Madan Bay To Wrangell

At my usual sunrise (4am) trip to the head, there were light showers. By the time we awoke for real at 7:30am, the rain had stopped with a low cloud deck hugging the mountains at about 1000 feet. I love to watch the clouds play among the pine trees as they make their way carried by the soft winds of morning.

We have observed so far on this trip that the amount of critters is noticeably less than in the Broughton Archipelago, the Gulf Islands or the San Juan Islands. We see the occasional Bald Eagle or a sea gull or two. We hear the passing raven and spot an occasional Murrelet and a few other small water birds. It will be interesting to see if this holds true for the entire trip or is just a function of where we are. Remember this area is considered a temperate rain forest. That may well account for the limited populations.

Madan Bay was a very peaceful anchorage. The wind lay down as sunset approached and we enjoyed a quiet night. The holding is good in silky mud with small shells in 40-50 feet of water. The land drops quickly into the water so you’ll anchor within 150 feet of shore without problem. We found no hidden obstruction in our little portion of the bay. Probably a good thing, as the charts for the bay have no depth soundings!

The trip to Wrangell was uneventful.  Karen drove most of the way. We did a little sightseeing as we approached Wrangell. A few homesteads along Eastern Passage provided some diversion. It’s always fun to scope out the locals with the binoculars. At the head of Eastern Passage you see the Wrangell airport. At the north end, they removed half a mountain to make room for the runway. We spotted two airplanes taking off. It was different to see aircraft with wheels rather than floats.

Wrangell is a busy harbor. When we arrived, the docks were mostly full with commercial vehicles and a spattering of pleasure craft. We found a spot at the south end of the Reliance docks. They offer full services with water and electricity. However, these are the only docks we’ve ever visited that had individual meters for the electricity. Our location was perfect to see all the traffic in and out of the harbor, and also for Eagle Watching. There are many to watch in the harbor.

The Grid in Wrangell. It's a hard working port.

The aluminum work in Wrangell is a work of art

Even the small aluminum constructions area work of art. I think I'll have my tender built here.

The harbor master, LaDonna, is a highlight of Wrangell. She’s friendly and knows everything there is to know about Wrangell and what to do.

The provisioning is very good here. Bob’s IGA is OK but we did best at City Market. They also deliver to the boat. One thing we have noticed is that everyone is very friendly. Sometimes the people in remote locations can be a bit standoff-ish. That is certainly not the case in Wrangell.

We walked around the town for a while. It has a nice main street flanked with some stores and several bars. 

One of many murals in Wrangell

Everyone in Alaska wears Extra-tuf's. They are referred to as Alaskan Sneakers.

No Karen, that is Not Johnny Depp

We walked out to Shakes Island to see Chief Shakes Tribal House and the totems.

Chief Shakes house

Check out the size of the door into Chief Shake's House.

Check out the size of the totems on Chief Shakes Island

The Reliance Docks at Wrangell as seen from Chief's Shake's House

We also saw a house burning down off the inner harbor slips…apparently, it was a planned burn, but it certainly got our attention.

That got our attention before we found out it was a planned burn

Make certain to visit the Museum. It also has a great book store inside with lots of Alaskan material.

Karen wants the boat that goes with a prop this big

If you do find yourself in Wrangell, be certain to look up Alaska Charters and Adventures. (www.alaskaupclose.com). They offer exploration trips to see glaciers, or up the Stikine River and fishing trips for Salmon and Halibut.  John Yeager and his wife Brenda Schwartz (the watercolorist famous for local scenes done on marine charts) will certainly take good care of you.

Walking the docks is always a great way to meet people. We met Uncle Roy, Petunia and Gloria aboard the Coastal Messenger, a missionary ship that is based in Chemainus, BC. This mission is about to celebrate its 30^th anniversary…the area they serve runs from Olympia, WA up into SE Alaska. The stories they have about their experiences ministering to the logging and remote communities are fascinating. They know all the folks in the Broughtons that we’ve gotten to know, as well as many, many more. We also got a tour of the steel boat, which was designed by Uncle Roy and was really well thought out. You can find out more about their mission and www.CoastalMissions.ca.

The crew of the Coastal Messenger: Uncle Roy, and Petunia

We also saw the Krogen out of Comox enter the harbor. This was the same boat we saw anchored in Santa Anna Inlet. The captain was singlehanding, so we went out to help him tie up. His name is Ken, and he is cruising for a while before meeting his wife in Juneau. He knows Don from Comox Valley Kayaks, where we normally rent kayaks for our trips to the Broughtons. Small world!!

Dinner was chicken fajita pizza and Alaskan Amber ale at the Hungry Beaver, a great local bar and pizza joint with some really good pizza.

The Hungry Beaver, the best pizza in town

Pizza is not cheap in Alaska

The highlight may have been the Hummer in the parking lot complete with antlers and some sort of drunken sailor on the hood with a boat’s wheel attached to the grill.

Options you can only order for an Alaskan Hummer

 He claimed he was the proud owner

Santa Anna Inlet to Berg Bay to Madan Bay

I awoke at 4am to visit the head. The sun rose one minute before me, so it was light enough that if you wanted to get underway, you could with no visibility problems.

I, however, went back to bed after taking a picture of the mirror-like surface of Santa Anna Inlet.

We enjoyed a leisurely morning which consisted of devouring the second set of Cinnamon Buns from Meyers Chuck, a little reading, planning, picture taking, and watching the passing showers come and go.

The holding was good last night and the anchor came up mostly clean with a little mud for a keepsake. Just as the anchor came onboard, I looked out to the head of the inlet and saw a blow from a humpback whale in the crossing channel. As we motored out, we kept our gazed focused on the area watching for more whale signs. After a few minutes we saw no more signs of the whale. Our hope was that once we entered the channel we might see him or her again.

To our surprise, just as we reached the last quarter mile of the inlet, we saw a circle of bubbles forming 150 yards to starboard near the shore. Just then, up came the whale through the middle of the bubble circle, mouth wide open to capture as large a meal as possible. The whale continued this behavior for about twenty minutes allowing us to witness a total of four bubble feedings. For only our second day en route, we had already checked off a major goal of this trip: to see bubble feeding!

The circle of bubbles forms

The burst though the middle of the bubble net, mouth full of fish. The nest few images finish the sequence.

“Farewell”, thanks for the show!

The scale of Alaska continues to amaze. We’re traveling in the smaller “back channels” and they are as large as some the widest channels down south in British Columbia. You’ll spot a landmark and guess how far it may be. What you think is a mile and a half turns out to be six miles according to the radar. I can’t hazard a guess as to how far the most distant mountains are that we can see.

There is not much traffic. We passed a small pocket cruiser, with maybe 120 guests, making its way south. But that was about all we saw of any signs of humanity. I think I saw one or two hills that look as if they had been logged in the last 10 years, but not much else. We vacillate between being lonely and peaceful.

The “Pocket” Cruise Ship

The Seagull Cruise Ship

We left the showers behind although a broken layer of clouds at about 3000 feet continued to linger. An occasionally glimmer of sunshine on a distant mountain give us hope, but that quickly fades. The temperature is 57F and the winds light. Not so bad for Alaska.

The “Shark Log” we passed

Berg Bay was the first stop of the day. We were either going to anchor there or continue on to Madan Bay. Berg Bay is attractive. You could spend some time exploring the shore line and the Forest Service Cabin. The scenery is interesting with large mountains extending above the tree line; someone described them as alpine looking. Although it had nothing wrong with it, we decided to continue on to Madan Bay. There is not much information on this anchorage, and no soundings on the charts. Nevertheless, Karen found one report that cruisers were “enthusiastic” about the location, so off we went.

On the approach, the bay appears to be too open for anchoring, but at the head you curve back around to the small nook in the Northwest corner and drop anchor in about 50ft of water, close to shore.

It took all this time to make a large amount of chili. This serves as our quick, stick it in the microwave and it’s a meal staple. Perfect when you don’t want to cook or want a hot pick me up on a cold day. As I was in the galley, I made a marinade and placed it and a pork tenderloin in a ziplock bag to cure in the refrigerator. Finally for dinner, I made Penne Chicken with Broccoli and Sun Dried Tomatoes. In our effort to eat lighter, this meal was chosen to be lighter than my special pasta concoction using gorgonzola. But have no fear ,that crowd pleaser will return later in the trip.

Penne Chicken with Broccoli and Sun Dried Tomatoes

The clouds persisted most of the afternoon but as sunset approached, they thinned a little in the West and gave us a blast of color. Blue with hot pink clouds were our send off to a fine day of cruising in Alaska.

 Sunset in Madan Bay

Santa Anna Inlet to Berg Bay to Madan Bay

I awoke at 4 am to visit the head. The sun rose one minute before me, so it was light enough that if you wanted to get underway, you could with no visibility problems.

I, however, went back to bed after taking a picture of the mirror-like surface of Santa Anna Inlet.

We enjoyed a leisurely morning which consisted of devouring the second set of Cinnamon Buns from Meyers Chuck, a little reading, planning, picture taking, and watching the passing showers come and go.

The holding was good last night and the anchor came up mostly clean with a little mud for a keepsake. Just as the anchor came onboard, I looked out to the head of the inlet and saw a blow from a humpback whale in the crossing channel. As we motored out, we kept our gazed focused on the area watching for more whale signs. After a few minutes we saw no more signs of the whale. Our hope was that once we entered the channel we might see him or her again.

To our surprise, just as we reached the last quarter mile of the inlet, we saw a circle of bubbles forming 150 yards to starboard near the shore. Just then, up came the whale through the middle of the bubble circle, mouth wide open to capture as large a meal as possible. The whale continued this behavior for about twenty minutes allowing us to witness a total of four bubble feedings. For only our second day en route, we had already checked off a major goal of this trip: to see bubble feeding!

The circle of bubbles forms

The burst though the middle of the bubble net, mouth full of fish. The nest few images finish the sequence.

“Farewell”, thanks for the show!

The scale of Alaska continues to amaze. We’re traveling in the smaller “back channels” and they are as large as some the widest channels down south in British Columbia. You’ll spot a landmark and guess how far it may be. What you think is a mile and a half turns out to be six miles according to the radar. I can’t hazard a guess as to how far the most distant mountains are that we can see.

There is not much traffic. We passed a small pocket cruiser, with maybe 120 guests, making its way south. But that was about all we saw of any signs of humanity. I think I saw one or two hills that look as if they had been logged in the last 10 years, but not much else. We vacillate between being lonely and peaceful.

The “Pocket” Cruise Ship

The Seagull Cruise Ship

We left the showers behind although a broken layer of clouds at about 3000 feet continued to linger. An occasionally glimmer of sunshine on a distant mountain give us hope, but that quickly fades. The temperature is 57F and the winds light. Not so bad for Alaska.

The “Shark Log” we passed

Berg Bay was the first stop of the day. We were either going to anchor there or continue on to Madan Bay. Berg Bay is attractive. You could spend some time exploring the shore line and the Forest Service Cabin. The scenery is interesting with large mountains extending above the tree line; someone described them as alpine looking. Although it had nothing wrong with it, we decided to continue on to Madan Bay. There is not much information on this anchorage, and no soundings on the charts. Nevertheless, Karen found one report that cruisers were “enthusiastic” about the location, so off we went.

On the approach, the bay appears to be too open for anchoring, but at the head you curve back around to the small nook in the Northwest corner and drop anchor in about 50 ft of water, close to shore.

It took all this time to make a large amount of chili. This serves as our quick, stick it in the microwave and it’s a meal staple. Perfect when you don’t want to cook or want a hot pick me up on a cold day. As I was in the galley, I made a marinade and placed it and a pork tenderloin in a ziplock bag to cure in the refrigerator. Finally for dinner, I made Penne Chicken with Broccoli and Sun Dried Tomatoes. In our effort to eat lighter, this meal was chosen to be lighter than my special pasta concoction using gorgonzola. But have no fear ,that crowd pleaser will return later in the trip.

Penne Chicken with Broccoli and Sun Dried Tomatoes

The clouds persisted most of the afternoon but as sunset approached, they thinned a little in the West and gave us a blast of color. Blue with hot pink clouds were our send off to a fine day of cruising in Alaska.

 Sunset in Madan Bay

Meyers Chuck to Santa Anna Inlet

Precisely at our agreed upon time, 7:30am, Cassie arrived with her basket of Cinnamon Buns. First, she stopped at Inspiration, and then strolled down to our boat. She had a spring to her step and a big smile. That,combined with fresh baked, still warm, pecan covered cinnamon buns, made for a great start to the day.

Cassie makes her morning rounds with fresh-baked cinnamon buns

We cast off the docks at Meyers Chuck at precisely the same time as we did yesterday in Ketchikan, 7:58am. We’ll need to work on that. It’s far too much precision and repetition for a holiday.

Three and a half hours north to Santa Anna Inlet. The weather was superb. Light winds and seas that ranged from 1 ½ feet to calm. Not much to see along the way. There was an occasional fishing boat and a bird or too. We did pass a large sea lion, it must have been a male given the size. He was just floating about a hundred yards offshore doing not much of anything. We did successfully run the watermaker, which was exciting – having it allows us to continue the more wilderness portion of our trip without having to worry about access to fresh water.

Sometimes the most useful marks are the home grown variety

Santa Anna is a long inlet, well protected from the weather. Karen predicted that there would be boats anchored there due to its popularity. As we rounded Santa Anna Point we spotted a sail boat under way towing another smaller sail boat, leaving the inlet. We also passed three identical canoes paddling out of the inlet. We have no idea where they came from or where they were going.

Almost to the end of the inlet, a Krogen was anchored. We never saw any signs of life from the small Krogen, which was out of Comox, BC.

We continued down to the end of Santa Anna. According to my map reading , there was plenty of room in about 50 feet of water opposite the entrance up the creek to Lake Helen. As it was low tide, we had a clear view of all the obstructions, drying flats and anything else that might impinge on our swinging at anchor.

The view from our anchorage at the head of Santa Anna Inlet

The anchor held well on the first set. We launched the dinghy to take advantage of the low tide and exploration opportunities along the shore. There was a vast amount of beach uncovered that would grant us access to areas not be available as the tide came up.

Of particular interest was the outflow area from Lake Helen. As we made our way over the mussel encrusted rocks that make up the “beach”, we found the walking tricky and tiring.

The “beach” at low tide is tricky footing

The outflow from the Lake was running strong. We could find no information about whether you can navigate this at high slack tide in either a Kayak or a Dinghy. But looking at the portion we saw, I think it would be possible given the depth, the only remaining question is how strong the outflow current might be.

Arctic Star and our neighbor, West Coast Spirit in Santa Anna Inlet

Some leftover hardware from an abandoned camp

The final outflow from a large waterfall above that provided a constant soothing sound to the anchorage

Tide coming in during our exploration of Santa Anna Inlet

After tooling along in the dinghy for a while, we returned to the boat for some killer Curry Chicken salad I made, then Karen read up on the flybridge while I took a nap. Dinner was marinated honey Dijon pork tenderloin with maple-orange mashed sweet potatoes – Karen’s favorite treat.

Marinated Honey Dijon Pork Tenderloin with Maple-orange Mashed Sweet Potatoes

It was a very peaceful evening, flat calm and a perfect scenario for a restful night of sleep.

Meyers Chuck to Santa Anna Inlet

Precisely at our agreed upon time, 7:30 am, Cassie arrived with her basket of Cinnamon Buns. First, she stopped at Inspiration, and then strolled down to our boat. She had a spring to her step and a big smile. That,combined with fresh baked, still warm, pecan covered cinnamon buns, made for a great start to the day.

Cassie makes her morning rounds with fresh-baked cinnamon buns

We cast off the docks at Meyers Chuck at precisely the same time as we did yesterday in Ketchikan, 7:58 am. We’ll need to work on that. It’s far too much precision and repetition for a holiday.

Three and a half hours north to Santa Anna Inlet. The weather was superb. Light winds and seas that ranged from 1 ½ feet to calm. Not much to see along the way. There was an occasional fishing boat and a bird or too. We did pass a large sea lion, it must have been a male given the size. He was just floating about a hundred yards offshore doing not much of anything. We did successfully run the watermaker, which was exciting – having it allows us to continue the more wilderness portion of our trip without having to worry about access to fresh water.

Sometimes the most useful marks are the home grown variety

Santa Anna is a long inlet, well protected from the weather. Karen predicted that there would be boats anchored there due to its popularity. As we rounded Santa Anna Point we spotted a sail boat under way towing another smaller sail boat, leaving the inlet. We also passed three identical canoes paddling out of the inlet. We have no idea where they came from or where they were going.

Almost to the end of the inlet, a Krogen was anchored. We never saw any signs of life from the small Krogen, which was out of Comox, BC.

We continued down to the end of Santa Anna. According to my map reading , there was plenty of room in about 50 feet of water opposite the entrance up the creek to Lake Helen. As it was low tide, we had a clear view of all the obstructions, drying flats and anything else that might impinge on our swinging at anchor.

The view from our anchorage at the head of Santa Anna Inlet

The anchor held well on the first set. We launched the dinghy to take advantage of the low tide and exploration opportunities along the shore. There was a vast amount of beach uncovered that would grant us access to areas not be available as the tide came up.

Of particular interest was the outflow area from Lake Helen. As we made our way over the mussel encrusted rocks that make up the “beach”, we found the walking tricky and tiring.

The “beach” at low tide is tricky footing

The outflow from the Lake was running strong. We could find no information about whether you can navigate this at high slack tide in either a Kayak or a Dinghy. But looking at the portion we saw, I think it would be possible given the depth, the only remaining question is how strong the outflow current might be.

Arctic Star and our neighbor, West Coast Spirit in Santa Anna Inlet

Some leftover hardware from an abandoned camp

The final outflow from a large waterfall above that provided a constant soothing sound to the anchorage

Tide coming in during our exploration of Santa Anna Inlet

After tooling along in the dinghy for a while, we returned to the boat for some killer Curry Chicken salad I made, then Karen read up on the flybridge while I took a nap. Dinner was marinated honey Dijon pork tenderloin with maple-orange mashed sweet potatoes – Karen’s favorite treat.

Marinated Honey Dijon Pork Tenderloin with Maple-orange Mashed Sweet Potatoes

It was a very peaceful evening, flat calm and a perfect scenario for a restful night of sleep.