SE Alaska 2013

Katmai arrived in Petersburg on Wednesday. Had a good ride
up from Wrangell w/ a night at anchor in the lee of Keene Island.

When we got to Petersburg we ran into Russ & Toni on the dock,
and enjoyed a great happy hour aboard 'Traveler.

Moorage here is the same as Wrangell ( <$19/night w/elec).

We left Petersburg yesterday and tried to get to Le Conte glacier
but ice blocked our path about 2-3mi out (but we saw LOTS of
icebergs!). ...so we headed over to nearby "Ideal Cove" to anchor
out for the night. The only other vessel in the cove brought a fresh
crab just before dinner. ...so we had fresh crab to go with our salmon.
(Life is Good!)

The next leg of this trip will be our longest; to Juneau. We hope to go via
Tracy Arm this time - but I have to recompute the mileage & fuel beforehand.
(No fuel stops on this leg.). Happily, the autopilot makes displacement (slow)
cruising Very simple, and Greatly increases our range.

Our pizza just arrived, so it's LUNCH TIME!

Best,
Casey&Mary
 
Greetings 'Brats!

Katmai arrived in Juneau yesterday after a run from Taku Harbor.
the previous day, we were at "No Name" cove at the entrance to Tracy Arm. We explored all of Tracy the day before, in Spectacular wx. Earlier in the day (we departed from Entrance Is) and had a bumpy ride for a couple hours - that even had me calling USCG/Juneau with a position/safety report just to be cautious. For about twenty to thirty minutes it was just plain Crappy - but once again the boat performed flawlessly (even if my pulse was 'up a bit). Meanwhile, Mary was enjoying the Ride (glad Someone was!).

As we arrived in Juneau, Russ & Toni (Traveler) saw us coming in and took a couple pictures. After showering and strolling through downtown amid four cruise ships of visitor's, we again joined R&T for happy hour.

We'll be at Harris Harbor (H5, slip 15) for another night, then plan to move up to Auke Bay for a few nights. While at Auke Bay we hope to catch a Wx-window that will permit us to make Haines/Skagway on our own bottom vs. riding the AMHS ferry - which will permit us to stay in each place longer (than getting pricey motel rooms). Stay tuned.

We're looking forward to "fish taco's" for lunch at a place downtown, then we may find somewhere with Wifi to use the iPad (versus thumb-typing).

Best,
Casey&Mary
 
Friday morning at the IGA Foodland in Juneau.

We finally caught up with Russ & Toni (Traveler) and enjoyed seeing them, happy hours, etc. Yesterday the highlight, in my opinion, was visiting the Russian Orthodox Church (built in 1894) and having an opportunity to visit the the youngish Monk who was there for the summer. He'd been at the church for less than two weeks, and was posted to Juneau for the summer from a monastery in Pennsylvania. Extremely interesting.

It looks like we'll head north shortly, through the Mendenhall Bar Passage to Auke Bay. The channel requires a 14.5 tide (I'm told...) and high tide is at 1233, and it's a 14.5 ... so here-we-go! We plan to be enroute by 1100 to catch the rising tide through the 'skinny area. Hopefully.

The wx forecast for Lynn Canal on Sunday and Monday's calling for SE @ 10k, so we're hoping to ride the good wx to Skagway. Hopefully.

...and our mail-drop should be at the downtown post office. Hopefully.

...lot's of 'Hopin going here!

Best,
Casey&Mary
 
I'm not much of a blogger and admire those folks that have the patience, dedication and commitment. Too much like homework for me. But I do like to post photos. So I'll let Casey take care of the narrative and I'll be the photographer. Just got some more photos uploaded to our album. Check them out if you have a minute. SE Alaska is just GORGEOUS!! We saw 13 whales in one day. Seals, sea lions, eagles. Amazing.

I took this photo while at Tracy Arm. That's South Sawyer Glacier behind the iceberg with the seals. Just as I was feeling like a National Geographic photographer, right around the corner was a National Geographic boat! It's the same one that we've crossed paths with several times. I think they found out that Casey has done this trip four times before and knows all the good spots so they are following us.

If you can't do SE Alaska on your own boat, do it however you can...the National Geographic boats or even a cruise ship. It's just gorgeous.

IMG_7982.sized.jpg
 
Nice pictures of Tracy Arm. I would recommend in the future you don't go up to floating icebergs/ice chunks that close. They have a habit off rolling over with no warning, sometimes with disastrous consequences, especially when you are as close as shown in your picture.
The rolling over is basically caused by ice being less dense than water and when the ice above the surface starts to melt, the larger amount of ice below the surface wants to float and causes the iceberg to flip.
 
A couple years ago we chartered a 64' yacht to do SE, what a great trip, next summer we plan on spending a few months up there in our new boat.

Enjoy

Don and Brenda
 
Casey and Mary,

I'm enjoying your post and photos! You were able to get much closer to the South Sawyer than we were able in 07 because of all the Bergie bits. Casey, what are you using as a guide/chart that shows enough updated info and detail to navigate the Mendenhall Bar? We flew over part of it last summer and it looks challenging. It's on my "list" partly because it's a long way around the south end of Douglas Island.

Thanks again for including the Brats on your travels,

Don
 
Made it through the Mendenhall Channel ok, but rather exciting
for a few minutes! Details later ... after we can find a Wifi.

Best,
C&M
 
Casey and Mary, We are enjoying your posts. Having done this trip before we understand the.condensation problem. We just returned fron B.C. This time we were determined to stay dry. We installed a new diesel heater which worked great. Because that is not an option for you now I do have an idea. I taped ice mat to the interior walls. Ice mat is a closed cell foam about 1/4 inch thick that is sold at marine stores. It is used to cover the ice in commercial fish totes to keep it longer. It cuts easy with sissors or knife. I taped it with white duct tape to the sides of the berth and next to the table. It wasn't pretty but it worked like a charm. You may be able to get a couple yards in Skagway. You'll be glad you tried it. Safe travels...Margaret
 
Hi 'Brats!

Yesterday's trip from Harris Harbor (downtown Juneau) to Auke Bay via the Mendenhall Bar went fine but it had a challenging couple of moments. Here's the story.

The Mendenhall Bar is a six mile winding, shallow-water route through the flats from downtown Juneau, northward toward Auke Bay. It is well marked (I'm told the USCG repositions the buoys each Spring to keep up with the shifting shoals), but at its shallowest portion vessels only have 4' on a 14.5' tide(!).

Yesterday the high tide was at 1233 and 14.5', so theoretically we could make the passage if everything went as planned. At 1115 we were ready to be underway, and proceeded toward the day marker at the southern end of the passage. The day marker has a tide gauge that shows the depth at the shallowest portion of the bar. At 1130 the marker showed that the shallowest part was 2' ("...Hmmm, this IS going to be skinny!), but the tide was still one hour before High. Looking at the excellent tide data shown on the iPad's Navimatics program it appeared there was still about 16-18" of tide coming-in. We wanted to pass the shallow point at 12Noon (:30 before HI) so if something went went wrong we'd still be on a rising tide*. We continued up the well marked channel at displacement speed until the depth showed five feet. At that point we wanted to kick it up on plane to scoot 'through the shallows. Motor down, tabs down, Power On, and Off We Went!

So there we were - speeding through the increasingly shallow areas at about 26mph; approaching the Shallow area. Looking ahead I saw what 'appeared to be a sandbar along the right shoreline, and slightly farther it "appeared" to completely block the channel. Oh $xxx !! Earlier, we had observed some tan-scummy stuff floating here and there along the way, but this time it looked EXACTLY like a solid sand spit completely blocking the channel. Quick thinking time. We reasoned that it "had" to be floating scum versus a sandbar, but moved to where it appeared somewhat narrower - at least if we ran aground it would be in narrow part. Swell ... meanwhile Mary was bracing for a high speed Impact, and claims she saw her Life passing before her eyes.

...and in a moment it was over!

What appeared to be a sandbar WAS only floating scum and we were Through, but it provided some exciting moments.

We proceeded to Auke Bay, fueled, and were lucky to find a spot in the Very busy harbor. There is a opening tomorrow for commercial fishermen in Lynn Canal, and Auke Bay is full of vessels who've prepositioned themselves for moving to the fishing grounds. Interesting; but very busy. This was probably the best day ever. Sunny and warm - we were even wearing shorts! It sort of felt like Florida with Mountains & Eagles.

So it's Saturday morning, and we're about to try the Juneau bus system and make a grocery run to Walmart.

Life isn't Good; it's GREAT!

Best,
Casey&Mary
* A few days ago some Juneau residents told us about an earlier grounding on what locals call the Mendenhall Bar of Shame. Evidently a visiting boater aboard a larger vessel was attempting to navigate the Mendenhall and received a call from one of the many houses along the waterway. When advised that he was probably too large for this area, and Certainly too large for the tide at that time, he replied that he was the Commodore of his yacht club at home was well versed in this sort of passage. The shoreline resident simply responded with - OK ... good Luck (and probably called some of his neighbors to watch what was going to happen). Shortly thereafter the vessel went aground on a falling tide. To make it worse, evidently it was at the time of the month(or season) when subsequent tides were getting smaller, not larger. The end result was the vessel was aground for a MONTH before he could get a tide sufficient to refloat his boat. ...but presumably he had a free place to stay for the month. Fun story whether true or not, but we had no reason to think it was just a Mendenhall yarn.
 
Casey,

I sure enjoyed your tale of the Mendenhall Bar crossing. During our passage of it in 2007 we kept it at displacement speed all the way due to thinking there could be possible discarded junk & the best route a bit iffy at times. This is my account of the crossing written that year.

"We both were looking forward to showers ect in Juneau, but the harbor facilities were very poor, so with the tide being close decided to cross the Mendenhall Bar to Auke Bay. This short cut can save a lot of time and fuel, but isn’t advised to be tried by the more faint at heart or at least so suggested our Cruising Guide. It said many boats have been left there high and dry to be laughed at by the locals. Fortunately for us they had to save their laughter for some other unfortunate. Started with a 12.5 foot tide and came out the north side with 14.5 feet. Went slow due to poor water visibility and not knowing what cast offs may have been under the surface. The bar drys at 10 feet, so paid close attention to the markers. It at least had markers unlike Dry Pass, Chichagof Island. No comparison really due to a mistake here being just laughter. If we had screwed up in Dry Pass a bleacher full of laughter would have been welcome compared to the alternatives. Was using running lights by the time we docked at Auke Bay."

The bus system from Auke Bay to around the Juneau area is very good, but to us after being on a slow moving boat made for a white knuckle ride at times.

Looking forward to you & Mary's sharing your upcoming ride to Skagway.

Jay
 
'Brats,

This has been a phenomenal day! We got up at 0400 to catch the new wx forecast, and although it seems to change from day-to-day, looking back over the past few days notes (and forward for the next few days) it appeared today was probably the best wx we'd see this week. So we decided to go for it.

We were underway at 0600 and ran 24-25mph the whole way to Skagway. There were a few bumps here and there, but nothing alarming. Mostly 0-2' with some 3-footer's thrown-in for a few miles. All things considered; it was Great for the Lynn Canal.

Arrival at the small boat harbor was routine. Moorage is $0.37/ft + $10/day for electricity. The harbor has four showers (two work...) and is convenient to town. (Previously, I forgot to mention Juneau moorage costs. As I recall it was about $18/day with electricity.)

Tomorrow we're set to ride the White Pass and Yukon Railroad.

We'll be in Skagway for a few days (don't really know how long...)before turning South to Haines. After that our plan is to begin revisiting the wx sites and make our southbound plans for Hoonah, Elfin Cove, and Pelican, then backtrack to Sitka, etc. Beyond that things are less clear. We want to visit Baranoff Warm Springs, Red Bluff Bay, and (hopefully) Craig on this trip.
Stay tuned....

Best,
Casey&Mary
 
So, here's a question relative to low tides and 4 or 5 feet above the bottom at that low tide.

To set up the question: In the great salt lake, a quite shallow lake, when the winds blow, the wave peaks and bottoms can very nearly cause a boat to ground at bottom of the wave, in places where without waves there would normally be 4 plus feet of clearance.

Thinking about your experience crossing the bar with low tide and not a lot of water underneath, I'm wondering about the possibility in the right wave condition of having a false sense of security about water under the hull when dealing with PREDICTED tides and water depths. etc.

I would think that there would be the possibility of momentary groundings at the bottom of the waves.

Just musing away the day.
 
My guess (and it's Only a guess) is that the Great Salt Lake situation is, at best, much less predictable than ocean/earth/moon generated tides which have been studied for centuries. My guess is that GSL water is much more prone to wind-stacking than deeper ocean waters.

Even in the Mendenhall bar, which is mostly shallow and protected, I think that tidal predictions vastly overwhelm lesser forces (like wind/wave stacking). Naturally, I'll defer to local's, who certainly have more experience.

We rode the 'train this morning; a great trip. We strongly recommend it!

Sitting here on the boat, finishing a glass of wine with my grilled cheese sandwich(s) ... Life isn't good; it's GREAT!!!

Meanwhile this cruise boat crowd is walking back to their ships (there are four again today) for their 9th feeding of the day. The 'entourage passes just above the small boat harbor. Wonder how many folks comment-on the 'crazy people "down there" in that TINY boat?!

...their loss! :-)

Best,
Casey&Mary
 
It was wonderful meeting both of you, Casey and Mary. Sorry we didn't meet up with you later today, but we decided to head for home after a fun filled day on the water. What a day! We harvested about 30 jumbo prawn (which we ate on our boat), seen another whale (humpback I think) and were surrounded by a colony of sea lions. It's not fair to have to go back to work. Happy 4th of July where ever that may be (Hoonha?) Have a safe and great return trip.

Troy and the Girls.
 
Katmai is in Haines, and we are planning to be here through at least Thursday or Friday, waiting for another wx window for the southbound trip to Funter Bay and Hoonah (then Elfin Cove, etc).

Haines is an interesting small town; looks like it would be a Great place to live. There appears to be LOTS of community involvement - and many residents seem to be of like-mind regarding small town life. ...a bit of a rarity in these Times. I can't count the number of when we've had conversations with local residents or travel-through visitors and the conversation moves into the :45-1:00+ realm. Yesterday we bought some Dungies from 'Terry who came to Haines after Vietnam, married, raised a family and found his Home. He eventually retired as a SGM from the Alaska National Guard, and 'poof, another hour Gone. It just seems that Everyone in Haines has an interesting story - and the time to tell it....

Mary just finished reading a book about Haines titled "If You Lived Here I'd Know Your Name" (by Heather Lenes). Mary raved about the book, and once we arrived there was simply no way we would be moving-on for a while. Everyone is already talking about the July 4th events, so we'll be able to see their parade. One person told us it was rather small - so they may go around twice. God, we Love this place!

Yesterday we partook (is that a word?) of the weekly crab potluck at the RV park by the water (that's also where the only shower is located...). We had an opportunity to visit with RV-folk, some local's, and some fellows traveling through on motorcycles.

Everyone seems to be out doing stuff from their Bucket List(s). Us too!

Best,
Casey&Mary
...layin back in Haines
 
Katmai is in Haines ... still.

Yep, and the wind continues to 'blow. On Sunday our review of the forecast suggested that if we wanted to leave (Sunday) would be the day. But we'd only arrived on Saturday, and wanted some more time in Haines. Having looked at the extended forecast, we knew it would probably be Thursday (4th) or later before we'd have another departure "weather window". ...and we'd be able to participate in the July 4th celebration in town.

It's now Wednesday, and the forecast through Sunday is still calling for winds in the 20-30k realm with seas' 4-6'. Glad we're not in a hurry.

All of this reminds me of an affliction common to boaters and pilots: "Get-Home-itis". Back in the days when I was flying in Alaska more than a few folks made bad decisions because they HAD to get home ... for work, appointments, dinner parties, whatever. That drive to "get home" was often scary, and sometimes even fatal. A persons patience can be tested when things don't go quite the way we'd like, but when it comes to pushing-weather, my experience is have a good book, take (another) nap, and make a cup of coffee.

Haines, itself is a delightful little town. We've walked most of it (we even did the walking tour of Ft. Seward ... Twice, and walked out to Dalton City yesterday [but it was closed]) Yesterday was taco-night at the American Legion, and tomorrow is July 4th with an all-you-can-eat breakfast ($12), a parade, pie eating contest, an egg-toss, and other stuff. Regrettably, the fireworks don't begin until 11PM. The once-a-week cruise ship is docking as I write this, so maybe we'll walk up to town and be tourists-watching-tourists.

In any case, it's nice to be secure in the slip, electrified ($10/day + moorage), and within easy reach of 'town. We'll probably visit the Sheldon Museum today. Yesterday we even visited the Hammer Museum, so life is Complete.

Best,
Casey&Mary
...idling in Haines, AK









Sent from Casey's iPad
 
General update....

We are currently in Hoonah after a couple of weeks on the famous and sometimes "treacherous" Lynn Canal. We left Auke Bay for an uneventful, even smooth trip north to Skagway where we spent 6 nights.

We had perfect weather for the White Pass and Yukon Route narrow-gauge historic train ride. The next day we rented a car and drove up through the Yukon Territory to Carcross, Emerald Lake and Whitehorse. (It was so warm we actually wore shorts!) We also did several hikes and saw the beautiful Reid Falls.

And we actually enjoyed watching the hoards of tourists. The small boat harbor in Skagway in between the two cruise ship docks. The constant stream of tourists coming and going was our entertainment. The shop-keepers get a listing of how many cruise ship folks will be in port on each day. On their busiest days, they get 5 cruise ships with 12,000 passengers and crew descending on this tiny town with a local population of 900. Just witnessing this was worth the trip up Lynn Canal!

But despite the crowds, the feel of the town is more genuine than other "cruise ship" towns. The National Park Service owns 21 buildings and much of the land in Skagway as the "Klondike Gold Rush National Historic Park" and the nearby Chilkoot Trail. The park service is working with the Skagway Historic Commission to restore the town to what it was in the very early 1900's. All the store fronts are kept "historically correct". The park service has a strong presence in the town and we attended several ranger talks, went on ranger led walks and enjoyed an evening lecture by a visiting professor on the involvement of the Tlingit packers in the Gold Rush. Of course, there are still many cruise ship jewelry stores, t-shirt shops, and china-made souvenir shops. But they are outnumbered by shops selling only ALASKA MADE items, and local owner's are very proud to announce that they are "locally-owned". (Casey's comment: I have changed my perspective on cruise ships. I used to be rather self-righteous regarding the cruise ship crowds, and like so many, tended to denigrate the thousands of folks whose "Alaskan Experience" was aboard the Emerald Princess, or whatever. The fact-is, these folks are at least getting out and SEEING Alaska versus sitting home and watching the TV. ...and they're having a 'ball! From the standpoint of the local communities, tourism is the modern day renewable resource! The tourists (I prefer "visitors") come and go, leave money ashore for people to continue their local lifestyle. It has been over a hundred years since Skagway hosted Ten Thousand of people in town. Back the 1890's it was miner's who were passing through, bent on finding the riches of the Klondike. Today it's the tourists passing through, having their Alaskan Experience, and nowadays the visitor's are clad in GoreTex and carry digital cameras! For me, our time in Skagway was very eye-opening; We both love the place, cruise ships-and-all!)

After 6 interesting days in Skagway, we headed south 14 miles to Haines where we spent 8 nights.

Mary had just finished a book highly recommended by another boater called "If You Lived Here, I'd Know Your Name" by Heather Lende. It's all about life in Haines. We had a good weather window to head south the day after arriving but Mary wanted to explore Haines a bit more. We didn't get another weather window for a week but that suited us just fine as it was the perfect place to spend the Fourth of July and there was a lot to see and do.

There are several interesting museums in Haines including the Sheldon Museum, the Bald Eagle Foundation and the quirky little Hammer Museum. And great food: Excellent Fish and Chips (halibut) at both the Halsingland Hotel and Big Al's Fish Shack. And the Oceanside RV park where we took our showers (very nice and clean...$3 for 8 "Glorious" minutes of reliably hot water), had a delicious crab feed and pot-luck for only $8 per tasty cooked hot crab (Live crabs were $15 each at Auke Bay and only $6 in Haines). So cheap that we each had a crab and a half.

Fourth of July was like stepping back in time into an Andy Griffith show. They had a cute little parade (each band member wore rubber boots and a homemade uniform [all different], the drum major wore Indian moccasin boots). They had a nail and a spike driving contest (sponsored by the Hammer Museum), mud volleyball, a run up Mt. Ripinsky, a pie eating contest, a cartwheel contest, and then they threw hundreds of dollars of change on the grass and let the younger kids dive for it. There was all kinds of good food, a music festival and, of course, fireworks.

We met some nice folks at the parade who, when they heard we didn't have a car, loaded us into their van and drove us all around the area. We saw the local cannery on a beautiful setting with glaciers in the background and also Chilkat State Park. Then to Porcupine Creek, a gold mine outside of Haines that is on the Discovery channel's show Gold Rush Alaska. Our new friends knew the folks out there and introduced us to the "stars". A couple of days later we saw the "Gold Rush" grandfather, John Schnabel and his grandson, Parker at the annual volunteer fireman's BBQ. By the time we left Haines, we had run into the same folks over and over and they remembered us ... we felt like locals! I was afraid Mary was going to call a realtor and buy some property. But we had another window of better weather Sunday morning and she was finally ready to head south.

We were a little nervous about the Lynn Canal. We wanted to go to Skagway and Haines but went back and forth as to whether to go on our own bottom or simply leave Katmai at Auke Bay, take the Ferry, and stay at a B&B. Lynn Canal is the deepest fjord in North America and one of the longest and deepest in the world. It is described on page 222 of our Douglass SE AK Guide as "treacherous" and the guide goes on to talk about the wind tunnel effect, and how the seas can build quickly to alarming heights. It didn't help when Mary googled Lynn Canal and found an wealth of information devoted to the many shipwrecks of Lynn Canal. The most famous being the Princess Sophia which still remains the Pacific Northwest's greatest maritime disaster with 343 lives lost.

But after the 90 mile trip north, the 14 mile trip to Haines, and the 95 mile trip south, and talking to many fisherman and other boaters who motor on the Lynn Canal on a regular basis, we feel that Lynn Canal is just like every other water in SE: deserving of immense respect. The key is having the time and the patience to wait for the right weather window. Fortunately, for us that is not a problem. We can read, we can relax and we can enjoy our surroundings just about anywhere we are. Spending a couple of extra days in the towns of Skagway and Haines was simply delightful.

The 90 mile trip north from Auke Bay to Skagway was smooth. We put it up on plane and got there. The trip from Skagway to Haines was smooth as well. From Haines to Hoonah was smooth to start, then a little choppy, then smooth again once we got past Berner's Bay. (South of Berner's Bay is considered "South Lynn Canal" which is generally calmer than North Lynn. By the time we got to Icy Strait, the water was so glass-like that Mary described it as "surreal".

So now Katmai is in Hoonah. After arriving on a Sunday when the only thing open was a VERY expensive grocery store (1/2 gallon of milk was $7.45) we'd planned to only be here one night. We were told of a well-done restoration of an old cannery that is open when the cruise ships come in. There happened to be a cruise ship in on Monday morning at 10am so we decided to go out and look around before we departed. The cannery was so interesting and fun we decided to stay another night. We met another cruising couple from a nearby sailboat. During our conversation over lunch, that became Happy Hour, Casey and Scott compared notes and learned that they were very possibly in the same class at Army Officer Candidate School back in early 1969! An amazing coincidence after 40+ years.

We are learning that sometimes one must slow-down to let the daily experience Unfold. Life should not be rushed.

Best,
Casey&Mary
 
Casey & Mary

We are really enjoying your writing updates & photos. Find your descriptions & thoughts on Skagway, Haines & the Lynn Canal an area we have come to know well a pleasure. We too have had some very smooth water cruises on the Lynn Canal & one very memorable one in which we were forced to back track & try again another day. This was back before retirement when we would push on trying to see as much as possible in locked in time periods. Much better to do as you are now.

JoLee & I both read & enjoyed the book "If You Lived Here, I'd Know Your Name" by Heather Lende too. We met the country Dr described so well in the book in Hoonah last year where he & several others put on a impromptu early American music fest on a beautiful sailboat that had docked by us.

If weather slow ups departure to Elfin Cove it would be worth your while to explore up Port Fredrick. We saw many whales including a large male orca & some bears during the times spent there. Also North Neka inlet at high tide is a great place to explore with a kayak. There is also two forest service docks that you can spend the night tied to near the head. One is by a forest Service Cabin.

Best Wishes,

Jay
 
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