Discovery and Hunkydory in South East Alaska 2015

7-7-2015

11.6 miles today to Warm Springs Bay tied to a public dock. We had problems with the windlass in Ell Bay but manually pulled the anchor and went on to Warm Springs. If you want a spot on the dock, you have to get there early and wait until a spot is available. We did get a spot shortly after getting there and went to work on the windlass. We cleaned all the wiring contacts and examined the windlass motor. Other C-Brats have had similar problems and we thought we may need to get a replacement. Luckily after working it over, Brent decided it may be the chain binding and a problem with the gypsy clutch. After cleaning all the electrical connections from the batteries forward, released and re-set the clutch, and all was well. Knock on wood. We are the little guy’s on the dock, with a 57’ Nordhaven, a 65’ of unknown manufacturer and a 42’ Nordic Tug. There is a big older steel sailboat, about 65’ that is a charter out of Juneau and it has a bunch of young boys, 20 something on it. They are having a great time doing Alaska on the cheap.

7-8-2015

We stayed over another day at Warm Springs Bay. It’s raining, we walked to Baranof Lake on the trail/boardwalk, fished from the dock and read.

7-9-2015

26 miles today from Warm Springs Bay to Red Bluff Bay. Clear, warm and with a south wind. 2’ chop. We anchored in the north east corner near the meadows. Jay likes to look for bears and we need an easy shore to dingy to with Rusty for potty breaks. Willie’s Tug and Nudibranch, two Rainger Tugs, came in in the afternoon.

7-10-2015

It has rained all night and most of the day. We are staying another night in Red Bluff Bay. Jay took the Moaki up the river on high tide and saw four brown bears. It looks like our luck with the warm and sunny weather has run out. The weather has gone to more typical Alaska summer conditions.

7-11/12-2015

28.4 miles today from Red Bluff Bay to Gut Bay. This is further south on Baranof Island, and one of the less visited bays. It has a narrow entrance and the bay twists and turns for about 6 miles to the head where there is a small stream. We dropped the shrimp and crab pots, hoping for better results. The next morning there were a lot of Herring working around the boat. A large predator fish was feeding on the herring, making them boil out of the water. Brent cast a Bucktail Castmaster into the boils and hooked up with something huge. The fish rolled a couple of times and looked to be a Salmon about 4’ long. Probably a King (Chinook), the fish began taking line until it had almost spooled the reel. Brent thumbed the spool to slow it down, but the line parted. We trolled around the bay during the day and caught enough rockfish for dinner. We rebated the the crab traps with fish guts and dropped them again.
 
7-13-2015

31.9 miles today across Chatham Strait to the Bay of Pillars on Kuiu Island. We toured around the bay and saw two fishing camps. One was a nice log cabin still under construction and one was a floating riverboat that had been converted into a charter operation. We were disappointed in the fact that we saw no pillars of any type. We entered the inner lake thru the narrows on a strong ebb tide. The tide was up and all rocks were covered but there was a 3.5 knot current. We saw 5 black bears and several eagles. It was a very pretty lake.

7-14

This morning Brent and Jay realized that to gain help from the current and tide in Chatham Strait we needed to leave the inner lake in the Bay of (no) Pillars. At the time they realized it, it was like right now. However this was not the correct time for the narrows passage. We went to the beginning of the narrows and they looked it over—not exactly a reconnoiter in the dingy, but a look— and decided we could make it. Did they confer with Jolee and me—heck no! They powered up the motors and made the commitment with Jay in the lead—no turning back now. We were going against the flood and had to power up for control. What a ride!!! Swirling, boiling water with Jay trying to follow his tracks from yesterday and calling out the depths to Brent who was trying to stay right behind him without running over the Mokai. When we made it thru, Jays first comment was “well, that was the same rush you would get from 4 cups of coffee.” We have passed thru 3 rapids on this excursion and this one took the prize. The estimate was that the flood was running at 8 mph and the channel was less than 100 feet wide and 1/2 mile long. Dixie said “ that was fun! Let’s go back and do it again. This time, I’ll ride on the nose with the GoPro”.

Chatham Strait was just as we hoped and other than the rain and fog limiting visibility we moved along well. We saw whales, eagles, black bear and jumping coho salmon. We traveled 38 miles to Halleck Harbor in Saginaw Bay. Today the tide and current were with us all day long.

7-15

46.5 miles today from Halleck Harbor to Portage Bay on Kupreanof Island. We made an early start to keep with the current as long as possible. Entered Portage on the start of the ebb tide at 2:30 p.m. Anchored just off a forest logging dock. The dock dries at low tides and there is a 19 ft. change today. The current was strong all night and it sounded like we were anchored in a river. Brent had to time his trips to shore with Rusty with the tide so he wouldn’t be swept out to sea in the dingy.

7-16

25.9 miles into Petersburg today. We walked to town after taking a slip for the next 3 days in the Petersburg harbor. Interesting area. It is the largest seafood cannery in Alaska and the harbor has lots of fishing boats. The cannery employs 1100 people during the summer fishing season. The town is a working town as opposed to a cruise ship town. The people are very friendly and we will enjoy the next few days re-provisioning, doing laundry and shopping. I just wish the weather would go back to the non-traditional Alaskan weather of sunshine instead of rain. Stuff is starting to mold!
 
7-17-2015

Still at Petersburg. Today was laundry day. We are giving up on shrimping and crabbing. There is some indication that crabbing is possible but everyone we talk to say they don’t know about shrimping. We put the pots away and will give up on that idea. Petersburg is a great little town with a nice,friendly group of people. We really are enjoying our time here.

7-18-2015

Today was a great day. We got to fill up with fuel 85.9 gal. of fuel ($313) and left the harbor to go to La Conte Glacier at speed. I requested that we do this trip off the regular “Putt Speed” and go at what was most comfortable. We went 47.4 miles to the glacier entrance. We weren’t able to get to the glacier because of the ice bergs. We got to within one and half miles of the face. We took so many cool pictures of icebergs and eagles and just cool stuff. We had Jay and Jolee with us and it was so fun to travel there together. It was amazing. We returned to the fuel dock and added an additional 25.3 gallons ($97.00) The real cost at running at speed but it was so worth it to me!! Returned to our slip and showed again. The hot water hose blew off and we had to do a little plumbing—just part of the deal with boating.

7-19

Filled the water and dumped the garbage and walked the dog and left Petersburg. Travelled 22.3 miles (6.0 gal of fuel) to Thomas Bay. We attempted to go to the Baird Glacier but it was too foggy and rainy so we ended up in Ruth Island Cove. The water was really muddy. DoriDaze (CD 25 from South Carolina) was anchored here too. Just before dark, Nudibranch—the ranger tug from Seatlle joined us too.

7-20

38.8 miles to Duck Point on Whitney Island in the Cleveland Passage. Foggy start and rough passage until we rounded Fanshaw Point. There were lots of whales and some dall porpoise.

7-21

Left Duck point to Gambier Bay. We ran with radar in thick fog. Hunky Dory was much more experienced and lead us along. At Five Finger Islands it turned sunny and clear and were treated to 40 to 50 whales bubble feeding. It was amazing. There would be 6 or 7 whales
working together that would all surface at the same time and then go down and blow bubbles to confuse the fish that they were feeding on. It was totally cool. Rusty, our dog was freaking and kept barking like he thought he was needing to protect us. Hunky Dory said they had never seen so many whales at the same time. We went 26.1 miles and have now used 23.1 gallons from Petersburg.
 
7-22-2015

Today we toured Gambier Bay in all the coves. We fished for Halibut but were unsuccessful while we waited for the tide change. We went 35.4 miles to Pleasant Bay on Seymour Strait. We saw many whales, some were actually breaching completely out of the water. Pleasant Bay was a small, well protected bay. We have used 31.1 gallons since fueling in Petersburg.

7-23

Still in Pleasant Bay for a few more days. Rained all night and the next morning. Jay went on the Mokai and saw grizzly bears fishing on the stream.

7-24

Dawned sunny and bright today and we all went to shore to burn garbage and enjoy the sunshine. We were able to see the bears in stream and enjoyed the time out of the boats. Brent caught two pink salmon in the stream. Returned to the boat and took care of the fish. We genned up some hot water and enjoyed a well deserved short shower.

7-25

Today we left Pleasant Bay and went 26 miles to Holkeim Bay on Stephans Passage. We anchored on east side of Harbor Island. This was the worst anchorage we’ve had and we pounded all night and felt like the anchor may not hold. Brent set up well into the morning before he was able to come to bed. Once in a while things just don’t work out as well as they should and this is what happens. We did hold anchor but it was not a restful night.

7-26

Today we went 31.6 miles to the fabled Fords Terror. OMG What a beautiful place!!! We have feared this place ever since we read Jay and Jolees record of their terrible experience here but we were so glad we came. The entire bay is surrounded by huge granite mountains with snow caps and water falls everywhere. We had an easy passage on a full high tide through the narrows. We anchored off the waterfall stream in the north arm and two black bears greeted us on our entry. It rained most all night and most of the next day—what’s new?!

7-27

Today we left Ford’s Terror on the high tide slack and travelled up Endicott Arm to Dawes Glacier. The water was rough and we kept thinking we might turn back. Dawes Glacier is notorious for not being able to get close to the face because of the icebergs. We just kept working our way towards the face and before we knew it, we were there. It was amazing!!! We could watch the calving of the glacier and just watched in awe at the whole thing. It was absolutely beautiful. The only problem was the rain but we are getting used to that. We spent several hours there and took lots of photos. We returned on the ebb tide to Ford’s Terror arm and entered on near low ebb tide. We returned to the same anchorage in the north arm and watched a huge black bear at the stream. We had salmon dinner from the salmon caught in Pleasant Creek with all four of us and had a great evening. It continued to rain all night.
 
7-28-2015

28.5 miles from Ford’s Terror to WoodSpit Cove. We left to time the exit with the low ebb tide at the narrows, but we screwed up and had a significant flood tide and there was much exhilaration for everyone as we exited. No danger—just fun. Unfortunately, it is still raining.

7-29

29.6 miles from WoodSpit to Taku Harbor Public float. We had a good flood tide all day and then we tied up to the nice public dock. We walked around on shore. We had a peaceful night tied up and not on anchor.

7-30

38.5 Miles today. We went to Juneau and intended on staying in the Harris Harbor, but that didn’t work out. Juneau is not a transient boater friendly place and had no showers or restrooms. We choose to wait for high tide and traverse the Mendenhall Glacier Bar to Auke Bay. The passage is 10 miles long and gets as shallow as 4.5 feet on a 15 foot tide. Interestingly enough we found depths of 2 feet with the 15 foot tide, but we made it just fine. Auke Bay is pretty and the marina is fine with the bathrooms and showers but they have no organization. You don’t get a slip assignment, and you just have to see what you can find. We ended up tied to the breakwater float with no power for $16 a night. We can move to another spot if we find one, but we are going to ride the bus to Juneau to shop and sight see tomorrow. It will be okay, but we are parked by a STINKY commercial fishing boat. Oh well, that’s the breaks!!!
 
7-31-15

We rode the bus to Juneau, and shopped for the last of the kids and grandkids presents. It's 13 miles to the end of the bus line in Juneau from Auke Bay. It rained again almost all day. The locals just go about their business like rain is the normal condition. We will be glad to return to the mountains and semi arid conditions of home.

8-1 to 5-15

We fueled at 7 AM. I put in 50 gallons, just to be safe in returning to Skagway. We ran at speed, mostly 18 to 20 MPH and made the 85 miles before noon. It was calm seas for most of the way today. An unusual condition for the Lynn Canal, but much appreciated by us for our final day of boating in Alaska. The truck and trailer were just as we had left them in June. I worried about the unsecured parking conditions in Skagway, with the trailer in one lot and the truck in the public lot in front of the harbormasters office. We washed the boat as well as we could, had lunch and left Alaska. We made it to Teslin, Yukon Territory by dark.

Over the next 4 days we traveled back through Canada and into the US and home. Its 2251 miles each way. We travel as much as we can each day and only spent 4 nights on the road. Washing the boat was a waste, there are miles of road construction, mostly in British Columbia, and of course it was also raining. The boat and truck are covered in Canadian mud.

I'll do a mileage and fuel consumption breakdown and report the results later.
 
Here are some statistics from the trip.

Total miles traveled by boat = 1235.5 sm.
Total fuel used = 362.8 g.
Miles per gallon for trip = 3.045 MPG

Total miles traveled at displacement speed = 1103.6 sm.
Total fuel used at displacement speed = 291.7 g.
Miles per gallon at displacement speed = 3.783 MPG

Total miles at speed (3800 RPM, 20 MPH) = 131.9 sm.
Total fuel used at speed = 71.1 g.
Miles per gallon at speed = 1.855 MPG

We only traveled at speed on two days. The day we went to and from LaConte Glacier from Petersburg, and the final day from Auke Bay to Skagway.

The remainder of the trip we tried to use the most efficient speed to extend our range. This turned out to be running on one motor and trying to maintain the RPM's below 2000. I alternated between the motors to keep the hour meters as equal as possible. The speed was greatly effected be the tide and currents. We traveled as slow as 4.5 MPH, against the current, or 10 + MPH with the current. We tried to adjust our daily schedule to take advantage of the tide/current. If the wind would be significant and against the tide, causing a bad chop and swells, or we had to go against the tide/current, we adjusted. We stayed in port or at anchor on a few days to avoid these unpleasant, unfavorable conditions. We did get caught a few times when the wind came up unexpectedly.

Traveling at trawler speeds was counter to our nature, but we got used to it and learned to enjoy the scenery. It did result in some long days however. It was a treat to run 20 MPH on the two days we did. I had changed to 4 blade 17" pitch props for this trip. Anticipating better low speed, heavily loaded efficiency. I have no way to determine if this hypothesis was born out. The 4 blade props did seem to hurt our MPG at speed. We usually can get 2 to 2.25 MPG loaded, with the 17" 3 blade stainless props we normally use.

I guess the lesson here is that you can extend the range of the TomCat, to more than twice its normal range, if your willing to slow down and enjoy the ride.

We had a great time with Jay and JoLee on this Alaska trip. They were exceptional, experienced guides, and great company. Thanks for organizing this South East Alaska adventure.
 
Some more info on the trip.

Total cost for 362.8 gallons of boat gas was $1446.95 or $3.99 per gallon.
Total cost for moorage for 17 nights was $368.78
Two months trailer storage in Skagway was $150.60

So the total boat associated costs were $1966.33 Of course I'll have to change oil and filters and do regular maintainance on the boat and motors now that were home.

We traveled 5102 miles towing from Utah to Skagway and back home. I didn't keep close records on the truck fuel costs. We stayed in the boat every night, whither on the water or land. I'll estimate the truck fuel cost at about $1600.00
We had to eat etc. anyway so overall the trip was about $3600.00 for two months vacation. Not bad at all.
 
Good write-up and recap on your AK trip, mileages, and costs. Thanks.

I have been considering switching to a (single) four-blade prop but haven't done it (yet). With the cost of a SS prop, one doesn't do that on a whim. I know many vendors will permit you to 'try a different prop, but we would want to do it on an extended basis to really get good data.

Most of our cruising is in displacement mode and frankly I have no complaint on current performance. On those occasions went we do put Dessert 1st up on plane, she doesn't complain ... it just takes a while to gently get her up there. (Like most folks we cruise pretty heavily loaded.)

So ... if you, or anyone else, have some in-depth thoughts on four blade prop's I'd like to hear them!

Best,
Casey&Mary
...currently at Brockport (NY) on the Erie Canal (Day 127 & 2346sm)
PS: we're LOVING the Erie Canal. As most folks have confirmed, the western end seems to be better, and the abundance of free or (very) low cost services and dockage is amazing. This is like boating-lite ... you rarely even bother to check the wx! We have even discussed coming back (a rarity for us...) and spending a whole season putt'sing up and down the canal staying at our favorite places, moving-on, then coming back, etc.
 
Back
Top