We brought the boat back from Craig this week. We caught a 3 day window of good weather between two blows. We left Craig on Wednesday morning. Our friends Peter and Nevette from Petersburg came to town to make the journey with us.
We left Craig about 830 am and headed north to El Capitan Passage. We had fair seas all the way to Calder Bay, just past the big limestone mine, and anchored at dark, about 630 pm. Sara made a dish with moose and coleslaw for dinner.
Next morning we left just before sunrise at 630 am and headed to Rocky Pass. Sumner Strait had a small chop as we made the 4 hour trip to the pass entrance. We saw several seine and other boats anchored in the area moose hunting, but luckily did not need to pass any vessels while we transited the pass. I followed my track on the gps from my trip south with Joe in May, and was somewhat taken aback that my track at one point went right through a little rockpile island. Not sure how that happens, but I learned to trust your eyes first, and electronics second.
We got through the pass without incident, and only a marginal pucker factor. We saw a blow was coming Friday night, so we ran right until dark again, making it across Frederick Sound to a little anchorage in a bull kelp patch I found on the chart at the entrance to Pybus Bay behind an island with a single row of spruce trees. I hoped from here we could run to Juneau before the storm hit the next day. It was a calm anchorage. The skies cleared off overnight and everyone remarked at the big starry sky they say when each of us got up at some point to pee.
I was up before daylight, pulled the anchor, and we were on our way at 615 am in the false dawn light. Stephens Passage had a slight northerly chop, and we had a hard time even making 6 knots much of the day. We must have been running at exactly the wrong time for the tide, but that’s how it goes. As the day cleared out, the sun came out, the winds calmed, and we rode glassy seas.
We saw many humpback whales along the way. They looked like they were on their fall migration to Hawaii, as they were mostly moving in groups and not feeding. We got quite a breaching show by a couple of whales that were in sight of each other. One would breach, and then the other would breach. Then one would slap its pectoral fin, and then the other would do the same.
We traveled from Pybus Bay all the way to Taku Inlet before we saw a single boat. Whew. Cruise ship season is over.
As we entered Gastineau Channel, the winds had changed around to southerly and increasing, as forecast. Now we had a slight following sea chop propelling us along the last 2 hours of the trip. We made the best time of the day the last 12 miles or so to town, and got in a little ahead of my estimated arrival time. Just as we walked our gear up the ramp to the parking lot, the winds started to blow. We got home just in time.