Alaska

2nd July 2010, Juneau to Wrangell

As soon as Pete and Sal arrived in Juneau, our trip south began immediately: get to Tracey Arm, show them Sth. Sawyer Glacier which we had been to earlier, then catch up with Phil and Bev Walsh on their Kadey Krogan "Zuben Ubi". 

On deck

Phil taught celestial navigation once and apparently Zuben Ubi is an important reference star.

Pete & Sal knew Phil and Bev from Coffs Harbour in Oz, and our plan was for both boats to go to Dawes Glacier at the end of Endicott Arm, then tackle the narrow and difficult dog leg entrance into Fords Terror.

This is not dangerous if you time ingress and egress right on slack water. The idea is to edge to the entrance and look at what the kelp is doing, and if you can't see it don’t go.

Fords Terror is also uncharted, so we had to rely on our cruising guide, and a close watch on the bow and depth sounder. 

Dawes Glacier which we visited first was not completely choked up with icebergs which gave us a chance to see some seriously big calvings up nice and close sending massive tidal waves towards us. We were the only boats there apart from a big cruise ship that stayed a mile or so off.

Dawes Glacier, Endicott Arm, SE Alaska

Fords Terror

That night we anchored in Fords Terror which Marg and I claim is the most beautiful place we had been to on the whole trip. It was all about soaring rock faces and steep snow capped mountains, lots of bears, and pure peace and tranquility, save the sound of waterfalls, and again only our two boats.

Phil dropped a shrimp pot in about 400 ' of water, and gave us his catch in the morning. We left to head south again, and Phil & Bev went back to Juneau to drop off the guests, Peter and Christina who were a lot of fun.

Leaving Ford's Terror on ebb slack next morning, and carefully following Zuben Ubi's wake we got the surprise of our life turning the corner to find land exposed everywhere as the tide was completely out. We knew that the waterfall on the other side of the bay would be our lead to line up and we slowly followed Phil until crunch, we hit a submerged rock, one that Zubin Ubi went straight over the top with clearance, but with our foot plus deeper draught, we claimed it.

Main WOT into reverse, thrusters to change direction and we were on our way again to safely. I reckon that rock was about 6' under water, and we drew 6'6".

I went below to check whether we may have any water coming aboard but smiled knowing the rock would have come off second best after being hit by a Nordie. This is now my badge of honour, and feel I maybe just graduating into the boating caper.

Both Marg and Sal were on the flybridge when we hit, and Pete was lookout on the bow. I suspect we hit half way along the keel, and will have just some antifoul paint scraped off.

Below: A nice video of Fords Terror, although the boat is not a Nordhavn!

Wrangell and Wragnell Narrows

Heading to Wrangell via the narrow Wrangell Narrows we called into Petersburg for an hour to await the ebb current to get us through around midday, but somehow the ebb was in fact a flood, so a fairly slow trip, and the start of much bewilderment we found throughout the whole trip at trying to guess current flows using 3 separate nav programmes and the official tide book - all in conflict.

We finally got into Wrangell for the July 4th parade and events, and to watch the fireworks which were absolutely splendid for such a small town.

Here we met up with 6 other Nordhavns, which was quite a sight in this very small marina, and had a chance to meet for the first time:  John and Janet Long on N55 Anamcara, and Bill and Kay O'Meara on N57 Thor, along with our friends from Serindipity, Crossroads, and Cloudy Bay.

Brundige Inlet, Dundas Island

Continuing south the next day we snuck into a quiet little bay, Brundige Inlet, at Dundas Island, and got the surprise of our life not only to find anchored a Nordhavn 57, but one flying the Aussie flag. There we had the pleasure to meet Mark and Mog and their two young girls, 8 & 6, on the boat named Myrtle (after Marks much loved dog back at home in the outback of Australia).

These guys grow organic lamb on saltbush on a big station near Broken Hill, and had come over to Seattle and bought Myrtle. 

Both the girls, Lilly and Clancy have always been home schooled on the station (Ranch, 100,000 acres), and fitted into their new adventure so easily.

Seeing them both made us very homesick for our 4 granddaughters all about the same age. 

They were all heading off to the Calgary Stampede after we left, which would be much more familiar surroundings to where they come from.

Kumelian Cove

Next day was to take us to Kumelian Cove to anchor for the night, after checking in with Canadian Customs at Prince Rupert.

Kumelian Cove turned out to be one of our favourite anchorages, and we even had a whale spouting inside this little archipelago of small and very pretty islands.