Behm Canal – Riveted

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!

Behm Canal | Helm Bay

Laura Domela — Tue, 31 May 2016 18:00:00 +0000

Airship Goes to Alaska 2016

Yesterday morning we left Fitzgibbon Cove and continued on around the canal. We had the current with us and decided to go all the way to Helm Bay. We’d originally thought we’d go to Yes Bay, but then thought no.

We saw a big black bear on the shore near Bell Island:

We got a spot on the Forest Service float, which is quite nice and has room for several boats. We were the only ones we’d seen all day though, save for a little fishing boat or two.

Our new view:

We took the dinghy out for some exploring, but the wind and waves picked up as soon as we were out from behind our little protector island, so we turned back. Plus, no bears.

Just before we turned into Helm Bay we saw a humpback or two out in the canal, close to shore. Nothing too dramatic, just some spouts and a few humps.

I watched this kingfisher fishing from his spot high on this piling for a while. (It was low low tide, so he was WAY up there):

I made crab curry for dinner in Fitzgibbon Cove, and last night I put together some penne with a crab/spinach/cream sauce. (Yeah, the crab thing’s gonna need to chill out a bit soon.)

Here’s a map of yesterday’s route from Fitzgibbon Cove to Helm Bay: 44.2 nautical miles, 5 hours 55 minutes

The weather sounds like it’s going to turn a bit worse today (20kt wind, 4 foot waves in nearby Clarence Strait) so we got up this morning and headed for Ketchikan on the early side (meaning, we arrived at the city floats in Ketchikan just barely after 9am).

Here’s this morning’s route: Helm Bay to Ketchikan: 22 nautical miles, 3 hours 7 minutes

There are only two cruise ships in port today (woohoo). It’s gray and rainy here and we have a bunch of work to do, so it’s just as well.

The city floats (also known as Casey Moran, but everyone just calls ’em the city floats) are first come first served. The other two main marinas in Ketchikan are Bar Harbor, a ways north, down by the Safeway, and Thomas Basin, a few blocks south, nearer to Creek Street. They both have space for transients, but they hot berth you…meaning that they’ll put you in a spot that belongs to someone else (say, a fisherman who’s out for a few days fishing) and then when he radios that he’s coming back in, they’ll ask you to move to a different spot. So if you’re out doing something or sightseeing or whatever, it can be a little tricky to need to move. Anyway, we stayed at Bar Harbor last year with the flotilla and it was fine. (They actually had a spot for me that didn’t belong to someone so I could stay in it the whole week that Kevin flew to the bay area for a business trip without having to move the boat on quick notice. Downside was that it was a spot right next to the boat launch where all the Duck Tour boats go in and out all day, full of cruise shippers singing along to the theme from Hawaii Five-O and Gilligan’s Island. Can’t have it all.)

Anyway, we arrived at city floats and woohoo, there was a spot! One spot! I spun Airship around and docked her (not quite like a pro, but pretty close), and as Kevin is tieing the lines, the guy from the larger boat that’s behind us comes over to warn us:

Nice yachty guy: Hey there’s been a big fish boat here and he’s apparently got this slip reserved for the month.

Us: Hmmm, these unpainted sections are first come first served, as far as we know.

Nice yachty guy: Yeah, that’s what I thought too, but he assured me that he’s reserved this space for a whole month. He can come and go, but this is his spot. You might want to check on that before you get too comfortable.

Us: Okay! Thanks for the heads up…we’ll give them a call.

Reserved. Heh. We call the harbormaster’s office to let them know we are here at the end of finger 3 or whatever this is, and tell them that the guy behind us said a fisherman told him he’s got this space reserved for the month. They say “Nope, he certainly doesn’t. All the unpainted bull rail spots are open to whoever comes first.” Yep, just like we thought. They said if we had any problems just to call the harbormaster on 73. (Problems? Like big fishboat guy comes over to kick us out of “his spot”? That should be interesting.)

An hour or two later, nice yachty guy comes back to see what the deal is (since we’re still here) and we tell him we called the harbormaster’s office, and we tell him what they said. He says “Well I wonder what that guy’s try’n’a DO!!?” and I said “He’s try’n’a get you to save his spot for him, that’s what!”

Behm Canal | Walker Cove to Fitzgibbon Cove

Laura Domela — Mon, 30 May 2016 12:14:00 +0000

Airship Goes to Alaska 2016

Reflected landscape at Walker Cove:

Also, those are bears eating grass, just below the AK flag on the bow:

We left Walker Cove yesterday morning just after 9am (and after getting 5 more Dungeness in the traps). It rained ALL night the night before. By morning the rain had mostly stopped but it was back to being extremely misty here in Misty Fjords. Foggy, even. The group of 6 boats traveling together (from the Roche Harbor Yacht Club) was also heading out this morning, and two of them were ahead of us as the rest of them untied their stern lines and peeled off from the very organized cluster. We were about half way out of the canal when we heard them on the radio….long story short, it sounded like as one of the boats was lifting their dinghy up onto their upper deck with their crane, the main crane cable snapped and the dinghy crashed down (the side of their boat?) and ended up floating upside down next to their boat. They said everyone was okay and it sounded like they were working to get the dinghy turned over. Eeeeek! How scary would that be? The crane’s main cable! Another vote for the stern davit!

The cruise up to Fitzgibbon Cove was just gray and rainy and not all that scenic. The wind was around 15kts behind us, and the current was with us so we were going a knot or two faster at our normal cruise rpm, but going the other way would have been a bit more uncomfortable. View from our anchorage:

We anchored in about 50 feet here in Fitzgibbon, and Kevin put out the crab traps (there’s supposed to be great crabbing in here) while I picked the crab we had already cooked. Pretty soon (like, maybe today) we’ll start freezing some crab to use for less crabful times. I’d imagine the crab frozen in milk would be just about perfect for my newly found crab bisque recipe.

Pulling traps this morning got us 6 keepers!

There are supposed to be tons of grizzlies here in the sedge grass meadow at the head of the bay…we saw one lone (large) male from pretty far away, but that’s it.

The wind died down overnight, luckily. This cove might be more protected in other conditions, but certainly not these conditions.

Here’s today’s map from Walker Cove to Fitzgibbon Cove (26 nautical miles, about 3 and a half hours):

And I know what you’re thinking…”Ooooh, hot springs!” but I believe it’s a private fishing resort, and not in fact, a place we’ll be stopping. Sad face.