TripSailor.com® Sailing Blogs

First to arrive in Sitka were Nicki and Jan.  Jan flew into Sitka bringing along both Jordy and our other mini-aussie Phoebe Buffey.  Due to Phoebe’s timidity, we elected not to bring her on the original trip.  Now that we have no more off-shore passages—we brought her along to enjoy the rest of the ride home.  Nicki, Jan’s daughter, arrived later the same day, after spending an enjoyable but very wet week kayaking with her boyfriend in Ketchikan.  Hearing stories of the bears she and Russell encountered in their campsites-made Jan happy to be exploring Alaska on a somewhat bigger boat.

Arriving in Sitka during the Fourth of July parade, both Touch Rain and Michael had some drying out to do— water not alcohol —and some R and R requirements.

Brendan and Ben fearing that the next ferry to Skagway wouldn’t be for four or five days—hurriedly packed. After a quick dinner in town and a more leisurely soak in the hot tub at the hotel, they caught the midnight ferry.  All three guys found their fingertips didn’t thaw until after the first 15 minutes of emersion in the hot tub.  Without heat on the boat, they were chilled through and through.

During the first few days, we spent $100 in quarters running the laundramat at the Super8.  Jan spent mornings doing wash and afternoons hiking trails with Nicki and the dogs. The first four days passed quickly.  Michael spent most days steadily emptying the boat of all cushions, covers and clothing.  Even stored clothes and bedding had received a solid drenching during the passage.

Sitka, for those who haven’t visited, is a charming smaller town which shows its Russian roots in local building styles.  Obviously, keeping fit when possible is a priority to local inhabitants. The town has invested well in a series of wonderful mud-free hiking trails, all within easy walking reach of downtown!  

We were unable to move aboard the boat while Nicki was in town and extended our stay at the Super 8. Given the easy proximity to laundry facilities—and nightly soaks in the hot tub – we easily justified the luxury after the off-shore passage.  The hotel was exceeding friendly to us and the two dogs and the benefits of the continental breakfasts and not having to rush to put the boat back in order gave us a nice little mini-vacation.

Once Nicki headed home, we concentrated our time on restoring order.  By the time our friends Tom and Jenan Madden flew in from Seattle to spend a week with us on the boat, we were almost ready.

We had a wonderful week traveling along Peril Strait, Chatam Strait, and Frederick Sound. We anchored in Deep Bay, Baranof Warm Springs, Kake, Portage Bay, Thomas Bay and Petersburg. Michael and Jan enjoyed both the bath house hot tubs and the outdoor version at Bananof Warm Springs.  If you haven’t hiked up the open-air tubs at the top of the waterfall, it’s well worth the effort—it’s amazingly beautiful and quite secluded.  Jenan and Tom restricted themselves to the bathhouse by the dock—but enjoyed the experience. 

It was fun for Michael to have Tom involved in plotting courses-and Tom served many hours at the helm giving Michael some time to read and relax.  Given the costs of fishing licenses, and our limited time, we elected to purchase crab locally and were able to reproduce our summer favorite-crab salads for dinner.  We continued our tradition of trading off cooking dinner and dishes everyone other night, providing a nice variety of fine meals without a lot of effort on any one person’s part.

Two captains on board and nary a “debate”.  Unfortunately by the time they left, Jan was totally addicted to playing Every Word on her Kindle—

Peterberg was a very nice surprise—and we would recommend it as a stop—it’s a fishing town—more involved with commercial fishing than tourism—but has a couple of great restaurants, and some nice hikes from town. 

When Tom and Jenan left in Petersberg, we had one day before our friends Steve and Lisa Hodgson from Olympia arrived.  In spite of packing lightly-Steve had managed to stow six wonderful bottles of wine—including two bottles Michael and Steve had made before we left for our trip (a sauv blanc and a cab franc).  We provisioned and prepared quickly. We only had four days to complete the 110-mile passage from Petersberg to Juneau.  We headed back north towards Juneau, seeing many humpback whales, glaciers, ice bergs and bergie bits, eagles, and Michael’s favorite bird up here  — ravens.   During this stretch, we stopped in Portage Bay, Gambier Bay, Taku Harbor.  Although we did some long runs, the passages were in general four to six hours.   We managed to fit in some tasty dinners—always accompanied by fine wine.  Michael and Jan estimated that more fine wine was consumed during this four day stretch than the entire time spent in Mexico.

Steve proved himself to be an able helmsman-he also spotted more whales than the rest of us—clearly having an eagle eye.  Although we were disappointed that the whales remained in the distance, on a boat of our size—this is clearly the safer option.  Although their visit was very short, we enjoyed the time spent with Steve and Lisa aboard and appreciated their cheerful participation in our nightly ritual—the fireman brigade routine of “slepping” many, many duffle bags from the aft cabin to the settee which is required to provide sleeping accommodations for four.

Following several recommendations, we elected to park the boat in Auke Bay, about 11 miles north of Juneau, rather than heading downtown.  We are now at the marina waiting to have some work done on the transmission. Luckily, we are still under warranty—so the manufacturer is sending out a replacement transmission.  Ah, yet again fixing the boat in exotic places. 

Timing is just about everything in cruising, and our arrival in Juneau coincided with that of Michael’s brother, Geoffrey, and another of our friends from Olympia, Kris Sparks.  Kris was in town for a conference on rural health issues.  We had a wonderful couple of visits with her. On the night she left, the weather cooperated nicely, and we were able to share the French champagne she brought with her while enjoying dinner in Touchrain’s cockpit.  Kris and her husband Randy were crew for our Baja Ha Ha adventure last fall.

We had a nice visit with Geoffrey and his wife Debbie before they headed out with their guests on a one-week charter around Admiralty Island.  They were kind enough to lend us their 15-person van while they are gone—so we have wheels!  We are also spending some time looking for a used fiberglass dinghy. We are ready to give up the struggle with the inflatable and looking forward to being able to go to shore at will.  The first time Michael headed into shore with the dogs at Portage Bay—a mussel encrusted rock-slashed a five-inch wound into the dinghy—leaving us dependent on the kindness of strangers to hitch rides to shore.

One of the really best aspects of Alaska, in addition to absolutely breathtaking scenery everywhere we go, has been the numerous hiking trails within close proximity.  Juneau boasts of having more miles of hiking trails than roads.  Yesterday we spent a warm sunny day walking more than 7 miles on the Kaxigoowu Heen Dei trail—This multi-use trail set up for bikes, horse, and hikers extends from Brotherhood Bridge all the way to the Mendenhall Glacier.