June 17, 2017

Anyone who actually reads this Blog knows that I'm not a morning person. So it was with great difficulty that I woke up for the 2nd day in a row at 5:30am after a not very good sleep. Fortunately, Greg learned a long time ago to not ever expect sunshine and smiles so we just did our routine and got out the door. Turns out, the entire Prince Rupert fishing fleet decided to leave at 6:00am as well. Maybe because it was a Saturday too? And flat calm? I don't know but there were at least 100 boats of every size zooming around the harbour at that hour.

It takes a while to go through Venn Passage to get out into Chatham Sound, then forever to cross Chatham Sound and then around the corner into Dixon Entrance. That photo above was taken around 9:30am. We could not have wished for better conditions than we got, so it was all worthwhile. God what a long day though! It was Greg's day at the helm so he did the majority of the driving, leaving dog duty to me. During the "worst" part of the crossing (and I say that sarcastically) she was a bit squirrelly as the boat was still doing a little bit of corkscrewing in the swell, but it was very short lived and then we went back to Bella meter of zero.



We saw a couple of pleasure boats cruising south into Rupert, but we were the only pleasure boat around that was making the crossing. It's been the same story most of the way up. I get excited when I see another boat that appears to be doing the same thing as us. And of course any that we meet are all bigger boats than us.

A long way up and then another long way up and another long way up and then we arrived at the south entrance to Ketchikan around 3pm BC time, or 2:00pm Alaska time. (Aside - funny thing, my Mac changed to Alaska time while we were in Rupert! Crappy Mac products). Couldn't resist taking a photo of someone's personal yacht waiting here for them. (Note the side garage with the speedboat waiting to go in)



It's 300 ft long. Maybe we should just put Spellbound in their garage and go with them? Also, 2 cruise ships in the docks as we went by as well - The Disney Wonder and the Norwegian Sun. Weird to be cruising by them so closely. Good thing we knew they weren't going anywhere!

There are several marinas here where boats can moor, and you just call the Ketchikan Harbormaster and they assign you a marina and a slip based on what is available right when you call them. We were assigned Bar Harbor South and finger 8 slip 28. We found it easily enough and are in amongst the fish boats on a low "small boat" dock. The sun was shining and it was warm and there was no wind so it was lovely. We decided to take advantage of the great weather and immediately locked up the boat and took the dog for walk (such as her walking is). Good to stretch the legs after such a long day.

After going to the harbor office to pay (3 nights) we started in the other direction towards "the mall" to see what was there. As we walk along the street we aboat to step around 2 couples who are standing on the sidewalk talking. One woman looks up and exclaims "Oh it's you !!". Errrrr, maybe? It turns out that we had cruised by them and their boat while we were docking, and she *loves* our boat and thinks it's gorgeous and wanted to know more about it. Nice! It turns out their names are John and Susan, and they are from Cleveland Ohio. They *trailered* there (clearly smallish) boat from there to Bellingham, put it in the water there, and have been traveling up the inside passage since! They are doing essentially the same thing as us, only on a much smaller boat!

We walked around and went past the mall, but didn't see too much interesting. The tourist part of town is about 1.5 miles down the road, but it also appears there is not much between here and there. So back to the mall where the local's shop with includes a Safeway and some fast food. I peeked into the indoor portion and saw a lot of empty units but also the regular mall inhabitants. We went to Safeway and got a snack at the Starbucks and some light groceries to have for dinner. They also have a $1.50 DVD movie rental with pretty recent titles. So we rented "Logan" to watch later. (I mean for $1.50 ….)

Back for dinner and then we decided to walk the dock a bit as it was still great weather. The couple right next door to us was out on the dock so we chatted. They are a BC Ranger Tug that is probably around 26' long. They are from Kitimat and they also just arrived in Ketchikan today crossing Dixon Entrance much earlier than us! Also looking for the good weather to cross. So a 2nd boat in the same day that is smaller than us doing the same thing as us. I have to eat my words.

We started the movie too late and couldn't get through it. Maybe finish watching it tomorrow.