Saturday 25 May
From Kelp Passage Cove it was only a few hours to Prince Rupert, the last town of British Columbia before Alaska. It is connected by a road and is large enough to find most anything.
We had run out of propane during the night but the only propane dealer in town was closed on weekends. We'd have to sleep without heating and deal with the condensation until Ketchikan in Alaska. Fortunately the next nights would be relatively benign.
After showering, refueling, eating out, internet, shopping, calling US customs to notify them of our impeding arrival, doing laundry and rinsing and partially drying the spinnaker that had touched salt water, we set off again and motored west-northwest through a narrow winding channel out into the sound where we caught good wind to sail to an anchorage in Pearl Harbor, an uninhabited bay.
On the way the sun got low enough to get under the cloud cover and we witnessed a rare (because of the usual mountains and clouds) and beautiful sunset:
Sunday 26 May
We caught our last Canadian crab which brought our tally for Laszlo's $112 Canadian fishing license plus lost lures to 3 crabs and 1 small rock fish!
We motored nearly all day and crossed Dixon Entrance, the other body of water that's open to the Pacific Ocean and can be pretty wild, but we experienced only a hardly perceptible swell and glassy waters. The border with Alaska follows right after and beyond it we enthousiastically spied our first whale in the distance, finally! Later there was another one but it was hidden behind an island. From the thunderous blowing sounds and the huge spouts, taller than the trees, we figure it must have been a really, really big one.
For the last few hours of the leg, when a feeble wind came up from the right direction, the spinnaker was hoisted for further drying. The first half hour it could hardly support its own weight for lack of wind but then we actually sailed at 3 to 4 knots.
Spinnaker drying:
We dropped the hook at Ham Island and enjoyed our very tasty crab:
Monday 27 May
From Ham Island to Ketchikan it's only a couple of hours. Again there was no sailing to be done and only motoring. However, when we got really near to town in Revillagigedo Channel, a nasty wind suddenly blew against us with a vicious chop.
We radioed the harbor master who basically told us we could pick any spot in any basin so we entered Thomas Basin which was closest to us.
We spotted a space and I approached it carefully because of the high winds. It was a downwind approach so the maneuver would be to kick in reverse gear when nearly in the spot and bring the stern near to the dock to tie it on first, upwind.
Things didn't work out as planned. The outboard engine kicked up when switched in reverse and with the prop nearly out of the water it did't work properly anymore and we were blown way too fast towards the dock and the boat in front of our spot. I yelled to Laszlo and Jenny to stay on board and not try to get on the dock and bailed out of there with little room to spare between us and the boat in front. I immediately did a 180 degree turn to avoid a perpendicular dock right in front of us and then pushed the outboard engine back in the water and engaged the forward gear to motor into the wind which we were now facing again.
Outboard engines have a little lever with which you can lock them into position so they no longer can kick up. Evidently something was wrong with that. I never use this lever on my engine which is always in the "propellor down" position so I couldn't immediately remember where it was located.
I was now upwind again from the dock space and decided to give the approach another try, this time knowing I'd have to make do without reverse. The wind was simply too strong however and I just flipped the gear in reverse anyway knowing it probably wouldn't do me any good and indeed the outboard just kicked its prop out of the water. I narrowly bailed out again.
That's when I made a mistake. I decided to quickly check out that lever while puttering upwind but since I couldn't immediately locate it I just took too many seconds and the irregular winds in the constricted basin took advantage of my inattention to blow us towards other docked boats. Startled I pulled my head out of the engine well when Jenny and Laszlo started shouting warnings. Fortunately they were alert and fended us off so that no boats came into contact with each other and we extricated ourselves from this pickle a moment later.
I thought it wiser at that point to pick another spot and allowed the boat to be blown sideways against the perpendicular downwind dock. It would be hard to leave from there if the wind kept blowing hard, which is why I didn't pick that spot in the first place, but at least it was easy to get to and would allow us to check the engine at our leisure.
It turned out the lever, once located, was simply halfway down and not high enough to keep the engine from moving up... I pulled it back all the way up and gave the reverse gear a quick try and all seemed fine.
We called US customs and immigration and waited on the boat for them to show up and clear us in the country. A single female officer dropped by about half an hour later and stamped our passports. All she asked was if we had any pets, no questions about alcohol, tobacco, firearms, fresh fruit and vegetables, etc. She didn't come on board.
Thomas Basin is located next to the cruise ship dock and no less than four of them were in town. Needless to say the whole neighborhood around those docks looks like Disneyland with all sorts of kitchy touristy stores. I wonder what it is like to travel by cruise ship where everywhere you land you end up in the same kitsh as if you hadn't even changed location. We had a quick stroll through there in a mostly vain search of things we needed.
Doing the touristy thing:
From Ham Island to Ketchikan it's only a couple of hours. Again there was no sailing to be done and only motoring. However, when we got really near to town in Revillagigedo Channel, a nasty wind suddenly blew against us with a vicious chop.
We radioed the harbor master who basically told us we could pick any spot in any basin so we entered Thomas Basin which was closest to us.
We spotted a space and I approached it carefully because of the high winds. It was a downwind approach so the maneuver would be to kick in reverse gear when nearly in the spot and bring the stern near to the dock to tie it on first, upwind.
Things didn't work out as planned. The outboard engine kicked up when switched in reverse and with the prop nearly out of the water it did't work properly anymore and we were blown way too fast towards the dock and the boat in front of our spot. I yelled to Laszlo and Jenny to stay on board and not try to get on the dock and bailed out of there with little room to spare between us and the boat in front. I immediately did a 180 degree turn to avoid a perpendicular dock right in front of us and then pushed the outboard engine back in the water and engaged the forward gear to motor into the wind which we were now facing again.
Outboard engines have a little lever with which you can lock them into position so they no longer can kick up. Evidently something was wrong with that. I never use this lever on my engine which is always in the "propellor down" position so I couldn't immediately remember where it was located.
I was now upwind again from the dock space and decided to give the approach another try, this time knowing I'd have to make do without reverse. The wind was simply too strong however and I just flipped the gear in reverse anyway knowing it probably wouldn't do me any good and indeed the outboard just kicked its prop out of the water. I narrowly bailed out again.
That's when I made a mistake. I decided to quickly check out that lever while puttering upwind but since I couldn't immediately locate it I just took too many seconds and the irregular winds in the constricted basin took advantage of my inattention to blow us towards other docked boats. Startled I pulled my head out of the engine well when Jenny and Laszlo started shouting warnings. Fortunately they were alert and fended us off so that no boats came into contact with each other and we extricated ourselves from this pickle a moment later.
I thought it wiser at that point to pick another spot and allowed the boat to be blown sideways against the perpendicular downwind dock. It would be hard to leave from there if the wind kept blowing hard, which is why I didn't pick that spot in the first place, but at least it was easy to get to and would allow us to check the engine at our leisure.
It turned out the lever, once located, was simply halfway down and not high enough to keep the engine from moving up... I pulled it back all the way up and gave the reverse gear a quick try and all seemed fine.
We called US customs and immigration and waited on the boat for them to show up and clear us in the country. A single female officer dropped by about half an hour later and stamped our passports. All she asked was if we had any pets, no questions about alcohol, tobacco, firearms, fresh fruit and vegetables, etc. She didn't come on board.
Thomas Basin is located next to the cruise ship dock and no less than four of them were in town. Needless to say the whole neighborhood around those docks looks like Disneyland with all sorts of kitchy touristy stores. I wonder what it is like to travel by cruise ship where everywhere you land you end up in the same kitsh as if you hadn't even changed location. We had a quick stroll through there in a mostly vain search of things we needed.
Doing the touristy thing:
Laszlo hadn't fished all day long anymore for the last few days in Canada but obviously the fire was still burning since he decided to get an Alaskan fishing license too. He got it at Tongass Trading Co.--which name was the source of some amusement that brought new meaning to "tongue in cheek" remarks.
After all our errands we wanted to move the boat to a fuel dock we had located that would also refill our propane tank. The wind was still blowing even though not as hard as before. But we still had to manually move our boat with the help of the crew on the fishing boat next to us to orient one end into the wind to be able to motor out of there. As it turned out, the stern was the most convenient end to turn into the wind so we backed out. Of course, the outboard did kick up again! Not all the way and fortunately we were still going somewhere. After an expletive that the the crew of the other boat might unfortunately have thought was directed at them, we docked a bit further to have another look at that darned lever. It had sagged a bit again. I had had it with its shenanigans and locked it in the right position with a hose clamp.
After refueling and filling the propane tank it was too late to make it to an anchorage and with spring tidal ranges of over 7.5 m. we thought it better to sleep at Bar Harbor, the northernmost basin in Ketchikan. It has showers, is out of the tourist zone, and has a huge Safeway with good wifi in easy walking distance as well as hardware and boating stores.
-------
Here are a few more panoramic pictures I received from Jenny. They aren't related to this episode and are from random locations in British Columbia:
After all our errands we wanted to move the boat to a fuel dock we had located that would also refill our propane tank. The wind was still blowing even though not as hard as before. But we still had to manually move our boat with the help of the crew on the fishing boat next to us to orient one end into the wind to be able to motor out of there. As it turned out, the stern was the most convenient end to turn into the wind so we backed out. Of course, the outboard did kick up again! Not all the way and fortunately we were still going somewhere. After an expletive that the the crew of the other boat might unfortunately have thought was directed at them, we docked a bit further to have another look at that darned lever. It had sagged a bit again. I had had it with its shenanigans and locked it in the right position with a hose clamp.
After refueling and filling the propane tank it was too late to make it to an anchorage and with spring tidal ranges of over 7.5 m. we thought it better to sleep at Bar Harbor, the northernmost basin in Ketchikan. It has showers, is out of the tourist zone, and has a huge Safeway with good wifi in easy walking distance as well as hardware and boating stores.
-------
Here are a few more panoramic pictures I received from Jenny. They aren't related to this episode and are from random locations in British Columbia:
No comments:
Post a Comment