South OZ Adventurers - Adventure, Travel, Expeditions


Ketchikan AK to Prince Rupert BC

We pulled away from the Jesse May, and said our farewells to Greg and Gillian from the water. With a brave face I paddled on, dreaming up ideas of the next time I will be in Ketckikan, in other areas of Alaska and where I will see these people again!

Lucky I keep part of my vegie burger from lunch, and as we got out of the main water traffic, I munched it down to enhance my departure mood. Food is good like that!

Now 5pm, Lach and I seemed to have procrastinated all day, actually avoiding the weather too; that until this point had been filled with miserable heavy rain and dull light. That real winter weather. As we headed for Point Alava, the sun came out and the gortex came off. That's Alaska for you. With no real destination or camp spot in mind, we decided to paddle until we wanted to get off water. We had already paddled this coast line and knew where our 'outs' would be. It felt great to be back on water after 4 days of rest and exploring via other means. There is something about that feeling of paddling and being so close to the water. It's familiar and comfortable. With the usual Kim mode of wanting to keep paddling all night, we finally pulled into Alava bay sometime around 10pm. 2 days earlier Greg and Gillian were unable to get around Point Alava in their 25ft power boat, due to weather, here we were paddling in the dark and making out the silhouettes of the land features under LED light.

The most difficult thing about arriving at night somewhere is portaging gear and boats over rocks and not having good visibility of a camp site.

With an easy start to the next morning, we headed across to Quadra Point and down the coast to Foggy Bay. This day presented sunshine and rain, rain, heavy rain, and sunshine. Fantastic! It was actually really awesome and refreshing to be pelted by this fast moving storm. We found an awesome white sandy beach during the early afternoon, pulled our kayaks up and set up camp. It had been a long time (nearly 2 months) since we had found a beach so appealing. The sun came out and we went about the daily ritual of drying what we could. An afternoon sleep, a bit of Alaskan music, a relaxing evening cooking dinner and watching the sunset saw us totally encapsulated in our final days in Alaska.

As we paddled further south during the next day, it was similar environment just with a little more exposure to the open ocean of the infamous Dixon Entrance. We sailed for a good portion of the day in light to mild winds. Again a pleasure, as the warnings we had received over the last 3 months cautioned us. A lunch of cheese and crackers (kilo # 14 of cheese??), we hung out in the sun and enjoyed the white beaches of Cape Fox. Our destination of Lincoln channel was near.

Lincoln channel is tucked amongst Kanagunut and Sitklan islands, provides shelter and tie up docks for the gill netters working in the area. Its one of the most southern areas of Alaska and is a good place to wait out bad weather prior to setting out across the Portland canal. We were directed towards a small campsite where we got and early night in preparation for the following day into Prince Rupert.

With an early start to avoid the winds that were due to pick up in the afternoon, we set off past Wales Island. With a 34Nm paddle we were keen to make Prince Rupert this day to aviod any possible altercations with Canadian Customs and Immigration.

The Portland canal stretches inland about 100 miles and is walled by steep granite and high peaks. The winds generally come down from the mountains, often in a NE direction. On an ebbing tide with winds, swell and waves entering from a SE direction, Dixon Entrance, this stretch of water can be extremely dangerous, often forming standing waves in excess of 6 foot. Our need to get weather and ocean conditions right was paramount to our crossing.

Tension grew as we experienced some odd and unexpected tidal rips. Using our sails we were able to negotiate about 5 rips, prior to coping the NE winds from the Portland Canal. Using this wind to our advantage we held on and sailed for most of the crossing (13Nm), until the horrified look on Lachies face told me it was time to pull them down for a bit. The winds picked up to about 25 - 30 knots, the seas were steep and choppy with wind loading. It was with relief that we made the protection of Port Simpson and relaxed our 'braced' position in our boats. In the still on the islands, the sun beat down on us and the water seemed very refreshing.

Onwards towards Rupert, the afternoon was a long and steady paddle. The waters around Big Bay were shallow and full of rocks. It felt like home to be back in Canadian territory and already we noticed a huge decline in the quality of the fishing fleet. The housing was very english and the clear cuts more prominent. Ahhhgggh paddle back to wild Alaska.......quick!!!!!