Sailing SE Alaska

August 4, 2012 Baby Bear Bay to Sitka

    We woke up to sunshine today and had a leisurely morning. I sat up on deck soaking up the sun, reviewing the charts and info about Serguis Narrows. A raven’s call echoed in our little tree lined cove. Serguis Narrows is a narrow channel dredged to a depth of 21 feet and is 450 feet wide with currents up to eight knots unless taken during slack. Today the flood slack is at 1:20 pm.
    At 12 noon, we pulled anchor and I had expected Pete to take the helm back out through the tricky entrance to Baby Bear but he let me take the helm. We cautiously made our way out though kelp lined water and emerged back into Peril Strait.
    As we approached Serguis Narrows it was a little bit before 1pm. Though the binoculars we could see two fishing boats ahead of us being slowed down and sheered off to the side as the current caught them. We were just about ready to enter the narrow channel when we heard a boat on channel 16 saying they were approaching from the West side and we could see them ahead. We didn’t want to take the channel at the same time, so Pete had me slow and drift in the deeper water while we waited for the other boat to get through to our side.
    After about 15 minutes, the boat passed through, we made our way into the channel and by that time, it was almost 1:20 exactly and although I could feel some push on the tiller, the current was no problem--we had hit the slack water perfectly.
    We made our way further down the strait, one more narrow passage to go through and just as we approached the narrow Kakul Narrows, we heard a garbled message on channel 16 but couldn’t make it out. Suddenly the hydrofoil Fairweather rounded the bend, right toward us but we were able to scoot over to the edge of the navigable water and the Fairweather passed close to us on our starboard side.
    Out of the narrows and suddenly the water opened up and we were in Salisbury Sound with its ocean swells and there were the beautiful mountains of the Khaz Peninsula again, which meant we had just completed our circumnavigation of Chichagof Island. We had no champagne to celebrate but we did exchange high-fives.
    The weather report this morning confirmed that there was still a low pressure front with higher winds and ocean swells coming in tomorrow so we had decided to make a run for Sitka today, one day early. Back through Neva Strait, then Olga Strait (where I saw the remains of an old shipwreck on the shore) and my heart became a bit heavier to know my adventure on Privateer was coming to a close although I won’t actually leave Sitka until Tuesday.
    We continued to pass through beautiful mountains, and then we could see Mt. Edgecumbe again. Now we are anchored in Sitka harbor after a seven hour trip today. I had the helm for almost half of that.
    On Tuesday I’ll catch the Alaska ferry back to Bellingham, so a gradual return to the big city. I’m ready to go home, but still sad to see this month come to a close.
     Now, no more excuses not to take the club boats out on my own. I have the knowledge--now I just need to have some courage.