Trek to Alaska

Sunday June 14- departed Anacortes, Washington around 9am, cruising around the San Juan Islands.

We called Canadian customs regarding transiting through Canada to Alaska. They said we could as long as we don’t go ashore, get off the boat. We are allowed to anchor for emergencies.

Patos Island is a small island in the San Juan Islands, Washington, home to the Patos Island Lighthouse. It sits at the Boundary Pass between Canada and the United States.

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The Strait of Georgia is part of the Pacific Ocean between Vancouver Island and the mainland coast of British Columbia, Canada.

Monday June 15- Discovery Passage is the main channel connecting the Strait of Georgia and Johnstone Strait. The section known as Seymour Narrows begins about 11 miles from the south end of the Passage where it enters the Georgia Strait, near the Campbell River.

The adverse current in Seymour Narrows is expected to be over 7 knots today (but can go as high as 15 knots) by the time we would have arrived. We anchored at Gowlland Harbor to wait till the current shifts.

Seymour Narrows is a 3 mile stretch, 820 yards wide, known for strong tidal currents. Ripple Rock was a twin peak mountain 9 feet at low tide below the surface of the water that sat a the southern entrance. After 2.5 years of drilling, in April of 1958, the “mountains” were blown up using 1375 tons of explosives. The clearing is now 45 feet at low tide.

Tuesday June 16- Sunrise 5:15am, spent the day sailing up Queen Charlotte Strait in Canada. The wind will increase by mid day tomorrow, so we will tuck in at Caamano Sound around Banks Island back to the Inner Passage before it arrives. We also planned our Great Alaskan Sail!

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Sunset 10:01pm, the rest of night was if the sun never completely set.

Wednesday June 17- Sunrise 5:11am. Today was the day we were to arrive in Seward, Alaska in anticipation of Dan running the Mayors Marathon in Anchorage, which was cancelled. With all the weather delays we had since Costa Rica, the boat never would made there. We would have left it at a marina somewhere and flown to Anchorage.

The day started warm, sunny, partly cloudy sky.

As the afternoon approached the wind increased, we saw up to 24 knots out of the South East. Overnight there will be a Gale warning. We picked out an anchorage that has protection from a southerly wind. We should arrive at 1:30am. Being so close to the Solstice, nights are more like twilight.

At 10:37pm, GMT-9, (2:37am Philadelphia time) Alaskan time, we crossed the border from Canada!

We sailed our boat to Alaska!!

The wind was slowly increasing as did the rain. We identified a couple of anchorages to stop for the night. Sunset 10:11pm Vancouver time

Thursday June 18- 4:04am Sunrise, 9:28pm Sunset, Alaska time. We ended up tucked in this cove, Tamgras Harbor for the day. We dropped anchor at 3:30am, then we both slept till 10am.

In the afternoon I baked chocolate chip cookies, checked us into the USA via the CBP Roam App. A customs officer from Ketchikan called on the phone, easy peasy all checked in. Now we have to quarantine for 14 days. Our travels here took 5 days, so they count as we did not go ashore in Canada. We are allowed to continue our travels as long as we don’t have have contact with other people.

Friday June 19- Happy Birthday Beth!

Sunrise 4:04am. We arrived in Ketchikan, Alaska around 1:30 pm.

For dinner I made what was supposed to a clam sauce with mushrooms over linguini. Apparently I picked up two cans of Crab meat instead of Clams, so it ended up as a crab sauce.

Sunset 9:32pm.