geneth

Spencer Yacht Owners Group

sv Geneth

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Geneth - North To Alaska

Gail and JM Kiel

The Crew at Margerie Glacier
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North to Alaska – Lessons Learned

Have you ever thought about taking your boat up to Alaska? For many years I have wanted to make that trip – to take my boat up the Inside Passage and explore the waterways, sounds, and inlets from Seattle to Glacier Bay National Park. So on June 4, 2005, after more than seven months of boat renovation projects including a complete Awlgrip paint job, my wife Gail and I set off on our Spencer 53 Pilothouse Geneth for a planned trip of six weeks. Like most expectations in life the reality of the trip ended up being sometimes more and sometimes less than anticipated, but it did provide us a number of invaluable learning lessons that we will apply to our future travels. We thought that maybe some of what we experienced and learned might help others who may be planning a similar trip so we made a list of lessons learned.

Blue Mouse Cove
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Time – You will need more than you think and will have less than you want. We had planned a six-week trip, but ended up taking seven weeks and wished that we had planned for even more. We covered more than 2,400 nm on our trip with an average speed of 5.9 knots.

    Eldred Rock
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Weather – We discovered the reality that a forecast is the best guess available and that weather is what you actually get. The forecasts from Environment Canada focus on that day’s weather with an outlook for the next 24 hours while the NOAA forecasts try to give a longer range forecast that often was not actually very helpful. We had somehow convinced ourselves that summer in Alaska would be like the summers we were used to in the Puget Sound area – weeks on end of nice weather as the Pacific High sent the jet stream and all of the associated fronts north. In retrospect a little thought would have told us that where those fronts typically go in the summer is into Southeast Alaska. Although we were told that the summer weather we had on our trip was even worse than typical as we experienced days and weeks of rain and fronts in seemingly never ending waves. A little more detailed reading of the Coast Pilot would have shown me that Juneau averages overcast weather 75% of the time in July.

     Taiya Inlet
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Wind & currents – Where the wind goes so goes the currents (regardless of what your tide tables say. The issue of currents seemed to be a greater factor along the B.C coast (Dodd Narrows and Seymour Narrows) than it was in Alaska even though the tidal range in Alaska was greater.

Pruth Bay
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Make sure your boat is well maintained and thoroughly checked over before you leave. There are many empty places between most of the towns, and while a floatplane can bring you a diesel mechanic just about anywhere along the Inside Passage your budget may not appreciate the hit.

If you haven’t changed your oil very often before your trip you will get plenty of opportunity along the way. We logged over 400 engine hours on our trip.

Bring a fly swatter or, better yet, arm everyone on board. The horseflies/deerflies are truly carnivorous.

Be comfortable with your anchor(s) and anchoring techniques. Using the cruising guides we stayed with the more popular anchorages that offered good holding bottoms although they all tended to be pretty deep. Having the ability to take a line to shore can open up a lot of gunkholes.


Geneth in Wm. Henry Bay
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You can sail but you better hope the wind is going in your direction. The reality is that it is not really much of a place for a sailboat unless you have the luxury of not having a schedule to maintain. We discovered how uncommon a sailboat is in these waters in Juneau when we tried to find two replacement blocks on the outhaul for our furling main. None were to be found until we got back down to Campbell River.

Cruising guides – There are several to choose from and they are all very good with each author tending to choose their own slant or approach. The Waggoner Guide tends to generally be better for facilities and shoreside activities, although it only goes as far north as Prince Rupert. Charlie’s Charts is helpful for diagrams and anchorage information. The Douglas books provide more detailed anchorage options. The U.S. Coast Pilot and Canadian Sailing Directions make for dry reading, but they are detailed and helpful, especially the Canadian material.

Charts – we used paper charts so I cannot comment on the availability or accuracy of electronic charts. For U.S. waters we went with the B&W folio copies from Bellingham Chart Printers (www.tidesend.com). The cost savings was nice, but they were a little difficult to get used to, especially compared to the quality of the Canadian charts.

We spent about two-thirds of our time at anchor and the rest of the time in a variety of marinas. Of all the facilities that we used we felt that Campbell River provided us the most convenient and comfortable amenities. We ended up needing to repair our heat exchanger there and a recommendation from the marina put us in contact with a diesel mechanic who had the exchanger out, repaired, and re-installed inside of 24 hours

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Some things that really impressed us on a personal basis:

The long days. By the time we got to Skagway at 59° 25.0 N latitude on June 23^rd the sunset and twilight went on to about midnight after which the sun started to rise again so that by 0130 you could see dawn in the NE sky.

By the time you get to the latitude of Juneau the tree line stops at about 2,500 feet. As a backpacker I always knew that the tree line was linked to latitude and that it was lower the higher in latitude that you went, but I never realized how dramatic that was when you went this far north. That effect makes the 15,000 plus foot peaks (Mount Fairweather is 15,300 feet high) look even that much more dramatic as they loom over your sea level perspective without any softening effect of trees.

The sheer vastness of the terrain – the maze of waterways, the mountains, the wildlife, the absence of people and the limited signs of civilization.

    Taku Glacier
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The decrease in the number of sailboats specifically and even boats in general the farther north you go, and a corresponding increase in the number of fishing boats.

We had plenty of time to think about how we might have planned our trip differently to be able to see more of the areas that we wanted in the time that we had. One idea that seemed to make a lot of sense for those of us with jobs and limited available time was to split the trip with other people. They could take the boat up and cruise in Alaska then fly home as you come up to trade places with them to start your cruise in Alaska and then head south. Other thoughts included chartering a boat in Alaska, or maybe having our own boat delivered up north for us to cruise and make the return trip.

We just read a good series of articles in NW Yachting entitled “Up the Inside Passage to Alaska” by Mark Bunzel (August and September 2005) that echoed a lot of what we discovered plus gave some additional ideas. Mark is the Publisher and General Manager of Fine Edge, the publisher of cruising guides such as Exploring the South Coast of British Columbia, Exploring the North Coast of British Columbia, and Exploring the Inside Passage to Alaska by Don Douglass and Reanne Hemingway-Douglass.

Feel free to drop us a note if you have any other questions about our experiences or the actual places we visited.

Regards,

J.M. & Gail Kiel
s/v Geneth (Spencer 53 Pilothouse)
svgeneth @ yahoo . com

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The photo below was left at the original size to show you the quality and detail of the photos sent by Geneth.
You will have to use your side bars to adjust this photo. It is worth it. This is just one of many great shots.

  Pruth Bay