Yesterday we fought the elements of Ketchikan, wind, rain, and cruise ship tourists, to walk thru downtown and spend sometime in the local library. It overlooks the creek and you can hear the falls inside of the library. When we got back to the boat we had gusts in the high 30 knots and during the night in the 40's. But today is much better and with luck, we might have good weather tomorrow and be able to head South.
In the meantime, I’ve come up with a new purpose to cruising, just sorry I didn’t think of it earlier. While the First Mate on Shaman may be searching for the best ice cream in the PNW (some people are crazy to think about ice cream in 55 degree weather), I’m going to start searching for the best hot chocolate or hot latte bar. Thus, I’m now checking out local coffee shops, and also hoping to find one that acts as an internet café. The Ketchikan Library doesn’t provide free wifi and the que line for their PCs is quite long.
I'm currently in a little coffee shop, near the Safeway, called Roasters Roost. They have a nice hot chocolate, with the best whip cream I may have ever had. And they provide free wifi access, giving me a great place for a quick blog update.
We’ve learned that “The Broughtons” have not had rain in two+ weeks, only sunshine! Needless to say we are getting excited about leaving Ketchikan and cruising The Broughtons. There is a large number of anchorages in quiet coves, but there are also several small marinas. Each of the marinas have their own personality, e.g. one serves pancakes, another provides a crab or shrimp happy hour, etc..
Thru our cell phone, we’ve spoken with Doug & Jean, on Shaman, and they are also holding tight on the docks, north of us, in Wrangell, and waiting for weather to cruise further south. We had hoped that they would have been able to make it into Ketchikan, by now. Hopefully we'll see them again in The Broughtons.
While Mariners need to pay attention to weather conditions when they cruise, it is particularly important to do so when cruising in the PNW. The more data sources the better, as some weather reporting sources might provide too general of information for a broader area, whereas other sources might provide greater insight on a specific area that a Mariner may be crossing.
Here is another source that was shared to us by Rick & Barbara, from Galatea:
www.ARH.NOAA.GOV
Use the sidebar menu: Marine Forecasts, Public statements, area discussion SE
Http://pajk.arch.noaa.gov
Select “graphical”
We are now able to pick up the Canadian Weather on VHF, as well as the US Weather. For where we are heading we view the Canadian Weather is providing us more appropriate information.
Dixon Entrance East: currently 10-35 knots with Storm Warnings (> 45 knots), sea swells 16’
From our perspective it seems low pressure systems come in about every 3rd day, pulling in high winds and moisture {lower the pressure, the higher the winds}. Sunday we didn’t have any rain, but low clouds and frosty breeze with wind strength increasing as the time passes. But Monday and today have been pretty wicked.
We are thinking of our friends at MBYC in San Diego who are off cruising in Catalina Island coves, with weather in the high 70’s and calm seas. They’ll have kite flying contests, picnic dinners on the beach, hikes, kayaking, happy hours and great fun in the sun. We hope they have a great summer cruise and we’ll toast them with our Alaska Pale Ale, while we dine on fresh salmon tonight, listening to the wind and wondering when it will be safe for us to start cruising further south.
We may make a direct run to Prince Rupert vs stopping over in Foggy Bay. The Prince Rupert Yacht Club provides free WIFI access on the docks. If we make the run tomorrow morning we may not be on the docks till the evening, but I'll try to provide an update to keep you aware of where we are.
While photos of rainy days in Ketchikan are not much fun, I'm posting a few photos taken in Ketchikan when the sun was out (a few days back).
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