After listening to the weather on Tuesday, we decided that if we got up and left early on Wednesday morning, we should be fine. We woke to fog as thick as the proverbial “pea soup.” Unfortunately, the route we wanted to take through Venn Passage is a winding route through shallow waters that requires good visibility. I’m sure that the locals can go through no matter what, but it can be a challenge in clear weather for those unfamiliar even though we’ve been through it before. We decided that we would try to follow someone through and left the marina. There were two other boats leaving at the same time, but after watching them wind their way back and forth trying to avoid the three freighters anchored in the Harbor, we began to have second thoughts. We found ourselves by an anchoring buoy that we could identify on our GPS so we just floated by it, keeping it in sight for almost two hours waiting for the fog to clear. For about an hour it teased us by starting to burn off only to have another bank of fog roll in. Finally at 10:30 it burned off enough for us to feel like we could move.
Crossing the Dixon Entrance was easy for us once we were through Venn Passage. There were easy 3 to 4 foot swells but no waves. The third dragon turned out to be in a good mood. It took us six hours to travel 84 miles from Prince Rupert to Ketchikan. We arrived about 3 p.m. and found moorage at Bar Harbor North. They would normally put a boat our size at Bar Harbor South, but the restrooms are closer to the north harbor. We learned the hard way last time that it is a long way to the restrooms and showers, so we asked to be in the north harbor. The Customs Agent came directly to the boat to check our passports and boat documentation. He was nice and efficient.
I love coming into Ketchikan especially now that we know the rules of the road. It is a bustling narrow channel where you see pleasure boats, fishing boats, tug boats, huge cruise ships, the Alaska State Ferry, and float planes. There is so much going on that you have to constantly be watching. The speed limit is no more than 7 knots in Tongas Narrows for a boat our size, which is really slow for such a long channel. It actually took us an hour from the time we entered the narrows until we entered Bar Harbor.
Once we were cleared customs, we broke out the folding bikes and rode into downtown Ketchikan, several miles away. This was the first time I had ridden my bike since we were here two years ago. Don had ridden his in Prince Rupert. They are a great way to get around town. We went to Tongas Trading and purchased a few things we needed and on the way back we stopped at a restaurant that had been recommended to Don. The name as Ocean View Restaurant, and it serves both Mexican and Italian food. While we were there we noticed them bringing out huge bowls of meat to another table. We asked what it was and the waitress said that it was steak and cactus. She brought us a small bowl so we could try it and found it to be excellent. For anyone who comes to Ketchikan, we highly recommend this restaurant.
The two days that we were in Ketchikan the weather has been in the high 80’s and 90’s. I have to admit it has been nice. In fact the entire trip the weather has been very warm. Unfortunately, I did not pack very many warm weather clothes because I had anticipated needing more cold weather clothes and we have such limited space in the boat. The down side of this wonderfully warm weather is that with it comes high winds. Listening to the weather reports today was very frustrating because again we are waiting for the weather. All of the large straits of water throughout southeast Alaska were forecasted to have winds of 25 to 30 knots. While today was warm and sunny in Ketchikan it was also very windy. We spent a lot of time today riding around the island provisioning. After buying a lot of food at Safeway we got to the checkout stand and asked for some ice only to find out they were out. So were the two nearby gas stations. This was very discouraging because we had no ice in the ice chest and if we leave as we planned, it would be several days before we could buy any more. We finally found ice at the liquor store where they were also almost out.
Tomorrow we plan to visit Meyer’s Chuck, a small remote community about half way between Ketchikan and Wrangell. Here’s hoping we can get where we are going before the winds pick up.
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