Greywolf’s credo.
Usually embraced, it was temporarily disregarded. To our peril.
While we were in Sitka, we had decided that we (that really means “Jean”) would like to go to Haines and Skagway at the end of the Lynn Canal. Not only did I have my sights set on visiting these two towns, but I wanted to be in Skagway on a weekend when only 500 hundred cruise ship passengers are in port, as opposed to the 10,000 who sometimes are there on a weekday. Does that sound like someone with no fixed plans, and who is not intent on arriving???
From Tenakee Inlet, we headed north in the sunshine, spending the night at a state dock in un-remarkable but safe Funter Bay.
Lynn Canal
Sixty mile long Lynn Canal has only two safe anchorages unless you have better imaginations that we do. All the cruise books advise traveling in the morning, as the winds tend to increase in the afternoon. We left early with a forecast of southerly winds and rain later in the day. I was delighted that we could (faintly) see the mountains lining both sides of the canal through the clouds. My little Panasonic was pointing and shooting rapidly before the predicted rain arrived to shut down the show.
As Greywolf motored up the canal, I thought of the seekers who had traveled this route during the Yukon Gold Rush, imagining that the grander of these mountains and glaciers would have reinforced the lure of adventure and gold. Of course,we know that the reality that awaited the majority of them was anything but exciting and rewarding.
The sun came out. The wind continued to be10 knots from the north. The water was dotted with purse seiner fishing boats (No, they are not in the photo. Stop looking for them.) and we carefully maneuvered to avoid their nets. Listening to the chatter on the VHF radio, it was clear that many of the skippers planned to anchor in William Henry Bay, our chosen destination for the night. That would be cozy.
We arrived at William Henry at about 11:00, far too early to stop with such favorable winds. We decided to travel on to Haines. The day was young. The weather lovely. The scenery stunning.
Eldrid Rock.
Boaters listen for wind and wave heights to judge the safety
of traveling the norther portion of the Lynn Canal.
As we approached Haines in mid-afternoon, the wind had dropped to about 5 knots. If we could get moorage at Skagway, about 3 hours north, why not continue? The answer to that question is, because you should not push your luck. We heard neither the question nor the answer. I called the Skagway Harbor Master and we continued north with sunshine and calm waters; a berth for the night secured.
Shortly before we got the Skagway. the wind came up from the south. It quickly increased from 5 to 20, then 25 knots. We should have turned around. We’d heard that Skagway’s boat basin is “tight”. We can attest to that.
Carnival Cruise ship leaving Skagway.
20-25 knots? No problem.
Greywolf looks like a sturdy capable little ship, which she is, but she is also a brick when it comes to maneuvering in close quarters. When we got inside the breakwater (high tide, minimal protection from the wind) we had to make a U-turn to get to the assigned slip. When Greywolf turned sideways to the wind, she became unresponsive to the rudder and started going sideways instead of forward. We were being blown down on the boats on the next dock. For the next eternity, Doug used all of his boat handling skills and and ten years of his life expectancy to get our fiberglass home back outside the breakwater.
We changed our skivvies and Greywolf headed back down Lynn Canal with 20 knots of wind on her nose. Arriving at Haines at dusk, we anchored in calm waters in front of the town The weather forecast machine was now predicting small craft warnings for the following day. With no assurance that Haines had moorage available, we left at first light (that is early, in Southeast) in order to arrive in Juneau before the winds did. Greywolf and her crew just wanted to be OUT OF LYNN CANAL. We’ll try it another year and take the fast ferry from Haines to Skagway. Or maybe visit by car.
And we’ll try to remember to HAVE NO FIXED PLANS AND NOT BE INTENT ON ARRIVING.
We moored in Auke Bay which is actually about ten miles from Juneau. The parking lot at the boat harbor is busy all day with busses from the cruise ships delivering passengers for the whale watching and sports fishing boats. While the whale watching boats are specifically designed craft, the sport fishing boats are a hodge-podge of small boats, all equipped with poles, rod holders, down-riggers and ice chests. The boats line the extensive loading docks, taking cruise ship passengers on 2-3 hour adventures, then retuning for the next group.
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| Allie being carefully escorted aboard Genesis |
I had seen Genesis two or three times while walking to and from Greywolf. She caught my eye because she is sturdy, practical, and, to my inexperienced eye, well laid-out and nicely equipped: clean and practical. The skipper was never around for me to tell him how much I admired his boat. Then on Monday night, he tied up across from us.
As it turned out, the skipper admired our boat as much as we admired his. But he REALLY liked our dog . Allie is always interested in meeting people. When she bounced around George and his boat, he scooped her up, plopped her on board, and she settled in. She stayed while he prepared dinner and throughly enjoyed the barbecued chicken he dropped on the deck and had to wrestle out of her mouth.
George built the boat himself on the hull of an old Viet Nam era, Navy river patrol boat he had spied moldering in someone’s yard. A very talented gentleman. And a true dog lover.
Greywolf had a Wardrobe Malfunction at Auke Bay. The floats in this harbor are laid out in large U-shapes with no individual slips and no assigned moorage. Festival seating. An aquatic zoo. Boats side-tie wherever they can find an appropriate sized slot. The only available Greywolf-sized slot was near the entrance to the harbor.
Most, but not all, of the skippers in this busy harbor proceed slowly inside the breakwater, but occasionally, Greywolf would get jostled by a big wake. The docks have six by six inch “bull rails” rather than cleats to tie the boats’ mooring lines. (You can see them in the George and Allie photo.) Rocking from a big wake from a clueless and/or inconsiderate skipper, Greywolf ’s open side gate swung out over the bull rail and and came down on the rail as she heeled toward the dock. I rushed outside to close the gate, but the damage had been done. The hinges were bent and the gate would not close completely. Greywolf looked like she had been in a bar fight.
A call to the Nordhavn factory resulted in a pleasant surprise. A customer had ordered a set of hinges, but had never picked them up. They were sitting on a shelf waiting for us. We had the hinges mailed to Mark in Ketchikan and put Ken Worth, our exhaust system angel, on notice that we’d need him again. Skippers on the dock gave advice, we rigged a temporary fix, and were somewhat good-to-go.
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| Jean’s favorite pastime: watching other people work. |
Leaving Auke Bay
We spent the night at the state dock in Taku Harbor where Allie refused to go ashore to pee. I tried twice to cox her onto the path. She was not going there. Literally She turned abound and peed on the dock. We’ve never seen the (reported) bears at Taku, but Allie sensed something that she didn’t like. The next morning, she was happy to go exploring.
A fish tender at the entrance to Taku Harbor.
This rock, outside of Snug Harbor, where we spent the next night, is actually identified on the charts. “Rock” Why, so it is. We now know exactly where we are.
The squiggly-ziggly lines on the chart tell skippers that the enclosed area is
three miles from shore.
three miles from shore.
Note X on the chart tells them why they needs to know this.
And all of this tells us that we’re getting too old to figure this out.
After researching visiting the glacier at Ford’s Terror, we decided that Lynn Canal had provided enough excitement on this trip. We opted to spend a couple of days exploring the waters around Baird Glacier north of Petersburg, but weather changed our plans. Sunshine was replace by rain with clouds reaching almost to the water. The prospect of launching the dinghy and motoring around in near-zero visibility seemed more idiotic than idyllic. We’d go to Petersburg and wait for the rain to pass.
Leaving Petersburg. After three days or rain with more rain forecast, we gave up any hope of seeing Barid Glacier this year. Greywolf for Wrangell Narrows.
We were pleased to see that good old #58, that had taken a thrashing when we saw it in June, had been replaced with the new, improved model. “See what happens to your boat if you hit this puppy.”
Pacific Grace, 108 feet.
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Log boom and boom buddies waiting for their tug boat.
Research vessel, Alaska Department of Fish and Game.
Greywolf met the 416’ Columbia at a wide part of the the Narrows.
If one of the trees on Two Tree Island dies, do The Chart People have to rename it?
The rain followed us to Wrangell. But the streets are paved now.
Two years ago when we visited, the town had been living with mud for months.
Doug and I were surprised to see Bifrost at the dock in Wrangell. Bifrost belongs in Hoonah or Elfin Cove or Pelican or out fishing, not in Wrangell. Bifrost’s skipper, Jeff, is the sister of a friend on BI. He’s the fisherman who loaned us a halibut pole two years ago and marked our chart showing the magic spot for Jolie to catch a 35 pound halibut in Glacier Bay.
The only boat we know in SE and there is it was in Wrangell. Jeff, however, was not. He was on BI. In the sunshine. Why didn’t we think of that??? Jeff was having extensive work done on Bifrost and took advantage of the time to visit his sister and mum.
Chief Kah Shakes House was reconstructed and rededicated last year. When the First Nations people used to go up the Stekine River for the summers to hunt and fish, they took the four house poles (on the inside where you can't take photos) with them to set up their summer camp. The original house poles are now at the Wrangell Museum, but were brought to the this site for the rededication; it took eight men to carry each pole. I didn’t ask how big the canoes were that would have transported the poles up the Stekine. 
The frogs have a story. I knew it at one time.
Not every seine boat tows its skiff.
Leaving Wrangell. Note lack of Rain bouncing off the water.
Zimovia Strait.
The color on the navigation markers tell you which side to pass on. When they are both red and green, you can pass on either side. The preferred side/color is on top. This one tells you that you should take it down the port/left side. If you check it out on the picture of the chart below, (Midchannel Rk) you can see why. It seems odd that they even considered giving you a choice. (The numbers are in meters on this chart.
After rain for more than a week, the sun came out. But Greywolf was not tempted to turn north again. Her course was set for Meyers Chuck and then Ketchikan.
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