Day 30; May 29: Rain wasn’t as heavy today so we got a few chores done so we can leave tomorrow. Laundry, groceries and hardware store shopping done. We went out for dinner to the pizza place, it was pretty good.

Day 31; May 30: Got up this morning expecting to leave and checked the weather. The first thing that popped up was a small craft advisory from NOAA. Checked few more sites and it was telling us 3-foot waves which is doable but not comfortable. We decided to be Petersburg residents one more day. Shortly after that we saw a boat that is the same as ours leaving, we thought. I heard something out the front of the boat and took a look. The boat we thought left was sideways in the double slip in front of us with the anchor between a power post and a piling. The side of the boat was against a piling. The current was very strong and when he tried to get into the slip the current swung his stern around and he couldn’t do anything. We tried to move him but couldn’t move the boat. We got a fender in place to protect the side and waited 45 minutes until slack tide. Once the current died down, we were able to get the boat moved where it belonged and surprisingly there was no damage.

In Alaska most of the moorages do hot swapping. When a regular tenant leaves, they let the harbor master know how long they will be gone. The HM then rents the slip to travelers like us; in some cases, the tenant arrives while the slip is sublet and the HM makes the traveler move to a new slip. That is why the boat was trying to move in front of us.

Day 32; May 31: Got up early to check weather, all was good. Decided to leave earlier than planned to avoid dealing with the current that caught the guy yesterday. Headed to Le Conte Glacier, the water was calm, the sky was grey and foggy. The visibility was limited to the point we couldn’t see the tall snow caped mountains in front of us. Once we got to the bar for Le Conte it was clear we weren’t going up the inlet, there was too much ice flowing out. We turned around and headed to Thomas Bay and the visibility got better as the day went on. The Baird Glacier is barely visible from the bay and is no longer a tidal glacier. The place we planned to anchor was already taken; we went across the bay to another anchorage by Ruth Island.

 Day 24 May 22: We left our slip in Ketchikan and stopped to get fuel (203 gal.). The cost ended up at $4.27/gallon. We had a great day with flat water and no wind. It is hard to imagine the predicted wind and sea state when you’re gliding across glass calm water. Wildlife! We saw a few pods of Dall porpoises today and few swam with the boat for about a mile.  Hopefully, this is the start of a trend. We made our way up Ernest Sound to Santa Anna Inlet and anchored up for the evening. We had two other boats join us in the inlet for a calm evening.

Day 25 May 23: We had a short 35-mile cruise to Wrangell. We have been seeing several fishing boats and buoys in the water. Listening on the radio we found out they are shrimping; they connect several pots to a long line and have a buoy at each end of the line. About halfway to Wrangell, I saw a whale blow and then dive off in the distance. Carolyn thought I was lying because he didn’t come back up. A while after we passed the area and Carolyn saw the same whale out the back. Our first sighting in Alaska this year and I was vindicated. Once in the harbor there were wind gusts that were preventing us and another boat from getting to the dock and tying up. The third time was the charm, the gusts died down enough to get tied up. I thought we came here to avoid the wind.

Day 26; May 24: We walked around town picked up a few things from the hardware store and the grocery store and headed back to the boat. Several of the shops were closed probably since it was Saturday and others had signs that they were closing early for a person’s services.

Day 26; May 25: We left Wrangell later than normal to time our passage through Wrangell Narrows. We wanted to hit the center of the narrows at high tide. That way we get a push from the current on both side of the narrows. As we left Wrangell there were 3 medium to small cruise ships getting ready to descend on this tiny town. We got in and went for a walk around town not too many places were open but the hardware store was. There was only a lite rain or mist.

Day 27; May 26: Did a few things to diagnose the electrical issues we have been having but didn’t come to any conclusions. Pretty slow day.

Day28; May 27: Got up, took the alternator out and hauled it down to NAPA about 0.75 miles from the harbor. They weren’t able to test it because they couldn’t cross reference it to a NAPA alternator. Stopped at another place and they couldn’t help. Happy Tim heads back to the boat. I do have a spare but it isn’t configured the same and had second thoughts about it. Well, it turns out I didn’t have all the bolts needed to install it so I put the other one back in.  The weather has been wet, wet, wet. Monday 1”, Tuesday 2”, Wednesday 2”, and Thursday is supposed to be 0.72” with Friday being higher. Have I said how much I enjoy atmospheric rivers?

Day29; May 28: I decided to get the hardware I need for the spare alternator and get it swapped. Got out the heavy rain gear to head to the hardware store for some bolts. My arms are now a half inch long carrying alternators around town. All swapped out by mid afternoon and seems to be working. A mechanic I am not. I heard someone say this is a rubber day not a Gore-Tex  day referring to heavy or light rain suits.

Totem Park getting work done

New totems being carved for Chief Shakes Tribal House