The long voyage from Honolulu to Juneau was pretty arduous.
We had good trade winds for the 1st 10 days or so and headed pretty much due north as planned. However when we got to higher latitudes the westerly winds I had expected did not eventuate. We had quite a few days of little or no wind so ended up doing quite a lot of motoring (180hrs in total !). We had one strong gale pass over us giving us 35 kt headwinds so had to heave-to for a couple of days waiting for it to blow out. The frustrating part was when it did blow out it left us with no wind and big seas and had to continue motoring. We knew we would have to motor up the inside passage once we got to the coast so we were getting a bit worried about running out of fuel before we got to Juneau. We made it though putting in 850 litres ($900) so it was a rather expensive voyage also. The total time was 26 days for the 2400 nautical miles. We were sure glad to arrive in Juneau. We did 2 three hour watches during the night and a six hour watch each, during the day which worked out pretty well. We only saw 2 ships and 2 fishing boats during the whole open water part of the voyage - its big and lonely out there! As usual we trolled for a lot of the time and didn't catch anything - so fortunately weren't relying
on fish to supplement our diet.
One morning as we were sailing along with a nice breeze for a change though it was cool and drizzly so I had the sides of the cockpit canopy down. Every now and then I could hear a kind of a whoosh sound, I thought it was just water clearing the scuppers so I just continued reading my book doing the horizon scan every 10 minutes. Curiosity with the sound got to me eventually and I stuck my head outside the canopy and there to my shock was this big black whale about 40' long I would guess swimming alongside of us - only about 5 feet away - I could almost touch it. I looked out the other side and there was one there as well. Normally it would have freaked me having whales so close, but as they had been swimming with us for at least an hour I thought there couldn't be much danger. I couldn't identify their type - though not humpbacks - they had smooth black skin.
As we were passing through the shipping lanes Vancouver / Seattle to Japan - as luck would have it we got thick fog - visibility less than 100 metres. We had one close encounter - we had picked up a large ship on radar at about 6 miles and closing fast. I was able to contact him on VHF radio and he confirmed he had me on his radar which was good to know because plastic boats do not always show up very well on radar. He passed about 1 mile astern of us - we never saw him but could just faintly hear his foghorn at closest approach.
Not long after the ship encounter the fog started to lift a little giving us about 500m visibility. We had just changed over watches and I had gone below when Bronte saw one of our big blue fenders fall off the aft rail it was tied to and float away behind us. I still can't believe that he happened to be looking out of the cockpit at that precise moment. I was in 2 minds as to whether to attempt to recover it or not considering we were actually sailing in the right direction for a change. So after the procrastination I hit the man overboard button to mark the GPS position though the fender was out of sight now in the fog and mist. We dropped the main and furled the genoa then started the motor and turned around. We headed to the waypoint then turned directly down wind to allow for the drift. I didn't hold much hope for finding a dark blue object in these conditions. Bronte was steering while I looked out on the bow. We were 3/4 mile downwind from the GPS mark now and I was about to tell Bronte to forget it and turn around when he spotted it from the cockpit, dead ahead. I managed to pick it up on the 2nd attempt with the boat hook. So it turned out to be a useful man-overboard practice. However it took a total of 20 minutes before we had it back on board, if it had been a person overboard their chances would have been very slim of surviving that long in these frigid waters.
Although we'd had enough by the time we got to the coast it all seemed worth the effort once we started up the inside waters with spectacular snow capped mountains, pine forests, waterfalls, whales, sea otters. It was certainly a change from the open ocean with us having to dodge floating logs and trees, icebergs, fog and cruise ships all within a couple of hours of reaching the coast.
It was great for Lee to be able to keep in touch with us via sat phone sms messages. I was thankful for it everyday on that long voyage. It gave us both peace of mind to stay in touch and get weather updates. Thanks once again for that most generous gift Tom.
So we knew Lee had been searching the Juneau supermarkets for the biggest steaks in town for us - she found some buffalo steaks. The long and boring voyage seemed to quickly fade from the memory after a good feed and a long hot shower. Still I would not be looking to do another long ocean voyage like that anytime soon.
After about a week of R&R and the usual boat fix ups and maintenance and drying out as best we could in Juneau we headed off for Glacier Bay which is about 50 miles north west from Juneau. You have to get a permit to be able to cruise in Glacier Bay National Park - a maximum of 7 days - we were able to get 3 days initially but luckily were able to extend it by a few days once there.
on fish to supplement our diet.One morning as we were sailing along with a nice breeze for a change though it was cool and drizzly so I had the sides of the cockpit canopy down. Every now and then I could hear a kind of a whoosh sound, I thought it was just water clearing the scuppers so I just continued reading my book doing the horizon scan every 10 minutes. Curiosity with the sound got to me eventually and I stuck my head outside the canopy and there to my shock was this big black whale about 40' long I would guess swimming alongside of us - only about 5 feet away - I could almost touch it. I looked out the other side and there was one there as well. Normally it would have freaked me having whales so close, but as they had been swimming with us for at least an hour I thought there couldn't be much danger. I couldn't identify their type - though not humpbacks - they had smooth black skin.
As we were passing through the shipping lanes Vancouver / Seattle to Japan - as luck would have it we got thick fog - visibility less than 100 metres. We had one close encounter - we had picked up a large ship on radar at about 6 miles and closing fast. I was able to contact him on VHF radio and he confirmed he had me on his radar which was good to know because plastic boats do not always show up very well on radar. He passed about 1 mile astern of us - we never saw him but could just faintly hear his foghorn at closest approach.
Not long after the ship encounter the fog started to lift a little giving us about 500m visibility. We had just changed over watches and I had gone below when Bronte saw one of our big blue fenders fall off the aft rail it was tied to and float away behind us. I still can't believe that he happened to be looking out of the cockpit at that precise moment. I was in 2 minds as to whether to attempt to recover it or not considering we were actually sailing in the right direction for a change. So after the procrastination I hit the man overboard button to mark the GPS position though the fender was out of sight now in the fog and mist. We dropped the main and furled the genoa then started the motor and turned around. We headed to the waypoint then turned directly down wind to allow for the drift. I didn't hold much hope for finding a dark blue object in these conditions. Bronte was steering while I looked out on the bow. We were 3/4 mile downwind from the GPS mark now and I was about to tell Bronte to forget it and turn around when he spotted it from the cockpit, dead ahead. I managed to pick it up on the 2nd attempt with the boat hook. So it turned out to be a useful man-overboard practice. However it took a total of 20 minutes before we had it back on board, if it had been a person overboard their chances would have been very slim of surviving that long in these frigid waters.
Although we'd had enough by the time we got to the coast it all seemed worth the effort once we started up the inside waters with spectacular snow capped mountains, pine forests, waterfalls, whales, sea otters. It was certainly a change from the open ocean with us having to dodge floating logs and trees, icebergs, fog and cruise ships all within a couple of hours of reaching the coast.
It was great for Lee to be able to keep in touch with us via sat phone sms messages. I was thankful for it everyday on that long voyage. It gave us both peace of mind to stay in touch and get weather updates. Thanks once again for that most generous gift Tom.
So we knew Lee had been searching the Juneau supermarkets for the biggest steaks in town for us - she found some buffalo steaks. The long and boring voyage seemed to quickly fade from the memory after a good feed and a long hot shower. Still I would not be looking to do another long ocean voyage like that anytime soon.
After about a week of R&R and the usual boat fix ups and maintenance and drying out as best we could in Juneau we headed off for Glacier Bay which is about 50 miles north west from Juneau. You have to get a permit to be able to cruise in Glacier Bay National Park - a maximum of 7 days - we were able to get 3 days initially but luckily were able to extend it by a few days once there.
The weather there wasn't the greatest and we had to spend more than 1 day sheltered behind an island, also because of our slow speed it would take up a large part of the day just getting to the sights. However we were able to get within a few hundred yards to the face of one of the glaciers (Reid Glacier). This glacier was not actively calving so we were able to get quite close. We couldn't get closer than 2 miles to Johns Hopkins Glacier because there were so many icebergs.
The largest glacier (Marjorie), we could get to about a 1/2 mile but had to compete with a cruise ship for the good spot - guess who won ! They advise not to get too close to glaciers because if a large chunk calves it has been known to create 30 ft waves - scary !
Wildlife hasn't been as prolific as we'd hoped or led to believe. I did see a bear and her 2 cubs on the beach at one of the anchorages one morning for a few minutes. Even at the bear sanctuary wevisited they didn't make an appearance ! We saw some deer on the beach at another anchorage. We have seen quite a lot of sea otters but they are quite shy and don't get too close. We have seen quite a few humpback whales in the distance but no close encounters. We passed close by a couple of seal colonies. Bald eagles are quite prolific and ravens are everywhere. I suppose when you consider the above it hasn't been too bad. We had been hoping to see moose and caribou as well but I guess the thick rainforest we have been traveling through is not conducive to seeing these animals. As mentioned before our fishing success has been nil. A bit frustrating when you see all the charter and commercial fishing boats coming back into port with quantities of salmon, halibut and crabs. We have bought seafood on a couple of occasions and it is superb quality but very expensive even if you buy it direct from a fishing boat.
It has been nice to visit some of the smaller fishing ports in SE Alaska where the big cruise ships do not call. The harbor masters are very friendly and accommodating squeezing in cruising boats among the fishing boats. The main ports of Juneau, Skagway (our maximum latitude 59°27') and Ketchikan have their main streets lined with jewelery and souvenir shops to trap the tourist $.
Those main ports can have up to 4 cruise ships in at once and so temporarily swell the towns population by about 6,000. The cruise ship industry must be a huge boon to the economy although apparently many of the shops are owned and operated by the cruise ship companies themselves. I overheard a couple of fishing charter operators having a moan about the 30-40% commission the cruise ship company takes and then take 90 days to pay them. Skagway is almost entirely there for cruise ship and other summer tourists and must be like a ghost town in the winter.
Unfortunately the weather here in Alaska has been very rainy. We expected it some extent but even the locals are complaining about their wet cold summer. The average rainfall is 1/2" per day but I didn't expect to see that every day! I think we have only had 3 what I would call sunny days in the 6 weeks we've been here. Its amazing how all the promotional material shows nothing but blue sunny skies we reckon there must be a stampede of professional photographers whenever the sun comes out and the clouds dissipate ! It has been a constant battle to keep things dry even on the inside of the boat with all the condensation due to the cold water. See the picture showing what happens if you leave your boat too long in Alaska !
Navigating in Alaska can be challenging at times with the large tidal ranges - 20 foot tides are the norm. So you have to be careful when anchoring to allow for that. We got caught out a couple of times with the dinghy ashore - not leaving it high enough and having to go wading to retrieve it.
The currents in the narrow passages can be up to 6knots so you need to get the timing right too. It is often difficult to find places shallow enough to anchor because many of the waterways are fjords with near vertical sides.
We have not been able to do any sailing since arriving in Alaska - all motoring. Every time we unfurl a sail the wind changes. White Rose has continued her tradition of being able to find headwinds everywhere !
I am sending this from Ketchikan which is the last Alaskan port before we head into Canada British Columbia. We have been moving quite slowly and still have over 700 miles to got to Vancouver - so we will need to get a bit of a wriggle on before it starts to get too cold. We are currently holed up here waiting for a series of lows to blow over - it's been constant rain and 25kt winds since we arrived 4 days ago - looks like another 4 days of it coming as well.
As soon as we get a break we will make a run for Prince Rupert. Hopefully the weather will be a little dryer as we head further south - we are all getting a bit of cabin fever here.
The largest glacier (Marjorie), we could get to about a 1/2 mile but had to compete with a cruise ship for the good spot - guess who won ! They advise not to get too close to glaciers because if a large chunk calves it has been known to create 30 ft waves - scary !
Wildlife hasn't been as prolific as we'd hoped or led to believe. I did see a bear and her 2 cubs on the beach at one of the anchorages one morning for a few minutes. Even at the bear sanctuary wevisited they didn't make an appearance ! We saw some deer on the beach at another anchorage. We have seen quite a lot of sea otters but they are quite shy and don't get too close. We have seen quite a few humpback whales in the distance but no close encounters. We passed close by a couple of seal colonies. Bald eagles are quite prolific and ravens are everywhere. I suppose when you consider the above it hasn't been too bad. We had been hoping to see moose and caribou as well but I guess the thick rainforest we have been traveling through is not conducive to seeing these animals. As mentioned before our fishing success has been nil. A bit frustrating when you see all the charter and commercial fishing boats coming back into port with quantities of salmon, halibut and crabs. We have bought seafood on a couple of occasions and it is superb quality but very expensive even if you buy it direct from a fishing boat.
It has been nice to visit some of the smaller fishing ports in SE Alaska where the big cruise ships do not call. The harbor masters are very friendly and accommodating squeezing in cruising boats among the fishing boats. The main ports of Juneau, Skagway (our maximum latitude 59°27') and Ketchikan have their main streets lined with jewelery and souvenir shops to trap the tourist $.
Those main ports can have up to 4 cruise ships in at once and so temporarily swell the towns population by about 6,000. The cruise ship industry must be a huge boon to the economy although apparently many of the shops are owned and operated by the cruise ship companies themselves. I overheard a couple of fishing charter operators having a moan about the 30-40% commission the cruise ship company takes and then take 90 days to pay them. Skagway is almost entirely there for cruise ship and other summer tourists and must be like a ghost town in the winter.
Unfortunately the weather here in Alaska has been very rainy. We expected it some extent but even the locals are complaining about their wet cold summer. The average rainfall is 1/2" per day but I didn't expect to see that every day! I think we have only had 3 what I would call sunny days in the 6 weeks we've been here. Its amazing how all the promotional material shows nothing but blue sunny skies we reckon there must be a stampede of professional photographers whenever the sun comes out and the clouds dissipate ! It has been a constant battle to keep things dry even on the inside of the boat with all the condensation due to the cold water. See the picture showing what happens if you leave your boat too long in Alaska !
Navigating in Alaska can be challenging at times with the large tidal ranges - 20 foot tides are the norm. So you have to be careful when anchoring to allow for that. We got caught out a couple of times with the dinghy ashore - not leaving it high enough and having to go wading to retrieve it.
The currents in the narrow passages can be up to 6knots so you need to get the timing right too. It is often difficult to find places shallow enough to anchor because many of the waterways are fjords with near vertical sides.
We have not been able to do any sailing since arriving in Alaska - all motoring. Every time we unfurl a sail the wind changes. White Rose has continued her tradition of being able to find headwinds everywhere !
I am sending this from Ketchikan which is the last Alaskan port before we head into Canada British Columbia. We have been moving quite slowly and still have over 700 miles to got to Vancouver - so we will need to get a bit of a wriggle on before it starts to get too cold. We are currently holed up here waiting for a series of lows to blow over - it's been constant rain and 25kt winds since we arrived 4 days ago - looks like another 4 days of it coming as well.
As soon as we get a break we will make a run for Prince Rupert. Hopefully the weather will be a little dryer as we head further south - we are all getting a bit of cabin fever here.
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