12 August 2009, enroute Wrangell from Petersburg

Two nights and one day in Petersburg - some grocery shopping; some bits and pieces; some financial chores made easy as there was a Wells Fargo bank in town. I got parts to put the deck wash plumbing back together (which was taken apart to have the raw water pump supply the water-maker, replacing the water-maker boost pump which had broken). After spending all afternoon putting the plumbing back together, I found that it leaked from almost every join... pulled it all apart again, and put back the bypass to the water-maker; we'll use the buckets on deck to dip water when we wash down Rusty's deposits.

Petersburg was interesting; the folks there helpful and friendly.

0400 this morning we got up to catch the proper sequence of tidal currents down through Wrangell Narrows. We exited North Harbor at 0425 with the Alaska Ferry coming off the ferry terminal just ahead us. Thank goodness it was ahead of us rather than behind. Wrangell Narrows runs 22 miles from Frederick Sound to Sumner Strait and is quite narrow in parts with competing tidal currents from both ends. On advice from our friend Wade, we left Petersburg about one hour plus, at the end of the Frederick Sound flood, into the slack then picked up the Sumner Strait ebb for the remainder of the trip down the Narrows. For the first third (still dark) we had pretty good vis; the middle third just so-so with fog and the last third was pea soup which is not so much fun with such a narrow channel, other traffic, and sometimes confusing markers. OK after being through once, but for the first time through, it would have been less tense to have been able to see where we were going.

We entered Sumner Strait in thick fog and passed several on-coming vessels at less than one-quarter mile and saw nothing but their wake after passing. The Alaska State Ferries and the various cruise ships are quite diligent about announcing (on the VHF radio) their entry into narrow channels, and communicating with other vessels.