PRINCE OF WHALES ISLAND

I didn’t get much sleep last night.  The selected anchorage looked promising on the chart but turned out to be a wind funnel and we were hit with gusts all night.  The rain continued all night and into the morning but took a break this afternoon.  Its back again tonight.

I am on Prince of Wales Island now.  I fancy a look down the west side, it looks interesting and off the usual tourist track.  To get to the west side I will have to go over the top of the island.  It may mean doubling back to get up to Glacier Bay, just have to see what the wind brings.

We sailed up from last nights’ anchorage and had a nice free wind all the way.  I didn’t bother with the main as we were doing above five knots with the jib and we didn’t do a great distance.  No other boats out and about today, there was a small craft advisory issued so they probably stayed tucked up somewhere.

There is a big weather system out in the Pacific bringing warm moist air up from the south.  As this hits the mountains and colder water its turns to heaps of rain.  So this wind is good for sailing, just need to soak up the rain.

This evening I have found a nice sheltered anchorage, a bit tricky to get into at low water but once inside it’s a nice sheltered basin.  There is a stream entering at the end and three areas of meadow where the grass comes down to the shore.  Looks like bear habitat to me.

Once anchored this evening I launched the pig.  She obviously didn’t like being disturbed and took a chunk out of my ankle.  It seems impossible to launch it without suffering some sort of personal damage.  Now the pig is off the deck I will light a fire tonight and warm the boat through.

In Ketchikan I bought a new spark plug, some petrol and two stroke mix for the outboard motor.  I will have a go at getting it going later.  Total voyage distance 782.2 Miles.

Logged 1st June 2016