Pacific NW

Expeditions

Chatham Strait was being a son-of-a-bitch today. We got thrashed, plain and simple. The humpbacks of Tenakee Inlet spouted and breached farewell to us as we turned into the strait. By noon we had rain and a moderate South wind blowing up the strait. It wasn’t more than 20 knots, but enough to send up big rollers, square waves, and swell from the ocean. The ebb tide helped us none as it amplified the steepness of the waves and further slowed our progress. Things began flying about the cabin as I worked out an emergency bail-out route. One particularly ugly wave swept the decks from bow to stern, breaking over the top of the dodger and turning it into a momentary aquarium. 20 or so gallons entered the cockpit from above, halted in mid-air, and then were thrown into the cabin as the boat plunged into the next trough. Most of it landed square on Neptune’s berth and the navigation station. I plotted a course into Peril Strait on my newly soaked charts. Our original plan was to spend the night at Baranof Hot Springs and continue southward for a circumnavigation of Baranof Island, then up to Sitka. But you must be flexible when the forces of nature insist otherwise. In short: we could’ve continued pounding into the waves making 1.5 knots for the next 10 hours, but I just got a bad feeling about it. And then I got a bad feeling about the circumnavigation, so we bailed into Peril Strait. Once inside the wind piped up but the rollers quickly subsided. I had a momentary panic-attack when breaking water erupted beside the boat. At first I thought it was a huge tree or a container from a cargo ship. It turned out to be two behemoth Humpback whales 20 feet away, surfacing on their backs to feed on the krill. I could taste the salt water on my tongue as the plumes of spray from their blowholes blew across the decks. Soon we were safe and sound at anchor in Hanus Bay. Fierce williwaws funneled into the bay from a gap to the south. But the bay was shallow and the anchor set well, and we let out a scope of 12 to 1. We made pizzas over a roaring fire after straightening up the cabin and dried things out as best we could. We are thankful for this bay and the reprieve it has brought us from the lurching waves.