Wrangell, June 27

The trip through Wrangell Narrows from Petersburg takes you through two different tides. The tide from Petersburg floods south and the tide from Sumner Strait floods north.






They meet just about half way at Woody Island.











When you get there, you have a few navigational aids to sort out.








Wrangell Narrows is a beautiful passage, there is spectacular scenery around every turn.

Here is a Bald Eagle tree. Click on this photo to enlarge and see how many eagles you can find. There are numerous fishing resorts in this waterway, and from the amount of crab pots we saw all the way through, they must have excellent crabbing as well as salmon fishing.


On our passage from Wrangell Narrows to Wrangell, we suffered lumpy seas, rain and foul currents from the Stikine River on the last half of the trip.





Wrangell in View.








Once at the Harbor we called the harbor master and were assigned moorage at the transient dock. 56° 27.880’ N / 132° 22.910’ W










Moorage here is very reasonable, $13.38 per day including power.
We plan on staying just two days before heading down Zimovia Strait to Ernest Sound.






Murals painted on the sides of buildings seam to be in vogue in the Northwest. Wrangell is no exception.

On one of our walks into downtown Wrangell I drooped into a hardware and marine supply and spotted a Whale Gusher repair kit. It looked like it had been on the shelf for ages, but it was just what I needed to get our sanitation system up to speed again.


A sign of the times in Wrangell.








JoAnne found a friend at the Pirates Cove in downtown Wrangell.




Tomorrow, I will have to get her out of town and head 44 miles
down Zimovia Strait to our next anchorage at Santa Anna Inlet.


Stay tuned.

George and JoAnne

Petersburg, June 24

The next morning we made an early start for our 58-mile run to Petersburg. We stopped to retrieve our prawn trap, and found it tangled with one end of the pot string. We apparently set our trap too close to their string. In an effort get our rigging free, I concluded that our trap needed to be cut free. In the heat of battle, with the heavy rigging we were tangled in, I cut our trap free without securing it first. It went to the bottom.... our new hard-to-find trap. :( Fortunately we still had last year's collapsible trap in the lazarette that we would later press into service.

After stowing our remaining rigging we headed out for the long run to Petersburg.

We had a reasonably smooth passage, although we did run into foul currents for a while; and it was cloudy and cold. We saw at least 50 whale blows, mostly from a large pod of Orcas. We stopped counting as we continued our passage of the vast waterway of Frederick Sound.


Once in Petersburg we were assigned moorage at North Harbor amongst all the fishing boats.







After getting tied down at our berth,
56°48.776’ N /132° 57.616’W,
we discovered not only our 110V heater had died, but our AM/FM radio wasn't working anymore. :(




One of our fist of many excursions up and down the steep ramp to the street was to visit Ken and Val on Dream Merchant berthed in South Harbor. Ken was off the boat working on a new aluminum cockpit bimini for Dream Merchant, but we enjoyed tea and freshly baked apricot bars with Val as she gave us the scoop on local shopping. We went to lunch, then a trip to the Chileon produce market, and a trip downtown to find a new heater. We had no luck finding a repair kit for our pump-out pump. During our three day-stay in Petersburg we stayed busy with all the domestic chores that need to be done when in port.

On Thursday June 26 we made 8 trips UP and 8 trips DOWN that steep low-tide ramp. Went to the Shipwright - 1 mile out of town and discovered a bakery on our way... got some great bread, no luck for heater or pump at the shipwright; trip 2, had to walk 5 blocks (each way) to get propane - none available at the fuel dock (wonder what that deal is); brought back the propane and headed to the True Value to buy a heater; brought the heater back, plugged it in, and it didn't work; trip 4 now, took the heater back & exchanged it, came back to the boat for lunch and plugged in new heater, it worked; trip 5 Scandia hotel for haircut for George, Jo went to Radio Shack to find a radio; trip 6 - showers at the laundramat (George had the cold shower at the harbor yesterday); trip 7 - library for internet and IGA for groceries; trip 8 - George took garbage up to save the raven's exploration and scatter, which happened yesterday when he had his back turned to grab the shower stuff. Enough exercise for this day.

Next we go through Wrangell Narrows to Wrangell.

Stay tuned.

George and JoAnne

Pybus Bay, June 22

After two days at Warm Spring Bay we headed out shortly after Ken and Val in Dream Merchant. We chose to follow the coast south to a waterfall we wanted to check out, then cross Chatham Strait bearing due east. When we turned into Chatham Strait the wind and wave was south east.

By going south along the coast in the lumpy seas we were able to quarter the swell, smoothing out the ride. Once at the waterfall we raised a reefed main sail and headed east to pass infamous Point Gardner on the south end of Admiralty Island, and into Frederick Sound under sunny skies.
It all worked really slick.

We were now quartering the weather on our starboard bow on a close reach, and making great speed. By the time we changed course to head north east along the east side of Admiralty Island, the seas had laid down, and with a breeze still in our sail, we were enjoying a great beam reach.

Once we reached Pybus Bay we turned in and fished our way, without success to Cannery Cove.










We went to the head of the cove and found suitable anchorage along the south shore. 57° 18.265’ N / 134° 09.409’ W
I rowed the crab trap out to a likely spot, and we settled in for the rest of the day and night.



The scenery was spectacular, and Pybus Bay also had resident whales.







The next morning we found nine crabs resting in our trap, three females, and one undersized male were immediately released, leaving five keepers. We kept three of the largest and released the other two.





We found a likely spot on the chart for the prawn trap, and when we motored out to the spot we found several strings of prawn pots already set there. We set our trap as close to our predetermined spot as we could, and went off fishing for halibut. We fished several spots during the rest of the day, catching only smaller bottom fish.

When we reached the entrance to Henry's Arm I put up the rod, and we went in to check out the anchorage at the head end.







After checking out Henry's Arm, we fished our way over to Donkey Bay, catching more small bottom fish. We also investigated Sheldon Cove.





Not finding suitable anchorage in Sheldon Cove, we went back to Henry's Arm and anchored near the head of the inlet.
57° 20.759’N/ 134°06.336’ W.






We settled in for the night and enjoyed a splendid crab dinner in spite of having our hearts set for halibut. Tomorrow we will head for Petersburg.

More to come, stay tuned.

George and JoAnne