2026-04-10 Wrangell Maintenance Trip

OK, I know I haven't been out for about 2 months, which is unusual for me, even in winter.

Here are my excuses.

First, I am doing many volunteer jobs and sometimes those keep me in town.

Second, weather. And this is the biggest.

We had a much rougher winter than usual, with much more cold weather and snow.

Third, work being done on the boat.

When a project is in progress sometimes the mechanic or electrician has to come back several times, and I am bound by their schedules.

Every year in mid-April I run the boat up to Wrangell for my annual haul out and engine maintenance tasks. There is a small family-owned company up there that has been working on my boat for many years. They know it inside and out and they are very good at performing all the recurring maintenance tasks that need to be done on a boat like mine.

I give them a list of tasks to be performed and they get at it.

This is not a sightseeing or a boating adventure trip like most of my other trips, and so the blog post will be different as well.

My haul out was scheduled for Monday 04/13/2026 but I wanted to make sure that I got up there in plenty of time, so I left on Friday 04/10/2026. It takes approximately 10 - 11 hours of running to cover the 83 miles to get up there. Sometimes I stay overnight along the way if the weather and conditions are favorable for doing that. But this year I made the run up there all in one go.

Here is a map snippet from my Garmin InReach that shows my one-way track. I took the identical route on the way home.

Ketchikan is down on the bottom by my name and Wrangell is on the upper part.

These map snippets are deceptive because you can't really tell how exposed and dangerous some sections can be. I marked a blue 'X' on this chart. Up to this point I am fairly exposed in Clarence Strait and the sea conditions can be pretty bad. But right there at the 'X' I turn up into Ernest Sound and the route is much more protected. So, the first 4 hours or so are the most dangerous.

Of course, we have good weather apps now and if the conditions were dangerous I wouldn't even leave. But the apps are predictions only, and once you are out there in it you can't complain to the makers of the app, you just have to deal with what you have in front of you.

For this trip I was piloting from the flybridge helm because I was anticipating some rough water in Clarence Strait and it is much easier to control the boat from the upper helm. The wheel is much smaller and easier to turn. Conditions were not dangerous, but were bad enough that the autopilot could not keep up and I had to steer manually until after making the turn into Ernest Sound.

I had considered staying Friday night at Meyers Chuck, which is right there before you make the turn. But conditions were pretty bad right there so I just steamed right on past. Meyers Chuck has a big transient dock that was just recently replaced and I have not seen the new dock yet.

I must confess that I took almost no photos on the run up to Wrangell. However, I did take this one of a big lumber ship that was anchored out in front of Ward Cove. The first photo is the one I took as I cruised past, and the second one I saw on Facebook. I bet you can figure out the name of the vessel.

It took me about 10 1/2 hours to make the run up there. Thank goodness for the autopilot.

Wrangell has 2 harbors. Reliance Harbor is the older one and is much smaller. It is closer to town, but it only has 15-amp power, and I usually require at least 30 amp. Heritage Harbor is newer, larger, and a bit farther from town. It has two extremely long transient floats, and you can tie up on either side, so they can accommodate lots of transient vessels.

The procedure there is that you just go in and get tied up wherever you want and then call the harbor guy on the radio. He will register your arrival for billing purposes and also open up a power pedestal if you want shore power. I always get shore power. It adds a few bucks to the daily moorage charge, but it is so much easier if you have it.

As you can see the weather was very nice that evening when I arrived at Wrangell.

Of course, I arrived on a Friday evening, and I was scheduled to be hauled out on Monday morning, so I had some time to kill. I never get bored. I brought my iPad, my laptop, and my piano keyboard, so I had plenty to keep me busy on board.

My neighbor boat right across the float from me was a 68' Nordhavn named "Daybreak" registered in Bow, Washington. I Googled to ask how much a new 68' Nordhavn might cost and the response was between $3.5 and $5 million.

She was closed up and I never saw anyone around her while I was there.

Nordhavns are amazing vessels. They are built for crossing oceans in safety and comfort. Most have a single engine but of course you can get whatever engine configuration you want. Most carry around 2,000 to 3,000 gallons of fuel. They have a small "wing engine" for getting home if the main engine ever fails.

Here's a shot that shows the relative sizes of my boat and the "Daybreak."

The larger Nordhavn's have many features that make them much easier to use. Here is a shot of the anchor wash down hose. When you haul the anchor up many times the chain and rope bring up a lot of mud and debris. Some smaller vessels have a water hose connection up by the anchor so you can hook up a garden hose and clean off the anchor rode as it comes up. On the larger Nordhavn's it is built into the anchor gear, and it sprays water as the anchor rode comes up.

Check out these custom made leather and suede bumper attachments. I priced them out once a long time ago. Suffice it say they were and still are out of my price range.

At intervals along the floats they have these climb out ladders. The theory is that if you fall in that you can get to the closest ladder and climb out. The Ketchikan harbors have a different style of climb out ladders. Note that some of them have a "pennant" on them so they can be located from a distance. I suspect that upon installation they all had them but snow blowers and other activity along the floats have broken some of them off.

You may think it unlikely that someone would fall in off the floats, and I guess it is pretty unlikely. However, last October in Ketchikan that did happen. A man in his late seventies was checking on his sailboat in the evening, in the dark, in a howling winter storm. When he did not return his wife called the authorities and they started searching the harbor areas. They did not find his body until the following morning.

The Wrangell harbors have taken a simple and pragmatic approach to dealing with dogs doing their business along the floats. At frequent intervals along the floats they have these small buckets available so the owners can sluice off the dog waste. Of course, the buckets are tied down with ropes so that they don't blow away during the inevitable storms that batter the harbors.

This year I noticed that more of the larger vessels in the harbor were shrink wrapped for the winter. It must be impressive to watch this process being done on a 60' or 70' vessel.

This trip for the first time I noticed several of the larger vessels in the harbor had gotten custom canvas covers made. These are truly impressive. They are custom fitted for each specific vessel. They have openings for the tie up lines, shore power cords, air vents, entry doors, and more. I can only imagine what it costs to make one of these covers for a large vessel. And I would really like to watch them being installed on a vessel. I looked up the website, and it looks like it is based in Vancouver BC.

I guess if you are not planning to use your boat over the winter and you have the money to do it, this is a good alternative.

Here are some miscellaneous boats that caught my attention in the harbor.

Here is a commercial vessel. It appears to be in great condition, and I think it gets used a lot. It was in and out a few times while I was in the harbor.

Here's a smaller Nordhavn, a 47' model. It was named "Igloo" registered in Wasilla Alaska.

I noticed that it does not have the anchor rode wash down hose on the anchor pulpit.

Do you think this guy is a fan of solar power?

If you don't have the funds for the shrink wrap or the custom canvas covers I guess you go to the hardware store and buy some tarps.

I noticed this little skiff with a huge anchor in it. I was impressed that the little skiff was still floating. That anchor had to be close to 1,000 pounds.

I noticed this huge tugboat with a little doggy door installed in the door to the wheelhouse. Now that's my kind of guy!

The Wrangell police department has its own boat.

Not to be outdone the Alaska State Troopers have their own boat right behind it. It is a bit smaller though.

Here are some miscellaneous shots that caught my eye.

Apparently toilet paper theft is a big problem in Wrangell because in all the public rest rooms the TP is locked up.

Can you guess what this is for?

If you clean a lot of fish or a lot of crabs or shrimp, you need an easy way to discard all the carcasses and shells. I wonder how many high school students have slid down this at high tide?

Of course, every year I visit the Fisherman's Memorial which is right up at the end of the harbor.

Here's a wide angle 'pano' shot of the beach near the harbor on a beautiful evening in Wrangell.

Here's a short video of the beach.

On Monday morning the weather was not so great. Jeremy from the Wrangell Boat Shop arrived on schedule to help me move the boat over to the haul out spot.

The protocol is that you arrive at this "slot" in the pier at the ship yard and the big travel lift has slings that are down in the water. The operator positions the slings appropriately for your hull configuration, and they lift the boat up.

When it gets close to the level of the land the operator positions the front of the boat, the bow pulpit, exactly level with the land and you climb out. That's becoming the hardest part of this process for me as I age. I am not very flexible anymore and climbing out over the bow pulpit railing is very difficult for me now. Jeremy stands by to assist me and that helps a lot.

The first thing they always do is pressure wash the bottom while it is still wet. It is much harder to clean the bottom if you wait until it has dried. Jeremy has a powerful pressure washer there and ready and he pressure washed the hull thoroughly.

While he does this I have to just hang out around the yard. I have been coming here for years and I never knew that there was a fish processing plant located within the yard. While I was waiting I was watching them unload halibut from a commercial boat. That's a lot of halibut!

Once the pressure washing is done the lift operator moves the boat over to the spot where they will block it. The operator walks alongside the lift as it moves and controls it with a remote control strapped around his neck.

To block it they use concrete blocks with wooden blocks on top for directly under the keel. On the sides they use adjustable metal jack stands with pads that lay up against the hull. There is a shore power pedestal there so I could plug in my shore power just like I do in my slip at home.

This photo was shot before they started doing any of the work.

For my boat they painted the bottom using brushes and rollers. For some of the larger vessels they will spray the paint on. They were getting ready to spray paint the 47' sailboat that was blocked next to me and I expressed my concerns about overspray hitting my boat. They brought in a big man lift and hung a massive plastic sheet on it to create a barrier between our boats. They also draped plastic sheets over some of the other boats that were nearby. Jeremy later told me that this is a requirement of the shipyard.

It took about 3 days for Jeremy to complete all the tasks on my list. They allow you to stay on board if you want, and I have done that in the past. But it is kind of a pain because you can't use the toilet or the freshwater system. So, this year I stayed in a small "dorm" facility that is right across the street from the shipyard. It adds a bit to the total cost of the trip but it is much more comfortable. During the day I would mostly hang out on the boat, or walk through town. But late in the evening I would walk over to the dorm and sleep there at night.

Here is Faraway all clean and shiny and ready to be launched back into the water.

They launched me at 9 AM on Thursday 04/16/2026 and I immediately headed for home. I wasn't sure I would have enough daylight to make it back before dark but as it turned out the sea conditions in Clarence Strait were excellent so I just forged on and arrived back into my slip in Bar Harbor at about 7:30 PM, just before dark.

Another annual maintenance run successfully completed!