Mike's Boat Trips 2015: Seattle Trip Day 9

Sunday August 23

Today was a big day for us, as we were approaching the second long open ocean crossing, Queen Charlotte Sound (QCS). To get from Ketchikan to Seattle via the Inside Passage you have no choice, you must transit QCS. Like Dixon Entrance it can and does frequently go beyond the uncomfortable stage and cross into the life threatening stage.

I had had discussions with a few of the other boaters at Shearwater about their strategies for crossing QCS. It did not help when one of them, a 42’ Nordic Tug, which is bigger and much heavier than we are, said they “got the sh** kicked out of them” on their crossing.

Our strategy was to head south to Fury Cove, and watch and wait for good weather. Distance to Fury Cove is about 51 miles, a good day's run.

We were up early and were underway by 6:30 AM.

Local conditions were good, and what little forecasts for the QCS area that I could hear and understand on the VHF radio were encouraging.

We made our way south down towards Fury Cove and I continued to listen to the weather. Sometimes it would cut out at crucial moments in the forecast, and they don’t update it continuously, so the information I was getting was helpful, but not altogether convincing.

When we got down to the Fury Cove area I listened to the weather again, and it was encouraging.

Just as I was making my decision I saw the State of Alaska ferry Malaspina coming northbound, having just made the QCS crossing. I called them on the VHF radio and asked how the sea conditions were. Their report was favorable so I made the decision to skip Fury Cove and head out into and across QCS.

Here's the route that was intended to be the next day, from Fury Cove to Port Hardy. It's another 52 miles, making for a very long day. But I really wanted to get QCS behind us.

The crossing was long and arduous, and I was already tired from many hours at the helm. But although it got roly-poly, and the swells were actually huge, they were benign. We just rode them up, and rode them down, sort of like climbing a small hill, and then walking down the other side. Once again I never felt that conditions elevated from slightly uncomfortable to dangerous.

There was dense fog for a large portion of the crossing, so radar was active and essential.

I did hear a Mayday call from a commercial gill netter who was broken down not that far from us, but he was in no immediate danger and was in contact with the Canadian Coast Guard. He was considerably larger than we are and in those sea conditions I felt that we were just unable to offer any meaningful assistance. I think it may be the first time I’ve heard an actual Mayday call on the radio.

I pushed the engines a little harder than I usually do with a goal of making the crossing as quickly as possible, and limiting our exposure and vulnerability. They performed like champs and never once even burped or started to overheat.

(Coincidentally, as I write this on the Alaska state ferry Kennicott on the way back home, we are approaching QCS, in dense fog, but calm sea conditions, so far.)

We pulled in to the Quarter Deck Marina in Port Hardy at about 6:15 PM, which gave me just about 12 hours at the helm today. I was totally exhausted, but happy to have QCS behind us.