Day 54-Petersburg

Jordan was in town again today but had to work on rebuilding the engine in the seine skiff.  I had a few things to get caught up on as well, like applying a fresh coat of Rain X to the windows and finding and stopping the leak in the hatch over the V-berth.

I didn’t think these tasks would take too long and spent the morning bumming around the boat, showering, and cleaning up the boat a bit.  Nothing too exciting.  The weather was nice, a bit cloudy but there were some sunbreaks and it was actually fairly warm.  I got to talking with the guy next to me, Gary, in a 33 foot sailboat.  He works as a delivery captain, moving other people’s boats all around the west coast.  This trip, however, he was on his own boat, which he had sailed up from Everett, WA.  He’s old school…no chartplotter, no radar, no AIS or other electronic aids to navigation.  He has a 20+ year old handheld GPS, compass, depth sounder, and paper charts.  And he seems to be getting along just fine.

As it turns out he ended up liking Petersburg so much that he’s decided to stay.  And not just for the summer.  He leased a slip for a year and will be living aboard.  I got his email address, so I’ll have to see how he likes it after the winter.

In the afternoon I went to the hardware store and picked up some Rain X and sealant for the projects I needed to finish.  They also had an anti-fog Rain X product for interior windows that I bought.  The windows in the boat, especially with extra people onboard or during periods of heavy rain, tend to fog up and I’m hoping this product will alleviate that somewhat.

The interior and exterior Rain X application was easy, if a little tedious.  Wipe on, wipe off.

I had put some silicone sealant on the area which I thought was causing the leak in the forward hatch the same day it appeared, and I hadn’t noticed any leaking since.  So I took the dock hose and attacked the hatch from all angles with high-pressure water for 10 minutes or so.  No leaks.   So I’m hopeful that the problem is indeed with the hatch itself and not the bedding.  I removed the silicone (it was a sloppy job) and put some new sealant on which hopefully will adhere better to aluminum and will prevent leaks in the future.

Then I rinsed down the whole outside of the boat to remove dirt and salt spray that had accumulated.  Sometimes it’s nice just to have a day to catch up on chores that need to get done.

Jordan finished about the same time as I did and we grabbed pizza from a place near the top of the dock, which was actually pretty good.  Then a friend called him and said they were having a bon fire up a forest service road a few miles out of town.  After a quick trip to the liquor store we headed up to a massive fire in an abandoned quarry.  Wooden shipping pallets make good firewood!  Most of the people there seemed to be in there 20’s, almost entirely from the local seine fleet.  It’s fun to have different experiences up here.  I’ve met people ranging from CEO’s to wood carvers and deck hands.  They’ve all got interesting stories to tell, and almost without fail they’re welcoming and friendly.

Massive bon fire...look at the people in comparison!

Day 53-St. John Harbor to Petersburg

Since dad has an evening flight out of Wrangell and I want to catch an afternoon flood going up Wrangell Narrows, there’s no rush to get out of St. John Harbor.  We had a relaxed morning and chatted more with Carl and Debbie.  They gave me a bunch of ice and some shrimp they had recently caught.

We pulled out of the harbor around 10:30 to take advantage of the beginning of the flood on our way to Wrangell.  The trip is only about 20 nm and we made it in an hour and a half.  I got a bit of gas (~$0.50 per gallon more than Petersburg!) and then we wandered around town.

Wrangell is doing a whole bunch of roadwork this summer and main street is totally torn up.  No cars and no pedestrians are allowed on much of it, and there’s lots of heavy equipment working.  As such, Wrangell was probably not at its finest, but I didn’t find it particularly impressive.  I definitely prefer Petersburg and Sitka.

I left Wrangell around 2:45 to head back to Petersburg.  I originally had intended to go down the west side of Prince of Wales Island and then back up to Petersburg the 29^th to pick up my mom and twin brother (three on the boat…we’ll see how that goes!), but I talked to a good friend from college a few days back who grew up in Petersburg and is seining up here this summer.  He said he’d be in town Monday and Tuesday, so I figured it’d be worth heading back up to Petersburg early to catch up with him.

Sumner Strait was nearly flat calm and I cruised through at 13 knots.  Wrangell Narrows was easy once again, and I got to Petersburg about three hours after leaving Wrangell.

Jordan came down and met me at the marina after I checked in.  The boat he’s working on is moored just down the dock from me, but he’s staying at a family friends house when he’s in town.  I got a tour of the boat; it’s certainly designed for doing a job rather than comfort.  Accessing the (cramped) crew quarters requires walking through the engine room, and there’s not much insulation between the two.  I’m sure it’s loud when underway.  Jordan is driving the seine skiff, a job he doesn’t seem to like too much, I’m sure partially because a big Detroit Diesel sits right in front of him in an uninsulated aluminum box.  Even at idle speed the engine is awfully loud.

By the time we made it up to the restaurants to get dinner it was 8:00 and most of the restaurants had already closed down.  Keto’s Kave, one of the bars in town, has some food so we went there for an authentic Alaskan fishing town experience.

After dinner we met up with some of Jordan’s friends and checked out the other bar in town.  I thought that the yacht crowd drinks a lot, but I think the fishermen have them beat.  It was like the last month of college all over again.  After wandering back to Keto’s Kave  and drinking a few too many beers we borrowed bikes and rode out to a place called whale observatory and then to a rope swing located up a creek in the forest.  A fun night, and certainly the latest I’ve stayed up in months.

60.2 nm today and 2,033.4 total

Day 52-Ideal Cove to St. John Harbor

Another gloomy morning with low clouds and rain.  Oh well, at least the wind is light and we've had surprisingly good weather for most of the last week.  Today’s route leads north for about 15 nm, up Frederick Sound and into Petersburg.  From there, it’s south through Wrangell Narrows to St. John Harbor on Zarembo Island.

Because currents can run quickly through Wrangell Narrows, it makes sense to time a trip through to take advantage of favorable currents.  Today that means leaving Petersburg around 3:30 pm.

The trip up Frederick Sound was easy.  We cruised up at displacement speed and it took about three hours, putting us into Petersburg around noon.  We then tied up to wait for 3:30 to roll around.  We grabbed lunch while waiting and wandered around town a bit.  We walked to the haulout area where the Ocean Alexander was being worked on.  They had cut out the stabilizer fin and actuator assembly from the hull and were just finishing up putting a patch in place so the owner can continue cruising until he’s at a more capable yard.  The fiberglass around the fin shaft was pretty mangled and it seems like the system could have been designed to make something other than the hull (and therefore the watertight integrity of the boat) the weakest link. 

A look at the fin and surrounding hull after being cut out

While Wrangell Narrows requires careful attention, all hazards are well marked and I don’t find it challenging.  You just have to avoid getting distracted and drifting out of the channel.  We cruised through Wrangell Narrows at 14-15 knots and tied up at the Forest Service dock around 5:00 pm.

The old fishing boat with the loggers (“forest thinners”) living on it was still at the dock.  One of the guys recognized me and seemed surprised that I had made it back there. 

Dad and I took a walk along some of the logging roads to stretch our legs.  The scenery here isn’t as spectacular as it is further north, but it’s still beautiful.  When we walked back down to the dock a 60 foot powerboat was just pulling in.  I’d seen this boat in a nook near the entrance to Red Bluff Bay and again in Pybus Bay, but I hadn’t talked with the owners.  I helped them with their lines and then we started talking about normal boat stuff.

It turns out that the Carl and Debbie (the owners) are from Anchorage and now keep the boat, named No Rulz, in Wrangell.  They fly down for a few weeks at a time and then return to Anchorage.  Carl is a retired tug boat owner/captain and clearly knows boats inside and out.  They had Sunnfjord (a yard in Puget Sound) custom build their boat for them five or six years ago and it seems very well thought out for PNW cruising.  Carl and Debbie do a bunch of winter cruising in Southeast Alaska and said they really enjoy it.  It’s warm compared to Anchorage, and hardly anybody else is on the water.

Tomorrow I’ll drop dad off in Wrangell and then return to Petersburg to meet up with a friend from college.

43.6 nm today and 1,973.2 total