OK, here's the log of the trip:
(Kurt, re-post to DuckTalk if you wish)

0630 Thursday 6 Jan, pre-dawn and we are underway. On board are Dorothy, Rusty, Ben (one of Dot's classmates from the Deck program at SMA), his girlfriend Hillary and me. Wade, who was going to crew, has been unable to catch a seat on a plane out of Denver and has literally 'missed the boat'.

1600 we arrived in Victoria harbor, cleared Canada Customs and had a happy visit with our good friends Ralph & Ruth (SV Deo Volanti). We haven't seen them since Subic or maybe Hong Kong. They cruised over from Japan this past summer. We hope to see more of them this summer in AK or maybe this fall in CA.

Keeping this short, as it's tapped out with one finger on Dot's I Phone; speaking of phones, I believe mine dropped out ofmy breast pocket and over the side in the dark. So 707 732-6769 will not get a response until I can replace the phone. Dot's number is 707 732-6771. ** update, both numbers now ring through to Dot's phone.



Underway out of Vic Harbor 0700 Friday 7 Jan we departed Victoria Inner Harbour 0700, quite dark, but clear skies, planet Venus guiding down the harbour fairway.. Ben's girlfriend Hillary staying behind in Victoria, to catch a floatplane later this morning and return to Seattle for work. Dorothy checked in with the Great Northern Boater's Net on the SSB (HF) radio. Heading north up the east side of Vancouver Island to Ladysmith. Our route was: Haro Strait to Sidney Channel to Shute to Satelite Ch to Sansum Narrows to Stuart Ch to Ladysmith Harbor arriving in daylight, about 1600hrs. Some wind, some rain, somewhat roll-ey; not summer cruising weather, but quite acceptable at the moment. Many miles to go...

We were met by Ron, a local tugboat driver, who guided us to an easy berth at the end of the float. Ron is a friend of Ben's and he very kindly shared his knowledge of alternative / weather routing for the run up to SE Alaska. "Local knowledge" is always best when it comes to nav.

Alongside us, opposite the float, there were 4-5 boathouses which had burned the night before. The worst part of the story is that a couple who've just retired from the Canadian interior, sold everything, bought their sailboat, and preparing to sail south before heading out to tropical waters, were tied up close to the fire. In the exertion / excitement of trying to move their boat out of harm's way, the man had a heart attack and died... 47 years old.

Walked up to Ladysmith town to see the Christmas lights. Quite cold, slippery icy float.

Saturday 8 January departed Ladysmith 0430 in the dark; slush ice floating on the bay surface. We were on schedule to make Dodd Narrows just after slackwater. Entering the narrows, the current was already 2 knots against us; very narrow passage in the dark. Northumberland Ch, then crossed Strait of Georgia through the "Whiskey Gulf" / Winchelsea (Naval Munitions Training) Range - we checked in with Comox Traffic (BC VTS) to determine that the range was not active before entering - then to the east side of Texada Island up Malaspina Strait.

Weather forecast NW winds 10-20 kts; NE arctic gale in the evening. An "arctic high" was forming in the BC interior, creating gale, storm and even hurricane force winds out of the NE in various channels off the Inside Passage.

Pulled into Lund Harbor, a funky little place on the Malaspina Peninsula, just at sunset, tying off to a breakwater / float with no access to shore (except via dinghy). To bed early, as one long day would be followed by another.

Sunday 9 January depart Lund (tight quarters spring a 180º turn) 0230 in the dark; pushing hard to make the tide change for passage through Yuculta & Dent Narrows. This route - Lewis Ch to Calm Ch to Cordero Ch was suggested by tugboat captain Ron to avoid the NE arctic winds blowing down Johnstone Strait. The Coast Pilot says when running this route northbound, one must hit the first of the narrows at one hour prior to slack before ebb. We made it by the skin of our teeth, but... the wind was 30-40 kts, on the nose, on the beam, on the quarter, blowing spray, no vis, into the swirlies of the narrows, in the dark. Impossible to use the auto pilot; trying to hand steer by the course & heading lines on the chart plotter also impossible as they lag behind reality 30 seconds to 1 minute - not a great idea in a narrow passage with rocks everywhere; steering by radar, which has it's own lag time, but much better than the chart. Ben suited up in his foulies and posted himself on the deck with a spotlight (above the call of duty). We ran at 2200 rpm (against current) at 4 kts for most of the hour plus passage. Yikes!! We came through successfully, about an hour before dawn, but thoroughly wrung out. Now you're saying to yourself: "why didn't they just wait to do the narrows in daylight?" and the answer is with the short days this time of year, it turns out there are no northbound slacks before ebb during daylight for at least a week.

A couple hours later, approaching Green Point Rapids on a strong ebb, we decided not to 'cowboy' anymore today and dropped anchor off the channel, behind Lorte Island, intending to wait for the slack. We were in sight of a dock and a couple of buildings and a fellow approached us in a skiff to say they had dock space. James told us that going through Green Point with the current would be a piece of cake for us after Yuculta / Dent, so we pulled anchor and hobby-horsed through: 13 + knots with whirlpools, but really no problem. James says come back during the summer; they run a little restaurant for cruisers.

Chancellor Ch to Sunderland Ch and out into Johnstone Strait in bright sunshine, just in time for a distress call on VHF 16, just 2-3 miles ahead of us. A 25' aluminum boat had lost power and was drifting towards the rocks. We answered up to Comox Coast Guard and the subject in trouble and pushed up our rpms to respond... happily it was all resolved before we got there. Beautiful couple of hours with Rusty moving around the deck to stay in the sunshine. Havannah Ch to Chatham Narrows (quite shallow, with range marks) and dropped anchor in Cutter Cove just south of Gilford Island, at the edge of the ice (pretty thin ice actually). A nice pink alpenglow at sunset (that one's for you Kurt & Marcia); to bed at 1800, awoken at 2000 by the anchor alarm; let out some chain, reset the alarm and back to sleep.

Monday 10 January 0600 added coolant, added steering fluid; used the halogen floodlights off the mast spreaders for Dorothy and Ben to lift the anchor, but along with all the electronics, heater blowers, nav lights etc, the floodlights dragged down the house battery voltage. I notice that with all the electrical demand we have in these conditions - fans & defrosters on the pilothouse windows along with the list above, the BalMar alternator can't keep up, even with the engine running at cruising revs. I have to start thinking about a bigger alternator.

Weather reporting NE gales, so we decided to go around the east side of Gilford Island, remaining in the labyrinth of islands and channels east side of Queen Charlotte Sound. Once entering QCS, we hope to hug the east side and make distance up to Blunden, Shelter Cove or Allison, in preparation for crossing Queen Charlotte Strait north of Cape Caution. So we exit Cutter Cove, cross Knight Inlet into Nickoll Pass, Tribune Ch into Penphrase Passage then Sutlej Ch. We were discussing our freshwater situation; I was reluctant to get the water maker going, as the booster pump which supplies it pulls a lot of amps, when we noticed a little floating village at Sullivan Bay off of Patrick Passage, and smoke coming from the chimney of what we presumed would be a winter caretaker's cabin. We eased up to the float, talked with the caretaker Matt, and he kindly offered to supply the needed water. We had a great visit with Matt & Pam.

On departure from Sullivan, we made our way through Wells Passage out into Queen Charlotte Sound. We could see the open water was going to be bouncy, on the beam for awhile, so we put out the "sticks" (paravane poles). I had to climb the mast to clear a top-stay that had wrapped itself around the port p-vane top. 30 kt winds, following seas 1-2 meters. Weather forcast for tomorrow does not sound good - gales 30-40 in the morning, 35-45 in the pm.

Because we got started a little later than planned and stopped at Sullivan enroute, it was dark by the time we approached Blunden (the first of the anchorages prior to rounding Cape Caution). Fortunately a small set of islands gave some shelter to the approach, which otherwise would've been a surf break amid wash rocks. Between the plotter, radar, starlight scope, binos, Dot calling out depth and Ben on the bow with spotlight, we came in without drama, just the weariness of having worried about it for several hours as we realized we were going to come in, in the dark. Big open bay, no company, great set on the anchor - it didn't budge an inch overnight.

Weather forecast for Tuesday 11 January, arctic high pressure remaining over BC interior while a low pressure system comes in from Pacific. Looks like we're not going anywhere.

We did chores all day Tuesday - took apart and replaced the forward head macerator pump (someone(s) at sometime having flushed what appears to be some kind of fabric which bound things up and caused the toilet contents to leak all over the floor. Some rewiring to make pump replacement easier next time. Flushed out the watermaker using genset power. Blowing snow outside.

Wednesday 12 January, still in Blunden Harbor. During the morning the wind diminished and the tide was right for making some progress up the Queen Charlotte Sound towards Cape Caution. We were thinking to stop at Allison, but a confused SE sea, plus NW swell, eventually the NW dominating changed our plans. In these conditions, it appeared the entry at Allison would be dodgy - lots of obstacles at the entry - decided instead to continue up to Miles (mentioned to me by Wade); on the chart it appeared an easier entry and closer to Cape Caution.

It was bouncy getting there; a very narrow entry, like entering a creek! Not much room to swing at the head of the inlet; maybe should have used a shore tie, but too lazy to get the dinghy down to do it, and no wind inside anyway.

Thursday 13 January up at 0500; adjusted the belt on the BalMar alternator - noticed it was 'bouncing' on startup, and that the volts & amps had fluctuated the last couple days when it should have been charging steady. Slow dodgy exit from Miles in the dark; ice around us but didn't have to break to get out (ended up with twigs in the end of one of our sticks/pvanes); almost 0700 before getting back out into open water.

Confused 1 meter seas north of Egg Island (as we crossed the Queen Charlotte Strait opening); swell out of the south; seas and wind NE, some blowing snow as we enter Fitzhugh Sound. Short period 1 meter swell in Fitzhugh creating 'hobby-horse' effect.

1800 pitstop at Bella Bella, but they've removed all but a very short piece of the fuel dock float and the inner float outer side is a float plane dock; store closed, so we proceeded across to Shearwater, anchoring outside the floating breakwater in the dark. 2 inches of snow on the boat.

Friday January 14 slept in late, waiting for the store in Shearwater to open. By the time we got underway the weather had deteriorated in Millbanke Sound (just up Seaforth Ch from Bella Bella / Shearwater), so we took tugboat captain Ron's Millbanke work-around: Reid to Pt Blackney to Percival to Mathieson to Oscar to Finlayson. Reid was a little technical, prefer not to do it at night; Pt Blackney aka Oliver Cove, looked OK for shelter, went through Percival with 2 knots current against us (2 hours before low tide).

As the afternoon wore on, winds increased in Mathieson, then Finlayson, against us coming up Finlayson. We picked a very snug anchorage - Bottleneck - as the weather was reporting "hurricane" force winds (from the arctic high) at the coastal outlets, especially Dixon Entrance East and Douglas Ch (north of us still). Getting to Bottleneck took until past dark. By then we had thick blowing snow reducing visibility to 100 yards; the anemometer (wind vane) froze up and getting into Bottleneck was another 'blind man's bluff' with Ben on the bow with spotlight. The comms stopped working also - too cold?

Once into the little inlet, there was slush ice, further in towards the designated (on the chart) anchorage, the ice got solid and thicker - multiple inches - uh oh! Plowed around and headed back to a deeper, wider spot closer to the entrance and anchored. Hope we're not frozen in til April! The reverse cycle heat air conditioner is working great off the genset at anchor; we keep the Dickenson diesel heater going all night after shutting the genset down.

My laptop has given up the ghost... couldn't get past the initial bios screen; that and my I Phone is making this an expensive trip.

2230 we're ready to head for bed after an episode of the mini-series made from Follet's "Pillars of the Earth"; I went outside to check things and found thick falling snow, already 4 inches and more on the deck and on the cockpit / aft deck bimini. Not content to have the bimini destroyed by weight of snow, we took it down, a long process as it's lashed onto the stainless steel frame all the way round and the kayaks had to be lifted from their rack to pass the cover under. While we were miserable anyway, I shoveled a major part of the snow off the pilothouse roof - same concern. Meanwhile, the snow piled up on the already thick ice all around the boat.

Saturday 15 January, we didn't get up until 0800 as we wished to deal with our iced-in situation in daylight. We managed to plow out. The good news is that the snow has turned to rain overnight, so no additional snow thickness to the ice we had to plow through. The bad news is that the auto-pilot and heading sensor are mis-behaving to the point of having to turn it all off and hand steer, out into Finlayson, NW through Hiekish Narrows into Tolmie Ch, then Princess Royal Ch. Rain, fog, poor vis, hand steering, tidal current against us. By afternoon, everything is icing up: furlers, rails, all leading edges, shrouds, stays, radio antenna - up to 1 inch of ice thickness. Window wiper arms icing up so the weight of the ice pulled the wipers away from the inward canted windows. We'd hoped to get across Douglas Ch before dark, but with so little visibility; freezing rain and more icing; 50 knot winds reported in Douglas and funky electronics and the speed we were currently doing against the wind making it likely we wouldn't reach Douglas til after dark anyway; we decided to throw in the towel for today.

Khutze Inlet was the last reasonable shelter until the other side of Douglas. It was an easy anchor; plenty of daylight left and clear water around us. Dorothy and I continued de-icing the boat, as we'd been doing underway for the past several hours. Ben made water via the genset. And then... the genset shut down - repeatedly... not a fuel issue; appears the shutdown relay is being activated... had to give it up until I can do some research.

The diesel heater said "me too" and refused to do anything but burn very low and put out almost no heat - a frustrating day. In the night I saw a tug / tow and a brightly-lit ferry passing outside the inlet, through blowing snow.

Sunday 16 January, Khutze Inlet. We tried a 0400 start, but blowing snow in the main channel and unable to receive weather info on the VHF radio (probably due to a sheath of ice on the antenna) caused us to bail and go back to our anchorage for a couple more hours. I left the engine running at high idle to charge batts and for heat.

0800 daylight. Dot had a good connection with Wade at the HF check-in; light rain, ice melting on the boat surfaces, couple of mile visibility, little to no wind. We pulled anchor and got moving, joining a BC ferry in the main channel.

The auto-pilot decided to show up for work today after playing hookey yesterday; the watermaker is going underway and melted ice is falling on the decks and pilothouse roof out of the rigging. We'll need to wear hard hats to go on deck!

The anemometer is trying to come back, but is still frozen up at the top of the mast; just twitching now and then. Our Canada courtesy flag is frozen solid across the wind. "Prarrie Home Companion" is on the satellite radio and Oreos - breakfast of champions - makes everything OK.

Tolmie Ch to McKay Reach (hand steering again) and we saw on the AIS that the tug Marauder was coming out of Douglas Ch towards us. We've been hearing for days about the difficult conditions (as a result of the arctic high) in Douglas. We called the tug and asked for a report "N, NE winds gusting to 50; take a weather course across". While still in the relative calm of McKay, we secured everything on deck which might be tempted to blow away, especially the bimini cover taken off in the heavy snow a couple of days ago; we deployed our sticks and stabies (paravane poles & fish) and put things inside the boat in order for rough seas.

We crossed to the south side of McKay, so as to be able to take a ferry angle up into the wind crossing Douglas. Breaking 2-3 meter windwaves; unknown wind speeds (the anemometer is still froze up); the last mile of the crossing we were crabbing across at less than 3 knots to avoid taking the weather on the beam. In the meantime, an AK fishboat out of Seattle - Enterprise 125 foot - plowed a straight course across at 11 knots.

Into Grenville Ch, but according to the current tables, against 3 knots current for the rest of the afternoon. In retrospect, a closer inspection of the charts would have shown that the 3 kts was only in a relatively short section of Grenville, and we could've continued all the way up but instead we hung out for a couple of hours at a small covelet at the base of Grenville securing the sticks and stabies and getting a short nap. Oh, Ivan, our auto-pilot showed up for the Douglas Ch crossing and did a great job!

1700, one hour before slack water, we started up Grenville; shortly it was dark and right after that Ivan gave it up again - now hand-steering in the dark, very narrow channel, 2+ knot current carrying us and I'm having visions of the bow-underwater fishboat we saw here in Grenville last summer - radar and chart on the two screens, hand on throttle ready to take the engine out of gear.

We'd rigged our Hella hand spots forward to act as headlights for the run up the channel, but in the rain it was just back-scatter, so we soon turned them off. Ben & Dorothy took 15 minute turns on the bow with the night scope to lookout for logs - we hit a couple, no damage. Oh for a pair of high-pressure sodium vapor lights!! Even better, a FLIR!

We'd thought with bow lights and a working auto pilot, we'd take the tide all the way up Grenville and be in Prince Rupert in the morning, but with no lights, poor vis, watch-standing on the bow and a high level of attention required at the helm, we broke off at Lowe Inlet and anchored for the night. A slow tedious hand-steer by radar into Lowe in the dark.

Monday 17 January by 0700 we crept out of Lowe Inlet, clear with a high overcast made our trip out easier than that coming in. We had enough light to see by as we exited the inlet into Grenville Ch, and into a 20-30 kt headwind coming down the channel against a 2 kt tidal current up the channel. It stayed sloppy until the channel opened up and the wind dropped. The sun came out.

By 1000, we were out of Grenville in sun and partly blue sky, flat-ish waters; time for some underway deck chores - hatch condensation mop-up and straightening up deck lines. Checking on the weather, we heard the best forecast for Dixon Entrance East in a week and we've decided to pass right by Prince Rupert and continue through the night into Ketchikan. Just in case, sticks (paravanes) down and ready.

Tons - literally - of large ship traffic coming into PR; several empty bulk carriers, an 1100 foot long container ship. A squally cloud off PR has brought back blowing snow, but just for a little bit. The poor anemometer, that just got itself unfroze, has lost its mind and is showing 38, 45, 64! Instant williwaw!

We had cell service off PR, so using Dorothy's phone (you may recall that mine suicided our first couple hours out) I called ahead to the Ketchikan harbormaster for a slip assignment. The folks there have always treated us very well, and this time was no exception. On into the evening, protected from Pacific weather by Dundas Island, a full moon coming out, sticks down in preparation for the exposed crossing of Dixon Entrance. As advertised, 20-30 knot winds, 1-2 m seas / swell; weather-side stabi (fish) in the water. Fantastic nighttime visibility with clear skies and a full moon; an uneventful crossing; 19 hours from Lowe inlet to Bar Harbor, Ketchikan. Tied up at 0300 18 January.

Tuesday 18 January we called into U.S.Customs as soon as we woke up... apparently we should've called as soon as we arrived. I received a written warning for failing to do so. At least I didn't get sent to the principal's office.

Dove into maintenance issues. The diesel heater problem was simply one of crud blocking the small screen in the regulator and the inlet orifice up into the combustion chamber. There's definitely crap coming out of the day tank. Dorothy bought an in-line filter made by the heater manufacturer in town which Ben installed under the salon floor. Besides cleaning out the diesel heater, I took care of greasing the drive line and other engine room stuff. Dorothy did laundry - gangs of it.

Wednesday 19 January - Friday 21 January I got into the genset shutdown issue. It turns out there are three switches which can shutdown the motor - low oil pressure; high coolant temperature and high exhaust temperature. Applying "calculatus eliminatus" to the problem, I determined the problem to the high coolant temperature switch (for which I have a spare!). Lots of disassembly, testing with various things plugged and unplugged, calls to Northern Lights Seattle (Paul there was very helpful) and Southeast Diesel here in Ketchikan (Jamie was also very helpful) and I ended up doing a major service: replacing the raw water pump impeller; flushing the coolant system; replacing both the coolant temperature shutdown switch and the coolant temperature sender (to the gauge panel); cleaning the raw water tube bundle of the heat exchanger and other miscellaneous cleaning and maintaining tasks. Ta-Dah! The genset is running with a full load, at the proper temperature, and not shutting down. Another one checked off the list.

Tentatively, we're outta here Sunday, doing the 2-day run to Wrangell via Santa Ana Inlet (near Anan Bay, where we've gone to see the bears fish during the summer).