Ketchikan to Thorne Bay and Exchange Cove

Last fall before we left the boat in Ketchikan and went home, I arranged to have Teal re-upholstered during the winter and have new cockpit canvas made when we returned in the spring. Greg, the impressive young fellow who was to do the work died of inoperable liver cancer during the winter. He was only 51 and his loss has been greatly felt by his family as well as the community. After investigating our options, we made arrangements with Donna at Skookum Canvas in Sitka to do the work and we will shove off for Sitka on May 17^th.

I put an extra 10 gallons of fuel in a flexible bladder at the aft end of the cockpit for the 280 mile passage to Sitka. The first leg of the trip was a 40-mile passage to Thorne Bay. The day started with overcast skies and sprinkles and just enough wind against the tide to make things rough enough to encourage hoisting a reefed main sail to steady the boat. By noon it had smoothed out and we had enough sun to be comfortable the rest of the way to Thorne Bay.

The entrance and route to the once ‘worlds largest lumber operation’ at Thorn bay is a shallow passage around and through several shoals.




In the bay are several occupied and deserted float houses and floating docks.







Once near the marina we hailed the harbormaster and got a response from a fisherman named Raymond who was heading out for Ketchikan and said we were welcome to, not only use his slip for the night, but also to plug into his power if we needed it.

We found Raymond’s slip 55° 40.940’ N / 132° 31.367’ W and tied down for the night still early enough to visit the store and the rest of the little community of 600. As one local put it “300 here in town and another 300 you can’t see”.

The next morning we headed out for the 45-mile passage to Exchange Cove near the top of Prince Of Wales Island and through Kashevarof Passage. We started out bashing into head seas and foul currents, but we smoothed out by mid day.

We had a little NE breeze that came directly into the anchorage at Exchange Cove 56° 12.227’ N / 133° 04.352’ W and I set the riding sail on the backstay to keep her pointed into the wind. She rode perfectly all night.



Some time after we anchored I set the crab trap and later a motor yacht came in and anchored for the night.

The next morning after taking four good-sized male Dungeness Crab from the trap, we headed for Port Protection to stage for our high tide passage through the dreaded (by some local boaters because of the shoal waters at low tide) Rocky Pass in Keku Strait.

More to come Stay tuned,

George and JoAnne