Icebergs
The opportunity to sail among icebergs has to be one of the most interesting challenges in Alaska. Many cruisers head to Glacier Bay National Park to partake in these ice filled navigation cocktails. Unfortunately, the registration system is fairly hostile to cruising boats. The park has a limited number of openings for different classes of boats; recreational cruisers, day tour boats and large cruise ships. You cannot apply for a permit, available for up to 7-days stay, earlier than 60-days before you arrive. You must re-confirm within 48-hours of your arrival and any change to your schedule apparently places you back at the end of the waiting list. You can just show up near the park, can't actually enter without a permit, and radio in to try and get on a cancellations list.
Since making our entry date at Glacier Bay was going to require too much rushing, we decided to check out Tracy Arm. Tracy Arm is a fjord that is about 40 miles SE of Juneau. The head of the arm is a 25 mile trip inland from the entrance to Holkam Bay. By the time we made it to Holkam Bay we had already ready spotted a few icebergs floating down the channels. After you pass the entrance bar to the bay you will probably start spotting icebergs immediately. These are not small chunks of ice. They can easily be the size of a house. It is a long winding trip up Tracy Arm. Steep, glacier carved walls, with water depths up to 200 fathoms (1200 ft). Except near the entrance and at few temporary spots along the way, it is too deep to anchor. As you approach 2 or 3 miles from the heads of the glaciers near the end of the arm more and more bergettes and ice bergs start showing up. To get through the last mile or so we had to have someone on the bow pushing the ice away. They make kind of sickening crunch sound when they actually hit your hull.
Glacier face photos:
Ice and icebergs:
Large iceberg 
Pushing ice out of the way 
Bald eagle on large iceberg 
A captured iceberg 
Crabs in Funter Bay
Even though the boat was well stocked with Costco cans and boxes, sometimes you need to partake in the local fresh seafood. If you're not the fishing type then a good alternative is to stand at the dock and look admiringly at the salmon being cleaned. Give it enough admiration and you might get a fresh filet given to you. Dungeness crabs are mighty plentiful in these areas. They smell up the boat a little when you cook them. Even if you aren't a crab fan, cover them with enough sauce and rice and they taste pretty fine. Funter Bay is on the NW side of Admiralty Island. It was the home of an active cannery in earlier years. Today there is not much left of the cannery; some rusting equipment, and a well kept Russian Orthodox cemetery. (Chart: Funter Bay, Admiralty Is.)
Funter Bay cannery site 
Funter Bay 
The graveyard at FunterBay 
Gravestone 
Raising the crab pot 
Cleaning the crabs 
Cooking the crabs 
and finally eating them 
Peril Strait
Heading to Sitka took us through Peril Strait. We stopped at Tenake Hotsprings on the way and then detoured down to Baranof Hotsprings (more on the hotsprings below). The trip through Peril Strait is about 40 miles in the straits and 65 miles total to Sitka. The straits offered up many humpback whales. We heard stories of Orcas through here but didn't see any. The trip is fairly easy except for the short run through Sergius Narrows. Here the current gets up to 8 kts. Its strong enough to pull the giant red can buoys underwater. Fortunately the tide/current books are accurate. We took the narrows with a 1 1/2 kt current.
Sergius Narrows 
Peril Strait anchorage 
Red Bluff Bay off of Chatham Strait is one of the most beautiful bays on Baranof Island (the island that Sitka is on). We approached the entrance to Red Bluff from Chatham Strait in limited visibility. It was a day of low clouds trying to be fog. We had just passed the tug Alaskan Mariner. The Alaskan Mariner hailed us on the VHF to let me know he'd be happy to change course to take our stern to save us a tack. After we agreed on how we would pass each he suggested we move to a working VHF channel. He gave us an up-to-date weather forecast, told us about where cell phone coverage ends and told us to call any of his company's tugs to get info. It turns out the tug company's owner's daughter used to baby-sit for my kids - small world. The skipper of this tug had done a circumnavigation 10-years ago on a cruising boat and was in the process of building a new boat.
When we approached Red Bluff the entrance just wasn't clear. It looked more like a straight cliff face than a deep entrance. I went below to check the electronic charts on the laptop. Here we were using a high-tech computer, a WAAS enabled GPS and digital charts. The digital chart was created printed from a paper chart that was surveyed in 1897. The positions of the land and the depths were right-on. Pretty impressive for a survey over 100 years old. We followed the electronic charts straight in. Red Bluff has steep, fjord like walls, waterfalls, salmon streams with thousands of salmon mulling around their entrance, bears, eagles and sea lions. Truly one of the prettiest anchorages around.
Waterfalls 
Looking at the narrow entrance to the back bay 
Mommy Grizzly and baby griz 
Another Crossing of Dixon Entrance
We left Elbow Bay on Long Island, near Prince of Wales Is., early in the morning to make our crossing of Dixon Entrance back into Canadian waters. We were headed to Masset on Graham Is. Graham Is. is the major northern island of the Queen Charlotte Islands. The entrance to Massett is shallow with strong currents. We needed to make the entrance in the early afternoon to avoid the days strong ebb. The crossing to Massett is about 55 miles. Massett offers the only port of entry in the Queen Charlottes. If you don't clear in Massett you'd need to clear in at Prince Rupert, some 70 miles to the east. If you are clearing in at Massett, the friendly customs agent would appreciate a call the day before to let her know your approximate arrival time.
We averaged 8.3 kts for the close reach trip across Dixon Entrance. Another one of those great sails in area that can get ugly. Masset is a small town with an active fishing fleet. We rafted to a large crab boat that had just put out all of its pots. The crab fleet in this area drops 30,000 pots at a time.
Skidegate Channel
Skidegate Channel separates the two main islands in the Queen Charlottes; Graham Island on the north and Moresby Island on the south. The channel has a couple of feet of water at low tide. The channel connects the Pacific Ocean with Hecate Strait. To carry 6 feet through the channel you need to make the passage somewhere near high tide and at time when the current is not too strong. The tidal range on the Pacific side is significantly less than on the Hecate Strait side. So when both sides are near low tide and begin rising at some point the eastern side tide becomes higher than the western tide, reversing the flow in the channel. Fortunately I was able to talk to enough local fish boat skippers to come up with a consensus of when to leave Queen Charlotte City to make the passage. The channel is well marked with many ranges. That's the good news, the bad news is that the marks are not on any chart. We stayed carefully on the on the ranges and entered the East Narrows one hour before Queen Charlotte City high tide. The shallowest depth we saw was 7 ft. though most of the shallows were deeper than this. The passage is a true navigational challenge that leads to the delights of the west coast of the Queen Charlottes. (Chart: Skidegate Channel, East Narrows)
The west coast of the Queen Charlottes is not well charted. Many of the surveys go back to the 1890's with some in the 1930's. These were typically not full surveys. Large areas on the charts are just left white with no soundings. On calm days, we would joke about the white area must mean its a clear, sand bottom. In reality it is a rock and reef bound, rough coast that requires diligent navigation and eyes wide open. Sometimes the clearest indication you have is watch where the surf is breaking and where the kelp is growing. (Chart: West coast of Queen Charlottes with lots of missing soundings.) The weather reports for the Queen Charlottes are interesting. Environment Canada Weather never issues Small Craft Warnings for the area, as it is considered to always be Small Craft Warning conditions.
Spinnaker run west coast of Moresby Island, Queen Charlottes. 
Rainbow after the storm, Tasu Sound, Moresby Is, Queen
Charlottes. 
Headed back out to sea 
Tasu Sound, Hunger Harbor, abandoned copper mine 
Anchored in deep water with a stern tie under the mountain of
tailings 
Tasu Sound in the old commercial days.
Gowgai Bay, remote empty, great shelling, aggressive otters:
Exploring a shipwreck 
Anchor check 
This otter was hanging out with his girlfriend when we came upon
them. He was extremely pissed at our interruption and clearly told me where I
ought to go. Never knew otter's could make such loud, aggressive, hissing
sounds in defense of their loved ones 
Copyright 2002 Paul Lever
