Heading South!

HAPPY 4TH OF JULY TO EVERYONE 250 YEARS!

Anchorage was wonderful! I cried when we left. Sophia was so interactive – smiling, beginning to giggle and coo!

We flew back to Ketchikan on Monday, July 6. The airport is on an island across the Tongass Narrows. You take a small ferry to get there. It was raining SO hard – expecting 3.5″s. It’s supposed to rain for at least 5 days, with big winds, so, planning on sitting at the dock.

The boat floated well! When we left Ketchikan to go to Anchorage – we had no fresh food – wouldn’t last the 10 days. No eggs, fruit or veggies. No onions. No wine. When we got back to Ketchikan, we’re thinking about crossing the border – so we’re not getting any food. This means: we’re eating out of our freezer (great) and then trying to make meals with dried and canned foods. It’s amazing what you can put together!

Tuesday, July 7th, when we woke up @ 7 am, it was dead calm with clearing sky. Within 30 minutes, we were off the dock and heading south! This was a big decision because Norm would have preferred to head north. He had a very good attitude about it – which I appreciated!

As we were transitting the Tongass Narrows and thinking about Prince Rupert, B.C, we saw Humpbacks. One was just lazing at the surface right in front of us. He didn’t move, but was blowing every couple of minutes. We watched him for 20 minutes and thought “This is really weird whale behavior” . We called the NOAA Fisheries. They said they were going to take a cruise by him, but that in reality, he was probably just sleeping!

We were the 1st boat to arrive in Foggy Bay, but by the end of the evening, there were 7 boats. Norm said he wanted to stay a couple nights and do some dinghying around tomorrow. When we woke up, of course, everyone was gone. I checked the weather and sea state and it looked borderline to me. I thought we could try it. The other boats were half way across the Dixon Entrance toward Prince Rupert. If we were going to go, we should have left at 4:30 am with everyone else!

The farther we got the bigger the seas were. We probably could have made it ? ? ? but it would be uncomfortable. We bailed out at the southern most point of Alaska just before the border. Nakat Harbor, with a beautiful and well protected anchorage would do great. It was so pretty going in. We’re thinking not many cruisers see this! We landed at 1 pm and, it’s raining hard.

Boat work: Norm is painting engine mounts, which he has been talking about doing for a year.