The sailing adventures of SV Meriwether and her crew
The next leg of our journey exiting Alaska was to hop from Baranoff Island to Prince of Wales Island. Normally this is not even a concern, but these two islands are separated by a fair distance of open water – water that is subject to the herculean tidal currents of Chatham Strait. Not to mention that the total distance to...
Craig was a nice enough little fishing town. During our stay we ate out each evening, visited all the local supply shops, and even got a few boat-to-dos done. But neither of us took any serious photos, as is our norm. We were both eager to get off the dock so after a two night stay we were cutting the...
Two days of patience was finally going to pay off. The wait rewarded us with a damn near perfect wind forecast to sail across Dixon Entrance and Hecate Strait. This won’t be our first time, as we did it last year on the way up as part of a three-consecutive-day passage up the second half of the trip to Alaska....
The marina situation in Prince Rupert leaves a lot to be desired. There is very little space for cruising boats in the two tiny marinas. The docks advertised on the charts and in the guide books for customs and such, simply do not exist [anymore]. We were lucky to have gotten some space at the yacht club for the couple...
A two day rest was in order after the six consecutive days of movement last week. The small village of Klemtu, or just outside it in a nearby anchorage, was our safe haven for this time of rest. Not much was happening in the village itself anyway. It really only consisted of a resort, still closed by COVID. The anchorage...
The old mostly-abandoned town of Ocean Falls was on our route as a stop of convenience. Looking at it on the charts, it did have a few things going for it, such as we could live a day below a large hydro dam – it sounded more interesting at the time. It was also long abandoned, though there are a...
It was another 25+ mile voyage from our last stop in Ocean Falls – they all seemed to be 25+ nowadays – but at least the wind would run in our favor this day. It wasn’t particularly strong, in fact pleasant enough for Kerri to work down below while I jibed our way up the channel on a broad-reach with...
One might think we would spend the rest of our lives at such an ideal spot as Eucott Hotsprings, but move on we did. We still had Labouchere, a section of Burke, and North Bentick Channels to navigate to the apex of our inland adventures at Bella Coola. It was still a long haul to get there, but the forecast...
Leaving Bella Coola, after a three day rest, we were under no delusion – sailing would not be taking place this day. In fact, we were racing against the clock as the nearest anchorage was 6 hours down-channel, with strong winds that would oppose us by afternoon. Burke Channel is notorious for making life hard on sailors that are traversing...
We had a few day wait – thanks to weather – before we could safely round Cape Caution. The Cape is notorious for making mildly foul weather into a supremely big deal, not necessarily for the weather itself but for the state of the water it creates. Nevertheless, a good amount of wind was coming our way for a couple...
