July 10th, 2023
Today is the official first day for us heading south back towards Anacortes. We seriously discussed whether or not we wanted to head further north on this trip but because we were too late to get a reservation to enter Glacier Bay we decided we would leave destinations north for another summer.
One other item worth nothing is that several of our readers have mentioned that the tracking of our boat is slow. This is due to the tracking mechanism AIS. When we are in major metro areas, like Petersburg, or Wrangell or Ketchikan it’s pretty spot on. However, when we go further off the grid, like Cleveland Passage the AIS tracking may be off by as much as 24 hours—unless you want to pay the 99 cents to get an immediate location. I guess they have to make their money some way.
We left Cleveland Passage this morning at 8:30 taking a slow cruise to Petersburg to arrive at slack at 2:00 p.m. The currents run strong here so arriving at slack makes docking far easier. And it was.
Our cruise was very pleasant. Almost glass like conditions with very little boat traffic. The Westerly (shown above) is a fishing vessel that was anchored in Cleveland Passage as well. We trailed behind her for the better part of the trip.
Petersburg is a town steeped in Norwegian tradition that centers around the fishing industry. Marlene and I took our last walk around the town before we settle in for the night and prepare for an early morning departure to Wrangell. We need to leave around 7:00 am to hit the tide changes correctly as we pass through Wrangell Narrows. Hopefully there wont be too much boat traffic. It’s a fairly narrow channel with limited area for boats to pass. And when it comes to tugs and tankers—size matters. You let them pass.
