back we travelled. However, I'd never run over a C-Dory. It would have been nice to visit with the ones we missed.

[Wanderer]

It was still raining the morning of July 12th. Visibility was poor, very poor. We had planned to visit Pierre’s and Kwatsi; but, decided that dock activity would not be enjoyable in the rain. Wanderer moved on and two hours later we topped up the tanks in Lagoon Cove and headed out into Johnstone Strait. We passed about 10 Grand Bank trawlers, also headed south, as we rounded the Broken Islands into the strait. The rain had eased and visibility had improved as we thumped our way south in moderate chop. At Sunderland Channel, we turned to port, hit Green Point Rapids at high slack water and went into Blind Channel Resort for lunch. After lunch, we stopped in Shoal Bay to await slack water at Dent and Yuculta Rapids. Our timing was good and the transit smooth. We motored on into a beautiful evening in protected waters. The final stretch was not so peaceful. Once through Whale Passage into Sutil Channel the full force of the wind blowing SE in the Strait of Georgia made for a lumpy ride into Gorge Harbor. We tied up at the marina at 20:15 – completing 116 nm.

July 13th and 14th

Except for a narrow entrance, Gorge Harbor is a small landlocked body of water. With whitecaps in the harbor, from wind blowing against our course toward the other side of the Strait of Georgia, we waited in pleasant surroundings and sampled lunch and dinner at the restaurant.

July 15th

The wind had gone north and was down to about 13 knots as we emerged into Sutil Channel for our transit of the Strait of Georgia. We laid a course to pass through Malaspina Strait leaving Texada Island close to starboard. From the tip of Texada we made for Gabriola Passage by passing Nanaimo and Dodd Passage. Gabriola presented no problem with a favorable maximum current of 7 knots. In smooth water and greatly increased boat traffic we motored on toward Anacortes stopping along the way to pour the last 15 gallons of fuel from jugs into our tanks.

We tied up in Anacortes at 15:45 completing 147 nm for the day and 2840 for the Inside Passage.

El and Bill from Halcyon called and alerted us to a gathering near Seattle. Sorry to say, we didn’t have the energy to make the gathering.

Sandy and Casey from Naknek met us at the dock. Casey went with me to get our trailer. We pulled the boat the next morning, rigged for towing and readied for the 3000 mile tow home. After lunch, with Naknek’s crew, we headed south.

We pulled into our driveway in Annapolis, MD in the late afternoon on July 21st.

[ffheap]

Welcome home. We shall be waiting for the rest of your pictures.

Fred

[colobear]

Glad you are safely home. What an adventure! Patti and I look forward to more news.

[Sawdust]

Great trip. too short a visit with you that was most enjoyable, and look forward to all the pics on you web site. Y'all come back! We enjoy our NW cruising and would love to talk over the details of your cruise. BTDT so many times, and haven't found a place from here to AK and back I wouldn't like to go back to and visit.

Dusty

[El and Bill]

Welcome home, friends. Glad you had a good trip back cross-country and that all's well. Sorry not to see you guys at Bellingham -- you folks came down from AK on the water almost as fast as we did on the land! Whew!

Have a great time with family at the impending arrival of the little one.

[Byrdman]

George and Penny: Man I truly look forward to our next visit...and your future postings and updates from your trip. Maybe you will be recovered and caught back up at home in time to make the Gulf Coast Gathering...in Oct06 in Eastpoint FL area. See the link in the Event Signups link. Who knows.... we may even be able to do some type of power point show Friday or Saturday night and share your pics....and pics from any others who want to bring a disk.

Byrdman...packing in Toronto...heading back to Bama tonight.

[Wanderer]

Below are some of the facts from Wanderer's trip up the Inside Passage:

We towed from the Florida Keys to Annapolis and then on to Lake Powell and then to Anacortes. 5096 miles.

On the Inside Passage, we were on Wanderer for 74 days in a row.

We went as far north as Auke Bay and as far west as the Pacific west of Craig.

We stopped for fuel 32 times.

Prince Rupert to Anacortes in 4 travel days of 181, 139, 116 and 147 respectively.

We towed home to Annapolis. 3065 miles. Had one blowout on tandem trailer.


Total Nautical Miles: 2,903.9
Total Eng. Hrs: 280.1
Avg. MPH: 10.4

Total US Gas Dollars: 3,909.22
Total US Gallons: 958.41
Avg. USD/Gal: 4.08

Total Miles: 2903.90
Total Gallons: 958.40
Avg. MPG: 3.03

Total US Gallons: 958.4
Total Eng. Hrs.: 280.1
GPH: 3.4

I’m working on our website, hopefully to show some of the magic of the area.

[SeaSpray]

Hi George and Penny,

Great pics on your site! Thanks for posting your numbers. I think yours are very similar to the others I have seen for this trip.

This comes out to a little more than $50/day just for gas. Is this a good average for most of your longer trips or is this trip just more miles?
Another way to ask this is if you spent 75 days on the east coast would you generally spend $50+ per day for fuel?

For those of us planning to get out there and do longer trips it really helps to understand how much we need to budget. In addition to fuel you still need to pay for food, marinas, maintainance, and other fun stuff.

Steve

[Wanderer]

Steve,

Penny and I have not kept records on previous trips. I don't know if $50 is a good per day gas price. We wanted to make the trip. We estimated 3 nm per gallon and did a wild guess on miles. Then, we threw out all the figures because we didn't like the answers and went anyway.

We do know we're glad we went. The experience was priceless.

[Pat Anderson]

And for everything else, there is MasterCard!

[Wanderer]

If any of you folks run into El and Bill of Halcyon fame, please give them a message for us. Tell them that we forgot to tell them about the Spirit Bear we saw in Foggy Bay.

Now, I'll have to admit that we were drinking some of Casey's green scotch; so, the details are not real clear. However, I did manage to get a picture.