We are back down in British Columbia!  It's been quite awhile since we've had internet access, so we have some catching up to do...
We left Wrangell on July 18th and anchored out in Santa Anna Inlet, then spent a night in Ketchikan, then another anchored night near the Alaska-Canadian border, and finally cleared customs in Prince Rupert on the 21st, which was a Sunday.  We needed a minor repair to our dinghy outboard, and had that taken care of on Monday, then were off on Tuesday the 23rd to Hartley Bay, which is a First Nation (native) village. We then anchored in Mary Cove, working our way south, and then spent two nights in Codville Lagoon.  The weather report was not good for crossing Queen Charlotte Sound, so we were spending more time "up north" than we would normally have.  But, we had fun along the way! Our next stop was to Namu, an very unique, funky, community!  We enjoyed it.  Then to Dawson's Landing in River's Inlet, where they were catching fish but we didn't stay long enough to fish.  We got up at 5:00 AM and were headed out by 5:30, and had a good crossing of Queen Charlotte and arrived in Sullivan Bay about 2:00 PM today.  A VERY long day in the fog...
So, our Alaska adventure is drawing to a close.  We will now head down to the Desolation Sound area to join some of our boating friends for some relaxation in the sun before we head home.
It has been such a rewarding experience to write this blog, and I have so enjoyed all the comments I have received - thank you so much!  This will be my last entry.  Enjoy the rest of the summer!

We had a great cruise in flat-calm waters from Petersburg to Wrangell.  Once in Wrangell, we were able to secure reservations for the next day for a guided tour to Anan Wildlife Observatory, on a 27-foot jetboat.  Our guide was a third-generation Alaskan with extensive knowledge about the area, and particularly the observatory.  Anan Creek has the largest run of pink salmon returning to spawn in Alaska.  It is also very unusual in that both brown and black bears come here to feed on the salmon.  Interestingly, the black bears have total respect for the brown bears, who are king of the forest, and they will not go in to the creek to feed if a brown bear is present! 
A permit is required to visit the area, issued by USFS.  Only 60 permits are issued per day, and they are reserved in some cases many months in advance.  For good reason - it is an unbelievable experience!  After arriving on the beach in the bay, we received a briefing by one of the local rangers, then walked about 1/2 mile up a boardwalk trail to the viewing deck at the falls, where the bears feed.  Bears are present everywhere, and our guide (rangers too) carry weapons, although they are very unlikely ever to be used. 
It was truly an unbelievable experience, and I hope our photos give you some idea of how special this place is.  Besides the bears, the eagles also put on quite a show, waiting and hoping to get some of the "leftovers".
We are off tomorrow to head down towards Ketchikan, expecting to be in Ketchikan in a few days. 

We have lots of catching up to do!  We have been out of cell phone/internet service for so often, it is hard to keep up,,,
We arrived in Auke Bay, Juneau, on Saturday, July 6th.  It was good to be in a big town and be able to get groceries etc, and Dave was happy to get the boat washed.  We also both got hair cuts (it had been almost 7 weeks) so now we have some not-so-great haircuts to grow out...  While we were in Juneau we decided to take a day tour to Tracy Arm to view Sawyer Glacier.  We are SO glad we did this rather than try to anchor there ourselves and navigate through the ice.  Dave certainly enjoyed it a lot more than he would have if he had been skippering our own boat through all that ice!  Plus, we never would have taken our boat so close to the glacier.  It was really a great experience and we hope our pictures do it justice. 
We left Auke Bay and headed for Taku Harbor on Wednesday, July 9th.  Did great crabbing there!  Someone we met there highly recommended we go up Seymour Canal to Windfall Harbor.  It was out of our way, but we decided to try it.  It did not measure up to the billing, but as they say, "nothing ventured, nothing gained".  So then we went back to Pybus Bay, where we had been earlier in our trip, and then finally today back to Petersburg.  We plan to go to Wrangell tomorrow, and that will be a new port that we look forward to visiting.  The picture above was taken today just before we arrived in Petersburg.  So beautiful!  We say so many humpback whales along the way today, as we have almost every day.  They are really quite a sight.  Everytrhing up here is larger than life!!

We left Sitka on June 27th and headed north, where we anchored in Kalinen Bay on Salisbury Sound.  We fished while we were there, but no luck.  I am not the best fishing buddy for Dave, but I am trying, and he is patient!
On July 1 we headed north up the outside, with the Pacific Ocean on our port for about 35 miles. Once again, smooth waters.  We entered Lisianski Strait that took us to Lisianski Inlet, and our destination of Pelican.  When we pulled into the docks at Pelican, a local fisherman noted our home port was Anacortes, and asked if we knew Tom and Mini Reink, who used to live in Anacortes.  We did!  The next morning they came down to the dock, and we learned that they are living year-round in this small community - population 120 in the summer, 40 in the winter.  They gave us a tour of the town and showed us their lovely home overlooking the inlet.  Most of the town is connected via a wide boardwalk, and the mode of transportation is 4-wheel ATV's.  We enjoyed our stay there so much!  We fished just across from town on the inlet, but again, no luck. I am starting to wonder if I am bad luck...
Off then to Elfin Cove for one night, which is another small community with boardwalks.  Then on to Hoonah, which is where we are today on the 4th of July.  This is an old Tlingit fishing village that has become a cruise ship stopover, so tourism has replaced fishing as the main industry here.  We fished for halibut today, but again, no luck.  Lost more tackle, and also the anchor off our tender (it got stuck and we had to cut the line).  Not doing too well in the fishing department...
We had 3 days of pretty steady rain, but it has let up today and we are hopeful for some more sunshine.  We had had such good weather up until then. 
We are headed to Juneau (actually, Auke Bay) tomorrow, with a night at anchor in Funter Bay.  Will spend a few days in Juneau, so will post more then!

We left Petersburg on the 20th and headed up Frederick Sound to Pybus Bay on Admiralty Island, which has the greatest concentration of brown, or grizzly, bears anywhere, reportedly one bear for every square mile.  We anchored in Cannery Cove where there is a fishing lodge.  We were really nervous about walking the dogs because of the bears, so we dinghied over to the lodge and they were gracious enough to let us walk the dogs on their beach.  We also had dinner at the lodge the next night, which was a treat.  Also fun to talk to their fly-in guests from places like Arizona and Virginia.
We then headed south down Frederick Sound to Warm Springs Bay.  We anchored in a pristine, secluded bay off the main bay.  See the pictures of our little bay as well as the falls.  Really spectacular.
We then went further south to Red Bluff Bay, which has another gorgeous waterfall.  This is where we saw the brown bear on the beach, 50-200 feet from where we were anchored (distance depends on whether you're asking Barbara or Dave)!!
From there we headed north and west through Sergius Narrows, then south to Sitka.  We will stay here 3 nights, then hope to head north again to some new territory.  We are anxious to get fishing, so stay tuned - maybe a king salmon story to come!

We have not been in cell/internet range since we left Ketchikan on the 13th.  We stayed one night in a small cove called Meyers Chuck that had a state dock, and was a good place to walk the dogs.  We moved on, north up Clarence Strait, to Coffman Cove.  This is a small fishing community also with a nice public dock.  Very friendly locals, all fishermen.  We saw some beautiful Coho salmon and smalll halibut (30 lb range) being cleaned on the dock.  We liked it so well that we stayed 2 nights.  Caught 10 crab in the back bay, but did not fish.  On to Petersburg yesterday.  We have friends who live here, and they had us for lunch today and gave us a tour of this wonderful community.  We are staying an extra night!  We plan to leave Wednesday morning and will be anchoring out for the next 6 or so days, arriving in Sitka around the 24th or 25th.  We may be out of range again, so will probably not update our blog until Sitka.  We are having a fabulous time.  Weather has been good, although may be changing, and the scenery is breathtaking.

We left Prince Rupert on Tuesday morning, June 11th, and crossed Dixon Entrance into Alaska.  We had fog, but calm waters, so we were really happy!!  Normally customs requires that once you have passed the border into either Canada or US waters, you cannot stop before clearing customs.  Like a lot of things, it's different in Alaska!  It is a 90 mile voyage from Prince Rupert to Ketchikan, the first port in Alaska.  That's a long trip, in our boat at least 9 hours.  So US Customs allows boaters, if we call ahead when we leave Prince Rupert, BC, to overnight in a place called Foggy Bay, which is about half way to Ketchikan.  So, we spent Tuesday night in Foggy Bay, and came into Ketchikan today.  What a busy harbor, with at least 6 cruise ships tied up in town and tons of cruise ship passengers in town!  Tonight we went out to dinner at a very good restaurant with two other boating families we have met along the way, so that was fun.  We are planning on staying here another night, then will head for an ancorage in a place called Meyer;s Chuck, then on to Petersburg the next day.  We are hopinng to get some fishing, crabbing, and prawning along the way.  Talked to a guy at the harbormaster's office this morning, and he said fishing was "not bad":  he had caught 5 king salmon last weekend during a fishing derby!!  I told him Dave would have "Fish envy"!!  Stay tuned!

After 4 days of travel from Sullivan Bay, we have arrived at Prince Rupert.  This is our last stop in British Columbia before transitting Dixon Entrance and entering Alaska.
We left Sullivan Bay on Tuesday June 6th and had a fabulous crossing of Queen Charlotte Sound.  We anchored that night in Fury Cove, just off Rivers Inlet.  It is a beautiful spot with white shell beaches.  The dogs loved it.  We then went to Shearwater Marina for one night, then headed northwest through protected waters.  We had read about a place called Butedale that is an abandoned cannery but has a caretaker and dock space.  It sounded pretty rustic, but was a good stopping point, so we planned to spend the next night there.  After a long day of traveling, we arrived to find the place was beyond description - reaaly bad!   Take a look at our photos in the photo gallery as a picture is worth a thousand words, as they say.  We took our life in our hands just getting ashore to walk the dogs.  Couldn't get out of there fast enough the next morning!  Our next stop was in Lowe Inlet, and we anchored just in front of Verney Falls, which is the picture you see here.  It is breathtaking and a photo doesn't do it justice.  We would have enjoyed it so much more if it had not been raining non-stop.  If the weather is better on our return trip, we will definitely stop there.  They say if the salmon are running, it is also a great place to watch bears feed in the falls.  Maybe not so great for walking the dogs, though!!
We will leave Prince Rupert Tuesday morning, when it looks like we will have favorable winds for making the crossing of Dixon Entrance.  So we have today and tomorrow to get some shopping done and exlore the town.  Next stop, Foggy Bay in Alaska,

We arrived in Sulivan Bay two days ago.  We had flat-calm water from Blind Channel, up Johnstone Straight, to Port Neville for one night, then we headed here via Tribune Channel.  Absolutely beautiful scenery, and again, calm waters. 
This is our jumping-off point to head up Queen Charllotte Straight.  It is about 60 miles exposed to the Pacific Ocean, so we have to time it right, and there have been strong winds the past two days.  The weather report for tomorrow morning looks good, so we are hoping to leave then.  Meanwhile, we are enjoying Sullivan Bay, which has been a favorite stop of ours for years.  It's not very busy this time of year, and the restaurant is not due to open until next week.  But Chris and Debbie, the managers, are so wonderful and accomodating that they opened the restaurant for us last night and we had a great dinner out.  We have had a crab pot out, and tonight we are having crab cakes.  Yumm!  Dave still has to check the pot again today, and I'm hoping for more crab.  It's hard to get your fill of fresh crab :).

We spent two cold, windy, rainy days in Nanaimo, waiting for the winds to die down so we could cross the Straight of Georgia.  We were finally able to leave yesterday morning, and had a great crossing.  We came to our SYC outstation on Cortes Island, Desolation Sound, to pick up our prawn traps that we had lost last summer.  A fellow boater found them drifting, called our cell number that was on the floats, and he took them to Cortes Bay where our outstation manager stored them for the winter.  Pretty nice! 
As you can see from the picture, not many boats here at this time of year.  It will be packed by summer.  We were thrilled to see the new Pea Patch at the outstation that managers Marvin and Heather have constructed,  It is awesome!  We harvested some fresh herbs to take with us.
The sun is finally out today, and we are heading to Blind Channer for the night, then hopefully up Johnstone Straight tomorrow and on to the Broughton Islands.  Our next big water to cross is Queen Charlotte Straight.