Seven Fathom Hole to Whale Bay

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It was a fairly lazy morning. This morning’s entertainment was produced by Edelweiss. The captain loaded his two large dogs into the dinghy and took them to shore in the rain. First they both “took care of business”, then bounded off into the woods and out of sight. The owner waited patiently and about five minutes later, they both returned to the shoreline and then proceeded to circumnavigate the entire bay. The dinghy followed them as they frolicked around the perimeter.

Sometimes the dogs were in the lead, sometimes the dinghy. About three quarters around the bay, the older dog would pick a nice looking beach and stop, looking over his shoulder as if to encourage the owner to land the dinghy and pick him up. But the dinghy would continue and the dogs followed until they were abeam the sailboat. Only then did the dinghy put in and both dogs jumped on board. I can only imagine what it is like to be into a small sailboat with two large (and wet!) dogs. Certainly keeping them exercised like this is an important protocol for everyone’s sanity.

All during this chapter of “Alaska TV” the rain poured. Thus we remained in our jammies and spent a relaxing morning doing much about nothing.

We did finally get up enough energy to weigh anchor around 1 pm. As we left Seven Fathom Hole, Karen asked for a “drive by” of Jackpot Stream, where we saw a small pleasure boat happily anchored.

Seems like there is a glacier around every turn

Seems like there is a glacier around every turn

On our way to Chenega Glacier, at the head of Nassau Fiord, we stopped at Gaamaak Cove as a possible anchor spot if the ice prevented us from making it to the glacier. Recommended by the sailors who write a blog on Alaskagrapy.com, it is one of those very small spots that goes from very deep to very shallow very quickly. You could certainly make a stop here if you picked your spot very carefully, but it didn’t’ appeal that much. The kittiwake colony was cool, though.

The  Chenega Glacier come into view

Fortunately for use the weather is improving and the ice seems to be cooperating, so we pushed on. This glacier is one of the most active in the sound, so the approaches are often blocked with ice.

The  Chenega Glacier face in all her glory

Calving on the north side of the  Chenega Glacier

Blue ice formation on the face of the  Chenega Glacier

Notice the difference between the charted location of the glacier face and the radar return

We got lucky. The ice was all on the south side, so we could go right up to the glacier face on the north end. We stopped a quarter of a mile away from the face for safety, as there was a lot of calving in progress. On the south side the ice field extended one-half mile and was impassable. However, this ice field was populated with more seals than we could count. Certainly the population exceeded 500 animals. There were a couple of kayaker tents on Nassau’s north shore. And the sun came out!

Seals as far as the eye can see

Seals as far as the eye can see

Seal sentry giving us the once over

Everybody takes advantage of the ice

Who's driving?

The trip to Chenega was certainly worth it. It has a very impressive face, and from afar you get a good look at the ice field that forms the glacier. There is even smaller Tiger Tail glacier on the south side. And as the clouds broke and the sun made an appearance, Tiger Tail was very picturesque.

The Tiger Tail Galicer

We hovered in front of the glacier for about an hour taking pictures and just taking in the majesty of it all. As we departed we idled along the ice edge so we could get a better look at the seals.

Karen and Bob pose for a "selfie" in front of the  Chenega Glacier

We had to take one with the iPhone just to be cool "old fogies"

We had to take one with the iPhone just to be cool "old fogies"

Departing Nassau Fiord we spotted two kayaks that gave us a call on the radio as we approached. They were looking for a weather report and we were able to brighten their day as the forecast was for calm weather for the next four days.

The next fiord to the south is Whale Bay and despite its name, no whales were seen as we approached its head, called Humpback Cove. On the way to the bay, we saw a landing craft from “Epic Adventures” dropping off kayakers at Dual Head. It was totally sunny, with few clouds…actually quite warm!

There is an old moraine that protects the anchorage, but if you pass over the moraine at 90 degrees where it is marked “15 feet” on the chart, you’ll see that depth on your sounder. It’s wild to look at the sounder sonar picture of the bottom, how it rises dramatically and then just stops right at 15’.

Whale Bay

Whale Bay

Once inside, there are plenty of places to drop anchor and enjoy the rich scenery. Marshes, riverbeds, waterfalls and snowy mountains all fill the view. The clouds continued to retreat and before long we were treated to a cloudless sky, something rare around these parts. The only downside was that with the heat and lack of breeze, it was a bit buggy outside. We had a quiet evening at anchor, with little breeze and absolutely no fetch.

Caretaker Cove to Seven Fathom Hole

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We had a great night in McClure Bay, and agree with Telita that it’s a sweet spot. It was so private, as we were the only boat around. Hauling the anchor, the chain was clean, with a bit of shale and seaweed on the anchor itself.

The Ultra anchor always does a good job even on a kelp bottom

We headed out in decent weather, and played “peek-a-boo” with a humpback off the west point as well as with some kayakers. We had a good view of the Nellie Juan glacier as we turned right.

"Going my way?"

"Going my way?"

Off we went, past Foul Bay, Main Bay and Falls Bay.  There were lots of bow pickers “at rest”, rested together waiting for the next opening, or even beached at low tide making some net repairs. It was partly cloudy, with on and off showers. We chose the route inside Crafton Island, and Karen followed the F/V Maria Maru for a while, confirming the approach. There were numerous fishing boats rafted off the west side of Crafton in what looked like 3’ of water on the charts…it wasn't a high tide, so who knows what the real conditions were.

Flat bottomed bow picker beached until the next tide

The route, written up as tricky, wasn't bad. The lower tide let us see the rocky hazards. From Crafton, it was easy to pass yet another Granite Bay and follow Dangerous Passage (which wasn't so dangerous) to Jackpot Bay.

What's left of a cannery factory

We entered Jackpot bay and found the small entrance to Seven Fathom hole, written up as both attractive and a darned good hidey hole in foul weather. We were surprised to see a sailboat, the S/V Eidelweiss from Valdez, already at anchor. The captain and his two enormous huskies came out to give us a good looking over while we selected our anchor site, leaving an ample amount of distance between the two boats.

Eidelweiss at anchor in Seven Fathom Hole

Perhaps it was the gloomy weather and rain, but we felt it was just an “OK” anchorage and we weren't much in the mood to go outside and explore by dinghy.

Comfort food for dinner..chicken pot pie

Nellie’s Rest to McClure Bay

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We rocked and rolled in Nellie’s Rest last night as the storm passed over. As the wind shifted to the north we did get some fetch. When OceanFlyer decided to sit beam to the small rollers, we would rock back and forth; not uncomfortable, just annoying when something you thought was dogged down started to make noise in rhythm to the pendulum motion. About 2am, there was lots of stuff rolling about and Bob got up to check – but found nothing. (We later found out it was his tripod rolling around the floor behind one of the chairs in the salon). After 4am, things calmed down for the rest of the night, enough for Karen and I to sleep more soundly.

Sometime during the night or early morning, the rafted “Ragdoll” and “Angel” moved further into the bay. I don’t think his ride was any better than ours, even with the new location.

Ragdoll and Angel in Nellie's Rest

About 8am “Angel” motored off for what we presumed was a day of tending crab and prawn pots. As we travelled this area, we saw his distinctive yellow or orange buoys marking the locations of his prawn traps. In general he was fishing in 150 to 300 feet.

Looking our from Nellie's Rest into Derickson Bay

OceanFlyer tucked into Nellie's Rest

We planned a couple of detours on our way to the head of McClure Bay (western side). We stopped at Blue Fiord Bight. It’s a one or two boat hole that is deeper than marked on the charts. It has a fairly low swale at the head, so we think it would have had less fetch but more wind than what we experienced at Nellie’s Rest.  Next we took a peek at the Ultramarine Glacier at the end of the bay before making good our route to the McClure Bay. There were nice green flats in front of the glacier for kayaking, but overall it wasn’t a “spectacular” glacier.

We passed the cannery ruins on the way down McClure Bay on the east side. The cannery was destroyed, along with the caretakers, by a tsunami from the 1964 earthquake. Our final destination is at the very end of McClure bay. The entrance is pretty obvious on the chart and we saw no depths that gave us alarm. Anchoring opposite of the waterfall on the east shore in 23 feet, we occupied the center of the channel. My guess is you could get two boats in here, one to the north of the other with no problem.

Keeping a short 4:1 scope makes for plenty of swinging room. Current holds you mostly in the center as you move fore and aft with the current change.

We had a nice dinghy ride into the smaller bays to the south. We spotted many little streams and what looked like a couple of good places for bear to fish for salmon when they are running. There were depths here and there that would work for anchoring, but only with a lot of route planning by dinghy first.

Bob gave the water line and the hull just below the water line a good scrubbing, as Karen secured him in the dinghy with a fore and aft line. It was a good project for the halfway point in our travels. We had a good night, with some winds at time, but nothing remarkable or worrisome.

Whittier to Nellies Rest via Deep Bay

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2014_06_16 Whittier to Deep Water Bay to Nellies Rest

This is our last day with the Mother Goose fleet before we go off on our own for 17 days.

We awoke to clouds, light rain and the sight of a big cruise ship tied up in Whittier. We waited with Patos went to take on fuel, then the “fleet of three” headed out.

Our overnight arrival

Leaving Whittier

We headed back out Passage Canal and saw a few porpoises along the way. We took Culross Passage as our most direct route to Port Nellie Juan and the destination for the evening, Deep Bay. Culross Passage was a good route, and seemingly quite protected from most weather. Deception and Patos toured a Goose Bay and Long Bay anchorages, while we just kept on going, hoping to find Telita.

We finally saw Telita’s AIS, she was anchored in Nellie’s Rest, a spot that Karen wanted to check out, so we headed directly for Telita. Her crew was out in the dinghy, so we just took a short tour of Nellie’s Rest and then went over to Deep Water Bay.

Mountains followed by more mountains followed by more mountains. That's the grandeur of Prince William Sound.

Deep Water Bay was just that. And it was quickly apparent that Deep Water Bay was not in a great position for the prevailing winds (which were only forecasted to increase).

There is a pretty sand beach at the head, but it was taken and not right for the winds anyway. It was hard to find another shallow spot to anchor, and with the fetch coming in from the east, we looked at three alternate spots on the eastern shore but to no avail. All were much too deep close to the shore. Even though they were marked 30 to 39 feet on the charts, we seldom saw less than 75. Further, even they afforded no protection from the fetch.

Eventually Deception got their anchor set, but Brian described the hold as marginal. They were still taking the full fetch of the bay, and so I suggested we all retreat to Nellie’s Rest for a four boat raft.

That seemed enough encouragement for Deception and she lifted all her ground tackle. After looking at Nellie’s Rest and a couple of other options, the Mother Goose crew decided to make good a course back to Long Bay in Culross Passage, an anchorage they had toured earlier. That direction was the inverse of where we planned to go for the rest of our trip, so we bid adieu to Deception, Patos and Telita and made our way to Nellie’s Rest.

Guarded by a straight and easy entrance, Nellie’s Rest is a circular hole, with good holding in 24 feet. Karen had read that the wind never makes into this bay. Indeed the wind dropped from 20 knots to 2 knots as we entered. There were some mild swells that made it through the entrance, but they were soft and gentle when compared to Deepwater Bay.

Already at anchor was the sailboat Ragdoll, with the bow picker Angel rafted alongside. After watching this raft for several hours, we figured that the fisherman used the sailboat as his basecamp.

We watched a few episodes of Homeland. As day changed into night, the wind picked up. Along with the wind came more fetch. We saw some gusts over 30, but when we went to bed about 9pm, it was mostly just a bit fetchy with no wind to speak of.

We later learned that the fleet faced winds over 50 knots in Long Bay, and at one point, Deception’s anchor chain broke under the load of her and Patos.

We liked Nellie’s Rest, though the weather was certainly not good for outdoor exploring. It would be fun to come back again and dinghy over to the Nellie Juan glacier area, or at least the moraine.

Hummer Bay to Whittier

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A beautiful calm morning greeted us in Hummer Bay. Happy Father’s Day!

There was much debate onboard OceanFlyer as to whether we would follow the fleet into Whittier or find another anchorage. Everything Karen had read about Whittier was that it earns its nickname “Shi**ier”.

But I wanted some time on land and the option to add fuel. So off we went.

Passage Canal, the approach to Whittier, is quite long. We saw a few porpoise, and had a decent day-weather-wise. As we made our way down Passage Canal to Whittier, the high speed ferry Chenega announced their intention to pass and zoomed past us at better then 20 knots.

The high speed ferry, Chenga slips past the fleet at over 20 knots

Approaching Whitter

Rounding the breakwater into the harbor at Whitter

Rounding the breakwater into the harbor at Whitter

We did run into the problem of finding space on the docks. All three boats sat outside the harbor as Deception launched its dinghy, sending crew to enter the harbor and scope out the possibility of finding space. I named the shore party of Rich and Rowen our docking “Seal Team”.

After about 20 minutes they called in Deception, followed by us and Patos. We ended up rafting three abreast on the outside of Bravo dock.

Three abreast on Bravo dock

Whittier is a working harbor. We didn’t see many transient pleasure boats. It was good to see a floating fuel dock, rather than the stationary ones we’d seen in Yakutat and Cordova, although we decided not to take on any fuel.

Lunch was at the Swiftwater Café. The fish and chips were very good and Karen enjoyed her peel and eat “shrimp” (prawns). As the ferry just landed, it took 30 minutes to get our food, but it was fresh and hot when it arrived.

There is certainly not much to do or see in Whittier. No place to provision. There are some marine supplies in the second “AVIS” hut from the docks. The museum was written up I the guide book as worth the admission price, but it’s a walk through the tunnel under the train tracks and from afar, looked questionable. Karen did find a good fudge shop, though!

The highlight of the trip was meeting Brian’s friends, Bill and Linda, who live in Anchorage and work for Alaska Business Magazine. They brought provisions to those who had placed an “order” through Brian the day before, loading up at the Anchorage Costco. We were so happy to see bottled water, cookie dough, cashews and a few onions. It was like Christmas.

Dinner was at the bar in The Inn at Whittier. Supposedly the best place to eat in town. Food was just OK, but it had great Alaskan Amber on tap, and the chef of OceanFlyer got the night off.

The Inn at Whitter

No need to go inside, that's what it looks like

Being Sunday, many of the fishing boats were making the most of the daylight until the sun set at 11:15 pm. The steady parade of very noisy boats made it difficult to get to sleep.

Tonight we are expecting a Princess cruise ship to arrive at 12:01 am. We were told that they pick their arrival time, just after midnight, in order to not pay an extra day of moorage. They depart at 8 pm tomorrow.

Just before turning in, we learned more about a weather system that was moving in, with a gale forecast late tomorrow. Brian called for an 8 am departure for Deep Water Bay, ensuring we get to our destination in plenty of time to hunker down.