Sitka to Auke Bay

7/24/11

After almost 2 weeks in Sitka, I was getting antsy again to explore more places before Rick and Chris were going to join me.  Of course I wanted to go around Kruzof Island to check out if there were any places to surf.  The day before I left it was beautifully sunny – the day I left it was raining and poor visibility.  Dang!

So on Monday (when the harbor masters office was open), I paid off my bill, filled up with diesel, and ventured out from Sitka to the open ocean.  Ah, the open Pacific.  Small swells and seagulls, the tangy smell of kelp – but lots of rain made it a sweet/sour experience.  After winding through a myriad of small islands and shoals, I reached Shoal Reefs – again, poor visibility made it hard to see it as a potential surf spot. It looked like it would take a big south/southwest swell, but a good paddle outside.  So I went around the south side of Kruzof Island, the southerly winds picking up enough to make it a bit uncomfortable.  Once we got around, it was downwind sailing until we reached Sealion Cove, another potential surf spot and nice sandy beach.  Being the wind was onshore, I didn’t have a chance to really check it out.  It would have been nice to have some local knowledge. 

At any rate, I round the north corner and dipped into Kalinin Bay, where many boats anchor to wait for the slack tide to go through Peril Straits.  Kalinin was pretty enough that I launched my kayak and paddled around.  There were a few big boats anchored, with a pretty and large schooner with what looked like chartered guests on board from out of Canada (it was called the Maple Leaf).

The next day, we left at the correct time for slack water at Sergius Narrows – I was determined to do it right this time.  I was on time, and I shared the journey with a number of huge yachts and one tug towing a barge.  That was interesting!  I also went by way of the normal narrows instead of the other side which I made coming to Sitka.  It was a lot easier and I didn’t have to weave around a bunch of rocks at break-neck speed.  Once is enough!

Baby Bear Bay

A friend onshore at Baby Bear Bay

Peril Strait is really beautiful, and since it was partly cloudy (in Alaska, that means sunny!), the colors of the water and trees were really dramatic.  I didn’t have to go too far when I came to Baby Bear Bay.  I didn’t visit it the last time because I was smelling the Sitka barn, so to speak, but this time, we ventured in, avoiding rocks by maneuvering slowly, and watching my electronic chart and depth sounder intently.  It wasn't as hard as I thought it would be.  Once pass the dangerous areas, we reached the far recesses of the cove in a very landlocked position and anchored.  Very pretty.  Very quiet.  Eventually other boats came in and anchored closer to the entrance.  Since the weather was nice, I decided to spend another day there, exploring with the dinghy and even launching my stand-up paddleboard to do more practice standing up on the paddleboard. I'm still not very comfortable with this.  Guess I'm too top-heavy.  I also found that the paddleboard works very well as a kayak, using a kayak paddle instead of the stand-up paddle and sitting down.

Typical salmon fishing boat trawling in Peril Straits

Leaving the bay, we worked through Peril Straits to again visit Appleton and spent the night there; this time it was blowing hard the opposite direction (from the south), even though it was sunny.  I was making a great soup combination and had all of the ingredients in the pot cooking away, when the propane ran out.  Jeeze!  That was dumb.  I must have forgotten that one of my propane tanks had run out and I didn't fill it in Sitka.  Now I would be doing my trip without the stove, which made me decide that I would curtail my trip a bit and go straight for Auke Bay the next day, an 85 mile trip.  No problems - especially with the auto pilot

Mile buoy in Santa Cruz - NOT

So the next day (7/22) I left early at 5am and continued east on Peril Strait, seeing whales, sea lions, and lots of fishing boats trawling for salmon, and sticking our head out north to Chatham Strait.  Since it was blowing about 15 directly from the south, I decided to try out the whisker pole to maintain speed of 7 knots with the engine going at a slower rpm to save on fuel.  This would give me a good opportunity to mark where the lines were suppose to be and make it easier to set the spinnaker pole for wing-on-wings (main on one side, jib on the other) in worse conditions - plus make me feel comfortable about what I was doing.

t turned out to be pretty easy, especially since I had changed the big 150 genoa to the more manageable 120 jib while in Sitka.  Having the big 150 was hard for a single-hander like me to handle, plus it was really bigger than the jib winches could handle (granted, I'm not as strong as I used to be).  And in a blow, the jib was a real monster, even when roller-reefed. So going smaller was a good move.  In any winds above 15 knots, I'd be more inclined to sail, and below that, I'd motor sail.

Lots of these guys, but I couldn't get close enough for good shot

This, dear non-sailors, is what wing-on-wing looks like

The autopilot has a vane mode.  Since the whole instrument system is linked to each other (speed, depth, wind speed and direction, GPS), the autopilot can then sense the wind direction and change course if the wind changes direction.  For going down wind, it’s great because I don’t have to worry about accidentally gybing (for those who don't know the definition of gybing,...look it up) – the boat would just adjust course when needed.  This worked out fine until, just after passing Tenakee Inlet, the boat all of a sudden rounded up towards the wind, essentially stalling out.  I went to the wheel and set the boat back to the correct course, but the autopilot wouldn’t adjust.  Something was broken.  Damn! (that’s worse than "Dang!" and “Jeeze!”).  Loosing the autopilot was bad news for this single-hander.  I had an idea what was wrong, but fixing it would mean pulling a lot of crap out of the lazarette, pulling out my tools, and worming my way up to the stern to fix it…which I didn’t feel comfortable doing out in the middle of Chatham Strait, especially with all of the traffic. 

So I mushed on, steering.  I was just passing Icy Strait (where Glacier Bay is) when I noticed a boat crossing from there to Admiralty Island to a spot that I didn’t notice before, which proved to be Funter Bay.  "What the heck!  I’ll go there too", I thought; and for dinner, I can microwave food for dinner.  And that’s what I did.  Once I found a spot to anchor in the large bay, I started digging out all the stuff in the starboard lazaret, dived down there with my head lamp on, and saw that the autopilot ram had come loose from the tiller arm of the rudder post.  That was a great relief, because if it were an electrical problem, I would have been SOL (shit out of luck).  So, with much grunting, swearing, sweating and maneuvering in a very tight spot, I managed to put it back together again.  Whew!  Hope it holds up.

Tip of Admiralty Island looking at Medenhall Glacier

Auke Bay

The next day, I left, rounded the tip of Admiralty Island and headed south on the other side to Auke Bay.  Auke Bay is yachting, fishing, tour boat central.  It is probably the busiest port in SE Alaska during the summer.  As all of the docks are for transient traffic, you don’t get assigned a berth, you look for it – 1^st come, 1^st serve – and I found one as close to the ramp as I could find.  When I got there, it was sunny and hot (notice I didn’t say warm, but HOT).  Everybody was wearing shorts and enjoying the good weather while it last.  Lots of tour boats were coming in and out, dropping off tourists from Glacier Bay tours and whale watching. Tour buses would come and go in the busy and full parking lot, letting off tourists from the cruise ships in Juneau to go or come back from those tours. Fishing boats were just opening up a new fishing session, and were, therefore, very active, coming in and out.  HUGE yachts were tied up on the outer breakwater (like 150 plus yachts, all shiny and spiff with their crew members making sure there was not a speck of dirt).  There was even a mega-yacht with a helicopter on top. What an interesting life to be so rich!

Auke Bay has a lot more amenities than Douglas Marina (which only just had an outhouse), but, with all of the people traffic, it’s amazing that they still only have one crapper; they have two showers, but it costs 4 quarter for 2 minutes, then another 3 quarters for another 2 minutes – highway robbery!  The area as a very small store for food and liquor, and there is a laundry place up the street a ways.  I’ll probably rent a car closer to the end of the week to go to the movies and get some stuff from the chandlery in Juneau, as well as to the Safeway – and to also pick up R&C when they come in on Saturday.

Traveling from Juneau, around Admiralty island to Sitka to Auke Bay

Today is raining, and the forecast says more all week.  I hope it gets it out of its system by the time we go to Glacier Bay.

Well, off to the local coffee shop, where they have a WiFi so I can send this blog off to Blogsville, USA.  Later!