Alaska Trip Day 68

7/23/11

Rocky Pass (between Kuiu and Kupreanof Islands), AK

Miles Travelled:  48

This morning started off a little rough.  We woke up at 5am in order to get out across Chatham Strait before the predicted winds would be opposing the ebb tide.  Lars woke up while we were getting ready and it spawned several miscommunications between Tor and me, so even though Lars went back to sleep with little more than some back patting, the morning for Tor and me was kind of sour.  Fortunately we talked it through and figured out some things to try for making early mornings like that go better.

The predicted wind (S 15 kts) never appeared and we motored across a glass calm Chatham Strait and into Frederick Sound.  We saw lots of humpback whales in Frederick sound but they were never very close, and I even saw a couple of Orcas.

The weather was glorious.  I was at the helm a significant portion of the morning and we motored into Rocky Pass while the boys were napping.  The usual north/ south route by Kupreanof Island is Wrangell Narrows which is very well marked, dredged to known depths and very busy with commercial traffic.  We used Wrangell Narrows on our trip northward and decided to give Rocky Pass a try on our trip southward.  Rocky pass is very shallow, kelp infested and though a portion of it called “The Summit” used to be dredged it is no longer.  The Coast Guard does not recommend boaters to pass through and even went as far as taking out all of the navigation markers several years ago to try and dissuade people from using it.  That only caused more problems and the Coast Guard had to rescue more people from Rocky Pass, so they put the markers back in.  You need to transit it at high water because at zero tide the minimum depths in the navigable sections are about 4 feet.  We draw 4.5 feet, so high tide is mandatory!  Actually, you want to hit the two tricky sections, “The Summit” and “Devil’s Elbow” just before high tide so that there is some current to lay the kelp down to help reduce the risk that you will get kelp wrapped up in your prop.  We weren’t going to go through The Summit or Devil’s Elbow today because the timing wasn’t right for high water…besides that, we’d covered enough miles today!  But, the great thing about Rocky Pass is that you can anchor just about anywhere.  The depths are shallow enough and the holding is good in mud, it’s also not an area that gets much strong wind, so we just found a 30 foot hole and dropped our anchor.  Perfect.  High tide is at about 8:30 tomorrow morning, so we will get up and get going around 7-7:30 to transit The Summit and Devil’s Elbow.

Second Wind anchored nearby not too long after we got settled.  We had dinner (Kenyan Beef Curry with brown rice and broccoli) and later Alice and Steve from Second Wind came over to visit.  They caught some rock fish on their trip from Baranof today so they very kindly brought some over for us.  We still have salmon in the icebox from Scott and now rock fish…we feel very rich!

Playing in the cockpit at anchor