Cruising SE Alaska in a 27 ft Sailboat. Through the Rocks to Angoon.

After leaving Craig because the fog was so thick we end up going going through Rocky Pass rather than going all the way around Kuiu Island in order to head north. Rocky Pass is just that, rocky. On our first trip to Alaska we were invited to a party with a group of commercial fishermen and there were lots of serious, if slightly drunken, debates as to whether we should traverse the pass or not. There was no real consensus so we decided to do it as long as WE were sober. In the 1990’s the Coast Guard removed all the navigation markers and buoys to discourage people from going through. About six or seven years ago they replaced them because apparently folks were still doing it, markers or not. In about 12 miles there are some 40 markers and buoys so following them is a really good idea. The tide floods from both north and south to the middle of the pass called “The Summit,” so the strategy is to ride the flood north, timing it to arrive at “The Summit” at slack and then ride the ebb out. We arrived about an hour ahead of schedule and we were really riding the flood. At one point my GPS said we were traveling 12 knots over the ground in a boat with a hull speed of just over five knots. Unfortunately the currents don’t follow the channels and several times we were being swept toward rocks pretty much out of control, while it was exciting it also made me really nervous.

After about a half hour of this I dropped the anchor and we lay in the channel for about an hour, the pass isn’t very well traveled so we weren’t in the way, until things calmed down. Getting up close and personal to currents like that is something I would encourage anyone to do. It makes you both appreciate their power but it also removes some of the mystery and fear.

When the current did drop off we cut ourselves loose and made it through, “Devil’s Elbow” and “The Summit.” without incident. You have to hit them at high water as there is only about seven feet of water at high tide. Other than that the biggest obstacle are the thick kelp beds which kept snagging my keel bulb and clogging the cooling water to the outboard. After we got through Rocky Pass we saw five of the Beneteaus we had seen earlier anchored up. I don’t know where the rest of them went but we never ran into them again. We anchored at the north end of Rocky Pass. The next day we headed crossed Chatham Strait northwest to Warm Springs on Baranof Island. I think some fishboats are the prettiest boats on the water. We sailed for a bit but ended up motoring most of the way. There is a large waterfall at the head of the bay. There are also a number of cabins that must have been somebody’s dream that unfortunately look nightmarish. They are very well build in that the windows and doors appear to be operable. This is a popular spot, there was a small National Geographic cruise ship anchored as well as a couple smaller cruise/charter boats. This included the Westward which hails from Port Townsend which is right in our neck of the woods. My wife writes for the local paper and knows everyone it seems, including the skipper and his wife on Westward. Speaking of pretty boats the 86 foot long Westward certainly fits that category, I didn’t get a picture of it but this is what it looks like. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:MV_Westward_01.jpg

Speaking of neck of our wood’s boats, a little more in line with the average trailersailer, we tied up in front of a Macgregor 26. Not only is it the only sailboat we have seen out in the wilds on our three trips to Alaska that is smaller than ours, it hails from Sequim Washington which is only about 30 miles from home. If you think what we are doing is impressive, they came all the way by water from Sequim. They left home in May and in July were heading south when we met them, they are expecting to be back by early September.

Like us, they had spent most of the time motoring. Their descriptions of the section from the end of Vancouver Island to Prince Rupert made us think that that will be our next trip.

Warm Springs is named for several hot springs that are located there. There are three neat little bath houses right near the dock, donations accepted. About a quarter mile up a boardwalk there are pools right by the river. Since this picture doesn’t have anyone in it is kind of hard to see the baths. There is a frayed piece of 3/8” line tied to a tree that some folks braver, or stupider, than me use to lower themselves into the river to cool down after the pools. The river cascades down the waterfall about thirty feet past where the line is tied. There were no corpses at the bottom so maybe it was okay.

The next day we walked a half mile to the lake that feeds the waterfall. If you walked west about 25 miles you would run in to Sitka. There are several glaciers in the way so we are happy to go the 100 miles or so by water.

Viviann posing

The next day we head off, after calculating how much fuel I have and need in case there is no wind we decide to head to Angoon for gas. Along the way we get some company.

The dolphins are pretty amazing though they put an end to any fishing, at least in my experience. I think I may have snagged one once, so I just quit when they are around and enjoy them. Angoon is a native village and it is sort of off the beaten track. This is the view from Chatham Strait, it turned out only ships approach it from this side. There is a channel to the east that is much more protected.

The chart for the area is not very good and the folks who wrote the guide book we were using had obviously never been there. It turns out there is about a four to five knot current you have to contend getting in and out of the harbor, which is also very rocky. We were trying to find the public dock and spied a dock at what looked like an apartment building. We thought we would tie up there and ask where the pubic dock was. We pulled in and started to tie up when three very polite but emphatic locals came and told us that it was private. They pointed out that we were tied in their uncle’s spot who apparently was the fellow who followed us in and then roared off as we docked. We weren’t trying to offend anyone so when they pointed out where the public dock was we headed out.

They told us to ignore the red buoy as it was not where it was supposed to be. It was meant to mark a reef but we found out later that it always drifts away during the spring tides so it was about half a mile from the danger it was supposed to mark.

We found the marina which was largely empty. We tied up and asked a couple of fellows cleaning fish if the spot we chose was okay. They thought it was so we took advantage of solid land and took a walk about a half mile to town. Angoon has not been visited by cruise ships and the tourism industry is limited to charter boat fishing.

During our walking tour of the town a pickup truck pulled up next to us and the driver, who turned out to be the harbormaster, asked if we were from the sailboat tied in the marina. We replied that we were and he told us we were tied in someone’s slip and that we needed to move. So we hoofed it back to the marina. The harbormaster was waiting for us, I am sure he would have given us a ride had we asked but I think he was too shy to offer. He did offer to help us move and foolishly I said we would be fine. Well I forgot about the current. We were supposed to tie up in the empty slip in the right side of this picture. After nearly pulling the harbormaster and his two grandsons into the water trying to tie up where we were supposed to, we ended up where we are in the picture. The harbormaster said that it would be fine. Lots of “shipwrecks” as my wife likes to call them, you can see all the rocks now.

Since our primary reason to stop at Hoonah was to get gas we asked about the fuel dock’s hours. We had arrived at 5:30 on Friday evening and fuel dock is officially open from 9-5 Monday through Friday. The harbormaster told us that if there was enough interest the owner would open up for an hour at 1:00 pm Saturday (others around town told us it was 1:30 or maybe 1:45) The harbormaster told us where the fuel dock owner lived and the places he liked to go so we could touch base if we saw him. We didn’t.

The next morning we walked to the store and bought ice and a few things, there being no road, stuff was pricy. We watched one young man ring up a $200.00 tab for a small shopping cart of stuff to take out to his fish camp. Standing in line we got some good stories from the fellow who runs the dump; like high tailing it out of there to get away from bears or the time, when burning the garbage (to keep the bears away) someone had thrown away a bunch of bullets. “They were flying everywhere...” By the time we got back to the boat the harbormaster was there and told us that he had run into the owner of the fuel dock out at the airport and that he would be there at 1:00pm.

And he was, as were a couple of other boats, so we gassed up and headed out the channel. It was a slow go with a four knot current coming against us for about a mile. TIme and tide, time and tide.

Through Fog, Sun and Rocks. Cruising SE Alaska in a 27 Foot Sailboat.

It’s time to move on. We said goodbye to Viviann’s friends and after the delay the next morning of getting new batteries for the boat after the motor won’t turn over we finally took off from Craig and headed north on our way toward Sitka. We didn’t get a very early start this time. I try really hard to stay far away from anything bigger than me. This is one of the barges that supply all of Southeast. We anchored that night only about fifteen miles from Craig in a little bight called “Bob’s Place” which is the site of an old Indian village. The only sign of it was the midden, which is a several foot thick layer of shells which was the “garbage dump” of the village. It was a very pretty spot and well protected.

Red posing.

The next morning we motor through the rain and mist all day, normal Alaska weather, about thirty miles toward El Capitan, a narrow passageway that runs out towards Chatham Strait. We enter Devilfish Bay and are surprised to see eight boats anchored there. There are six big Beneteaus and two Nordic Tugs apparently all traveling together. It was rainy and wet so we didn’t row around and shoot the breeze to find out their story. No one came by our little cork either. This is the most crowded anchorage in SE so far. After spending the night we had the second of only three crises on our trip. I tried to pull the anchor and it was stuck solid. I fiddled with it moving the boat fore and aft, backing down, running full speed forward all the while our anchorage neighbors left one by one. I am not sure how they could have helped but I regretted not getting to know them a little bit. I finally put the anchor rode on the genoa winch and cranked until the bow was about a foot lower than normal. What to do?

It was high tide and I figured if I waited until low tide maybe I could dive on it. The water is really cold. But that meant spending another night there. I was resigned to this but thought I would send a messenger line down to the anchor and maybe try hauling back on it. When I sent the line down with a weight attached, I did nothing else and magically the boat bobbed up and the anchor was free. So we motored off in the thinning gloom for El Capitan caves.

There are some really deep caves that have been discovered on Prince of Wales Island. The island is mostly limestone. The Forest Service gives tours but we arrived when no one was around. It is a steep climb on a boardwalk up to it and you can only go in about 100 feet before you come to a steel gate. But that is far enough to make it completely dark when you turn your lights out. It would be fun to take the tour sometime. I realized I forgot to mention the first crisis we faced. This happened about a week into the trip. We cruise mostly in Canada and Alaska, both areas where pump out stations are almost non-existent. So I have a Y valve on my head that allows it to go to the holding tank or overboard. Normally I have it set to go overboard.

We are very careful in crowded areas to do our business on shore or wait until we are well out into fast moving water. Apparently at some point last year I had set it to go into the holding tank but I had forgotten about this. So up in the unpopulated north we are just using the head like we live in the land of the free, right.

As time goes on I start to notice that it is getting harder to pump out but I figure it just needs a little lubrication or something. But one morning it is almost impossible to pump, so of course I just pump a little harder. Finally a little light goes on in my reptilian brain. I go forward to check the holding tank level under the bunk in the vee berth. No need to lift the cover that’s on it, the tank underneath is bulging to the point that the hatch cover won’t even fit anymore. The tank is swelled up like a pimple getting ready to burst, and it is full of you know what.

At this point I am like a sapper trying to defuse a bomb (yes it has an overflow vent but don’t ask me why it wasn’t working.) I think about opening the deck fitting but I can just see the pressure causing it to shoot out. FInally I realize that if I crack the Y valve part way the pressure will go either into the head or overboard. I did and it did, there was quite a brown plume arising from under the boat.

This relieved the pressure but it obviously didn’t empty the tank. So the upshot of it was we carried a full holding tank the rest of the trip.

We continue on through El Capitan and go into “Hole in the Wall.”

I have been into a number of “holes in the wall,” and this one really is a hole. It is only about 30-40 feet wide with a rocky entrance. It is too shallow for us to enter or leave a low tide (we draw 6 feet) But when you get in it is very nice. There was one other boat in there.

The next day we go into Port Protection to get gas. You have to plan for fuel as there aren’t a lot of choices. Port Protection was named by Vancouver and it is neat little harbor with a bunch of houses and a store. There is no road to it so gas was about $5.00 a gallon but who is to argue.

We have gone through Rocky Pass on both other trips so we planned to go clockwise around Kuiu Island to see something different. Crossing Chatham Strait we ran into the heaviest rain of the trip. We anchored in a small cove with a charter boat and the rain poured all night. The next morning I got up early and using the GPS to figure out where I was, I headed out of the bay in heavy fog.

I don’t have radar (I’m beginning to think I might get it) so I was pretty nervous. The fog cleared to about 1/4- 1/2 mile viability but I made an executive decision that since we couldn’t see much anyway, the extra distance to go around Kuiu Island didn’t warrant the effort so I headed north towards Rocky Pass. I listen obsessively on the VHF to channel 16 and all the big boat routinely announce their positions and I figure little boats can stay out of each others way.

But whales are a different story. I was cruising peacefully along and a humpback whale surfaced about only a boat length away heading diagonally towards my bow. My only thought was, “Do whales ever hit boats?” No time for a camera or evasive maneuvers but the whale knew otherwise. It gently sounded so close that boat went through the ripples left by its tail. Pretty impressive sight that only I was lucky enough to see. I called for Viviann but she only caught the rings left behind in the water.

As we motored along towards Rocky Pass the fog lifted and it was another glorious Alaskan Day.

Sailing Alaska in a 27 ft boat. On to Hydaburg and Craig.

The next day we head off to Hydaburg. The weather continued to be amazing. We started to see more signs of civilization as we got closer to Hydaburg. This is a Coast Guard helicopter, they must have been practicing as they buzzed a couple of fishing boats and flew off.

Viviann at the helm, one of the few pictures I’ve taken. Viviann should get the credit for the bulk of the pictures in these posts.

As we approach the town there is a long spit running off from the beach that I nearly went aground on. I am sure I was the entertainment that day. After tying up at the decrepit dock we walked the town. They are building a fancy new set of docks that are supposed to be finished this summer. Hydaburg is another small native village. And another hot, not Alaskan like day, it was in the eighties as it had been for the last few days. There were hand letter signs stapled to telephone poles every few hundred feet that said, “popsickls for sale at Cassie’s nanna’s house.” Obviously if you had to ask where Cassie’s nanna’s house was, you weren’t from around there.

We went to the little store and the first thing the storekeeper asked was were we from the little sailboat? Like I said we were the entertainment. We wanted to buy popsicles but we were told that the barge only comes once a week and they were sold out. The fellow at the store told us where Cassie’s nanna lived but he thought they might be sold out too. Luckily he remembered that he had a couple ice cream sandwiches left so we lucked out. At the fish dock the local kids were enjoying the hot weather.

Hydaburg has a large totem park where they have been replacing the reproductions of the originals. This fellow was rebuilding the base for a sacred sea otter statue. Like Metakatla, Hydaburg has an unfortunate past. Apparently early in the 1900’s three local native villages were convinced to abandon their well established and functioning villages and consolidate at an entirely new site on unbroken wilderness at the present site of Hydaburg. They were promised schools, a hospital and so on. They are still waiting for the hospital. We were told this story by the son of the first child born at the new site, in a tent in the middle of winter. When they were moving the village there were two of these ancient sea otter statues and one of them was dropped off the ship into the harbor. It is stlll there. Another post office Besides science I also teach woodshop. This spring a new student arrived with his father. Talking to them I learned they were from Hydaburg. I jokingly said that we were going to SE Alaska and we would look them up.

Well here we were in Hydaburg after all and Viviann convinced me that I really should try to drop in. I thought it a little unusual but she asked where my student lived and of course everyone knew. So we knocked on the door the next morning and reintroduced ourselves. The father was surprised to see us and invited us in for coffee. He told us the son was still asleep and we had a nice chat learning all about the goings on of Hydaburg.

After a time the father insisted on waking the son up. I wish I had had a camera to get a shot of the kid’s face when he walked into the living room and sees his teacher sitting there. It was complete shock followed by a big grin. We had a nice visit and left to catch the tide with some local knowledge of how to avoid the sandbar. The next day we made it to Craig. We were met at the dock by a fellow from the port who helped us tie up. We got showers and went out for pizza with Viviann’s friend and her husband. The next day they loaned us their truck to see the sights and we drove to Klawock where we poked around where they were replacing all the totems from their park. The old ones were all laid out in a field, it was a pretty impressive sight. We looked into the carving shed and the carver was happy to see us and invited us in. He is Ron Fairbanks and he teaches carving among other things to middle school students. Besides the whale carving, take a look at the cedar plank behind him. It is about 30 inches wide clear vertical grain and about fifteen feet long. You don’t run into wood like that very often. He is working on the last totem for the park.

The next day we are about to take off and our batteries are too low to turn over the outboard. I had been babying them hoping that they would hold a charge. Obviously not, so I borrowed a dock cart and huffed it up to the local NAPA. The price wasn’t all that much more than at home so I replaced them both. An hour and a half later we were off.