Back under way - Finally!

Well it's been more than a year since I updated this  blog - you've been patient long enough.  My last update was from Shearwater in British Columbia. I, of course, challenged the weather and water gods by blithely claiming how easy our next few day's travel were going to be. Of course, they were nothing of the kind. I guess the gods heard us. We ran into rainy fog just before Ivory Island and had to feel our way into Oliver Cove. Then, we motored around and up to the east end of Oscar Inlet. Along this stretch we saw a small group of Dall's Porpoise one of which was completely white! Have never seen a white Dall's Porpoise before. That east end of Oscar Inlet has a very confined 'S-turn' which must be a corker when the current is flowing. Luckily, we arrived there at slack water and were able to just enjoy the view. After Oscar Inlet we had a very fast beam reach across Findlayson Channel around the end of Cone Island and up to Klemtu where we stopped quickly for a few supplies before heading up to Cougar Bay for the night. The next day's run was very long but we ended up anchoring near the dock at Bishop Hot Springs where we spent a couple of days just soaking and enjoying being stopped. Three more days of mostly motoring along had us in Prince Rupert where we discovered a couple of geocaches and did a little shopping before heading across Dixon Entrance and home to Alaska. We mostly fooled around and meandered our way to Juneau where we took a place at the dock and, I went back to work for the next year maintaining and updating Cold Fusion applications for the department's webpages and, learning Visual Basic dot Net programming to create a totally new apps for the department. My! How fast a year passes.

Well, we're back underway again. The boat's been moving very slowly. The first couple of days, we had trouble breaking 4 knots and have been averaging closer to 3 knots, especially against wind or wavelets. Now that we've been moving for three weeks we've knocked most of the year's worth of growth off the bottom so our speed is picking up a little. A friend recommended the marina/haulout at Point Roberts in Washington for pulling us out and getting the bottom painted: much less expensive than here in Southeast even with them providing the labor! So, we'll be really slowpoking our way along until then.

We started our voyage with our 2-year old grandson Dylan along. He crewed with us from Harris Harbor in downtown Juneau around Douglas Island to anchor behind Suelda Island in Auke Bay. Then the next day, up to the fuel dock and, after fueling up, over to the loading zone for a crew change. We swapped youngest grandson for youngest granddaughter: 5-year old Kitty. We had lunch of cheeseburgers and milkshakes before heading out to Funter Bay. Kitty is sure she could survive on Chocolate milkshakes alone for weeks at a time. With Kitty aboard we spent 5-days visiting Funter Bay, Hoonah (across from the entrance to Glacier Bay), Swanson Harbor at the end of Couverton Point and back to Auke Bay for a night and day at anchor before heading into Auke Bay harbor for another crew change. Now, we're in Petersburg with our oldest granddaughter, Isabelle, along as crew.

It took us 2 days to bash our way to Cedar Cove in Freshwater Bay on Chicagoff Island with an overnight at Funter Bay. Slow, tedious smashing into wind driven waves of 2-3 feet and 15-20 knot winds. We're making 1.5 to 3 knots and it seemed like forever before we go anywhere. This was our first time in Cedar Cove; what a little jewel! After all that bashing, I declared a day off and we laid around resting up for a day. The next day we headed over to Tenekee Springs arriving early in the day. In Tenekee we walked in to the town and did a little shopping. I stayed outside with the doggies while Christine and Izzy shopped. I was sitting just outside the building that houses the community hot springs when I heard singing "You are my sunshine, my only sunshine. You make me happy by night and day." It was a group of women in the springs harmonizing and belting out old songs. I was absolutely charmed! What a wonderful moment; a bunch of naked soaking women singing in the hot springs and I get to listen in! Perfect!

There are two geocaches in Tenekee; one at the City Park and, one downtown across from the store. We, after considerable searching, were able to find one but, not the other. Still, that made us First Time Finder for the one we did find. We ambled back to the boat picking salmonberries along the way and left the next morning heading down Chatham Straits.

We spent the night in Cosmos Cove (another little jewel of a place - long narrow inlet with barrier island keeping the waves in the strait from coming into the anchorage, tall snow capped mountains as a backdrop - what could be nicer?  Well, how about Baranof Warm Springs where we arrived early the next day. Remarkably, we were able to get a place at the dock, an easy walk up the boardwalk to the bathhouses and were even, across the dock from an old friend; Vic Cano, musician, carver, singer and all around renaissance man. We spent 2-nights at Baranof Warm Springs before forcing ourselves to leave - Izzy has a plane ticket from Ketchikan later this month and, if we're going to get her to the plane on time, we have to keep moving.

After BWS we passed under the bottom of Admiralty Island with a quick stop to watch a large family of sea otters play in the kelp beds then, headed up the the Fox Farm anchorage behind Whitney Island. The water was glass smooth: hard to believe this is the same water we've been bashing into for days! We've been coming to this anchorage for 15-years and never knew that there was a geocache here. We went looking for it but, couldn't find it even though the hints and directions were very complete. This cache was placed in 2003 and hasn't been found since 2006. Alot of leaves have fallen since 2006, trees fall, the old fox farm buildings have completely disappeared. Still, even though we didn't find the geocache, we did spend a wonderful evening sitting in the cockpit and listening to a wolf howl on the island. He must have been lonely and sad - he kept it up for hours. This has been quite a trip for wildlife viewing: whales, porpoise's, sea lions, sea otters and now, wolves! Alaska!

Another day's smooth passage brought us to the Ruth Island anchorage in Thomas Bay. I like to anchor here and always read "The Strangest Story Ever Told." This is a small booklet you can pick up in Petersburg that tells the story of strange happenings in Thomas Bay: gold, monsters, crazed miners... this story has it all!

We woke to rain yesterday 7/3 and I'd have been happy to snuggle back into my sleeping bag but, we upped anchor and headed into Petersburg. It was 5-hours of motoring into rain, wind on our nose and, seas but we arrived here yesterday at about 1600. After that many hours of wind and rain, I was ready to tie up to the dock and call it a day. The rest of the crew headed into town for a quick shopping trip while I stayed aboard with a little medicinal brandy.

We'll be here in Petersburg for a couple of days (today's the Fourth of July and most stores are closed). Tomorrow, hopefully, the library will be open and I can post this entry then, the next day we'll head on down the Wrangell Narrows and keep working our way south.

I'll try to be better about keeping this blog current - I promise.

David and Christine and Crew
SV Raven
Juneau, Alaska

Currently located: Petersburg, AK