2025-07-24 Glacier Bay Trip: Juneau to Ketchikan

We had another crew change in Auke Bay when we returned from spending our time inside the Bay. Jos and Hayden and Aiden flew out and Jennifer's new significant other Virgil flew in. The plan was for Jennifer and I and Virgil to run the boat back to Ketchikan.

When we set up this plan, I really did not have any idea what kind of trip they wanted on the way back to Ketchikan. I presumed that they would want to spend some quality time anchored up in some beautiful coves along the way. But, after some discussion with Jennifer, I came to the realization that what they really wanted was to have some time to fish around the Ketchikan area before they had to fly out on July 30th.

So, the marching orders were in; make it back to Ketchikan as quickly as humanly possible.

I don't have any photos to share for this leg of our adventure because it was kind of a blur, and we just ran back to Ketchikan as quickly as my slow boat could take us.

Our first day's run was from Auke Bay to Petersburg, a distance of approximately 123 nm. I was at the helm for 15 hours straight. We pulled out of Statter Harbor at 5:30 AM.

The run was so long that it will take 4 screen shots to show our approximate track down to Petersburg. This first track just shows us making our way around Douglas Island.

Here is the second portion of that first day's run.

Navigation was simple, just go South in Stephens Passage until we get to Cape Fanshaw, and then go a bit East in Frederick Sound until we get to Petersburg. Easy Peasy, just long and arduous.

Here is leg #3.

And then finally leg #4. Petersburg is down there at the lower right corner of the map snippet.

Many thanks to Jennifer for bringing me food from time to time during this very long day at the helm. It was about 8:45 PM when we finally got tied up in Petersburg.

When we were on final approach into Petersburg, we overheard a vessel named the "American Constitution" talking to the US Coast Guard on the VHF radio. They reported that one of their passengers, a young woman, had "mostly amputated her thumb." At first, I thought she was a crewman on a commercial fishing boat but then we saw the American Constitution tied up in Petersburg when we got there. It was a small cruise ship type vessel, not a fishing boat. Of course, the USCG made arrangements for the necessary medical team to meet the boat when it docked in Petersburg. We later heard that she had somehow closed a heavy metal door on her thumb while the vessel was underway.

The next day was a relatively short day, as it is only about 40 nm from Petersburg to Wrangell. However, in order to do that you must transit the Wrangell Narrows. The tides and therefore the currents can be significant in the Narrows so a prudent mariner such as myself always makes a plan for when the best time is to enter. If one times it properly, one can have favorable current for both halves of the Narrows. If the transit is not timed properly, you end up fighting strong adverse current for a good portion of the trip.

Here is a map snippet that shows the track from Petersburg South through the Narrows and then into Wrangell.

I timed our departure pretty carefully, but we also needed to get fuel before starting South into the Narrows, so that gummed up the works a bit.

The run down the Wrangell Narrows and over into Wrangell was mostly uneventful. I said "mostly" because I did have one senior moment when I apparently lost focus on my navigation and came very close to running aground.

We were tooling along at very slow speed in the northern portion of the Narrows in good weather when I started to notice that we were dodging crab pots. My first thought was that that was odd since most crab pots are set very close to shore and are not out in the main channel. Ferries and tugboats frequently make this transit, many times at night, so crab pots set in the main channel would be quickly run over and destroyed.

Then I looked up and realized to my horror that I had inadvertently strayed from the main channel and was way off course. I looked at the depth and it was at about 9' under the hull when I noticed the navigational problem.

Here is what my GPS track showed for that portion of our transit.

In my defense I have to say that I was not on my phone nor was I on my iPad. I just was daydreaming I guess and wasn't paying close enough attention to our course in relation to the navigational markers. I estimate that I have transited the Wrangell Narrows perhaps about 50 times over the years and this has never happened before. I dodged a bullet on this one and hopefully learned a lesson about staying focused when navigating, even in familiar waters.

After the navigational glitch on my part the rest of the trip into Wrangell was uneventful. We got tied up in Wrangell's Heritage Harbor at about 6:15 PM. We tried many many times to contact the harbor department so that we could pay for moorage and also get plugged in to shore power, but we were unable to get any response from anyone in the harbor department. There were several other vessels in Heritage Harbor also trying to contact someone in the harbor department and they were also unsuccessful. Thankfully one of the other vessels there had plugged in to the 50-amp plug on the power pole but did not need the 30-amp connection. He allowed me to plug in there which provided shore power for us for the night.

For our last travel day on this adventure, we pulled out of Heritage Harbor at about 5:30 AM. The weather was warm, sunny, and calm.

Here is a map snippet showing the approximately 85 nm run down from Wrangell and back into Ketchikan. Wrangell is up near the top with Ketchikan near the bottom of the map.

On this leg the first 50 nm or so are mostly protected waters inside Zimovia Strait and then eventually Ernest Sound. Then, you turn the corner and enter Clarence Strait which is much more exposed and can sometimes be dangerously rough. On today's run it started out being fairly calm and then the seas picked up a bit. The seas stayed fairly rough until we were well inside Tongass Narrows near Vallenor Point.

We stopped for fuel before going into my home slip in Bar Harbor at approximately 3:30 PM.

For the entire Glacier Bay trip, we logged 769 nm and burned 589 gallons of fuel. We logged 101 engine hours.

Mission complete!