On Our Way To Pick Up Our Car

We fly to Anchorage in the morning.  Pauline has an appointment on Friday and Mark probably has one too with the customs lady to hand her some money.  Father Tero left yesterday on the Alaskan Ferry Service first to Petersburg, then to Wrangell before heading to Santa Rosa California and the rest of his vacation.  We plan to head to Seward for the weekend and then make our way back to Haines to catch the ferry back to Sitka via Juneau.  Should be an interesting trip, especially travelling faster than six knots!

Winds, Rain and Currents ( The trip to Sitka)

We left Baranof at six am trying to catch the last of a north bound current.  Shortly after leaving the dock, the rain started but we did catch the current and we decided to pass our planned anchorage for the night and keep on trucking to get closer to Sergius Narrows.  Sergius Narrows is a dredged pass at the bottom of Peril Strait.  One has to time the tides just right as currents can be over 6.5 knots and it is a narrow pass.  We made it all the way to Annie's Pocket, which is a small bight about three and a half miles up from the Narrows.  Just after we anchored for the night we heard a tug boat calling securite warnings.  We also knew the Alaskan Ferries use this pass so we had to time ourselves plus watch for traffic.  We knew high water slack was about 1400 the next day.  But after looking at the chart we decided the currents would be  slow enough and with us that if we left an hour before morning slack we could make it all the way to Sitka in one shot.  So this became the new plan!  Of course mother nature decided to give us the heaviest rain of the year and some wind opposing us to make the ride a bit miserable but the currents were as calculated and we made it through before any opposing traffic.

At Salisbury Sound we were exposed to the system out at sea and we caught the waves broadside.  After spending a few weeks in the inside passage we had become a bit slack and several items below started to shift but no catastrophes to report and we soon slipped back into cover and the narrow passes that lead us to Sitka.

We are currently tied up in Sitka but are in a bit of a bind.  Sitka received a bunch of money to rebuild one of its harbors.  This means they are discouraging boats from staying this winter.  Apparently we may be shifted to somewhere without power on short notice.  Of course we have two trips planned, one next week to go pick up the car and one in early November back to Singapore.  Not sure how it will play out but we will see.

Baranof Hot Springs

We had been told by many people that this is a must stop.  And having spent time in Japan we are always up for a hot spring adventure.  This place is no secret, even Michener wrote about it in his book ALASKA.  Even though it is popular, we found it to be one of the highlights of our summer.  We got there late enough in the year that the dock fees stopped on the second day.  There are semi natural pools right next to the falls.  A set of three free private bath tubs with windows that look out over harbor and if you situate yourself just right you can view the falls.  However, the hot springs are only part of the picture.

Obviously we mentioned the falls are pretty nice, even though they add a tricky current to the docking equation.  There is a nature trail that leads up through the woods to the natural pools and also the lake that feeds the falls.  The lake is supposedly full of trout.  We didn’t bring our poles so we are not sure but the views of the lake were pretty spectacular.

The bird life in the harbor was pretty spectacular and the sea lions were busy feeding on Dolly Varden.  One day we had three very big ones fishing right next to us while we were in the cockpit.

As we said in the last post we arrived late and after our baths, kind of vegged out for the night.  The next day was rainy but we donned our foul weather gear and went up to check out the trails.  There is a small community of cabins around the harbor and a privately run fishing lodge as well so lots of boardwalk to stretch the legs after a few days of confinement on the boat.  Despite the rain we enjoyed ourselves so much that we opted for one more day.  This day the sun was out and Mark headed out for the natural springs. 

There is a salt marsh just across the harbor from the dock which we also wanted to check out but it can only be accessed by dinghy near high tide.  We left a little too early and had a white water rafting experience as we went in.  We were so early that when we went to leave we got swept backward.  So we waited 15 minutes and tried again.  We made it further than the first time but still got swept backwards and flushed back into the marsh.  After another 20 minutes we tried again and we managed to keep crawling through back to the main harbor.  What a day in our own water park!

While in the dinghy we decided to drive over and see what the commercial lodge looked like.  They closed that day so we didn’t go ashore but from the water the lodge looked nice.  We had met the last tenants of the year from Texas the day before and they seemed pretty happy with it.

Pictures to be posted later

Juneau to Taku Bay to Gambier Bay to Warm Springs Bay

Taku Bay Anchor   N 58 d 03.82  W 134 d 00.99
Gambier Bay Anchor N 57 d 25.34 W 133 d 58.12  (Snug Harbor)
Warm Spring Bay Dock  

We Left Auke Bay at first light for two reasons.  First it was a long haul for the day and the second was the weather was supposed to turn foul soon.  The breeze was non-existent, which considering 40 knot gusts were forecast for the next day, was a blessing backing out of the marina.

We had scattered showers and between them some wind, so we hoisted the main to give us a power sailing boost.  Between one set we had enough wind to put up the two headsails and turn off the engine.  Father Tero was impressed we were doing six and a half knots under just three sails for a little over an hour before the next set of rain came and we were becalmed.

We tucked into Taku Bay before dinner and took the dinghy ashore.  Taku Bay is famous for three things; the scenery, the bears, and the ruins of a cannery.  We didn't see any bears but we did see a pretty fresh salmon carcass by one of the streams.  A twelve year old girl had been coming to Auke Bay every summer and she decided to do a project and researched all the ruins.  She posted pictures of the ruins in their original state and described what life in the old Libby's Cannery was like.  An organization has restored two of the bunk houses for guest cabins and the Forest Service built a cabin for people to stay free of charge as a refuge next to the old caretaker's house and named it after him.

Taku Harbor

 We knew we were going to layover the next day because the forecast was for gust up to 35 knots from the wrong direction so we hunkered down, read books, watched movies, and monitored the wind gauge.  We saw gusts of up to 38 in our very protected anchorage so we were very happy to be there instead of out trying to beat against it.  Just before dinner the weather cleared and we took another trip ashore to finish our sightseeing.  We had dressed in rain gear but quickly overheated plus the winds had knocked off all the loose water so we shed our jackets and continued.

The following day was scheduled to be over 9 hours and we hoped to sail part of it when the wind was scheduled to come up sometime late morning early afternoon.  So we got an early start for Gambier Bay.  The scenery in Stevens Passage is pretty but we hadn't seen whales since we left Auke Bay.  Just after noon the breeze filled in and we were sailing for nearly three hours before it dropped so much that we were going too slowly to get to our anchorage before dark.  So we fired up the engine and started motor sailing.  We had barely started the engine when we saw our first whale spout.  At first Father said they are pretty far away and he was talking about his exploits with them very close.  As if on cue, a pod of five popped up about 50 metres on our starboard side just silently cruising on their way past us.  The whales just kept increasing to the densest concentration any of us had ever witnessed.  We had over twenty spouts in the water at the same time off the starboard bow with additional spouts everywhere we looked.  We know that all of the whales don't spout at the same time so we must have had an enormous amount of whales in the vicinity.  We were a bit concerned as we had to travel through the area with the highest concentration.  But as we got closer they stayed away from us and we made a conscience effort to not crowd them into any dead ends as we turned for our bay.  We arrived just before 17:30 and we opted to have Saturday Night Mass rather than Sunday as that would be another long day.  So Father prepped the foredeck for mass and we had the every first mass on board Sari Timur.  Pretty nifty knowing we couldn't be late for church!

Snug Cove, Gambier Bay

another view of Snug Cove, Gambier Bay

Sunday Morning was another early start as we wanted to make Warm Springs Bay in one shot and sit out the next system passing us with access to the famous Baronof Hot Springs.  We had to motor sail the whole way as the winds were contrary and we had too much ground to travel.  We did get rather too close to a sleeping whale before she surfaced and we were able to do a quick turn to starboard in order to not hit her.  But she didn't seem too disturbed and just cruised alongside as we passed her.  We arrived in Warm Springs Bay and tied up to the dock.  A word to those sailors who follow, the dock is about 250 feet long.  If any weather can come in, it will be from the east so you want to turn around before docking.  There is a large waterfall at the head of the bay.  For us this meant we needed to be making nearly two knots to maintain steerage.  Luckily the dock was empty and we made it in the first pass.  If there would have been others on the dock it probably would have meant a second shot at it.  After a dinner of burritos made by Mark, we headed up to the bath houses at the top of the ramp for a nice relaxing soak before bed.  We will add more on Baronof Hot Springs later as we have to sit out today with foul weather.  We will take the time to explore this place later.

the waterfalls at Baranof Warmsprings Bay

Baranof Lake

the rapids flowing from the lake to the waterfalls

one of the outdoor hot spring pools

Juneau

Juneau is the state capital of Alaska and as the local radio station advertises, the prettiest state capital.  It also advertises itself as the second largest city in the USA.  This made us check this fact via Google and sure enough Juneau is second with a land area of just over 2700 square miles.  Interestingly enough the top 4 cities are all Alaskan.  In order, they are Sitka, Juneau, Wrangell, and Anchorage.  Anchorage is just over 1700 square miles.  Number five is Jacksonville at less than 750 square miles or well less than half of Anchorage.  The thing that surprised us was how small the population of Juneau is at roughly 30,000.  But we packed our stay here with activities.  We rented a car Saturday so we could start provisioning and checked out the local Costco and Fred Meyers, had a great lunch at the Sand Bar and then headed to the downtown area.  After walking around down town we visited the local Tlingit Museum.  Sunday we did some more provisioning and then went to Kate and Rob's house for dinner.  We met Kate and Rob when they sailed through Guam.  They were also trying to go to Kamchatka so we had kept in touch (neither of us were successful but we stayed in touch anyway).  We had to leave their house early as Kate had to get up early for a flight to Arizona for a conference for her job that she would be starting soon.  We also had to pick up our guest who was arriving from Seward via Anchorage.

Our guest is our local priest, Dick Tero, whom we have said in previous posts, is a sailor.  He was able to take a couple of weeks off and join us on this leg to Sitka.  But first he wanted to take us to do some more sightseeing.  So Monday morning after pancakes we were off downtown again to ride the tram up Mount Roberts.  After seeing some of the sights on Mt Roberts and walk some trails we headed back down, had a great Mexican lunch, then we walked up to the Russian Orthodox Church.  When we got there we were invited in.  A pilgrimage was happening that day and was being lead by a Russian Orthodox priest whom Father Tero knows.  We got to talking and were invited for the whole ceremony which included a very interesting talk on the church, the native Alaskans and the history of Alaska.

cruise ship docks in downtown Juneau

Mt. Roberts Tramway

there were 3 cruise ships tied up with another coming in to dock

St. Nicholas Russian Orthodox Church

inside the church

After that we went and visited the smallest Roman Catholic Cathedral in the US if not the world.  Then we walked back down the hill to the State Museum, armed with the information we had learned from the talk by Fr Michael, the exhibits were a lot more interesting.

On the way back from town it was one more stop at Costco to get the perishables and the frozen foods.  After storing them and making a quick picnic we headed out to the shrine of St Therese and have a picnic under the setting sun.  We were so tired after our day of running around we decided to delay our departure by one day.  This way we could do our last provisioning in the morning then lounge around as it will be a long day tomorrow heading for Taku Bay.

the shrine of St. Therese

the Chapel

inside the Chapel

We Arrived in Auke Bay

We are in the marina in Auke Bay, which is a northern bay for Juneau.  Our first day out of Haines the winds were very light until about 1100 hours when we killed the engine and could work on sail alone.  We were sailing wonderfully as well on a nice broad reach only about 20 degress off our heading and making 5 plus knots.  So wonderful in fact that we zoomed past our planned anchorage for the night and decided to keep going.  But alas all good things have to come to an end.  After a few hours the wind dropped our speed to under two knots and with our new anchorage planned for Eagle Bay we had to fire up the engine and motor for the last few hours.  But we got the chance to let Sari Timur strut her stuff.

Eldred Rock Lighthouse, constructed in 1905

Sari Timur with all her sails up

Eagle Bay was a beautiful little stop for the night with some sort of establishment on the south side of the bay, which looked like it must be connected to Juneau by the road system as we saw a number of cars.  We were in fact only 12 miles from Auke Bay but we had been warned the anchorage outside of the marina was very rolly and the marina itself  was usually full after 1700.  So Eagle Bay was our alternate, with a good night's sleep and a late lie in, we could get to Auke Bay for lunch.  Our first run through the marina found no slips in the marina but we got a spot tied up on the outside of the floating breakwater.  As we were on the outside it meant we were open to swell and wake, not ideal.  But it was a good launching off spot if something did become available.  Mark set off toward the office to check in and as he did so he saw a fishing boat leaving.  The slips here are real long and there were two small boats on the slip already but Mark felt there was enough room and so we fired up the motor, untied the lines and raced everyone in.  There was one smaller boat who got ahead of us but luckily he took a smaller spot not as far in as our planned target.  As we approached the spot Pauline had her doubts if we would fit.  We carried on and tied up with a whole foot and a half between us and the boat in front.  Success! we were in the marina behind the breakwater.

Auke Bay Harbor

 Power was an issue.  Because of the long fingers our hundred plus foot power cord was about a foot short.  Unfortunately the two tiny boats in front of us had about 7 feet of wasted dock.  We asked the marina if we could shift them forward a couple of feet but they said that due to liability issues no ones lines could be touched.  This is a reasonable rule so we hopped on the bus to the marine store to see if we could find a small 30 amp jumper cable.  The smallest the marine store had was 50 foot and at a cost of over a hundred dollars we decided that we could run the generator for that.  We are hoping the boat in front of us leaves sometime in the near future and we can slip forward a bit.  But if not we will run the generator when we need power and hot water.

Our crew arrives late Sunday night.  There is a couple here that we met in Guam and we have contacted them by email.  We hope to catch up with them and see more of Juneau.  Right now we plan to be here at least until Tuesday.  wWe hope to post more on our exploits in Juneau later.

Haines and Skagway

Well we leave Haines in the morning.  We have been enjoying a couple of extra days in the marina here as the weather has been from the south since we arrived.  Tonight it turns from the north again.  Not sure if it will be strong enough to sail but at least it won't be 30 knots on the nose.  We are very happy we stopped here.  Haines might be the friendliest town in Alaska.  Hard to beat Hoonah but we think Haines might have pulled it off.  The harbor staff are incredibly friendly, which is great, considering it might be the busiest we have been to.  We had to wait in line for more than an hour to get to the fuel dock and boats were jogging all over in and out and rafting up to each other as we came in.  We actually were worried at one point if we could get through and make the turn to the fuel dock or would have to go beyond and do some fancy maneuvering.  Boats were rafted three wide on one side and two on the other on the first pontoons past the breakwater, but as we came in they all broke ties and left as we coming at them.  We still had some fancy maneuvering to do to get to the fuel dock but as the wind had finally dropped to near zero we took our time and snuck in and did a 180 to make it easy to get out before tying up to the fuel dock.  190 gallons later they found a nice spot for us to sneak into.

We did a quick trip around town and a quick run through the Sheldon Jackson museum before hitting the grocery store and the local brewery.  While there we had heard of a nice restaurant to have dinner in.  As we had pretty much been tied to the boat for nearly two weeks, we treated ourselves to a night out on the town.

totem pole in front of the Sheldon Jackson Museum

beer garden at the Haines Brewing Co

Welcome to Haines

Haines Harbor

The next morning it was an early start to catch the first fast ferry over to Skagway for the day.  Mark had spent some time there when he was working on the Reese Eagle and insisted Pauline come for a visit.  Skagway is a tourist town.  Practically the whole town is set up for tourist and the fact they average four cruise ships a day plus all of the drive in tourists, they have to be.  Skagway was the starting point for most of the gold rush people and so has a pretty colorful history.  The town has done its best to keep up the image of the old town and has restored several of the old buildings and made all of the new keep to a code so as not to distract from the theme.  Most of the sidewalks are boardwalks and some establishments have that wild west atmosphere.  We made sure we had lunch at the Red Onion Saloon which was a house famous for its working girls.  The girls are still working but  as described, their duties have changed.  The staff still dress and play the part and of course offer tours of the upstairs.

We were going to ride the train up the pass.  Mark had brought one of the locomotives up from Bellingham on the  barge.  The cost was a little out of our price range so we found a place that sold more beer instead.  We had a great day out but our feet were happy when we returned to Haines and Sari Timur for the night.

approaching Skagway Harbor, with those big cruise ships

the railroad in Skagway

a very interesting frontage of the visitors center

That night there were supposedly very good northern lights and a big earthquake (5.2) but we slept right through it all.

The rest of our time here we have been doing chores and trying to reorganize a little so we can free up the V-birth for our guest when he arrives Sunday.