Alaska 2021 - May 9

 

Alaska 2021 – May 9 Mother’s Day

     Happy Mother’s day to all the Moms reading this blog!  Today we cruised up Graham Reach past Khutze Inlet. We went thru Fraser Reach, McKay Reach, Wright Sound then Grenville Channel to reach our destination for tonight of Lowe Inlet which was about 60 miles north of lasts nights stop in Horsefly Cove. We have stayed at Lowe Inlet on prior trips and the Nettle Basin and Verney Falls are the highlight. The Kumowdah River flows into Nettle Basin over Verney Falls and drains Lowe Lake. At a low tide Verney Falls will double in height which leads to some great pictures. It started as  another overcast day but much brighter and no rain-we actually saw glimpses of the sun on the journey but we are back in the heavy overcast now!

     On the journey we went past Butedale which is the site of a former cannery. The buildings are in ruins, but the waterfall is still spectacular.

     This is a beautiful cruise with high hills surrounding us and many waterfalls to enjoy. There is still quite a bit of snow in some of the hills.

 

 

Alaska 2021 - May 8

 

April 2021 – May 8

    We left Oliver Cove at 8:30 with an anticipated anchorage in Horsefly Cove in Green Inlet which is South of Butedale.  It is a cold, rainy gray day again which is unfortunate since this is normally a beautiful ride up Mathieson Channel.  We went thru Jackson pass and Jackson Narrows to Finlayson Channel. If you follow the Douglass book you would probably not anchor here as they say they spent the night poorly secured to a spit that extends from the stream on the south shore across from Horsefly cove. Not an assuring post but we anchor the three boats together on one center anchor and stern tie to shore so we will see how it works out! There are tidal rapids at Baffle Point and the description in Douglass is enjoy the view of the ebb current at the rapids – its like watching a jet fighter with is after burner ignited.  The rooster tails of the waterfall pulsate for perhaps 100 yards on a good low tide! My guess is this is why we are staying at Green Inlet!  Picture of Dave and Jane on Bidarka going thru Jackson Narrows and Jackson Channel. Pete is enjoying the ride with my Nana blanket from Evie and Lexi! We are seeing lots of waterfalls along the route!

 

Alaska 2021 – May 7

We spent the day cruising in cold wet rainy weather from Goldstream Bay to Oliver Cove Marine Park  via Shearwater. We floated off Shearwater where we were able to pick up internet and phone service.  It’s always nice to be able to catch up with people when we go by the areas with connectivity!  Our intention was to spend about an hour floating then heading on to our evening anchorage but the local Shrimp pots had other plans.  First Dave floated over 2 pots that got caught on his boat. Glen jumped in Stupid(his jet boat) to go help and realized he had also floated over a Shrimp float.  Glen’s pot was a fairly easy removal to put the pot back where it came from but not the same for Dave and Jane on Bidarka.  They had 2 floats and after about 2 hours along with Glen and Pete’s help they were free from the pots but the result was 2 floats and only one pot.  While Glen and Pete were resetting the pot with 2 floats a local came out to make sure everything was ok.  He was really nice and friendly about the mishap. The guys gave him money to cover the loss of the pot and we were on our way to find anchorage.  We went thru Seaforth Channel to Reid Pass and our spot to drop the hook for the night!  Dinner on the Nelsea and another fun evening with friends. The boys (Steve and Glen) beat Michelle and Liz at Cribbage -2 games.  We need a chance to redeem ourselves – hopefully tomorrow night.

Alaska 2021 – May 6

We fueled up last night at Port McNeill and that will be the last fuel stop before Ketchikan.  We used 305 gallons from Roche Harbor!  The people at the fuel dock were fantastic! They even ran up to the store for us for a few provisions and brought it down to the boat since we are not allowed to get off on shore. We celebrated Cinco De Mayo with Tacos on the Nelsea. We left Port McNeill today with calm seas – overcast but not raining.  Pete Jung is on Nelsea for the ride to Ketchikan and its great to have another Captain on board! The boat picture is Magic Moment with Glen and Liz Dodge.  We were headed to Allison Harbor but decided to push on and cross Cape Caution.  Cape Caution was fine but the run up to Goldstream Harbor which is on Hecate Island north of Hakai was less than desirable – we had 28 knot winds and wind against current and swell so we had a very lumpy ride.  All three boats at some point took a swell that toppled lamps, tables, etc.  We went 81 miles and arrived to a beautiful anchorage at Goldstream Harbor.  None of us had ever stayed there before but definitely recommend it for a calm evening.

Alaska 2021 – May 5

Campbell River to Port McNeil

We headed out early today to catch the slack tide at Seymour Narrows.  Another good day on the water – a little bit more wave action today and overcast skies.  We will take on about 300 gallons of fuel which will give us enough fuel to get to Ketchikan.  There were a lot of dolphins today that played in our wake.  I sent a video home for Evelyn and Alexis to see them in action.  We also got to facetime with the girls today which is fun for all of us.  The forecast is for winds and waves for the next few days which might stop us from rounding Cape Caution but we will have to wait and see what transpires!

 

Alaska 2021 – Adventures on the Nelsea with Steve and Michelle Nelson

                                   Nelsea – 62 Offshore  and  Nellie – 20 Ft Grady White fishing boat

We are off to Alaska again!  We left home on April 30^th for a stop at Roche Harbor and the annual Ling Cod fishing derby with the Grady White club.  It was a tough weekend of fishing but fun fishing with Jeff and Tam Melvin. We got 9 Ling Cod but unfortunately all were just too small to keep! We had a fun time meeting up with people since it has been 2 years since we had the Ling Cod Derby due to Covid.  After the Grady group left Roche we met up with our Alaska traveling group.  This year we are traveling with Glen and Liz Dodge on Magic Moment and Dave and Jane Mehlum on Bidarka. Willard and Diane Thomas came to Roche for the weekend to send us off on our adventures.  We headed out on Monday May 3 for Van Isle and Customs.  We were briefed on all the rules that go along with our being allowed to transit thru Canada and off we headed to Nanaimo harbor for our first night at Anchor. On May 4^th we headed out for Comox but with the good weather and water we decided to push on and are headed for Campbell River for our night at anchor north of April Point. 

August 15 - August 29, 2016

August 15 – August 29, 2016

Happy Birthday Tyler - August 15!!!!!!  We will celebrate your birthday when we get home - Love You!

The weather in Ketchikan is still awful so we could not take Josh thru Misty Fjords for his last day in Alaska with us.  We decided to have a farewell dinner with Chris and Tom and the 3 of us since Josh and Chris fly home tomorrow and Miner Debt, Nelsea and Spirit Bear will be crossing Dixon Entrance for Prince Rupert on the 16^th.

 August 16 –August 19

 Goodbye to Josh, Chris and Alaska!  Off to Prince Rupert we go and we had a beautiful day to cross the Dixon Entrance which was great to see since we have been in quite a bit of rain lately.  Steve and I stayed at the Cowbay Marina since they did not have room at the Prince Rupert Yacht Club for us  The Cowbay Marina is a new marina and it was great!  We had dinner on the Nelsea with Pete and Brad (guest on Spirit Bear) and Tom (Miners Debt) and we leave tomorrow for the outside passage thru Ogden Channel, Petrel Channel towards Estevan Sound .   We decided to go on the outside to see a different area since the weather is predicted to be good for a couple of days.  It is beautiful and very remote and we did not see any other boats outside during our 2 days before the weather started to change.  We spent the first night in Newcombe Harbor and the second in Monckton Bay. We had to leave Monckton Bay early in the morning since the entrance is narrow and shallow so we set our alarms for a 6am departure – oops – we woke up at 6 and it was pretty dark!  Forgot about checking for sunrise!  In any case we were able to get away at first light and were treated to sunrise about 5 times as we headed south along the outside and the sun kept going behind hills on our journey.  The water is predicted to get rough so we will head back inside at Otter channel, Wright Sound, McKay Reach then Fraser Reach heading for Khutze. We all decided that we would bypass Khutze next time because the horseflies and mosquitoes were terrible again and we ended up inside the boats in A/C because it was really warm but we could not go outside without being eaten alive!

August 20 – 27

 We continue our trek south with stops in Rescue Bay and Shearwater.  No room for us in Shearwater  – Tom found room on the log boom to tie up and wait and he went fishing in No Debt- he caught 2 Silvers while we waited on Nelsea since  we had anchored in the bay because the Harbormaster told us he was sure he would  have a spot open at the dock when a couple of boats left.  Wish he would not have told us that as we waited all afternoon for the spots to open – they did but he let another boat squeeze in which did not leave enough room for us.  We ended up on the breakwater with Tom when another boat moved off late in the afternoon.  Tom said fishing was good and unfortunately that would be the last of the good fishing!  We left Shearwater for Fury Cove – Secure Anchorage.  Our plan was to cross Cape Caution on the 23^rd  – the water was great but no visibility and we travelled from 7am until 2:30 in the solid Fog under Radar – only one picture during the crossing when we could briefly see Miners Debt ahead of us in the fog!  When we got to the Broughtons on our way into Sullivan Bay we were greeted by  Gary and Lenore (Noon Balloon) who  were fishing the channel in their fishing boat Nooner in the beautiful sunshine! We spent a wonderful evening in Sullivan Bay where we met up with Jim and Cheryl Matheson and their captain/cook Brian (Sea Jay) – appetizers on the dock and the last evening together for the 4 boats – tomorrow when we leave, Pete on Spirit Bear is going to Echo Bay.   Steve and I and tom  left on the 24^th spending one night in Lagoon Cove, Thurston Bay and on to Cortes Island where Tom is picking up a friend Bill for the journey home. We had very strong winds in Cortes 30+ knots and Tom spent a sleepless night spinning on his anchor in the bay – we were at the Seattle Yacht Club dock where we were secure to the dock but a restless night since it was very loud with all the winds and water lapping at the boat!  Bill arrived and the winds settled enough for us to head to Garden Bay to hopefully cross the Straits of Georgia.

August 27 and 28^th – Garden Bay – we had to spend 2 nights here as the winds on the straits were howling.  We had a potluck at the SYC outstation and it was fun to run into friends Rick and Kelly(SYC and RHYC members)  and meet several new members of SYC.

August 29 – The winds have calmed enough that we left Garden Bay at 7 for Roche Harbor.  The water was great so we decided to continue on the outside rather than waiting for the afternoon slack at Dodd Narrows so we only had  one rough spot entering Gabiola Passage – a huge standing wave created by Tom ahead of us and the current running against us at 5 knots.  Steve put the Throttles in high gear and we got thru and are now on our way to Roche with nice water! We had a 14 foot inflatable that followed us across The Straits - no idea where he came from but he followed Nellie and Nelsea for about  1 1/2 hours - when we first looked back we thought it was Glen!