Well, that point in time had arrived.
My daughter Karen was slated to be my crew for this trip. Karen is in the Army, stationed in Wisconsin, but she had secured enough leave time to come up and help me with this trip.
My longtime friend Bob Hammer came by to say goodbye the night before we left, and he was nice enough to shoot this photo of Karen and me before our epic voyage.
The first leg of our journey was from our home slip in Bar Harbor to Foggy Bay, which is just a little over 32 miles.
The run up to Foggy Bay was bouncy and uncomfortable, but not dangerous. The autopilot failed multiple times, which was really disappointing since it is brand new. (See my prior posting for the Petersburg/Wrangell trip.)
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| Captain Karen at the helm |
This is our "mound" of food, gear, spare parts, and miscellaneous stuff on the flybridge seats.
Thank heavens for this area to store stuff, because I don't know where it would go if we couldn't put it there.
We got into Foggy Bay about 4:30 PM and secured for our first night out there.
It was rainy, and cool.
The second leg of this trip is from Foggy Bay to Prince Rupert. This requires crossing Dixon Entrance, which is one of the two primary open ocean crossings required in order to get from Ketchikan down to the Seattle area.
My weather guru said the next day would be calm seas, and so Karen and I pulled out of Foggy Bay at about 5 AM, just as it was getting light.
This map snippet shows the route from Foggy Bay to Prince Rupert.
This is an old screen shot which shows us going south of Digby Island and then north back up to Prince Rupert.
In fact we went through Venn Passage, which is a short cut to Prince Rupert as you approach from the north. It is shallow and somewhat dangerous in there, but I had gone through there before and felt confident that we could make it, and we did.
Going through Venn Passage saves going several miles out of your way just when you are the most tired.
The blue line shows the out of the way route, and the red marker shows the route through Venn Passage.
Water conditions on the route were excellent and we had no issues, other than the fact that the autopilot kept failing.
When we got into Prince Rupert we had to deal with Canadian Customs.
I had what is called a CANPASS, which is a pre-screened, expedited customs clearing process.
Karen did not have a CANPASS, and so we were instructed to go to our marina, Cow Bay Marina, and call them from there, which we did.
They asked several questions and then issued us our "Reporting number."
This number is critical to have on hand while transiting Canadian waters, in case we are ever challenged along the way.
There is also a one hour time change (+1) when arriving into Canadian waters, so we had to reset clocks and watches for that.
Cow Bay Marina was great.
In the past I have always stayed at the Prince Rupert Rowing and Yacht Club, which is right next door, but a friend had recommended this marina, so we stayed there.
They were super helpful, super friendly, and the slips were large and easy to access.
Shore power was clean, and easy to access.
Washrooms and showers and laundry were easy and cheap.
From Cow Bay Marina it is an easy walk up to the shops and stores of Prince Rupert.
We went to Safeway, Walmart, and a few other places.
I had brought my rolling cart. It is light, easy to drag, as it has big bicycle tires, and easy to fold up and stow when done. It sure makes hauling groceries and provisions a lot easier.
We did some laundry at Cow Bay Marina as well, just because it was close, convenient, and cheap.
Of course we had to get a supply of "Loonies" for the machines, which we got from the harbor guy.
I had gotten some Canadian currency (in bills) from First Bank before departing on this trip.
They don't carry it on hand, so you have to order it and then wait a week or so for it to come in.
As I mentioned in the previous post I have been having trouble with my Nikon D80 camera, which I've had for many years. So right before this trip I bought a cheaper camera from Walmart, just so I would at least have one good working camera. My Nikon seems to work OK with my telephoto lens on it, but not with the regular lens.
Here are some photos we took during our 2 night stay at Cow Bay Marina. I should mention that Karen took the best seal shots, but I think I took the best shots of other boats.
Faraway at her slip at Cow Bay Marina.
Why is it the other boats in the area always seem bigger and nicer than mine?
The boat on our starboard side was named "Runaway," so we had Faraway next to Runaway.
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| This is a tourist boat called the Inside Passage |
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| A beautiful Nordhavn - "Ammonite" |
Karen says he looks "angry" in this shot.
When I did an engine room check after arriving in Prince Rupert I saw significant leakage of hydraulic steering fluid around the steering pump and the steering ram.
I called a machine shop that specialized in marine hydraulics and had someone come down and work on the autopilot. They did not really change anything on the autopilot itself, but they did reseat some hydraulic hoses on the pump and on the steering ram. Since they have done their work the autopilot has not failed and there has been no leakage of steering fluid - Yay!
We stayed 2 nights at the Cow Bay Marina, mostly because we had to wait for the mechanic to come down and work on the steering fluid leakage. But it was definitely worth the wait.
The next 2 nights were slated to be remote anchor sites, i.e. not in a marina.
The first of those 2 nights was in Lowe Inlet, a place I have anchored a few times before.
Here is a map snippet that shows the route from Prince Rupert down to Lowe Inlet, which is in Grenville Channel. I think it is about 50 miles down there.
When we got there 2 other boats were already at anchor (photos to follow). I chose an anchor site and dropped the anchor. When we were finally set I saw we were only in about 30' of water, so I was not happy with that set. So we pulled the anchor, our first anchor set and pull on this trip.
When the anchor got up near the surface we started to have all kinds of trouble with it, and I could not figure out what was going on. I had Karen up on the foredeck with me to help.
When the anchor finally came into view I saw the problem - it had snagged a small rope, which was under a lot of tension. I have no idea where this rope was attached or how it came to have so much tension on it, but we had a devil of a time getting it off the anchor.
Eventually I got it off with a boat hook and we reset the anchor in a little deeper water, and we were set for the night. Conditions were dead calm and beautiful.
Some photos of the area and of our neighbors for the night.
The next day we were up early and pulled the anchor with no issues this time.
Our goal for this day was a beautiful little nook called Bottleneck Inlet, where I have anchored several times before. Distance from Lowe Inlet to Bottleneck Inlet was about 73 miles, a fairly long day for us.
Here is a map snippet that shows the route for the day.
Lowe Inlet is up there in the upper left, and Bottleneck Inlet is down in the lower right.
The route for the day is in blue.
It was a fairly protected run, but we did have some unfavorable conditions when we crossed wright Sound, that open area just before entering the protection of Princess Royal Channel. The seas were large and they were coming at us from the port beam, trying to push us a direction we did not want to go. That is one of the hardest situations to deal with on a small boat. If we were heading straight into these seas they would not have been such a problem. As it was they kept pushing us off course and we almost broached (rolled over) a couple of times. Fortunately the crossing was short, so we made it OK.
We passed a couple of stunning waterfalls along our route - the photos don't really do them justice.
At about 4:30 PM we anchored safely in Bottleneck Inlet. No one else was there when we came in, and no one else came while we were there, which was not surprising to me.
It is a beautiful area. Here are some shots from Bottleneck Inlet.
We had a great dinner and a quiet night on the anchor here in Bottleneck Inlet.
Our next destination was to be Shearwater Marina and Resort.
It was about 50 miles away, and in order to get there we had to go through Jackson Narrows and also Reid Passage.
Jackson Narrows was not dangerous, but it was "skinny" in places.
Reid Passage is very skinny and you have to announce on the radio your intention to enter it so that you don't encounter a vessel coming the other way. In most places there is not room for two boats to pass each other.
Taking Reid Passage allows a vessel to skip most of Milbanke Sound, which can be a dangerous open water crossing.
Here is the route, with Bottleneck Inlet at the top and Shearwater at the bottom.
We made our way down with no issues in either Jackson Narrows or Reid Passage.
When you come out of Reid Passage, southbound as we were, you are dumped out into Seaforth Channel, which can be rough is Milbanke Sound is rough that day.
We were lucky and found Seaforth Channel to be very calm for us.
Along the way we picked up a hitchhiker for a short time.
In all the years I've been boating I don't recall this ever happening before.
We arrived into Shearwater area about 2 PM and took on 550 liters of fuel there.
Don't ask what it cost!
We got tied up to their dock, got hooked into shore power, figured out how to get on their WiFi, and we were set for awhile.
We ended up staying here 3 nights.
We had intended to stay 2 nights, but we stayed the third night on the advice of our weather router, who advised us to hold there for better weather in Queen Charlotte Sound. More on that later.
Here are some photos taken during our stay at Shearwater.
They have a new sign that wasn't here the last time I came through.
Karen stands by Faraway at our spot at the dock.
We were right near the power distribution block so that was nice.
They have made one improvement here that I really appreciate.
In the past they had one fresh water hose that ran the full length of the long dock.
In order to fill fresh water you had to follow that hose and figure out who was using it, and then ask them if they would let you know when they were done. Oftentimes they would say sure, but some other boat (or boats) are ahead of you.
Now they still have only one main water line (that big yellow hose running along the bull rail) but they have added "T" connections every 50' or so which allows many boats to fill fresh water at the same time.
In the two photos above you can see the difference in the seasons.
The upper photo was taken on this trip, May 2018.
The lower photo, of the same building (from a slightly different angle) was taken in late August of 2015.
They do a lot of charter fishing out of Shearwater, and they had not yet put their fishing boats in the water for the season when we were there on this trip.
There are several buildings in this facility.
This one houses a laundry & shower room on the far left, and some small shops to the right.
I don't know what is on the upper floor, but I suspect they are apartments for some of the workers.
This is their fuel dock.
I am told it is one of the few places in the area where helicopters can refuel, so during the day there are frequently helicopters coming and going.
This is just an oddity.
On the back doors to our main cabin there is lettering that reads "Mainship Trawlers."
The sun was so bright that the lettering transferred almost perfectly inside on that panel.
We had a little bit of drama and a very close call on the dock one afternoon.
A boat about the size of ours was pulling away from the dock to leave and one of the men from the boat was attempting to push it off from the dock and then climb on board as it swung away.
He was an older gentleman, who walked with a cane, so he was not exactly agile.
He pushed the boat out but when he attempted to swing himself on board he did not make it over the rail.
So when we saw him he was hanging off the side of the boat desperately trying to pull himself up.
Just as we headed out of our cabin to try to assist he managed to literally claw himself over the railing.
A close one for sure.
We were anxious to get underway but our next nautical challenge was to cross Queen Charlotte Sound (QCS). Our weather expert recommended holding at Shearwater at least another day.
So I will close out this segment of the blog, but pick it up with Part #2 as we depart from Shearwater.
