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.

Granite Bay to Hummer Bay via Harriman Glacier

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We cast off about 7:45 am and headed for the entrance to Harriman Fiord, hoping to catch up with Deception and Patos. It was a much nicer day than yesterday, far better to explore the various glaciers. We saw Patos and Deception on AIS about a mile or two ahead of us as we made our way into Harriman Fiord, and eventually caught up to them.

We pulled up to the spot where we could see 3 glaciers at once: the Cascade (retreating), the Barry (prettiest of all) and the Coxe (not bad looking either).

The Cascade, Barry and Coxe Glaciers

Telita and OceanFlyer just drifted a while as Deception and Patos fought the ice to approach the Barry Glacier face.

We then headed off for Harriman Glacier in Deception’s wake, hoping to use Deception as an ice breaker so we’d dodge the trickier bergie bits. Surprise Glacier was off to our right, and while quite pretty, looked more ice-entrenched than Harriman, so we kept on going.

Our approach to the Harriman Glacier was nearly ice-free, so it was easy to get to the face and enjoy the beautiful blue ice and the sunshine. We saw some calving, so that was fun too. Bob and I took some “selfies” at the face, and also did some photo ops with Telita.

Deception move close to the face of the Harriman Glacier

The face of the Harriman Glacier

The face of Harriman Glacier dwarfs Telita

You cannot think of anything better to share than these adventures

Karen made me do it

Making our way clear of the ice fields

Kathy Cox on the bow of her boat, Telita, with the Coxe Glacier in the background. Only separated by one "e".

We followed the fleet, lagging behind a bit, as we made our way towards Hummer Bay for the evening. Telita checked out Serpentine Cove, thinking about overnighting there, but ended up joining us at Hummer.

After a serpentine entrance with a shallow spot or two, Hummer Bay opened up. We rafted to Deception and joined them for dinner. Patos’ crew dinghied and kayaked all evening, and were fun to watch. We went out for a late evening dinghy ride ourselves, discovering some interesting anchor spots for the next time, but we eventually gave up because it was buggy.

Hummer Bay alpenglow

A few minutes before midnight it is still not dark in Hummer Bay

Cascade Bay to Bettles Bay

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It rained all last night with and occasional wind gust to 17 knots, but Telita’s ground tackle held us both in place.

The morning greeted us with low ceilings and continued rain. No complaints. We cast off from Telita at 7:48, after having told Lance we were headed for Bettles Lagoon rather than with the fleet to see the College Glaciers unless the day became sunny.

One of the thousands of fishing boats we passed in Prince William Sound

About 6-7 Dalls Porpoise played in our bow for 10 minutes as we rounded Eaglek Island. Karen donned her foul weather gear and made her way in the rain to the bow to play with them. The pass was a bit tricky so I stayed at the helm, much as I wanted to take the GoPro camera and get some more footage of the Dalls from water level.

The seas were choppy until we entered Ester Passage. There we passed a handful of fishing boats, mostly seiners, making way to their next port of call. Many bow pickers were at the narrow exit of Exter Passage into Port Wells.

The fleet is planning a 12-14 hour day going up to see all the college glaciers. We’re both tired and given the reduced ceilings and visibility, as we entered the lumpy sees of Port Wells with wind on the beam, we made the call to take the day “off” and go directly to Bettles. Telita decided to follow our lead, and we watched Deception and Patos’ AIS signals disappear up College Fiord. The fleet may join us at Bettles tonight, or we will meet up with them tomorrow to go see the Barry and Harriman Glaciers in Harriman Fiord.

The narrow entry into Bettles was a nail biter due to it being so shallow. We saw 1.6 feet on the sounder. It may have been eel grass, but we were on high alert and decided that we would never enter Bettles again on anything other than a +4.5’ tide (we were at +3).

Inside we found a lovely round basin – a very picturesque spot, with hanging glaciers to the Southwest and mountain meadows to the North. Very nice 360 degree views. The constant rain this afternoon made the waterfalls come even more alive. Everywhere you looked there was another rush of water from the mountains into the bay.

I worked on photos for the blog and Karen took a nap on the settee. We enjoyed our peaceful afternoon. Our departed was planned for 4pm to catch the high tide. We've been experiencing minus tides, so if we did not get out of the bay this afternoon it would be either 5:30am or 12:30pm before we could safely pass over the shallows at the entrance. Our plan is to make a 9 mile run over to Granite Bay (a different one than from a few days ago) and stage for tomorrow trip to the Harriman glacier.

Bettles is still a bit of a conundrum. We left Bettles on a +11 tide, and saw 9.9 feet on the sounder. It’s definitely a place to be careful about entering.

It was still gray and rainy as we entered Granite Bay. There were two boats at anchor already, the Nordhavn Samba that overwinters in Kodiak, and a Nordic Tug. We found a decent spot and just chilled out in the calm but uninspiring weather. A very calm night.

Bettles Bay in the rain