Wednesday, May 7, 2014

Alaska is right over there

Its been a long old grind up the island, around Cape Caution and finally up the coast to Prince Rupert but tonight we can almost see Alaska.  Its right over there, behind the fog bank.

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It was pretty foggy in Prince Rupert when I got up and it got worse before it got better.  We probably had less than 200 yards visibility when we finally got untied around 9:30.  We’d have been away earlier but we had the small matter of 4 cases of wine to deal with before we could leave.  We left Cow Bay with a serious overload of wine and this morning we were still carrying way more than we wanted to enter Alaska with.  More importantly, we had way more wine onboard than we wanted to try getting back into Canada with.  I doubt that the Americans will give a damn what we’re carrying but the bloody Canuck Customs are another matter altogether.  They’d happily charge us duty and tax on wine we made ourselves if we tried to bring it back into the country.

Once we got the wine safely stashed in the Prince Rupert Yacht Club’s storeroom we snuck out into the channel, feeling our way through the fog with both radars running.  By the time we got to the west end of the bay it was starting to lift.  When we went by this old ferry dock we had probably 10 miles visibility and it never got any worse that than all day but there was always a little fog somewhere on the horizon.

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Shortly after we passed this abandoned ferry landing Marilyn spotted two wolves on the shore.  I was kind of occupied winding our way through some seriously skinny water so I didn’t bother even trying to take their picture. 

Tonight we’re anchored at the head of the little inlet on the north side of Dundas Island, just to the east of the skinny arrow in the picture below.  Off to the west the next solid ground is Japan or Russia.

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That big area of white water at the lower left of the image is known as Dixon Entrance.  Its the last gate we need to pass in order to get to Alaska and, weather permitting, it will be behind us by tomorrow night.

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