SE Alaska 2022 - Family of 5 in 22' C-Dory

[ChrisMcBride]

This summer we took our 22' C-Dory (Lil Teal) up the inside passage from Edmonds, WA to Juneau, AK, and plan to return in early August. Our trip isn't over yet, but has so far been incredible, better than we ever dreamed it could be.

Our trip wouldn't been possible without the wealth of knowledge, information, and trip reports we've gained from fellow c-brats. We thought we'd share a bit about our trip in hopes that we can give back a bit to this great community.

Some background context:

• Crew: My wife (Amanda), and I (Chris) have our hands full bringing along our three children Ryan, Lillian, and Ellen. The two oldest are around 9 years old and the youngest will turn 2 later this year.

• Background: Not long after purchasing our c-dory, the pandemic hit and we found ourselves spending a lot of time cruising our local waters (Puget Sound, San Juan Islands, Seiku and Neah Bay). In those first two years with the boat we fell in love with it and put close to 400 hours on the then 2001 Suzuki. We re-powered with a 90hp Yamaha early in the summer of 2021 and spent a lot of time that summer in the Seiku/Neah Bay area chasing fish and enjoying the spectacular scenery.

• Boat: 1993 22' C-Dory, re-powered with a 90hp Yamaha in 2021

• The Plan: Leave WA in late May, go as fast as possible through Canada, and then spend our time cruising SE Alaska before I had to be back to work in early July. Since I'm lucky to be able to work remotely, we booked a short term rental in Juneau so that I could get some work in before taking 2 remaining weeks off to travel back in August.

• Route: We took a Delorme satellite tracker with us if you'd like to see our route in detail. Password is "alaska2022". Make sure to click "view all tracks" in the upper right to see the full route. https://share.garmin.com/share/ChristopherMcBride2

• Wife and kids perspectives: Amanda has done a great job recording her perspective and that of our kids on her blog. If you'd like a lot more detail and some really great photographs, take a look at her blog. https://mcbrideadventures.com/2022/05/28/day-1-edmonds-to-prevost-harbor/

 

[ChrisMcBride]

Before the big day:

There's nothing worse than "maintenance induced failures", so we were sure to do several check-out trips before the big day. While the engine is still practically new (1 year old, 128 hours), I went ahead and serviced the water pump and changed the spark plugs. The impeller and plugs came out looking exactly as expected (brand new). I felt silly replacing them so early, but it was worth it to buy us more time before it needed to be done again during our big trip. I didn't feel quite as bad as I changed the engine oil and filter, fuel filter, water separator, and lower unit oil since those were a lot closer to the schedule.

We did our final check-out trip the weekend before leaving with the boat completely loaded up and ready for the trip. Everything worked perfectly!

We've had the boat loaded pretty heavy in the past (lots of ice, fishing gear, pot puller, shrimp pots, the works) and I've debated trying to find a more suitable prop when weighed down. Since I knew that this was the heaviest we've ever had it, I went ahead and checked the RPM's at WOT. Long story short, I picked up a new prop a few days before leaving and put it on the boat. Figured if it didn't work, I'd just swap it back - doesn't hurt to have a 2nd spare prop. More on that later...

 

[ChrisMcBride]

5-28-22. Day 1: Edmonds to Prevost Harbor (82 miles today, 82 miles total)

I woke up early and drove the truck and trailer down to the port of Edmonds and had them launch the boat with their sling. We chose to start at the port of Edmonds since it was the closest to home so we could say we boated from our house . I noticed their sling had a scale - it was nice to learn the weight of the boat fully loaded, 4,300lbs

I parked the truck and trailer back home, loaded up the family, and had an extend family member drop us off back at the Marina.

Ellen, our youngest, got knocked over and fell in a puddle only a few feet from the car. We hadn't even made it to the boat yet and she'd already soaked one set of clothes and had a bout of tears, good thing the boat is roomy....

A quick family picture and change of clothes and we were off. Remember that new prop I put on? Just after leaving the marina I tested it out and it didn't perform right. We figured there was a good chance that would happen so we went back to the marina and swapped the props. I didn't drop anything in the water and it took no time at all.

It turns out the delay worked in our favor. Just as we left Edmonds we saw an Orca and spent a few minutes watching it make its way through a bunch of fishermen. Later that day we saw a minke whale in Admiralty Inlet and several pods of Orca's in Haro Strait.

We stopped in Roche Harbor before continuing on to anchor in Prevost Harbor.

Ellen had a really tough time falling asleep (she sleeps in a porta-crib in the aisle). I finally held her until she fell asleep and then put her down. The trip is going to get really tough if she has this much trouble falling asleep.

 

[ChrisMcBride]

May 29, 2022 Day 2: Prevost Harbor to Henry Bay: 126 miles. 208 miles total.

Woke up around 6am, had a quick breakfast of oatmeal, and cleared customs in Port of Sidney BC. To clear customs, we tied up to the customs dock and called their phone number to talk with a customs agent. The initial hold time was short (15min) but I got disconnected twice :yuck:. The 3rd time I was on hold for close to 30 minutes. The customs agent took our information on the phone, and then we waited about 45 minutes to talk to some agents in person for some final paperwork. In all it took a few hours, but went really smoothly. While waiting we watched a seagull pick on a starfish on the dock.

We did some shopping, grabbed lunch, and fueled up while waiting to time slack tide at Dodd Narrows. Our timing worked out well, and transited Dodd Narrows without issue. The scenery was really pretty and we saw a humpback whale.

Around Sisters Islets/Steven’s Passage BC, between Hornby Island and Olson Island, a few hours before Comox, we got into some rough waters. While the permatrim and trim tabs work wonders for making for a smoother ride, it was a pretty rough ride for about an hour and then perfectly flat the rest of the way. On the bright side, our earlier window sealing efforts were put to the test and we didn't have any leaks.

After we got out of the rough water we saw a big orca pod hunting. We were able to watch them for a while and it was just what we needed to calm us all down from the rough ride.

At 9:30 PM we dropped anchor at Henry Bay. I'm still getting used to most folks using 3:1 or 4:1 scope. Most of our past overnight trips have been relatively secluded, where we're able to put out more rode.

Ryan’s Thoughts: Customs for Canada. Food ice cream and Minecraft mending all armor grinding. Lots of whales.

Lillian’s Thoughts: I ate the best meal I’ve had in a long time (pasta with butter from Sea Glass Waterfront Grill.) Mom just made dinner: ham and cheese sandwiches. Oh we just saw Orcas!

 

[ChrisMcBride]

May 30, 2022 Day 3: Henry Bay to Port McNeill 144 miles. 353 total miles.

We haven't been getting as good of gas milage as we have in the past, I presume due to the boat being loaded down so heavy, so we stopped at Comox to get a bit more fuel before our next stop of Campbell River. The fuel here was the most expensive we've encountered the whole trip, but we were happy to pay it for the convenience.

In-between Comox and Campbell River the charts on our Garmin 1042xsv quit working. Actually, they worked, they just went blank from that area until just before Bella Bella. (Bella Bella is still many many miles and maybe even a few days ahead.) I wasn't very happy to lose charts in this section, particularly for the Queen Charlotte Sound crossing.

Luckily we had downloaded offline charts (navionics) to all of our electronic devices before the trip. It'll be less convenient, but between the ipad with navionics charts, and the still working radar and autopilot we shouldn't have too much trouble. I guess the old adage "two is one and one is none" is true! I still haven't figured out what's going on with that section of charts - let me know if you have any ideas!

We stopped at Campbell River for more gas, but didn't spend long as the timing was right to go through Seymour Narrows. We transited at slack, but unfortunately went against the tide through Johnstone Strait the rest of the way. We saw some more whales along the way.

After Johnstone Strait and before Port McNeill we were able to come into a pod of Pacific White Sided Dolphins. In the PNW we see a lot of harbor porpoise, but they are kind of boring. They notice us and they disappear. The Pacific White Sided Dolphins are not shy and are ready to play! They came and rode the bow for a while and just swam along our boat. The kids were able to go out and watch them. I loved seeing the dolphins, but honestly, seeing how excited and how happy the kids were was a highlight of the trip. I hope when I was a kid, I got this excited so my parents could experience the joy I felt in that moment. If not, I hope they know how much I appreciated all the fun things we did. Some times it can just be really fun to be a parent.

Not only were the dolphins a lot of fun, but the scenery was so stunning. The water glass, the lighting perfect, and the surrounding area was mountains. The reflection on the water was magic. We were even able to see so many otters. Everything about that moment was pure bliss. Definitely a moment we will all treasure.

We bought a 5 gallon jerry jug and filled up our tanks in Port McNeill and spent the night tied up to the docks.

Ryan’s Thoughts: We went through Johnstone Strait. I spotted whales and lost all my armor in Minecraft. Then some dolphins went with our boat!!! Then otters otters otters!

Lillian’s Thoughts: Today was an amazing day! First I had a nutella snack pack with breadstick things, then Ryan saw some whales. Then we saw dolphins go with our boat, I thought it would never happen! Then we ate at Subway, delicious! Then we saw an otter on the dock we were tied up to so now we have an otter friend!

 

[colbysmith]

Great memories for the kids! And you guys too. Is it possible the charts are cutting out for the thick of Canadian waters? If they are US only on your chart plotter? Yet it sounds like just one small section of Canada. So glad to see a young couple with kids enjoying this kind of trip! Colby

 

[JamesTXSD]

You are making memories of a lifetime for your family! Good on you! Thanks for sharing that here.

 

[thataway]

Your children will remember (and thank you) the rest of their lives. Wonderful blog--and good on you for doing this!

 

[robhwa]

Rob (me) and Marcia lived nearby in Cedar Park/Lake City for 32 years, now on Oro Bay at Anderson Island. We made multiple camping trips cross-country starting before our two kids were even born. They are adults and we are now a little dispersed, but when we do get together, there is a lot of “Remember when?” and always plans for future trips. What a great gift for all of you to take this trip. Though south sound isn’t Alaska, you have an invitation to come down here, tie to our float or mooring buoy, and have a dinner with us. We have guest rooms, so you can stay overnight if you want. I’ll be fishing out of Sitka soon, though likely south of Kruzoff island, not the area you visited. A couple of Oro Bay neighbors are headed up your way from here right now, but in a much larger trawler. My intentions are to do approximately the trip you have already taken in our CD22, and I’d love to hear your stories.

 

[SnowTexan]

Lil Teal!! Live big in small spaces. We love it and your crew is kicking butt out there. A big hillbilly WOOOOOOO! From the Miss Maria crew of 4+dog!

We might have to organize a cbrats with kids get together one of these days

Keep up the adventure.

 

[croakz]

As a parent of an 8 year old hoping to make our own boating memories, this is so awesome. Great job!

 

[DayBreak]

Amanda has done a great job recording her perspective and that of our kids on her blog. If you'd like a lot more detail and some really great photographs, take a look at her blog. https://mcbrideadventures.com/2022/05/28/day-1-edmonds-to-prevost-harbor/[/list]

Chris and Amanda, how blessed you are to share family time like this in a C-Dory. Love your blog in the above link. Your photos and write-ups are well done, informative and amazing. The drone photos show valuable detail in what lies ahead and gives a clear perspective to your surroundings. Great Job! Keep up the good work.

 

[kaelc]

Amazing. Hope we can follow in your wake soon. We have a 2 and 5 year old who love being on our C-Dory. In Victoria BC if you stop on your way south!

 

[ChrisMcBride]

Is it possible the charts are cutting out for the thick of Canadian waters? If they are US only on your chart plotter? Yet it sounds like just one small section of Canada.

I'll double check this weekend, but I'm pretty sure I have the BlueChart® g3+LakeVü g3 Built-in maps, which should cover western Canada. It's weird that it's only that one section of Canada that doesn't work.

Though south sound isn’t Alaska, you have an invitation to come down here, tie to our float or mooring buoy, and have a dinner with us.

Thanks for the invitation! We'll give you a holler next time we're down that direction. Lil Teal would feel right at home - the previous owner kept her in Steilacoom.

I’ll be fishing out of Sitka soon, though likely south of Kruzoff island, not the area you visited. A couple of Oro Bay neighbors are headed up your way from here right now, but in a much larger trawler.

Have fun fishing! What's your neighbors boat name? Maybe we'll see them on AIS or otherwise cross paths.

A big hillbilly WOOOOOOO! From the Miss Maria crew of 4+dog! We might have to organize a c-brats with kids get together one of these days. Keep up the adventure.

We've been back to Lake Chelan a couple times since we first crossed ways with you in 2020, and will definitely be back again. There's still a lot of exploring we need to do along the way from Chelan to Stehekin.

 

[ChrisMcBride]

May 31, 2022 Day 4: Port McNeill to Wigham Cove 180 miles. 533 total miles.

We got an early start (6:30am) for the big Queen Charlotte Strait crossing, with a nearly perfect weather forecast. The weather has been perfect, and today was no exception.

We found the SlowBoat.com blog to be very helpful in planning this trip, and I watched their Queen Charlotte Strait crossing youtube video one last time before heading out. We followed one of their past routes through shelter passage, hoping to enjoy the scenery and have a safe place to stop in case of trouble.

There was no wind, so the fog was out in full force. The gentle swell, thick fog, and rugged coast reminded us a lot of our time off Cape Flattery. The one exception is that this trip we finally had auto-pilot!

I nearly always run the boat with the radar on, even in good weather. I find it helps me build familiarity with the radar, better understand what it's telling me, etc. It's nice to have that familiarity when the fog moves in, charts quit working, the weather turns rough, etc.

The weather and crossing couldn't have gone better. We were very grateful for the perfect weather and tide conditions.

We had plenty of fuel to continue on, but decided to make a short detour to Dawson’s Landing, visit their small general store, and get gas. From there we stopped briefly at Hakai Institute and then continued on.

We were hoping to make it to Klemtu for gas, but sadly we ran out of daylight. We found a beautiful place to anchor called Wigham Cove. It was the first time we were completely alone on our trip.

Ryan’s Thoughts: I hate Minecraft but everything else was OK. Otters and squid.

Lillian’s Thoughts: Today was fine I guess. We started going at 6:40 and we saw an otter. We went to pretty places but over all today was just OK. I guess we also saw pretty sea anemones and a star fish! My first time seeing squid…bugs…lots of bugs…sad…itchy…angry.

 

[ChrisMcBride]

June 1, 2022 Day 5: Wigham Cove to North Kelp Passage Cove: 177 miles. 710 total miles.

It's staying brighter considerably longer. Last night Ellen had the hardest time falling asleep because it was still pretty bright at 11:00 PM.

We have a good weather window to cross Dixon Entrance tomorrow, and we want to move quickly through Canada, so we are in somewhat of a hurry. We woke up around 6:00 AM, made some oatmeal for breakfast, pulled anchor around 7:00 AM, and off we went.

The radar overlay has been offset by up to 20* from the charts, depending on the orientation of the boat. With all the autopilot use it's been irritating me and I've spent a decent amount of time fiddling with the settings the past couple days. Long story short, I needed to re-calibrate the auto-pilot due to moving, ever so slightly, the CCU a few weeks prior when working out storage in the boat.

We filled up with gas in Klemtu and stretched our legs on the dock for a few minutes. Ellen loves tossing rocks, shells, and other debris off the dock into the water.

A bit after fueling up, we stopped at an old cannery/ghost town and got out to walk around. Ellen knocked my sunglasses off my head and I didn't realize until we were too far away to turn back. Polarized sunglasses are part of my "must have" navigation gear, so I'll need to get a new pair (and backup) asap.

This section of the trip is really incredible. We are in this valley in-between these beautiful mountains covered in pine trees. The tops of the mountains are covered in snow. We saw so many waterfalls from all the snow melt, truly a stunning place. As we were puttering along we saw a whale. This time it was a fin whale. It was our first time seeing a fin whale so we were incredibly excited about that. So far that puts us at seeing orcas, minke, humpback, and now fin whales.

The fuel stops along this part of the trip are pretty far apart. We spent several hours today traveling just above hull speed, to make sure we'd have enough fuel + reserves to get to Prince Rupert.

We stopped at a little inlet called Lowell Inlet for lunch and saw our first bear. We splurged on a pair of stabilized binoculars (fujinon 14x40) before the trip. While quite pricy, they have been well worth the investment.

During dinner the wind really started to pick up. I'm not used to being out of VHF and cellular weather range and was a bit stressed out, but the wind died down not long after leaving.

Didn't quite make it to Prince Rupert, so we stayed in North Kelp Passage. The fuel dock doesn't open super early, so it won't really affect our scheduled crossing tomorrow morning.

Ryan’s Thoughts: We saw a fin whale and a bunch of starfish we even saw bears!!! And I am trying to get better armor.

Lillian’s Thoughts: Today was amazing!!! We started off with oatmeal for breakfast and we went to this cool gas place! There were a ton of starfish and sea pickles, and sea anemone, and sea urchins! Then we think we saw a fin whale? (Once we had internet we checked and it was a fin whale). Then we saw our first bears! One by one we saw bears!! It was so fun and now it’s time to brush, mmmm.

 

[ChrisMcBride]

June 2, 2022 Day 6: North Kelp Passage to Ketchikan, Alaska. 122 miles. 832 total miles.

The gas situation this trip has been tighter than I anticipated (I know, we need to SLOW DOWN...) We were happy to tie up to the fuel dock and get gas. The chartplotter is networked to the Yamaha outboard, and gives us real time fuel burn.

The chart plotter said we had 4.5 gallons to empty, but at the time we weren't too sure how accurate it was (turns out it's surprisingly accurate), plus we had our extra five gallon jerry can.

After leaving Prince Rupert it was time to cross Dixon Entrance. We really did have ideal weather and for the majority of the time it was really calm. A bit later it got rough (between Grey Island and Connis Rocks) and it rolled us around pretty good, but overall we made good progress. The upside is that Ellen took a well needed 3hr nap!

We cleared customs in Ketchikan (CBPRoam app makes it really easy) and booked a much needed hotel for the night.

It took us 6 days to get to Ketchikan, Alaska from Edmonds, Washington.

Ryan’s Thoughts: Nothing happened except we made it to Alaska!!!!

Lillian’s Thoughts: Today is amazing! I woke up really early but i had an amazing breakfast and guess what! We made it to Alaska! But our trip is far from done! And for the first time in five days we do not know what that means! It’s amazing! Well that’s it bye!

 

[ChrisMcBride]

June 3, 2022 Day 7: Ketchikan to Kluth Bay: 51 miles, 883 total miles.

Amanda's phone fell into the water at the harbor when getting off for the day. Since our primary carrier is not AT&T, we couldn't get a replacement phone in Ketchikan. We aren't sure when we'll get one, but will figure that out later.

We moved harbors to be closer to laundry, shopping, and McDonalds. Errands weren't much fun, but everyone enjoyed stretching their legs.

The "best" weather in Clarence Strait wasn't for another day or two, so we decided to spend two days looping through the Misty Fjords. To make the loop without running out of gas, we planned to do a lot of this route going slow.

We were able to see a humpback whale on our way out, and Ryan is pretty certain he saw a bear.

We left Ketchikan to the North and did the loop that way, we came out South of Ketchikan. The first night we didn’t get too far, since we had so many chores that day. We found a nice private anchorage and we even got to use the forest service mooring ball at Kluth Bay. We didn’t leave Ketchikan until pretty late, so we didn’t tie up until about 10:30 PM.

Ryan’s Thoughts: I saw a whale. We woke up in a hotel and I saw a bear all by myself. No minecraft today.

Lillian’s Thoughts: Today was not much fun! Well, it was a little fun. We woke up in a hotel which was nice!

 

[ChrisMcBride]

June 4, 2022 Day 8: Kluth Bay to Walker Cove: 55 miles, 938 total miles.

Today was actually the first time we had real rain this trip, we feel pretty lucky about that!. When we woke up there were Bald Eagles in the trees, a seal in the bay with us, and a perfect Alaskan mist.

Today was a slow day. We kept it at hull speed so for us we went about 3 1/2-6 1/2 knots. It was a perfect place to slow it way down. While we were boating through the fjords Amanda and I both thought it reminded us of Yosemite. Huge mountains through a glacial carved valley, the difference was this valley was full of water.

We did see a humpback whale that swam on by us. It almost felt like passing a car going in the opposite direction of you. In the distance we also saw a few orcas. We were going to our place and they were going to theirs.

We got to our anchorage site earlier than we normally do, around 7:30 PM. We made dinner there, cleaned up and got ready for bed. Everyone was tired and fell asleep pretty quickly. This anchorage was the most beautiful place we’ve anchored so far. We were in-between huge snow capped mountains. Waterfalls just pouring off the mountains. So many waterfalls. There were two other boats anchored near us. It was just stunning.

Ryan’s Thoughts: We went very slow. I am making progress in minecraft, even though I hate it right now.

Lillian’s Thoughts: Today was fine, I didn’t have a good breakfast. Then when I was going to have delicious snow balls (packaged chocolate cake covered in marshmallows and covered in pink coconut) I hate coconut and guess what? Well, they were covered in coconut! Hmmmf! And we did not go on land and it is so cramped UGGG!!!!

 

[ChrisMcBride]

June 5, 2022 Day 9: Walker Cove to Vixen Harbor: 125 miles, 1,063 miles total.

Today we finished up our slow(ish) trip around Misty Fjords. We stopped in Punchbowl Cove on the way back to Ketchikan. Punchbowl Cove was more open than Walker Cove, but the mountains were bigger. It was all very grand. I guess there are hikes you can take up to mountain lakes, not a good fit for our crew, but I can imagine it would be spectacular.

After Punchbowl Cove we went fast the rest of the way. Along the way we did pass Misty Fjord National Monument. It really was a stunning trip. On our way into Ketchikan we saw several more dolphins that swam along our boat for awhile. It's always a highlight for all the kids, even Ellen.

A bit after that we saw a pod of orcas hunting. They were in a few different groups around us. It even looked like an older orca was showing a few young orcas what to do. Ryan is bored of orcas, so he wasn’t thrilled we waited around so long, but everyone else enjoyed them.

We made it back to Ketchikan for some food and gas and back on land after 48 hours on the boat! We ran into the other c-dory owner we saw earlier in Canada. It sounds like he had a little worse weather crossing Dixon Entrance, but it made it through just fine. I wonder if we will cross paths again,

We did have to hurry to leave Ketchikan as a storm was picking up. We needed to go up Clarence Strait to leave Ketchikan. If we didn’t leave that evening we would be stuck for several days. The waters were getting rough, but nothing too bad and we made it out just in time.

Once we left the strait we had more protection from wind and the waters calmed right down. We decided to anchor in Vixen Harbor. The Slowboat people talked about it, and it stood out to us. All the books and the Slowboat people mention that you don’t follow your charts on this one. Where we pass through looks too shallow on the charts, but is the least rocky option. Sure enough that’s how it worked out for us as well. It was another beautiful anchorage that we shared with three other boats.

Ryan’s Thoughts: I saw some whales and dolphins that went with the boat.

Lillian’s Thoughts: Today was good! We saw orcas and I had eggs for breakfast! And we saw white sided pacific dolphins. Now it is AFV (America’s Funniest Videos) time.