Seattle Trip Day 1

Saturday August 15

After about a year of planning the day had finally come to head for Seattle.

As readers of this blog already know, the plan was to run the boat to Seattle and put it in a boat yard, leave it there all winter, and bring it back up to Ketchikan in the early spring.  I had been building a list of upgrades, repairs, “nice to haves,” and preventive maintenance, and the list was quite lengthy.

I had been making lists and preparations at an increasingly feverish pitch as the departure date approached, and now it was finally here.

The route from Ketchikan to Seattle (on the Inside Passage) still requires at least two open ocean crossings.  The first of these when south bound is Dixon Entrance, which must be crossed in order to enter Canadian waters at Prince Rupert.  Being out there at the wrong time can be not just uncomfortable, but life threatening, so the goal is to cross it in good weather, or not at all (at least in a small boat.)

Here is the route that was supposed to be Day 1, Bar Harbor to Foggy Bay, distance about 35 miles:

And here is the route that was supposed to be Day 2, Foggy Bay to Prince Rupert, distance about 60 miles:

Of course I had mapped out a tentative itinerary, but traveling on a small boat is not like flying on Alaska Airlines.  You map out an itinerary, but you must be prepared to be flexible and make changes.  The weather is the primary controlling factor, but other factors may also affect plans, such as illness, injury, or mechanical failures on one or more of the boat’s many systems.

My itinerary called for running about 35 miles to Foggy Bay on day 1, and then waiting there for calm weather in Dixon Entrance before making the crossing.

That’s not what we did.

I had been watching the weather forecasts all week, and it looked like with a very early morning departure, we just might be able to skip Foggy Bay altogether, and make it to Prince Rupert in one day.

We loaded up the last of our groceries and gear on Friday evening, with a pesky brisk NW breeze blowing the whole time.

During the night I got up about 2 AM and went out on the back deck, and that pesky breeze was still blowing.  However sometime between 2 AM and when I got up at 4 AM it stopped completely.

I took Bina for a quick walk and we pulled away from our slip at about 4:30 AM in the dark, in completely calm conditions.

The weather forecast for Dixon Entrance East was calling for 15 – 25 knot winds, and seas of 1 meter.  The forecast for the next few days got progressively worse, with winds up to 35 knots on Tuesday.  I thought it highly possible that we might get to Foggy Bay and then end up sitting there for several days waiting for weather in Dixon Entrance, putting us greatly behind schedule.

We didn’t really have too many time constraints on the schedule, but we did have some.  I had made reservations at a place called Shearwater, which is about half way through the voyage, on certain dates.  I also had reservations at Shilshole Bay Marina in Seattle on certain dates.  And the boat yard had committed to take us into their yard on either September 1^st or 2^nd.  So we did have some date constraints to work around.

Lisa and Bina slept down below as I piloted from the fly bridge.  We have an intercom system so we can communicate with each other, and we use it frequently.

The water was calm almost all the way to Foggy Bay.  When we got to Foggy Bay conditions were very good, and the Dixon Entrance East forecast was still calling for seas of 1 meter, which is manageable for us.  So after consulting with Lisa we made the decision to go for it, and we headed out into Dixon Entrance, skipping the Foggy Bay stop altogether.

The Dixon Entrance crossing was bouncy and uncomfortable at times, but it never elevated to the level where I considered it to be dangerous to the boat or the crew.  We just pushed on, and on, and eventually worked our way to Prince Rupert.

I had already made the decision not to go through Venn Passage, which cuts a few miles off the trip.  Venn Passage is very shallow and I did not want to go through there.  So when I was at my most fatigued, I had to go south of Prince Rupert and round Digby Island, and approach Prince Rupert from the south.

In the map snippet below you can see the short cut through Venn Passage.  The dark line with the arrows shows the last part of the route that we actually took.

 I was at the helm from 4:30 AM to about 4 PM today, covering about 96 miles.

As we approached Prince Rupert I called Canadian Customs.  I had previously applied for and received Canpass permits for both Lisa and myself, so clearing Canadian Customs was painless, requiring just a phone call.

I called the Prince Rupert Rowing & Yacht Club and got moorage there for the night.  A very nice young lady directed us right into the slip and helped catch the lines.

I was exhausted, but very happy to have one of the two open ocean crossings behind us.

Here are some pictures we took of the yacht club and the surrounding area:

Here Faraway sits in the slip at the yacht club.  The finger floats are metal and a little wobbly for us old folks, but they were sufficient.  We had shore power, and fresh water available on the floats.  They had showers available up at their building.

Here is a shot of the Prince Rupert Rowing & Yacht Club main building at the top of the ramp.
They were very friendly and very helpful.

The yacht club floats. 

There is a pub right next to the yacht club.  I think Steven and I ate there when we were bringing Faraway north from Vancouver BC to Ketchikan 8 years ago.