Landfall - Clarence Strait, Alaska

Connie sights land

This morning we rounded into the Dixon Entrance off the north end of Queen Charlotte Island. When the low clouds finally parted and the fog drifted off at around 10:00 we could see Cape Chicon looming ahead. We are now running up Clarence Strait using the current to help move us at 6 knots toward our proposed anchorage at Dol Bay.

We crossed paths with the fishing vessel Sylvia so I hailed her and talked to Skipper Murray about anchorages. He pointed out one near by, Stone Rock Bay, and also talked about Dol Bay further up the inlet. I have no paper charts of this area and my cruising guides say very little about this place so the local knowledge from Murray was nice to have. This brings to mind the sage advice from Captain Ron from the movie of the same name. His navigation method is just to pull in somewhere and ask, "Where the heck are we?"

So we are "beating feet", motor sailing with the current to try to get to Dol Bay before the ebb tide and nightfall catch us foul. Connie just put the champagne bottle in the reefer and I'm thawing two fat steaks so we'll have a celebration on the poop deck this evening. Tomorrow we'll sag on into Ketchikan and get to work with all those pesky landfall chores.

Thanks for following us.

Scott, Connie, and Randy

Dall Bay, our first anchorage in Alaska

----------
radio email processed by SailMail
for information see: http://www.sailmail.com