Back to Petersburg today to wait for Peter and my mom to
arrive tomorrow morning. I woke up to a
dry, if cloudy, morning. It’s only ~20nm
back to Petersburg, so I wasn’t in any rush to leave.
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| Sea smoke in the morning |
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| Still gorgeous, of course |
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| But a little spooky |
Finally around 10 I pulled anchor and headed out. As I entered Frederick Sound the mountains
were spectacular. Even if it’s not
sunny, it sure is beautiful. Less
pleasantly I was also greeted with an adverse current. I don’t like displacement speed cruising when
my speed dips into the 4-knot range, so I throttled up and headed towards
Petersburg at 13 knots.
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| Mountains in Frederick Sound |
I also tried out WOT with the new prop with a lighter
load. Nearly full water, one person, a
ton of gear, and ¾ fuel loaded on the boat.
I got 6200 rpm and 23 knots of speed, both of which I’m happy with. My only complaint is it seems like I have to
run the engine at very high RPM’s to get a 16-knot cruise speed. Something like 4800. The jury is still out on fuel consumption,
but I do think it is better at slow planning speeds.
Lots of traffic as a neared Petersburg, and lots of whales
as well. I stopped to enjoy the whales
for 30 minutes or so. I’m not sure if it
would ever get old watching these creatures.
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| Apparently the pattern on the underside of the fluke is unique to each whale, kind of like a fingerprint |
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| Paya got a good view, too |
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| Always fun to watch |
I swung by the fuel dock in the way into town and then got
tied up in north harbor. Almost
immediately two guys strolled by and started asking questions about the
boat. They were waiting to head out to a
fishing lodge and were impressed I had brought the boat up from Seattle, but
couldn’t believe I wasn’t doing any fishing up here.
Then a commercial fisherman whom I had met last week pulled
in. I grabbed a line for him and he
asked some more questions about the C-Dory.
He’s looking for a retirement boat for cruising around SE and likes the
C-Dory a lot. He went up and got his
wife and they looked at the boat in more detail. Amazingly, they were impressed with the space
on the boat! I guess commercial fishing
boats allocate all available space to holding fish rather than people.
Later on I met John, Felix, and Steve from Paya. John is a marine electrician in Seattle who
somehow found Felix and Steve (from Germany and Australia, respectively) to
crew on his sailboat for the summer.
Felix and Steve are taking some time to wander the world and they agree
that SE Alaska is as beautiful a place as any.
I returned to Keto’s Kave with them in the evening and had a good time
talking travel and boats.
Tomorrow Peter and mom arrive. We’ll buzz over to LeConte Glacier as soon as
they arrive and then return to Petersburg to pick up supplies for the next week
and stay the night. Then we’re off…I
know Rocky Pass is on the agenda, and if Chatham Strait cooperates we’ll
probably also head over to Red Bluff Bay for some bear watching.
23.0 nm today and 2,111.4 total
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