Day 6 – Blind Channel to Port Harvey

Laura Domela — Fri, 22 May 2015 19:00:08 +0000

Airship Goes to Alaska – Day 6

Wow, 5am is really early!

We were scheduled to leave Blind Channel at 5:45am sharp, meaning off the docks at 5:30am and waiting in the channel at 5:45am, so the alarm went off at 5am and we made quick cappuccinos and were casting off lines at 5:25am. (We're good little rule-followers, aren't we?)

The weather today shifted a bit and we had a low cloud layer for most of the morning. Greene Point Rapids and Whirlpool Rapids were both totally chill this morning (in fact, I didn't even realize we'd gone through Greene Point Rapids until we were about a half an hour past it).

We took the slightly longer way to get to Johnstone Strait, and it was a bit choppy when we first entered the strait, but it calmed down considerably as the morning went on.

Coming up Havannah Channel and around Broken Islands:

Approaching Port Harvey:

We are all docked on the long finger dock, and learned from George (the owner) that yesterday he saw a grizzly sow and four cubs along the beach moving past his property. I wish we'd have been here a day earlier! (He said grizzlies never have more than two cubs, so she must have adopted them somewhere along the way.)

Looking back out from the Port Harvey dock:

George will be firing up the pizza oven and cooking up a bunch of pizzas for everyone tonight. (He'll also be taking orders for homemade cinnamon rolls that will be ready for us as we depart tomorrow morning!) Also…did you notice that float plane there at the dock as we approached? The guy in that plane was just finishing the installation of Wi-Fi as we arrived. He's gone now, and the Wi-Fi is working! We're apparently the first to get to use it. Score!

There are a zillion jelly fish here (and tons of eagles).

Seriously…everywhere you look, for as far down as you can see, the water is just THICK with varying sizes of jellies. We have a couple of crab pots down off the dock (apparently there's good crabbin' here), and we're bringing them up to check with gloves on because along with crab come jellies. (So far one female Dungeness and one too-small male Dungeness. Fingers crossed for some keepers!)

I'll post our routes with the previous posts as soon as I can get them downloaded. Also, if you haven't noticed already, over there in the sidebar (at the top) there's a "Where is Airship?" button. That'll show you our position on a map (or the last position it was able to get). It's cool! Follow along!

Today's track (38.3 nautical miles, 5 hours 7 minutes):

Day 5 – Teakerne Arm to Blind Channel

Laura Domela — Fri, 22 May 2015 01:15:00 +0000

Airship Goes to Alaska -Day 5

Our scheduled departure from Teakerne Arm this morning was a luxurious 9:30am! (We woke up at 6am anyway, but it was nice to have a bit more time to get around before getting under way.)

The weather was again gorgeous…sunny and high 70s.

Mark pulling up his anchor near the falls:

With the stern tie, you just untie the line from one cleat on your boat and then pull it through the ring or cable and you're free without ever leaving the boat:

We met up with the rest of our fleet and continued north.

American Tug (Big Red) joined up with us at the bottom of Stuart Island (they’d left a week early or so and had planned to meet up with before the rapids):

We got to our staging spot just outside Yuculta rapids about a half an hour early, so we hung out and waited until just after the local fish boat headed in, and then followed shortly after.

The current in Gillard Passage was the most squirrely, but not bad.

We got through and were still about a half hour before slack at Dent Rapids, so we made some lunch and milled about until it was time. Not a bad place for a boat picnic:

Dent Rapids were a non event at slack. This is right over "Devil's Hole" … see? Not too scary at all.

We continued on through Mayne Passage and then on to Blind Channel Resort & Marina, where we met up with another member of our fleet (Paul, in his Coastal Craft named Taleisin).

Mark and Margaret ready to grab lines from Thelonius:

The restaurant here at Blind Channel Resort isn’t open for the season yet, but they cooked up some pork roasts for us and we all brought sides up to the big patio for a nice group dinner.

Here we all are:

Here's today's track (36 nautical miles, 6 hours 3 minutes):

Our departure time in the morning is a bright and shiny 5:45am. We’ve got two more rapids to go through (Greene Point Rapids and Whirlpool Rapids) before heading into Johnstone Strait for a 14 mile stretch up to our next destination: Port Harvey.

Blind Channel – Riveted

Day 6 – Blind Channel to Port Harvey

Day 5 – Teakerne Arm to Blind Channel