Thursday, July 6 - Friday, July 7, 2006 - We awoke at 4:00am to get an early start out for our crossing of Dixon Entrance. The winds were blowing in Ketchikan Harbor and we clocked 25 knot gusts and decided to go back to bed and hope that tomorrow would a better day. As I had mentioned earlier, we ran into Dave and Heather Ballaine (Gypsy) the night before. Dave came over to our boat about 11:00 am and said that he just got off the phone with the Canadian Meteorologist, and the approaching storm had stalled before hitting Dixon Entrance and the seas were forecasted at 3 feet of less and they were heading out in about an hour. We decided to go with them as if we missed this window, we could be spending the next 5 days in Ketchikan before the weather broke again. We scrambled to get ready to go, and left at 12:00 noon. With that late of a start, we knew we probably could not make the entire run to Prince Rupert and set Dundas Island as our destination. The crossing was not as smooth as the way up as we had south winds and took some water over the bow, but it was relatively uneventful all things considered. The Coast Guard was issuing a Security for "an unseasonable low front" and gale force winds for Northern BC and SE Alaska waters. We dropped anchor at Brundige Inlet at 7:10pm and had to remember to set our clocks, computers and GPS back to PDT as we had crossed over the US/Canadian Border. We decided to make an early night as we still had a 35 mile run to Prince Rupert before the storm hit. When we dropped anchor, I had noticed that there were "billions and billions" or jelly fish, both the "small" clear and larger "orange" variety. We were running our generator to recharge the batteries and for dinner, when all of a sudden it stopped. Bob tried numerous times to get it to restart, with no success. He pulled the filter only to find it clogged with a "jelly" substance and was stung in the process. We were thankful, that was the cause of the problem. It was definitely time for bed. Departed Brundige Inlet a 6:00 and headed to Prince Rupert. Our planned route was go through Venn Passage and this time we were able to follow a fishing boat through, though he cut a few buoys closer than we felt comfortable doing. Arrived Prince Rupert at 10:00am and cleared Canadian Customs again and settled in at Prince Rupert Yacht Club to weather out the storm.
Saturday, July 8 - Sunday, July 9, 2006 - We were tied to the outside pier of the marina and when the storm hit at 2:00am we were wakened by the bucking of the boat. The winds were clocking at gale force with 50 knot gusts. We had tightly secured all of our aft enclosure windows and had weighted down our bow snap secured cushions with heavy lines before going to bed. The rain was pelting and we heard a "thump". Bob went out to find that one of the seat cushions had been caught by one of the gusts and was overboard floating in the distance. It is probably on it way out to Japan. Prince Rupert is the home of the Kazu Maru Memorial. In September of 1985, a fisherman left Owase, Japan for a day of fishing, but never returned. A year and a half later, his boat washed up on the shore of the Queen Charlotte Islands and was brought to Prince Rupert for identification and was later restored and placed in the Pacific Mariner's Memorial Park. The high winds are continuing through the morning and a few of the women on adjacent boats had to get off their boats and go to town because of the rolling motion caused by the wind and high currents found at the dock. We had to move to another dock because the 100+' Blue Star was due in and the dock we were on was the only one that could accommodate them. We settled in to our new spot and the winds let up so we were able to get off the boat and keep our dinner reservations at the Cow Bay Cafe (wonderful meal, great home made desserts). Dave and Heather were leaving on Saturday to continue back south and we decided to stay another day. Saturday evening we decided to have Pub food at the Breakers Pub and chatted with a couple at the table next to ours. We had commented on their beautifully maintained Tolly Craft that was tied up across from us on the dock. We exchanged introductions only to find we were chatting with Bob and Marilyn Hale of the Waggoner Cruising Guide (see chapter 1, where I opened my "trusty Waggoner Cruising Guide) and we thanked them for providing a resource guide for all of us boaters. We also would like to thank the Breakers Pub for providing internet connectivity so I can post my updates.
Monday, July 10 - Tuesday, July 11, 2006 - Time to leave Prince Rupert and we did so at 7:05am in the morning. We were going to retrace our steps and head south via the Grenville Channel. Our intent is to anchor/dock in different locations. Our destination was Lowe Inlet which was about 2/3rds the way down the channel. We arrived at Lowe Inlet at 2:00pm to find one boat anchored in the suggested anchorage location. We did not want to crowd them and attempted to set our anchor three different times, never securing sufficiently for our comfort level so we opted to continue south to Hartley Bay. Another storm was approaching and we were in search of a secure place for the evening. We had bypassed Hartley Bay on our way up so it would be a new experience for us. Hartley Bay is an Indian village with a population of about 200 residents. There is a government dock set behind a large breakwater and donations can be made in lieu of moorage fees to various community organizations. In some ways it reminded us of Tenakee Springs as it also was a boardwalk community with no visible motor vehicles. Residents were getting about in ATVs and Golf Carts. We listened to the weather reports and decided to stay an extra day in a protected location as another low front was approaching the area.
