Friday. Clear, 48, afternoon sea breeze to 15 knots.
We’re in Sitka. Got here Monday night. All the errands have been run, all the dockside tasks have been performed. All, that is, but updating this.
We got away from the dock in Funter Bay a little after 9. Winds were light and a high, thin overcast diffused the sunlight. As we exited the Bay my cell phone beeped, indicating a voicemail message. The missed-call log showed that Rory on the S/V Complice had just tried to call. I was pleasantly surprised when my return call went through. He said he and another boat, the S/V Allegro were headed to Kalinin Bay on the south side of Salisbury Sound, tomorrow. They were intending to stay a couple of days. I told him I would see what I could do to join them.
My plan was to overnight in Tenakee Springs, spend the next night somewhere in Peril Strait, arriving in Sitka on Friday. I plotted the course to Kalinin Bay: 101 miles. The trick was to find a place to stay the night that would pretty much split the distance in half, making two long but reasonable travel days. After pouring over the Coast Pilot, Sitkoh Bay on the east end of Peril Strait looked like the best candidate. It was 55 miles away and it had a State-maintained floatplane float. It’s not a good idea to tie up to a floatplane float, but I figured since I would be there shortly before sundown and away around 8 the next morning, the chances of interfering with a plane needing to use the float would be minimal.
By late morning the overcast had burned away and the wind had died completely. We motored south down Chatham Strait making 5.5 knots across a mirror-smooth waterway.
Shortly before 8PM the docks at the “village” labeled Chatham on the chart hove into view. There was a dilapidated fuel dock, an even more dilapidated cannery dock and a float with a sign saying, “Private Dock, No Tresspassing.[sic]” No floatplane float. The advantage of a float is that Jazz can get to the beach without my having to launch the skiff. A dock with a fixed deck and a tall skinny ladder is no help. There was a good anchorage a quarter of a mile away but it would have been dark by the time I got the boat anchored and the skiff launched to say nothing of the retrieval time needed in the morning. I decided to tie up to the float, since I was leaving the first thing in the morning and the only tresses I was passing were firmly attached to my head. :-)
Above the float, attached to the ramp was a very well-maintained house, several outbuildings and a not-as–well-maintained house towards the cannery. As dark settled over the Bay no lights were seen anywhere. I figured since no one had come down to protest my action, I was good to go.
Wrong. Three sharp raps on the hull woke me up. Light was streaming through the portlights, the clock read 6:05. I slid the hatch back to face an irate man of indeterminate age. His first words were, “Can’t you read?” pointing at the sign. I’ve found in these situations the least said is best. I let the misspelling go unmentioned. He proceeded to tell me that there was a video camera, motioning over his shoulder with his thumb and that the owner would call the troopers if I wasn’t out of there immediately. I told him it hadn’t appeared that anybody was around and asked him if I could take Jazz to the beach. He rolled his eyes and said I needed to move the boat right now.
We were underway fifteen minutes later. It was a beautiful day, clear, no wind, and blue sky. As we gained the channel in the middle of the bay, a thick fog bank 2½ miles ahead in Peril Strait came into view. I went below, double-checked the waypoints on our route and flipped on the radar.
We emerged from the fog around 11, not having met any other vessels. We were making a little less than 4.5 knots bucking the ebbing tide. My plan had been to leave Sitkoh Bay around 8 which would allow favorable currents most of the way through Peril Strait and hit Sergius Narrows after the peak current. Our forced leave almost two hours early would put us in the narrows right at or slightly before peak current. Oh well. At least it would be assisting us rather than against us.
Whew, what an understatement. We turned out of Adams Channel at Rose Island into pronounced whirlpools and eddies stirred up by the tidal current and into a 20 knot wind blowing out of the west, right on the nose. I took over steering duties from Otto for the 4.5 mile run down to and through the Narrows. Wow, what a sleigh ride. We averaged 7 knots to the Narrows and 9.8 knots going through. It was surreal making that kind of speed with the opposing wind whipping up whitecaps.
I knew with that kind of wind in Peril it was liable to be howling in Salisbury Sound. To prevent a repeat of the monitor swan dive, I unhooked it and stowed it below while the seas were still flat before Kakul Narrows. Sure enough, 25-30 knots with 8 footers rolling in was awaiting us. When I glanced down at the laptop to check my course across the north end of Sinitsin Island the screen was blank! The only recovery was to cycle the power. When I tried to reload the nav program it said it had performed an illegal operation and would close. I loaded my back up program. It showed the rocks off Sinitsin but nothing for Kalinin Bay. About that time Rory called on the VHF to ask if that was me coming out of Peril. He and Teka were just exiting Neva Strait. Perfect timing. Complice led the way into the bay with Blue Note right behind and Allegro following.
After setting the hook, I hustled to get the skiff launched. Jazz was beginning to whine about holding it for so long. We cruised over to see if Teka wanted me to take her dog to the beach as well. No good deed goes unpunished. As soon as we set off, her dog peed in the bottom of the skiff and moments later Jazz let loose with a poop. Sigh.
The rest of the afternoon and evening was delightful. John on the S/V Sara arrived at some point. We had a large predominately Mexican pot luck dinner on the Allegro. Then the instruments came out and the jams were on.
The next day while the others hiked over to Sealion Cove I worked to get the nav computer back on line. I was finally successful. It required reloading the program. Unfortunately I lost all of the routes I had accumulated to this point. Oh well.
Cory and Tom, part of Allegro’s crew had asked if Jazz might want to go on the hike. I knew he did. When he got back to the boat he could barely walk. Poor old guy. It’s sad to be confronted with the fact that a moderate 5 mile hike was too much for this 12 year old dog.
Before noon the next day, both the Allegro and the Sara were underway to Sitka. Rory was headed north to Glacier Bay and the weather outside was not forecasted to be favorable. I was in no hurry to be anywhere so we both stayed put. That afternoon, feeling somewhat restless, I decided to hike over to Sealion Cove. On the way to the beach I stopped at the Complice to let Rory know where I would be. He decided to go along. The weather was perfect for the hike. Sealion Cove has a beautiful sandy beach and while we were there, two right/left beach breaks. With the 3-4 foot surf, I was tempted to get in the water. Discretion and 45 degree water stopped that. By the time we got back to the boats, it was raining lightly.
Sunday the wind came up and kept us both in the bay. We had a tasty minestrone soup for lunch on Complice and buffalo burger tacos on Blue Note for dinner. Jazz recovered from his ordeal and had no problem going to the beach.
The next morning after Jazz and I had gone to the beach in the skiff I decided to run out into Salisbury Sound to see what the conditions were like. Even though the forecast was not very good, the seas were less than 2 feet and the winds were less than 15 knots. We decided to go, Complice north to Lisianski Strait, Blue Note south to Sitka.
The trip back to Sitka was mostly uneventful. I had decided to bypass Olga Strait by going through Hayward Passage instead. In the East Channel I almost hit a rock. Fortunately my luck held and no water was inadvertently let into the boat. We arrived at Thomsen Harbor about 7:30.
So here we are in Sitka once again. I had hoped to spend no more than 2-3 days but there was simply too much to do: water, garbage, laundry, groceries, liquor, oil change, as well as several other errands. The weather is absolutely perfect and is predicted to be so through tomorrow. The problem is I want to spend a couple of days going down the outside of Baranof and storm warnings are posted for Sunday. I also need to update this and install the new VHF radio I just purchased. We will sit tight. Maybe Monday. We’ll see. I think I’ll mosey over to the fuel dock in case the weather guessers are wrong and we can leave earlier.
EDIT: It’s Monday and we are making plans to leave in the morning. We had 55 knot gusts yesterday afternoon and last night. I was thinking about going into the open mic last night, but the winds and horizontal rain preempted. I just paid my harbor bill and will hit the rain locker and market tonight. The next port will be Port Alexander, probably by the weekend.
Pics are our wake in Chatham Strait, passing tresses in Sitkoh Bay, tide rips in Peril Strait, buoy at Sergius Narrows, the fleet in Kalinin Bay, Captain Rory, yours truly at Sealion Cove, flamingoes in Alaska??
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