We spent quite a bit of time last night trying to work out timing for today’s trip that optimized transits of all the narrows (narrowses?) and current-affected straits required to reach the top of Peril Strait. With the strategy of hitting each one with the current close to slack or assisting us, we left Sitka at 7:30 AM. It kind of worked. We had a bit more opposition in Olga Strait than we anticipated, a bit of unanticipated assist in Neva Strait, and planed a little before hitting the Sergius Narrows when we realized we could get there in time to experience peak current there (almost 10 mph). That last was pretty exciting.
We entered Sergius Narrows in slow-boat mode, which would normally be about 8.5 mph, and eventually were buzzing along at 16.6 mph until the current started getting bossy, pushing and tilting the boat around. Luckily, Wild North isn’t actually a slow-boat, so we quickly popped up onto plane and scooted to the end of the rapids. I wouldn’t recommend entering this narrows except near slack with a non-planing boat, but with a planing boat peak current is a hoot!
We got into Appleton Cove for a late lunch and spent the afternoon napping, reading and drinking tea. Because it was windy, we didn’t bother getting the dinghy down, but we did sit out and enjoy the sunshine. While not full of glaciers or surrounded by snow-capped mountains, the scenery here is charming enough, tree-clad slopes with a few snow spotted peaks beyond. Appleton Cove is full of commercial crab pots, but luckily the fishermen appear to be considerate of overnighting boaters and leave the prime anchoring area clear.
This evening I discovered that I had forgotten to download the photos from my Canon dSLR from Sitka, so I’ve updated yesterday’s post to include some of the nicer pictures from that camera.
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