June 14, 2023
Following an excellent night’s sleep on anchor at Bottleneck Inlet we woke up to blue skies and calm seas. Our original plan was to cruise to Hartley Bay Area and find an anchorage for the night. This would have been about a 7 hour cruise. As we are cruising we received information from our meteorologist that we may be able to cross Dickson Entrance into Alaska on Saturday. With this knowledge, and very calm seas, we changed our cruise destination to Lowe Inlet, about another 2.5 hours. All in all a 10 hour cruise.
Along the way we did not encounter any boats save for this one.
We experienced a tidal ebb coming up Grenville Channel that slowed our travel by about 2.5 knots. We finally arrived in Lowe Inlet about 4:30 in the afternoon. We have never been in this anchorage. It is quite challenging, prone to shoals, deep anchorages, and current. Bottom line: you need to be on your game to anchor here. Guess what? We could not be on our best game because our depth sounder suddenly stopped working. Fortunately we had a portable hand held depth sounder as a backup. (We normally use this for crabbing depth on our dingy). Marlene was positioned on the swim step with her hand in the water with the depth sounder trying to find the ledge that would allow us to set the anchor in 70 feet which is deep for us, and pull back and set the anchor without hitting the shore. We had to take into account the location of another boat that was anchored here in Lowe Inlet. Bottom line: we successfully set the anchor. Fortunately the tide was ebbing (low tide) so we could see where the shoal was and stay far away from it.
Tomorrow we are heading to Price Rupert where we were planning on crossing Dickson Entrance to Alaska on Saturday or Sunday. Mother Nature had a different plan. We just received local information from a fellow boater that the swells out in the ocean (roughly 18 feet and nasty gusts) are building up this weekend. It now doesn’t look good for a weekend crossing. Our new plan is to enjoy Prince Rupert (oh boy, they have a Walmart) for a few days and wait for a new opening to cross which will “probably be” on Monday. Stay tuned.
Hope you can get the sounder working.
Steve, it looks like I will have a few extra days to sort this out in Prince Rupert. We just got an updated float plan for Dickson Entrance and it looks “really nasty” through the weekend. It appears as if the seas start to settle out around Tuesday so our new timing looks like next Thursday Friday. I’m hoping I can find a technician that can assist me with the depth sounder in Prince Rupert. I think you also mentioned a Ray Marine guy I might be able to contact. Any contact information would be greatly appreciated.
Maybe there’ll be a little fabric find at Walmart?!
Marlene might even have some time to get some sewing done. The seas are turning nasty and we are going to be tucked into Prince Rupert for several days:)
Hello Greg and Marlene!
Finally able to connect to your blog. (It was a typo error on me)
We are so happy to see you experiencing your boating trip of a lifetime.
Have Marlene tie a rock on her spool of yarn, and drop it overboard for your new depthsounder!
At any rate, sincere best wishes to you both, and thankyou for posting.
Don & Gloria
Reef Raider
Don and Gloria, thanks for the reply. We are having the “adventure of a lifetime, sort of.” The scenery is beautiful, the cruise a good challenge, but the technical difficulties are a pain. I know that money and time can solve it. I just want to get back to square and be ready for the next challenge: Dickson Entrance. Right now next Thursday looks like our best go day. Time—and Mother Nature—will tell.
Sorry to hear about the depth sounder. I’ve been following you on AIS, and now on the blog! Sounds like overall a great trip, you can’t believe how envious I am. Still no action on our boat, but it’s had a few showings. Stay safe and enjoy the journey!
Gary, Thanks for your kind words. I was happy to get in and tied up to the marina before the blow, wind, and rain hit. And hit it did, hard, all night long. I have been throwing out lifelines to my boating friends, and have a marine technician here in Prince Rupert that could also help me. Current thinking on the transducer is that something is loose between the MFD and the transducer. The first project of the morning will be to see if I can hear a “pulse” at the transducer in the engine room. If yes, then I’ll trance it back to the connections in the pilot house. Twill be a disassemble day. On another note, my bow thruster crapped out and is still just ticking when I try to engage it. I seem to remember there is a reset button/breaker but I cannot remember where it is. Any ideas on this?