We left the dock in Ketchikan in very mild (but cold) conditions. Wind was light out of the southwest and, although cloudy, it was not raining for a change. That didn’t last long, as about an hour into the day we were back into the “low visibility” mode with radar on and the heater, defroster and running lights on because of the heavy rain. Water conditions, though, were pretty good, with only a slight swell from the northeast.
We had a bail-out plan if conditions in the Revilledegedo Straight were too much, but when we got to the alternate anchorage at the north of Mary Island, things were looking good, so we decided to go for it, at least to Foggy Bay (about 4 hours) and possibly all the way to Prince Rupert (an additional 5 hours).
Even though it was cold and rainy most of the way, we remarked at how calm the water was. The wind forecast called for diminishing winds after noon, so we had lunch and were looking forward to an easy passage. Well, the forecast was wrong. The wind came up strong out of the southwest (a steady 20+ knots) and within a very short time we were bashing into 4-5 foot waves and taking water over the bow and lots of spray on the windshields. This lasted for almost two hours until we turned into Foggy Bay, forgetting any possibility of going further.
Foggy Bay is a very protected anchorage with calm conditions once you traverse the narrow channel into the bay. We had been on the VHF radio with another Nordic Tug (Orca Star) during our passage, and they anchored in Foggy Bay as well. They stopped by and we chatted boat stuff for a while, then Elaine & I had a relaxed evening drinking wine, listening to classical music and playing Scrabble. Pretty exciting, huh?
There was no internet or cell coverage there, so we had to rely on the Environment Canada Weather Report on the VHF, but things looked good this morning so we took off fairly early to catch the tide and had a remarkable crossing of Dixon Entrance. This is an area that is fully exposed to the Pacific and can be pretty rough, but today the hardest part of the trip was dodging all of the gillnetter boats out fishing in great conditions.
As the day wore on, conditions even improved, to the point where the last couple of hours coming into Prince Rupert, the water was like glass, the wind and tide were behind us and the sky started to lighten up a bit. We got into Prince Rupert around 3 PM and after checking in with Canadian Customs and Border Patrol, Elaine took off to the grocery store and I walked up to WalMart to get some engine oil. I changed the oil in the engine, then we walked over to the fuel dock to get rid of the old oil. This evening we had another very nice dinner at the Cow Bay Cafe (after a great one last week).
We will continue south tomorrow. The weather forecast looks good - no rain, perhaps a bit of blue sky - but the tidal currents will be strong due to the full moon. We will have to plan out our day around the tides, but it looks like we’ll head down Granville Channel and pick one of the few anchorages along the way for tomorrow evening…
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