FineEdge.com

Don and Réanne Douglass departed Anacortes April 30, 2003, on their most ambitious exploration aboard Baidarka to date—a thorough reconnaissance and documentation of the Gulf of Alaska from Cape Spencer to Prince William Sound and the Kenai Peninsula to Kodiak. You can follow their five-month, 7,000-mile trip on this webpage.

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FineEdge.com’s Research Vessel Baidarka left today on its most ambitious exploration to date. Don Douglass and Réanne Hemingway-Douglass are embarking on a thorough reconnaissance and documentation of the Gulf of Alaska from Cape Spencer to Prince William Sound and the Kenai Peninsula to Kodiak. Their 7,000 mile trip, spanning 5 months, will provide detailed data for a new cruising guide, Exploring the Gulf of Alaska, to be published next year, as well as a series of magazine articles. The Douglass’ research will focus on the many inadequately and uncharted anchorages along the route that could provide shelter for recreational boaters and kayakers. The goal is to extend their leading Exploring series books to show how to cruise in one season from Mexico to Kodiak, Alaska, and back as a series of day-hops from one anchor site to another.

Accompanied by veteran crewman John Leone of Anacortes and others enroute, Don and Réanne will collect hydrographic and recreational information in their specially-equipped Nordhavn 40 research vessel, Baidarka. They will have three computers on board to help record and analyze their data and photos. Their robust trawler, which is perfectly suited to explore the remote seas of the world, has a self-sufficient range of 2,500 miles and sophisticated navigation and safety gear. (In 2002, a sister ship of Baidarka completed a circumnavigation of the world in 7 months, a new first for a production cruising vessel of this size.)

Sponsors for this year’s expedition include, Nordhavn, Nobeltec navigation software, Mustang Survival clothing, Iridium satellite communications, Interphase Technology forward and side-to-side scanning sonar, and the Canadian Hydrographic Service.

The Douglasses will complete their provisioning in Sitka the third week of May and be ready for a good-weather window to help them explore Lituya Bay, Yakatak and Icy Bay, as well as potential anchor sites along the coast of Cape Fairweather, Cape Suckling, Cape Saint Elias and Cape Hitichingbrook. In early June, they will rendezvous with Jim and Nancy Lethcoe, the leading cruising and geographical experts on Prince William Sound before heading further west to Kodiak. After exploring from Seward to Homer, Baidarka will visit parts of Shelikof Strait and the remote, but potentially useful, shelter afforded by the Barren Islands. Last will be the east side of Prince William Sound and uncharted areas south of Cordova and the outlet of the Copper River and flats around historic Kayak Island.

Don and Réanne will return to Anacortes in September after calling on a number of old friends in Southeast Alaska and upper British Columbia.

We are off to Queens Sound after spending a peaceful night in our favorite Fury Cove. There were a total of 4 boats in Fury Cove. Among them was the “Perlorus", a Bellingham boat headed also for Prince William Sound. We may see them again in Sitka on the way. We did 107 nautical miles yesterday leaving Port Neville at 0500 and dropping the hook at 2030.

We are underway north at 1200 hours via Pruth Bay, Hakai Pass, to Queens Sound and will stay overnight in the Goose Island anchorage if the wind allows us to get there before dark.

We are not sure whether failure for the engine to start sometimes is the switch, the solenoid or the starter relay. We found a way we can short the solenoid and start the engine by bypassing the starter relay in case we have to. Also, John cleaned and greased the relay contacts so that may be our problem. The engine started fine when we left the cove.

In any case I will look up the part numbers for the starter relay and solenoid to have you pick up and bring as a backup. Lugger is headquartered in Seattle so you should have them shortly I hope.

Best Regards, Don and Crew

After coming out of Pruth Bay into the teeth of a nasty black squall, the crew voted to turn right and head back into Fitz Hugh Sound. Instead the skipper threaded his way north between the Breaker Group and Plant Group went up Edward Channel and turned west in Nalau Passage. By then the dark squall line passed and behind the front was blue sky and moderate seas. So we once again headed northwest into Kilidt Sound turned west after passing the Mosquito Islands and attempted a transient of Spitfire Narrows in Spitfire Channel.

Spitfire is about the tiniest of all Northwest passages and Réanne conned us through missing the south rock a good 6 feet. She was on such a high that when we reached the open Pacific of Queens Sound, she followed the course 7 miles off shore to Goose Island like it was no problem.

Goose Island is a wildly beautiful place so we decided to spend a layover to explore this seldom place. John and I spent a couple hours beach combing and the three of us will head out again as soon as I get this off.

We hoped John fixed the starting problem yesterday but we have the same problem today. The starter won't turn over unless John hits the small Bosch starter relay. Please call Lugger in Seattle and order a replacement.

The Calvert Island weather repeater seems to be out again so we have not been able to get a local weather report but it seems to be fair weather so we should continue up the outside as far as Trutch Island in the Estevan Islands Group tomorrow. We hope to explore the uncharted west entrance of the Langley Passage.

Otherwise, things are going great. Réanne is taking good care of us in the galley when she isn't piloting. We watched a DVD last night, perhaps a first in these lovely remote islands!

We have been traveling on the outside of the coast this morning in really fine weather and have gone from Goose Island across Queen Sound, passed Cape Mark, crossed Milbank Sound, took Catala Passage inside McInnes Light House and am now streaming north in Laredo Sound on the west cost of Price Island. We will be pulling into a tiny cove called Rudolf Bay for lunch. We checked out the tiny unnamed cove on the NE corner of Goose Island and found it to be a good lunch stop in NW weather.

Both computer navigation systems are almost inoperative. I deleted the PCR stuff we added the day we left but this has had only a marginal improvement (virus?). The ships computer is extremely slow and is about 2 minutes behind in up dating our GPS position and frequently freezes. The Dell suffers from some of the same problems and still offers only vector charts of marginal value. We are sure glad we have our paper charts onboard even though we three are a little rusty with DR skills.

We are back in weather station range so we are not quite flying blind. We talked with the Ivory Island lighthouse and Rene and Cheryl are leaving for the east coast and they will be missed for their 20 years of service here.

May 6, 2003 (later in the day)

We are safely inside Rudolph Bay and really nifty place and the only shelter along this side of Price Island. Most of this coast is sounded out about a mile with thousands of rocks and islets—lots of white water here.

Check out this place on NCBC page 248. This place is like Fury Cove 20 years, undiscovered and unknown. This is the next step up from Fury Cove. A truly wild entrance, narrow entrance and near perfect shelter inside.

One big problem, I believe we made a mistake years ago when we said to pass the mid channel island on north side. This is a mistake. We came in on a 3 ft low tide and found a nasty rock pile awash which would be hard to avoid. We worked our way in very slowly along the south side and found 2.1 fathoms minimum in the tiny fairway.

Please put this up on our website and tell Charlie at Interphase that his Twinscope unit worked very well in the vertical mode just when we thought we would have to turn around before we got caught in a most difficult situation.

The head of Rudolph Bay has a wide a 2 fathom flat bottom bay with very good shelter, Lots of swinging room with a large inner bay and mud flats to explore to the south. Very few logs ashore here so this is the only place for miles around for such good shelter... getting in here in a SW gale would be something else, the entrance would be covered by lots of foam. I will do a diagram for future editions.

Yes, we need 12 volt parts so thanks so much. Until we get them we have to go down in the engine room and John hits the starter relay. We have lots to do in Prince Rupert so we may try to get in there by Friday.

The Iridium is working out very well for email. Our biggest problem is that while underway on the outer coast it is hard to type and pay attention to the communications when so many other things requires our careful attention.

Things are going better since we just got the ship's computer back in near normal service. We have been flying essentially VFR last couple days but have kept up a fast pace and, as we send this, we are presently cruising along nicely in Petrel Channel.

The ship's computer got to the point where in could not process any GPS position. So this morning when I found a diagnostic screen that mentioned deleting all routes and maps I took it and Voila! it starting responding to GPS and got back its normal speedy response. I rebuilt the console etc and John is very happy to have his little green boat back and I hope to get rid of a week of frustration with some serious ship's port-drinking tonight when the hook is fully embedded. The problem seemed to be related to the failed attempt to install the PCR on the day we left Anacortes and the problems just got worse over time.

Only thing questionable at the moment is that Nobeltec has trouble reading the largest scale charts (small area) and shows a blank screen and, if you click the red down arrow, it causes the computer to freeze. We aren't complaining too much right now as this is such an improvement over what we had.

Here is what has happened lately:

We have not seen another boat since leaving Fury Cove the morning of May 4th. We have been traveling alone in a pristine wilderness. We love the Outer Passage!

After the interesting approach and good lunch in Rudolph Bay, we beat our way up Laredo Channel and made it to our goal of Devlin Bay on Trutch Island just as it got dark at 2130. The first anchor try dragged with a wad of kelp but the second attempt worked fine. Yesterday morning we launched the dinghy and scouted the Gillespie Channel, the eastern entrance to Langley Passage. We collected some good information for a future diagram to this special place.

When we returned to Baidarka Réanne said she would like to try the rapids in Gillespie and visit our friends the Pollocks in Ethelda Bay. The current was ebbing out at about 3 knots and the key leg of the route is only about 45 feet wide and you must pass within about 10 feet of red plastic buoy ET3 which marks bad submerged reefs just behind it. Réanne did a fine job and we visited the most remote outpost we know along the B.C. coast. The Pollocks run a small abalone research operation and were glad to see us. They took us across the bay to hike the old trail to the WWII DEW line station site. It was a thousand foot climb and because of overgrown brush took us 4 hours to complete with the cost of lots of scratches and some surface blood but what a view! On the way up we passed a large beaver dam, saw lots of deer tracks, and heard grouse in the bushes. (One even gave us a start when he flew out of the bush.) The weather was clear and we could see a tremendous layout of countless islands, breaking seas and snow-covered mountains on the North American mainland to the east. The west end of Langley Passage enters the ocean, but is shallow, kelp filled and poorly charted, but John and I decided to give it a try in the dinghy. We made it to the opening but turned around when the seas threatened to start breaking on us. The coast pilot says the seas break even in moderate conditions and that the entrance is not surveyed. It was quite a thrill off the edge of chart 3795 made in 1941 and not surveyed since.

But that was only the beginning, on the way back to Ethelda Bay I spotted a gap in the rocky shore to the south which is uncharted on chart 3795 (even to its approximate shoreline) so John and I spent about an hour poking our way south. We found a small boat route that Baidarka could apparently find its way directly into the ocean at high water with far less chance of finding itself in breaking seas.

Beyond what we call The Gap, lies a series of offshore rocks and reefs that make a natural breakwater of sorts offering partial shelter from prevailing strong NW winds. We made it as far as lat 53 03.478 and long 129 42.458 (about a half mile or more into the ocean) where the water was getting over 30 feet deep and appeared clear ahead. This route appears to be an alternative for small boats that can tolerate a lot of smashing swells on nearby reefs. Pollocks says the local fisherman don't use or know of the place except perhaps by their punts. He felt we might have missed a submerged rock at the narrows but that it could be avoided like at the entrance to Gillespie Channel, by staying close alongside the islet. We gathered enough depth data to feel it offers an interesting alternative and want to return some day soon and make a full diagram of place. I will write the C.H.S. and see if they have any more recent data.

The Pollocks' place is about as remote as you can get. They are about 100 miles south of Prince Rupert and near no habitation except a couple of Indian villages requiring hours of boat travel in rough seas. It costs them $425 for a one-way floatplane ticket. They treated the Baidarka crew to a fresh prawn (6 inches long from their traps) and spare rib dinner to which Réanne contributed a curried lentil salad. Danielle makes jewelry from the rare otoliths (ivory feather-like structure in the balance mechanism behind the eyes of certain bottom fish). We slept well for 5 hours then left to retrace our steps out east through the Gillespie Channel and our present route north.

Other than strong afternoon westerly and bumpy seas, the weather here outside on the west coast of the Inside Passage has been beautiful and great. We should be in Prince Rupert by tomorrow noon.

We just passed the first vessel in 4 days: a small sailboat heading into Dory Passage bound for Squall Bay.

Weekend of May 9-11, 2003 — Report from the First Mate

We tied up at Prince Rupert Yacht Club by 1014, just a 20-mile run from Lawson Harbor where we spent Thursday night. We found many changes along the waterfront in Rupert: the old fish plant just west of Cow Bay, newly renovated, now serves as the terminal for the airport bus & is slowly beginning to fill with boutiques. At the yacht club: a new $37,000 gangway that eliminates the previous 45-degree angle at low tide (much safer now; one year Don fell trying to haul a dock cart at extreme low tide.); a couple of new float sections and, within a week or two they'll have email service for guests. We spent the day doing the usual shore side tasks of laundry, hair cuts, reprovisioning, stopping by dealers to say hello and checking on their stock of FineEdge products, and visiting with other boaters; then John treated us to supper at the best Chinese restaurant in town. Our friends, Don & Merilyn Baldwin of Seasport Marine lent us their car to haul all the groceries and booze. Oh, yes, the guys bought their last zillion gallons of Okanagon port (read: adult Coolaid) which is supposed to last until John gets off the boat in Kodiak. On Saturday, we spent over an hour visiting the Coast Guard base and interviewing the guys whose voices we've heard over the radio these past 12 years. Fascinating to see all the computers with the positions of ferry and cruise ships and to watch the guys in action as someone calls in. Due to budget cuts, these officers have to do Vessel Traffic, as well as respond to all the other demands. The Rupert CG covers 60,000 square km, the largest area in Canada and yet Ottawa won't even pay for radar for Queen Charlotte Sound and Dixon entrance that leaves miles of open water without security coverage. We are big fans of BC CG; most of these men and women are professional officers who know their trade thoroughly and are well trained and articulate.

Mark arrived (Sat morning) just before we returned from the CG Base and we spent a profitable (and fun) weekend working on the San Juan/Gulf Is manuscript and other items, and he and Don spent a couple of hours visiting the dealers. Mark bought fresh rockfish for dinner; John prepared it. That served up with a great Bunzel zucchini dish, my salad and a fresh sour dough baguette rounded out our on-board feast. Mark, we enjoyed having you aboard.May 10-11, 2003 — Prince Rupert Yacht Club — Mark’s Entry to the Log

As a guest visiting Baidarka for a working weekend in Prince Rupert, I was inspired enough to write my own perspective to the Log of Baidarka - with lots of pictures.

My trip to Baidarka had been previously planned as part of the process to finish the new 2nd Edition to the “Exploring the San Juan and Gulf Islands” book. It turned out as you may have noticed from the log entries above I would also be bringing along a new starter relay and spare solenoid for Baidarka’s Lugger diesel engine.

My first trip to Prince Rupert was with something I am told is very rare - non-stop sunshine! Well almost. Unlike the crew of Baidarka I took the easy way up via Air Canada Jazz, the discount prop plane service. While my passage was only a short 1.5 hours enroute from Vancouver (RT fare only $161US), the view was awesome. Traveling north in BC by airplane on a cloudless day is a special experience. Once we left the Vancouver area it was easy to pick out some of my favorite BC cruising areas such as Sechelt and Jervis Inlet, and Desolation Sound. Areas I hope to visit soon like Knight Inlet, Fitz Hugh Sound, Princess Royal Island were all right where they should be with spring snow capped mountains adding to the panorama. While departing Vancouver and enroute, the suspense for the trip was the pilots and flight attendant giving us an update on the zero-zero visibility conditions at Prince Rupert airport on Digby Island. They expected the low level fog to burn off around the time of our 9:35a landing. If the landing could not be assured due to the fog, we would turn around and fly the 1.5 hours back to Vancouver. Sure enough, as we begin the approach with 50/50 odds, the once clear view of the islands went to a layer of overcast. As we descended lower and lower, holes in the cloud deck began to appear where you could see green terra firma below. Being a pilot, I know that sight of the ground straight down does not qualify for visibility to land, so I hoped up front they could legally descend low enough to poke below the cloud deck. Sure enough they could and we made an uneventful landing. After deplaning the next step of the journey began. Digby Island is across the water from Kaien Island where the town of Prince Rupert is located. To get to Prince Rupert you take a bus, which drives down and rolls onto the ferry for a short 15 minute water crossing, and then the bus takes you through town and down to the visitors information center near the yacht harbor. As I stepped off the bus I could see Baidarka sitting in its berth at the Prince Rupert Yacht Club.

The mental vision of a yacht club is often gleaming boats behind locked gates. This is hardly the atmosphere in Prince Rupert and the yacht club welcomes transient visitors to moor at its accommodating facilities. While the resident boats fit the image of an area of BC known for its excellent fishing, the atmosphere is friendly and laid back. The club has recently invested in a new ramp and docks and is in the process of further improvements and future expansion. Overnight moorage is nominal and the fuel dock is right next to the yacht club. There is only one bathroom and shower but there was no early morning line this early in the season. The club’s commodore, Jack Payne, gave us a special welcome and asked if we might try their new wireless computer connections on Baidarka. Within a few minutes our laptops in the boat were connected to the wireless system in the clubhouse and we had access to the internet just like we were using DSL or a cable modem. Our cell phones were not usable in Prince Rupert, but we had high speed internet on Baidarka to send pictures to our web site and look at the latest weather maps and sat photos.

Don and I made several successful sales calls in town for our books and maps. Yes, FineEdge books and maps are very popular in BC and even in Prince Rupert. They sell well at Eddies News stand, Star of the West book store and Sea Sport marine supply. Afterward we grabbed lunch at Dolly’s Fish Market, just a block from the yacht club. Dolly’s is a must visit for great casual seafood. I highly recommend the salmon and halibut chowder with a shrimp sandwich. While discussing Prince Rupert restaurants, Cow Bay Café also gets high marks. We were not able to squeeze in for reservations on Saturday night and instead dined on fresh rockfish on the boat. On Sunday the crew of Baidarka and guests, Merilyn and Don Baldwin from Sea Sport Outboard Marina dined at Cow Bay while yours truly was reversing his bus-ferry-airplane and car passage home on Sunday night.

One of the extra experiences of any good harbor is the activity from the other boats that arrive and depart. Prince Rupert, as a gateway to the Alaska waters to the north, is no exception. For Don and Réanne there were a number of familiar boats passing through that they would most likely see again as they worked their way north. Baidarda also attracts some attention in any harbor as fans of the FineEdge books stop by to say hello and comment on their use of our books and the special coves or harbors they have found. On Saturday, one special guest was Captain Richard Friedman of M/V Explorer, the distinctive green and off white Malahide trawler many of us have admired in publications like “Passagemaker” and “Wooden Boat”. Richard was on his way north with two charter couples intent on seeing the sights of SE Alaska. Richard was kind enough to give us a tour of Explorer. It is a delight to see the workmanship that went into this incredible vessel when it was built in 1976 in Norway. 7” thick, steam bent ribs remind you how they used to build boats to brave the North Seas. I would go anywhere in this boat! Richard has just a few openings left in a pretty full charter schedule for the summer. If you want to see all SE Alaska has to offer and don’t have your own boat, or want to see it for the first time with an experienced captain, take a look at Richard’s website at www.yachtexplorer.com <http://www.yachtexplorer.com/> . Even if you don’t want to sail with him, there is a lot of good information on Alaska on his website.

Sunday morning was again another beautiful day with sunrise starting about 4:30am. From my berth in the pilothouse I had a great view of the morning light over the harbor as the northbound crowd started their early departures to take advantage of a good window in the weather on Sunday. I decided to beat the crowd to the yacht club shower at 6am. As I stepped out of the yacht club to head back to the boat, I heard the sound of eagles. To my left, three bald eagles where wrestling on the harbor rocks. But as I looked around, the harbor was surrounded by bald eagles. On the piling tops, on the ridge of a dock shelter, on the roof top of the yacht club, there were at least 12 bald eagles, and they were all watching me. Judging their talons, I figured the group of them could make mince meat of me in a few seconds. Attempting to show no fear, I made my way down the dock back to the boat passing within 10 feet of one grand eagle poised on the top of a dock piling. It was one of those magical moments we sometimes have when boating – but with my camera 50 yards away on Baidarka.

After a full day of working on the new book galleys with Don and Réanne, and a few more tweaks to Baidarka’s computer systems it was time for me to reverse the bus-ferry-airplane and car passage back to Anacortes, but not without one added point of excitement. Just before leaving, Réanne asked me to take back a small bag of office tools that would be not be needed on the trip. I shoved it in my overnight bag and didn’t think twice about it. She also asked me if I wanted to take back a round can of coffee as she had packed too much. Those who know Réanne know that she is an absolute expert at packing and provisioning a boat. In Prince Rupert, Réanne adjusted some of provisioning and left some things behind until they come back through in September. Later, as I passed through the x-ray security checkpoint in the Prince Rupert Airport, things got a little tense as they re-scanned my bag for the third time. Security asked if I would mind if they hand checked my bag. At first they came up with a large fingernail clipper. Whoops! Since 9/11 I tried to take those things out of my overnight bag before I would leave on a trip with travel on the airlines. The nice woman in security reached into my bag and asked if I had a pair of scissors in my bag. I said no, and she reached into my bag again and removed a 10” pair of scissors from the bag Réanne gave me. As you might imagine, the scissors did not make the flight and now probably are on their way to the Prince Rupert schools. Next out came the round can of coffee which they also proceeded to open and check. I will have to watch what Réanne gives me in the future before I fly. On the way up the nice shiny round cylinder with wires (the solenoid) also set off the alarms when I left Vancouver so I think I am now on the watch list for Canadian airport security.

Now I am back to Anacortes to keep the business on its FineEdge course while the crew of Baidarka brave the shifting weather enroute to the Gulf of Alaska and Kodiak. I will be joining Baidarka again in late July in Prince William Sound which will be quite an experience.

Enjoy the pictures (see Photo Album — May 11).

May 12, 2003 — Report from the First Mate

I insisted on filing today's report to keep a semblance of truth in the day's log. This is the kind of day the captain thrives on, while the crew grasps the helm with death-grip trying to control it.

We left Prince Rupert at 0510 this morning, at first light, knowing gales were predicted for Dixon Entrance, Hecate Strait and points north and hoping that an early start would get us across Dixon before the worst part of the weather hit the area. We threaded our way west, then north through circuitous Venn Passage & the North Shortcut (see p.393 Exploring North Coast of BC) where the range and sector lights read from seaward into Rupert Harbour. This means a stern watch has to holler directions to the helmsman. "On range; off range; in the red (too far to port); in the green (too far to starboard)." New acquaintances, Ken & Judy on S/V Nellie Juan from Seward, AK followed us out since they'd never been through the passage before and didn't have detailed charts. North of the shortcut we parted ways, as they set sail for Ketchikan. Seas were sloppy at first, but not bad, so we opted for the shortest route: up the center of Chatham Sound, past Dundas and Green Islands, then across Dixon Entrance. Winds of up to 30/35 NM from the SE had been predicted and we were soon wallowing in 2-meter seas. John and Don lowered the stabilizers and "fish", which helped somewhat, but with following seas we still rolled a lot. Because the boat was yawing, the autopilot had difficulty maintaining a downwind course and we had to hand steer, no easy task in those seas. By the time we were 15 miles from Rupert, all the indications of gale were visible: breaking seas and streamers of white foam across the water. I had been at the helm for several hours, but had to ask Don to relieve me because I couldn't control it any longer. Fortunately, the moment it got rough, I put on my new electronic "Relief Band" and did not get seasick. (Time will tell whether it works in the Gulf of AK, but I hope I don't have to test it any further than I did today!) Unfortunately, John lost his sea legs and felt horrible. The captain, on the other hand, whistled all the time he was at the helm, thriving on the fact that Baidarka was handling conditions well. (Frankly, I kept thinking he was whistling past the graveyard!) Baidarka's stabilizer poles groaned and creaked a lot, but the only emergency occurred when the freezer shot open and spewed all its contents. Someone forgot to put the lock on last night and I neglected to check it this a.m. (Future crew take note!)

Regards, love, hugs, etc (as the shoe fits) to everyone from Réanne

P.S. It's now 1800 hours and time for the First Mate to start supper. John has been reading Bernard Lewis' "Crisis of Islam" and he and Don are discussing the world situation over their 100th glass of port (that's counting the last two weeks). Menu tonight: sherried veal with linguine (courtesy of the freezer spill out); don't ask for the recipe I'm making it up as I go along. To Sean & Midge, et al: thanks for your Mother's Day greetings. Very funny, but Mark assures me we don't have to be THAT careful. Also, please tell your brother to check his earthlink mail. To Chris & Debi: Hope the wedding went beautifully; give my love to Amanda, and to birthday girls Christa & Marissa.

P.P.S. to Dina: Congratulations! We're very happy for you, but sorry you'll be leaving FineEdge.

May 12, 2003 — Comments from the Pilothouse:

Once it appeared that our crew wasn't exactly enjoying today's cruise, I started crabbing Baidarka toward the west side of Chatham Sound with the idea of seeking temporary shelter in Hudson Bay Channel between Dundas Island and Nares Islands. Years ago, Reanne and I found shelter in a small unnamed nook on the SE side of Dundas Island years, which we named Hudson Bay Cove, and used it to escape nasty NE winds that sometimes blow down 100-mile-long Portland Canal. The question today was how much shelter we could find from a SE gale. The cove is poorly charted (no soundings or depth contours) with a nice 20-ft-deep hole in its center and it looked like a good place for us to drop the hook. The water inside the cove was flat and we've been swinging slowly around while the wind blows overhead across the trees. Now that the tide level has fallen about 15 feet, a couple of small rocks have uncovered on the north side of the entrance so we'll make a sketch for our next edition of our North Coast BC book that shows favoring the south side when entering.

It always surprises me how good Canadian charts are for details but it also amazes me how those who surveyed these waters in the last 60 years or so missed some key details. For promotional use I just took a couple of photos of the screen of our new forward-scanning depth sounder. While it is not the quality of professional equipment, it's proved to be useful in tight quarters. Interphase Company is one of our sponsors this year and we appreciate their support of important equipment.

Prince Rupert waterfront was abuzz about the 105-foot pocket cruiser Safari Spirit with 16 people aboard that hit a rock last week in Fitz Hugh Sound along the main part of the Inside Passage, sinking the vessel. This is yet another sobering distress story that Baidarka's crew hears on emergency channel 16. On it maiden voyage three years ago, the new NOAA research vessel ran aground in Hiekish Narrows--a well marked and charted channel--and was nearly lost. High latitude cruising is a beautiful, wild experience, almost unique in today's environment but it requires constant vigilance to survive. Darwinism is still alive and well out here!

It's been pouring rain since we set our hook and now the Green Island lighthouse, 3 miles east of us, is reporting steady SE winds of 32 knots, with gusts to 40 knots, and rough 7-feet sea conditions. This means Baidarka won't attempt to move farther north today; instead, we'll relish our little bit of peaceful water just a few miles south of the Alaska border. The Captain broke out some wonderful chocolate covered peanuts from the McCoys and real homemade ginger snaps from Carol Cornell which they both dropped off at our Bon Voyage dock party.

The barometer has stabilized and we should head across the border tomorrow as the gale moderates. This was a good warm-up for the Gulf of Alaska which lies ahead and I'm happy to report the ship and crew did well for its initial weather test.

Presently tied up at the City Floats in Ketchikan and just finished dinner at the New York Hotel on Ketchikan Creek (good food! and nice to have it near the harbor).

We had a relatively easy day crossing Dixon Entrance as the front veered to the SW and the gale tapered off. We deployed the paravanes all the way from Dundas Island to Mary Island in AK. We had a mixture of wind, low clouds, cloud bursts and patchy sun all day long.

Only saw one other boat the entire way, but a few minutes ago a large cruiser (50-something Ocean Alexender) came in having completed the entire trip from Blaine WN in three days; flat out 20 knots with three much-needed fuel stops. Yesterday's gale caused a lot of follow up on Channel 16; the Coast Guard was looking for overdue boats or arranging emergency help; one boat hit a rock near Trutch Island; another lost its engine in Kitkatla Inlet, etc. The Coast Guard announced this morning that Kisameet Bay was closed for salvage work on Safari Spirit, so it looks like the grounding will turn out to be a real tragedy.

There were three giant cruise ships tied up to the wharf when we arrived; next week, when the real cruise ship season starts they expect to have five ships here every day. The ships arrive in the morning and leave in the afternoon starting at 3 pm; they travel overnight to the next stop, Juneau, Glacier Bay, Sitka or Skagway on a regular schedule. Downtown Ketchikan is now almost entirely jewelry and souvenir shops...certainly not the frontier charm of yesteryear as I knew it when I lived here as a teenager and ran the radio station for Ellis Air.

We found that the Ketchikan Micro Brewery is out of business and our favorite Spruce Tip beer is no more.....what a bummer....we may leave tomorrow and go hide out away from all this tinsel town stuff!

The saltwater temperature has been dropping and is in the high forties now. The Dickinson diesel pot belly stove feels really nice. We started it a week before we left and it runs 24 hours a day.

John and I can't figure out our fuel comsumption. We have a slow 6 knot boat but we seem to make fuel as we go along; the longer we are out the more fuel our sight gages indicate. We left Anacortes indicating 600 gallons and together both gauges now read 660 gallons remaining! For some unknown reason we seem to be generating fuel. We'll top the tanks in Sitka this week-end then perhaps we can get a good idea of what's happening.

Today was my 71st birthday. John gave me a New Zealand wool hat which has already become my favorite cold-weather hat; Réanne gave me a kneeling pad to protect my tired old knees and a whistle that's supposed to be heard 1/8 mile away in case I fall in the water or some horrible disaster like that. The crew tricked me into not having dessert at the cafe and served me vanilla ice cream slathered with Bailey's Irish Cream when we got back to the boat.

We're all pretty tired from yesterday's gale, so we plan to sleep beyond the usual 0430.

Report from Sumner Strait, heading toward Cape Ommaney at the tip of Baranof. We're in the process of deciding whether to take Rocky Pass or go on the outside of Baranof; the WX report predicts 20kn winds, small craft warnings on the outside.

Yesterday we left Ketchikan at 1030 hrs, headed north in Clarence Strait. Barometer read 1002mb and the wind was SW Force 3. As we hit the convergence of Tongass Narrows & Clarence, seas were lumpy so John & Don deployed the stabilizer poles but not the "fish" which stabilized Baidarka but didn't slow us down. The water calmed quite a bit as we moved northward and I was able to finish the edit of Chapter 8 and phone changes to Mark by cell later in the afternoon. We are now out of cell phone range, and the Iridium had insufficient signal strength for us to send the 5/13 report until late last night. But so far the sat phone has proved to be our best friend for communication.

Shortly after noon when John and I were on watch, the M/V Blitzen a beautiful 50+ foot passagemaker from Portland, OR passed abeam of us and slowed. I opened the port side door to take a look thru the binocs and the skipper came out and held up a copy of our Inside Passage book (now out of print). I waved and gave him a thumbs up. Unfortunately Captain missed the visual kudos.

By 1519 we were abeam Thorne Bay & Meyers Chuck. Continued on thru Snow Passage bucking a 3kn flood; Don took the east side where we found a 3kn back eddy, which picked up our speed to 10.1 kn over ground for the first half of the passage! After that our speed decreased to 3 kn through the rapids in turbulent waters. Current predictions read 2.5 kn on the flood and we were having 4.5 kn.

As if "reading the river" (Don hand steered all thru the passage) didn't give us enough excitement we were treated to the sight of more than a dozen orcas feeding and surfacing in Snow Passage. Six of them nearly gave us each a heart attack when they crossed the bow just 20 feet in front of us. Don had to throw the throttle in neutral and, for a moment, I had visions of the couple whose sailboat was struck and hit by a whale in the South Pacific during the early 1970s. But they just glided on their way giving us the thrill of the trip to this date. Till then we had seen very little animal life, other than birds: one merganser, murres, guillemots, blue herons, loons, least sandpipers (amazing flight patterns and tight turns), and of course, eagles en masse. Just now as I write this we had a rare sight of 5 arctic loons.

Last night Don asked the crew if we wanted to continue to Red Bay, making a radar approach and anchoring in the dark or scout out a new anchorage while it was still dusk. "The new anchorage!" was our answer, so we "cheated death again" (John's favorite expression) through a nasty section in Snow Passage, at the convergence of Clarence and Sumner straits and set anchor at 2130 hrs in an unnamed cove on the north end of Bushy Island that offers good protection from S & SE winds (position: 56 16.53'N, 132 58.87'W); John named it George Bushy Bight. The anchor bit on our first try (grey mud) and held well throughout the night.

Nobeltec on the ship's computer acted up again yesterday, so Don dumped the W. Coast charts from San Diego to Seattle and a bunch of routes and it seems to be working better today. We passed Red Bay a few minutes ago and have decided to take Rocky Pass to give John a thrill and to avoid the small craft situation on outer waters. As I finish this email we're bobbing up and down in the wake of the SS Zaandam which just passed on their southbound journey.

We all send our hugs, love & regards, Réanne, Don & John

Report from the Pilot House: we just turned into the south entrance of Biorka Channel from the Gulf of Alaska and should be tied up in Sitka in about 3 hours.

Yesterday, as we reached the top end of beautiful Prince of Wales Island at Point Baker, it looked very smooth down Sumner Strait toward Cape Decision so I decided that the forecast for small craft warnings because of 7 ft seas was overrated and we could save time and get some more offshore sea legs by going outside Baranof Island after all. Réanne and I love Rocky Pass, as one of our favorite routes, but it is very intricate and would have added another 30 miles or more.

At Cape Decision conditions were fine and we headed across the bottom end of Chatham Strait for Cape Ommaney 25 miles across. Seven foot swells were rolling in from the SW but the crew decided not to put our paravanes in the water as only the stabilization poles deployed were required. Everyone did fine until we passed under Cape Omaney and started out on the west side of Baranof Island. We immediately found heavy turbulence and dancing waters on top of the swells that had grown to 8 footers with occasional 10 footers. Before we could think about getting the paravane fish into the water to help calm the rolling, I found myself single handling the boat for the next two hours.

Réanne was game to seek shelter in Réanne's Terror the un-named inlet we ran across several years ago when we also need some calm waters. It's about 20 miles north of Cape Ommaney on the west coast of Baranof Island. Breaking seas close alongside with foam covered the entrance behind the large rock that hides the inner entrance. It's easy to see why no one had written about the place before. We knew by experience that the narrow entrance was deep and would likely not break clear across.

So in we went, with Réanne at the helm, and made our hard right turn and within two or three minutes Baidarka was in flat calm water! This place has to be the fastest transition from rough Gulf of Alaska seas to flat calm water along this entire coast. No more than two hundred yards from chaos to serenity!

We put the fish in the water inside the inlet this morning before we left at 0445 and the ride has been somewhat easier. The crew is up and about now and taking pictures of magnificent Mt. Edgemore. We have been seeing the snowy cone on the horizon since early morning which must have been similiar to what Vitus Bering and his crew saw as the first Europeans to see North America from the east side of the Pacific. Yesterday dolphins played in our bow wake and this morning we caught up and passed a group of three grey whales heading north at 5 knots just 50 yards inside our starboard bow.

May 16, 2003 (later in the day)

We tied up in New Thomson Harbor, Sitka, at 1455 after having refueled (372.2 gals). We decided that we'd better be underway the next day to take advantage of the good weather predicted, so we had to hustle to get in visits with old friends, laundry, re-provisioning, calling on FineEdge.com dealers, and gathering information from local acquaintances.

Long time friends Lizzie and John Herschenrider whom we met about 8 years ago on our first visit to the Charlottes surprised us with a visit. At the time we first met them they were planning a round-the-world cruise, but after several seasons in Mexico, they decided that Alaska was still in their blood, so they came north again, and built a cabin on Baranof Island's east coast where they now spend their winters. They happened to be on their Bristol cutter in New Thomson (bought in Ventura, CA and rebuilt in San Diego) and kindly drove Réanne around town to do her chores. Richard Freidman on Explorer was also in New Thomson, so we had another good visit with him.

One of our new acquaintances, Ward Eldridge had a tragic story to tell about losing "Merlin," his 111 year old, 73-foot schooner that he'd rebuilt from the keel up. In the fall of 1999, he and his (now) wife, Kathy, had anchored Merlin in the outer harbor of Still Harbor north of Réanne's Terror on Baranof's west coast and were kayaking in the inner harbor. When they returned to Merlin all they could see was the top of the main mast protruding above the water. The entire boat was under water. Ward was sure the hull had been rammed by a whale, but everyone who heard the story thought something was "fishy". Don had read an article from the Juneau newspaper and had the same response. Later, however, volunteers agreed to raise the boat if Ward would agree to donate it the Sitka Maritime Museum Assn. He did, and Merlin was hauled to Sitka to be repaired. On inspection of the hull in the Sitka shipyard, Ward and others discovered a perfectly formed 5-foot round hole and inside the hull was a baleine from a humpback whale. Ward's reputation was saved and the boat sailed south to Seattle to be used as an educational vessel. (The vessel is apparently now in private use.)

The docks were abuzz about the S/V Dagmar Aaen, a Danish-built gaff-headed cutter whose German crew completed the Northwest Passage last summer. (Unfortunately we didn't have time to meet them.)

We left Sitka at 1355 Saturdar after having completed our provisioning and having picked up the packet of San Juan Gulf Island M/S sent Express Mail from Mark at FineEdge. (For once the Postal Service didn't let us down; the packet arrived overnight from Anacortes--better service than we can get from there to California.) We navigated Olga and Neva straits, exciting narrow channels with strong currents--essentially the only route used to Sitka for all but large cruise ships, so we had to "be vigilant" at all times. We set anchor in Kalinin Bay, 27.7 miles later, at 1808 hrs. There were about a half dozen other boats already anchored there (most of them fishing charters). Joe and Margy Orem on their M/V Pelorus from Bellingham who are also heading to Prince William Sound, but about 10 days behind us, were also anchored there. (We last saw Joe and Margy in Fury Cove.) For dinner: fresh halibut filets prepared par excellence by John and a big salad by RHD. (This halibut, bought fresh at Lakeside Market above the harbor, made up for a disappointing dinner at Channel Club the evening before. In their defense, I must confess that they deducted my portion of the bill from the total.)

Sunday, up at 0330 (an ugh heard here and there from the First Mate & able crewman) and underway by 0400, to prove a long, rolly day.

While we're underway tomorrow (Tuesday), the captain will continue with his description of our high-anxiety entry to Lituya Bay. It's now 2240 and the alarm is set for 0415 so we can catch the proper tide for exiting. We had fantastic weather today in Lituya and hope to be safely in Yakutat by Tuesday night. I've kept one step ahead of nausea by wearing my Relief Band, but it doesn't keep me from getting dizzy or sleepy, and I don't dare read or write while we're underway. (Tuesday underway am trying to write short additions, keeping eye on horizon as I do.)

Love and cheers from Réanne

We're anchored in Lituya Bay & will attempt to catch up on the past few days. Between chores at Sitka and long runs since then we've had very little time for extras. In addition, the satellites don't always pass overhead when we need to send something.

Now en route for Yakutat. Gently rolling seas. Just did anchor test inside Cape Fairweather and now passing Cape Fairweather Massif. Don will write more later. I couldn't send my part last night because didn't have enough signal stream on the Iridium.

Baidarka is sitting out some marginal weather in the Yakutat small boat harbor, catching up on chores and recording considerable data we've gathered since arriving at Sitka.

Our stay in Sitka was only 24 hours, just long enough to make contact with a few key accounts, gather what info we could find on what might lie ahead and pick up the manuscript for Réanne to proof. With a low pressure system moving across the Gulf from Kodiak we wanted to get as far north as quickly as possible. So Saturday afternoon we moved up to our old favorite Kalinin Bay where we could make a long jump to north of Cape Spencer, the real beginning of the outside waters and the end of consistent cell phone, VHF weather reports, Coast Guard on Channel 16, etc.

We left Kalinin Bay at 0400 hours on May 19 and soon picked up a large group of California Grey Whales headed north for the summer. We were doing just over 6 knots and the whales about 5.5 knots so we slowly passed them about 200 yards inside our course line. We made good about 100 miles Sunday and anchored about 6 pm in Astrolabe Bay (named after LaPerouse's second ship). John and I checked out Boussole Arch and think that, under the right conditions, Baidarka could make it through this amazing geologic formation. Réanne and I think it's the most dramatic sea arch we have seen from Mexico to Alaska. It is about 100 ft high, with a solid 60-foot-thick chock stone with 60-foot trees growing on it. In a crack in the wall next to the Arch we could hear a sea lion harem crying out in alarm. After taking several passes with our echo sounder to get a good idea of the water depths, we were pursued by a bull sea lion whose agressive maneuvers and a big breeching next to our dinghy helped John and I decide to take leave, pronto.

One Monday May 20, with favorable weather, we pushed on to Lituya Bay. Tide conditions were at a minus 3 feet but we arrived just ahead of slack water and waited for the fast-moving ebb flow to cease. Réanne had been at the helm when we arrived. She got Baidarka in position and started in on the range-marked course but found steering somewhat difficult in the still-turbulent slack water. We had a few anxious moments as the seas breaking so close to both sides of the boat made us all nervous. [RHD's comments: It was SO difficult to steer that I asked Don to take over the helm; he had to jockey it around several full turns to port, then to starboard to keep the boat from yawing as we entered. John kept an eye on the depth sounder and I shot photos as we went, which made me less nervous than being at the helm! At one point Don asked John to look astern and tell him what the swells were doing. John's reply: "You don't want to know; just put the pedal to the metal and keep going!"] Three years ago when we went in on the last of the flood, it seemed to go much easier.

We were quickly inside and found good anchorage in front of Centopath Island. After a two-hour nap by all hands, we launched the dinghy and surveyed two other anchor sites we hadn't been able to do survey before. At the head of the bay, directly below the 1720-foot scar of the famous 1958 Tsunami Wave, we found fresh Cougar and giant grizzly prints, otherwise no signs of man or other large animals.

On Tuesday May 21 we left at 0355 hours, made it out the entrance just before high water slack and headed north. On the north side of Cape Fairweather we surveyed a temporary anchor site used by fishing boats in past years. It looks very good to me for a shelter in SE winds; the prevailing SW swells dropped in half from 8 footers to 4 footers in the lee. The bottom is good sand with lots of swinging room and we may use it in on the way south if we need to. It's an open roadstead and a vessel would have to get underway at any time the site became untenable. We saw a sea otter mom with her baby on her stomach a half-mile off hore near the Cape.

The cruise north along the Fairweather range was beautiful. The range has to have the most striking mountain skyline seen from the sea of anywhere in the world we know about. It is huge, silently brooding, dramatic and overpowering. Most of the hundreds of peak have no name, and everything is solid white interspersed with patches of dark and sheer rock slabs, hundreds or thousands of feet high. At present, the snow line descends to about 2000 feet and rises to the 15,000-foot peak of Mount Fairweather and to the 18,000-foot Mount Saint Elias.

We anchored in Monti Bay off the village at 2100 hours after a long day of 108 miles. Yakutat is about as remote as you can get in a good part of the world. Its nearest neighbors are Cordova 200 miles northwest, and Sitka 200 miles SE. Both are towns of only 10,000 people so you can get an idea of how isolated this place is. Fresh milk costs $10 per gallon! The next morning we move the boat around to the small boat harbor a few miles north.

Yesterday, Wednesday, May 22, we rented a car at the small airport (the main reason for the village of 600) and drove to the end of the dirt road and hiked a mile to Harlequin Lake, 40 miles south of town. This huge lake that lies at the foot of Yakutat Glacier is full of floating icebergs of all sizes. It was exhilarating!

Upon return, the three of us went to the Yakutat Second Annual Beer and Wine Tasting Party at Leonard's Landing lodge, and boy was it loud and fun. 10 percent of the town was there, mostly the professionals with the airport, the fish charter outfits or the Saint Elias National Park people. (Our Exploring the Southeast Alaska is for sale in the Park Visitor Center and when we walked in--perhaps the only visitors that day--the two park rangers told us they'd heard we were in town! I sat next to a seismologist who said there was a magnitude 4.9 earthquake the night of 5/21/03. We didn't notice it because we were either bouncing along in our rented car on jeep roads or were stuck in the mud and frantically trying to digging out before dark (about 11 pm). And, yes, there were fresh grizzly tracks alongside our spinning rear wheels, so that added to our urgency. It would have been exciting to be in Lituya Bay Wednesday night in any kind of earthquake because of it history of having really big ones about every 50 years!

Today, May 23, we are waiting for a deep low-pressure system to pass and for the high seas to decrease a bit so we can safely enter Icy Bay, 60 miles to the west, our next stop. The crew is cleaning up, organizing charts, etc. Baidarka is working just fine except that quilting and freezing problems keep occurring on the two navigation computers. Good thing John Leone taught navigation courses for the Power Squadron and Réanne is a diligent helmsman as we have been able to keep moving even when we are quite frustrated. More later.

We are presently underway 20 miles west of Icy Bay 5 miles offshore headed south of due west for Cape Saint Elias and an anchor site on the west side of Kayak Island. We hunkered down for two layover days because of weather and now are cruising along in only 4 foot seas and calm winds. We have the paravane’s fish in the water to minimize the rolling from the nearly perpetual SW swell found in these parts. Réanne is sleeping in the salon while John keeps watch in the pilothouse. We got up this morning at 0245 hours because we have 120 miles to go (most likely the longest day of this voyage.) It could take us up to 20 hours if we average 6 knots and we would prefer to anchor in the twilight that lasts past 11 pm. It took John and I over 30 minutes to clean off the blue-grey clay-like mud off the anchor and the chain. The glaciers produce a lot of silt that makes the water opaque and eventually becomes a thick gooey coat on the bottom. If the layer is thick enough it makes for good anchor holding.

Our Icy Bay anchor site turned out to offer better protection than we had hoped from the strong east winds and we had a snug time. It was overcast, rainy with some sleet and cold. We were just a few miles west of the Malaspina Glacier—I believe the largest glacier in North America. Daytime temperatures were 41 degrees F. From Yakutat's Hubbard Glacier, North America’s largest tide-water glacier with 5 miles of perimeter in the salt water, west to Bering Glacier north of Kayak Island is 200 miles of continuous ice and snow. Because of the overcast we only got one fleeting view of Mount Saint Elias, 18,008 feet, the second highest peak in North America.

The weather service underestimated the winds and seas when we left Yakutat and we had a rougher trip than expected. We found out later from a logging tugboat skipper whom we anchored near in Icy Bay that the weather service sent out an updated forecast at 1 pm Saturday. We were out of radio range, so just tuffed it out. The week before last the barometer climbed 30 millibars, then fell 40, and now has risen 20 since yesterday. You can cruise off Southern California for years and not see that much barometric pressure change in months! Except for two layovers days in Yakutat and two here in Icy Bay, we have moved along our route every day since leaving Anacortes and two of these days we could have moved if we wanted to. So overall the weather has not slowed us down and we are ahead of schedule. The long-range forecast calls for gales this Friday and we hope to be inside Prince William Sound by then. We hope tomorrow will be nice so we can do some serious exploring and data collection around Kayak Island, the only place in North America where Bering landed during his epic voyage.

We saw our first moose of the trip walking the beach. It looked the size of a horse.

I made some experiments this morning calling Coast Guard Radio from both our hand held and main VHF transmitters on emergency channel 16 and received no response. The Alaska coastline is not covered with VHF repeaters like the British Columbia coast is. Ditto the weather stations and cell phones. This coast is really remote and is perhaps the least populated of any part of the coast south of the North Slope. ( his maybe also true of the entire North and South America until high latitude Chile.)

Having the ability to check weather on the web via our Iridium has been most comforting. Thanks to Mark for helping obtain and installing the equipment. We haven't used the Iridium for a phone call yet. Keeping vigilant while navigating this coast takes all our time and energy and we are too tired when we anchor to do anything but rest, clean up and eat.

In Icy Bay we turned off our Dickinson diesel heater for the first time in over a month and cleaned it inside and out. It has been most appreciated and has worked flawlessly. In fact, our whole boat, other than computers, has functioned flawlessly and we work hard to keep it that way.

When we left this morning, I was concerned that we would not see the icebergs in the twilight and what the sea conditions would be on the bar. I had all of us suit up in our survival suits and boots and conducted an abandoned ship drill with life raft and dinghy. Afterward, we maintained a close watch from outside the pilothouse for nearly two hours. It turned out to be a bit of overkill and Réanne and John are both asleep like kittens at this moment and we are 25 percent of the way to Cape St Elais at 0745.

Best Regards to all those following our trip and a special to the Fine Edge office staff and friends who email us.

To Linda: We are using the hand held Iridium mounted on the wall and I strongly recommend it.

To David Hoar: We have the updated Nobeltec version 6.5 on our ship’s computer and recommend it. Our current problem seems to be a possible conflict between new NDI electronics charts P1, P2 and P3 and other software, or overloading the system, or operator error of some kind. It is now operating OK in a minimum mode but still has quilting problems and we can't get large-scale charts to display. Our brand new DELL is running Nobeltec 7.0 and it is full of problems with the alpha version. We would not recommend version 7.0 until more cleanup happens. I am afraid they have added too many bells and whistles and operator errors become a giant waste of time. I cannot differentiate between cause and effect on various kinds of problems and I have no idea what screens, that I have never seen before, mean.

To Richard Spore: Glad we have the loan of your life raft and are working hard not to use it. We will likely want to stop in both Icy Bay and Yakutat again on the way south, lots of fun. How are things going, we would like to hear from you.

Sunny and Bob: Hope we can connect on our way south as you mentioned.

Robin and Bill: Thanks for offer to help with Nobeltec. There are just too many inconsistencies to try and work it out at this point. Réanne sends love and hopes Cancer Walk is again highly successful.

Still getting rejections on some email addresses we are sending messages to. You can follow our progress on our website and I understand some photos are now appearing. How do they look? We don't have time to check photos from this end. Thanks to all and we would like to hear from our family. Everyone, please remember not to hit reply but send us a new email.

We made it to Kayak Island last night and anchored at 2100 hours, an 18-hour day. Doubling Cape Saint Elias was quite exciting, made more so by its dramatic size and shape. We could see it from 60 miles away, rising higher out of the ocean the closer we got. Cape St. Elias, which is actually the southern tip of Kayak Island, has a spectacular knife-edge ridge over 1000 feet high. Going into Kayak Entrance was a little hairy. As Paul Lutus had warned us, the echo sounder jumped all over the place and the charted depths are a "fairy tale." Before selecting an anchor spot we spent nearly an hour going around in circles to verify the real bottom. Apparently the entire bay raised a good six feet during the 1964 Alaska quake, and all the charted depths in the bay are off by 30 to 50 percent. When we woke up this morning there was a bare reef to the north of us that wasn't supposed to be there (i.e., not noted on the chart).

John and I set out in the dinghy while it was still zero tide level (0600) and circled the new reef. We took a full set of GPS lat/longs so we can chart this carefully and set up an entrance route into the bay that should be helpful to future boaters.

We spent the morning checking the area and found lots of grizzly tracks, moose tracks, birds and a sea otter that had recently died.

This afternoon we checked out a new possible anchor site on the north side of Wingham Island. Réanne and John took the dinghy into a narrow channel on the north end of the island (Oaklee Channel--an outflow of the Bering River) to record data. We discovered that the chart missed a large rock islet over 100 ft high and 150 ft wide. Several puffins dove calmly for food near Baidarka, without appearing the least bothered by our appearance; a lone Stellar sea lion basked on one corner of the islet while thousands of black-legged kittiwakes screamed at us from their nests on all sides of the islet. The sight was magnificent but the aroma less so. We took lots of photos and will call it Stellar’s Bird Rock for his love of birds. What a pity he was anchored just a few miles from this special place but didn't have a chance to see it.

[First mate continues] We are now anchored in 4 fathoms on the west side of the Martin Islands, rocking and rolling in this open roadstead. The Martins are composed of two islands, separated by a foul passage of about 500 yards. Our two intrepid explorers have taken the dinghy to check out the islands east side while I put my two cents in.

We've been re-reading Corey Ford's classic, Where the Sea Breaks its Back, about the Bering/Stellar Russian expedition in 1741 and, before they went exploring this morning, Don and John tried to figure out where the small crew might have landed. Other than Cape St. Elias, where a substantial light station was built, and two other possible sites, the island is quite precipitous, as Don mentioned above.

The weather yesterday and today has given us a rare treat—sunshine and fairly calm (for the Gulf) seas. We have a view of the jagged mountains between the Bering River and Copper River drainage systems and what appear in the distance to be the mountains of Prince William Sound. We hope the weather will hold throughout the entry and visit to the sound!

The guys just radioed that they're on their way back, so I'll sign off and send this before I start supper.

Regards, hugs, love, etc.

We are well anchored here in Garden Bay on Hinchinbrook Island. We had a good doubling of Cape Hinchinbrook yesterday before the winds picked up and are all happy to be inside Prince William Sound. It's been exactly one month to the hour of leaving Anacortes. Not bad for only a 6-knot boat; and in addition, we've gathered lots of good data to date. Réanne cooked a special turkey dinner with cranberry sauce, baked potatoes, fresh salad (last of BC romaine and tomatoes, etc.) with lots of Italian red wine.

John and I just got back from a shore run where we saw a lot of deer tracks, a beautiful alpine meadow, but no sign of the grizzly we saw last night. All three of us will run across in the dinghy to Constantine Harbor to explore a secure harbor that has only 3 feet in its entrance and a very narrow leg with strong currents. We will then move to the north side of the island for an intimate no-name area that Paul Lutus used last year.

We just got an email from the Frisbys and plan to meet them in Valdez on Monday, June 2nd.

Dave & Evie: looking forward to hearing more about College Fiord on Monday. We may find the Lethcoses in Valdez also. Don't miss eclipse of sun available for Alaska tonight at 0830 hours.

With only two to three foot seas forecast inside Prince William Sound, life on Baidarka is back to beautiful and things couldn't be better.

To our kids: we would certainly like to hear from you. Are you following our itinerary? How about getting your kids involved in the routes and lat/long, too?? We send our love to all.

It's now 0545 hours and we're heading out of Sawmill Bay bound for Valdez harbor. We had a layover day yesterday in the southern arm of Sawmill about 1/2 mile off the entrance to a lagoon that can be entered at high tide. John and Don reconnoitered the anchorage by dinghy and noted nearby, a bad 15-ft-wide uncharted rock awash on a 4.5 foot tide ENE of the lagoon entrance. They took GPS coordinates and found the chart indicates there should be a minimum of 7 feet of water in this area, just another indication of the general rising of the seabed as part of the 1964 earthquake. The problem now is to determine which charts have been corrected for the earthquake and which have not--this comes under the heading Local Knowledge and let the user beware.

Sawmill Bay is a jewel--a marine park that deserves to have been set aside. Snow-studded mountains rise abruptly from the bay on three sides, providing stunning a background for photo opportunities. We were delighted to sight 8 harlequin ducks playing around the uncharted rocks just 100 yd. off our beam. (Just now, we're seeing the first snow chutes that fall all the way to the water!)

For the first time since leaving Sitka, we encountered other pleasure craft in Sawmill. We shared the cove with a Hans Christian sailboat from Unalaska; a Pacific Seacraft S/V 25 (looks like a Flicka but is longer); a 45+ foot M/V engaged in fishing; a small aluminum runabout and our new friends on Enetai, Dave & Evie Frisby, who rafted alongside Baidarka yesterday about noon. We had potluck dinner on board Enetai: fresh spotted prawns, and homemade bread and chowder; salmon (prepared by John); an RHD salad (a bastardized salade nicoise using our last fresh tomato). Afterward Evie & Dave treated us to a "private showing" of videos they've taken in the area here, as well as a pre-release version of the PBS 2-part special program tracing the 1899 Harriman Expedition to this area. (Our webmaster Herb Nickles mentioned this to us some time ago.) The first part airs June 11 and it's definitely worth watching. (We'd also appreciate someone's copying it for us on DVD if possible.)

We are now approaching Shoup Bay that has a very shallow entrance bar. We're going to see if we can get in on the present low tide. Bergy bits at the entrance also increase the excitement. So . . . time to bail out, suit up and head for the bow.

We are presently streaming north in Harriman Fiord on a calm day. (Don't forget to watch the PBS two-part special on the Harriman Expedition that begins June 11, and tape it for us if possible.) We haven't sent a report for several days, not because we're having trouble but because we have our hands full collecting data, taking photos by the hundreds, trying to stay off the rocks and avoiding collisions with bergy bits.Today and yesterday we're visiting the glaciers in College Fiord, a fantastic collection of hundreds of glaciers with many that reach the saltwater, calving icebergs with loud cracks and booms. This trip of ours is full of magnificent scenery and experiences of beautiful wild nature; we're overwhelmed by the sheer intensity of it all.

We are generating some very good data and have collected precise GPS info on many cove entrances, anchor sites and uncharted rocks. We are finding many small errors or omissions in the paper and electronic charts and find that we must pay close attention to our surroundings and instruments every moment we're underway. Constant vigilance at all times is a must at this fast-paced itinerary and we find we're really tired at night.

We just took what may be our Christmas card shot at the foot of Harriman Glacier, taken with Baidarka just underneath the overhanging glacier. Most of the glaciers are calving and don't allow such a close encounter.

After leaving Valdez, we had to work our way through ice into Jade Harbor. There Don and John joined David from Enetai for a four-mile grueling hike up the newly uncovered lateral moraine toward Columbia Glacier. It was exciting to hike over terrain recently covered by ice for centuries. The next day we followed Enetai thru an ice-choked channel on the north side of Glacier Island so we could move west.

The last several days have included some really striking scenery in several inlets, Wells Bay, Unakwik Inlet, Eaglek Bay and Esther Passage.

We will rendezvous again with David and Evie Frisby in Seward on June 17 and share a rental a car to visit Anchorage. David has a passion to explore uncharted areas and he and Evie have shared some vital information with us. Yesterday we picked up a kayaker who's been out solo for two weeks and shared some hot chocolate aboard Baidarka. Kim Melling, who is a teacher from Anchorage area, told us of several spots in the Kenai we should visit.

John caught two salmon in Olsen Cove so this is now his favorite spot and he says the trip is now starting. Every day we see many sea otters, birds of all types but no bears so far; it's bear hunting season and it appears they've headed for the hills!

We are cruising along in the Gulf of Alaska at 0725 local time two miles east of Cape Junken. It is raining, visibility is about two miles and solid cloud cover cuts the vertical cliffs off in a horizontal line at the 1000-foot mark. If we could see the peaks that tower another 1500 feet directly above us, it would be most impressive. We put our stabilization paravanes in the water at Cape Puget and Réanne has been able to take the helm for the last hour and a half. The seas are somewhat confused off these capes that makes for a somewhat uncomfortable ride, especially after all the smooth water we found inside Prince William Sound. We are heading along the Kenai Peninsula in the direction of Seward; the ocean remains an aquamarine color and the scenery remains spectacular. Our friends David and Evie aboard the Enetai are two miles behind us and we will rendezvous with them in Day Harbor tonight to catch up on what both boats been doing for the last five days. David says they caught two halibut, two salmon and a cod and they are planning a fish stew for us tonight.

There is almost no vegetation along Cape Junken because the snow constantly avalanches down the near-vertical slopes, depositing large, dark, shale-colored rocks into the ocean. Along this coast, 3000 ft peaks are barely a mile from the saltwater and their snowfields are awesome. The chart just says the topography north of us is "high irregular peaks". Many of these numerous peaks are covered by the Sargent Ice Field which must have several hundred miles of surface; it in turn feeds many glaciers that head down the slopes for the Pacific. Bainbridge Glacier and Excelsior, which we are now passing, have a terminal moraine that is just a short distance from the beach line. This same ice field feeds the glaciers we saw a few days ago in Nellie Juan and Blue Glacier fjords, a good 40 miles north of here.

Our hope to report each day's progress to you over the Internet went out the window with Réanne's plans to input the details on her new laptop everyday. We had been making 6 to 8 anchor checks per day, but we found we could not sustain this week after week. The vigilance required to navigate close to uncharted shores and enter unsounded coves is very tiring. Then you add in the need to dodge icebergs and transit narrow channels with strong currents and no underwater visibility because of glacier silt, you can see why we were maxed out and getting testy with each other. We got Baidarka into the narrowest and hairiest spots along the Pacific Coast to date. Shoupe Lagoon, Jonah Bay, and 29-fathom Hole, all narrow openings of 50 feet or less with currents, making for high adrenaline steering.

This week we cut our workload in half and got three nights in a row of 12 hours of undisturbed sleep...what a luxury. Our compass course is now southwest as we skirt the Kenai Peninsula toward the direction of Kodiak. We will explore several interesting inlets along here, then head into Seward, our next and only civilization until Kodiak. So far since Sitka, we have only tied up to a float for the night in Yakutat and Valdez. It 's amazing how fast you can become accustomed to wilderness exploration. Each night we have a calm anchorage in a setting with absolutely no sign that mankind has ever been here. Quite amazing!

We have been obtaining information that has not been published as far as we know and it is exciting to know things about dangerous rocks, such as when they first appear on a falling tide that isn't indicated on the charts or guidebooks. Having John Leone has been a most welcome help and he is quickly becoming an expert in doing the bottom checks.

To Rod Nash, glad to hear of your interest, will try to email you tomorrow.

Kids: Sean and Chris are headed for Cabo (Sean to attend an econ. conference and celebrate Chris' birthday early). Chris and Jeff; how about an email for us?

Friends, thanks for all the emails, like to know someone is back in the other real world. Bill and the Admiral thanks for update and suggestions, hope we rendezvous in September.

To Terry and Debbie, how interesting we are actually west of your longitude and nearly a quarter of the way around the world north of you as you approach Fiji. We will save some liquid sunshine for you guys. Trust Wings' engine problems are settled. Nobeltec now working fine on ship's computer, will get new release of 7.0 for laptop.

Just when we thought we could not get any busier, we did!

The Kenai Peninsula and Fjord National Park is one of the best-kept secrets in wilderness travel. Other than our buddy boat Enetai we see almost none other than occasional fast 100 ft day tour boats out of Seward. If you get a chance, come to Seward and take these tours, they are amazing. Better yet, hop on your own boat and spend all summer up here, up close and intimate. Today alone, whales, orcas, tufted and horned puffins, a lonely loon crying out as we do our anchor check, sea otters, eagles, etc., etc.

In the Northwestern Fjord alone we visited the snout of four glaciers as close as we dared and saw another dozen or more hanging overhead. Words escape us. We had all these glaciers and fjords entirely to ourselves all afternoon with nothing manmade in sight, and no permits or limitations (at least at this time. This one fiord alone makes Glacier Bay look more like a Disney theme park. After just this one fiord Réanne says she doesn't want to go back to Glacier Bay. Here you're as close as your adrenalin (and safety considerations) permit. The ice tumbles down right in front of you for 1500 feet or 5000 feet...we simply can't describe it all.

Saturday morning we tried to get into Taz Basin (59 39.07, 149 49.13), a submerged cirque on Granite Islan