June 14, 2017

It rained hard last night, we could hear it on the aft cabin roof. We woke up pointed in the same direction in the same place, so we'll call that a win. Didn't see much in the way of birds or wildlife here yesterday at all. Alaska Dream was gone very early so we never did find out who was on it.

Our plan was to go up to Baker Inlet today. It's supposed to be "the" most protected inlet of them all in Grenville channel. You need to go through Watts Narrows to get into the inlet, and apparently thought not necessary entering at slack water is easiest. So there was a slack around 11:30 meaning we left around 8:30 to get there in time which seemed civilized. There is a point in the middle of Grenville channel where the directions of the floods/ebbs switch. So we had to fight the Ebb going up a bit, but once we passed "Evening Point", then the Ebb was going with us and we got a push. We arrived at Watts Narrows about 10 minutes early.



Where the narrows and Grenville Channel meet, there was quite the kerfuffle, but after that it was fine. The entrance is "blind" meaning you can't see if anyone is coming from the other direction, so you honk your horn to let them know you're there. We entered at low water and so it was really squeaky getting in. It's very deep so you don't have to worry about that part, but you wouldn't want your boat to be pushed around very much. Our friend Alan told us he visited Baker one time and went in and out not at slack and it wasn't an issue. But then the second time, he said he got surprised and ended up "white knuckling" it outta there!

Once inside, it opens up into a huge inlet with cliffs all around. And it was surprisingly windy! Not what we were hoping for at all. We even went through a really quick 30kt gust. We headed down to the head of the inlet which is where the protected anchorage was. Didn't seem all that protected really! It was fine, but there was a valley to the south and since the wind was coming from the south, we were getting some gusts of 20kts. But we anchored and got a really good hold and watched to make sure we didn't go anywhere.

It was just pouring down still with rain. Generally the wind was below 10kts and fine, but then every so often you'd get these big gusts. No conducive to getting off the boat. So we had a hearty lunch, read our books, and then watched a movie. Around 5:00 or 5:30 the wind settled down to nothing for the night. We read some more, had dinner, and watched a bit of TV. Night quiet night. Oh, and it poured rain.