Report from club member Marc's Alaskan Adventure

Wednesday 22 and Thursday 23 May

Nothing came up in the crab pot except for this big sea star:

 We left Goat Harbor and motored through the Hiekish Narrows. Even though current can run at up to 4 knots there they are not a rapid and you can always go through provided you're fast enough. Of course, we timed it to be pushed through. 

From there we motored all the way up the Princess Royal Channel. We had good enough weather all day to slide the tarp aside. 

Outside Goat Harbor:

Butedale, an abandoned fish cannery that I visited last year:

 After leaving Princess Royal Channel we finally had some wind to sail for the last few miles of the day. It died quickly so Laszlo wanted to fly the spinnaker even though it was hardly worth it for the distance left. By the time it was ready to launch, the finicky wind in those channels was blowing quite hard however. I told Laszlo we wouldn't be able to hoist it without mainsail to blanket it. Laszlo insisted and my gut feeling was totally against it. That's where I should have listened to it and aborted the whole thing. But Laszlo was so eager that I didn't want to disappoint him.  In accordance with the immutable laws of physics, we got what we deserved and were dealt with instant punishment and a hilarious slapstick clusterf*ck. 

Laszlo started hoisting the spinnaker, that's done on the foredeck on Mariposa.  As soon as the sail opened up the wind caught it with violence and the boat gave a big roll.  The halliard was yanked out of Laszlo's hands, burning his fingers, coiling around a foot and lifting it high, making him fall flat out on his back on the foredeck. This seemed to somehow impede his hoisting abilities. 
Mariposa rounded up displeased with this unkind treatment. I turned her back downwind while fumbling with the guy and the sheet but she gave another big roll and the spinnaker touched the water. I just turned upwind voluntarily then to right her and aborted the whole circus act. The order to douse the spinnaker was promptly executed by a seemingly half disoriented Laszlo. It was a quick struggle to pull the sail close to the boat and then it was grabbed and came down readily. 
So much for eagerness. 

A short subdued sail on the genoa only brought us the rest of the way to Bishop Bay, our destination for the night. 

The free dock at Bishop Bay:

 It's a small dock but there are also two mooring balls. 

The attraction of the place are the hot springs:

 There's a tiny tub where you can wash and then you can soak for a long, long time in the two bigger basins:

 Breakfast under way:

 Plenty of falls in Princess Royal Channel:

The ceiling and walls are decorated with mementos and graffiti of many boats that have stopped there. You can only get to it by boat or seaplane. There's no road, no ranger station, nothing. 

We spent the evening on the big catamaran to which we were rafted up. It's Dutch crew has been sailing for 8 years now. A Canadian couple from a small motorboat joined in the fun as well. 

On Thursday morning we soaked again and then found a truly gigantic sea star in our crab pot. Jenny promptly baptized it Houdini because we were quite puzzled at how it had been able to enter the cage.  We left for Hartley Bay to refuel, went around Gribbell Island, a spectacular route. We switched at least ten times between sailing, motoring, or motorsailing. 

Leaving Hartley Bay the wind had picked up to over 30 knots. We motored for an endless time against it and some current to cover the very few miles to the Grenville Channel.  By then it was back to a reasonable strength fortunately and we sailed downwind to our anchorage in Nettle basin in Lowe Inlet, a side arm of the Grenville Channel.