Alaska – Riveted

Flotilla-ing to Alaska Again

Laura Domela — Thu, 10 May 2018 15:48:11 +0000

It’s that time of year again, and we’re leading a flotilla of boats up the Inside Passage from the San Juan Islands to SE Alaska! We’ll be documenting this trip on our Slowboat website, so for more than just an occasional highlight reel, head over there and subscribe if you want the day-to-day reports! We’re on Day 5 (of 35!) now and it’s shaping up to be a great adventure!

Sunrise as we left Silva Bay on Gabriola Island headed across the Strait of Georgia

Sunrise on the Strait of Georgia

BC Ferry, Strait of Georgia BC

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BC Ferry, Strait of Georgia BC

Dall’s Porpoises surfing our bow

Anchored in Squirrel Cove, BC

Public dock Squirrel Cove BC

Eagles fishing between Yuculta Rapids and Gillard Pass

Airship and Safe Harbour (the Slowboat raft!) in Forward Harbour, BC

We hope you’ll join us!

Behm Canal, Misty Fjords, Ketchikan

Laura Domela — Tue, 22 Aug 2017 20:17:40 +0000

We left Thorne Bay and headed for Ketchikan to catch up on laundry, groceries, etc. and to pick up our 9-year-old granddaughter, Mijonet, for a trip around Behm Canal. (Read up on our previous last two stops on Prince of Wales Island over on Slowboat: Coffman Cove, and Thorne Bay.)

The Ketchikan airport is across Tongass Narrows from town/ That means travelers arriving or departing Ketchikan by air must take a ferry a few hundred yards across the narrows to get to the airport. However, there’s a public dinghy/loading dock right next door to the ferry dock, and boating to the airport is WAY more fun than going by car or ferry. Airship swung by the airport and picked up Mijonet, while Sam on Safe Harbour went on ahead and into Behm Canal starting with the north end.

The weather looked bumpy for leaving Ketchikan. NOAA was predicting 25-knot southerly winds, and getting around the south end of Revillagigedo Island in southerly weather is not fun at all because it’s open to Dixon Entrance, so we opted to start with the north. The plan worked great, and we had a smooth cruise all the way to Naha Bay.

We tied to the public float near the entrance to Roosevelt Lagoon and the nearby (tiny) community of Loring.

This float is in great condition and allows easy access to trails. It’s just around the corner from Naha Rapids which lead into (or out of) Roosevelt Lagoon. Sam took these two photos with his DJI Phantom that will give you a good overview of the place:

We took the dinghies out with visions of going through the narrows to explore Roosevelt Lagoon. But as we looked into the rapids, we saw…well, lots of rapids, and the water inside was visually much lower than the water outside. We turned back to explore Loring, and figured we’d check back later on the conditions at the rapids.

According to the 2010 census, Loring has a population of 4, but in the summer months that can swell to 50. It’s a quaint village with buildings connected by boardwalks and a cannery/history museum that had an open sign out but was actually closed. Other than the museum, there’s nothing for visitors.

Back at the rapids, not much change. We pulled the dinghies up to a cool little portage and walked the trail over to the lagoon to get a closer look.

So, no exploring Roosevelt Lagoon for us. We tried again in the morning closer to the time of slack at Loring, but the rapids were still running too fast. These are serious rapids, probably easily capable of capsizing a dinghy and drowning a human. Explore cautiously!

We had homemade pizza for dinner as the rain poured down. Torrential, two-inch-an-hour rain.

The next morning, Kevin and Mijonet went out for some fishing. Mijonet caught her first fish, a big pink salmon, which they threw back in.

With the fishing complete, we continued north and then east in Behm Canal to Fitzgibbon Cove.

It was still raining pretty heavily and it was windy. Fitzgibbon Cove is somewhat open to the south, and we had a 1-2 foot chop rolling through the anchorage which made for a bit of a bumpy night. Unfortunately, nothing nearby looked any better. We stayed here one night last year in pretty much the same conditions (remind us next year not to do that again please). We put out some crab traps, made dinner, took no photos. In the morning we pulled up one big male Dungeness (just enough to make crab mac-n-cheese for dinner) and then cruised to Walker Cove in Misty Fjords.

Walker Cove is definitely one of our favorite anchorages in SE Alaska. We spent several nights in here last summer and rain or shine, it’s gorgeous…dozens of waterfalls, sheer granite walls, and usually many bears. It’s much less crowded than Punchbowl Cove (a little further south) and just as beautiful. Even on this gray, misty day, it was clear enough to have a great view of the scenery.

Sam took this photo of Mij and Kevin and I getting a closer look at one of the many waterfalls

Up at the head of Walker Bay (no bears). (We anchored in here one night last year. It’s a little harder to find a good spot because it shoals quickly, but it’s doable and the scenery payoff is high.)

Sam really wanted to go underneath this waterfall…

So up went the Grundens hood…

We returned to the boats and dinghied up the river a bit. Last year we saw eight brown bears at the same time on shore in Walker Cove, but so far this visit — no bears. We thought maybe we’d find at least one feasting on salmon a little further upstream, but still we saw only eagles. We beached on a sandbar and walked around a little, stepping around some bear paw and eagle talon prints in the sand.

In the morning before leaving, we pulled the crab traps up and had three big male Dungies that were keepers. (Crab cakes for dinner, crab/eggs benedict for breakfast the next day, and some crab dip another night!)

We left Walker Bay with the idea that we’d anchor for the night at Winstanley Island/Shoalwater Pass, about 20nm (3 hours) away. The forecast was for 25-knot winds from the SE, but as we motored south conditions were perfectly calm. Wanting to take advantage of the calm conditions, we passed Shoalwater Pass and kept going, thinking we might have an easy trip around Point Alava. We didn’t. The wind and seas built to 25+ knots and 3-4 feet. The autopilots got a bit of a workout!

We ended up in Ice House Cove, just south of Carroll Point, tied to a huge mooring buoy. Ice House Cove turned out to be a sweet little anchorage. We hear that there are some trails here, but the weather was still super rainy so we didn’t go out and explore at all, nor did we manage to get any photos, but we’d definitely return to this anchorage. It’s close enough (8 miles) to Ketchikan but a great alternative when you don’t feel like being in town.

Once back in Ketchikan, Sam left for a quick trip to Seattle, and Kevin and I did a few touristy things with Mijonet. We had one (and a half) nice days of weather and managed to get out to Totem Bight State Park with just a bit of drizzle.

Inside the restoration house

Kadjuk Bird Pole (Tlingit). The fabled Kadjuk bird sits atop the pole (out of view) with a section of uncarved space below him symbolizing high esteem for the bird. Raven is the next figure with his breast forming the headdress of his wife, Fog Woman, who holds the first two salmon in the world, that she produced. (!!!) The two large faces at the base symbolize the two slaves of Raven.

View from the beach out into Tongass Narrows

The weather cooperated and Mij got to return to the airport via dinghy shuttle — the best kind of shuttle! From Airship (moored at the city float downtown) to the small vessel dock across Tongass Narrows it’s about 2.5 nautical miles, which is no big deal at all in settled weather (just watch for float planes!)

Kevin and I had a nice dinner up at the Bar Harbor Restaurant, and then spent Saturday and part of Sunday doing errands and chores.

We’ve been in Ketchikan now for a week! The last several days have been dreadfully gray and rainy. (We’ve had over 8 inches of rain since yesterday morning!!) But we’re all fueled up and have done the shopping we need, and now we’re just waiting for a break in the weather so we can head south across Dixon Entrance. If we don’t get the one we were hoping for this afternoon, maybe we’ll go see a movie!

Port Protection and Point Baker | Prince of Wales Island

Laura Domela — Wed, 09 Aug 2017 20:31:44 +0000

We left Hole in the Wall for Point Baker, but decided to stop in briefly to check out Port Protection. We found some dock space on the community dock, and took a dinghy over to the main dock to check out the store and the village.

Port Protection has somewhere around fifty residents, but I think we only saw two or three of them. The buildings are connected by boardwalks through the woods, and at the top of the dock is the main community building which houses a small market (inside of which are the furnishings of a small diner, but the diner has been closed for over a year), a post office/laundry room, a small liquor store, and and office of some sort. There were a few guys installing some new internet (well, HughesNet Gen 4, so not the newest generation) on the roof while we were there, but that’s about all the action we saw in Port Protection.

Onward to Point Baker.

We found Point Baker to be far more charming that Port Protection. We found space on the state dock (free) right in front of the Point Baker Community Building and quickly went to explore. Point Baker is all docks and walkways, no roads. The Community Building houses a post office on one end, a fire department on the other end, and a shared space in the middle with a radio, a television, a small exchange library, a fridge, and quite a few photos on the wall of the Point Baker area at different times in history, along with notable locals and some fish stories.

Further down the dock main dock is a small laundry facility (cold water only) some showers (not sure on the cold/hot part of that), a small convenience store (beer, chips, snacks…mostly geared toward fishermen heading out for the day), a nice bar, and a cafe. We stopped in the bar for a cold beer and spent an hour or so chatting with the owner, Judy. She was a neat lady and had some great stories (and seemed to like ours as well). A fun afternoon! The bar and restaurant are both open until 6pm (unless there are hungry fishermen in (they’ll stay open longer in some cases), and the bar has live music on Friday nights (and is open later).

We hopped in the dinghies and went to explore the narrow waterways between Point Baker and Port Protection, and found a nearby bay that appears to be where sad boats go to die.

Another bay with a tiny neighborhood of float houses, beautifully backdropped by Mt. Calder

Heading back into Point Baker

We visited with a few locals, and before the diner closed we went in for an early dinner of solid diner food: jalapeno poppers, burgers, and fries. Just as we were finishing dinner, the “HughesNet Dinghy” arrived from Port Protection, with another load of satellite internet gear to install. (Point Baker is getting new internet as well!)

Back out on the dock, we met up with two other boats we knew (Norm and Beth on S/V Sarah Jean who we last saw in Taku Harbor, and Tom and Caroline on their Nordic Tug 42 called Silver Bay, out of Wrangell) and had a fun, social evening on the dock.

Klawock | Prince of Wales Island

Laura Domela — Sun, 06 Aug 2017 22:44:06 +0000

Klawock is about 7 miles by road, north of Craig on Prince of Wales Island. Klawock’s early inhabitants were from Tuxekan (a Tlingit winter village to the north), who used Klawock as their summer fishing camp. In 1868, European Americans opened a trading post and a salmon saltery, and in 1878 Klawock was the site of the very first cannery in Alaska. Klawock also has the oldest hatchery in Alaska (sockeye, coho, and steelhead).

We found space on the dock and wandered into town.

The Klawock Totem Park was on our “to see” list — and just a short walk from the harbor.

The Klawock Totem Park has the largest collection of authentic totem poles in Alaska. There are 21 original and replica totems from the old village of Tuxekan, and they are definitely some of our favorites!

We continued walking to get a feel for the town…there’s a large market about a 15 minute walk from the totem park (larger than the market in Craig by quite a bit!). Across the street from the market there’s a long house, a newly constructed carving shed (both closed) and an area in the yard where many old totems have been retired. (We even spotted a couple originals that we’d seen replicas of in the totem park!)

Back at the harbor we took advantage of the internet (well, sort of…it was VERY slow) and got a bit of work done. Dinner on Airship, and an early night. Tomorrow we’ll be heading up into El Capitan Pass. We plan to stop at Sarkar Cove, Devilfish Bay, and the El Capitan Caves, before heading around to Point Baker.

Craig and Hydaburg | Prince of Wales Island

Laura Domela — Tue, 01 Aug 2017 22:14:24 +0000

Airship and Safe Harbour left Coronation Island on Friday morning and cruised all the way to Craig (about 50 nautical miles). The forecast called for south winds to 10 knots and four foot seas—as good as it gets, basically.

The Craig harbormaster found spots for us both on the dock for two nights, but it was a tight and temporary squeeze. Airship was sandwiched between a sailboat and 120-foot Willard called Silverado, a luxury motor yacht that used to belong to Baron Hilton. After the first night, Safe Harbour was booted from its spot so a big seiner could return to its slip.

We explored Craig a bit, did laundry, re-provisioned at the well-stocked grocery store, and went out for a meal at the Dockside Cafe. We met a guy named Joe Sebastian (F/V Alta E) who told us some great stories and gave us some tips about places to explore on our way down Prince of Wales Island. (Thanks Joe!)

The weather has been Alaskan…rainy, gray, windy. We spent Friday and Saturday nights at the dock in Craig, and on Sunday when the wind died down a bit, we left and headed for Crab Trap Cove, just outside of Hydaburg.

We figured we’d anchor in Crab Trap Cove, put out some crab traps (because of course), and then in the morning when the weather was scheduled to improve, we’d take the dinghies the 2 miles or so over to Hydaburg.

In the morning we had a little fog up to the treetops, but it quickly burned off and made for a beautiful sunny day. I (Laura) watched this black bear slowly walking the shoreline, eating grass while I sipped my morning coffee. These photos were taken right before I sneezed and scared him back into the woods. (It was not a loud sneeze by any measure, but it was SO quiet in here and sound travels well across water. Plus, bears are skittish.)

We checked crab traps (three crabs), and then left for Hydaburg after breakfast.

The marina in Hydaburg is pristine compared to most small town marinas in SE Alaska. There’s a huge, covered fish-cleaning station, and the docks look brand new. There weren’t many boats here, which we hope was due to an opening (fishing) and not because no one is using this fantastic facility.

We walked through town and over to the Hydaburg Totem Park. The Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) established several of these totem parks during the 1930s with the goal of recognizing and protecting local culture. The Hydaburg Totem Park was established in 1939, and the totems in this park (as well as the other parks established at this time) were all brought from other locations. The government hired local Haida carvers to restore the totems or carve replicas if restoration wasn’t possible. (The restoration part of this info doesn’t fit with what we’ve heard, however. It is our understanding that when a totem decays, it is to return to the earth…replicas are often carved but I don’t know the details on the etiquette of restoration.)

We stopped in at the carving shed where four or five guys were at work on a variety of projects. Unexpectedly, they were playing country music (Conway Twitty, specifally…not exactly what we expected to hear in the carving shed). The guys were not chatty at all but invited us in to take a look around.

The projects in progress now are for the future long house currently being built on the edge of the Hydaburg River, which should be done by next summer.

We returned to Airship and Safe Harbour in Crab Trap Bay and pulled anchor. Next stop: Kassa Inlet and Hunter Bay!

Coronation Island

Laura Domela — Mon, 31 Jul 2017 19:51:58 +0000

We left Explorer Basin on Kuiu Island early this morning…7:00a.m. It was foggy as we pulled anchor, but as we got out into Chatham Strait, it cleared up and turned into a beautiful day.

Our destination was Coronation Island, south of Kuiu Island, off the northwest coast of Prince of Wales Island. It’s about 45 square miles and has five bays. We aimed for Egg Harbor.

Egg Harbor gets its name from the Henyakwan Tlingit. They traditionally used this harbor as a campsite while they waited for fair weather to travel out to the Hazy Islands to gather bird eggs. Egg Harbor also once had a lead mine that operated on the west shore from the early 1900s until the late 1960s. In the 1960s, biologists introduced wolves to Coronation Island as an experiment. Unfortunately, none remain today (that we know of).

Coronation Island is in the Gulf of Alaska, and its shoreline is subject to raging storms and never ending surf. A handful of big sea caves, carved by millennia of pounding waves, lie along the rocky, white granite beach on the west side of the harbor.

Read the rest on Slowboat

Kuiu Island

Laura Domela — Mon, 31 Jul 2017 19:47:15 +0000

We left Kake mid-day, since Halleck Harbor (in Saginaw Bay) was just 15 miles or so around the corner and we had to wait for the fuel dock…or, the fuel truck. Kake used to have a small fuel dock, but last winter the dock blew away during a storm that brought 80-knot winds for several days, then 70-knot winds from the opposite direction. For now, they’re delivering fuel to a town dock by truck, but they can’t deliver on minus tides, so we had to wait until early afternoon when the tide had risen.

Two years ago a friend in Ketchikan told us about a petroglyph in Halleck Harbor that we thought we’d try to find. While getting fuel in Kake, a local asked where we were headed, and then told us about the same petroglyph. He said we’d find it on the white cliffs outside the bay, near the sea caves.

Once anchored in Halleck Harbor, we took the dinghies out to the cliffs and found the petroglyph immediately. It’s quite large, and high on the cliff. Locals say there are burial caves here, near the sun.

Continue reading on Slowboat

Pack Creek Bears on Admiralty Island

Laura Domela — Mon, 24 Jul 2017 19:31:05 +0000

The Pack Creek bear viewing area on Admiralty Island is permit-only between June 1 and September 10, and is located up near the top of Seymour Canal. The island is home to an estimated 1,500 brown bears — more than all the Lower 48 states combined. From Juneau via float plane, it’s probably only half an hour, but by (Slow)boat from Juneau, it’s about 74 nautical miles and takes two days. A permit will set you back $50 per person, and there are only 12 per day offered for those not on a private tour. We applied before we left Juneau, and managed to secure the last three spots open for Tuesday, July 18th.

Airship and Safe Harbour met and anchored in Windfall Harbor on Monday evening. In the morning, we dinghied up to the clothesline dinghy system on the gravel spit, about 3 miles from our anchorage.

Established in 1935, the Pack Creek area has been managed jointly since 1985 by the Forest Service and the Alaska Department of Fish and Game. We were met by Michelle on the beach, who explained the particulars to us and then gave us directions for walking to the viewing area, where we were to meet Melissa. Michelle instructed us to stay close together and not to dawdle or stop to take photos until we arrived at the designated viewing area.

However, when we were about halfway up the beach, a sow and two cubs emerged from the woods.

Read the rest on Slowboat.com

The Most Humpbacks We’ve Ever Seen Bubble-net Feeding in One Group

Laura Domela — Wed, 28 Jun 2017 21:35:26 +0000

We had the most amazing day last Friday, cruising from Tenakee Springs to Hoonah. Just outside of Tenakee Inlet we found ourselves in the midst of about 20 humpback whales. This is not the most whales we’ve seen in one spot, but it’s definitely the largest group we’ve ever seen bubble-net feeding together. We counted at least 14 in the same group of cooperative feeders. It was incredible, and difficult enough to describe with pictures, let alone words. Here’s my attempt at some visual highlights (but you really need to be there, hearing the loud breaths and horn-like sounds from the spouts, and the chatter of the seagulls as they compete for the falloff).

There were so many whales, so close, that I couldn’t even fit them all in my frame.

Kevin was able to take the Mavic up and got some cool drone footage:

Flotilla to Alaska | Update from Sitka

Laura Domela — Thu, 22 Jun 2017 07:18:54 +0000

Well, the last thirty days have flown by. We could not have asked for a better group of competent, fun, interesting participants. We made some incredible new friends on this adventure, and we’re thankful to have had no mechanical issues at all. We arrived in Sitka on June 19th and have spent the past couple days sightseeing, doing chores, and eating out. This group still wants to keep hanging out together, after 30 days of togetherness. How great is that??

Tomorrow we’ll leave Sitka and all boats (minus Sam on Safe Harbour, who has a flight to catch out of Juneau in a few days) will continue on together back out Peril Strait to Appleton Cove. From there two boats will head south and two will continue on with us as we head north up toward Hoonah and Icy Strait, and then around to Juneau eventually.

If you haven’t been following but want to catch up on the flotilla’s daily posts, head over to Slowboat and see what we’ve been up to.

In the meantime, here are a few visual highlights since we last posted from Ketchikan:

Petersburg

LeConte Glacier

Le Conte Glacier seals

Le Conte Glacier

Kayaking at LeConte Glacier

Kayaking at LeConte Glacier (bottom of the photo)

The glacier ice cocktail bar, after a day at Le Conte Glacier

Heading up Chatham Strait

So many humpbacks in Frederick Sound

…including this one we had to stop for! Whoa!