Wrangell Narrows, Petersburg, and Beyond

Navigation aids in Wrangell Narrows...60 in all.

Before we made our first trip to Alaska in 2007, we took a seminar on How to Cruise to Alaska. The presenters told us about 21-mile long Wrangell Narrows and emphasized that the helms person must LOOK OUT THE WINDOWS! to be aware of tugs and with their large barges and Alaska ferries overtaking you.  Doug and I chuckled smugly.  In the cockpit of a sailboat, that is not an issue. 

Greywolf’s pilot house has a great 180 degree view.  ‘Want to see more?  You have to open the pilot house door and step outside. I decided  to back-seat drive when I was not at the helm.  I set up our laptop with its little “hockey puck” GPS at the table in the main cabin and watched for traffic.  It really was not necessary since were very few vessels traveling in either direction, but it was something to do on a passage that was close to boring.  We do like boring more than terrifying.

I think that our tiny GPS is amazing.

The only vessel that passed us in the Narrows, aside from the fast sports-fishing boats, was Steely, whose skipper hailed us on the VHS radio to verify that we knew he was there and let us know he’s pass on our port side.  This is a good argument for having your vessel’s name on the stern in large block letters.  Try reading Seas the Day in gold script on a varnished wooden stern.

Petersburg, with its excellent harbor, is at the north end of Wrangell Narrows.  (Wrangell is not at the other end; its about 20 miles to the southeast.) “The Little Norway of Alaska” is one of our favorite places.  We have a lot of favorite places.  

So, what do we like about Petersburg, aside from the views of the Stikine Ice Cap to the north (Devils, Thumb, Kate’s Needle and Witch’s Tit!) and the other peaks that ring the town?  

No, I don’t know which one is Witch’s Tit.

What we like:  Smoked salmon at Coastal Cold Storage (the sockeye was not available yet this year); Sing Lee Alley Books (The Long View, Dispatches on Alaska History) in a former boarding house that housed the school marm; the well-stocked Hammer and Wicken grocery store that will send a van for you if you spend more that $50 (try spend less than $50 at a grocery store in Southeast) and the van’s gregarious driver;  The Trading Company, the main street grocery store with a mercantile upstairs with everything from recliners to Levies; the busyness of the harbor with trollers, halibut boats, crabbers, and excursion vessels; the fact that fishing is more important than tourism; the crab fisherman who gave us two crabs.  Oh.  And ice cream.

'At least 6 eagles in this tree, watching the fish processing plant...and our dog???

This little guy sits on top of a post in the parking lot near the boat  harbor.

How to get that right heavy box to the boat at low tide?   No one in his right mind would carry it down the ladder.  After few tries, they got it trussed up and lowered mechanically.  It didn’t look like the first time they’d done this.

Helse Restaurant is listed in Fodor’s Alaska. Who would have thought??? 

Mr. (Mrs.?) Sea Lion fishing for dinner off our stern.  I’m not sure what Allie was saying to him/her, but everyone in the harbor heard it.

Leaving Petersburg, we had beautiful scenery as we entered Fredrick Sound.  (Did we tell you how much we enjoy being INSIDE???)  The low ceiling gave way to SUNSHINE as we turned north to Stevens Passage.  We had a weather forecast for the weekend of 80 degrees in Juneau, to the north.  It really didn’t register with us.  80 degrees?  In SE?  We dismissed it.


About noon we spotted a whale slowly breaching.  After a few sightings, no more Whale.  He reappeared right off our bow, then headed off to do more Whale-afternoon activities.


Boats are not allowed to approach within 25 yards of whales.  Whales have different rules.


We were headed for an anchorage in Sandborn Canal.  The taciturn authors of our cruising guide were positively effusive about the wildlife in this ten-mile-out-of-the-way anchorage.  
We carefully studied the drawing in the book, looking for the best place to anchor. (It is not always obvious from the chart and someone else’s experience can be helpful.)  


A crab boat--the only other boat in the canal--was anchored in our first choice.  And he had set pots  all over the bay.  Not to worry.  We set our anchor and retired to the afterdeck to contemplate launching the dinghy.  The wind died and the no-see-ums appeared.  You CAN see them when there are a trigillion of them.  We closed the doors and opened the windows (the 80 degree day was approaching).  Our windows have screens.  Not a problem for the no-see-ums.  They easily steered their evil little insect bodies right through those square openings.


Okay.  We're not going ashore.  We’ll play with Allie inside the boat and watch the wildlife out the window with the bug spray at our side.

We watched and ate dinner and watched and played tug and watched.  We didn’t even see a bird.  We were bummed.  The next morning, the after deck had a black streak of no-see-um bodies below the windows, but the live ones were GONE.  And so were we.  ‘Headed to Tracy Arm and Sawyer Glacier. 

Our first “bergie bit", outside of the entrance to Tracy Arm.